Social Media Doesn't Exist, BeanCast Host Surprised

Inflammatory headline, that. And an eye-opening position for a social media speaker to start with. But that's exactly the premise that Peter Shankman, of Help A Reporter Out fame, started with last night at the Greensboro PRSA Spinx banquet.

Admittedly I had trouble following the thought at first, since he introduced it at the beginning of the talk and left it hanging out there until near the very end. Then even at the end, it wasn't wrapped up in a nice little bow for me. But when I finally got it, the idea is radical and all too true.

Look at your FaceBook account. Now look at all the people you are your so-called "friends." In this group you have your Grandmother and your buddy from college and maybe a sales rep that you met at a convention and ex-girlfriends and possibly complete strangers. And as friends, they all enjoy exactly the same relevance.

Throughout the social media spectrum, this is true. Whether you are on Twitter of MySpace or AdGabber or some other little marketing podcast social network, every individual enjoys a similar relevance if you make them a friend. Which leads to the thought that this isn't truly social. It's more a list of connections. It's a glorified Rolodex.

Thus, the premise that social media doesn't exist.

For a medium to be truly social, Peter envisioned new programming that would allow the networks to change relevance in your network based on interaction, geographical location and all the other things that make up true social interaction. When I go to New York, my New York friends should rise in importance. They should be made aware of me and I of them. As people fade from interactions, we become less aware of each other and they become unburdened from knowing about my daughter's new bike. Simple, right?

Now I have to say, in many ways I agree with the premise and think the proposed "better world" is cool. However, whenever we marketing/PR types envision a "technologically wondrous" future, I'm always a bit skeptical. We're all very good on hype and typically not so good on technological reality. And Peter was no different. He made it seem like having your social network following your everywhere was where all this was imminently going -- That somehow the software would catch up and this media would always be relevant to where you were and what you were doing.

The trouble with this idea is that a) the challenge of doing this is considerable and b) I'm not sure most of the world would want this much invasion of privacy. I mean let's face it, Microsoft couldn't even launch Vista properly, with all their resources. Twitter keeps crashing. FaceBook users complained like mad when they moved the "wall." The idea that this brilliant future can happen is not far-fetched, but it is severely burdened with inherent development problems. So hope away, my friends, but don't hold your breath for it.

Overall, though, I was impressed with the talk and even more impressed by the site that Mr. Shankman has built. A social network for reporters and PR people to interact is one of those ideas that's so simple and essential, that you wonder why no one thought of it before. And I'm excited to say that Peter has agreed to be on the show, so I'll be contacting his "people" to schedule his slot.

Which leads me to another question: When do I get "people?"

EDIT: I've officially confirmed that Peter will be on The BeanCast for the Monday, January 26th episode. Keep an eye on the site for more details about that show. Also, if you would like to see the talk mentioned above, another future guest (Wayne Sutton) has posted the video here.