I love social media. Hell, I wouldn’t have the job I do if I didn’t. But even though my heart gets all a glow when some one mentions twitter in the real world, it doesn’t mean I have to get my head stuck in the “social media is the best damn thing in the universe” clouds. Recently I’ve seen these nebulous wisps everywhere and I have to admit it’s hard not to get stuck. In cloud land- the view is unilateral. There’s no need for purpose, or business cases, or actual skills beyond “awesome content generator.” And while being an content creation King (Queen) may be amazing, we can only have so many of them. Right now, it almost seems like the market is saturated with “creators” who have failed to develop any other not-so-social-media-specific skills. This soon will cause a problem.
Recently I chatted with my co-worker about his career. I’ll admit, I was driving him to explore social media more. His response? “For something to work there needs to be BOTH soldiers and generals. Generals know the strategy and the space, soldiers push forward on those orders overcoming obstacles with out looking back to question. Anna, I’m right now I’m a soldier.” This analogy forced me to stop and think. Not everybody needs to be a “thought leader” to make a difference. Plus, if we were all thought leaders nothing would ever get done. Ever. Social media takes up too much time.
And, if your entire work force is spending their work day tweeting, facebooking and etc (even if it is about work stuff), where would they have time to do their job? Who would be the faithful soldier fighting the good fight for progress? They’d be too busy debating the ins and out of social media within their industry & strategizing to actually create the necessary inroads into the businesses, services, and the other areas social media will inevitably continue support. And the bonds soldiers, such as my coworker, are building are critical. Without those inroads social media could become a stand alone item, rather than an integrated portion of how we look at the communications landscape.
So lets hear it for the soldiers of social media. Sure they may not have a bajillion followers on twitter. They may not roll out with Chris Brogan & B. Solis on the weekend eating bacon and washing it down with champagne. And- shock- they may not even have a personal Facebook page. But at the end of the day, they fight the good fight, push things forward, and get way less credit then they deserve. They may not be social media gurus, but the understand its importance enough to fight wholeheartedly for it and never look back. That, frankly, is a dedication to progress that is too rarely rewarded in our industry.
