Month: March 2009

Stop writing about social media. Talking about how Twitter is or isn’t an effective networking tool is boring. Really, freaking boring.

I read a lot of posts on social media hoping someone will say something new, but that never happens. We need to stop masturbating to what the tool is and start using it to see how it works.

Some of my favorite bloggers have said recently that they want to stop their current blog and start writing a blog about social media. How unoriginal. You aren’t an expert because you write about social media. You’re an expert because you use it.

It’s like saying social media isn’t as individual as the style of clothes that we choose to wear, or the neighborhood we live in, or the brand of toilet paper we buy. Different things work in different ways for different people.

Social media is as expansive as every kind of book out there, and while there will be bestsellers and cult classics, there’s no one style or clear path to follow.

Innovators aren’t people that join the conversation, but interrupt it. Innovators ignore the should and should nots, and just act.

I get why people write about it – it’s a fixation — an obsession for many of us — that we all have in common. But you can’t define social media. You can’t package it up neatly in a box.

Here’s how I know this is true. I don’t like Scott Monty, social media guru for Ford, at all. I mean, he’s a nice guy (nice enough to email me personally when I ranted about him), but I don’t like the way he represents Ford, and I think his approach is slightly ridiculous. But it is working for him, and tons and tons of people do like him.

Also, Chris Brogan isn’t all that original, Guy Kawasaki can be annoying, and ProBlogger writes about the same thing every day. There. I said it.

Celebrities are not more interesting than you. They’re not smarter. They have skills. In social media, they have mad skills. Mad, crazy, enviable marketing skills. You can have respect for individuals and their game – and don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for the Scott Montys and Chris Brogans of the world. They are succeeding and deserve props.

But it doesn’t mean you have to follow what they say, or emulate their game or even read them. That makes you an observer. An observer that sits in a wagon pulled around by “the influencers.” What chance do you have if you’re not even thinking on your own two feet?

Here’s how to escape the social media wagon:

1) Unsubscribe from one of the talking heads. How do you expect to be original and innovative when you read what everyone else reads? Lightning will not strike down upon you, I promise.

2) Subscribe to one of the thousands of other bloggers out there that are putting out real and original content. Content about politics, design & art, relationships, news, fashion, careers and issues. Content about things that matter. (Yes, fashion matters too).

3) Write about something else besides social media.

4) Repeat.

Novel idea.