If you read this blog regularly, chances are that you have at least a passing interest in social media. I use the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed and other networks on a daily basis, they’re invaluable to me for making contacts, promoting my work and finding resources. “Social media” is a bit of a catch-all though, and it’s either promoted as the best thing since sliced bread, or a pointless waste of time. The traditional press seems to choose a social media tool that’s fashionable on a month to month basis, while some major corporations are still blocking their employees access to Facebook because they see no value in it.
Social media is often misunderstood, in its purpose, importance, worth and nature. I dropped a note to some experts in the field to see what they thought were the most common misconceptions about social media. As a web designer I was also interested to see what my peers thought, so I contacted not just social media “experts”, but also bloggers and designers whose work I respect and who I see using social media effectively.
Chris Brogan
chrisbrogan.com | @chrisbrogan
Chris Brogan is President of New Marketing Labs, working with global companies to help them integrate social media into their marketing activities. He’s an author and speaker, and one of the premier opinion leaders and trendsetters about social media technology. He calls himself a typist.
The most common misconception is that social media is simply a new channel for marketing. Instead, it’s new technology for communications. Marketing is one way to communicate, but it ends up feeling like a bullhorn or someone standing on stage, whereas the experience of social media is more like a telephone, or theater in the round.
Darren Rowse
problogger.net | @problogger
Darren Rowse is a professional blogger. He’s Vice President of Blogger Training at b5media, one of the largest blog networks in the world. He also runs ProBlogger, one of the premier sources of blogging advice and tutorials online. He recently released the e-book ‘31 Days To Build A Better Blog‘.
There are many misconceptions but here’s two (hope that that’s ok).
1. you can’t make money with social media – you can, but you just need to do it in a way that delivers value to those you’re interacting with.
2. social media HAS TO BE a conversation – while it is often at its best as a conversation there are plenty of examples of people who use it successfully as a broadcasting tool.
Paul Boag
boagworld.com | @boagworld
Paul Boag is founder and Creative Director at the award winning Headscape web design agency. He hosts the long running and hugely popular web design podcast and blog Boagworld. He writes for .NET magazine and speaks regularly on web design at events such as SXSW, @media and FOWD.
In my opinion the biggest misconception is that social media is new. Social media is about people interacting online and that has been around since before the world wide web existed. People think social media is about leveraging Facebook or having a Twitter strategy. It is not. Social media is about building community and having real relationship online. It’s about communication. This can be done through tools like Twitter and Facebook. However, it can just as easily be done in a chat room or on a forum. Don’t get caught up in the hype, build long term communities that will outlast the current fashionable tool.
Mark Dykeman
broadcasting-brain.com | @MarkDykeman
Mark Dykeman is a Canadian based IT professional who observes and writes on social media in all forms. As well as his own blog, Broadcasting Brain, he’s contributed to the likes of LouisGray.com and Mashable. He’s the writer of the free ebook ‘Social Destinations Of The Web‘.
The biggest misconception about social media, like many other things, is that phrase from Field of Dreams: “if you build it, they will come”. Even though you (as an individual or a company) may build a social media presence, it doesn’t mean that people will flock to you, despite any fame or recognition you may have outside of social media. You need to actively engage people.
Lee Munroe
leemunroe.com | @leemunroe
Lee Munroe is a Belfast based front end web designer whose work has been featured in publications such as Wired and Web Designer Magazine. He writes a wide ranging blog examining all aspects of the web design process, and his articles seem to have a knack of encouraging great discussions in the comments.
That by taking part all of a sudden makes your company hip and cool
I was really interested in the responses I got. There seemed to be one common theme running through the answers, and one which I agree with. Social media can’t be a one way street. It doesn’t work if it isn’t a conversation, a two way communication (I loved Chris Brogan’s analogy of the theater in the round). Unless you engage with social media, and add value to your networks, you’ll never see a benefit.
A failure to understand that need for two way communication and added value is still very common. It’s the friend you have who thinks Twitter is just people sending boring tweets about what they had for breakfast, it’s the newspaper columnist who’s taken an anecdotal story about YouTube as hard evidence without learning more, it’s the multinational corporation thinking that merely having a Facebook fan page means they’re “doing” social media. As Paul Boag said, social media is about having a real relationship.
For me the biggest misconception is that the tools are the story. It’s like saying that the room where a cocktail reception is held is “networking”. Just as you gain no benefit from merely being in the room at a cocktail reception, whether sitting in the corner or talking without listening, there’s no inherent benefit in Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or any other tool. Social media is activity and communication.
13 Comments
My experience and (to an extent) the belief of many people I encounter online daily is that only a few “influentials” can really be social media savvy.. really has the magic touch to make a brand happen in teh socialmediasphere.
People mistake digital visibility for expertise.
I think mistaking visibility for expertise is a big thing, definitely. You need to look a lot deeper than just how visible someone is to determine if they have the right skills and knowledge to be influential.
I don’t necessarily agree that only a few people can really be social media savvy. I think there’s scope for anyone to become genuinely influential – indeed the easy entry is one of the biggest advantages of social media – but I think that it takes a lot of work and a lot of passion to do so.
I agree with many points stated above. And also, social media tools such as Twitter & Facebook don’t create conversations, but they do support communication.
I think you’d be interested in this slide show too – Digital Strangelove
Nice idea for a post Robin and great to hear from some high profile social media names. Thanks for asking for my 2 cents :)
@Miki – Yes, very much so. Twitter and Facebook and the others are really no different than a telephone. If nobody starts talking then it’s pretty much a piece of plastic in the corner of the room. But just as the telephone broke down barriers to individual communication, so social media tools provide the capacity to break down barriers to communal conversation. That’s their biggest advantage, but you’re right, someone needs to provoke the conversation.
@Lee – Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for taking the time to contribute.
Nice post Robin, I think bring up the misconceptions about social media is a great way to guide the direction the correct way. Social Media as mentioned by some of your more famous bloggers is a new channel and a new way for people to communicate. I would add to your post by saying:
For me – the biggest misconception people have about social media is:
The amount of human capital (or actual work) that you have to put behind it.
Hi Michael. Thanks for your comment.
I’d be curious – do you mean that the biggest misconception is that you have to put huge amounts of work in, or that you don’t have to do any real work. Both are arguably true. :)
Great post, Robin. I’m pleased to share a webpage with the other folks you interviewed.
Excellent post Robin. A colleague pointed me at your blog today and I’m glad she did. I agree with the sentiment that for the social media has to be a two way street to be effective. As with any emergent technology it takes time for people to have that “aha” moment, but I believe in time it will happen, the true global conversation is at hand.
@Mark – Thanks. Appreciate you taking the time to give your feedback!
@Cheryl – Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the post and appreciate you taking the time to comment. The need for social media to be a conversation seems to be the common thread. I hope that people will have that “aha” moment, as many early adopters and social media specialists have. A slight concern that larger corporations with a different focus might undermine that conversation by trying to force a more one way approach to marketing, as they’re used to. But I think that’s probably unlikely given the relatively wide take up of the various tools.
Really good post, I have been looking for something like this for a while.
Here is a good video that shows some of the changes in marketing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciSrNc1v17M
I found it on http://toddand.com
Interesting to see the “Luddite” comments about criticisms about Twitter or Facebook posts … maybe my sample is not representative, but about 98% of the posts I see are entirely irrelevant. They are “dialogues” on (as someone earlier pointed out) what they had for breakfast, or which cross-street they just passed on the bus. How is this relevant?
Do, or can, all businesses benefit from social media? Absolutely not! Some biz can benefit, some can’t. In fact, SM really can detract from your business if you just buy in without understanding what it can offer or how/if your business goals are aligned with SM.
SM ain’t no panacea.
@James
Comments about what someone had for breakfast are, I agree, pretty pointless. I don’t think they make up as large a percentage of Twitter usage as you suggest, but certainly they’re there. They might be of interest to a select group of that person’s friends/followers, but out of context in the wider Twitter stream they’re just an annoyance. But once time is taken to focus on people to listen to (and people to tweet to) in more depth, Twitter can be an invaluable tool and a worthwhile resource, as well as being of genuine interest.
Do all businesses benefit – absolutely not. Can all businesses benefit – well, probably. Whether that benefit is worth the additional effort and investment is questionable in certain situations, but like any other form of marketing and word of mouth, it can be beneficial. But yes, perhaps a bigger problem is how much harm a business can cause to itself and its brand image if it buys into social media without a plan and an understanding of the medium.