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