i have been thinking alot lately about the development and evolution of social media. i have also been tuning into alot of twitter conversations and reading alot of blogs. what is becoming apparent is that there are many social media jihadists out there that think social media is the only form of media for the future.
to a certain extent, i think we need the extreme viewpoints because it’s the extremists the fuel the discussion. you don’t get the moderate middle without the extremists on both sides. like religious extremists though, i am quite ready to listen to their viewpoint but i certainly would not counsel anyone to act on their diatribe.
the problem with social media jihadists is that they make social media the point of the conversation, rather than the media that facilitates the conversation.
social media is irrelevant. whatever. i couldn’t care less.
what is relevant and what is important, is the contents of your message, the people you need to hear your message and choosing the right medium to talk to those people.
there are people out there who would have you believe that everyone needs to get onto twitter now, and that friendfeed is the the bee’s knee’s of all social networks. rubbish.
if your customers, friends or family are not on the these networks, you need to ask yourself the: “why?” question.
in ten years time, it won’t be “social media” it will just be media. it is media because it is simply a medium of communication. the general public doesn’t care whether it’s social media or web 1.0, or web 2.0. to them it’s just the internet. the important part is they get the information they need.
when the phone rings, do you care that it’s a cell, landline, voip, copper line, cordless, or the line uses 8 kHz using 8 bit ulaw coding? i don’t. i care about what the person on the other end is saying though.
as practitioners sometimes we get carried away with our subject matter because we’re immersed in it every day. we also have to defend our views on social media everyday, thereby enforcing them. it is important though that for our clients – who pay us good money to help them communicate better with their publics – that we advise them objectively and not get carried away with the medium.
when i was in i.t. (and even now) i was fielding technical support questions for friends and family. now that my day job has changed, the questions have changed a little. people now ask me about the social media. the most common question i get asked goes along these lines: “i’ve heard about this social media, should i start a blog, start twittering or create a facebook page?”
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