Author: Alasdair Munn

tcg: The Communication Group

People, myself included, like to talk of shifts in ideology and the complexities that go with transitions from an older, more predominant ideology towards a newer, more relevant one. I’m not sure this achieves much other than producing a smug group of self-labelled enlightened ones and a larger group of people who don’t really care and don’t see the point of changing in any case.

The problems with self-labelling are all too evident. A couple of months back there were a plethora of blogs and discussions within social media circles as to what makes someone a social media expert. A great question and one that cannot be adequately resolved as social media is a vast discipline with many nuances and parts. Who can really define what is essentially a fluid ideology, changing faster than it can be documented? Even if we can and do document it, what are we measuring it against?

So it is a bit like getting hold of a pilots uniform, swatting up a few technical terms such as landing gear, flaps, ADF and HASELL check, walking onto a plane and announcing “Good day I’ll be your pilot today”. However in this case we have not completely defined which airplane it is yet. (I agree not the best example but I’m hoping it will paint a picture)

Are we, as self labelled social media practitioners helping to create the problem? Should we be less frustrated with the pace of change and stop waiting for people to catch up? Should we be seeking labels and descriptions that make sense to the people we are selling our services to rather than ones that alienate them further? Listening to them, understanding their concerns and finding out their objectives would be a great starting point.

I just get the sense that not enough is being done by the “enlightened ones” to close the gap. After all, most of the frustration about the slow pace of change originates from the people who are paid to effect that change.

Photo by Darren Hester