Worried about calling yourself an “expert”? Instead, you can be…

So, you want to hang out a shingle as a social-media-human-for-hire, but you don’t want to raise the ire of the fishbowl by being so presumptuous as to call yourself (gulp) an “expert”?  Well fear not!  I’ve compiled a list of alternate terms that will help you skate gracefully under the radar of the Twitterati while continuing to express to your potential clients your, errrr, expertise in all things 2.0-y-ish.

Specialist – If you specialize in something, congratulations, you’re a specialist!  The benefit of this one is that it’s pretty hard to check-up on.

Professional – For those that have gone the extra mile and actually been PAID to do something in social media.  Okay, so maybe this one isn’t for everyone…

Consultant – Ah, the old standby.  As Custom Scoop CEO Chip Griffin explained on a recent podcast, ‘consultant’ always sounds better than ‘unemployed’.  Amen, Chip!

Veteran – Works better if you’re old.  I started using it shortly before I started shaving my head, seems to be working well so far.

Authority – Perhaps a little stern for something as touchy-feely as social media, but if you later want to insist that you ‘own’ social media, this might be your entre.

Guru – At first blush this might actually seem worse than expert, but has that whimsy thing going for it that just might get you over — the theory here being that someone has the audacity to call themselves a guru, they probably actually DO know what they are talking about.

For more options, be sure to check out http://thesaurus.reference.com/ — ‘cus you gotta know that’s all I did to research this post in the first place.

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