This weekend is podcamp Boston 4, and the original Blogstring crew will reunite to provide total coverage. In other words, Sarah is coming up from D.C., and we’ll be at podcamp.
I think that- in the past year- I’ve turned into a grumpy old man. That’s not to say that I wasn’t like that last year, but the severity of my grumpiness has increased dramatically. What makes me say that? Well, I just looked at the podcamp Boston 4 schedule, and it made me angry.
Social Media.
Say it with me. “Social Media”. It’s a term cloaked in mystery, reserved only for the self-described “social media experts” that are seemingly everywhere today. Ask what “social media” means, and you’ll get a description that’s roughly equivalent to a definition of “love”.
Back to the schedule.
There are 45 slots on the speaking roster, and 13 of them include the term “social media”. Here they are:
- How do we measure the impact of social media?
- How do you sell social media services?
- What is the future of writing in social media?
- Why bother with social media?
- Can you measure social media interactions in a meaningful way?
- How do we prove that all this social media effort is worth it?
- How do you use social media for a job search?
- What can social media do for education?
- How can people use social media to build community through photography?
- What isn’t social media?
- Where does telephony fit into social media?
- What’s the value of social media for b-to-b companies?
- How do you get your company to see the value of social media?
So I get it. Social Media is the buzzword of the day, and because of it people have a lot of questions. I’m absolutely NOT taking a shot at anyone who is putting on a presentation around social media. It’s what everyone is talking about, so it makes all the sense in the world to use the term to answer those questions.
So let me back up. Let’s get a definition of the term social media:
Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. Social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content; it supports the human need for social interaction with technology, transforming broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).
Wow. That really clears it up. So basically social media is the term that covers any content that someone can create online. Well, that makes sense.
Maybe it’s just the term that turns me off. Maybe it’s the fact that people toss the term around so much that it has completely lost its meaning to me. Maybe it’s the idea that, given enough tweets, blog posts and facebook pages, companies are being told they’ll be able to succeed regardless of their shitty product or service.
See, I told you. I am far grumpier. Far grumpier.
