Read my blog long enough, and you are about to find me ranting and raving over the so called “Social Media Consultants” or “Social Media Gurus.”  And it is odd for me to take such a hard stance since I am entrenched with many of these “consultants” and consider most of them friends (or is it Friends) and interact with them at meetups, tweetups, and other gatherings.

So why the hostility?  Simple.

Social Media is not an add-on.

The tools that have come to be known as “social media” are exactly that, tools.  They are akin to what Photoshop is to graphic design.  They are a tool that makes some things simpler, while traditional methods still work and should be embraced.

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I read an article in a recent edition of .Net Magazine from the UK, and came across something I had joked about between people in our office.  In the last couple of years  we have seen a record number of layoffs and downsizing.  Many people losing their jobs suddenly have this bright idea:

“I just lost my job as a (insert title here) – guess I’ll become a web designer or social media consultant!”

::thud::  – that was the sound of my head falling onto my desk.

What is it with web development and social media that leads people to believe that “anybody” can do it?  If I suddenly lost my job, I wouldn’t think to myself “guess I’ll just go get a job as a surgeon at the local hospital.”  So why do people a) think anybody can do it and b) think they can do it WELL?

Quite simple – we are in the “reset” generation.

This is what I call the 19-30 year olds currently in the workplace who think they have a magic reset button, like on a video game, where they can just push it and get anything they want.  They have been told since they were little that “everybody is special” and “it’s that you tried that counts.”

Baloney.

Here is the cold hard facts why everybody wants to be a social media consultant: lack of accountability.

Yes, I know there are legitimate social media agencies who use split testing, metrics, and other ways of quantifying results, but the majority of would-be social media consultants think all they have to do is set up twitter and a WordPress blog for a client and their job is done.   It is up to the client to actually use the tools.

Sure, any kid can do a web page with an editor, but if you want something done professionally and done right, with standards,then you hire someone with that knowledge.   It’s the whole “knowing which screw to turn” philosophy.   And it works.

What are you thoughts?  Why is there an overwhelming surge of people who want to be web site programmers and social media experts after losing their jobs?  Why does everybody with a Twitter account think they have the prerequisites to even BE a social media consultant?  How do you tell the difference between someone who knows their stuff and someone who is taking you for a ride?

And finally, is a social media consultant that unskilled that anybody can do it?

The skills you learn while working with social media can be applied “offline” in the “real world” as well.

Ask anybody who knows what they are talking about what social media is, and their immediate response without missing a beat should be:

Relationships.

Last weekend, suddenly and without warning, my parent’s Qwest dialup internet through MSN had its access numnber dropped.  Calling Qwest to ask about *anything* to do with dial-up was problematic, as they have removed it from all of their tech support scripts.   In addition, once you mention “MSN” the tech people immediately transfer you to MSN, but then at MSN, if you say anything about Qwest, it transfers you back to Qwest.

This happened to me four times in a row over the weekend, so I decided to give it a few days.

So I call back Qwest, hoping to switch them to high speed.   But sure enough, after mentioning MSN, Im back at MSN’s call tree.  So I mention Qwest and get transferred back (without talking to anybody at MSN, it is THAT automated!) and this time I decided to try another approach.

When the tech support woman came on the phone, she mentioned she was calling from Sioux City.  I knew the only chance to get this straightened out was to strike a personal chord with the gal.  So, before I gave her my name, I explained what had happened the previous 5 calls to Qwest, and then I went in for the clincher.

I repeated back to her that I heard she was in Sioux City, and that my aunt worked for the school system there for 44 years.   I said she was retiring this year, so the school district put up billboards all around town about her retiring.  The operater, Deanna, immediately said she had seen the boards on I-29 every day on her way to and from work.   In a short amount of time – I built that relationship.  All of a sudden I was “the billboard person’s nephew.”  I explained the situation, and since I didn’t have my parent’s social security number at the time, Deanna offered to call them back in the morning to verify not only the high speed order I placed, but also how she could bring the long distance charges down!

By leveraging the skills you learn in social media in everyday life, you can get some amazing results.