Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

The social media goldrush

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Paul Wallbank

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A few months back I started a #socialmediaexperts meme with a slanderous tweet about those who arrive at the North Shore Coffee Mornings after 9.30.

This was partly in jest, but there was a serious undertone as it seemed to me I was bumping into social media experts on every street corner and I just couldn’t see how all of these gurus were getting paying clients.

So it wasn’t surprising to read that blogger B.L. Ochman found 15,740 social media experts on Twitter, a number which has more than trebled from 4,487 when she last looked six months ago.

Almost certainly the numbers are higher than that, as those are only the experts who’ve listed themselves as such on Twitter. I’m sure there’s a heap more who haven’t yet discovered Tweeting.

I also wonder how many of today’s social media experts were the SEO gurus of two years ago.

To be fair, I’m sure most of these folk are hard working, well intentioned people but I can’t escape the idea that the current wave of experts is simply another gold rush and, like the gold rushes of the 19th Century, most of those flocking to dig this ground aren’t going to find much success.

I wish them luck but of the 15,740 social media gurus on the planet, it’s probably ten thousand too many.

Perhaps it might be better finding out who is selling these gold diggers their shovels and investing time and money there?

Postscript: I did a search on LinkedIn for those with the position of “social media experts” and only 193 results came back, the scary thing is I’m indirectly connected with almost all of them.

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Comments

One response to “The social media goldrush”

  1. Julie Wise

    Paul,

    I can’t think of anything that I disagree with in this article. “Social Media Experts” seem to be everywhere and it does feel like a flock of sheep looking for an instant goldmine.

    I’ve been quietly observing & researching many of them as I try to work out SM for myself, and my clients what else becomes apparent very quickly is many of them have less than 2yrs history on any of the platforms, many are trying to make the audience change to their ideas and many also offer a one-size fits all solution.

    Perfect example of the experts missing the point of ‘social connection’ has been the recent debate on twitter hash tag (#rshyr) used for the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race. Yachties knew it, the papers published it, & the offical website of the race had it & their twitter account front&centre – yet experts #failed it because they couldn’t find it, didnt know what the ‘r’ stood for and so the reasons why it was wrong went on.

    To my mind the #fail tweets missed the point about who the audience was, researching the topic, being smart about the length of the tag in relation to 140ch but most of all it showed the ‘gold rush’ mentality of trying to be a miner in a field where you clearly did not know the actual business of the industry, how much that industry may already be connected with their audience and whether or not they need to dig deeper for a wider audience.

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