The Daily Blagica

I don't think it's a matter of local communities not getting or wanting social media. It's not rocket science to understand how the tools work, and it's easy to understand that they help you connect with people. In my eyes it's that the value proposition of using social media still hasn't been defined well enough to "fully embrace" the tools. There are not YET enough use cases of success such that the majority of people will know what to do with the tools, and why.

The confusion, I think, stems from the fact that people are still trying to measure everything by the dollar. And, the value, will be best identified when a non-cash currency is used to evaluate this value. Currently, if they don't see a way to directly 'monetize' their time spent on social media platforms, they give up.

What I'd like to see more of is measuring input to social media with another output than dollar bills (ya'll). Whether it's knowledge sharing, awareness, or whatever it needs to be developed in such a way that it's easy to understand and communicate to a broader audience.

Now the challenge, defining that currency. I'll have to get back to you on that.

Thanks for the comment, Ryan!

I do think there is a slew of folks that still don't get what social media is. Yep, I agree that there is a curiosity floating about, but the way in which the media and geeks like us explain the tools seems far fetched to most everyday people.

Let's take a conversation I had with my mom:

'What's Twitter?'
'A way to connect with folks around the world'
'How do you use it?'
'Well, I put a message in 140 characters from either my computer or iPhone'
'Why 140 characters?'
'That's the limit'
'Oh, but you talk alot, that's not going to work'
'Well mom, you see, there are ways to shorten the messages and I find out about news, events and even store discounts'
'I don't want people knowing what I'm doing all the time. That's weird. Want a cuppa coffee?'
'Ok'

:)

How about this...

I was in China, told my non Twittering fiance that I wouldn't be able to txt or call much because I don't have an int. cell phone. Then I said, I could Twitter, so now she uses twitter.

Game over.

My sense is that, outside of the "bubble" you reference, most people really don't understand the opportunities that social media provide. They get stuck thinking about it within an old-school advertising or direct marketing context, thinking that when they do x, they should be able to immediately drive sales (for example) , and when that doesn't happen, they feel let down by the effort and give up. They need to be shown the potential for establishing, developing and managing relationships, and how that investment of time and effort will ultimately pay back in spades, as the network effect helps multiply the impact of their efforts ... but many give up too soon, or won't even try.