With all the people calling themselves social media experts, what is your opinion about having some sort of certification or training of some sort before someone is allowed to call themselves experts?

If so, who should oversee it? 

If not, what should be the criteria for being able to use the term, “Social Media Expert”?  Or are there other ways yo differentiate between those who know what they are doing and those who are just Along for the ride with the latest trend?   

@journeycreation& ferndandocortes,

It is a difficult thing – To see through the ruckus.  Someone just asked this similar question in another online group I’m in.

Social Media Examiner does offer testing at the end of their Success Summits – Their next one is coming up, starting February 1st.  You could look for someone that has attended several of their summits and has earned their certificate by taking their test.

Another option might be to look at certified online marketers – Look closely at social media topics covered.

While some universities are teaching social media as a curriculum, the graduates are not out on the market yet, that I know of.

Ask questions that relate to numbers — How much did they grow a community?  What were reaction/response rates?  Did sales increase due to that person being in place.  Not one of those answers is the ticket — It’s a combination of answers that will bring clarity.

Hopefully that offers some help.  Surely others can offer you more input too.

~Keri

@journeycreation in my humble opinion you don’t need to get social media certification at all.. although its a plus to have one because there you will learn lots of social media strategies in an instant. 

I agree with @fernandocortes it may lead for someone to get a one week course then claim that he/she is a social media expert. 

Hi 

This is a post close to my heart and it is interesting reading your opinions.  I wanted to put my point of view – not as a sales pitch but as somebody who offers the only accredited Social Media Qualification in the UK.  I agree with @marlenegavens that it is a quality not a quantity – and that it should sit within marketing.

At the back end of 2010, I got tired of small businesses in the UK hiring so called ‘Social Media experts’ and then finding out that in reality they had only just joined Twitter or were ‘learning on the job – at the business owners expense’.  At the same time, there is a need for people to understand how to use Social Media.  This is an new area of potential employment in times of hardship.

I got together with a colleague and created a Social Media Qualification that we got accredited through City & Guilds at Level 2 and Level 3 (if that means anything to you).  This is currently the only accredited Social Media Qualification in the UK which means that it goes through quality processes and verification.

Our qualification is not a tick box.  Candidates actually have to use all the major Social Networking sites in anger for a business, as well as reflect on best practice for a minimum of 4 months.  The qualification is evidence based so that candidates are assessed on their reflections as well as how they use the tools, set up their profiles, produce content, and apply Social Media to the business situation.

Through training and assessment we cover from ‘reviewing current marketing strategy, business values and brand and what success means’, through using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Googe+ (more recently), Foursquare (if approriate) and other tools, Keywords, WordPresss, Blogging, Google Analytics, Video, Accessibility, and end up with creating Policy and Guidelines and a Social Media Strategy going forward.

Once candidates have completed the training and achieved the qualification, I still don’t think they are ‘experts’ (this is an ever changing and learning environment) – but they can go to a small or medium business and offer a knowledgeable solution to the business’s Social Media needs.  Likewise the business owner has some way of understanding their capability in an ever evolving new business service.

I would be interested to know what others in the club think.