Technology usage as an indicator of expertise is not new or unique to the social web context, but is most certainly fatally flawed.

Usage as a Proxy for Expertise

While researching consumer knowledge of technologies, I found that many research studies about technology, actually use experience (e.g., how long you have been using a technology) as a proxy for how knowledgeable or ‘expert’ you are. In other words, the longer the usage in duration, frequency and past experience than the higher reported expertise.

I found this methodology really flawed as it assumes people learn in the same way, from the same information and at the same rate. But why do they do it? Because it is easier to measure.

This is like saying that two people who have bee driving cars for 20 years, a car mechanic (who fixes cars) and a non-car-mechanic (who drives cars), have the same knowledge about how to drive a car and it’s inner workings.

In essence it ignores the context from which knowledge about a specific domain might be acquired,  the scope of this knowledge (is it specialised or more common knowledge) and assumes we all learn in the same way and at the same rate.

In the doctoral research about web knowledge, a study of over 2,500 web designers and users; and from one of the preliminary studies (see below) that compared the knowledge and usage of web design students and non-web design students, it was found that

• Length of usage experience with the web had a very weak relationship with what a a user actually knew about the web.
• User perceptions of how knowledgeable they were – also an indicator of confidence – had a weak relationship with what was actually stored in their memory.

So if someone says they are web expert, even if they honestly believe it, they are possibly not, as they are not the best judge of what they actually know. That would be like my students marking their own exam papers!

Here is a brief commentary about a research article on the measurement of actually web knowledge (what is stored in memory) that was published in the journal Psychology & Marketing.

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Usage of the Social Web & Expertise

In contrast, in the context of the social web, we are seeing usage as a criteria for expertise being used in a different way. In this context it is not so much how long you have been using the social web, it’s the fact that you are personally using it and the extent of this personal usage!

If you are on the most popular social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Bebo etc), you have a large number of followers or friends, you use RSS feeds and have a blog, than you must be a social web expert! Well, maybe not!

Just because I subscribe to 3 of the most popular cooking magazines, have bookmarked some of the most trafficked recipes sites, watch religiously TV programmes starring Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey and Nigela Lawson, and dine out with my friends 3 times a week – this doesn’t mean I can call myself a Chef!

As denoted in the last post, social web expertise goes beyond usage experience. It’s about the type, scope and acquisition of specialised knowledge about the social web, and the application of this knowledge – be it for research, client or self.

So perhaps if you think you are an expert, you just might not be! And just because you use the social web alot, this also doesn’t make you a social web expert.

This is where the role of peer and community recognition that you are an expert becomes very important and the use of case studies and case examples to show the application of your knowledge.

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Imagine if we found answers for everything, could explain anything … we should therefore know how to market to you, to everyone? But perhaps more importantly, it is the imagination, the creativity of marketing that we would lose, not just the mystery of our markets!

A sense of mystery is intrinsic to the human condition. In the article, Les Lancaster, a professor in transpersonal psychology from Liverpool John Moores University indicates that ‘it is intrinsic for us to seek answers.

It is our evolutionary heritage, moving us forward by motivating us to find out more and use our imagination’. The author Ken Kesey (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest!) writes ‘the need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer’.

So perhaps in a time where the focus in marketing is on measurement, proof, evidence, answers, outcomes and the use of electronic resources to assist us in finding the answers, the information for more informed marketing decisions … perhaps we also need to enjoy some of the mystery.

By this I mean some of the mysteries of new technologies, of market trends, of unexplainable phenomena, these might remind us to enjoy the ‘process’ of what we do in marketing more and focus on the outcomes less.

Perhaps we should just play with marketing, be creative … play with social media and see what happens? I know I can hear your thoughts from here … ‘that costs money’!!!

Let’s look at this another way. In the article the author provided a list of 12 things to help maintain the mystery in one’s life … so with a little creative thought, I edited this list of items to help keep the mystery (and creativity) of marketing alive in a time of rising electronic resources … so we don’t become too explainable!

A manifesto for Mystery in Electronic Marketing!

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CASE Insights comes from a differing mindset of marketing than is traditionally held by many.

Focusing on a social-system world view that places emphasis on social networks and developing insights from case examples, we see marketing as a dialogue with many participants and communities in order to create and deliver real human value.

In order to maintain this dialogue we participate in, coordinate and implement many activities and use many different resources (people, technology, knowledge, time). So we don’t see a marketer as as a mixer of ingredients anymore, but as a node in a network of resources coordinating and implementing a network of activities to create and deliver real human value.

In summary we see marketing as constantly evolving from focusing on:

• the product offering
• target markets
• exchange such as a sale
• creating and delivering added value
• the world as in silos and hierarchical
• the environment as certain and predictive
• using traditional marketing management frameworks and practices that are historical and rigid
• trying to control resources (people, technology, knowledge, time) and counting them (numbers)

And continually evolving towards focusing on:

• resources (people, technology, knowledge and time) and activities
• people and being part of a community
• being part of a dialogue, a conversation
• creating and delivering real human value
• the world as social and electronic networks
• accepting uncertainty with the only constant is change
• using frameworks, ideas and processes that are flexible, fluid and adaptive to contextual and environmental changes.
• working with resources (people, technology, knowledge, time) and listening to them (numbers and words)

Given our interest is especially the role of electronic technology … we see that all of the elements listed above as increasingly evolving because of developments in electronic technologies. This is the purpose of CASE Insights, to explore and document this evolution.

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