Facebook is a pond. Social Media is an ocean.
Sorry for not posting last week. I’ve been really good about regularly posting to either Social Enchilada or my food blog, Home Culinaire (which needs some love). However, this week, I failed and I’m kicking myself for not staying on top of it, although I do have an excuse…I was in NYC for the Mirren new business development conference!
Now, you might be thinking, “Jeremy, haven’t you read the 30+ blog posts from Chris Brogan where he explicitly tells you to be proactive and write your posts BEFORE you attend a conference?“. Honestly, I really thought I would get them done while I was there, but as you can see in the large gap in my posts, I didn’t.
Self-deprecation aside, the conference was insanely good. We came back with a bevy of insights into our business; what we’re doing wrong, what we’re doing right, and what we’re doing that no one else is! We also came back slightly irritated by the lack of understanding about what social media is in the digital/interactive agency world.
Many digital agencies are way behind in their understanding of social media. From what I gathered, in their world, social media is this very flat landscape that is comprised of Facebook and MySpace.
There was no mention of ratings and reviews sites like Yelp or social commerce sites like Amazon. When John Winsor from Crispin Porter + Bogusky asked if anyone had ever heard of the crowdsourcing platform, Crowdspring, I was one of a handful of people in a room of 100+ that raised their hand. There were less than 20 people Twittering from the event. I wouldn’t have even dared to mention BrightKite out of the fear of completely confusing everyone in the room.
This conference solidified my belief that consumers are now more digitally savvy than marketers. We’re constantly playing a game of catch-up. And the smart digital marketer, will closely follow emerging social media trends/platforms. If we’re going to fish where the fish are, we have to acknowledge that Facebook is a just a pond, and there’s a whole ocean full of fish yet to be discovered.
Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Apr. 14, 2009
Thanks for this post. You are correct for the most part. But this nascent space is still 80% research and insight and 20% base knowledge. With no known standards and evolving best practices agencies must continuously mine the space for the NEW and the potential. I partner with a digital agency and I am proud to say that they get it and continue to ensure they are on the bleeding edge of the social space and technology.
Posted by Hessie Jones on 04/14/2009 05:22 PM