Welcome to the club – now here’s the social media handshake.
You want in don’t you? To know the secrets of social media and how to use them to your advantage. If only someone would share the secret handshake to that awesome tree-house where all the cool kids hang out. To unlock the secrets and use them for your business – how could you do that and how can you get them into your marketing department. Right?
Well, obviously there isn’t any. However, I do want to share a few secrets with you, so sharpen those pencils and grab a notepad.. here we go.
- There are no social media experts
- Social media is a metaphor
- There is no actual definition of social media
There that’s a good start.
Experts of What?
No matter what you hear from people, there are no experts in social media. There are people who understand what’s going on and can help advise tools & techniques to use. The techniques of social media are not secret and not hidden away.
A Metaphor
Social media is a metaphor in that it’s a catch-all paradigm shift in the way we create, share, interact and communicate. Clay Shirky has a great post and video that talks about the impact to the cognitive surplus in society that is driven by social media. While his numbers and math may be suspect, the concept he talks about are as true as they are obvious. The truth is that social media is a marker in the evolution of social interaction of our society, but is made up of totally ad-hoc tools and techniques. Usually to facilitate creation and distribution of media by different digital, non-traditional communications channels.
No Definition
Well… there isn’t, even though it seems like I tried to write one in the paragraph above. Social media is about tools, technologies, ideas, resources, and above all – people.
Reality
Of course the reality of social media is the ability for anyone to create and share content with anyone, anywhere. It crosses the boundaries of print, video, and audio. It brings the publishing and broadcasting tools of various establishments to anyone with an inexpensive computer and a decent Internet connection. It gives you a voice in the world, a platform to use it on, and the access to resources to back you up.
It is fun. It is powerful. It is disruptive.
Photo credit: cybertoad
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Comments
Comment by Rosa Say I like this Rick: You’ve written a nice intro to something that can be intimidating in a strange way, for people want to get involved (they think), but they don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb within a group that may be more savvy than they are laughing at them in the background somewhere. But then again I guess it isn’t that strange… we’ve all had the experience back at school watching other kids at recess…
Curious (and I may be reading too much into it); why did you end with “It is disruptive.” ???
Comment by Rick Mahn @Robyn – Thanks!
@Rosa Say, I guess because “social media” is disruptive. For most businesses and their outward facing customer service arms, social media changes the ballgame. It provides anyone an inexpensive or free platform for feedback – both positive and negative. If the business in question is hosting a space for this feedback to occur, it changes how the business should approach this feedback.
It no longer is a marketing campaign, it needs to be a conversation with their customers. This is how it’s disruptive to an organization who wasn’t planning on spending the time to interact directly with their customers. Usually, it’s a one way monologue of product spin.
Thanks for the great question! Let me know if that doesn’t make sense or if I’m missing anything.
Rick
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Comment by Mykl Roventine I feel like I just learned there was no Santa Claus! Great job tackling the jumble of misconceptions about social media. You’ve essentially created a new framework from which to hang more substantive discussions about the subject. That’s no small feat. I’ve always felt that “old media” tries to pigeonhole anything new because it’s easier to deal with. An evolving concept like social media isn’t served by that sort of treatment obviously. It’s no wonder marketing departments have their hopes so high about a social media expert solving all their problems. Thanks again for cutting through the noise.
Comment by Rick Mahn Mykl, Sorry about the Santa Claus thing… 
There’s been a bit of talk around the fact that there are no social media experts, and I tend to agree with that. There are several people who “get” social media and how businesses should approach it, but in the end it’s just another tool for customer relationship on the biz side.
I hope we do continue to talk about the misunderstandings of social media so that we can better understand why people & businesses get confused. Then it becomes easier for folks to figure out how to get involved or leverage these tools for themselves and their businesses.
Glad I could start a conversation on the topic. Cheers,
Rick
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Comment by Jamie Grove - How Not To Write When I started working at CompuServe back in 1990, I wondered just how far all of this interconnectedness would go. It was always amazing to see how fast it changed and how much fun people had with it. Even though there are no experts (great point, btw), it seems we’re reaching the kind of mass I dreamed about way back then when I was watching people connect on green screen terminals.
By the way, speaking of handshakes, here’s mine! Glad to find you through Chris Garrett’s blogpack. Super post, Rick!
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Great article Rick. Hard subject to wrap up in a neat box, but this was a great way to summarize it.