At BlogWorld this weekend, as I represented Kirtsy, I met dozens of people who, in addition to having day jobs or companies of their own self-identify as social/new media experts. That’s a real fancy title we’ve given ourselves, and we are, many of us, social media experts. Being an expert isn’t without its drawbacks, however, so before you decide to take the plunge into this micromediamaniacalworld (or if you already have) these are a few things to watch out for. Do you call yourself a social media expert yet? Here are 7 signs you are an expert…
1. You use the # sign everywhere. And you call it a hash tag.
I live-tweeted the sessions I attended over the weekend. In one tweet I suggested that next year they call BlogWorldExpo TwitterWorldExpo instead. We could learn all the good practices, like using the hash tag (when I was a lass, we called it a pound sign) to share your location. The hash tags from Vegas we used were #bwe08 and #cred, to name but two.
So, Joel laughed at me when I sent him a text message saying: Hey you quick question…am I all set on plane tix #sf? He responded: “Hash marks? LOL. Too much Twitter for you the last few days, missy.” Remember your audience. Reserve hash marks for your Tweeps.
2. You mix your pop references with your social media network references.
Mixing metaphors yet?
This Sunday after the Keynote, on two occasions I referred (erroneously) to “that guy from LinkedIn” when what I meant was “that guy from Linkin Park.” That’d be Mike Shinoda. Uhm, yeah. Sorry, Mike. And while I’m at it…are you on LinkedIn?
3. Your heroes are social media experts, bloggers, tweeple, evangelists + conference speakers
The heroes are those that not only know their stuff but are generous in sharing their knowledge. Those social media experts I spent time with that really impressed me with their people skills this weekend include:
Yahoo’s Yodel Anecdotal Nicki Dugan spoke eloquently and passionately at the session on corporate blogging. (The session: 7 Habits of Highly Effective Business Blogs w/Carolyn Abram, Nicki Dugan, Lionel Menchaca + Mario Sundar ROCKED and I will write that session up for those that missed it.)
I loved what Nicki had to say about how to blog for corporations: Be Real. This is how you make people come back. It’s not a “repurposed press room.” She gets it. Follow her blog, make friends with her and learn how she does it if you’re blogging in the corporate sphere. She got a few extra followers on Twitter this weekend and you’d do well to add her, too.
Elisa Camahort knows her stuff. She’s incredibly articulate and knows what it takes to put on a great conference. She’s also very fair and balanced which, in the world of social media, can be tough.
Patrick O’Keefe from iFroggy spoke on Trolls and how to deal with them. He knows his stuff but he’s really down to Earth in the way he shares it. I got the sense that he really wanted to be nice to everyone, trolls, spammers and sock puppets included. Showing compassion to even the meanest hard ass commenter is true love. Listening to him, in that session, it clicked for me that compassion is the way through this sticky issue.
Tara Anderson With a great evangelist, you never sense that you’re being pitched - because you aren’t. I’m telling you like I told Tara at the booth, she is one of the best evangelists I know, I owe her a great debt for all I’ve learned watching her (including her slide on a sticker approach at parties). She is consistent and, along with her team, has helped build a brand from the ground up: Lijit. When I saw her talking about Lijit in the early days (July, 2007) she was real good. Now she is great. She has helped define and refine the image and does it with modesty. Watch out for her awesome.
Barbara Jones (pictured here w/Baby Dot) is hustlin’ hard for social media. She’s an up-and-coming currently working with Epson on an exciting new project. It’s interesting to see how word of mouth marketing is taking over this space. And how creativity is the new, valued tactic. I find it a thrilling time to be in this space.
Pete Cashmore from Mashable could charm the pants off a squirrel. If squirrels wore pants. He founded Mashable and seems to be at every social media party I’m at… and then some. Anyway, he got kirtsied this weekend and I think he liked it.
4. You are messaged on Twitter about an interview you did about Twitter which was published as you live tweeted an event (that has a live Twitter stream displayed on a projector). All in real time, simultaneously.
Brittany Anas, a reporter for The Daily Camera, contacted me while I was in San Francisco last week. She wanted to know if she could ask me a few questions about Twitter since I was in the “Twitter Addicts” group on Facebook. We set up a time to talk and she gave me a few questions to chew on in advance (that helped a lot). She’s an excellent reporter and the only correction I have to make to the article she wrote was an accidental lie that I told her: I started tweeting in April 2007 not April 2008.
Neil Simon tweeted that the article, “Twitter tweeple transform conversations: Today’s micro-bloggers returning society to a must-know-all basis” made front page news and I read it while live tweeting a session that had a live Twitter stream displayed next to the speakers.
Yes, I do occasionally feel like I’m living inside an Escher painting.
I love it. The comments on the online version of the article beat up on Twitter (and to some degree my social skills, which might be on point) but all I can say is this. Y’all won’t understand until you find your flow with it. And I love it.
5. You mentally page back through tweets when you meet someone from Twitter IRL
This happened to me a few times this weekend. I found myself meeting some that I knew I had @ed several times but couldn’t place who they were based on just their handle. If you’re a conference goer, you might consider having an updated photo of yourself as your icon, Facebook profile pic and on your blog at least for the weekend so we can recognize each other. It helps a ton.
6. You think “@” before saying a person’s name.
I honestly never call anyone “@theirnameontwitter” but I stayed with Wendy Piersall (shout out, thank you and Epson for letting me crash with you!) and thought “@Emom” multiple times before calling her Wendy.
That means, folks just jumping onto Twitter, think dang hard before choosing a handle. You will be associated with it. Do you want to be “@tasteslikerancidmeat” in real life? It’s not too late to change if you want to do so, just look under your settings tab.
7. You are at a conference planning for the next conference you’ll attend
Yes, this happened. There was a lot of talk of Blogher 2009. There was talk about whether or not people will be attending CES this year after a less-than-thrilling show last year. Which conferences are must-attends for you? Let me know in the comments so I can figure out how to get there and meet you.
I found a great post by Chris Brogan about conference attending and would love to see a site dedicated to the art of conference going. It’s certainly an art and science. BlogWorldExpo 2008 found that balance this year.
Do you call yourself a social media expert? And if so, what quirks have you started displaying since you took on the title?
