Wise Buddha

So I’ve mentioned numerous times that Web 2.0, social web etc. etc. from a marketing perspective is just a channel albeit it an interesting one. I have also commented, observed and been sarcastic about how overly excited certain people have got about turning the social web or whatever it is called today into some sort of mystic art form - be there or die sort of thing, if you don’t have a social web strategy then you may as well pack up and go home. You know the sort of thing and the culprits well they all seem to like the sound of their own voices and are on job creation schemes. (Note. stick handling a project upstream in your company does not make you a visionary especially when it’s based on someone else’s platform)

Don’t get me wrong (for about the 10th time) I love technology and think all this webby 2.0 stuff is interesting but when did it become essential to integrate the social web or a blog in order to create an effective marketing strategy. Honest to God if you listen to all the geeks out there literally wetting themselves about how essential and important this stuff is, you could be forgiven for thinking your brand could be wiped out if you don’t run out and develop a Facebook strategy - or thinking you’ll never get a job without 300 LinkedIn connections and loads of sycophantic personal recommendations expertly vetted by hang on a minute YOURSELF!

I might be a bit older than some and defintely not older than most but I do have the experience of working in the first dot com experience in late ‘99 / 2000 for a tech company in London, UK. Although not the same in scale perhaps and outright hysteria there are some parallels with what I see being said and boosted about the social web right now. It is utter nonsense to feel that you have to rush out and develop a Web 2.0 strategy despite what the boosters would have you believe, relax it’s just a channel and over time the channel will grow, evolve, normalise and then become mainstream if the market dictates. It is reassuring that I am not alone Tom Wolfe recently commented that he doesn’t read blogs anymore because of the narcissistic tone and lack of quality writing and here’s an interesting post from one chap who likens this to being a monkey on a treadmill.

Marketing is about identifying and connecting with all groups not just over excited tech types creating a job for themselves or techies promoting techies.
The other interesting thing is that when asked about metrics most of these social web experts don’t have an answer and actually believe that if you are asking about metrics, reach, usage or any other factors that we use to measure media performance then you just don’t get it. Coz the social web is so innately brilliant, so amazingly awesome that it just doesn’t require measurement and scrutiny. They use words like authentic, community, and engagement as if this had only just been invented or thought about. Do me a favour - marketers have been thinking about these basic elements since well marketing was invented durr.