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Is Your Social Media Consultant an Expert or a Wannabe?

by Jennifer Beever

According to the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report , 75% of marketers have less than three years experience in social media. Almost 50% have only two years experience. Yet there are a lot of self-professed social media “experts” out there.

Just as “SEO Experts” created themselves overnight after reading a few how-to blog posts online, many consultants who call themselves social media “experts” have little or no real experience. They figure if they’re on Facebook they’re experts. Plus, social media is kid stuff, right?

Becoming an expert in social media requires some doing. Your consultant should blog, tweet, and participate on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, maybe even Instagram and Pinterest as well. They should also understand how create a social media strategy, how to integrate social media with other marketing tactics and how to measure social media results.

The 2013 study was published by Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner and has other  interesting findings. For example, when marketers were asked to choose their top platform for social media, 49% chose Facebook and only 16% chose LinkedIn. Yet, only 37% of marketers felt their Facebook efforts were successful. I think this is because more marketers understand Facebook than LinkedIn. But, I digress. That’s a topic for another blog post.

If you need expert help in social media, contact New Incite today. We’re in the 6% of marketers who have been doing social media marketing for 4 to 5 years. We’ve been blogging, tweeting and marketing on Facebook since 2009 and on LinkedIn since 2004, for our company and for our clients. Our blog is listed on www.alltop.com’s marketing news directory and is on Michael Brenner’s (B2B Marketing Insider) list of 20 Must Read B2B Marketing Blogs.

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