Wow, have you seen how many Social Media events that are in the making this year? Too many to count, is the answer to that!
I’ve scheduled to attend a local Twestival (Farnham) on the 25th March and will also be attending the Social Media Forum at Olympia in London on the 15th. Having just read through a list of upcoming events, I thought I might give some thought to which way this bubble might go? There seem to be more and more Social Media companies, solutions, events etc, that are starting up each week (sounds very familiar, is this a second coming of the dot com bubble?).
I’m completely pro Social Media, anyone that knows me will tell you that. But I do feel that there seems to be a bandwagon mentality to the whole “scene” at the moment, nothing new, we all know that exploitation takes place in every industry… My point is this, and I’m looking at this from a commercial point of view, how are consumers to take Social Media seriously enough to buy into it, when there are so many events and companies springing up? Are we in danger of losing value? Should companies merge, should events merge? Should there be an overarching regulatory body?
Social Media seems to be a wild animal that needs to be tamed, even though there are well established solutions. Helping customers to use those to benefit their business is the main objective for many companies, tapping into that new information stream and providing consumer data, client feedback, two way communication and ultimately an increase in sales.
See the event guide from Mashable.com http://mashable.com/2010/03/01/mashable-events-mar1/
Thoughts?
You are right social media seems to be exploding in a uncontrolled way with lots of consultants and experts. I agree with Lindsay thay most of the action is strongest in the USA. Do you think it is worth while all the effort. We use twitter lots but I am not sure we get any return
Just stumbled upon our director’s old comment. Are you still updating this blog? We’ve been writing a few guest blog pieces on how social media can be used in project management lately – get in touch if you’d like to contribute to our blog with your thoughts – in return for copious tweets and links
Natasha
Guy – You make some interesting points here…
Social Media is certainly the current buzz word so there’s inevitably going to be people out there who try to make a quick buck from it without necessarily knowing what they’re talking about. We’ve already had another company steal the outline of our Social Media training course (http://bit.ly/5gmLIn – which we spent a long time putting together!) and bashing it up on their own site almost word for word to try to cash in.
There’s a lot of people whove sprung from nowhere saying to businesses “you MUST use Social Media” – but in reality businesses need to think carefully about HOW they use Social Media and how it complements their other marketing channels. At the end of the day it’s about having conversations with your clients, and different businesses market themselves to different demographics who hang out on different parts of the social web. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach and doing it properly is about finding your customers and comminicating with them in the right way.
You mention a regulating body for the industry, but in reality I think that would be impractical. It’s such a fast changing industry and you couldn’t apply hard & fast rules to the way you advise people to use social media – it is after all “social” and driven by the people that use it.
Just my two penneths! At the end of the day you have to hope that businesses are intelligent enough to sort the wheat from the chaff and choose an agency or a training provider that will take the time to understand what they need and provide appropriate advice.
Colin Welch
Silicon Beach Training
It’s an exciting time, my real gripe is with unprofessional people jumping on the Social Media bandwagon and screwing it up for the rest of us, those of us that can genuinely help organisations for the better
It’s those quick buck types that people need to be careful of. I guess the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
As a consumer and also a SME owner who has taken up this social media lark, I’m actually surprised by your comments that you think there has been so many events and companies springing up; to be honest I’ve not seen anything listed before (show wise) and was intrigued to see that there was something like a Social Media exhibition. Taking a look at your list, it seems very US heavy and not very much there for the UK audience. I see Social Media through two different eyes (and probably cross-eyed at that!); me using social media as an individual for personal use to make contacts and stay up to date with extended friends and for a business use; to network, share knowledge and information, build a brand etc. My question is this; is social media just an extension of marketing and if so, should a marketing professional organisation become a regulatory body?
You’re right about the US focus, but it’s only a matter of time.
I’m speaking from a commercial viewpoint, training/consultancies etc
I do think Social Media fits into the marketing area, and should be considered as part of any marketing strategy/model, the knowledge needs to sit and stay in that area. Understanding what’s available technology/solution wise, is another story. I’ve recently seen quite a few “marketing” roles that specify Social Media experience, which I find strange, there really wont be many experienced marketing professionals with extensive Social Media experience, it’s obviously still a new concept to most people. Guess that leaves a skills gap, which is where the “consultants”, and companies peddling said skills, fit into the picture?