There have been a lot of social media users who have been declaring themselves as social media evangelists but this is nothing more than a fad or a self-indulgent claim. As Angela Connor said in her post “What Constitutes a Social Media Evangelist?”, being an evangelist is marked by the enthusiasm about a certain subject. It does not necessarily mean that the person is an expert in practice but he is an expert when it comes to information regarding the matter.
This have led me to think that evangelists are not that different with the dreaded online “gurus”. As Angela Connor emphasized, “evangelism can be all word of mouth” and it does not depend on experience.
The issue was brought up when she talked about TV reporter Tom Tucker who only tweeted seven times in a year. She called him a social media enthusiast and evangelist. This claim had caused a lot of raised eyebrows especially for the social media addicts. How can someone who rarely use social media be called an evangelist?
But the false claims are only one part of the problem. The other part is the confusion these kinds of claims may bring especially to people who are seeking help in social media. This can mislead people into thinking that a person may be an expert when in reality they are not. What if a person who wants to seek instant fame make a claim that he is a social media evangelist when he’s hardly noticeable in social media? Anyone can create a blog and type in the words “evangelist” in it. In this respect, the word is now slowly losing its value.
The word “evangelist” should bring forth a notion of expertise. It should require some standards. But what other standards are there than the mere participation of a person in social media? But as seen on the article, the word can be freely used by anyone.
Of course, some so-called “evangelists” are real experts. But people are not really as equipped to sift out the fake ones. After all, there are no standards to fulfill before a person becomes a social media evangelist. There is no degree. Experience is not even necessary. Anyone who can talk about social media information can be called an evangelist.
And with this, I cannot really blame the person who questioned the expertise of Tom Tucker in Angela Connor’s blog. There is no stronger basis for the authority of a person on a certain subject than experience.
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