Everybody’s an Expert?

Here is an interesting post from Mitch Joel of Twist Image to start the new year. It’s all about separating the wheat from the chaff in the new media strategist space. After all, what does one need to be an expert here in our digital playground? A Twitter account? A nice Facebook page? Mitch’s point is that almost anyone can set up shop and call themselves an expert but that not everyone who does so is even remotely qualified.  Here are a few things I think you need:

• A track record.  With all due respect to my children and their 20-something friends, reading about business in a college textbook is different from having lived it.   Anyone I would want to hire to advise me should have a LOT of experience and demonstrable results they achieved.  It’s not hard to find that out using search and other tools.

• A perspective.  Anyone can rattle off snippets of information gleaned by reading.  It takes a person of a different kind to synthesize those snippets into a coherent whole and, just as importantly, be able to communicate that whole to you.  I can sit here and read a Chinese text which I’m sure is beautifully written but I won’t understated a thing.  Your expert need to write well, speak well, and think well!

• A willingness to share.  You’d be shocked how many “experts” are selfish with information.  My thinking has always been that you reap what you sew.  If information is the currency of business (the one that’s NOT getting devalued all the time!), then I want to be a major market-maker.  Remember:  it’s a conversation.

• A need to learn.  I read all the time.  When I’m not reading, I’m listening for tidbits that will help me and my clients.  I always used to ask job candidates about the last book they’d read.  That would give me some insight into their intellectual curiosity.   we’d often get into other books as well.  I didn’t care about what the materials were as much as I did about had they read, could they discuss what they’d read intelligently, and were they asking me about good reads for their next book.

Nice job, Mitch!