As any market matures, service providers fight for an increasingly crowded marketplace position. Asserting market leadership becomes more difficult, so service providers start carving specialized niches within verticals. The classic example of this Darwinistic evolution remains Southwest Airlines serving air travelers with one cabin; rather than first, business, economy plus, and economy.
In social media, it’s said that 60,000 self-professed social media experts reside on Twitter. Whether the number is correct is irrelevant, the marketplace for social media services has evolved to the point that we now have vertical experts. Consider the following:
- Beth Kanter is the number one social changeblogger
- Mark Drapeau has become the recognized government 2.0 guru
- Andre Blackman continues to forge his path in Health 2.0
- Patrick Riccards is an education specialist
We’ve seen this trend within our own walls at CRT/tanaka. While we have a social media group — what was Livingston Communications — in the last six months social has become diffused across the line and into our verticals. Susannah George has become our go to for travel social media. Jenn Riggle is our lead on public health 2.0. Timothy Wood is our social media tools guy. Jason Stemm and Pia Finkell are our food and spirits pros.
Verticalization amongst teams is common in traditional PR and ad agencies. Yet, I find it interesting to observe the social media evolution in the marketplace and in our house. What do you think? Is the era of verticalization upon us?
Great post Geoff. I think it will be very interesting to see if companies/brands decide to implement new verticals into their model using Social Media. I think it’s going to be (and should be) an emerging trend for companies and individuals who are smart and innovative.
Enjoyed your post. I do think the era of verticalization is upon us. Seems like a natural development as more people work for longer periods in the field. This will lead to a bit more truth in advertising, too, so far as resumes go. “Social-media expert” has long struck me (and plenty of other people) as much, much too general. It’s easier for employers to examine a specific claim to expertise, “Health 2.0 specialist” for example, so the development ought to be welcomed.
I think once the economy starts to get more of its mojo back this will definitely become the norm. Social business models are coming on full force. Soon every department will be utilizing the technologies to their benefit and thus creating a bit more vertical silos.
I do think it will be a shorter cityscape though. Horizontal models have just worked to well not to consider.
Hmmm…like this post and have experienced the evolution to our firm’s voices joining in via the verticals you mention. I’m particularly interested in how our clients see this expertise. The balance between functional skills of the generalist and the specialist skills related to industry are converging in social media. Knowledge of both the tools and of the subject matter is critial, but nothing can compete with that subject matter knowledge most clients seek. Being extremely focused on the client’s industry helps in flawless delivery of service, and social media interactions have become indispensible tools for learning the vertical spaces and creating that focus.
Very astute observation. This is a trend every healthy organization should consider.
Thanks for the hat tip. It is fascinating to watch the education vertical as it navigates new and social media. For the most part, the sector is still very old school, but recognizes that they “absolutely have to be” on one platform or the next. As a result, too many lump new media and social media together, thinking a blog or a Twitter account is the answer to all of their communications yearnings. Hopefully, education can continue to learn from those who came before it.
That’s exactly the direction that Becky McCray and I are going; social media, but specifically focused on how to use it in tourism and destination marketing.
We didn’t call it “verticalization” though – it was more like sitting down at SOBCon09 and asking each other, “What do we know really well and who else would like to know it?”
Thanks for putting another name to what we did! :)
After almost 10 years in the health care industry, I know now that it took me two years just to know what it is I didn’t know. Health care reform has only added to that learning curve. But certain industries have relied on verticalness – health and tech come to mind. I think the new trend is the verticalness affecting areas that were before considered “generalist” material.