The world of social media still has a credibility problem in business.
Many people watching this from the outside in don’t understand what we’re doing. Some want to understand, but what they see often in our actions and behavior is enough to raise an eyebrow and wonder if we’re just a bunch of ego-driven teenagers. After all, on first blush, there’s an awful lot of evidence that can point that way. Spend enough time swimming in the social media fishbowl, and you’ll feel it too.
This isn’t about proving ROI. This is about how we conduct ourselves, and whether we approach our own industry with as much professionalism and respect as we’d hope the business industry does. Here’s how we’re hurting ourselves.
We talk too much about the value of our time rather than putting it to good use.
I appreciate and respect posts like this one from Lisa Barone that explain why time is valuable. And she offers some good points as well as some ways to respond to excessive requests for advice and expertise.
But there are an equal number of posts that are just blustering, arrogant and self-aggrandizing rants around how damned important we are (without much consideration for the fact that people’s disrespect of time in general is not unique to our industry). Overall, if we talked as much about how we used our preciously valuable hours and less about how much they’re worth, we might be better able to teach people how to value – and make use of – their own time, and ours.
No one owes us anything. We’re not entitled to awe and respect simply because we work in an emerging industry or on the web. The credibility, trust, and recognition that we so desire comes with time and investment in good work and the eventual and repeated demonstration of same. And there are no shortcuts.
Instead: We need to recognize and appreciate that everyone’s time is valuable, period. There will always be rude jackasses that ignore those social graces, but we are in a wonderful position to share what we know, what we experience, what we learn. I’m thankful to know many people that generously share their knowledge, and I don’t think we can ever have enough people illustrating their questions, challenges, experiences, learnings. As an industry, we get better and more sustainable by learning from each other and outlining paths that others can follow.
We cannibalize our own.
We’re incredibly good at putting people on pedestals, whether it’s the hotshot founder of a startup or a blogger or some kind of micro Twitter celebrity.
But we’re also incredibly good at tearing them down, most especially if they grow to be successful right in front of our eyes. We participate in shaming, flaming, and inciting petty debates over fleeting and over-dramatized issues. We make it cool to visibly and self-importantly tear into people as individuals rather than engaging in constructive dialogue, civil debate, or discussions that center around ideas and approaches.
It’s okay to like someone when they’re an up and comer, but not to support them when they get noticed and recognized for their work? It’s so unsexy. It reeks of envy and petty jealousy. It’s simply unkind. And it sure doesn’t make us look like professionals whose industry and practice are worthy of long-term respect, or the kind of people that others would like to someday call colleagues.
Instead: Debate issues and ideas, but leave the personal attacks out of it. (Of course, the people who most need to do that are likely not reading a post like this, but hey). Make it a point to recognize and appreciate good work, even – and especially – if it’s not yours. Open your mind, and remember that the people you’re throwing rocks at are human, fallible, and most of them are doing their best, too. Celebrate individual success and recognition as advancement for our industry.
We’re intolerant of missteps.
For as much as we want companies to embrace risk and failure in order to succeed with social media, we are so very quick to cry foul (or fail) the minute someone swings and misses.
It can feel very much like we’ve created some kind of exclusive club, a jury of thousands of friend-request-based-peers that stands in judgment of businesses and individuals wishing to join our ranks. We recite mantra, sometimes blindly. And when we see someone venturing into what we feel is our territory, our area of expertise, we’re reactionary, critical, and sometimes downright unwelcoming.
Instead: Catch people doing things right. When they falter, help them learn. Be courageous enough to share your own screwups and what you learned from them. Embrace imperfection and reward strong effort, progress, and improvement. Long term adoption and integration of a new set of business principles has a lot of considerations and implications, and most certainly doesn’t happen overnight.
We talk about conversation, but we focus a great deal on the tools. And, on ourselves.
Mark Schafer wrote a compelling blog post about the fact that he – and we – are talking, but not really learning much about one another. We’re preaching the importance and value of human connection and conversation, but perhaps we’re treating that much more superficially than we think. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a piece in the New Yorker this week about whether we’re really in the midst of a revolution, because our causes are perpetuated not by the strong ties of community, but by the weak ties of the internet.
I don’t particularly agree with Gladwell’s conclusions, because I think it’s still a bit early in this shift to determine it’s long term impact, and I think that weak ties aren’t without potential in their own way. But both of these articles point out that we’re preaching about possibility and the value of the human element, but sometimes, we’re only succeeding at superficial demonstrations of the connections we so celebrate (presuming that we focus on making connections at all). And we’re enamored of tubes and pipes and whizbangs, treating them as the next great direct marketing channel instead of examining the intent behind their use, and its potential for evolution.
Instead: We need to live the values we preach, even if they don’t easily scale, and even if we have to try and fail and try again. We have to dig into the foundation of why we think there’s a (r)evolution happening, not just how it manifests on the internet. And we have to turn our focus from “what’s in this for me?” into “how does this drive progress for us all?” Idealistic, I know. Every seismic shift in business carries with it the opportunists that will never be anything but. But until enough of us are willing to rise up and keep pushing for that kind of introspection, we’ll be at the mercy of those that are willing to sell their soul for a click or a like or a follow.
What Would You Add?
I’m talking about things I see as broken. I’m offering some suggestions for how we can improve on those things, but they’re not complete by any means, and I need your help, too. I hope you’ll weigh in through the comments, and let me know what challenges and opportunities you see. What makes you proud to be in this industry, and what makes you cringe. Where you think we can be better collectively in order to earn social media a credible, substantive spot amongst the strategic plans of businesses for a long time to come.
Share your ideas?
I believe the last point is the biggest issue. Too much talk about the tools and the talker and not enough about strategy, tactics, measure and results in a meaningful way. thank you
Amber,
Good post, I appreciate your sharing. Lauren Vargas and I have been having similar discussions, and share some ideas recently.
There is one area, which I would like to dig in a little deeper on, hopefully you can shed some light on it. It has to do with “debating issues and ideas, leaving personal attacks out of it.” In the world of product, whether a physical good, consumable, or a piece of software, the conversation is more straightforward. When the product is a service, or an idea by an individual the ability (capability) of disagreeing (no matter how nicely you do it) is more complex.
This seems especially true in the Social space. What people talk about, blog about, think about, talk about are their ideas. Many who are in this space are extremely passionate, after all many are in PR, Marketing, Sales, etc.,… If you debate a topic, as much as people try to disagree with the concept, it comes out personal, or it is perceived as personal. The gray area between “your idea is…” and “you are…” is very small – and even when the prior is stated, the latter is heard.
Mitch
Amber – As always, great post!
Interestingly, I see a lot of overlap and similarities in this area between social media and SEO. They both seem to suffer form similar challenges, and I am forced to wonder whether this is common among young disciplines (from a busines sperspective). Early on these areas lack the rigor and discipline that other business disciplines have grown over time, which creates an atmosphere that permits (if not encourages) these types of issues. As social media matures and becomes accepted within a business context, my sense is you’ll see a great many of these issues begin to subside a bit.
Sean
We curse freely in public forums, we wear clothing that is too casual and irreverent of business, we flock to free swag, we expect free infrastructure, we display uber geekdom by using comic books and Star Wars as metaphors, we oversimplify and mock business, we advocate “change or die.” Real business does not work that way and it never will. I can’t tell you the number of times I would have loved to refer a client to particular video of a SoMe speaker, but didn’t because he was wearing a grungy tshirt and said f* or sh*tty in his presentation.
I have an issue with the idea of social media as an “industry,” and I think that misnomer is driving much of what’s wrong. You don’t hear people talk about “the marketing industry” or “the R&D industry.” Those are functions within industries. As such, there’s not the expectation that your marketing is going to look exactly like my marketing or that I’m a better R&D practitioner than that guy over there.
By behaving like social media is an “industry”, it’s too easy for people to close ranks, to exclude ideas from elsewhere in the organizational structure from consideration, and to perpetuate those missteps that you’ve outlined.
“It’s okay to like someone when they’re an up and comer, but not to support them when they get noticed and recognized for their work? It’s so unsexy. It reeks of envy and petty jealousy. It’s simply unkind.”
Co-sign! Honestly, I’ve always wondered why people do this with underground bands they love, too. There are countless examples of beloved bands making it big, and their “core fans” give them the cold-shoulder, call them sell-outs, and start the hate process.
I’m not sure I understand the logic behind this. If you truly loved them – truly were a fan – wouldn’t you want them to get the accolades they deserve? Don’t you want them to achieve the success they initially eyed when they started their career? Now that they have it, why are you so upset? Were you selfish about your love, did you want to keep them to yourself? How did you expect them to sustain as a starving artist with a fanbase of “you”?
All of these same questions apply to the “up and comer” you’ve outlined here. We help people up the ladder only to be the first to want to topple them once they get there? It sends quite a mixed message, and it also says a lot about these Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde types.
I think it needs to stop (though it may have to counter human nature, sadly). Anyway, great post Amber. Thought-provoking to say the least.
I don’t think I agree with that, actually. There are professional organizations, conferences, college coursework that are all centered around marketing, PR, R&D exactly as “industries”. Or you can choose a term like “discipline” or “business area”, but like it or not, there are distinct areas of expertise and some people will understand the principles, but others will be the practitioners that put them into action.
My vision is a time when, like email, social media is pervasive inside business. But like email, you’ll still have specialists that know how to leverage it and work insides its practices better than others.
Social media is a segment of communication, no matter how you slice it. Just calling it something different isn’t going to change the behavior, so we have to find a way to transcend that and for starters, behave like professionals that are worthy of respect.
Those are some pretty big generalizations. I know plenty of professionals that don’t do that, so let’s not claim that a geeky sense of humor negates credibility. But I understand what I think you’re trying to say: if we don’t take our professional presentation and discourse seriously and with care, why should anyone else?
Those are some pretty big generalizations. I know plenty of professionals that don’t do that, so let’s not claim that a geeky sense of humor negates credibility. But I understand what I think you’re trying to say: if we don’t take our professional presentation and discourse seriously and with care, why should anyone else?
Part of that is just a human nature problem. If you disagree with my ideas even if you take great care to not offend me, we are emotionally attached to our philosophies. Our “unique” perspective is part of the fabric of who we are, so disagreeing with my ideals must mean you’re rejecting me as a person.
To be able to have ideological debate without devolving into mudslinging is a very grown-up thing to do. And I imagine it’s not just SM that has this problem, that’s just the perspective I see most. But it’s personal accountability on both sides. Sensitivity and tact on the part of the disagree-er, and the maturity and open mindedness to separate the point at hand from a personal criticism on the part of the other.
I do feel that the social media industry has a (for lack of a better term) country club type atmosphere to it. We want to help people market their businesses but we scoff at someone who can’t understand our tech lingo. It’s funny how that happens because the ones who don’t understand exactly what we do are our target market. They need the most help with their digital solutions.
Those of us who place ego to the side and actively help others online without worrying about how popular it’s going to make ourselves are the ones who will most likely reap the best long-term dividends. I would venture to say that attitude would carry over to just about anything in life outside of social too.
Amber – great post and love the comments as well!
My 2 cents – I strive to have meaniful relationships with people I interact with in real life, period. I use social networking tools to ADD to those relationships and build new ones that distance may have otherwise prevented. It is just not possible to meet and have strong connections/ties with all the “followers” we may have so I appreciate the loose connections and what they add to my life. There have been loose connections that have grown into stronger ones and what a bonus it is when that happens.
I SO agree with the “cannibalize our own” part. So I’m going to be completely upfront here. I coordinate PR at my company and we have a really well-known CEO in the social media world. We get a lot of media requests from very well-meaning people looking to write about social media “how-tos’ including “social media what NOT to dos”…I don’t really enjoy helping to answer the “what NOT to” questions because I’m basically asked to provide examples of people who have screwed up. I of course try to help turn it into a positive/teachable moment but you know what? All of this is still SO new and people are going to screw up. We’re all just people and I’m just a person to trying my best and I’ll be damned if I sit here and throw someone under the bus. At least they’re ON Twitter and talking to their customers. Millions of companies haven’t even tried that yet. It sickens me when I see blog post after blog post about people condemning companies who’ve made a mistake or people who’ve made a mistake on Twitter. I think people really get up on their high-horse and point their fingers at others and that bad attitude is going to keep us from innovating, from taking risks and from moving forward.
You are smart and sensible. Thank you for your posts!
Thanks Amber – great post (and great comments so far). I was just at a B2B marketing conference focused mostly on large manufacturing and chemical companies, and most of the marketing execs there are just barely beginning to explore social media. They have a great deal of skepticism, and it was clear that the cheerleading and one-upsmanship and “you just don’t get it” tone of the social media “experts” they’ve talked with has not been helpful, to say the least. These are mostly people responsible for moving very large deals, struggling to work effectively with their sales teams, responding to CEO pressure to do more with less, etc. — and they have very little time to think about how social media can help, even if they are slowly beginning to consider that it can. For this important industry segment, at least, we need highly professional people who, first of all, understand the realities and challenges of marketing and sales generally, and then can talk strategically about where social media may contribute. Of course there are many social media folks who are doing this well, but a great many, as you say, are simply mucking up the discussion with overly heated rhetoric about the latest tools and “revolutions” to come.
Much of what the writer has to say definitely resonates with me. I guess my biggest beef is the fact that so many of us “social media experts” preach about engagement with others. Yet there are plenty of big names in the social media field who remain in their own clique and don’t actually engage with many out there. To be fair, it’s difficult to truly engage with 15k or 50k people following you. But if we’re going to stand on such a large pedestal, shouldn’t we be making a better effort to truly embrace and engage with people who continually make an effort to engage? I’m certainly not saying everyone is guilty of this. But I’ve seen plenty of examples, unfortunately.
We certainly have seen too much of this [questionable] behavior. I agree with Mitch that this one is worth a deeper collective self reflection. We’ve put the message out there that its ok and actually encouraged to put your opinions and ideas out there for the world to see. Then, when they have the courage to do just that, stick their neck out, we take the big ole’ hatchet to their head. This behavior comes in multiple forms. Which form is more corrosive? The overt attacks or the subversive. Th gray area you speak of Mitch is part of the broader topic of interpersonal communication that, in many ways, needs a full reset. I’m not suggesting we not disagree, argue even. But, the delivery is for sure usually more important than the message its self. But on the other hand, we need to be a bit more receptive to disagreement without taking such personal offense.
Back in India , the social media scene is pretty confusing. They are 3 types of companies that are offering social media services. The web & SEO consultants , already established PR agencies and pure social media service agencies. The web & SEO consultants brand the service as “internet marketing” and offer it as an add on to their flagship services like SEO & web development. as mentioned in the article, they come under the section of too much talk about tools and not much about strategy and communities. All they see social media is some viral gamble where you do a good Facebook apps and you’re done.Next comes the already established PR & Advertising firms. Their presume twitter and facebook to be mere tools to curate PR news of their clients. The advantage they have is their clientèle for whom they do other forms of traditional advertising and branding. The third type is the pure social media agency model. Very few of them again do strategy and some sensible stuff on social media. The rest of them have a sizeable number of followers on twitter and they float companies on personal brands and they proclaim themselves as thought leaders and speakers in the industry.So I see a lack of an industry standard and even in the SM industry in here to be at a very nascent level. A sensible post but the point is how to improve this trust or credibility factor when the SM industry in here is suffering a trust deficit.
As someone very new to using Social media and being more actively involved in it, I have to say this is one of the BEST posts/commentaries I have seen. In my opinion, in the little time I have spent here I completely concur. The article is absolutely well written, reflective and just spot on.
Hi Amber,
Thanks for writing this. I’ve been following you for a while now, and I must say you always put out great content with solid tips.
I agree with what you mention, and I’d also add another very painful thing that hurts us all: charlatans.
Often, self-described “Social Media Experts” end up hurting the industry a lot. They preach their supposed “knowledge and experience”, only to show their complete lack of it. Having 1,000+ Twitter followers and/or 1,000+ Facebook friends/fans does not make you a “Social Media Expert”. As a result of these individuals actions, many people end up not trusting the profession as a whole. Many actually good Social Media Marketers have to pay for the bad image created by charlatans.
Thanks, and keep the great content coming!
Great post, I’ve had very similar thoughts to what you shared here.
I am proudly quick to question someone who doesn’t ‘get’ social media and aims to exploit it. I often give people benefit of the doubt, but when one person exploits the will or the interest of others, it bothers me for a few reasons. First, it’s lame. Second, it gives them a wrong view of what makes social media, social. Third, it damages the otherwise legitimate experiences for others when other people screw it up for them.
Many business owners who ask me about social media, they’ve got one thing on their mind: me. How can *I* benefit from others. How can people attract to *me*? How can *I* make money from Facebook? It’s not the monetization that irks me; it’s the selfishness of not providing value to others that lights me up. I’m critical because we all know they wouldn’t tolerate these exploitative practices from Fortune 500 companies, but they justify it for their own benefit.
I agree that we need to do as we say and keep our advice on tools, strategy and concepts in check. Most talks about social media seems to still be stuck in the era of convincing people. Because most audiences are in this stage, we usually stay at concepts. Tools are tools and need to realize they can be used many different ways. If you can think of it, there’s an app for that. But the “why” is what confuses people. If you know “why” you want to use an app, then it’s easy. Strategy drives the tactics and not often the other way around.
As far as rising (and falling) social media rockstars, I think it’s nothing short of awesome when they make it. Anyone who bashes on them [personally] for changing, being themselves, ranting or whatever is missing the point. I respect people who are authentic and bring a sense of humanity to their game. It’s not always business. We’re people and we more or less depend on each other. Not to sound selfish here, but it makes me feel good when I can appreciate others for something.
I hold all this in context to the fact that social media — as a communication medium — is very young compared to the likes of broadcast media. We’re all exploring it. There are no hard and fast rules to it and it’s always changing. What’s hot last year is cold the next. We should embrace failure, learn from it, get up to bat and swing again. Just make sure we’re doing it for the right reasons.
Love the angle you’ve shared on this. Hopefully we’ll do as we say, embrace our mistakes and help others more effectively. It will take patience, but we’ll get there. Soon, hopefully. 🙂
~Joe
That’s the kicker — “meaningful” — everyone has a different motive behind their strategy. What fits one business won’t necessarily fit another. I suspect more case studies and live examples from start/planning to finish/execution/results phases would be much more meaningful to others.
Amber — I don’t understand the the problem you are describing in #1: “We talk too much about the value of our time rather than putting it to good use.” Maybe I haven’t run across the people or blog posts that inspired this section of your article. I read the Lisa Barone article, but I think she could be speaking for any kind of professional who gets lots of requests for free advice.
Nice Content. thanks for sharing….
What would I add?
Nothing. I think you nailed it. I especially appreciated the section on intolerance. Sometimes I think (fear?) 80 percent (non-scientific conclusion) of people using social media see it as a vehicle for complaint. That grows tiresome after awhile.
Good post, one of the reasons why I read this blog on a regular basis.
darn it – I was going to make the comparison to indie rock uber-hipsters, but you beat me to it!
My point is that rather than beating the dead horse of “my time is worth money, dammit” (we get that), we should be using that time and effort to demonstrate *why*. And you’re exactly right. It’s not a unique problem to social media, which I mentioned. I just think we talk a lot about the behavior and problem itself – taking advantage of others and railing against same – instead of spending our time on something that’s more substantive, educational, instructional.
Yes, we definitely have to tell people why! For example, recently someone whom I met at a social occasion asked me to “take a look” at his website. I don’t know if he expected free advice or a quote. What I did was to tell him about the areas that concerned me — free advice — and give him a quote for fixing them. Now, he could take me free advice and ask someone else to do the fixing, but I think that, fixing-wise, I’ll be his first choice.
Thanks for the “Like”, Joseph. Regards from Cancun!
Since you asked – specifically – what we’d add I’d offer the following.
Instead of lecturing business about how the “don’t get it” and need to “change everything” maybe we should be thinking about how to apply SoMe to business and solve the problems they’ve already got. Particularly where small businesses are concerned, the last thing they need is some schmuck telling them they’ve got another problem (didn’t we just get SEO taken care of… now I’ll go out of business if I don’t “do” SoMe?).
Maybe it is time we got business fundamentals first (because they HAVE NOT changed) and SoMe second.
Since mankind developed language every advance in communications technology has changed “how” we interact, or has it? Whether it is hieroglyphics or twitter some things remain the same.
It’s not whose right it’s what’s right.
Treat others as you wish to be treated.
It is a mistake to assume others think as you do.
One of the most common outcomes in communication is misunderstanding.
How someone reacts tells much about who they are.
I could go on, but my point is we should keep in mind; communication has more to do with what people share and less in the method of sharing.
First, thanks for the nod, Amber. Curiously I don’t experience a lot of these issues. I’ve learned to “vote” with my “follow.” There have been some people who are just so toxic that it was upsetting to even read their tweets or blog posts. I decided to simply dump them, no matter how influential or klout-ified they may be. I am blissfully ignorant, keyword blissful.
I recognize that I may be missing out on some buzz by insulating myself from toxic tweeters but it has been well worth the trade-off. The people I have surrounded myself with are positive, upbeat, and typically much smarter than me! I get good vibes from my social buzz.
Thanks for the excellent post and thanks again for mentioning my blog {grow}, Amber.
I don’t feel like I am entitled to give opinions about an industry which isn’t, strictly speaking, my own. I consider myself a mere student, not an expert of any kind nor someone trying to sell social media skills which are clearly still under heavy construction. What I can say, in my little experience, is that I love the SM scene because every little topic can inspire immensely deep thoughts. I am proud of being part of some discussions that, I feel, can truly change me and my way of thinking, and I think no one should be afraid to be humble and admit some people simply know more than you do.
In your field you are ages beyond my knowledge and experience, why should I be mad or jealous about it?
Time is meaningless, it’s what you do with it that matters. I feel that “learning” is a pretty good way to invest it, and maybe credibility is lacking also because too many “superstars” are willing to teach and too few are willing to learn.
I am a business strategy consultant that is new to social media marketing. I have been turning to blog posts, articles, books, and social media specialists to learn and implement as much as possible on my own pace. However I began to feel something odd about the industry in general, whether networking with social media industry types or reading their blogs and tweets. I couldn’t define what is contributing to the strange feeling until I read this blog post. After reading your post I had a revelation – “yes, that’s exactly what I find odd about the industry!” And you hit the nail square on the head.
As a result of my feeling I decided to share everything I learn about social media with anyone who asks (of course, respecting everyone’s time, just like you alluded to). This has led to some great exchanges of ideas, and new ideas. I guess I’m trying to start ‘grassroots’ social media conversations with people who are NOT in the industry as I find that this approach is much more productive and open.
I definitely agree with your point Camilo! I think terms like “expert” are not something we have the right to apply to ourselves. In really any field. These are accolades that others should bestow upon us when we’ve earned it. Yet I have noticed a very popular trend of people calling themselves gurus and experts in social media when IMO the title is not valid. And yes, I do think it ends up hurting social media as a whole.
Great article with so many valid points IMO. I was an early supporter of sites like Facebook and Twitter but struggle with some other forms of social media and often have days where I’d like to remove myself from it all together. It seems there are definitely a few who love to spoil it for the whole. And this is hard to fight against some days. That being said, I would never claim to be all that knowledgeable or smart re: social media myself. To me, it’s a learning process I partake in anew every day.
There are pretenders and there are professionals. Being an expert doesn’t give professionals any more hours in a day, often it gives them more to do in the same amount of time. Professionals balance a day job and/or clients that deserve their primary attention with engagement of the clamoring mass of people begging for their expert attention and notice. They don’t get to everybody, but they try and it shows. Pretenders . . . well, the reputation is shiny but tarnishes when exposed to direct contact.
In the influence game I haven’t even begun to register on the social media radar and yet, I have to say that my experiences with the larger, more recognizable names in our industry does not reflect a trend of non-engaging high profile bloggers. I contacted Chris Brogan; he emailed in less than a week to let me know that he wasn’t the right guy to help me (and he wasn’t, by the way) but he did offer to point me to some people who were more suited to provide what I needed and has remained responsive through Twitter. Shannnon Paul has responded to every tweet and email I’ve sent her way. CC Chapman has replied to every DM I’ve sent him. Liz Strauss responded to an out of the blue DM, followed through with several emails and has offered me direction at every turn I’ve involved her in. (Liz has a great guest post – Five Signs A Social Media Star’s Reputation Is Spin – over on Spin Sucks that I think is relevant here http://www.spinsucks.com/social-media/five-signs-a-social-media-stars-reputation-is-spin/). Expert professionals, every one.
I love what I do for a living – I can’t imagine doing anything else, but I know I’m at my limit with balancing the number of clients I have and engagement with my own community. Maybe some of the expert professionals hit their limit, too? They are, after all, only human.
I agree… it’s far to easy to “canabalize our own” from behind a keyboard. What goes around comes around and I truly believe that some bashers do it just to generate a buzz… that’s distasteful.
Great post, Amber. Really appreciate the “Instead” element too – in the same vein of this post, so many social media/community folks like to post about the wrong way to do things without really outlining a “right” way. You’ve provided a great example. (And if we can’t think of an “instead”, maybe we shouldn’t bitch about it!)
Totally agree, Sean. SEO went through this phase where it was magical and mysterious. Some people made a lot of money selling BS, but most of those people are screwed now that you can learn basic SEO in an afternoon with a Google search. The people who shared their knowledge, developed skills instead of secrets, and worked to help the customer (not just make money) are still doing well. Good to remember!
I came to Social Media as a new career (for me) after having spending over thirty years in Human Resources. Your post sounds all too familiar. Back in the mid 90’s Human Resources wanted to disassociate itself from its former paper pushing self – “Personnel.” The field had grown from filing job applications to what is – today – the work of generalists. To accomplish this transformation the PHR and SPHR certifications were created by those personnel employees, who stepped up as HR leaders.
The push back came from many places, especially from those corporate CEOs, who were very fearful about accepting the certification status of Human Resource professionals, eventually costing them much more in compensation, as well as creating yet another class of senior management to have to deal with at the board room table.
In Human Resources, we embraced our early leaders. They did much of the heavily lifting and fought the most prolific battles, which eventually elevated personnel to become the Human Resources of today; culminating in providing HR professionals a seat at the CEOs meetings to become true business partners.
Good example to follow.
Marc LeVine
Director of Social Media
RiaEnjolie, Inc.
Follow on Twitter: @RiaEnjolie
Hi Amber, I haven’t been here and I seriously commend you for your posts. I’ve read some of yours in the other pages and they too are great. I also enjoy reading the comments from people. This is a sensible site you got here. I’ll be dropping by more often. Kudos. Thanks.
Agreed! On a “pro” forum there was a topic discussing rates – someone listed a crazy-high rate with a “guarantee”. I asked how the guarantee works and was told that all someone needs to say is “Give me back my money…” No wonder the rates were so high. Course they said none of their hundreds of clients ever complained…
But so many other threads are about the same thing. How much is everyone charging? And how are contracts devised? And how do you “pitch”? Nothing about strategy. In my experience, there, it’s just a place for lots of self-professed experts talking about how to make big money, with almost zero responses to those who are trying to learn and share even the most basic of strategies.
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so. Really nice post!
I agree with you on disagreeing with Gladwell’s post. I think we are in our infancy in seeing the true potential of this new ability we have. We are just starting to understand what’s possible and I think Gladwell misses the boat. He is from the paper world, his perspective is largely due to that.