A shout out to Lee Wilson at the Education Business Blog who wrote A Contrarian View of Social Media, adding another perspective to my recent rants and SIIA panel discussion about social networking.
Lee quotes Bob Hoffman over at Copyblogger whose post A Cranky, Skeptical Loudmouth Looks at Social Media Marketing bottom lines the distaff view:
You and I are web geeks. We spend way more time than we should looking at computer screens. We are not normal. Especially you. The biggest mistake any marketer can make is marketing to himself, i.e. assuming his customer is just like him. They’re not and they never will be.
No disagreements there, any more than saying all my readers and clients know to walk right and ride left when crossing the Brooklyn Bridge going east, and walk left ride right going west to Manhattan. So social media has taken off, immersive environments are sticky, games can teach and inspire, but neither are any of these necessarily the answer or solution. That takes analysis, and that’s something we can help you with.
[...] but he did ask smart questions, and I appreciate that. But why else do you think I did it? Enjoy the conversation, I’ll [...]