I grabbed a coffee with a buddy in the industry recent to catch up. We chatted about things we’ve observed with admiration and disappointment 
and of course added our own speculation on what we think will happen in the next few months as we drilled down to certain companies. The conversation eventually turned to the social media space and we both commented how we’ve seen a number of people call themselves ’social media experts.’
My buddy shared how he came across one of these self proclaimed social media experts, and asked who some are your their clients. To which this person responded with a series of “hims-haws.” If you are such an expert you should be proud of your client roster and willing to drop a name or two, especially if the question is asked by someone who might buy your services.
It has been interesting to see the claims that individuals have been making about themselves such as I’ve seen ’smartest man in the world’, ‘I’m a social media guru.’ Now if you are so damn smart why do you have to keep telling the world?
It isn’t difficult to build a massive list of Twitter followers, if you follow 10,000 it is pretty much guaranteed that by simple human nature 80 percent of that number will follow you, that is a pretty dead simple way to get to 8,000 (try it if you don’t believe me). This is one of the basics on how people use Twitter. “I follow you, you in turn follow me” – not quite rocket science and does not make you an expert!
I can even recall running into someone who stood here telling me how so many people have told him how he is an social media expert, to which my response was “really, I’ve NEVER heard that about you.” The good news is that these people provide us with a lot of entertainment, as we are all guilty of turning to see what crazy things people such as Heidi and Spencer are up to. In the real world companies will only tolerate that type of “snake oil” or smoke and mirrors approach for so long before they pull back the curtain and question the value they are getting for their dollar.
Founder of Profectio of business sites which includes 
So true! I would ask though, what kind of harm those experts are doing to others in the industry that truly create value. As we’ve learnt in the past (.com bomb), even good organizations can suffer when bad ones are punished. The sooner we insiders call-out the charlatans the more likely we are to reduce the detrimental backlash on the whole industry.
Good point Jose – unfortunately clients and companies suffer as they hire these “snake oil” sales people who get nothing for their dollar.