Posts tagged seo

I am going to take a brief (read-1 post) departue from my covering of tech and geeknees to bring something that I try not to up-the state of social media, the web, and MSP.

I have been doing interactive here in the cities for 2 years now. Throughout this time, I have been observing, listening, and becoming opinionated.

Its time to voice that.

I want you to know that none of this is personal, and none of it means any sort of disrespect. I am simply trying to push everyone to see why they can become. No one is willing to be critical of anyone in this town-I blame MN nice.

People, stop the incessant back-patting and incestuous thought that has dominated the social media world here recently! Honestly, what was the last truly innovative thing that happened? All I have seen recently is people helping companies get on board. There is nothing wrong with this (I do it as a day job, along with other things). However, you are not innovating. You are not at the cutting edge. I challenge you to go into every new client engagement with a clean mind-create their strategy from scratch. It will take a little longer, it may cost a bit more, but unless you do this, you are not doing anything more than anyone else.

I cannot tell you how many posts I have seen that are nothing more than inside baseball bullshit. You are not covering anything new or different, you are just fawning over someone that is doing the exact same thing as everyone else. Sure, their client list may merit some lusting, but really, who has done something recently worthy of hero worship?

Also, if all you do is social media, please be honest with yourself and expand. However, as you are learning, dont try to oversell your skills. I know people that barely know HTML or CSS, let alone PHP or MySQL, calling themselves WordPress experts. No, you are not. Just because you read SEOMoz does NOT make you an SEO, just like you are not a doctor if you watch House.

The idea of a Social Media Expert/Guru/Ninja has really diluted the meaning of that word. Previously, you had to have experience and show results to get those titles. If you are just doing what everyone else is doing, are you really a guru?

I fully admit that I have fallen prey to this before. I used to think that just because I had a bunch of followers, I was an expert. I still see that today.

WRONG.

If you want to really be an expert/guru/ninja, and you really want to separate yourself, ask the tough questions. Don’t settle for just making twitter accounts. Innovate. I promise, if you try something new and fail, you will garner more respect than just sitting on the side, making Fan pages and saying “you should be on foursquare”. The talk about social media here in MSP has gone from a high standard to mindless drivel. Help me change that. I wish that more people asked “whats next.” So many times, people are talking about what is out there. I want to talk about what is coming next, what are we missing, and where is there value? I know that this cannot be all that social media has to offer, but for some reason, the majority is content with playing in this sandbox, rather than exploring others.

Social Media here in the cities needs to grow up. I want to help it, but I can’t do it alone. Push the SMBMSP, TCSMU, and the MIMA founders to go outside the box. Rather than just hold a panel with people doing it the same way, find people who innovate. I don’t mean someone who uses a different tool than someone else, but people who are really using social media in unique ways. Ask people the tough questions. Be a rabble-rouser. This does not mean be negative-this means that you are not blindly jumping on the bandwagon.

I was recently told that someone is making a calendar for social events in the city-just like the one that I used to have up. However, this one has “a year put into it, and the backing from all the major groups.” My response was that if I, a 21 year old college student, can create your massive idea in 2 hours with nothing more than his Mac, and no meetings or funding, is it that good of an idea? Is it worth it?

I know this city (yup, lumping them into Twincy) is overflowing with talent. However, many people are wasting their talents. There is no such thing as a client that you cannot innovate with, or do something cool with. Basically, pull your head out of the cloud, and get hungry. Get hungry to innovate, to push in industry forward, and to do really cool things each day.

Please, people, take this as me pushing you, rather than me hating you. I do not hold ill will toward any interactive here in the city.