Social Media Experts Don’t Exist

By Mark Evans in Social Media 9 Comments Tags: , , ,

socialmedia-signThat’s right: social media experts don’t exist. And you can say the same thing about social media gurus.

For some, this might be a contentious or controversial statement given how much activity is happening and the growing number of people involved in the strategic and tactical pursuits. While not downplaying or dismissing the skills of these people, my point is that social media is still a nascent thing/activity/business that it’s impossible for anyone to truly claim to be an expert or guru.

Social media is an immature child, who is changing, evolving and experimenting on a daily basis. There are no tried-and-true strategic or tactical approaches because we’re all still trying to figure out what works and why. Anyone who claims they have it figured out is selling is selling you a bill of goods.

At the very best, social media practitioners and consultants can offer high-quality strategic and tactical insight and recommendations that will offer clients a solid chance of being successful. But there are no guarantees given social media is much of an art as a science. For example, if anyone promises they can attract a certain amount of traffic, Facebook fans or Twitter followers, quickly dismiss it.

In time, social media will mature, evolve and become a well-entrenched part of a company’s communications, marketing and sales activities. Then, it might be possible to point out people who are social media “experts” or “gurus”. Until then, we’re all consultants, practitioners and enthusiasts.

iPad: Bad Name, Lots of Potential

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod 2 Comments Tags: , , ,

ipadThere’s certainly no lack of commentary, opinion and conversation about Apple’s ultra-anticipated tablet computer, the iPad.

First, it’s a terrible name for lots of reasons; the iSlate or iTablet would have been better choices. As for my take on the device itself, it’s pretty interesting, particularly as an e-Reader, but the real story is how the iPad could evolve in the future.

In the scheme of things, the iPad is simply Apple dipping its strategic toes in the water. It lets Apple get into the tablet computer market, and probably selling millions of units to a growing customer base. In the meantime, Apple will continue to work on adding features to the iPad, and evolve it into a device could go far beyond it being a cool way to watch movies or read books.

For example, the iPad could be a key part of a home entertainment system that connects computers, televisions and the Internet in a user-friendly package – something that the consumer electronics market has been salivating about for years. The iPad could be the always-on device that provides consumers with instant access to the Internet than a laptop or home computer. The iPad could be the way that Apple extends its domination from music to books.

The iPad could also morph into lots of different things based on where Apple wants to focus on, what developers create around it, and what consumers want. This is a far more exciting proposition than the device that Steve Jobs unveiled yesterday.

For more thoughts, check out David Pogue’s review in the New York Times, Daring Fireball, which also takes a big picture view of the iPad, while Alex Payne has a different and though-provoking post in which he describes the iPod as “disturbing”.

Picking the Right Social Media Services

By Mark Evans in Social Media 2 Comments Tags: , , ,

socialmedia-sign-283x300I published this blog post recently on the Sysomos blog:

In the last blog post, we talked the importance of having a focused approach to social media as opposed to trying to be all things to all people. If you buy into this theory, the next step is determining the best and most appropriate social media services that meet a company’s strategic and tactical needs.

The first – and probably most important – step is listening to what’s happening within the social media landscape. It’s a walk before you run approach that gives you a good handle on where the most conversations are happening about a company’s brand, products, services and industry.

If there’s lots of chatter on Twitter, it probably means Twitter is a good place to get involved. If there’s no action within the blogosphere, then maybe starting a blog isn’t such a good idea. All you want to do during the listening phase is discover the hot spots.

The next move is selecting a small handful – one to three – of social media services where the target audiences exist. Then, a company needs to determine whether it has the people who can run these services on a day-to-day basis, whether it needs to hire some people to dit, and whether there’s a budget (time/money) to make it happen.

Once these hurdles are handled, it comes down to tactical execution and making sure that whatever you do is sustained, enthusiastic and engaged. A key point to remember is social media is a long-term commitment in which tangible results can take time to materialize.

Sure, there are examples of companies that hit the social media jackpot with a video or contest that goes viral but these examples are few and far between even though you might get the impression they happen all the time based on how often they’re cited by social media consultants.

Another important consideration is that it’s important to take a flexible approach to social media. While you may have a well-defined social media strategy, you also need to go with the flow, experiment and be willing to change directions tactically if you’re not getting the desired results even after putting in the time.

Final point: despite the hype surrounding social media, it’s still early days. There’s lots of time to get involved so don’t feel like something has to happen right away. Take your time, study the landscape, and then take the plunge.

Apple Tablet: Bestest, Coolest, Greatest Thing Ever!!!!

By Mark Evans in Advertising/Marketing 2 Comments Tags: , , , , ,

newtonThe high-tech world goes gaga for new and shiny products. It’s how the industry manages to convince people to purchase things they have already have, things they don’t really need, or things that they’ll probably buy in time.

The marketing mantras include “smaller”, “more powerful”, “mobile”, “better designed”, “faster”, “more capacity” and, of course “more features”. This convinces many people to pay full-price for new products, while getting nothing or pennies on the dollar for their perfectly good old products.

That said, the frenzy of excitement over the Apple Tablet is unreal. In 15 years of writing about the high-tech industry, I’ve never seen the the market froth at the mouth so much. The only comparison I can make is it’s like how teenage girls get when they finally get a brief view of the latest teen heart-throb.

So, it didn’t surprise me this morning to see TechCrunch at the top of Techmeme with the headline that Steve Jobs has apparently been saying that the Apple Tablet “will be the most important thing I’ve ever done”. TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington hasn’t heard these words directly from Jobs but “but we’ve heard it multiple times second and third hand from completely independent sources” so chances are Jobs probably said them….or maybe not.

In any event, the stage is now perfectly set for Jobs to unveil the Apple Tablet (or not) on Wednesday when he makes his annual state of the union/here’s something new and wonderful speech. If Apple does, in fact, unveil the tablet, you should take great care around any Apple stores in the coming weeks because the MacNation will be a rapid state.

If Apple doesn’t launch the tablet, it’s not necessarily a bad thing for Apple. If anything, it will just get the MacNation on more of an alert as they’ll shift their attention to the next possible launch window.

If any event, it’s clear the Apple Table is, in fact, the great thing since sliced bread…or not.

(Note: The photo above Apple’s infamous Newton tablet computer).

More: Mathew Ingram, GigaOm’s freshly-minted writer and part of the mesh gang, has a post about how the launch of the Apple Tablet will likely instigate a fight with Amazon (and its Kindle) for content creators and distributors.

What Loses as Social Media Wins?

By Mark Evans in Social Media 7 Comments Tags: , , , ,

According to a new survey by Nielsen, the average person spent five hours and third-five minutes on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Given the growth of such as Facebook and Twitter, it’s hardly surprised that we’re spending about 11 minutes/day on social media sites. In fact, that seems low but it does take into account people who, heaven forbid, spend no time using social media.

As the use of social media increases, an interesting question is what are people not going to be doing? Maybe it’s television, although online video viewership is also on the rise. It could be newspapers but online readerships seems to be on the rise. Perhaps it’s book but the rise of eReaders such as the Kindle seem to be giving reading a shot in the arm.

It could be physical activity. According to a recent Canadian Health Measures survey, Canadians are now fatter and less physically fit – something that’s probably true for many Western countries.

The rise of social media could also impact how much time we spend with friends and family. Why socialize in person when you can socialize digitally from the comfort of your couch? Then again, it has been suggested that social media helps people expand their circle of friends. And from what I can tell about the digitally-engaged in Toronto, they socialize in person all the time.

So, what loses if social media wins? Any thoughts?

social-media-time

The Death of the Blog Comment?

By Mark Evans in Blogs, Social Media 26 Comments Tags: , , , ,

commentFor all the talk about social media being about “conversations”, it has become more apparent that the blog comment landscape is becoming a lot less vibrant and interesting.

At one time, comments on blogs were pretty standard – you read an interesting post, you left a comment. Today, you read an interesting post, and then do a tweet, retweet on Twitter, an update on Facebook, or make a comment on Friendfeed, Reddit or Mixx. Sure, there’s still commentary happening but the blog comment is being shuttled to the sidelines.

Is this a good thing? Does it really matter if there are fewer comments on blogs as long as conversations are happening elsewhere? For blog owners, I’m sure it’s far from ideal because part of the “rewards” from writing a post is getting a reaction – good, bad or indifferent – from readers. Given the new comment landscape, bloggers need to look at a variety of other services to see if they’ve generated any buzz.

What do you think? Is the blog comment heading for extinction?

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