streuth!). For me it’s a key source of trusted information, a
communication mechanism, and an important way for me to extend my
various, overlapping networks of interest (amongst several other things). In recent weeks I’ve seen tweets from people worrying about those that have “social media guru” in their Twitter bio (there are a lot of them about). The other morning I was followed by someone new. A great tool called Topify
sends me an email with their profile, details of how many people they
follow and the number who follow them, their bio, links and their last
few tweets so that you can make a quick decision on who they are and
whether you want to follow back. This guy had “thought leader”
in his bio. I immediately wondered to the twitterverse whether this
was as bad or worse than having the guru thing in your bio. Here’s a
selection of some of the responses from the wonderful people who
follow me:
I describe myself as an evangelist, a specialist, and I might go so far
as to say I’m an expert in some things. Maybe it’s a British cultural
thing with me, or maybe it’s more than that. Rather than a bio written
by someone else, this is a bio about yourself, and I don’t think it’s
up to you/these people to pronounce themselves gurus and thought
leaders. As Shefaly Yogendra
quite rightly points out, you know who’s a leader by the followers they
have. I learned that very powerfully many years ago when I was working
with and understanding the way W. L. Gore works. That’s a company that has a team-based, flat lattice organization,
and no conventional management hierarchy. They organize in to teams,
and from the team a leader emerges. We definitely need more thought
leadership, but I know it when I see it – I don’t need you to tell me
you’ve got it. On the subject of social media gurus, we’ve got too
many of those too. I see a lot of people who’ve been using blogs, and
wikis, and Twitter and Facebook for a while, and suddenly they can
write your social media strategy document. It’s a bit like the a gold rush in the Wild West. So I suggest you take care in how you present yourself and let your content and the company you keep speak for itself. As Joanne suggested, take a good look at who is following whom.
Update: A google search of these terms reminded me of this (hat tip Direct Marketing Observations). Take care where you are if you play this (F word alert), but “I bore of your analogue attitude…. “:
(Cross-posted @ Business Two Zero )
Here’s what happens if you have “Social Media Guru” in your profile 🙂
That was one of the posts I was trying to remember I’d seen. Great stuff!