Death of the Social Media Guru: 4 New Signs of the Social Media Try-Hard
For some time now, anyone who calls themself a Social Media Guru (or supremo, or magician or ninja or zombie pirate) has quite rightly been derided for tweeting too hard.
But in response, this group has upped its game. Meet…
The “Social Media Cynic.”
Now that these people have become aware they aren’t supposed to call themselves “Social Media Gurus”, the battle lines have shifted. Cruel is the new cool.
The 4 new identifiers of the tweeting-too-hard:
1. “Social Media Gurus? Don’t make me laugh!”
It’s like a form of self-loathing. This is the most obvious indicator since it’s a way of trying to break free of their previous mistakes. Psychologically I’m sure this is more complex than I have time to go into here…
Out: Bios containing “working out what this whole social Twitter business is all about!!!”
In: Bios containing “Definitely not a social media guru.”
2. Too cool to be impressed
While previously, the best way to show your followers how much you get social media was by showing how much you love it, the latest craze is to show that you’ve over it. “Twitter just announced that it’s buying Microsoft? How grimly predictable.”
Out: blogging about the latest trends but really just saying what everyone else has said.
In: tweeting with disdain that you’re sure there will be a flood of blogs on their way following major announcements.
3. They flip-flop.
When Quora arrived, the flurry of activity was really quite amazing as news of the launch spread through networks like Wildfire. It’s hard to pick a moment when the backlash started (perhaps Scobleizer set the trend?) but within the week, everyone was jumping back on a bandwagon as it swerved off in the opposite direction. Changing your mind is fine but regular flip-flops can be a warning sign of the social media try-hard at its worst.
Out: Integrity, consistency, coming to conclusions based on your own thoughts and beliefs
In: “ditto”