SONARconnects

I don’t know about you, but I am constantly amazed at the number of “Social Media Experts” out there. I know, I know, I have written about this in the past and you probably don’t wan’t me to beat a dead horse.

So I will not! Instead, I will talk about a new Facebook policy and why experience does matter.

The other day Facebook delivered a new policy to all you fan/like page/b.s. page owners.  In a nutshell, the new rule is:  You have to have 10,000 fans on your page or an account rep  to select your custom FBML  pages, the elements of custom landing pages, to open when someone clicks on your facebook profile.  If you would like to see the post, click on the highlighted Facebook and it will take you to there.

Why is this new policy potentially damaging to all but the big boys?  Simple.  How many fans does your page have right now?  Well Scott I actually have under 10,000 fans but I will call Facebook and get an account rep assigned to me and go on my merry way. Really?  Not so fast.  Currently, to have an account rep assigned to you from Facebook you must spend approximately $200,000.00 per year.  See where I am going with this?

So why does experience matter in social media?  Here is why.  We have gone through every change with Facebook since the beginning.  How many of the so-called experts pulled all nighters to secure a custom url?  How many of them navigated through the roadblocks called change when fan pages usurped groups?  How many of them have gone through multiple design lay out changes?  I can tell you from talking with them, not very many.

How does this new Facebook policy affect our clients?  Not at all.  Did I say not at all?  From the beginning, we found alternate solutions to fan pages.  We realized early on that fan pages were created by Facebook to make money, not necessarily to help business owners.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Did we come under fire from the “Social Media Experts”? You better believe it.  (And now the so called experts are scratching their head trying to figure out their next move.  Don’t worry Facebook will tell them.)  Did our clients call us up daily asking why we did not create a fan page for them because they were told by an employee Facebook says this is the correct way?  YES!!  Did it cost us a few accounts along the way?  It sure did.

Anyway, back to experience.  Yes experience plays a huge role in any decision-making process, but critical thinking plays an even larger role.  Oh yeah and so does courage.  The courage to stand for what you believe.  Social Media is still in its infancy.  Just because the “experts” say this is the way things must be done, this is not always the case.

Stop right now and think about your social media strategy.  Are the so called experts  driving the results you want?  Are they even aware of the changes Facebook made?  What impact have they made on your company?

Success in business is about standing out, not fitting in.  Definitely and repeatedly that applies in the social media field as well!