Recap: May Event “How to Call BS on a Social Media Guru (With Video!)
Thank you to everyone who turned out for another sold-out SMC Seattle Event. Speaker Scott Berkun put on a great presentation outlining ways to find out if the social media “expert” you’re meeting with really knows what they are talking about.
Here’s a video of Scott’s talk edited by the fabulous @coolguygreg for those of you who missed it or want to see it again. (If you weren’t there, there was a joke about drinking every time someone used a social media buzzword.)
SMC Seattle May Event: How to Call BS on a Social Media Guru from SMC Seattle on Vimeo.
Scott’s talk was filled with tactics and tools anyone can use to evaluate anyone presenting themselves as an “expert”. It’s what he called an applied critical thinking talk. Here are a few highlights:
Beware Snake Oil: In anything “new” there is bound to be some garbage out there. It attracts get rich quick scammers. Get nervous when you hear buzzwords like fundamental change, trans-formative, revolutionary, breakthrough, radical, paradigm-shift, or game changing. If anyone uses these words on you your radar should go off. Don’t believe anything unless it agrees with your own common sense.
Beware unattributed statistics: With enough money and time it’s possible to create data that says just about anything. (See “How to Lie with Statistics” by Darrell Huff) Anytime you hear a statistic floating in space there is no reason to give any credibility to it whatsoever. Where did it come from?
Question Marketing, PR and Sales: Anyone employed in that position has a strong incentive to only give the rosiest picture of their client. To that end, if they are marketing their marketing services to you be especially skeptical.
Key Questions When Hiring a social media “Expert”:
- How long have you been doing this?
- Why are you more credible than the other guy?
- Who are your clients? Can I talk to them?
- What are your examples? Samples?
- Are the promises you are making realistic?
- Have you done this yourself?
- How do you know what you know?
- When have you or your theory been wrong?
- Why do so many people fail at this?
- What are you selling?
- Does anything you say not suggest I should buy?
- Why aren’t you more popular in social media?
Phrases not to trust:
- “Studies say” – Which Studies? Are there equally reputable studies that say the opposite?
- “Experts say” – Which ones? When and where did they say it?
- “The data shows…”
- “Ashton Kutcher / Gary Vaynerchuck did…” What did non-celebrities do? How did people in my business do it?
This was an information packed talk and hard to do justice in a short summary, but if you want to see just the slides or you want to see all of Scott’s sources you can find them on his post about the talk.
A little bit about Scott Berkun:
Scott was a manager at Microsoft from 1994-2003, on projects including v1-5 (not 6) of Internet Explorer. He is the author of three bestselling books, Making Things Happen, The Myths of Innovation and Confessions of a Public Speaker. He works full time as a writer and speaker, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Economist, Wired magazine, National Public Radio and other media. He writes frequently on innovation and creative thinking at his blog: scottberkun.com and tweets at @berkun.
A Big Thank You to Subway, This Month’s Sponsor!
Subway has a long history throughout Western Washington, and is excited to be sponsoring this month’s SMC Seattle event. There are more than 360 Subway stores throughout the area– more than almost any other area in the country— which is a reflection of the healthy, active lifestyle of many Seattle residents. If you’re looking for a healthy on-the-go alternative to fast food, Subway offers eight different sandwiches; each with just six grams of fat or less. Subway’s Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich (Jared’s favorite) makes a great tasting, low-fat meal.
To stay up to date with Subway and it’s delicious offerings:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/subwayfreshbuzz
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/subway
http://www.subway.com/
The title slide has a typo – should be guru, not gurus.
Scott Berkun is that person who seems to rain on your parade, only to help you make it even better when the sun comes out. “It’s not science…it’s hypothesis with some data,” makes me cheer. I love how Scott (who I would consider part of the “social media elite”) doesn’t shy away from calling out people for keeping secrets and not being transparent with their social media process and outcomes. Many of us are good at what we’re doing with social media, but until we’re able to share how to replicate what we did, we should hold off on being too self-aggrandizing. That said, Brian Solis’ book Engage! actually goes into greater detail about how to establish a solid plan and set up metrics for social media initiatives than maybe any other book I’ve read on social media; so I would add him to the Dan Zarella “they know what they’re talking about” category. Thanks for sharing this preso!