Social Whizzards

I don't have to tell you how the word "expert" is just a tad over used. You are probably cynical about social media experts without any help from me, but putting the snarky comments and jabs aside, let's talk about this seriously as I have some important points of considerations for you.An expert is someone that has mastered a topic and/or specialty. So while the world of social media continues to evolve, how can one accomplish mastery of something that isn't done evolving?

The most commonly held belief about influence is that it is equivalent to the number of a user's friends. Klout, for example, measures influence using three different sets of metrics but the underlying assumption of all of them is a direct correlation between influence and number of fans. The problem with this model is that it may not be correct.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to address a number of CEOs and senior executives at a weekend retreat (The Executive Forum) at IBM's Armonk, NY campus. I shared with them "The State of Social Media," but the presentation could have easily been titled, "What Senior Executives Should Know About Social Media." Clearly, the latter was my intent.

Marketers are increasingly aware of the crucial differences between social media and the media technologies that preceded it. Yet, many marketers still have not realized that Marshall McLuhan's famous declaration, "the medium is the message," applies just as much to social media as it did to earlier media technologies. Despite the growing awareness of most marketers, there are some who continue to view social media as simply another vehicle for delivering marketing messages, no different from print or television. However, there are important differences between social media and all previous forms of media technology and-as McLuhan's famous statement suggests- these differences have profound implications for marketers.

When social media first came onto the scene, many people said, "Oh, it's just a passing fad - the soup du jour." Now, though, just about everyone is on the bandwagon, but that doesn't mean people really understand social media marketing and how to go about it. Social media can be simplified and demystified by looking back at some traditional approaches to marketing.