5 ways to spot social media charlatans

It’s a social media feeding frenzy—here’s how to avoid the sharks

Colleague Peter Kim and I recently found ourselves in close contact with a “social media expert.” The problem is this expert was sucking in the feed of my blog without permission or attribution and his resume had more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese. So how do you separate the social media snake oil from the vinegar? It’s not easy, but here are a few ways to spot and avoid charlatans:

1. My last job was selling junk bonds

As I mentioned in social media’s dirty little secrets, there’s a bandwagon to be jumped on. As you do background checks around the people you choose to partner with in social business, you should be able to see ties from past ventures to what they are doing now.

Has this person been working in community- or Internet-related fields? That’s a good sign. Was this person selling prepaid calling cards? Maybe not so good. There are no hard rules here, but some previous positions transfer better than others. Use common sense.