Me, A Social Media Snake Oil Salesman?

Last week, someone accused me on Twitter of being a social media “snake oil salesman”, which, according to The Free Dictionary’s definition, means I’m promoting “a product that has been proven to not live up to the vendor’s marketing hype”

I guess, in some respects, I stand guilty as charged. I’m excited about social media, and its impact on how we communicate, market and sell idea, products and services. We’re in the midst of an exciting evolution about how the Web is being used so my enthusiasm is obvious and palpable.

The question is whether I’m part of the “hype machine”, and whether I’m promoting services that have yet to live up to the hype.

Sure, I wave the social media flag because there’s a lot of great stuff happening. It’s not to suggest that many of these tools are viable or have enough to stick around but it’s great to see so much activity and people testing new concepts and ideas.

As for whether any of them are living up to the hype, it depends on how you define “living up to the hype”.

Twitter, for example, is being drowned by hype to the point where it’s difficult for a lot of people to understand why Twitter is so interesting and valuable. So while it’s true that Twitter is not living up to the hype, there’s nevertheless a lot of interesting stuff happening that’s making Twitter a useful tool for personal and professional reasons.

Finally, I have to admit being amused by the “snake oil salesman” description because I’ve been describing as people as social media “snake oil salesman” – people who call themselves social media consultants or social media experts with little more than a blog and a Twitter account on their digital resumes.

Clearly, there’s a lot of excitement out there as well as people who see fertile opportunities to do business. I’m excited about what’s going on, perhaps too excited but I can live with that.

For some good insight into the concept of social media experts, it’s worth reading a blog post on broadstuff.