Source: Agent-X Comics

Most social media gurus, agencies, consultants, etc. add little value to brands.

This is mostly because of their similarity to Paris Hilton in three ways:

1)      They are famous for being famous not adding value

They have incredible Klout scores. They have tens of thousands of followers on Twitter. They are on the top of every leaderboard on every gaming platform. They write tons of blogs and books on the latest shiny objects using sensational language. They perpetuate each other.

This does not mean they understand the issues brands face every day in implementing and measuring social strategies to drive their particular businesses. But, you may ask, gurus obviously know how to use the channels to promote themselves. Yes! But so do college students (especially those with tattoos).

2)     They have ruined a great brand (Paris = Hilton brand, Gurus = social media)

Many gurus create unnecessarily complex frameworks and jargon and assert that everything has changed. No matter what gurus say, the fundamentals of marketing have not changed. 4Ps, 3Cs, marketing funnels, etc. exist as they always have. Social media is another channel to execute marketing and content programs. Their kind of talk confuses brands unnecessarily.

3)   They have lost the ability to talk to us common people

Many gurus never engage in the one on one conversations that they espouse. Most will never follow you back on Twitter. Many will never respond to your emails, Linked In requests, or direct Twitter messages. Isn’t that what they are pushing us to do?

They also mistakenly think that many brands don’t  have a fully robust social media strategy because brands don’t buy off on the value of social media or don’t get the fact that it’s a conversation, etc.

In reality, it’s often the practical realities that prevent brands from implementing social fully. E.g. How do we work with Legal and IT? How do we reorganize for Social? How do we get all our employees to devote time to socially engaging vs. their current roles, etc.

Not all gurus fail the Paris Hilton test, but most do.

So who do you go to for help? 

1) Other brands with great social media programs

Brands face similar issues and internal complexities. It’s useful to share best practices and tools.

For example, the social lead at Harvard Business School Publishing ran one of the best sessions at SXSW.

He went through the key tools they use to amplify their content. It was very practical and very applicable to my brand. 

You will rarely see this from a guru who will spend their time talking about for the thousandth time how you need to have a conversation and how everything has changed.

2) Social Media Scientists

I bow down to these people. They do amazing work analyzing the mass amounts of social information and coming up with practical conclusions based on science, research, and data. They put most regular gurus to shame. These people are the geniuses of social.

My favorites so far —

The Science of Timing