Fri 10 Apr 2009
What makes you an expert?
Posted by Sandra Fernandez under General
[2] Comments
When you do get to call yourself an expert at something? This question pops into my head as I read one introduction after another of this person or that person as a “social media expert.”
What, exactly, makes him or her an expert at social media? Is it the number of Twitter followers they’ve amassed? The frequency with which they post to their blogs? The rankings Google or Alexa gives to said blogs? The times they’re quotes, retweeted, or linked to on a daily basis?
What makes you an expert at social media? Is there a certificate you get in non-spam email one day when you’ve reached a certain goal? Is it a club membership you receive from an anonymous committee you’ve never heard of before?
Silly me, thinking that it’s more important that I listen to the people I’m following than to get more people to follow me. What a reckless thought, imagining that actually paying attention to what is being said to me is more important than having my words repeated endlessly.
But then, I’m not an expert. Just a woman with the quaint notion that being a good communicator should be the goal.
This one is a hot button. And personally I ask that people do NOT refer to me as an expert. If anything that makes us look more knowledgeable as unfortunately charlatans have invaded the “social media expert” space.
That said, ultimately if you have been paid as an expert, say an “expert witness”, then it seems safe and reasonable to refer to yourself as such.
Knowing you, like me, odds are you are uncomfortable with that billing. And that is cool. But personally I do think of you as an expert because you have knowledge and YOU CARE! My 2 cents….
Thanks for the kind words. I was venting because I had a difference of opinion with someone who kept telling me that she had more twitter followers than I do and that that proved she was “better at it” than I am.
I’m still in a little bit of shock at the words. Yes, she has more followers, and she follows many many more people than I do, but does that really mean that she’s contributing more to the conversation? Is that really an indicator that she’s building real relationships, meeting goals, achieving results?
And, no, I won’t share who it was.