This past December, I went to an intramural basketball game to see my friend’s son play. In the second game of the day, he scored the winning shot at the buzzer.
It was an awesome moment, and we all felt very proud of him. Later that day, his parents addressed the fact that while that was a great moment, it didn’t warrant him calling himself a “Young [insert famous basketball player here]“ all day.
I chimed in and said that he should just keep doing what he’s doing and when people recognize his talent and hard work without him calling attention to it, it will mean a lot more.
That conversation with an 11-year-old is one that I feel the need to have with a lot of professionals in the social media/digital marketing field.
2011 was a great year for the social media, community management and the digital marketing field as a whole. In my opinion, it was the year that the fact that social media is not just a passing thing was recognized. Businesses finally started to accept the fact that it needs to be incorporated into their communications and marketing strategies.
2011 brought the fall of a few online networks, as well as the the new Facebook and Twitter (And all the complaints that come with change).
2011 was also the year of the buzz word. You couldn’t click through 3 profiles without seeing the word “ninja”, “guru”, “maven”, and other, hmm, creative titles people gave themselves. Some have these as their professional titles on their business cards. In my opinion, these self-proclaimed buzz word titles are only hurting our profession, not helping it. You give love social media a bad name.
Imagine you have a 75-year-old, conservative organization, and the current president has been in charge for the past 15 years. As your communications department tries to explain to him the benefits of why the organization should incorporate social media to their strategy, all your president sees are a bunch of people on Twitter calling themselves “Social Media Ninjas.”
How can we expect to be taken seriously if we’re not taking ourselves seriously?
You love doing what you do? Great. Show your love for it by learning, trying, failing, and trying again.
You want to build your brand? Then be about it. Blog about your opinion, the trends that you see, and whatever it is that makes you passionate about your job.
You want to stand out? Let your voice be heard with a contribution to the conversation instead of becoming yet another bee buzzing around in our ears.
So, how about it folks? Let’s leave the buzz words behind in 2011 and focus on making 2012 the year of authenticity, integrity, and well, you fill in the rest.
What other trends should we leave behind in 2011?
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WordPress wrote about it, as well as Copyblogger and reddit is planning a blackout on January 18th in protest. So it’s pretty major. You should start paying attention, in case you haven’t been. Need a little more help understanding it and how it affects you? Try checking out a post from one (or all) of these 25 brilliant bloggers.
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