The social media bubble: Does it exist and will it burst?

I never thought I'd be interested in hearing about social media from General Motors.

GM's Christopher Barger sat down with ZDNet's Jennifer Leggio and talked about how he handles social media and his thoughts on the future. The interview is a great read, but Barger's comment about a social media bubble really piqued my interest.

Barger says the social media bubble is going to burst just like the dot com bubble a decade ago.

But do we even have a bubble? Is it going to burst?

I completely agree with Barger when he talks about social media "gurus." Most of their advice is absolutely worthless. They define engagement as constant linking and retweeting without any engagement of their followers. These people also believe having thousands of Twitter followers or Facebook fans is the path to success.

These egomaniacs have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. They take advantage of businesses and people to make themselves look good. Those awful books about how to increase your presence on Twitter? These people write them. The 'RT me and get 500 followers' scams? Yep, these gurus are the culprits.

Barger argues the "gurus" will cause the social media bubble to burst.

I don't buy it.

The number of followers, likes and the ridiculous Klout score mean absolutely nothing. Having one million followers means absolutely nothing if there is no interaction and engagement (unless you're already a celebrity in person). But five hundred followers who regularly interact and engage are of great value.

The "gurus" will fall apart when people see through their charade. Sure, some people will fall into their trap and end up not utilizing social media properly. But this happens in business and real life regularly. There are people who think they will get rich fast by selling knives for Vector. I don't think these people are so much creating a bubble as they are taking advantage of unknowledgable social media newbies.

And how awful is the Klout score? If you think the Klout score matters, I'm here to tell you to stop drinking the Kool-Aid. Boiling down social media relationships and engagement into a score makes no sense. You can't put a number on relationships. It's like giving a girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband a score based on dates, intimacy and overall relationship.

"Susan, honey, the relationship score-o-meter says we are only at a 42. We need to boost our sex life, have one more kid and travel to Australia in order to increase our score."

Klout is just ridicuous.

There is no bubble. Even if there was, Barger's only argument for the burst is the proliferation of "gurus." This is hardly enough to make the bubble burst.

However...

There are social media specialists who are actually the real deal, though. These are people who encourage discussion and engagement within the community. They realize social media ROI can't be assigned a simple numeric value, but rather is an analyzation of relationships and discussion monitoring. These specialists provide compelling content and spark discussion with thoughtful ideas.

We shouldn't discount all social media specialists because they are outnumbered by "gurus." There are many specialists who can help people and companies do great things with social media. Just stay clear of those who say you will be a social media opion leader in a week. And the ones peddling a book.

Social Media is 24/7, Coffee Fight and More: News Roundup

Did you hear about that crazy storm shutting down the Midwest this weekend? Guess who was caught in its crosshairs?

Me!

Fortunately, I wasn't one of those stuck on the road in Indiana for over 12 hours. United Airlines canceled my flight from Chicago to Cleveland Sunday afternoon. The only rebooking option was flying the next morning and connecting through Washington D.C.. I hate connecting, but I only had a carry-on so it ended up working out alright (My 3:30AM wake-up call? Not so much fun).

Which brings me to my first subject:


Social Media Doesn't End After Business Hours

United Airlines left their Twitter account completely abandoned when all hell broke loose in the Midwest last weekend. I mean, when your largest hub has over 1000 flights canceled over the course of two days, leaving your social media account unattended isn't the best idea.

It took me an hour and a half on the phone to rebook with United when it canceled my flight on Sunday. I ended up checking my new itinerary online several hours later and my rebooked flight was not showing up on my account. I tweeted United asking if I should be concerned. No response.

I had to call reservations and wait on hold for almost two hours. The man who finally answered said my reservation was there even though I was not able to check in for it online. To be honest, I had my doubts about what he told me since United outsources their call centers and I've known people who had problems with them. Luckily, my reservation actually existed and I was able to get home (after dealing with a surly flight attendant on my 6 AM flight to DC, but that's another story...).

Social media is a 24/7 animal. If an incident happens after regular business hours, it needs to have attention. American Airlines, for example, responded on Twitter about a flight skidding off the runway in Montreal on a Wednesday night immediately. They even beat out the @BreakingNews Twitter account.

United knew a major weather disruption was happening, yet didn't have anyone assigned to their social media accounts. Social media is not a 9-5 job; it's 24/7.

PS: United did end up responding on Monday, after I landed in DC. Their advice was about adding my Mileage Plus number to the reservation, which didn't make much sense.

PPS: My nonexistent economy plus for my return trip has not been refunded yet. Boo.


Coffee Fight!

Starbucks and Kraft are bringing an end to their relationship.

Well, Starbucks is actually kicking Kraft to the curb but Kraft is not leaving without a fight. Starbucks wants to go at it alone on the grocery store front since their VIA product is a huge success. Starbucks wanted to buy Kraft out of their agreement, but Kraft thought the offer was way too low.

The result? A legal battle between Starbucks and Kraft plastered throughout business headlines. Starbucks says Kraft intentionally stymied growth of their coffee in grocery stores. Kraft says Starbucks is making unreasonable demands and wants Kraft to shift focus away from its own Maxwell House coffee.

It's going to be an ugly battle.


Yahoo Rearranges Deck Chairs on the Titanic

Yahoo gave the pink slip to 600 staffers yesterday. This should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone.

Yahoo has no real identity and is not on top like it used to be ten years ago. The company acquires the most random entities (Flickr, Rivals.com, Associated Content, MusicMatch, etc...) and just sits on them. I briefly mentioned this in my post about MySpace.

All Yahoo does is respond to what others do. It hasn't come out with an original, successful idea in a long time. Google won the search engine war. Pandora is better than Yahoo Music. Examiner is more known than Associated Content. Though Flickr and Delicious are probably the most successful Yahoo entities right now. This goes to show a company can't buy its way to success.

If I worked for Yahoo right now, I'd be looking for another job as fast as I could. This isn't the first and it won't be the last round of layoffs. Unless Yahoo can be innovative, it's going to die.

My B2B and social media approach

We all know B2B and B2C marketing and public relations require very different strategies. Most B2B companies can't simply sign up for Facebook and Twitter and automatically attract a legion of loyal followers. If a B2C company has a good product, they'll easily attract fans. If a B2B company has a good product, that can mean nothing in the social media sphere.

Why? Well, if Susie has loves muffins from Muffin Company X, she's very likely to follow them on Twitter and like the company on Facebook. If Susie works for a clothing store and uses a program to help her do inventory in five seconds, while she's happy inventory takes her no time, she won't run off and find the company on social media. Hence the B2B challenge with social media.

I work at a B2B software company right now and I had a big social media dilemma. The consensus I've read is B2B companies aren't sure how to make social media work for them. B2B companies can't give discounts at checkout because pricing is very situational. B2B products often don't get much mainstream attention.

How am I, an entry-level employee right of college, going to use social media to help my company? Besides monitoring industry news and discussion on LinkedIn, how else do I use social media?

It took me a while, but here is how I am approaching social media (LinkedIn is exempt from this strategy since it's already being utilizing):

1) Use social media channels as two-way communication.
This is all about relationship management. I want my company to use social media and engage prospects, current customers and industry players. We need to interact with them and be a good social media neighbor (retweeting, sharing information from others, etc...). Obviously we're not going to promote our direct competitors, but we'll pay attention to the industry magazines, government agencies and other players.

2) Provide compelling content.
There's only so much talking you can do without providing the goods. I want my company to post relevant articles related to our industry. I also provided links to new classes and resources our company provides to customers. New customer case studies will also be content to share.

3) Position company as an opinion leader
My company is pretty well-known in our industry, but we have no social media presence. One of the ways we're going to change this through blogging. I've stated my feeling about blogging before, so I am going to make sure my company doesn't fall into the trap of updating the blog once in a blue moon. My company has people with a ton of industry experience and have fantastic insight to share.

A company can't half-ass their social media effort and expect it to grow overnight. My focus is on cultivating relationships, sharing content and giving our take on the industry. I want the return of investment (ROI) of our social media approach to be better customer, prospect and industry relationships.

This is just the start of my approach. I'm sure it will evolve as time goes on. Does anyone have any advice for a B2B approach to social media? Am I heading in the right direction or am I off my rocker? How do you measure social media ROI as a B2B company?

Even journalists should be media trained

(For my own personal opinion, scroll down to the next bold part.)

Ever since NBC hired Luke Russert as a correspondent in 2008 as a youth vote correspondent, he rarely, if ever, responded to the criticism about getting his position because of the family name. Until now.

Howard Kurtz of The Daily Beast recently interviewed Russert about his life and experience on television. According to Kurtz, NBC is extremely protective of Russert and his ascent into a position at the network. In my opinion, Russert needs to media train himself much better and consent to more interviews if he wants to get rid of the nepotism stigma.

In the article, Russert addressed his critics with:

"The news media is a results-oriented business. I don't think a company like NBC would pay me if I wasn't qualified and wasn't able to produce on this level…

There will always be people who will say, 'Oh, he's only gotten where he is because of his father,' and that certainly helped. But I've been able to stay here because of me."

His answer brushes off criticism and makes him look like a snob: "Yeah, I got this position because of my name. So?"

He can't ignore criticism if it clouds his credentials.

Sarah Palin had questionable foreign policy experience and glossed over it with very media-unfriendly answers ("I can see Russia from my backyard"). Had she addressed the issue more tactfully, the firestorm against her wouldn't have burned so brightly. Russert is just fanning the flames glossing over his credentials.

There are amazing journalists in places like Iowa City, Iowa, Alexandria, La. and Pocatello, Idaho dying for a chance to work for a network. A lot of young reporters barely make enough money to make ends meet. There are journalism grads who held multiple internships and are unemployed. For Russert to not acknowledge the opportunity he has comes across as arrogant; like it's not a big deal.

It's not as if Russert has no prior media experience. He interned at ESPN and hosted a sports show on XM with James Carville, a family friend. Whether these are sufficient credentials to skyrocket straight to a national network is up for debate.

What Russert should have said:

"People who say that have a point, but I'm incredibly grateful for getting this position. I know there are many great journalists who would do anything to be where I'm at. I'm going to make the most of this opportunity."

An answer like this makes him seem humble and gracious. This is how he needs to come across for the albatross of nepotism to go away. He must address criticism head on and discuss the issue. Hiding from it, or only doing softball interviews, just adds fuel to the fire.

Russert, be hardworking, open, honest and gracious and people will stop criticizing you. Humility and a proven track record will turn you into the next Chris Wallace (son of Mike Wallace).

(The rest is my personal opinion. I might get burned for writing this, but I feel like I owe it to the people I know who aren't getting the chances in journalism they deserve.)

When I read The Daily Beast article, I got upset. Very upset.

Journalists are supposed to cut their teeth in smaller markets before they start to move up the chain. Very few ever get the chance to work for a national network. Some never even make it to New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. Luke Russert's position as a NBC correspondent is an insult to those journalists working their butts off, making next to nothing in a small market.

Sure, Russert interned and had a position on an XM radio show about sports. But how this automatically makes him qualified to be a correspondent for a national network makes absolutely no sense. He does not have the experience to be at the national level.

"It's a growth process," he says.

No, the growth process is working in a small town and making sure your writing, reporting and editing skills are excellent. You cover the fires, police beats and fluff stories about adopting puppies. You don't go from no real reporting experience to being a national correspondent. It's unfair and insulting to those who aspire to work on the national level.

In all honesty he's very average. His packages aren't amazing and he told college students in Virginia if they didn't go to UVA, they weren't the smartest. The network is for those who are great, not those who are average.

In my opinion, if Russert covered sports, the backlash against him would be subdued. All of his professional experience is in sports. Just because his dad was a great political reporter and commentator doesn't mean he's qualified as a Washington correspondent.

I mean, just because my dad sells machine parts and my mom is a former teacher doesn't mean I'm qualified to suddenly jump high-up in machine part sales and teaching.

I'm not actively pursuing journalism, so this isn't a selfish rant of why I'm not a national correspondent (actually, I always wanted to be a producer). This is a lament for all my friends who will never get an opportunity like this because their last name isn't famous.

And it's a damn shame.

(A lot of my opinion could be directed at AG Sulzberger, son of New York Times owner Arthur Sulzberger, as well)