Social media needs new voices

I’ve come to grips recently that I am a hater. What does that mean? Well, I tend to hate on a lot of things. I’m very opinionated you see. I also tend to place considerably less value on things that others find really important. Likewise, I am sure I get all giddy over things that are stupid to the majority of folks I interact with.

What the hell is a social media rockstar anyway?

First and foremost, I HATE the term social media expert, or rockstar. When I read about people claiming to be experts in the social web it makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Being smart and helpful is like, well, being smart and helpful. Recycling “do unto others” line ad nausea on Twitter doesn’t make you an authority on Twitter – it makes you an authority on restating the obvious.

Maybe Chris Brogan is a nice guy – actually, I will go ahead and stipulate that he is. I know he likes to throw out a lot of advice online, and has built his reputation on answering noobish questions from new users on Twitter. However, to see the level of ass kissing that goes on towards him is a little over the top. Seriously, its hard for me to see where the greatness lies. You can’t visit a blog, see an advertised webinar or generally browse over your Twitter feed without seeing his name being tossed out.

We need new social media champions

I know there are lots of people who feel this way about social media experts in general. There are really two reasons you don’t hear from those folks. First, it is completely irrelevant if someone calls themselves a social media expert. Second, for every person who can see through the “formula” that so many of these experts follow to build their online reputation, there are 100 who don’t.

So what is the solution? We need new people to step up, be smart (not pretentious) and talk about social media realistically. No more about how transparent you can be. That’s a great thing to say (and do if your a business owner feeling their way on Twitter or Facebook), but there is much more to it than that. How do you monetize social. How can you empower your users/customers to create, and use that to market your business? What are some actual examples of how you used social media to solve a business problem? No more theory, no more brain dead obvious best practices.

Also, we need people to show some savvy beyond using Twitter. I’m sorry, but Twitter’s best days are now well behind it. It is a missed opportunity. The real focus should be on Facebook, yet you almost never hear these guys talk about it. Why is that? Cool, you have amassed far more people following you than you can possibly ever communicate with efficiently through the medium (Twitter). That doesn’t impress me at all and really, it shouldn’t impress you either.

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