I don’t care about social media gurus or experts or mavens or whatever. That whole thing is going to settle itself out eventually, when the good work starts getting more concrete, and the people actually doing the work continue demonstrating and illustrating their learnings and results.
What concerns me far more than some nerd slinging his Facebook skillz around the fishbowl is the fact that in so many disciplines – social media included – we’ve got legions of people out there that are missing fundamental business acumen.
What we need desperately?
People who can craft coherent, clear correspondence that has proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
People who know how a budget is put together, and the difference between profit, costs, and revenue.
People who know the differences between marketing, branding, and public relations, and how they all tie together.
People who can put together a simple plan for getting from A to B, complete with goals and objectives, and explain it to someone else.
People who can see how different areas of the business work together to form a systematic operation.
People who have basic customer service skills like patience, politeness, helpfulness, and common courtesy.
People who know how to communicate clearly, collaborate on projects, and manage people positively.
People who can admit what they don’t know, and seek knowledge or help.
People who can engage in intelligent discourse and discussion instead of self-aggrandizing rants.
Looking back over the list, I suppose I’m illustrating more than a lack of business skills, but also a lack of communication and interpersonal skills. We’re so spoiled by all the information coming to us with a few keystrokes, and we’re losing the ability to synthesize it ourselves and articulate it to someone else.
Filter out the people that lack the majority of these abilities, and you’ve solved a great deal of the guru problem right out of the gate. The businesses that earn progress will apply those filters for themselves. The ones that don’t have problems far larger than their social media expert choices.
At the moment, I’m frustrated. But I’m working on some constructive solutions to try and help solve this problem rather than just whining about it (more on that here soon).
But seriously? The “expert” discussion is only happening with fervor inside the fishbowl it affects. Out there, where the business and economy is moving forward and progress is being made, it’s not more qualified social media gurus that they need.
They need better, more professional, more equipped business people. Not just MBAs on paper, but those with applied knowledge and practice. It’s about time we stopped slinging our internet prowess, and instead spent some time understanding and honing the part we play in the bigger picture.
If you have these business skills, please flex them. Share them. Absorb more. Apply them and teach others. Please.
I promise those are my last words on the expert discussion. I’m all done with that tired subject. Instead, this blog and other projects I’m tinkering with will be focused on not just social media, but on building better business. Better thinking, culture, planning, and idea execution. The stuff that moves not just needles, but mountains.
I’m learning too, and I’m watching and absorbing all the time. But I see something bigger. Do you?
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