Should you hire a Social Media Expert?

As a follow up to something we addressed earlier, Who or what makes a Social Media Expert?, here are two different arguments for whether or not an organization actually needs one or not. Peter Shankman argues that social media is not a stand-alone profession and is merely a part of the larger marketing professional, and Rand Fishkin feels as though social media experts are deserving of more respect and perhaps a stand-alone title and responsibilities. To Mr. Shankman's defense, he does mention in the comments on Mr. Fishkin's blog that his approach is one that does not feel as though a social media "expert" cannot be someone who bills themselves as only a social media "expert" and know nothing else about marketing and what all goes with social marketing to make marketing effective.

What do you think? Let us know here.

While this topic has dominated the past couple of these forums, it may warrant sharing a few other interesting things regarding this new digital phenomenon.

The Social Business Imperative has a few interesting points regarding how social media reaches people here, and Digital Buzz Blog addresses the real cost of social media here, which is where the costs mentioned earlier were derived.