I’ve been saying this all along, or at least for this long, and yesterday I tweeted that it was time to remove the words social media expert or strategist or fanatic from your Twitter profile and even the entire Twitter lexicon because the social media party is over. Now, as expected, there were several reactions. 1) thank you for saying that, 2) the party is just getting started, 3) shut up, you’re not the boss of me (I might be paraphrasing that one)

So, I thought I would clarify.

When social media was new and scary lots of folks became experts because, hey, people would pay them to demystify Twitter’s lack of a user guide. Somewhere along the way, Facebook pages became less cutting edge, blogs became mandatory for search and content, and people realized that social networking was strikingly similar to effective face-to-face networking.

Marketers learned that their customers enjoyed the convenience and fluidity of increased engagement and communication and that relationships could be built faster using online and offline tactics, so CRM systems baked social interaction right into the interface.

So finally it has dawned on increasing numbers that social media is no longer a separate practice, but is indeed an expected marketing behavior and, while there are definitely cases where creative tactical implementation can benefit from marketers that understand where the newer media land minds exist, the need for a social media expert to create a “LIke” campaign is probably over.

Marketing fundamentals have not changed, the tools available to both marketer and consumer have changed, but continuing to view an important set of tactics and tools as detached is actually detrimental to the long term marketing view.

We need more marketing experts, we need more effective marketing, we need to figure out how to build know, like and trust, and that comes from the careful implementation of a marketing strategy that contains the intentional fusion of online and offline, social behavior, selling, education, SEO, PR, content, and advertising – you know, marketing.

So yea the party is just getting started, it’s just that it has moved back to the marketing department.