Social Media Marketing

Stop with the High Level Social Media Speak

That was the name of a post written by Dave Snyder and twittered about by Brian Chappell and some others. I was going to ignore it at first but after seeing it twittered about twice and reading the ignorance and cockiness in the post I just had to comment.

In the article Dave Snyder starts off with, The “social media guru” has become a self propelled parasite of our online industry.

That might have been a better title but the truth of the matter is that if Dave and other marketing guys spent more time on their own projects instead of trying to build up their names, things like this wouldn’t bother them so much. I’ll point to a post by none other than Rae Hoffman who explains this much better than me.

Three quarters of the people you idolize and want to grow up to be like barely make a living on their own or couldn’t at all. Most of the people you read regularly are smoke and mirrors. Some speakers are given subsidies to speak at conferences, not because they refuse to come without it, but because they can’t afford to without it.

Okay, back to Dave Snyder’s laws to live by. In Dave’s next line he gives a list of the qualifications one needs to meet in order to call themselves or even talk about social media stuff.

1. Have you driven 100s of thousands of eyes to a piece of content in the span of a few hours?

I’ve done this, however I’ve found that being able to get thousands of visitors to my sites day after day works a lot better. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a social media guru like Dave, I’m just a girl from Colombia South America that has been able to make my living online for the last 8 years while living in a third world country.

2. Have you successfully shaped an opinion about a Fortune 500 company using social media?

I’m guessing we are talking about being hired by a social media company to shape an opinion about them. I’m also guessing that the numbers of people that can claim this are small. In 2007 only 26% of Fortune 500 companies felt that social media was important.

Previous research show that just 11.6% of the Fortune 500 companies have a public blog.

I’d also be willing to bet a lot of the social media work done by these companies is done in-house.

3. Have you ever put out a fire for a Fortune 500 company that started on social media, before it could make the main stream?

Once again back to the whole Fortune 500 thing. I’d venture to guess that Dave has done some work for a Fortune 500 company and would like the world to know.
Does this make me want to hire Dave, no, after reading his article I think Dave is an idiot that worries more about what people think of him then getting the work done for his client.

Have I worked for a Fortune 500 Company?

I can happily say no. I’ve found that the larger a company is the more time and people you have to deal with to get something done.

In most cases the truth is that the guy you’re waiting on for an answer, does not have a clue about what’s really going on. They have meetings about meetings and spend most their time chasing their tales unaware of what’s going on around them.

If you doubt me then let’s count the number of past Fortune 500 Companies asking for bailout money.

Am I a social media guru?

Once again I can happily say no. The social media world changes faster than I’m able to keep up with. In most cases about the time I’m learning something new the rest of the world has moved on to the next big thing. I seem to barley be able to stumble around in the shadows.

1. I’ve worked with clients in dying industries and have used the information brought to me by the very people Dave wants to attack, to breathe life back into their business and allow them to stay afloat.

2. No, I don’t work with Fortune 500 companies who have CEO’s that make 20 million a year and have not this first clue how to run a business. Who line up to steal tax payer’s money and require at least 20 meeting before making a decision.

3. I work with small business owners who have the pulse of their business in their hands. Who make choices daily that keep their businesses a float. Guys and gals that study and understand their competition because their goal is to become better.

I got off track a little let me get back to Dave’s article.

Next Dave says, It’s like me calling my self a movie critic because I watch movies and have an opinion.

Well it might just be me but a movie critic is someone that watches moves and gives their opinion. I’m sure you being a social media guru and all already know that there are websites online were one can go and give their opinion on a film. This would make them a movie critic. Today I’m a Dave Snyder critic.
Back to Dave.

The self proclaimed “social media guru” loves to speak at a high level about social media.

Here are some words they often use:

Social Web/Graph
Widget
Enterprise 2.0
Social Media Optimization
Meme
Mash-Up
Social Media Monitoring
User-Generated Content
Web 2.0
Social Networks
Blogosphere
Viral Marketing
Micro-Blogging
Transparency
Engagement

These are words used when one is talking about the subject. When someone is talking about a car they will use words like tires, clutch, breaks, seats and steering wheel. They are not claiming to be a mechanic, they are talking about a subject that requires the use of these words in order to indentify the part of the car they are talking about.

I’m guessing that Dave Snyder feels that only he and a select few are able to use these words.

From Wikipedia;

Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, social news buttons, blogging, and incorporating third-party community functionalities like images and videos. Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.

Social media optimization is in many ways connected as a technique to viral marketing where word of mouth is created not through friends or family but through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites. In a similar way the engagement with blogs achieves the same by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogsphere and special blog search engines.

Social Media optimization is considered an integral part of an online reputation management (ORM) or Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) strategy for organizations or individuals who care about their online presence.

And again from Wikipedia:

Micro-blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates (say, 140 characters or fewer) or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, digital audio or the web.

The content of a micro-blog differs from a traditional blog in that it is typically more topical, smaller in aggregate file size (e.g. text, audio or video) but is the same in that people utilize it for both business and individual reasons. Many micro-blogs provide this short commentary on a person-to-person level, or share news about a company’s products and services.

My point is that each of the words listed has a meaning and is used when talking about a topic. No one has to market or do social media work for a Fortune 500 company in order to use those words.

I don’t disagree with everything in the article and I’m currently fighting of a cold and tend to get a little cranky when I’m feeling under the weather. Had I don’t been feeling bad I might not have even bothered with the post. Who knows.