Are social media experts clowns?

IndiaSocial (www.indiasocial.in), a social media community managed by consulting firm Blogworks, recently announced the IndiaSocial case challenge, a social media case study contest. The contest is in its second year with the first edition held last year seeing interesting entries amongst which Pratham Books, a non-profit trust that publishes high quality books at affordable rates for children, won the top honours.

The social media journey of Pratham Books is fascinating. It is an integral part of their social publishing strategy. They use platforms and tools like Twitter, Scribd, Blog and Facebook for building and engaging with communities. Among the many interesting ways they have used social media is when a Twitter conversation led to Skype storytelling sessions where children from India interacted with 4th graders in a school in Pennsylvania.

Stories like that of Pratham Books should be showcased for social media expertise to be appreciated in general. Ironically, the self-proclaimed social media experts perhaps provide more fodder for jokes on social media platforms than even lawyers or PR professionals for that matter. Much of it stems from the lack of understanding of the true value that these experts lend to brands and companies. In the absence of compelling storytelling, this will continue.

There are many similarities between PR and social media industries in India: Both functions remain hazy for many; attract ridicule and suspicion; lack cohesive effort from players to build the industry and set standards, to list a few. 

The advantage, however, for the social media industry — if it exists in India — is that it is still at a very nascent stage. How the industry is going to shape up still rests largely on the efforts of industry leaders and practitioners. They could learn from the PR industry and avoid growing into a profession that lacks credibility. Efforts should be made to challenge some of the myths and communicate real value. The IndiaSocial case challenge is a small but right step in that direction.

The industry also needs champions. I see two sets of people on the social media scenario in India. A handful of thought leaders such as Mahesh Murthy of Pinstorm, Gaurav Mishra of MSLGROUP and Rajesh Lalwani of Blogworks are on one end of the spectrum and the teeming youngsters spamming Twitter with senseless hashtags and promoting their Facebook ‘like’ buttons on the other. There is a huge chasm in the middle where ignorance and humour thrive.

This is not to say all agencies manage social media well. Many deserve every bit of criticism that comes their way. However there are several success stories that could help the industry. The situation here is not starkly different from the west. Recently, serial entrepreneur and prominent video blogger Gary Vaynerchuk, in a TechCrunch interview, said, “99.5 per cent of social media experts are clowns”. While such statements are made, there is also enough evidence of serious work in the space unlike in India. For social media to be taken seriously, we need more champions than experts.
 

Surekha Pillai is a communications consultant based in Delhi. She is @surekhapillai on Twitter