The Buzz Bin

Earlier this year, the Buzz Bin spoke to Idea Grove’s Scott Baradell about Media Orchard’s blog growth and the development of Spin Thicket. Today we touch base with Scott, and find out his thoughts on social media and social networking today, and whether or not his views have changed over the past nine months.

BB: It’s been a while. How has your view of the social media world changed since last March?

SB: I’m as big an advocate as ever, because it’s not going away and in fact is becoming more important every day.  It’s revolutionized and democratized the Web in so many ways.

But as more people have smelled the money in it — particularly those who could care less about anything BUT the money — they have spoiled the fun of it a little bit.  I’ve become more cynical about people’s motivations. But that’s the nature of life in a market economy. Where there’s money to be made, money will be made, until ultimately it becomes more about the money than anything else.

What annoys me most is the hypocrisy I see on a daily basis; it’s pervasive. I see top social networkers giving tips about how to write a blog post so it will do well on Digg, for example, when at the same time they are accepting money to place crap posts on the Digg home page.  They pretend it’s about the quality of the content, when it’s really about influence-peddling. The people who read these tips and take them to heart are suckers. There’s so much petty influence-peddling going on today that it’s kind of sickening.

BB: In your last interview you said, “The geeks who think they rule the world right now are going to get a reality check from big business. The lucky few will get a cashier’s check as well.” More businesses have come online since then but not as rapidly as some have predicted. Do you still feel that way?

SB: Absolutely. What I described has already happened to a large extent. Look at Facebook and YouTube – what are they about today? Making money in any way possible; if you think they stand for anything else, you’re kidding yourself. All the viable social networks are being groomed to be bought up by major corporations, at which point they’ll be about as “authentic” as MTV.

As for all the so-called “rules” about blogging (how to do it, who can do it, etc.) – they are being completely ignored by most companies who blog. All the geeks said, “No, you can’t ghost blog.” But guess what? It’s prevalent. Just look at all the ads on the Web for ghostbloggers. It’s happening all around you.

Frankly, I have no problem with ghostblogging; I see it as a natural extension of how companies prefer to communicate. You’re never going to have the bulk of CEOs suddenly decide that it’s worth an hour of every day for them to write a personal note and post it on their Web site. Any geek who preaches that nonsense is an idiot, a naïve kid, or a charlatan.

BB: 2007 has seen the rise of Facebook. What do you think of the network?

SB: I think it’s a perfect example of the hypocrisy I’m talking about.

BB: What about Beacon?

SB: That engagement ring story was a little freaky. But you know what? You better get used to it. I think “Minority Report” made some brilliant predictions –- not about the future of crime-fighting, but about the future of marketing.

BB: How about Spin Thicket?  How is it going?

SB: It’s an idealistic venture. About a year ago, after getting several of my posts on the home page of Fark and Digg and seeing traffic explode, I had an epiphany. I thought, “Here I am, getting 100,000+ hits for a single post – and why? Because it’s my best post? No — It’s because a single gatekeeper or a small online clique said it is.” So I thought, what if I could create a community site for people with interests similar to mine, where submitters didn’t have to worry about being “greenlighted” or making the home page?

I think the more people become disenchanted with other options — the more they realize how the sausage is made on most of these sites — the more they’ll appreciate Spin Thicket. But that’s the idealist in me, I guess. They say inside every cynic is a frustrated idealist, and I’m probably one of the more hard-headed examples of that.

BB: You have rededicated efforts to Media Orchard.  Are you enjoying  it?

SB: I had to figure out what I wanted to do. I think Todd Andrlik is probably the closest thing to what I was doing before, and his blog is excellent. But I was ready to try something a little different. So I’ve decided to skip most of the direct commentary, and the direct involvement in blog conversations, and to be a little more obtuse. Just go with things that I find amusing, and if other people don’t get it, or don’t like it, then screw ‘em.

BB: What’s next for Scott Baradell?

SB: Right now, I’m going downstairs to grab a beer.