I just read a post over on adage.com called Why I Hate Social Media Because Media Itself Just Isn’t That Interesting — Not Even the Social Kind. Basically the guy is writing about how he is sick of “social media” and how people are so enamored by it. You can follow the link above to read the whole post but here’s a bit here’s a taste of what he had to say.
| "Far from being interesting (unless you enjoy following mutually referencing bloggers who blog about blogging), social media is just an excuse. It is, to be specific, the old marketing industry’s latest excuse to waste more money on bad ideas and lazy thinking. So let’s ignore it. Let’s get really radical and stop trying to keep marketing 1.0 thinking alive with Web 2.0 media (because copycat content is no Band-Aid for broken brands and lackluster products and services, no matter how cost-effective or powerful the social web may be). Let’s forget the social media "revolution" and recognize that ignoring social media would be the truly revolutionary thing to do. I’m not saying that we should ignore the social web, or the cloud, or mobile connectedness altogether. I’m not arguing that brands should underestimate the transformative power of the technology at their disposal, or their ability to connect with people and provide targeted, relevant offerings in unprecedented ways. And I’m certainly not denying the brilliance of value-adding web-based services or inspiring and engaging web-enabled campaigns." |
Here’s my response which I posted as a comment.
| "Matt, there’s a lot in your post that I agree with and some other stuff, not so much.
The fact is social media is hot now and it is something we can not ignore. I do however agree that the emphasis should not be put on social media itself as it is just a tool. So, sort out how to use it, adopt it and move on. There’s nothing worse than all the so called marketers going on about how great SM is and they have never done any real marketing. Like the guy on Twitter that all he talks about is "check out these great tools for Twitter." or "This is how to use Twitter to become a rock star." Come on get some real content in there. The internet is continuously evolving and SM is just one step along the way. The real story is how we got to this point. It used to be that mainstream marketing held all the cards because it was financially/technologically difficult to produce content. Now, with the introduction of the internet, blogs, software developments, inexpensive computers, smart phones, high speed internet, etc.. virtually anyone can publish text, videos and audio. This is what is really driving the explosion in SM! There was a report done by Gartner last fall that stated, “More Bottom line social media can be a great “tool”, but like anything else you need a plan!" |
