Comments on: Hitchhiker’s Guide to Social Media: Internet Fame

By: friarminor

friarminor — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:57:10 +0000

Next topic, Geoff please… I think I swallowed my throat as I am neither popular nor sensible – not that I aspire to be but can’t help saying to myself ‘leverage’ for the shallowness of it all and in the name of a good cause.

Best.
alain
mor.ph

By: Jenn Mattern

Jenn Mattern — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:10:40 +0000

Nicely summed up Geoff. So much of online popularity is completely shallow these days. I wish more of it were actually based on substance, but not sure that will (or can) ever really happen (with a few exceptions). Looks like a good series shaping up – slap some sense into this social media space.

By: Meghan Whelan

Meghan Whelan — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:42:05 +0000

“When everyone is somebody, then no one’s anybody.” -W.S. Gilbert

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:24:17 +0000

Kyle: We definitely were having this conversation last year because there were not a lot of marketing case studies. There are now, but we also have a brand new rash of Internet famous social media experts trying to leverage their notoriety and become corporate marketing consultants.

These guys are killing us… Not just with competition, but then with bad social media. Because they don’t understand companies or corporate communications and marketing they inevitably fail. You can understand the very basic tactics, but without strategy you will fail.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:20:37 +0000

Geoff, love this topic.

Over the past few weeks one thing that has been dragging me down a bit is the fact that folks scream out that we need more proof and case studies. Yet those same people, some part of the “Internet Famous” group and many from the “Social Media Experts”crew, ignore the case studies already on sites like yours, mine and many others. This hit home for me over the past two months as we unveiled many of the results (good and bad) of our use of social media.

Are these folks simply scared that proof of people actually doing this stuff, and not just pontificating, will take away some of their consulting cash or start to dim the shine on their personal branding? Are the “do’ers” a threat to the “talkers”?

I think it is critical at this stage to get the conversation to be around best practices and proof, rather than what tool you use, who “owns” social media or how many subscribers you have on FriendFeed. But this conversation makes me feel a bit like Sisyphus, because I think we were having it 12 months ago.

/kff

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:14:01 +0000

Fair enough, Jen. I agree if Internet fame is applied to an intelligent business plan it can benefit a company a la Gary Vaynerchuk and WineLibrary.tv. But usually that’s not the case. Consider that Julia Allison still doesn’t make money for her company, or even individually from her fame (see WIRED cover story for substantiation). Can you provide some additional examples of where that’s delivered ROI for a company?

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:08:43 +0000

I would disagree that popularity contests do not equal ROI. The more visible you are in some of these online landscapes, the more trustworthy and effective you are in doing your job – if it is indeed involving the online space – and the more people will come knocking on your door, with cash in hand and willing to spend their time and money on you.