With social media becoming increasingly ingrained in everyday communications, there are plenty of consultants positioning themselves as experts. Unfortunately, you don’t need much to hang up your shingle as an expert. Check their credentials. Being active on a variety of social media platforms is admirable… but it might not give you all the help you need.

Do they lecture on the topic? Do they publish? Are they listed by others in the industry when naming people who know their stuff? What projects have they done, and what results have they gotten?

And once you’ve vetted them, make sure they’re not putting you into a panic unnecessarily. Social media is not the Wild West. It is not the Last Frontier.

Social media is communications. It’s talking to your target audience. It’s doing exactly what you’ve been doing, in some new arenas. So yes, it helps to have consultants who know the space and understand your goals. But if your “guru” is trying to tell you that it’s the biggest and scariest thing you’ve ever done – they might be trying to sell themselves instead of solutions.

Take a look at the rest of our health care PR tips from our “25 Years, 25 Lessons” series.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at 1:30 pm and is filed under 25 Lessons, other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.