When you hear the term, social media, what do you think about? If you say proper nouns like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter, you’ve proven social media is a fad.
But if you refer to proven best practices like responding to customer inquiries, learning from consumer review, crowdsourcing your employees, boosting product sales, or sharing data, you’re on the right path toward definition.
“The technology gets interesting when it gets boring,” commented Stephen Collins in response to a thought-provoking question by Craig Thomler yesterday. Hyping social media is a fad. Using social media is not. “At that point, we can start focusing on what we’re doing and with who.”
Thomler and Michael Rubin share statistics about a recent video making the rounds that illustrates why social media is the latest impetus for a technological revolution:
Ken Burbary writes about the decline of direct marketing and the increase of digital marketing and advertising. “Social media, however, has a meteoric rise, with no signs of slowing down. Ignoring this fact because you personally believe it is wrong isn’t advisable. The rest of the world is moving ahead. Don’t get left behind due to ignorance.”
But wait. If my extrapolation of Collins’ comment is on target, then Burbary is off target. Is it not fad-worthy to embrace social media because everyone else is doing it?
Should it matter that individuals and organizations are “moving ahead” with social media–or that they are using the tools in innovative ways? Anyone can create a Facebook account and write status updates, but how many use Facebook for business and generate sales from it?
Don’t confuse the tool with the hype about the tool. Don’t define social media with the names that everyone knows.
Oprah may be credited for leveraging 1 million fans to join Twitter–but when she tweets three times in August, Oprah on Twitter is a fad.
Eh?
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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Your Oprah example is excellent. Fads are easy to embrace, but it takes time to master a tool.
History supports your statement. Let’s substitute “social media” for a few other technologies that were considered fads by some:
- “Hyping [cell phones] is a fad. Using [cell phones] is not.”
- “Hyping [personal computers] is a fad. Using [personal computers] is not.”
- “Hyping [the web] is a fad. Using [the web] is not.”
Yup, sounds good.
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Yes, I like this article… social media is merely fad if we are doing it for the sake of doing it…
We need to focus on the relationship building and that’s a key for sustaining result.
I will share this article with my readers… cheers…
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Sometimes I wonder if sending less tweets gives those tweets more attention. Not that three in a month is a good number, but for the people who send 10 – 20 a day about how they ate this, or they are going to that concert, vs. the person that sends maybe 5 informative tweets a day. Would those few tweets be more valuable?
~ Kristi
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Robert Fripp (King Crimson guitarist & Gurdjieff student) once said “if one has the opportunity to play 1,000 notes, but chooses to play only 3, that gives tremendous authority to those 3 notes!”
Quality trumps quantity regardless of content or frequency. If Oprah joined Twitter and didn’t announce it, no problem. She did announce it, though; she dedicated at least one TV episode, maybe more, to the tool. Her usage in the spring is different than her usage now. If it was just her, no problem; but she brought fans and other curiosity seekers with her who look to her for emulation.
I dare to suggest not only is Oprah the poster child for Twitter fad, but her fans are too.
Depends on your audience. And your plan or strategy for using Twitter.
If you’re targeting members of the majority who follow 50-100 people or less, fewer tweets is advantageous.
If your audience is Twitter Power-Users who follow 500-1000s of people, you might want to make as many informative (and a few less informative) posts in a day to maintain your presence on their Twitter stream.
A good point about Oprah and twitter. Personally, twitter doesn’t make sense to me, unless you are posting specials that will expire. I just can’t get draw into it, it seems like a fad. True social networking is having a presence across a wide variety of sites specifically geared towards what you are trying to accomplish I think.
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Ari,
Wow! Even if you didn’t include a link to me, I would heartily recommend people read this post. You’re absolutely smack dab on target.
This is the line that just kills me every time I read it. Not only is it an absolute trusim, but I really wish I had written it myself:
Don’t confuse the tool with the hype about the tool. Don’t define social media with the names that everyone knows.
(Suggestion to anyone reading this who works ‘in the business’: print out these last two lines in 120-pt type and hang it up next to your monitor so you see it every day. Seriously, this could be a mantra.)
You inspired me to write a complementary post — an homage, really — and I would love to hear what you think. Social media may or may not be a fad, but I do believe we’re finally past the stage of having to explain the basic truths of why it matters.
People really do get it — thanks to people like you and even Oprah.
cheers!
Michael
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Thanks for the homage, but you’d be surprised how many (and who) lack those basic truths of understanding. The road is long and we’re only at the beginning.
Another way to look at it:
When we speak of other types of media (radio, television), we don’t define them by specific brands. We don’t say “tv is nbc”.
It’s the same challenge children have when they learn a new concept: they over-generalize. It’s only later when we start to understand the nuance that we can differentiate the specific example from the concept.
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Excellent video, and pretty amazing statistics. It’s amazing how fast the world has accelerated technologically in the past 150 years, especially the last 20.
To true. What was the name of that social networking site before Facebook? … Oh yeah, MySpace. ;oP
Content.Technology.Application
In that order.
MySpace… and Friendster… and don’t forget the grandmommy of them all: Six Degrees of Separation. I recall having an account in the ’90s at http://sixdegrees.com