Proud to be a social media geek!

by peggyd • May 26th • 6 comments

Or why I embrace the title “geek.” Complete with geeky footnotes.

I’m a day late in celebrating Geek Pride Day[1] but the reason I even know about it is that I am one.  A proud, card carrying (well not really but it sounds fun) geek.

Sometime last year I started calling myself a geek, but quietly, just amongst friends.  After reading Geekwire’s Geek Pride Day post this morning, I’ve decided to come out of the closet and wave my professional geek flag for all to see.  Turns out I’m not alone.  1 in 5 Americans consider themselves geeks.[2]

I don’t want to identify as just any geek. Nope, I’m a SOCIAL MEDIA GEEK. Yep, it’s in all caps; after all it’s my job title.  Not social media guru or expert or Sherpa, goddess, diva, rock star or any of the other creative titles social media professionals (and amateurs) title themselves.

Why geek? GeekWire published a nifty Venn diagram defining geek, nerd and dork.  I think they’ve nailed the distinction:

  • Geek = (Intelligence + Obsession) – Social Ineptitude.
  • Nerd = (Intelligence+Social Ineptitude) – Obsession. [3]

I’ve got the obsession alright.  My mom once asked me if I was addicted to Twitter.  And just this week I decided I had to back off my Empire Ave play (but more about that later.)  And if you ask my mom (or my clients), I certainly have the intelligence.

Geek insight into the “Social Media Expert” debate

This week there’s been a lively debate amongst some of the leading social media pundits about whether you need a Social Media Expert on your marketing team.  Peter Shankman (founder of HARO) and Gary Vaynerchuk ( wine mogul and author) both came out against hiring social media experts.

Vaynerchuk crushed[4] the field with this scathing criticism, “99.5 percent of the people that walk around and say they are a social media expert or guru are clowns” and “have no business sense.” [5]

Meanwhile Shankman’s article, I Will Never Hire a ‘Social Media Expert,’ and Neither Should You,  stirred up a hornet’s nest of criticism when he said “No business in the world should want a ‘Social Media Expert’ on their team. If you have a ‘Social Media Expert’ on your payroll, you’re wasting your money.”

I first got wind of this discussion on the SEOmoz feed in my RSS reader[6].  There Rand Fishkin wrote a well thought-out article, titled Everyone Should Hire ‘Social Media Experts’, that explored the responsibilities and expertise of the Social Media Expert.  He includes a detailed chart about the spheres of social media expertise within each marketing skill set (creative, analytics, tactical, tools, etc.).  He advocates for including social media “experts” or “professionals” within every marketing department.  I’m sure Nordstrom, Comcast, Starbucks companies are happy that @randfish thinks their staffing strategy is sound.

Do you really need a Social Media Expert (Geek)?

Me, I sit on the fence between the two points of view.  When I work with your organization, I view my end objective as moving you towards integrating social media into all that you do. You need me as an expert to come in at the beginning to help identify your community, social media brand extension and voice, platform objectives and ROI measures, tool identification and training on how to use it etc. But eventually I need to step back from center stage and let you run the show.

From a practical standpoint, I recommend that people are designated to be “owners” of different social channels throughout the company. Many organizations I work with have small marketing departments.  Spreading out the expertise among content owners ensures that one person doesn’t leave a huge knowledge gap should they leave for a new position.  Also, when many people own a piece of the social puzzle, there are more people serving as brand ambassadors in all of the various social media channels.   Non-profits are well-served, for example, to have a social brand ambassador committee.  This is led by the designated social media coordinator in the company.  Gasp!  Sounds like social media coordination and expertise is needed after all.

Turns out when I’m sitting on the fence, I’m facing the side supporting the social media expert.

Why I’m YOUR Social Media Geek

Recognize these oldies?  Digg, StumbleUpon, Plurk, Jaiku, MySpace, FriendFeed, Delicious, RSS.

How about these latest social media darlings?  Quora, Empire Avenue, Scoville, Groupon, FourSquare.

I know about and have tried all of these platforms because I live, breath and, yes, obsess about social media.  It might be exhausting at times to stay on the bleeding edge of the information explosion, but I love it. I love bringing creative ideas to my client. I love learning new technology. (Yes, I’m even teaching myself html.)  I love discovering the next thing. I love meeting new people in the social media space.

Why this is good for your organization?  I’ve been doing this day and night, seven days a week for more than 4 years now.   (Twitter’s only been around for 5).  And before that I served in the trenches in a large corporate marketing department and in nonprofit public relations.[7] In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell proposed the 10,000 Hour Rule — competency and success are honed in 10,000 hours of practice.  If that’s the case I’ve surely surpassed that hourly goal.  What have 14,000+ Tweets, 3 years of consecutive weekly blog posts, countless blog comments and facebook likes, 15 years of marketing experience and hours of surfing (er, exploring) and experimenting taught me?

  • The next “big” thing may not be your thing.
  • Failure is part of social media success.
  • What was an effective campaign last quarter, may not work in the next.
  • Start small and build relationships instead of followers.
  • Figure out who and where audience is before you start talking to them.
  • Maximize the exposure and value you get for the content with strategic repackaging.
  • Content may be king[8], but ideas are what get you noticed.
  • Sure 20 somethings grew up with computers, but 80 year olds write blogs and are on Facebook too. Age does not make an expert.  Experience does.
  • Social media isn’t a one-person job; it’s a group effort.
  • And yes, Peter Shankman, social media is just another facet of your marketing and customer service functions.

A last word about card-carrying geekdom

Lots of geeks say the business card is dead.  They bump their phone instead. The latest buzz is your phone is going to become your virtual wallet, but I find that plenty of people still ask for my old-time business card.

So will I put “Social Media Geek” on my card for my next reprint?  Of course not.  It’s only one facet of what I bring to the table.  But could your organization benefit from my knowledge, skills, point of view and social media obsession?   Absolutely!

[1] If you’re a geek, you’ll want to read Wikipedia for why May 25 is Geek Pride Day.

[2] Geek has even become a compliment.  Nerd still isn’t.

[3] A dork has all three qualities: obsession, social ineptitude and intelligence

[4] That’s a pun on his book title, Crush It!, for all of you non-geeks out there.

[5] http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/13/gary-vaynerchuk-social-media-clowns-tctv/

[6] Yes, I still use RSS.  I find it’s a great way to read and share content from my tablet. Actually use it more now that I have one.

[7] See my LinkedIn profile for deets.

[8] The idea, content is king, is attributed to Bill Gates back in 1996 http://www.craigbailey.net/content-is-king-by-bill-gates/

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  • http://www.kimberlygauthier.com/blog Kimberly

    Fantastic!  I’m my own social media expert, because I’m a blogger.  But I’ve often thought about this when it comes to my day job.  None of the managers are social media savvy, but they recognized the value in social media and hired a company to work with; I have no idea if this has been a good investment, because I don’t follow my company outside of work, but it’s great to see Facebook and Twitter being taken seriously by a serious crowd.

    • http://www.freerangemom.com Freerangemom

      Bloggers often figure out their own social media strategy. Many have become wildly successful that way. After all, bloggers were some of the earliest twitter adopters.

      Thanks for stopping by and saying hello!

  • http://twitter.com/gfsocial Girlfriend Social

    Nice post :)

    I am definitely a geek  since i made all this – http://www.girlfriendsocial.com  

    Interested to know how many people actually follow up on business cards you hand out.. :)

    • http://www.freerangemom.com Freerangemom

      A solid portion of my business comes from those cards. But the odds improve significantly when we also connect and grow our relationship on-line via LinkedIn or Twitter.

      Peggy

  • Lucretia

    I love this one – can’t say I disagree with any of it.
    That said? I agree with Gary when it comes to the clowns – but he said 99.5% (one of those made up on the spot because it sounds good percentages)
    That means about 1 in every 200 “social media experts” are *not* clowns.  Given that LinkedIn throws back 624,551 results if you put in the phrase “social media”? That still leaves 3,200+ that aren’t “clowns.”
    Look, anyone can have a job title. What you want to verify is their qualifications. Gary & Peter both get paid a lot of money to talk to people about how they’ve effectively leveraged social media – if they don’t want to call themselves ‘experts’ because it puts them in the same category as a lot of con artists? Their privilege.
    But it’s okay, because we’ll have a new term in about 5 years that everyone latches onto.
    As it is? You’ve hit the points that someone should be looking for if they are looking for someone to assist them with integrating social into their business processes effectively. Kudos! :)

    • http://www.freerangemom.com Freerangemom

      Good point about the .5%. Professionalism also includes a measure of humility. Perhaps that’s a key ingredient (beyond experience and smarts of course) the other 95.5% lack?

      Peggy