10 Ways To Spot The Fake Social Media Expert

These days you can’t go to a business function or related event and not run into so-called social media “experts” promising you the holy grail of Facebook likes and Twitter followers. And yes, even to me, a social media marketer, it's becoming annoying because they make real ones look bad.

There’s more to social media marketing than just likes and follows! But like rapper Yo-Yo, y’all don’t hear me though, and keep hiring these people that take your money and give you nothing but thumbs in return.

So how can an untrained eye and ear separate the fake social media marketers from the real ones? As I study the competition and ever-changing digital landscape, here’s a list of 10 things I look and listen for in a fellow social media marketer that lets me know whether to invest some time listening to them or quickly move on:

1. Knowledge of Industry Leaders: Ask them if they’ve heard of Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Beth Kanter, Mari Smith, Guy Kawasaki, James Andrews, Wayne Sutton, Angela Benton, Gary Vaynerchuk or Omar Wasow. These are some of the respected industry leaders when it comes to social media marketing and digital platforms. So if you’re a “guru” and can’t tell me who some of these folk are, you get the side eye from me.

2. Conduct Industry Research: Ask what was the last social media convention, class, or workshop they attended. Add too magazines, articles, and subscriptions they read or receive. Even YOU, reader, as a professional attend seminars and workshops to stay abreast of your industry. Real social media marketers should do no different, especially considering how fast things change.

3. Popular Platform Knowledge: If they can't name at least the top 5-7 platforms and which audience uses them, in your mind yell, cut! Their scene is over! However, if they only specialize in one platform, as many social media marketers do now, you might give them a pass, but only a small one! Real social media markets are expected to have some knowledge of the major tools and industry trends.

4. Get It Quick Schemes: Fakers say, “I can get you thousands of likes or follows in just a few days.” If you’re not a celebrity, notable, or known cause, then they’re probably using a questionable tool that employs computer bots, or just buying them from follower "farms" in Russia, Malaysia, India, and elsewhere.

Reader, please don't be tempted to go down that road. It leads to a dead end, especially when you have to report some real results.

5. It’s All About Them: They never ask what your goals are in utilizing social media marketing, and they never inquire about your audience. Generally fakers don’t care because they give every customer the same thing–a package or bundle of generic tweets and Facebook updates and profile monitoring for a fee. Oh can’t forgot, optimization! A lot of fakers throw that word around ’cause all those syllables make them sound intelligent. But what are they optimizing for? Engagement? Search? And how?

6. No Depth of Knowledge of Various Platforms: This is a continuation of #3. Ask them the advantages of Google+ versus Facebook or Pinterest versus Instagram. Fakers generally only want to scratch the surface, try to go a little deeper and you'll see their wealth of expertise is only worth pennies, not the hundreds they charge.

7. Got Content?: Real social media marketers, in addition to satisfying client needs and busy schedules, still manage to create CONTENT! Blogs, videos, podcasts, PDFs reports, newsletters…something that generally is helpful or of value to their audience. Of course, it also helps them too in generating business leads, but they understand social media marketing is about giving not just taking!

On that point, fakers generally offer no transparency to website visitors, not even a picture of the person or persons you’re doing business with. And often social media marketing fakers will use Facebook as their website! If so…RUN FOREST, RUN!

8. Something Smells Spammy: Online, many fakers use spam tactics on their own social profiles too. Generally all their tweets say the same thing; there are no retweets, no mentions, no evidence of conversations nor engagement at all.

9. “I Can Make It Go Viral!”: Fake social media marketers love telling you how they are going to make something viral. Unless its a virus in a lab, forget about it! One can only hope something goes viral, especially if there are no babies, cute pets, celebrities, nudity, funny pranks/antics nor controversy involved.

Even branded videos like the Old Spice guy that go “viral” are generally heavily advertised via social ads on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. In other words, they are PAID to go viral! Real social media marketers understand MOST videos don’t go viral without those mentioned key ingredients.

10. Results Measurement: Ask them how do they measure results beyond just the number of likes and followers. Fake social media marketers will sound like crickets ’cause they have nothing beyond that to say.

Real social media marketers can report brand sentiment, online mentions, potential brand ambassadors and influencers, which kind of content works best for your audience, trends, and the list goes on!

So readers, you've been warned! You now know how to spot a fake social media marketer up close and far away. Did I leave anything out? If you’ve had an experience with such an individual, please share it. I’d really like to read about the experience.

This was updated from my original blog post on SheerSocial.com