I had, awhile back, compiled a list of what i thought social media was not. This morning while exchanging tweets, Beth Harte mentioned that Amber Naslund had just dropped a post on what social media isn't, which led me to thinking: "why don't we create a list of what social media is not"! There are so many lists and blog posts out there that are touting what it is, that maybe we should clarify and quantify what it is not. I would like this to be a continuous work in progress and need everyone to contribute as little or as much as possible. So here goes:
From Search Marketing Gurus we have the following:
- Social Media Isn't: Easy
- Social Media Isn't: Fast
- Social Media Isn't: A Substitute for Sound SEO Practices
- Social Media Isn't: A Substitute for Sound PPC Practices
- Social Media Isn't: A Practice to be Done by Interns
- Social Media Isn't: Another Place to Distribute Your Press Release
- Social Media Isn't: Something That Will Work if Your Site is "Broken"
- Social Media Isn't: Something To Send Out Mass Emails For
- Social Media Isn't: Something You Can Do Without Participation
- Social Media Isn't: Something You Can Do in Disguise
Courtesy of Rachel Happe we have: 11. Social media is not community
B.L. Ochman says that:
12. Social media isn't a one-shot deal
13. Social media isn't a technique
14. It's not a short-term project
15. It's not an experiment,
16. It's not an event,
17. It's not a quick fix. and
18. It's not something you throw money at.
Brian Solis tells us that Social media is not:
19. The final frontier
Robert Young from GigaOm, mentioned 2 years ago that
20. Social Media is not Mass Media.
Is that still true? I think it's not true any longer, nor might have never been. Its perhaps a function or channel of mass media though, or slowly becoming that.
John Gray writing for imediaconnection wrote that:
21. Social media is not just for kids, and I'm down with that!
Don Schindler from Media Sauce Blog tells us that:
22. Social media is not advertising or
23. It's not marketing, it's about connections.
Ike Piggot over at the Now is Gone blog mentions that,
24. Social media is not a commodity.
According to the Deal,
25. Social media is not the next bubble. But that was 3 years ago.
26. Social media is not a direct response marketing channel according to the 10e20 blog
27. Social Media may not be all that it's cracked up to be, this from Jennifer Laycock over at searchengineguide. What the hell does "all that it's cracked up to be" actually mean? I never really understood that statement.
28. Social media is not about Links, this from Li Evans
29. For teens, social media is not technology, it's life!
30. Social media is not a free for all, thanks Luke Armour
Brian Magierski mentions that:
31. Social media is not just another marketing channel.
Laura Porto Stockwell believes that
32. Social media is not new
Thanks in part to Scoble we know that Social Media is not:
33. Newspapers
34. Magazines
35. Television
36. Radio
37. Books
38. CDs
39. DVDs
40. A box of photos
50. Physical, paper mail and catalogs and
51. Yellow Pages
And here are mine:
52. Social media is not up to them, it is up to you and your voice
53. Social media is not predicated on many to many
54. Social media is not one to one, but it can be.
55. Social media is not closed to anyone
56. Social media is not calm, sedate, unresponsive.
57. Social media is not passive
58. Social media is not laryngitis
59. Social media is not mainstream, yet
60. Social media is not static
And here are Amber Naslund's:
61. Social media is not Show and Tell
62. Social media is not a Popularity and Numbers Contest
63. Social media is not a Silver Bulllet
64. Social media is not just for "Experts"
Ok so I think 64 is a pretty good start. What am I missing here? Feel free to add yours or, feel free to tell me where some of these might actually be wrong. Let's talk about it!