I find it quite entertaining when people try to market themselves as social media “experts” when they have no educational background or experience behind what they do. Social media is simply a tool used to market your product and brand. If you don’t know how to write a marketing strategy when utilizing these tools, you and your client will not be very successful and you end up wasting your client’s time and money.
Anyone can type a Facebook status or tweet to everyone on Twitter, but if you don’t have a clue as to what direction you’re going, how will you help your client be successful in promoting their product? Spending time on Facebook 24 hours a day does not qualify anyone as an expert. Having a bachelor’s degree in a creative field in which you’ve had to strategize, create, brand, research, etc. and having the knowledge and insight behind what you do, is definitely needed to utilize these tools. Having experience in a corporate environment and using these types of tools to promote brand awareness and sales would also add to the experience needed to build a successful social media plan. The bottom line is a business should do their homework when it comes to spending their hard earned money on hiring someone to brand their business on social media.
You cannot afford to hire anyone who does not have the education, knowledge and experience to promote your brand to your online audience.