What Social Media “Experts” Are Doing Wrong

Hey, you. Yeah you. Are you on Twitter? Let’s be real: if you’re reading this, it’s highly unlikely that you are not on Twitter.

Ever notice how self proclaimed social media “experts” just tweet links all day? Yeah. Like, all day long. They just tweet links out with maybe a quick comment, or even just the title of the article they are linking to itself.

This is the biggest thing that all those so-called “gurus” are doing wrong.

They aren’t listening, and they aren’t thinking about the end goal.

As someone who wrote an entire book about the importance of engagement on social media, I am flabbergasted by this kind of behavior. Plenty of people who praised the book and shared it out weren’t taking my advice at all. I would look at their Twitter accounts and see that they had replied to absolutely no one. They were just posting links, over and over.

They were only caring about how many followers they had. And that is something I do not believe in. Potential top line awareness has nothing on going deep. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s about depth, not width. Having one extremely meaningful connection with someone on Twitter means far more than fifty pointless ones.

All those links being tweeted out? Pointless. You get the followers, but they aren’t engaged after the fact. And then what do you have in way of connections? New opportunities? Readership?

Your behavior has to map what you want to happen. Whatever actions you take, they have to back up the ultimate end goal. When I set out to become a prominent voice in all things social and digital marketing, it was because I knew it could lead to one day having an agency. And now I do. Heard of it? It’s called VaynerMedia.

But even VaynerMedia isn’t the very end for me. I am always evaluating myself to make sure my behavior points towards the next big thing.

Social media “experts” need to slow down and think about what they are doing. Did they just jump on social media because it’s hot right now? Or do they want to have a long meaningful career in this world? If it’s the latter, they need to take a step back and look at their social presence. What is it doing to further that?

There are a lot of players who jump ahead and try to collect fast money, followers, clout, as quickly as possible in the indecisive gray period. Unfortunately for them, it’s the long dollars that will count in the end.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Would love to hear your thoughts.