There has been a lot of bad press about social media, and the ‘so called’ experts.

They are often portrayed as money grabbing opportunists wanting to make a quick buck out of unsuspecting business owners who don’t want to be left behind in the current torrent of social networking marketing opportunities. 

If you need to know more about Social Media then why not book onto one of our Social Media Courses. We have  summer deals on at the moment especially if you book with a Search Engine Optimisation course or a Google Analytics course in Brighton, Sussex, other combinations of discounted courses are also available.

In most cases, the social media ‘guru‘ is thought of as an opportunistic type who over promises and under delivers.

See my favourite video on the subject:

Don’t get me wrong, there are very real benefits from using social media as a marketing tool and indeed to to recognise this and do something about it in my opinion is a big mistake, one that could really leave you behind the competition. If you want to see the benefits just go through our resources.

Despite all this there are some unscrupulous bandits out there who really are trying to cash in on the fact that business owners just don’t have the time to learn about the ways to use social media and have little choice but to  believe anything a social media guru may tell them.

It is true that creating a Twitter and Facebook account, and setting up a company blog are essential steps in establishing a strong online presence but unfortunately there are good and bad ways of using them and easy ways to fake success.

It is easy to fake valuable “hits” (page views on a website) or faking relevant Twitter followers.

Some social media experts will buy Twitter followers and traffic to make it look like the campaign is succeeding in helping the company develop an effective social media presence.

It is an easy scam, target owners of small to mid-sized businesses who aren’t technically savvy, convince them that social media is the future and crucial to their business, and spend a modest amount of money buying Twitter followers and traffic to keep them believing that your non-existent ‘expertise’ is doing something wonderful.

So how can you avoid being conned?

1. Best solution Get someone in-house, trained up or employ someone who will understand your business, represent you well, provide useful content and build relevant relationships.
2. Ask to see case studies and references and speak to other business owners who have used your ‘expert’
3. Check out the blog, twitter account and Facebook page of these other clients. You may not know what you are looking for at this stage but the difference between a good and relevant account with great content and a spammy one will be obvious.
4. When you have hired someone check Google Analytics to see where visitors are coming from
5. Check to see if visitor are engaging on your blog – adding comments
6. Check that your twitter followers are relevant. See our post on how to spot a twitter spammer.

The hype around social media has certainly made it a lucrative opportunity for some and business owners should be particularly vigilant and demanding when it comes to hiring someone to handle their social media presence.

If you need to know more about Social Media then why not book onto one of our Social Media Courses. We have summer deals on at the moment especially if you book with a Search Engine Optimisation Training or a Google Analytics course, other combinations of discounted courses available.

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con, Google Analytics Training Sussex, guru, rip off, search engine optimisation training, smm, social media course, social media guru, Social Media Training, Social Networking, spammers, sussex, twitter spammers

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