Blogging Consultants - Separating the Pros from the Fakes
Everyone is an expert on social media. Go ahead, ask an ad agency or PR firm if they can help your company get into blogging, podcasting or video podcasting. Most will say they can. But that doesn’t mean they have any expertise in that area.
Josh Hallett suggests signs that an ‘expert’ is clueless about blogs and other new tools:
1. What’s the address of their blog? If they don’t have one, run. As my friend Toby likes to say, this is something you can’t fake. You need to have hands-on experience.
2. What’s the quality of their blog? I know this can be a bit subjective, but are they demonstrating any thought leadership on the issue or are they just running in place?
3. How long have they been blogging? Similar to the previous question, it can go either way. I dealt with a corporate VP that received a call from a ‘consultant’ inquiring about their social media strategy. While on the phone the VP looked up the blog of the ‘consultant’. It was a few weeks old with nothing substantial and according to Technorati had no links. The VP quickly formed an opinion based upon their research :-)
4. Do they suggest a course of action (that) violates some basic blogging guidelines like WOMMA’s or my simple rules? Run. You should be smarter than this, but unfortunately as we’ve seen recently, this isn’t always the case.
5. Did you check references? Or in other words do they have a proven track record. Granted it might not be years of experience since the field is relatively new, but do they have some examples of programs they have implemented for clients?
Just because blogging and podcasting are relatively new, doesn’t mean you can’t apply some common sense to detecting B.S. by so-called specialists. If you meet someone who promises to get your organization off to a good start in social media, follow your gut. If they can’t give actual examples of things they’ve done, watch out.
The problem in detecting fake experts from real ones is that even those who are in the vanguard tend to spout social media jargon that makes them sound like they’re trying to bamboozle you. It seems to almost impossible for blog devotees not to adopt the jargon.
Check out Ed Lee’s Social Media Jargon Buster to see the most likely catch phrases.
Tags: consulting, credentials, hugh macleod, jargon, pr, public relations, social media
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POSTED IN: Social Media
6 opinions for Blogging Consultants - Separating the Pros from the Fakes
Choosing a Blog Consultant - Licence to Roam
Nov 27, 2006 at 8:08 am
[…] Eric, over at CommonSense PR, has listed 5 key points about choosing a blogging consultant. Some excellent points there, especially about checking the blogging history of the consultant and ther references. I would add a further one, in that also check the variety and breadth of previous work. One thing I have found with digital teams for marketing websites is that sometimes the company can have a very long track record of completed projects but every single one is the ’same’, they just changed the colours and the words with little or no creative thought. SO, when choosing a consultant check that they understand the media well enough to know that you cannot apply the same solution each time, each solution has to be created anew. […]
Saskboy
Nov 28, 2006 at 12:13 am
Glad to see you got your new blog you wanted.
Robert French
Nov 28, 2006 at 12:34 am
Terrific, Eric.
You’ve always given us common sense in all of your writings, so I’m glad to see you have a new home to further the cause.
b5media is fortunate to have you onboard. I look forward to following your new endeavor. Congrats and all the best.
B.L. Ochman
Nov 28, 2006 at 11:05 am
Great post Eric. When you ask “blog and social media consultants” to show you actual examples of work done for clients, the wheat will very quickly separate from the chaff
Congrats on the new blog.
Eric Eggertson
Nov 29, 2006 at 7:15 am
Saskboy, Robert, B.L.: Thanks for dropping by. I’m looking forward to some interesting blogging, and hopefully some interaction with other business bloggers here on b5media.
Business and Blogging - Corporate PR and Blogging
Dec 20, 2006 at 11:01 pm
[…] Eric Eggertson has some interesting and cautionary observations on the subject in his post Blogging Consultants - Separating the Pros from the Fakes. Everyone is an expert on social media. Go ahead, ask an ad agency or PR firm if they can help your company get into blogging, podcasting or video podcasting. Most will say they can. But that doesn’t mean they have any expertise in that area. […]
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