Warning: if you’re not interested in a rambling, slightly unfocused blog post, this might not be the right post for you.
I’m not a pro blogger and social media isn’t my career; it’s my hobby. I’m an IT guy who knows more about “meatball” business processes and mid-range, antiquated enterprise systems than Web 2.0, marketing, promotion, or how to use a Blackberry.
Nonetheless, I’m good at mentally dissecting things and finding flaws. I’m also good at testing software. And I can write well. Some of that experience applies, I’m sure.
The amateur’s view of social media
As I continue along this voyage of discovery in social media, I become a little more aware each day of how much I do not know. There are mainly aspects of marketing, advertising, public relations, and networking that I don’t have any practical experience with.
So, if you’re looking for the magic bullet, the quick fix, or the ultimate source of wisdom regarding social media, you aren’t going to find it here. Go visit blogs written by people like Maki, Chris Brogan, Muhammad Saleem, or Tamar Weinberg: they’re far more experienced than I am and they write well. I don’t think they have any magic bullets either, but they do have a lot of good stuff in their blogs.
Hell, I even created a social media blog listing - go check those blogs out. I missed a lot of good blogs, but there’s still plenty to chose from there.
On the other hand…
Social media is a young field and lots of things are changing. People have an intuitive sense that this ability to link friends and strangers in webs obvious and hidden is powerful and can be used to accomplish great things.
Or maybe it’s just another channel to force crap down other people’s throats. I don’t know.
I will say this, though: social media has given me the opportunity to get in contact with some pretty interesting, cool, and knowledgeable people. That’s worth something.
The value of social media?
I don’t believe that there’s a motherlode of gold lying in one place on the Web. I don’t think you can find valuables that weren’t already lying in wait.
People used to pan for gold in parts of North America, sifting through rocks and dirt in order to scrape together enough valuable material to eke out an existence.
Prospecting for minerals is still big business. In the past, it was only economically viable to harvest raw materials when they were close together, reducing transportation, handling, and extraction costs.
Can social media be used to mine for creative gold by harnessing the wisdom and power of the crowd, cheaply extracting and pooling valuable information that becomes even more valuable?
I don’t know. I’m curious to know more. But somehow I think that’s a whole lot more valuable than trying to insert more messages into conversations where they may or may not fit. Or to start conversations with alterior motives, just because people think that these new channels are ripe to be exploited.
A closing remark of sorts
I’m lucky. I can get away with writing stuff like this because I’m not dependent on social media to earn a living (nor is it very likely that I’ll be that lucky, after writing this post.) I think there’s a lot of good people who are trying to use social media to earn a living. I’ve communicated with a number of them. I’m not trying to rain on the parade, but my skepticism is starting to emerge a tiny bit.
I have more faith in the intent and power of people to use social media than I do in having corporations or organizations trying to use social media to sell products, services, or even ideas.
I think the great potential of social media is to promote the individual, not the group.
I can get behind that.
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