Hang around others in my line of work long enough, and you’ll notice they aren’t chomping at the bit to tell people they work in social media. I’m beginning to understand why. It’s kind of like telling people you’re a sommelier—many do not know the work exists; those that do don’t comprehend what it can entail.
“Isn’t that the guy that picks out wine for you in a restaurant?”
“Isn’t that, like, doing Facebook and Twitter?”
Can you understand why I’ve started to just say “marketing” unless people inquire further? It’s not that the two questions above have it all wrong; they don’t, really. Sommeliers do, in fact, help patrons pick wines in restaurants. Social media managers do, in fact “do” Facebook and Twitter. It’s the thinking behind the question that gets tiresome. The thinking, most of the time, is this:
This person doesn’t have a real job.
-or-
What’s so special about this person that they have this job? It’s not rocket science.
It’s not. Neither is accounting, or estate law or inside sales. But don’t tell me that I don’t have a real job. And don’t tell me that I don’t deserve my job, or that you could do it better.
There is a need for expertise in social media. This is not to say that every company needs to hire a social media expert. Nor is it to say that the vast majority of those calling themselves “social media experts” aren’t simply opportunists who lack the acumen needed in this space. Social media is young and constantly evolving, devolving, changing, defining itself. Expertise can’t be static, or handed out via college degree. But don’t tell me there aren’t experts out there that should be respected as such.
I understand that whatever is on top will be maligned by those that can’t grasp it or don’t have it in them anymore to get there. Social media is on top, it’s hot, it’s all the rage and everyone’s doing it. Like any professional space with low barriers to entry—real estate, the arts, etc.—the successful 10% will outshine the unsuccessful 90%, creating just enough light to attract eager hopefuls, but, inevitably, a shadow large enough to hide a lot of hard realities about what exactly it takes to “make it”. Social media isn’t there yet, but it will be, for better or for worse. So there will always be suspicion of success, comparative resentment, frustration and underhanded remarks like, “We can’t all get paid to play on Facebook.”
If that was truly all I did—play around on Facebook—to make a living, would you blame me for doing it? Forget the fact that I don’t personally even enjoy Facebook, or that thinking about or studying Facebook makes up perhaps a quarter of one percent of my average work week. These inconvenient facts don’t matter to the person that has already decided you don’t work hard or have it easy. They have already decided not to respect the way you make a living, and it has a lot more to do with them than you. And I can understand this, and I can forgive this.
But until someone takes what I do seriously, I have no reason to take them seriously.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Realtors sometimes get a bad reputation too for not being actually smart ect… someone’s gotta make up ben & jerry names for a living too. is that a real job?
Nanette Labastida´s last blog ..Best Mother’s Day Poem Ever
I’m a marketer with most of my focus being on Web-related marketing. A huge part of my job in terms of time and talent is e-mail marketing. I’m also involved in (other) social media marketing, do some work on print publications…
I have the good fortune of working in higher ed. When asked what I do, I typically respond that I’m a college admissions recruiter. If I talk about social media marketing, I often get the response you described. If I talk about e-mail marketing, the common response is, “So, your a spammer.” When I say college admissions, that statement is typically met with some level of respect.
robinteractive´s last blog ..Facebook and Colleges, Part 47: New “Community Pages” Are Talking About You…
Rob-
It’s really a shame, but I understand why this is the case. Nanette can tell you, realtors get a bad wrap for similar reasons–lots of amateur goofballs running about ruining it for the rest. Same with SEO smile-and-dial types.
Thanks for stopping by!
It’s either that or “Can’t the intern just do that stuff?!”
I used to skip over the “writer” part of my title for just those kinds of reasons. “Writers” are always working on their novels, you know, sleeping until noon and lounging by the pool. Nevermind that I had lightning-fast deadlines on original content for four different clients on a daily basis…
Other people will catch up with what we’re doing, one of these days!
Summer Huggins´s last blog ..When Does Online Content Need a Visual?
Ian — Yes! Nail on the head. I think the confusion about how in-depth the social media aspects of our jobs really are come from the newness of it. About 6 years ago Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn did not exist. As you mentioned, overeager surface scratchers jumped at the opportunity to settle in this uncharted niche as “gurus” and “experts”.
The real social media experts, imo, are the people who can see the business value in social media and work to implement it for clients or companies the right way. This is in stark contrast to the vast majority of self-proclaimed “social media gurus” who’ve been using Facebook and Twitter for a few months and think they’re standing on a goldmine because they know what a retweet is.
One provides value. The other attempts to get paid by offering nothing in return.
Josh Ferris´s last blog ..Why Adding Video to Your Website is Crucial for Success in 2010
Josh-
That’s the rub for a lot of people–they use the wrong criteria to evaluate who’s qualified to help businesses make good choices in the ill-defined social media universe. For instance, I personally dislike using Facebook (nothing to do with privacy; I just find it boring). But I see a compelling use case for the business I happen to help, and that qualifies me more to do so than someone that has five times as many friends on FB, yet doesn’t understand simple business principles.
Cheers.