Why in the world would you want a social media guru?

A social media what?

The social media guru. Full of mystique, glamour, a hip vocabulary, and…wait… what’s a social media guru?

There’s a lot of discussion about these elusive creatures within the Internet marketing community. What makes a guru? What doesn’t? How do you become one?

Google “social media guru”, and you’ll find listings including:

• “Biggest Mistakes Made by Social Media Gurus.”
• “How to Pick Your Social Media Guru.”
• “Expulsion of the Social Media Gurus.”
• “UK’s Female Social Media Guru 2009.” (Not necessarily defining a guru or how to get one, but a pretty funny listing, I thought.)

Buzz words and popularity don’t make an expert.

The main discussion, of course, is that many people claim to be gurus or experts with social media, and there’s very little anyone can do to stop them. They breeze into a business and mesmerize with cool terms (and I use the term “cool” loosely), like blogosphere, twittersphere, web 2.0, hash tag, widget, and avatar.

Surely, if someone knows these buzz words, they must know how to market your business with them, right?

Of course, not.
That’s like saying someone who can throw around the medical vocabulary she learned on Grey’s Anatomy is capable of operating on you. Not a medical guru. Not okay.

Well, look at all the Facebook friends this guru has, you say?

Friends? Really? Since when did the smartest kid have all the friends? Maybe before a big exam. The rest of the time, he sat alone at lunch with his books.

There’s a lot of great articles out there on how to identify a social media marketing firm to represent your business. Find an informative, succinct one on the Star Tribune’s website:
Five Key Questions to Ask a Social Media Firm

Now, onto my real point…

Seriously. Why does this term even exist?

In writing this post, I’m guilty of fueling the fire, but stop and think about the term: social media guru.

At the risk of being unbearably cliché - but to further make my point about how bizarre this term is – some dictionary definitions for guru are…

• A person with knowledge or expertise.
• One who is an acknowledged leader or chief proponent.

Do you really want to leave a large part of your online presence up to someone who’s an expert at social media itself?

There’s a reason everyone from your 13-year-old neighbor to your grandpa is on Facebook. It’s easy. Hit a few buttons – and voilà - you have an online presence.

These people know how to talk to their friends via social media, how to keep in touch with family and post pictures.

Of course, what your 13-year-old neighbor and your grandpa don’t know is anything about marketing. They can’t give you a strategy. They can’t help you find the right audience among millions of Facebook users. They certainly can’t figure out how to engage all of these people or make them interested in your product or service.

What you need is a marketer.

You need someone who knows how to develop a strategy and a following that will lead people to… you guessed it… spend money with your business. Of course, everyone says they want to have a conversation with their customers, but they really want to make some money. At the very least, they wouldn’t mind it.

And, as I mentioned above, because social media is easy, any smart marketer is capable of figuring out how to use it.

I know my preference won’t make this term disappear. But if it can’t go away, can we at least call them social media marketing gurus?