Comments on: What Color is Your Kool-Aid?

By: Jon Gatrell

Jon Gatrell — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:11:58 +0000

I wouldn’t pick a metric, I’d ask for 5 references. For most consultants I only look for 2 or 3 references, but there is so much variability in approaches, skills and a given companies goals that 2 or 3 references could tell a stellar story, but those customer may have only wanted a new blog, a 100 followers and a facebook page, which wouldn’t typically involved any metrics to be satisfied.

Metrics will vary by the goals, the maturity of the implementation and knowledge a given customer…. my $0.02.

By: Patrick Allmond

Patrick Allmond — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:07:23 +0000

An excellent in depth look into the topic of those of us yelling in the echo chamber. I am curious – if you have to use three metrics and three metrics only to pick a social media consultant/expert what would they be?

By: DevelopmentCorporate » Blog Archive » What Color is Your Social Media Kool-Aid?

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:12:19 +0000

[...] have just delivered another outstanding post on social media realities in 2009. The piece What Color is Your Kool-Aid? manages to make a number of salient observations without condemning the social media phenomenon [...]

By: hdbbstephen on Twitter

hdbbstephen on Twitter — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:45:33 +0000

Great insights, and very timely. Indeed, everyone is a “Social Media Expert” these days.Although, to be fair, it is hard for those of us on the cutting edges of these technologies to get out of the echo chamber.
I sell consulting services on how to use social media tools, but I do not consider myself to be a Social Media expert (with Capital Letters). Rather, I know how the tools work and have enough experience in a variety of fields to help people learn how to apply these tools in their own marketspace. Oops, I used a buzzword, sorry, kinda had to.

In any case, your first commenter, Jonathan,has it right. Just like the flurry of “make money online” and “time management” websites that went up (and down) over the past couple of years – social media mavens with good content, good people skills, and real value to share will rise to the top while the rest fade away.

By: J G

J G — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:39:24 +0000

Jonathan,

The biggest question in most discussions is what will time do to the concept. We can easily have discussions and theories, but time tells all. Not to go too cliche on ya. Hopefully there aren’t answers in post, since I’m not sure there is any empirical data either way. The only thing which we may know is that telling who is an expert is tough and the volume of experts cannot be “real”.

~jonathan

By: Jonathan - Advanced Life Skills

Jonathan - Advanced Life Skills — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:56:39 +0000

Lots of great questions and observations JG. Unfortunately, most of the answers will just be easily debatable opinions. I think the social proof of thousands of followers or friends is often cosmetic in nature. On the other hand, hundreds of pages of blog content will pretty much tell the story. I suspect we will see a decrease in social site proliferation in the near future, as substance (blogs) once again takes top honors. Of course, that’s just my opinion, and it too is debatable. See how easily we keep the conversation going?