Tools Dont Matter, Skill Does - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Tools Dont Matter, Skill Does - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career In the ongoing debate over the existence of social media experts, people point to the ever changing landscape of social media as their evidence that theres no such thing as experts. The anti-expert side argues that the mere fact that social media tools pop in and out of existence, or that they dramatically change their operations, somehow changes the way social media works completely. Since social media and its tools are ever-changing, they argue, there cant be social media experts. Its all crap because social media expertise has nothing to do with the tools or how rapidly the landscape changes. Rather, effective social media marketing depends on your marketing skills and ability, rather than how you use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. To be an expert, you need the foundational skills. The tools dont make a bit of difference. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn dont matter. Those will go away in a number of years, but the skills you need to effectively use them will be needed for their replacement. A carpenters skills dont change when he switches from a hammer to a pneumatic nailer. You hire him for his building skills, not the number of hours hes spent swinging a hammer. A writer doesnt forget everything she knows just because she switches from a typewriter to a computer, changes from a yellow legal pad to a Moleskine notebook, or even switches favorite brands of pen. You read her books because she knows how to tell a good story. Computer programmers dont lose their skills and experience just because they got a new computer. The tools dont make a bit of difference. As Chris Brogan once said, no one ever asked Hemingway what pencils he used to write his books (actually, he typed them, but thats beside the point). Youre not an expert because of the tools, youre an expert because of the knowledge the tools unlock. It doesnt matter whether youre proficient at Facebook or Twitter. Were reaching the stage where saying youre good at those tools is like saying youre good at using Word or a web browser. Youre expected to know how to use Word and a web browser. Youre getting to the point where you need to know how to operate Facebook and Twitter. The question is do you have the skills to use them effectively. Because the tools are going to change in a few years, but the skills will still be important. Focus on knowing how to communicate and reach people the most effectively. If you can do that, then you can be an expert at it, because the tools wont matter.