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The Church of Social Media
Oh, that IS funny. I've long been saying that what is driving business use of social media is a combination of "hype and hope", plus the somewhat irrational (not supported by data, evidence, logic) belief or faith that social media works. In short, it's a religion, a movement based on faith, not generalizable results.
So, I saw reference to a blog post entitled Converting the Disengaged to the Church of Social Media by David Ryan. It has this great picture of a bible with a usb port, which is actually far better than the article content, but oh that title. Inadvertently David hit this right on the head. It's about converting and it's about faith, and it's about Church, and the only thing he left out is that it's about bulls***.
Pity. But it IS funny. Take a look at it if you have a moment.
Here's my comment on the blog:
This post inadvertently hit the nail on the head by virtue of the reference to the Church of Social Media. That is it exactly. Those IN the church do so on the basis of faith and belief, not facts and data, and describe those outside of the church as people who do not "get it, the one true way".
That's typical of religions, we know, you don't, and I'll tell you it's all both insulting and wrong. The reason many reject social media as business tool is that the data to support it over other alternatives is either very poor, misinterpreted, or completely absent, and if you actually look for them, you will find thousands of businesses who have tried social media, failed at it and quietly left. Nobody talks about those.
That's not to say that social media is useless. It has uses, but not even close to what the reverends contend. That will become evident in the next few years. It's based on hype and hope just the way it was in the 90′s for the web in general. By and large the claims and hopes were bogus then, as were the business models,and thousands of people suffered as a result.