5 questions to ask your social media expert

Peter Shankman and Sarah Evans recently co-authored a blog post, “Is your social media expert really an expert” and all of the 25 questions resonate in the current “everyone jump on the social media band wagon cause there is money to be taken… um, I mean made” environment. I have no doubt organizations need help with their engagement of social media tools. I have said it before and I will say it again, social media is counter-intuitive to most communication/marketing plans and many first attempts at using these tools are awkward at best. Having an “expert” who doesn’t know what they are doing doesn’t help.

Back to the 25 questions – truth be told, there are lots of folks who would probably pass the test. But there are five bonus questions which still need to be answered and will cull the weak from the true professionals.

Are you ready for the test?

Q1 – What is a goal?

Q2 – What is an objective and how is it different than a goal?

Q3 – What is a strategy and how does it differ from an objective and tactics?

Q4 – What is a tactic?

Q5 – How will you measure the success of our effort?

These questions are the basis for any communication effort regardless of the tools being used. I’m not giving the answers although I can assure you most of the Oklahoma State University students who are currently enrolled in the upper level classes in the School of Journalism and Broadcast can answer them, probably in their sleep.

If the social media expert or anyone passing themselves off as any kind of communications/PR expert can’t answer these basic questions then I would recommend walking away.

Thoughts? Share them below.