Don’t hire an “Expert.”
My Mentor, Sue, sent me a referral the other day.
It read like this: Hi Amy: The name of the Social Media Guru that you need to talk to is Trygve. He’s cc’d on this e-mail. He can really help you. – Sue. GRR. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy referrals as much as the next business person, and I especially enjoy referrals from my mentor, who spends most of our time together reading me the riot act telling me everything I need to be doing better. Sue’s a tough love kind of a mentor. What really irritates me is the term “guru.” I hate that. I’m not a guru. I’m not an expert. I’m a specialist. Does that mean you shouldn’t hire me, and you should find someone who is commonly referred to as a guru? Absolutely not.
Here’s the funny thing about “Gurus.” Do you want to be a social media guru? Hold up your right hand and repeat after me: “I am a social media guru.” There, congratulations, you’re in the club. You’re a guru. We’re having jackets made next Tuesday. You’ll get your complimentary copy of Mike Myers’ movie “The Love Guru” when your jacket gets in in 4-6 weeks. Anybody can be a guru. Anybody can declare themselves an expert. It doesn’t actually mean anything other than having a clever, self-proclaimed title.
“But I don’t know anything about Social Media,” you say. ”I need to get some help.” Great! Good for you for recognizing that you need some help and reaching out. In finding some help, here’s a few guidelines that you need to keep in mind when you’re evaluating who you go to for help:
1) If the person you’re talking to claims to be an expert, run screaming the other way. Why: “Expert” denotes a command of the subject matter. Social Media just substantively changed from the time you started reading this sentence.
2) Which direction do they go? Why: Most businesses want to start on a concept of “Social Media” without actually having specific goals in mind. Any person you use for help should immediately ask you what your personal or business goals are for utilizing Social Media. If the person you go to starts talking first about what you’re doing and what you’re doing wrong, run screaming. They’re more interested in cashing a check than completing a project for you.
3) Show me some of your work: Generally I think references are stupid. Think of the biggest jerk, the most horrible person you know. Do you think that person can find three people to say nice things about them? Of course they can. When it comes to Social Media, it’s 100% different. Seeing successful start to finish campaigns, not just consultations. Having someone who’s actually rolled up their sleeves and gotten into the meat of things, written tweets, coded FBML, layered a profile image – that’s the person you want to stand side to side with you.
4) Help or Lecture: Are they going to ask “How can I help you?” or “Let me tell you how I can help you?” The former is good, the latter is bad. The latter is the person to run screaming from; the latter is the person who has one idea and will make your round peg fit their square hole. I always start with “How can I help you?” because it’s not my business we’re trying to improve. I need to know what the ultimate goal is, and how I can assist. Maybe they just need a sympathetic ear, maybe they need a Facebook page, maybe they need to be talked out of Social Media as a solution entirely. I don’t know what they need if I tell them what they need. My customer has to tell me what they need first, then I can help or I can’t. Before you even figure out if you like this person, and if this person can understand your business, these are BASIC tenets that you have to follow. Otherwise you’ll get some joker who will just take your money and espouse something that they read on a blog that they googled an hour earlier.
Here’s an illustrative example: I know a real Social Media guru. His name is Michael, he lives in Tennessee. Michael created the (hands down) best Twitter tool on the market, the trouble is, nobody’s heard of it, because Michael spends more time making it better than trying to sell it. About 2 years ago he and I were talking and he was telling me about this new idea he had, where you could “group” people together based on common interests that he included in his tool, Tweetreports. (http://www.tweetreports.com.) Two months later Twitter released their “lists” function, that you could “group” people together and make your own lists. Last month Facebook revolutionized the Social Media world by copying Michael a full 18 months later by doing the exact same thing.
Social Media Gurus are too busy working to be called a Guru. They’re actually revolutionizing the industry. If you can find yourself one, then consider yourself lucky. If you can’t, then find someone who’s willing to help, not to lecture you. What I do isn’t rocket science, it’s Social Networking. I’m here to help.
