Chris Voss Defines: Who Is A Social Media Consultant?

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Posted October 7, 2009 at 12:09 pm

You know people who claim to be Twitter and Social Media Experts are kinda funny in their mass. Someone asked me what makes a Social Media Consultant. It seems everyone make a sales splash page and promotes it. I and many people find it funny when you see someone claiming to be an expert and only having a few thousand followers. I understand people feel over-managing something small increases its quality if you “weedlebum” it enough, but business isnt about lemonade stands and quality is relative. Its about big business and if your gonna help clients build big, you better show you can build big yourself. In my past I’ve built multi-million dollar companies with mere investments. It takes big picture thinkers and doers. My sales pages are integrated into my blog because I want people to know who is really the man behind the information and that I know what I’m doing.

An Expert is defined in the dictionary as: a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority.

Here’s what it means to me and why I claim to be one.

Study: To me an expert is someone who masters something the best they can and makes a STUDY of it. I’ve built several Multi-Million dollar companies and have an expansive history of business. So I take the term “Expert” very seriously. I’ve even written and E-Book that no one has done, How to keep from being suspended on Twitter, which I made a careful study of for month with suspended people. So I spend alot of time making a specialized study of everything. I’ve run many scientific tests on Social Media sites to figure out their workings.

Knowledge: If you read my bio you’ll find I’m not your average guy CLICK for About Me. One of the benefits my clients get, is not only am I a Social Media Expert but I have a huge business life of experience and knowledge. Something a “twenty something” cant offer in business consulting. Social Media has to be integrated into your business and knowing how business works makes all the difference.

Accolades: Someone should be recognized by his peer and have accolades to show. If you note I’m recognized with alot of accolades and if you follow my stream you’ll see alot of people giving testimonials of what I’ve done for them. Just Today, Twitter Grader ranked my usage of Twitter as 8th out of 5 million people.

Professional Full Time: My consulting firm Strategix One has been training, CEOs, business’ and people, on how to develop Social Media for themselves. I am not some kid with a sales page. I actually have a company that does this all day long. Business’ & people pay for our services.

Leader/Influencer: Now many of you that follow me, not only do I work hard at Social Media education, but I try to be an entertainer, inspirational and uplifting to my internet community. Actually, if you look at all I do my focus is on building and having alot of fun for me and others, while my sales are secondary to all the jokes I run.

I am constantly learning and networking with sites and getting to know the people who run them if I can. For instance one large company I advised their key investor about some issues and an emergency board meeting was called, to correct the stuff I’d shared with him. It was a change that impacted millions of people. I also do speaking engagements. I wouldnt get invited if I hadnt proven my worth to their people.

Please go read my site and I hope you get an idea of why I call myself and expert. At one point, I got so swamped with all of these “experts” calling me for help questions all day long, just to have me answer their questions for the people they’d convinced to pay them, it got so bad I finally had to cut them off and charge them too.

Please read over my site and get to know me better. I appreciate it.

Chris Voss

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Planetwebfoot

Great post Chris. This is the first time I have been to your site but I will be returning because we can all learn from an expert like you.
Don Roy

Chris, your analysis is on target! A great characteristic of the web in general and social media tools in particular is that the barriers to entry are lowered substantially. People with great ideas, knowledge, and experience can have a voice... and be heard! With that said, there are far too many "experts" in the social media space. You remind us to consider the credentials of those persons waving the expert flag.
.-= Don Roy´s last blog ..Make Rewards Programs Simple, Relevant =-.
Imran

Thanks for your great article. There is so much junk on the internet it is hard to find good quality information when you really need it. I just came across your site and have bookmarked it. Look forward to reading more in the future keep us posted.
.-= Imran´s last blog ..MindFreezer Affiliate Program =-.
Andrew Ballenthin

Chris, great article thanks. Interesting timing, this past week I put the discussion out to a good number of LinkedIn groups seeking their input on how to deem if a social media consultant is qualified. A good number of discussion points came in from professionals and those that would consider their services.

I'm looking to take that data the next step and develop a draft outline of how to qualify a social media consultant as a proficient professional. If you're interested I'd like to partner with you on that exercise and jointly share it with our networks to help businesses evaluate people who sell their services. Interested?
.-= Andrew Ballenthin´s last blog ..Online Brand Mentions: Choose the Best Places for B2C2C Dialog =-.
Maryse

I fully agree on this thought. Difficult to be sure of the true level of expertise of a pretended expert but... even more than denouncing it -which is good!- why not creating a kind of acknowledged quality label or community, which would on the base of documented items ensured the social media users they will be facing a true expert?? It may exist already but I have not heard about it... Thanks for any inputs on this.
Lesley Dewar

You certainly have the credentials and experience to back up your claims as an expert - but I wonder about the 45,000 followers.

How often do you purge your follower list of those who have been inactive on Twitter for at least 45 days, because it is well documented that about 30% of people who sign up to Twitter don't stay and having them counted in your follower base can be (in my view) a little misleading as to the extent of your true influence.

Personally, I purge my follower list at least once a month because interactive followers make Twitter much more fun.
Karla Porter

Hi Chris,

I appreciate your perspective and thank you for providing a place for reader comments and dialog. I believe success is subjective and means different things to different people. If you find that success on Twitter is a numbers game it's really not difficult to achieve at all but I prefer to find success in the quality of people I follow and select niche professional and interest groups. I enjoyed Twitter when I had a few hundred followers and I enjoy it now with a few thousand. I quite successfully used it for recruiting purposes with just a few hundred followers. I also don't think success via social media comes from just being a Twitter aficionado. Lastly, the term "expert" in social media is one difficult for me to digest because SM is in an evolutionary state. One might become an expert on the Civil War (for example) because it happened and every detail can be studied. But there is no way to study every facet of Social media at this point in time because it hasn't plateaued and the rules and techniques continue to change with great frequency. Perhaps one can achieve expertise up to certain points in time but not in general. Many people find terms like social media expert and guru akin to the verbiage used by used car salesman.

On another note, congratulations on your book and accomplishments and good luck to you in the future.
.-= Karla Porter´s last blog ..Confessions from the Supply Closet =-.
Dave Van de Walle

Well said, Chris, but be sure to remember that it's not the number of followers on Twitter that makes you a SMM expert; nor is it a lack thereof that necessarily doesn't. More than a couple hundred is VITAL, but a couple thousand from someone thoughtful who can help put a business plan together -- that can be gold.

Cheers!
.-= Dave Van de Walle´s last blog ..Don’t Forget the Video =-.
mikemyatt

Chris makes some very valid points, most of which I agree with. However I tend to agree with you on the issue of numbers. Amassing huge numbers solely for the sake of numbers is an ego play more than a business play. It's the constitution of the numbers that matter: Here's my take on the subject if interested: http://www.n2growth.com/blog/social-media-exper...
Chris Voss

Mike, thanks, but like I said, if someone cant prove they can do it, they
cant have my business. I dont hire lemonade stand makers to tell me how to
build a multi-million dollar business. I dont think anyone else should
either. Worldwide we see new clients come to us having wasted money with
some hacks small ideas. Its a numbers game in business and sales. Always
will be. Quality or constitution is relative. Now I didnt say JUST do it
for the numbers, you have to target market, but on the other hand you dont
get to huge success hand picking every customer. Walmart doesnt have the
greeter decide if I can come in or not. See my blog post in thinking in
absolutes on this. Many people are confused that this is an "either or"
strategy. If you need further explanation feel free to call me
310-997-2204.

I value your comments.

Thanks,

Chris Voss
mikemyatt

Chris:

I'm not sure we're really too far apart on this, but I'll call you next week and we can have a brief chat. My main premise is that when it comes to social media the number of contacts isn't the only metric, but rather one of many considerations, and usually not the main consideration. My feelings can be further summarized in the following two posts:

http://www.n2growth.com/blog/social-media-demys...

http://www.n2growth.com/blog/social-media-influ...

Look forward to talking with you Chris...Have a great weekend.
Mark

I am not only following Chris closely and retweeting him on a almost daily basis, I have also purchased his ebook and video-training, which is top-notch. If for nothing else, you can follow Chris for the kick-ass jokes he's tweeting on a regular basis.
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Claim Technorati =-.

Chris Voss Defines: Who Is A Social Media Consultant?

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