There aren’t many things as enjoyable and educational as an Internet blog debate. A recent one saw David Carr, George Packer and Steve Rubel engage in a great back and forth over the value of Twitter.

Social Media - Just Noise?

Today, I’d like to respond to a blog post from high profile PR Tom Murphy, in which he declares having “social media sweats“, a post subsequently applauded by Stephan Davies, another expert in the field.

“Think I am having Social Media sweats. There are just so many articles, posts, rants and links. Now don’t get me wrong it’s great that people are sharing their views, and opinions and, in a very small number of cases even their experiences”

Tom’s first attack on the state of the social media industry is that we produce a lot of noise. My disagreement with this argument lies in the belief that noise is a subjective reality perceived only from the receiver’s side. What I mean is that noise exists only if the quantity or quality of the information received overwhelms the possibilities of the receiver to make sense out of it. In my eyes it is the responsibility of the receiver to filter efficiently and process the information to the best of his knowledge and use. That is what RSS, readers and Twitter lists are for.

Admittedly though, we do churn out a lot of articles, and yes, we don’t necessarily do it due to an unstoppable need to share or help others develop professionally. In actual fact, we do it for a myriad of purposes, from the most commercially-oriented (SEO, brand awareness and earn permission to market) to the most personal (self promotion, giving back to the community, a vague sense of self-realisation etc.) In any case, this is an improvement from the days when PR educators hid all of their content behind a paywall and expensive courses, isn’t it?

Borrowing a metaphor from David Merman Scott, the Internet is very much like a city. In a city, millions of people dwell and talk. And they talk a lot. As you wouldn’t lend your ears to any random passer-by on a issue you care about, you don’t need to read every blog or every tweet about social media. In real life, people have reputations in subject areas and we develop shortcuts and preferences for our sources of information. With a limited, cognitive capacity, restricting ourselves to a chosen selection of influencers is mandatory. Organise yourselves as you will.

He then continues to say that:

“The reality however is that most of us aren’t paid a princely sum just for thinking about social media or antagonizing about the global impact of a new widget or phone (..)In summary we are focusing on how we can be more effective in communicating with people who matter to our clients or employers. People not tools, widgets or hardware”

While I agree that in Social Media we get a lot of “experts” from the tech side that only worry about, yes, widgets and phones, we have to admit that the people driving things further are the communicators. Social Media is about people and communications and that is the main idea that most social media experts are passing on.

Social media as a communication and business tool is a big deal. There is no denying that it is creating a lot of value for companies realising how tired traditional advertising and PR is growing. And it is shifting a lot of power to the consumers. So, what’s not to like?

About The Author

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavier Izaguirre joined Social Media Library in November 2009 working as part of the Research Team. Prior to joining Social Media Library, Xavier completed a Masters Degree in Marketing and Communications at Westminster University, London. An active user of Social Media platforms, Xavier is very passionate about new trends in communication and Social Media Marketing contributing towards a number of online campaigns within the Educational Sector.

Follow Xavier on Twitter at @Xavi_izaguirre