Social Media "Experts"

I think we're starting to reach an overflow on social media. It's such a buzz word, as is it's varying friends in a very similar vein. Everyone is a self proclaimed expert. So, there's at least a million experts on social media. If there's that many experts, then it can't be anything all too special. Expert implies being the top of your field.

Everyone talks and talks and talks about the same thing. Everyone is literally just vomiting the same minutia. It's make me nauseous. Here's how to write a blog. Here's how to tweet. What's the next big thing? Join us for our chat about the future. Let's all get in a chat on Twitter and talk about how much we love social media, although we really don't know what the hell we're talking about, let's pretend we do #socialmediachat. Join us for a Tweet Up. OMG I'm so social because I tweet. It's like everyone is hopping aboard this train, but there is no more room left. Now it's a runaway train, and there's no stopping it. [That might be the worst analogy I've ever come up with. I'm sorry I've failed you. I'm losing my mind.]

(Also, while I'm on this thought, I hate the concept of Twitter as a chat anything. Isn't that the point of chat rooms? Or are chat rooms just for perverts who are on To Catch a Predator? There's too many things going on a feed like Twitter for any chat to make sense. Plus, limiting your point to 140 characters, minus the characters for the hashtag, you may not be able to make your point in one tweet. I clearly have a hard time saying anything concisely, as this short thought has turned into a six line paragraph.)

We've become such a culture of looking for that "next big thing" we all try to latch on as soon as possible. We saw that with twitter in 2009, even though it had been around for a few years. Last year we talked about Foursquare. These things become so big that they somewhat lose their appeal to me. The people who are/were considered "experts" are all saying the same thing. The same static. And then they try to tell the listeners how to be like them. When something major happens - like that Kenneth Cole tweet, for example - all the "experts" have to contribute their two cents and say how you should execute a corporate twitter blah blah. Over/Under on that was at least 250 people who jumped on that boat.

The truth is, there is no science to this social media. There's no "right way" to do any of it. Just don't do something stupid like Kenneth Cole. You do what you think is best for the brand you represent. It's that simple. There's no need to complicate it. Just don't look like an idiot. There's a lot of people online who look like idiots. And they have no clue, because, well, they're idiots.

There isn't really much else to say here, because just the thought of having to go over how everyone is repeating themselves makes me want to throw up. It can't be stopped. It's only going to go away when we find the next big thing (probably like when we insert chips in our brains to replace cell phones. the iBrain. I've got digs on copyright Jobs. You read it here first.). In the mean time, I'm going to start avoiding the noise and just focusing on the things that matter: what my friends and people of interest are talking/thinking/writing/tweeting about, not what "people I should know because everyone else knows them so therefore there are experts" are talking about.