To be honest, there’s no real agreement on what qualifies a Social Media Expert but ….. something caught my eye today, a post by Peter Shankman, who I’ve met at least once,  asking “is  your social media expert really an expert?“.    Peter’s post, which was co-written with Sarah Evans had 25 points, something about the post drew a red flag in my mind.

Here it was – about 10 days earlier, Oliver Blanchard came up with a list of 25 points  first – see Is your Social Media Director qualified?

To be fair, Oliver’s list is more about what it take to be qualified while Peter and Sarah’s list is more about people who mis-represent themselves as Social Media Experts and I like Oliver’s list more because it’s positive – it doesn’t put anyone down, it simply states what is needed to qualify someone to be hired as an expert in Social Media.

But the idea that both bloggers came up with a list of 25 characteristics of a Social Media Expert within two weeks of each other suggests to me some degree of  borrowing that’s not acknowledged – though it’s technically possible for Peter Shankman to come up with a list on his own.

I read enough of this “stuff” and see patterns – this is one case.

Note: After hearing back from Peter and Sarah on the post it sounds like both articles having similar titles and 25 points is a coincidence.

“….Our post emerged out of a conversation with a peer who said her firm was touting an employee as a social media expert because that person was on Facebook.”

Another possibility is that the “peer” had seen Oliver’s post and indirectly influenced Peter and Sarah’s post, without realizing it.     Just a thought.