Some might say social media is a myth - do you?
social media July 15th. 2008, 5:00am
Is it all smoke and mirrors or is there any substance to it after all? Or are there just a bunch of hucksters out there trying to make a few bucks off naive people who want to get ahead in life? Is social media just next iteration in hucksterism and pyramid style marketing scams? Or is it something more?
Greg Davies, aka CGT2099 of social news fame, wrote a heated, yet insightful post critiquing the use of the phrase “social media”. As you may recall in last week’s Q&A post, Greg basically said that it’s just the Internet; social media is just a buzzword.
Greg aims pretty clearly at a key constituency who he blames for the hype behind social media:
The individuals I am talking about are those who claim they are knowledgeable about Social Media. It is the biggest con of the 21st century, folks: they create a buzz word, convince you that it exists, persuade you that you and/or your business needs it, and then convinces every person that they are so competent in the area that you can afford to pay them lots of cash to be your “Social Media Consultant”.
You know, he’s got a good point, although I do think he’s generalizing a bit. Greg’s not bashing the medium as a whole, though. He acknowledges that there are some people using the new tools smartly and effectively. However, he does spew a fair amount of bile towards people in the “make money online” and blog monetization segments of the world.
Whether or not you agree with his article, I think Greg brings up some excellent points and serves to put a bit of a reality check in place. If you’re new to social media and you have dreams of becoming rich and famous, or you know someone who is, I’d recommend that they read Greg’s article just to get some perspective. You don’t have to agree with him, but you should at least consider what he’s saying.
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- Colin Walker
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That's some rant and - to a degree - he's got a real point. There is only so far you can go and so much you can say and, anything you do say, should be tempered with a bit of realism. Yes, we can take advantage of 'social media' to gain exposure and communicate but there is a lot of rubbish spouted as well. The same goes for the blogging trade; there are too many "you must do it this way or else" sites repeating the same old crap ad nauseum - hey, who made those rules and who is to say that they should be THE rules to follow? meh!
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Anyway, social media isn't a myth per se but it IS just another way for us to connect which facilitates easier sharing and communication over other methods of connection. Social media services are just tools.
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@Colin - I think he's trying to burst unrealistic bubbles and get things to a semblance of reality.
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Good job too :)
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First, I like CGT2099's passion ala' Bill Hicks "If you're in marketing or advertising... you are Satan's little helper." I don't "blog" or participate in social media streams like FF to make money, it's not my profession. I participate in these streams because I like to connect with people that are pushing these developments further. Social Media is NOT new, when I was just a wee little mouse scratcher on my Apple IIGS, BBS was a 'node' now FF is a 'node' that makes info easier for me to find- that's it!
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Hicks on Marketing- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo
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I appreciate where he and others are coming from but this seems a bit like arguing that God doesn't exist because there is evil in the world or that sales and marketing is unquestionably bad because some people manipulate people through sales tactics to buy things they don't need - just because there are excesses doesnt mean that the thing itself is bad or - by his arguments - nonexistent
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By his logic: there is no such thing as "the mainstream media" its just TV, radio, newspaper; there is no such thing as "smart phones" they are just cell phones. IMHO Social Media is any piece of technology that facilitates a significant expansion in our ability to share information (communicate) with a large (limitless?) group of individuals regardless of geographic boundaries
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I wanted to make that point, but ran out of room! Obv. CGT2099 still 'believes,' the mixx and "addthis" buttons are there. It's akin to the SNL "I hate puppies, if you disagree, call" approach. But I'm here because I don't want marketers to tell me what I should read, if they get control then the noise will drive me out. He's right on though about "consultants" what a load, with exception of present company of course.
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@nice fish completely agree - that in and of itself leads me to believe that "social media" IS something different altogether - call it a subset of the internet or whatever but it brings with it different rules and expectations.
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Social media on the internet has been around since posting on Compuserv or Prodigy bulletin boards (and before). Its changing and a few people are making $$ at it,I fail to see the myth point.
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@ Marco marketing is a necessary function of a Free Market Society. I believe that whole heartedly, but when out of balance (content vs. paid placement) my frustration grows to the point of detachment. I just think there is rush to monetize everything too quickly. Let the audience find what they are looking for, build a loyalty and trust base and your crowd will participate with your recommendations. Leo Laporte is a great model of this.
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Perhaps part of any disillusion might be the fact that people's expectations lean toward using a trend or inflection point in the world as a means to figure out how they can " get rich" which is not going to be the outcome for most people.
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@nice Fish completely agree - that is one of the great developments - companies that just dont get it see these tools as just another way to inundate a specific audience with messages - they dont understand that a new set of expectations is emerging that is impervious to scatter shot techniques like that. many of the people I see calling themselves "social media experts" are merely trying to help companies understand this - I dont necessarily have a problem with that
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What's that you say? I'm too busy watching Dr. Horrible and trying to figure out how to order the DVD. Yeah, no, there's absolutely no money in social media...
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@all - great discussion so far. It's certainly not fair to paint all sales and marketing activities, in any medium, as evil (or good, for that matter). I try to remain an optimist that there is some real "game changing" possibilities that come from social media and I think there are a few examples of how it can help. However, the social media user dictates their own success by both intent and execution.
