How are you an expert on something that is brand new?

I find myself amused when I see in job postings, mostly agency but sometimes corporate, that they seek a social media expert to run their Twitter, Facebook and usually Blog portals. Now what makes me laugh is that, more often than not, I see they are looking for expertise in these fields. I find that not only funny but a tad ironic because it really does fly in the face of what is generally considered expertise.

Think of other areas in our society where we want expertise. For our doctors they have to go to 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school and then serve various residency and attending programs that often go for another 4 to 6 years. At that point they are considered a doctor but are still the low man, or woman, on the totem pole. I remember reading about Japanese fugu chefs who have to study for 7 years in how to prepare what is considered one of the world's great delicacies. Of course fugu comes from the liver of a puffer fish and, if prepared incorrectly, can quite literally kill you. Even a restaurant sommelier needs to demonstrate extensive knowledge of wines before being certified.

What all of these groups also share is that they need to keep their skills current to maintain their status. In PR and Marketing sadly, the opposite is the case. We seek people out based on a perception of skill and not a proven ability to deliver the goods. This differs from the development of the Internet when you could show demonstrable programming, and/or design skills. We tend to put people into slots (tech, media relations etc.) and keep them there for the balance of their careers.

Of greater concern, a lot of organizations are treating Web 2.0/social media areas as a separate field of marketing. I am of the mind set that this is wrong headed and will pose problems for the organization down the road. For one thing, the organization, in order to be effective, needs to speak with one voice. You can not have the social media guru, I do love that term , sending out messages that either will contradict or disrupt the corporate messaging strategy. Most importantly, you need to have someone who appreciates the role of corporate communications and public relations and bases their decisions less on something being cool and more on how it will impact the organization positively or not.

The simple fact is that this technology is too new too hire someone off the street as an expert. What is more important, and in my opinion likely to be more successful, is to have an experienced PR or Corp Comm person assume oversight and manage the program conservatively to start, and then with more increasing amounts of risk taking as familiarity and experience grow. To do otherwise risks the disruption of the corporate message and worst case scenario, damage to the corporate brand.