Throwing Out the Social Media Rulebook

Far too many of my colleagues who share a passion for the social media space treat this new media world more as a religion than as an art. Attending conferences, reading blogs, listening to podcasts, and talking at meetups will reveal rule after rule that many think cannot be broken in order for an activity to qualify as legitimate and successful.

I’m here to tell you that most of the rules are bunk, and we as an industry to ourselves a disservice by frightening off potential participants with absurd proclamations of the way things must be.

Here, then, are a few of the rules that just make no sense.

1. It Isn’t a Blog Without RSS. Go ask someone outside of the tight social media circle you play in and ask them if they use an RSS reader. If you don’t get a blank stare or a quizzical look, count it as a victory even when they say “no.” The fact of the matter is that RSS belongs to the uber-geek set. Yes, some tools are making this easier, but you would be surprised to learn that even some social media mavens (don’t force me to name names, you know who you are) still use things like Firefox bookmarks to read blogs.

2. It Isn’t a Blog Without Comments. Hogwash. Do comments often make blog posts better? Absolutely. Can you learn things from reading them that you might not have learned from the original post? Sure. Do comments help build a relationship between reader and author? Of course. But you can have a great blog without comments. Marc Andreesen of Netscape fame pens a fantastic example, but the zealots would dismiss it as inauthentic. And note how this idea clashes with the previous rule the zealots profess about RSS - when you read a blog via RSS you don’t even see the comments.

3. The Press Release is Dead. Sorry, Tom Foremski and friends, but the press release is here to stay. That’s not to say you should be emailing bloggers with press releases, but traditional media still do use them, when delivered appropriately and targeted correctly. Like most communications tools, the press release will continue to evolve, but it’s not time to drop it from the arsenal.

4. The Social Media Release is King. I know Todd Defren will think “heresy!” when he reads these words, but the social media release ain’t nothing but a press release served up in chunks rather than in story fashion. As someone who consumes such releases for use on some of the media sites I publish, I actually like the story ones better. Either way, the SMR is at best evolution, not revolution.

5. It’s All About Conversation Not Messages. The word “conversation” has a very nice ring to it. It sounds egalitarian and idealistic, especially when applied to corporate marketing behavior. But ultimately social media campaigns are - and should be - about the message. Companies don’t control the message today any more than they did in the past. But to suggest that corporations or non-profits or political campaigns should be prepared to start a conversation and not try to guide it in such a way as to deliver a specific message is both naïve and wrong.

6. The Customer Controls the Relationship. No, I’m not a Cluetrain disciple. That may put me in a fraternity of one among my social media evangelist colleagues, but I call’em like I see’em. The Cluetrain Manifesto offers many good ideas and some provocative thinking but the notion that customers are in charge is off base. Customers have always had a significant impact on companies and they will continue to do so. They provide the ideas to enhance products and the inspiration to create new ones. Customers vote with their wallets to determine winners and losers in the marketplace. But companies still play a huge role in the process and all of us as communicators must understand that.

7. Authenticity and Transparency are Immutable Truths. Wrong-o! Where’s my buzzer? There’s a big difference between being fraudulent and getting help behind the scenes. Companies need to build a trust relationship with their audience (and yes, I still use that word) and this likely requires some disclosure and a sense of realism. But there’s no reason why a CEO who can’t write well shouldn’t rely on a ghostwriter. It happens every day with speeches, and a blog should be no different. It’s the message that’s important and the messenger must agree with it, but it need not be a question of who taps the keyboard. Similarly, a company should not feel compelled to reveal the inner workings of its relationship with an outside agency in building content and developing strategy.

8. Audience is a Word of the Past. Somewhere between 1 and 10 percent of people who read blogs comment. It’s not a true conversation if more than 90% of the people just listen. What you have, friends, is an audience still. That’s not to say that new media isn’t more conversational than old media, but just as a small percentage of folks call radio talk shows or write letters to the editor, the same few comment on blogs. That means there’s still a vast audience to communicate to in a more traditional way.

9. Lack of Comments Means Lack of Influence. Many social media evangelists argue for the use of comments as a proxy for influence. Some would combine it with links and other more traditional measures, while others focus more heavily on comments. In fact, comments can be a measure of influence, but not across all types of social media or all content verticals (industries). For instance, most would agree that Rafat Ali’s PaidContent blog is influential, yet as of this writing only one of the 10 posts on its home page has comments (and even it only has 3 total).

No doubt there are other “rules” that many swear by that don’t hold water. Which others would you suggest?

UPDATE: Points have now been numbered upon request to enable easier commenting.

UPDATE: Neville Hobson has responded via video using Seesmic.

UPDATE: In response to a question that Brian Solis asked me on Twitter: “I hope what people take from my comments is that we should encourage even baby steps and small words in the social media space and not get caught up as much as many of us do with being quick to criticize lack of adherence to all of our ideals.”