Every time I turn around, another list is out documenting a set of, “Minnesota’s Social Media Innovators/Leaders/Those That Have Moved The Needle.”
In all truth, the fact that Social Media has come so far that we are cognizant enough to celebrate each other is an achievement in itself. How many years did we spend trying to get some sort of recognition and attendance at the first events? We however do need to question one thing: Has the focus moved to popularity versus helping the entire community thrive? When did it get so….. competitive?
Perhaps it’s the title or the one-label-fits-all, mentality which has me shaking my head. Some of the people on these lists are more than just innovators or needle movers, they started the trend here in the Twin Cities and I have them to thank. Other people, UTILIZE social media well for their business. And Meghan Wilker and Nancy Lyons? They just knock my stilettos off with whatever they do. I call them just plain, awesome. Erica Mayer keeps me smiling with her fantastic attitude and gorgeous photos. See? Maybe, that’s it. Passionate users of Social Media have paved the way for everyone to follow and in truth, we are eternally grateful. But they aren’t just innovators. By throwing the title of ‘Innovators’ only to those 11? We leave out other fantastic people and send the wrong message.
It’s turning into a popularity contest even though we don’t mean for it to be so. We are less focused on remaining a tight-knit community with each list that comes out. I’ve heard ripples and divides between those who made a list and those who did not. Last year the list was a nighmare and people were hurt/angry/divided. I remember asking someone, “It’s just a list, right?” We need to stop putting our leaders on a pedestal to emulate when what makes Social Media divine in the first place is the power of individuality and personal branding on all content platforms. Although, I’ll take Meghan Wilker’s wardrobe any day. (Please?)
We put our friends on our ‘Best of Lists,’ and then they put us on theirs and SEO is happy because our name comes up with a gold star. This is high school. This is sad. For us to be the best community we need to be? We need to celebrate others, too and stop the labels. The sad thing is, the most recent list by @ArikHanson, only features 11. It’s becoming a little exclusive and silly. Some of the same people were on the list, others weren’t and there is a severe lack of change.
Recognition is a powerful tool that’s not only needed to learn best practices, but can prove to be fatal to our community if overdone. The last thing I want to see is a, “Good ‘Ole Boys Club,” here in the Twin Cities Social Media scene. Reading through the comments under the article reaffirmed my belief that the pretentiousness of back-slapping thanks and personal shared victory has come to a head.
We all need to get over ourselves a bit, and celebrate people for what they have done, not grouping them under ‘innovators’ and leaving good people out. We’re hurting ourselves by labels when these community leaders are so much more and others, haven’t received credit they deserve, (@JoelECarlson, @MNHeadhunter, @FooteNotes, @StevenLadin, @LuLuGrimm, merely to name a few.)
Weigh in, tell me what YOU think.
Are we hurting ourselves and short-sighting the Social Media thought leaders and community by labeling the same people yearly as Innovators and forgetting about others?
Aren’t you sort of creating your own “list” by calling out names yourself?
I think we’re at the point where we can all collectively agree that there are tons of social media innovators out there. We recognize the people that we interact with on our “best of” lists. I think it’s time to shift the lists into more meaningful definitions. Is this person particularly great at meshing social media into nonprofits or the corporate world? Do they promote healthy living or workplace organization? These are lists people can actually use! I’m always interested in who is listed on someone’s “Mental Health Resources” lists, but when 3/4 of Twitter is marketing savvy, social media “experts” it starts to turn into the cool kids club–and everyone has a different idea of who’s cool.
Rachel,
Your comments are always spot on. I have no list, I just wanted to mention people I frequently see missed who don’t deserve a label but deserve so much more. I completely agree: We need to focus on what they are KNOWN for- more meaningful definitions. I love it. Thank you~!
Kate,
I completely agree with you. This social media community is filled with wonderful talent (heck, the SMBMSP founders seem to have no lack of panelists or speakers for their events), but do we really need to be patting ourselves on the back for how wonderful we are? I agree that Erica Mayer is an amazing philanthropist and the Geek Girls are just absolutely amazing, but what purpose does this solve by putting them on the same list over and over, and never seeing the new or other up and coming “stars” of social media?
There are people constantly putting their heart soul on the line like the above mentioned that may never see the spotlight shined on them because they don’t fit in that “popular crowd”. I get that they’re our friends and that they’re amazing and they deserve some commendation, but instead of ranking them in a little list, get them on a blog post, feature their talents. Give us an idea as to why they’re so amazing, and then try to find some new social media enthusiast who may just be making a little ripple in the midst of giant waves. Instead of just patting ourselves on the back for being so amazing, let’s foster and mentor the “next generation” of social media butterflies. If their ideas and innovations are given support, we may be tweeting with the next Chris Brogan or Rick Mahn. But if we continue to just group those we know into a small little box of the same achievers, we will never allow ourselves to grow and learn from the new talent that is arising.
Kate:
If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know I love list posts. But, unlike others, I don’t necessarily develop them entirely for the “Google juice.” I do them to shine the light on others and the remarkable work they do each day. In fact, I wrote an entire guest post about this very subject for my friend, Gini Dietrich recently: http://www.spinsucks.com/blog/blog-list-posts-popularity-contests-or-effective-community-building-tools/
I actually thought this particular list was a little different than your garden-variety list post in that I tried to feature people who really moved the needle here in MN. People who aren’t just paying lip service to this stuff–but have take action and gotten real results.
Now, I’ll agree, there are certainly more than 11 people who have moved the digital needle in 2010, but these were my 11 choices. Nothing more–nothing less. That’s why I asked folks to add their additions in the comments. Hope you’ll consider adding a few of your choices above along with the results/impact they’ve had on the MN community in the last year.
And, Diane, I completely agree that we could and should shine the light more on those “up-and-comers” out there (mentoring younger pros is a huge focus on mine, so I am acutely aware of this). A few that come to mind for me, at least locally are: Lisa Grimm (agree with you both here), Katie Schutrop, Kasey Skala, Kristin Gast and Heidi Bobier, just to name a few.
@arikhanson
Arik,
Thank you so much for weighing in. The piece was a reflection of all the lists over the past year who have featured the same labels, ideas and most of all, the same people. There is no doubt in my mind that most of the people on the list deserve recognition. My basis is: How much is too much? Are we giving the same recognition to some, while leaving recognition out for others?
And your list posts are fantastic, which is one of the reasons I’m an avid reader of your articles and guest posts. However, I think more attention needs to be paid on helping the community grow and stopping the popularity contests. I’m actually surprised you posted a ‘best of’ post after your guest post. I don’t see recognition posts simply as ‘link bait,’ but I also don’t see value in recognizing the same people for the same accomplishments. We need to GROW and evolve as a community. Leaders are honing skills and developing daily.
Rachel had an amazing point: How can we find a “Chris Brogan,” or any other leader we respect by simply emulating or forgetting about the rest of the fantastic leaders out there? We should be acknowledging the new and different and encouraging it’s growth.
I think Diane’s concern wasn’t just up and coming PR people, but others involved with Social Media as well. You’ve done a lot of good for the #HAPPO movement, and I applaud you. There are many, many others involved in our Social Media scene who don’t get recognition because they often do not fit the ‘mold’ of PR or Marketing. Joel Carlson is one example.
No one is saying you’re the one who ‘broke’ the good of lists. It’s just bad timing after the other lists that have come out this month. Maybe we’re all just ‘listed-out.’
I’m bored every time I see a TOP, BEST, SUPERSTARS list, but I still look at it. I guess part of me is hoping to see some new gems or someone that I haven’t heard about. Perhaps if the content was different than any other summary of these people … more details, a different angle or bits we don’t know … then it would be solid.
I also can’t fault anyone creating content for putting these posts together, heck I’ve done a few of the numerical nature as it simplifies and does attract readers, tweeters and searchers. I also know that Arik puts out some solid content on his blog on a regular basis, no small feat.
Maybe you just nominated yourself for the “10 People You Don’t Know But Should In Social Media” post that will breathe some fresh air into it for all of us. Regardless, thanks for sharing your opinion Kate, that’s the cool part here.
Twitter Trackbacks…
…
Aaron,
I agree with your comment about Arik’s solid content. I’m a follower of his blog and twitter feed. Lists help us dwindle down the importance of issues to bite-sized pieces. People, however just aren’t bite-sized, (…thank goodness?) I love the idea that we need to look into different content and tidbits about people. I don’t know if another list is the answer, but I do know that as with anything that gets a communication started, we grow, we develop and ultimately we get BETTER for having spoken to each other.
Thanks!
I think the key is in your tweet, where you stated “does social media help US grow”. There is a small group of people that are very talented and very active on twitter from MSP. Heck, I’m sure I follow them all for that reason. However, as an “outsider” it does seem that a small group of about 10-20 people just list each other whenever a recognition opportunity is available.
As a neophyte user of social media I don’t pretend to know all that it can do. I’m sure sharing ideas and supporting one another is very beneficial to the PR community. But how do you break out of that tight knit circle on twitter to real, comprehensive solutions to community problems? Erica Mayer does it for philanthropic reasons with great success. (True confessions I copied her and jumped on the @TCManwalking water bottle drive) But if social media is suppose to “connect” it seems it should also be used to connect to people to civic issues, organizations and legislation. Those are the tweeters who, in my mind, would be leveraging social media to it’s fullest.
I’m probably not diverse enough with my selections on people to follow. I bet I am a bit heavy on PR types so perhaps I just need to broaden my own horizons!
Just some thoughts on your post from a newbie who isn’t in PR and Marketing….
I, personally, hate most “best” lists, because I’m not big on self congratulations or idolization of the latest or most popular stars. Running down a list of names with little to no justification beyond “just because” or “they know everyone” or “someone I think is cool thinks they’re cool, and I wanna be cool, too” serves no point unless you’re interested in popularity contests, and I’m not. This goes for most Follow Friday recommendations as well.
This problem isn’t a social media thing and not just MSP; it’s every profession and industry and locale. I worked in telecom PR for years and lists were nothing but a political game (one dominated by white men in blue suits with red ties *shivers*). But it seems that, as of late, it’s really hit social media/public relations/marketing hard, perhaps because of SMs newness and intrinsic community appeal. I’ve witnessed a whole lot of “seen and be seen” going on, as well as a lot of sucking up.
Influence is relative to the world in which one exists. Thus, I’d like to see lists transition to areas of interests and reasons why outsiders should care. One example related to SM: I have clients who joined Twitter just this week who would benefit from a list of the venture capitalists that are the most accessible via SM (and who they invest in), because those are some of the people that directly impact their world. They probably already know a lot of these people personally IRL, but putting recommendations into this kind of context and encouraging them to engage the people they care about may mean the difference between them buying into using SM personally in the long run.
This is true for a lot of people. It’s shouldn’t just about telling the popular kids about how great other popular kids are; it should be about welcoming newbies into the conversation by inviting them to engage with people they’ll be genuinely interested in engaging with or learning from.
There are some REALLY AWESOME people making a difference via SM (and in PR/MKG in general), especially here in the Twin Cities, many of who go overlooked because their actions, connections, smarts make things happen in the background. But they still have influence and importance, and their absence on the medium would be missed. Let’s shine a light on them, too, and explain their reach.
Sorry for the rant; this has been a pet peeve of mine since long before SM came around (luckily I went to an East Coast film school where we were allowed to hate Oscar winners!). Is it human nature?
[exit soap box]
BTW, I’d totally kill for Meghan’s wardrobe, too.
And, I need to stop it already with the quotation marks and emoticons!
Jo
I am a Community Manager for a large online media group. I have experience with many major metropolitan social media communities. There are many extremely talented people in the Minneapolis/St. Paul social media community. This community has to be one of the most dynamic, yet competitive social media communities. I cannot speak as to why because I am not a resident of the area and have only visited. My experience comes strictly from following online activity. The lists within your community have been wielded as a weapon merely based personal agenda and not as a tool used to promote the collective good. From an outsider’s perspective, the counterproductive behavior is very apparent online and and dare I say petty. A step back and examination of the community in it’s entirety by each of it’s members would give a better perspective of what is so great and weak about the Minneapolis/St. Paul social media community, providing a catalyst for change.
Ok, maybe I have no business commenting here because my cohort and I are on the list in question, but I had to throw this out there. I struggle with what sometimes feel like a kind of exclusivity in social media. In fact, I’ve been sitting on a blog post that is more about the social broadcasting and less about the lists and labeling, but there is a similar sort of emotional response at the heart of it. Because every conversation is amplified and on view for public consumption I think it’s easy to feel like you’re on the outside looking in. I admit I find myself thinking things that are so out of character for me — ‘Why wasn’t I invited to that happy hour?’ or ‘Wow, all those people got together and I’m not there?’ or ‘Another list and I’m not on it.’ I just posted today (on Facebook) about how Facebook can feel like high school and it sort of stinks. Perspective is an amazing thing. But when I really stop to think about it, my emotional reaction in these instances says more about me than it does about the list or the event. And I have to try to get back to the spirit of the tweet or the blog post. No one posts a list to hurt anyone, or to glorify anyone. They post because they are inspired or intrigued or excited. And, unfortunately, there will ALWAYS be someone left out. Whether it’s a list for newcomers kicking ass in social media or @irishgirl going to a pool party without me (it’s ok – I’m out of town ANYWAY). Someone always has to be the uninvited. The fact that we’re human means that will never feel good. So what do we do? We create our own lists. We honor those people who inspire us. We have more happy hours. We invite more people over for dinner. We use social media for what it’s meant to be — a tool that facilitates connections and conversations — just like this one. Thanks, Kate, for being brave enough to post about this. I hope everyone else can see the value in the discussion and, instead of knocking the people on the list and the guy who wrote it, maybe we can just continue to explore ways to honor the good work and writing happening in this community and beyond.
I think @Nylons hit this on the head! It’s about about opening conversations to inviting others into the circle. Perfectly said. I know there is a LOT of anger about this issue, (Jo touched on it well,) along with a few others. We don’t want to be dis-inclusive. Celebrations are great, but we also need to celebrate others.
Let’s keep the discussion going!
If time is money you’ve made me a welathier woman.
Cut Out For Each Other…
[...] sfully builds brands that integrate traditional and new media into an overall strategy that would bl [...]…
I have been thinking a lot about this lately. I remember when the Commodore 64 and 128 were new in 1985. The internet and email had not even been tested in a lab yet.
I went to a “Special Interest Group” in Germany, Someone showed me how to cut the leads on a circuit board in a floppy drive to make it a double density drive so it could write on the other side of the floppy disk.
I don’t remember what leads he told me to cut – I remember his enthusiasm at sharing his knowledge with me. It was more than a meeting, more than a community – it was a place to be understood for his unique passion around technology.
Years later – I remember working at a ‘Large Corporate Retail” IT department. Things had changed. Not technology, attitudes. It was about contests, arrogance and politics, not passion.
Today, that legacy lives on, in Social Media I think. Its coming to a blog near you.
My defense? To remember there are always hip, cool people in any movement. People like yourself who care, really care, about what it can do, what it can mean and what it can change.
For that, I’m eternally grateful to you and others like you. Because you care, you ensure the democracy of technology.
Thanks!
Oh the list by @arik or the critique by @geek I take what @ashton pointed out yet again by someone looking into Minnesota……I could care less about this happy hour or this event or that event (if you want to go to something go), I care even less about lists, well let me correct that, I use these lists for who am I going to connect with or try and connect to others for action.
I think we all have to stop and think of is how is the community here in Minnesota is doing for businesses, civics, and non-profits. Trust me I flow in and out of all these silos (yes they are silos!) people are just putting band-aids on gun shot wounds…..we still have a gusher. Just remember Chris Brogan another person not from here pointed out the fragmentation of our people and initiatives in Jan…..I have yet to see consolidation, collaboration, co-creation or truly revolutionary things happening in Minnesota.
I hope this adds to the discussion, I do believe a little natural conflict in a discussion will bring us to the third solution. The solutions that both people come up together usually is the best one. Thank you to all have the courage and bravery to publicly disagree this is a huge step to really change things.
@keithprivette
I’m a recent grad just trying to learn more about the PR industry and I really enjoyed this. Keep up the great job!
As someone “added” for consideration, I appreciate the thought.
Some of the “misses” or “overlooked” people can also show how vast the group is that contributes to the “Social Media Picture”. Someone who didn’t make the list could be VERY innovative but have little or no time because of all of their work for a company or client, to Tweet, post on a blog or on Facebook, and so nobody knows much of them. Does that lessen their value? It shouldn’t.
Lists can be fun, but they can be a limited gauge of reality. Any poll that you see on TV generally has a plus or minus percentage as to accuracy. Then you have to think, how many people responded to the poll, is it a true cross section of people, and who are they?
Good results are the real indicators of innovation, not a list.