First of all, let's set something straight:

• Social media are the content and connections that join people both online and offline.
• Social media has been around since man learned to communicate, to form tribes.
• Every kindergartner with friends is a social expert.  They know how to build and maintain relationships.

Social Marketing is the artful practice of utilize the movement and momentum of the social dynamic towards marketing objectives.

Just because you have three thousand friends on facebook, or x# of followers on twitter doesn't mean that you could engineer the same success for a brand, nor does it mean that you can harness this momentum to meet marketing goals and objectives.

A social marketing guru/expert is not necessarily the most knowledgeable person in the room regarding all the newest technologies.  They do however, understand the technology's implications, the social dynamic and the evolving nature of communications.  Nobody has all the answers to tomorrow's problems, because tomorrow's dynamic is not yet known, and today's is still being discovered.  But this cannot and should not stop us from progressing, executing and strategically innovating today.

There's no stopping you from joining the conversation and becoming an "expert".  But just because you are trying, doesn't mean that you have arrived.  Actions speak louder than words.  Prove it. Do it.  And please, please, please, share and talk about it, because we're all yearning to learn.

Related posts from those that get it: Joe Jaffe inspires through rants, Scott Monty demonstrates by leading, Chris Brogan lays down the basic standards for qualification, Greg Verdino breaks down the title, Beth Harte expertly wraps up the debate, Josh Hallett tells it nicely and simply, Mack Collier speaks about the real experts, Kathy Sierra delivers a solid dose of stick-to-it motivation, and Lisa Hoffman call on real experts to stand by their status.