New Comm Biz

I see a lot of marketers get into social media with the goal of being the next Steve Rubel, Louis Gray, Robert Scoble, Chris Brogan or Jeremiah Owyang. Really? That’s what you want? Why?

Don’t get me wrong, I know all of them and they are all great. They deserve their “fame” (assuming that’s what they want). They’re brilliant and nice guys despite it all.

But why would you want that headache?

I guess it’s some basic human desire to be famous. Even if it’s just “famous” in certain circles .

Personally I like being a lurker, being on the fringe, an outlier of sorts. I like being able to speak my mind and not have hundreds of people argue with me. I like not having to worry about everything I say being scrutinized. I don’t have to worry about the barnacles of social media latching on for a ride. I don’t have to worry about people I’ve never met hating me.

I think some people believe in order to work in social media they have to be Social Media Famous. I’ll tell you a secret; you don’t. You don’t have to be from Silicon Valley (or in Steve’s case NYC) you don’t have to have tens of thousands of subscribers to your blog or hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter.

You are not them and you don’t have to be. You may be brilliant. You may be a nice guy/gal. I have worked as a social media professional for the last 5 years and never had anywhere the “fame” others do. (And I don’t want it.) Yet I’ve still managed to turn social media into my career.

Here’s my secret:

Whatever you are doing now, turn that into a social media job.

Seriously try it. I don’t care if you’re a fry cook or an accountant. Unless you’re in the Marines you can make social media a significant portion of your current job. Learn the tools and figure out how to use them in your job. Social media is not just about marketing.

I’ll tell you the down side: It will take a while. It probably won’t take you years to do it like it did for these early adopters but it may take a while. It also takes personal investment. You may have to start learning these tools on your own time. Consider it night school. Eventually it’s all you’ll be doing. Just ask Heidi Miller.

The next 5 years are going to see social media become a part of every job out there. Some more than others.

But stop worrying about how many followers you have. Stop worrying about how many subscribers you have.

I’m also not saying you should do social media in a vacuum. That kind of defeats the purpose. It’s nice to be connected enough to get feedback and participation.

So, to paraphrase Tyler Durden:

You are not the contents of your Twitter stream.

You are not your blog post.

Nothing is static. Everything is evolving.

I say never let me be an A Lister.

I say may I never be Social Media Famous.

I say evolve and let the tweets fall where they may.

This is your life and it’s ending one status update at a time.

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