Social Media Experts?

Apologies in advance if this sounds like an advert for Razorfish (as my previous employer I have a huge amount of respect for the work they are doing in the field of social media).

Whilst at Razorfish, I did find the world of social media fascinating, but couldn't quite get to grips with how people could ever become social media experts. The field was evolving faster and in directions which were truly unpredictable; the meteoric rise of Facebook (which was in essence a glorified alumni forum which got opened up) and people's desire to blog, tweet and share were truly underestimated.

It was odd to read a post by Shiv Singh in which he says "hiring a social media guru is not always the answer". After listening to him talk before, I would describe him as a true social media guru. However, I completely understand his point. Social media shouldn't be the function of one marketing guy in the corner office, but something taken up by many within an organisation and embraced. However, as one girl recently found out, being too honest could be risky (Girl fired or Facebook comment).

My personal view is that I could never be a "social media expert". As an analytics guy I can listen to the chatter about my (or my clients') brands, and be reactive. As an online marketing guy I could start conversations and "ride the wave", but never really be ahead of it. I can provide insight and assistance as to the who, what and how - but no one today has an accurate crystal ball (but isn't that what makes it fun?).

DirectNews and Adfero have had a lot of traffic both with our own sites and our clients as a result of social media. If an article is well received by Stumble Upon (a social bookmarking sharing site), the traffic generation can be immense. We are constantly experimenting, but one thing we are aware of is that social media communities don't like classic push advertisers screaming "look at me".