How to Recognize a Non-Expert

Craig Agranoff, in What Is a Social Media Expert (via @KevinOKeefe):

Evan Sneider, who does public relations for a Miami-based website, told me, “Usually, if someone says they’re an ‘expert’ at anything, they aren’t. Most ‘experts’ have no idea that they’re exceptionally good at whatever it is they’re doing.”

There are experts in social media—people for whom the media are not the end, people who actually use social media to help, educate, and entertain others (example: Wichita reporter Ron Sylvester, who works in Twitter, text, and video). They don’t claim to be experts. Claimed expertise in social media is a pretty good indicator that one is not an expert.

This is more true in the area of social media than in other disciplines. To those who have been soaking in social media, using it to make a difference rather than trying to sell their ability to use it, the phrase “social media expert” is a term of derision. The self-descriptive use of a term that is widely ridiculed in the area of supposed expertise is a pretty good indicator that the “expert” is ignorant of how social media really work.

It’s kind of like a “writer” with spelling errors in his CV, or a “therapist” who talks incessantly about herself, or a “spy” who brags about being a spy. It’s a dead giveaway.

Not everyone who doesn’t claim to be an expert in social media is one. Nobody who does is.