Normally I hate the whole “Death to/of…is dead” whatever, blog titles but I couldn’t resist.
There’s a great article on CNET about the burst of the social media bubble. The particular bubble is the one where every consultant and marketing blogger has been calling themselves “social media experts.”
Marketing: Social media’s hidden bubble | The Social - CNET News
A search for “social media expert” on business networking site LinkedIn yields 175 results. “Social media consultant” yields nearly 400, and “social media strategist” about 300.
When you specialize in a certain area it’s hard to not want to call yourself an *expert* in that area. Hell I’m pretty sure I’ve used the word expert from time to time although it makes me cringe every time I do it.
Just like all *tags* that we use; Web 2.0, Social Media, expert, etc, it’s a way to shortcut a prolonged description.
If I had my way I’d say I’m a passionate and experienced social media guy. I like that better but it even sounds weird.
The differentiation I’d like to make is that I’ve done the stuff I talk about. Am I an expert? I don’t know, what makes someone an expert? I get paid to do social media by one of the largest brands in the world. At the least that makes me a professional social media marketer.
But is “social media marketing” even the right phrase?
I’ve noticed Peter Kim has been using the terms Social Computing and Social Business.
Marketing causes social computing impotence.
The presence of reverb doesn’t surprise me. I’ve been thinking about hundreds of social media marketing examples and the majority appear to be the unfortunate output of unevolved agency thinking on channel integration.
I believe that social technologies have the power to transform the way we live and work. So why should we have anything less than transformation in mind when putting social technologies to use?
Our efforts need to aim forward, not backward. We need to improve what we do today with the ultimate goal of changing the way we work and connect with co-workers, customers, suppliers, shareholders, and other system participants. Social technologies should change the world of work - applied to not just to marketing and IT, but also HR, finance, legal, and every other functional area. And potentially change the functions that exist at all.
I couldn’t agree with Kim even more. My very first post to this blog was about how new/social/media/Web 2.0, whatever, is so much more than just Marketing.
But what do we call it? Who cares.
When I was an undergrad in the mid 90′s we called it Computer Mediated Communications. That obviously didn’t stick around.
In a few years Social Media probably won’t be around either.
I’m not a branding guy. I hate crafting copy and taglines or any of that stuff. I love communicating. I love how the computer and the Internet has changed the way we interact as human beings.
Whatever we call it I’m in for the long haul. I’ll continue to do whether I’m paid or not. I just want to do cool stuff.
Ultimately I don’t think an expert is something that you can call yourself. I think it’s the result of experience.
So get out there and do stuff.
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