Alle Ceambur

Quick guide to help you spot Inexperienced Social Media Marketers

I’ve been both a marketing intern (during my MBA program) and worked with marketing interns at my own digital marketing agency. With my online courses and blog articles, I’ve helped countless aspiring marketers with templates and answered their questions about wanting to become a full-time social media marketer. 

By now, after working on 100s of Social Media Marketing projects, I can tell whether a social media marketer has experience or not. 

In this article, I’m going to teach you how to spot an inexperienced marketer. 

Here are 4 Common Signs of an Inexperienced Social Media Marketer

Sign 1: Inexperienced marketers try to sell you one of their standard plans

Inexperienced marketers will try to sell you one of their pre-designed packages. 

Without listening to your story, your goals and problems they usually try to convince you that their “Premium, all-in-one” plan can fit your needs. 

But that’s hardly ever the case. 

Each brand has different targets and a single content plan cannot address them. 

When you’re dealing with an inexperienced marketer, you’ll notice they’re not thinking as problem solvers, but as salesmen.

The best marketers will offer to have a call with the brand owner and understand their challenges before proposing a marketing solution – or action plan. 

Sign 2: Inexperienced marketers never tell the client they’re wrong

Sometimes, inexperienced writers are afraid to confront their clients and will submit the exact thing the client asked – even if it’s not the best for their business.

I’ve seen many marketers trying to be a “Yes man!” to keep their clients happy.

But with experience, you learn that the client is NOT always right. 

And that’s your BEST opportunity to show up as an expert and make them understand why their approach is not the best and offer alternative solutions. 

Trust me, they always end up listening – if your argument is backed up by knowledge and facts. 

Sign 3: They call themselves “Experts” in new technology

This one is the funniest! 😆 

I can clearly remember when Instagram had just started to roll out “Reels” to a few territories. Suddenly the marketers from those countries became “Experts” in Reels overnight.

The funny thing is whenever a new trend starts or a new social media app pops out (example: Clubhouse) – it’s the inexperienced marketers that are the ones most likely to talk about it like “the NEXT BIG THING”. 

They’ll usually watch a single YouTube tutorial and make it known they’re the go-to “Expert” in that field. 

But to become an expert, you need to research, create and test a lot of REAL projects. Not to mention, understanding that tech well before becoming an advocate. 

And that usually takes more than watching a single tutorial.

Sign 4: They use the same content over and over again

Every content creator loves Canva templates. They’re great for inspiration and help reduce the time spent on creating new posts. But using the same stack of graphics, images and fonts for every client is a little “lazy”. 

Imagine going to a make-up artist with your 2 BFFs and coming out looking like 3 exact copies. 

Inexperienced social media managers can make this mistake too. Instead of stepping out of their comfort zone and being innovative – they choose to stick to the same palette and templates for all of their clients. 

An experienced marketer knows how to use palettes and templates that look unique and tailored to make each brand stand out.

After all, there’s only one McDonald’s and one Apple. 

In summary, here are a few common signs of an inexperienced marketer:

1. They try to sell you one of their standard plans without understanding your business
2. They never tell the client they’re wrong just to avoid confrontation 
3. They call themselves “Experts” in new technology after watching a single video tutorial
4. They use the same templates, images and fonts for all clients