Social Media Experts—Worth their Weight in Traffic
Posted by Beth Hrusch on Mon, Nov 09, 2009
The recent all-out stampede corporations are making towards social media, without the help of social media experts, is unlike anything seen in American history. Except maybe the Gold Rush. Thousands of daring entrepreneurs tore across the country to California only to arrive and realize that they knew nothing about geology or mining.
As neophytes are wont to do, they sought help wherever they could find it. Good prospectors were rare, and many a would-be miner ended up scratching his head while people who knew what they were doing brought cartloads of precious riches from the mountains.
Social media is the new California, and there is gold to be had. Business people with no social media experience are the ‘49ers, and the social media experts are actually pretty hard to find, because they are busy helping their clients find gold.
A true social media expert is worth his or her weight in gold, except that gold in this case is internet traffic. An expert who knows how to use SEO (search engine optimization) and other social media techniques is worth a dozen people with Facebook and Twitter accounts and no other relevant pedigree.
Once an expert is found, however, the gold doesn't just roll in. The world of SEO is still very much like the Wild West. Search engines constantly adjust their algorithms, and these changes affect what search results come up, even day-to-day with the same searches. Instead of kicking in the saloon doors on Friday night, the true expert is holed up in his office tracking hit results and figuring out how to increase traffic, so that his clients can make money by letting someone else worry for them.
In time, the true social media experts glitter in the pan while the pretenders float on downstream, to some other unfortunate prospector.