"Rid Us of this Evil High Priest..."

by Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief Social Media Strategist at xynoMedia Technology

"Yes, yes! Will someone please execute "social media" and rid us of this evil "high priest!?!?!" Please, put it out of our misery! Overrated, no veracity, gossip laden, mundane, muddled and lacking meaningful content..... But, oh, let's jump on the "LaLa" bandwagon! Do you need me to text that to you, or post it on MySpace, U-Tube or FaceBook?"

This quote was forwarded to me from, John Gerstner, the Executing Social Media conference coordinator. He received it in response to promoting the conference. I swear you just can't make this stuff up.

I'd like to address this person's clear disgust with social media, point by point.

"Overrated..."

Quite possibly. I think it's over-hyped, not overrated. The results that businesses can get from engaging in social media marketing, the right way, are astounding. So, is there hype? Yep. Was there hype about email? You bet.

The results from a Universal McCann survey (PDF) covering 3 years, 65 countries and 34,000+ Internet users prove it:

• 57% have joined a social network
• 73% have read a blog
• 55% have uploaded photos

That's not overrated, those are the FACTS.

"No veracity..."

There are some bloggers that deal with maybe's in order to get the scoop and then make corrections later. But, for the most part, most of the bloggers I know deal in facts and truth. Their blog is a very large part of their business' positioning and their expert status, why would they risk all of that to spread lies?

"Gossip laden..."

I wouldn't say gossip - to me that word implies a maliciousness that isn't present most times. Are there evil bloggers, sure, but most of the time where there's smoke there's fire. I think many brands have not taken the time to build up their own social media turf and when a rumor breaks out online, they have no home base to defend themselves and counter rumors. Sounds more like someone's mad that they've been caught ill-prepared. Tsk-tsk.

"Mundane..."

C'mon now! How can blogs be overrated, gossip-laden AND mundane! It just doesn't make sense. Either blogs are ruthlessly scandalous with half-truths about Paris Hilton's nether regions which would make it just the opposite of mundane or it's fodder for the monastic set. Which one is it, dear complainer?

"Muddled and lacking meaningful content..."

Most successful business blogs (the one's you NEED to be focusing on and reading) are well thought out. I might not always agree with what's said, but they are not lacking in content in any way. The average successful blogger posts to their blog 7-10 times per week. Are we to believe that there's NO good content there ANYWHERE?

And, lastly, clearly, this person has no social media strategy, because they are offering to use all those different social media tools (YouTube, Facebook, etc.) to get one message across. Advice dear complainer: pick THE RIGHT tool and use that one.

Lipsticking Deal: I believe I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'm speaking at the Executing Social Media conference out in LA land. We're also a conference sponsor and I am an Educator in their Learning Academy...and even though the early bird discount ended on April 5th, I was able to get Lipsticking readers a discount if you want to see me (and some other cool speakers) in person and save $300 in the process. Use this code: 'la08lw' (without the quotes) to register.

Comments

[Lena L. West]

@Elana:

I agree that an organization has to have more of a reason for social media participation than "marketing". That's as bad as, "everyone else is doing it".

Thanks for commenting!

[Elana Centor]

Not sure who said this quote...If I'm remembering my advertising history I think it was a retailer who said, " I know that half of all advertising doesn't work, I just don't know which half"

Same goes for social media...if the goal of participating in social media is marketing.