Let me preface this blog post with saying that nor am I, nor have I ever claimed to be, however I do know enough to be able to implement workable, results driven social media plans and have had some success doing so.  However there are thousands of individuals across the interweb claiming they are.  From old school marketers simply updating their titles to stay with the times, to recent graduates who know how to use Twitter or Facebook.  Just take a look at how many Twitter users “claim” their authority on the subject.

I’m not saying that there aren’t any very knowledgeable people on the subject, but this has gotten so out of hand, that it’s hurting the credibility of those that can actually provide real value with social media consulting and marketing services.  I’ve talked with many small businesses that are so out of the loop, that I could easily see them being “wowed” by anyone armed with just basic knowledge of how to get around the major social network channels.

So how can we filter out all the pretenders?  Social media marketing certainly could use some certification to start with.  But really, it falls on those that really want to make a career out of social media marketing through learning the craft, and getting familiar with as many tools as possible.  Dive deep into each channel and understand their differences so that you can make informed decisions about what makes the most sense for a particular business or cause.

I’ve found getting familiar with reporting tools such as Radian 6 and Social Radar a good start.  However those can be expensive tools to get access to.  An alternative to start with is simply using free tools like SocialMention.com or Google Analytics.  Dig in and try to really understand social media metrics and how that data can be leveraged to help businesses understand the value of a strong social media plan.

Social Media is not a new concept.  People have been connecting, sharing, and communicating since the beginning of time.  What’s changed is HOW we do these things.  The Facebooks and Twitters of the world are simply giving us new technologies to do these things more easily then ever and at enormous scale.

Quite frankly, I would steer clear of anyone that ever uses words like “guru” or “ninja” when describing themselves.  Chances are they are quite the opposite.

What do you think?  Too many unqualified cooks in the kitchen?

There are a variety of ways that you can build a strong following on Twitter, and one of those ways that is to take advantage of a few key Twitter directories that have established themselves quite well. For a few minutes of your time, you can have yourself listed on these directories, and while in many cases it may not drive droves of users to your Twitter profile, there’s no reason not to list yourself. By listing yourself on these directories, other users can find you if they are looking for like minded individuals. As I’ve always said in my consulting, it’s not important what you personally think of a channel. You may think certain sites are poorly designed, under featured, or unreliable, but if the audience exists there, it’s important that you are there as well if you truly care about reach.

Here’s my top 9 Twitter Directories to make sure you are listed on:

1. 1. Twellow – Right now the crown jewel of Twitter directories.  If you only bother with one on this list, choose Twellow.
2. 2. Wefollow – My personal favorite for the simple design and usability.  Built by Digg co-founder Kevin Rose.
3. 3. Twittercounter – My 2nd favorite as it acts as a statistical tool as well.
4. 4. Twitterholic – Another one of those directories that ranks users by followers.  Kind of fun to see where you rank based on filters.
5. 5. JustTweetIt – A directory of Twitter users sorted by categories. Nothing groundbreaking here, but just another large directory to list yourself to be found.
6. 6. Geofollow – GeoFollow allows you to list yourself geographically and categorically.
7. 7. Tweetfind – Free Twitter yellow and white pages directory.  Not the best looking directory, but front page on Google for “twitter directories”, so worth the listing.
8. 8. Twibs – Only really applicable to businesses, but everyone is selling something right?
9. 9. Hashtags – This is simply a directory of hashtag users on Twitter.

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I feel so alone.  I didn’t quite realize how much I used Facebook until it was taken away from me.  Between Twitter and Facebook, I had built a nice little social network.  Twitter has turned into a nice, strong following that I leverage for professional and social sharing, while Facebook really had become my way to stay connected to the people I actually have or had relationships with.  I’d spent a good 3 years building a nice little corner of the ‘net and the Facebook gods have spoken.  Why I have no idea.

And there lies my problem.  Facebook just shut me down for no reason what so ever.  They simply slapped me with a “your account is disabled” and threw me a nice little generic FAQ.  No warning, no nothing.  Sure, they have an email address where you can submit your argument, but based on what I’ve found online, it will be quite some time before I get a response, if I even get one ever.

Sure, I get it.  Facebook has 300+ million users, and it’s a free service.  I don’t expect to get the same level of customer service that I would for something I pay for.  But I have a real problem with a company that thinks so little of their users to make broad sweeping account shut downs like this.  I’ve spent countless hours over the past few years using the service, investing my time and providing my trust to Facebook with a lot of contact and content.  I’ve evangelized and certainly contributed to bringing users to the platform.  And all of that does not matter one bit.

It’s a good learning experience for me to realize that using social networks like this can be a risky proposition.  Especially if you are a business.  Imagine investing the same kind of time into building your fan page only to have Facebook give you the smack down with no explanation, or little to no resolution paths.  A few months ago I wrote about how a local donut shop has used Facebook to tremendous success.  They are up to over 2500 followers and have made Facebook a critical part of their marketing plan.  So much so that they haven’t even bothered to create their own website yet.  They don’t have to.  Can you imagine if Facebook decided to just shut them down?  Perhaps they should rethink that whole website thing.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get my account back, which means I’d probably have to start over.  I’m not so sure I’d even bother.  Regardless, it’s an eye-opener, and if you are a business owner thinking about using social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, always ensure that you combine those efforts with your own home grown web presence.  It’s important to have some level of control when the gods decide to wreck havoc.