While their might be some certifications that are valid, I doubt any would be able to convey expertise. After 2 years of graduate school with an MBA degree in my hand I was far from a business expert.

Sean

Is it fair to mention the classes and certifications that can verify social media knowledge or level of “expertise”?

Thanks for the comments.

Sean

An expert is someone who can stay on top of it as well.

Sean’s discussion on the subject hit the mark so well that I felt compelled to comment. As a someone who speaks at all the related conferences and subscribes to far more feeds, groups, etc than I have hours in the day; I see way too much of this; everyone jumping on the social bandwagon without truly being an expert. Before I go on, I want to make one comment here, social media marketing is a very specialized field and like SEO and others, you really need to do it full time to be good at it; at the consultancy level.

I myself speak regularly at search and other internet-related conferences on the subject (especially of late on YouTube) however I always pre-fixed it by 1) naming those around me who truly are experts and 2) in the case of YouTube acknowledging that besides the experts, my 14 year old son is my YouTube “Mentor”

In fact, I am quickly suggesting that YouTube (& other video channels) are the next disrupter…that they are the next YouTube Generation and if businesses do not quickly grasp this, they will be left behind. It is definitely becoming the next big “Change or Die” disrupters.

I laughed about the “target on your back” comment because it is true. Social does rock people’s boat, especially those looking for instant gratification – read: ROI; they especially are having a hard time with it. I just finished speaking at the last big Affiliate conference on how it is time to quit focusing on SEO & PPC in Google (especially) because everyone is doing it and in that extremely dog eat dog world, you need to do something different.

Anyways I stood in front of all these Affiliates and suggested that Social is not just a good idea; it is a must do idea. Anyways I came under huge attack about how they can justify it (ROI it) and while I was holding my own; my salvation came from the audience. A gentleman stood up at the back and said I have 6 affiliate sites, all making high 6 figures several 7 figures and I have shifted over 50% of my online marketing to social. Talk about hearing a pin drop after that.

Anyways, great discussion. I would like to give street creds to the guy who is my single largest Social Media sensei, Jordan Kastelar of Search&Social and Search Engine Journal…if you are not following Jordan you are missing out on someone who knows his “sh#t”

Cheers,
Curtis

Shoot me an email and we can communicate. Sean@sonarconnects.com. We can set up a Skype call.

Someone mentioned Social Networking or social media/networking is still developing, and I believe that is true to a point. I think the pervasive use of technology (devices, platforms, networking…etc) has taken inter- and intra- personal communication to a whole different level. It has effectively shrunk the world and expanded our sphere of community. Business are hell bent to leverage / use / monitize / optimize every tool or technology available to advance their business. Do individual consumers (not networking professionals) use their social networks to advance themselves or to connect with similar type? I would LOVE to see a sociologist participating in these discussions on what are the cultural and social drivers behind the growth, use and pitfalls of this electonic social connection.

I think using “forums” to collect user / consumer feedback is a great use / application of social medium to improve ones services and to better service their customers.