12 Types of Social Media Experts

12 Types of Social Media Experts

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Shanghai-based Social Media Experts

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The 9 Types Of "Social Media Experts" - Which One Are You?

by Rohit Bhargava


There is a fundamental problem among social media experts today. Some people have argued that the problem lies with people who are rushing to call themselves an expert without having the necessary experience. Others create some sort of artificial metric to try and put some parameters around who should be allowed to call themselves an expert and who should not. The easier way out (which I myself have taken on occasion) is to excuse yourself from the entire debate by saying that no one is REALLY an expert and we are all just people who use these tools and try our best. Since coming back from SXSW, I have been thinking about this and realized that none of these methods really works because they all assume that a "social media expert" is a single type of person.

To be sure, there are some people working in social media who really shouldn't be - but I don't believe this number is as high as others would say. Instead, I think that many people who could be great at certain roles are simply trying to fill the wrong role. So, to help, I thought I would share what I think the 9 types of social media experts really are. And in true social media fashion, since 9 is such an uneven number ... let me know what you think the 10th would be. I will add the best suggestion for a 10th to this list.

1. The Pretender - This is the person who everyone loves to hate. The newly arrived and minted "expert" who has barely used any tools beyond Facebook and Twitter, has hardly any friends or followers, and bases most of their thinking on what they just read from the dozen or so social media "gurus" who frequently share free advice on their blogs.
2. The Trainer/Teacher - Being a great teacher is a gift, and not many people truly have it. If you are a natural trainer or teacher, you have the ability to make complex ideas that are part of social media easy to understand. After listening to your direction, someone new to using the tools and thinking about social media will feel dramatically more comfortable using the tools and (most importantly) why they should even bother.
3. The Professional Speaker - Popular sentiment is to treat these people as the biggest blowhards in the industry because they get up on stage and get paid to talk about social media. It is the existence of this type of expert, however, that often creates the inspiration and excitement about social media as a whole. Once again, not everyone is necessarily good at taking this role - but listening to a great speaker about social media can create a real impact across the entire industry. Speakers may be the rising tide that can lift everyone else's boats in the entire industry.
4. The Content Curator - I have blogged at length about how I believe content curators will be among one of the most important social media jobs of the future. While some may equate the job to that of a digitally savvy librarian, I see the role of a curator as much more of an editor about a particular topic. The curators are the ones that can help us make sense of the exploding amount of content online. The almighty search algorithm won't be enough.
5. The Event Organizer - In social media, there are lots of great events. From the more official conferences and summits to the less formal meetups and tweetups. If your gift is in creating really engaging moments for people to gather in real life and to facilitate those moments, you might fit this category. The Event Organizer, too, is vital for the social media industry to thrive because they are the ones that drive the real moments where virtual relationships become real.
6. The Community Manager - Having a great community manager may be one of the most difficult roles to fill on a digital team, because the skill set can be quite elusive. A great community manager is dealing with real conversations in real time and reacting to those conversations transparently. If you happen to have these skills and use them well, you could easily grow into the very center of an organization's entire social media efforts (a great place to be).
7. The Content Creator - This is one of the most public types of social media experts because their expertise is on display consistently. Content creators are great at writing thoughts in blog posts, sharing their every thought via Twitter, or creating video. In the right role, content creators can become indispensible assets to a team and generate highly original content to engage an audience.
8. The Marketing Strategist - If I have one intention with this post, it is to point out very distinctly that not every social media expert should automatically be put into this category. If you are a marketing strategist, you know the best way to use social media to achieve a marketing objective such as promoting a product or service. You don't blindly create a "platform" for a client with every social media tool, or consider "start by listening and then engage people in a conversation" actionable strategic advice. Instead, you are able to solve a real business problem with a smart plan for using social media, and entirely capable of admitting which business problems social media may not be the best solution for.
9. The Designer/Builder - In some ways, this is the most important type of social media expert - because these are actually the people who make real solutions. Strategy is great, but at some point you need a real execution plan and these are the experts who can get it done. More importantly, they will also be able to provide advice based on experience for how you may want to implement your plans, and what strategy or tactics you may want to stay away from.

You might be tempted to read into this post that there are certain types of experts that are more valid than any others, but except for the first type I strongly believe that each has an important role to play as organizations and businesses of all sizes get smarter about how and when to use social media.  If you work in the industry or interact with those who do - my simple plea is that we all need to get better about understanding which of these roles we are particularly good at and focus on that.  As a whole I can think of nothing better to help legitimize and grow the entire area of social media and the groups who are able to benefit from using it well.

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Japan’s Top Social Media Experts

By thomascrampton ⋅ March 7, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

I am trying to compile a list of Japan’s most interesting people in Social Media. Please add your name or others in the comments.

The list has begun based on those who turned up at a Twitter gathering I initiated at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. I learned so much on that evening and afterwards Steve Nagata generously took me on a great tour of Akihabara.

Add your name (or others) in the comments and I will be sure to invite you to the next gathering! (I am interested in interesting people, not companies, by the way. I enjoy hanging out with people, not companies!)

UPDATE: Shortly after I saved an early edit of this posting both Gen and Steve Nagata tweeted about the lack of Japanese names below. Be particularly great to get more names on that front!

Here’s the details of those in the video who attended that evening:

Rafik Dammak, a recovering blogger from Tunisia who now only Twitters. He is also a Non Commercial Stakeholder Group Board Appointee to the Generic Names Supporting Organization of ICANN (who manages the Internet.)

Alistair Townsend, founder of Bakoko Design Development, Tokyo who is on
Linkedin, Posterous, Twitter and has a company site.

Gen Kanai, the business director of business development at Mozilla has a personal blog, Mozilla blog andTweets.

Robb Satterwhite, publisher of Bento.com, the best and biggest Japanese restaurant guide is also on Flickrand has a book. He also has FB fan page and a Facebook app “My Favorite Sushi”.

Rick Martin’s personal blog, CNET blog and Twitter.

Steve Nagata, Akihabara fan and tech consultant who blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Kyle Hasegawa on Blog, Twitter

Michael Q. Todd on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter

Martyn Williams, Tokyo Bureau Chief for IDG News Service, on Facebook Twitter

Orlando Camargo, the President of Ogilvy PR, Japan has a great photo feed on Flickr, is on LinkedIn andTweets.

A list of more from Steve Nagata:

A list of more from Steve Nagata:

Fumi Yamazaki, @fumi - Author and journalist.  Well known and highly respected in both Japanese and English speaking communities. recently published a book on twitter marketing.
Nobuyuki Hayashi, @nobi - Author and journalist.  EVERYONE knows Nobi. Following Apple since it landed in Japan.
Andrew Shuttleworth, @@ashuttleworth - Social Networks.  One of the biggest names in social media in Tokyo.  One of the founders of Tokyo 2.0
Paul Papadimitriou, @papadimitriou - Technology evangelist.  Technically not in Japan anymore, he continues to support Web2.0 ventures in Japan from across the globe.  Honorary virtual member.
Toshiaki Kanda, @@knnkanda - Author, journalist, television personality. A Japanese techno-celebrity.
Satoka Fujita, @lhuga - Social media enthusiast.  Heavy web2.0 user and founder of Tokyo Geek Girls
Danny Choo, @dannychoo - Blogger, Entrepreneur. Tokyo’s Dancing Stormtrooper. YouTube star and Otaku blogger.
Oliver Reichenstein, @Ia - Information Architect.  Creator of Tokyo Web Trend Map.
Dr. Serkan Toto, @serkantoto - Consultant, Blogger. Writer for Techcrunch.  Little happens in Tokyo tech he does not know about.
Hideki Francis Onda, @onebeat - Blogger, Entrepreneur.  First marketing director for Apple Computer in Japan. Now CEO of Focal Point Computers and Tunewear.
Shinya Ichinohe, @shinyai - Professor, photographer.  Technology and media enthusiast. Now living in Niigata
Dean Fuji, @docmacpro - Consultant, networking mogul.  Social media consultant and power networker.
Taro Matsumura, @taromatsumura - Journalist, Researcher. Always on top of what’s tech and geek in Tokyo.
Takuya Kawai, @himanainu_kawai - Social Media Entrepreneur. One of Japan’s first Social Media specialists. Still in the center of new trends and technology.

From Gordon Kanki Knight:
I suggest myself, @kankiknight (2,712 followers) and my website here, Craig Mod (2,744), Oliver Reichenstein (over 10,000 followers), the staff at Japan Times (including many Japanese), Tomoko Hosaka, Tomo Akiyama (@tomoakiyama), Jean Snow and Roland Kelts (if he qualifies as being in Japan).

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