Social Media Top 5: No Experts Need Apply, Facebook Owns YOU, and PR Running the Show

Don’t Call Me an Expert (or I’ll Tell Geoff Livingston)

I can always count on Geoff to call BS on people in the social media space getting high on our own fumes (just ask him about your Personal Brand. I dare ya). in his latest, he takes on the idea of calling someone (especially him) a “Social Media Expert.” That’s not a new argument, though conventional wisdom(?) says it’s ok for someone else to call you an expert (or guru). Geoff doesn’t want to be associated with the term, as it denotes the thousands of people dubbing themselves “experts” include a multitude of “snake oil salesmen” (no reflection on certain friends who show up on that search page, but you get the idea). I’m down with that sentiment. Not that anyone calls me an expert, but I’m not comfortable with the burdens of expert-dom myself.

Geoff also objects to being called a PR professional. I can see in that his job is probably not strictly PR the way he positions himself (I of course position myself squarely in that camp as an employee of the PR agency SHIFT Communications). He also objects on the grounds that he might get lumped in with the legions of bad, spammy PR professionals. I don’t think that attitude solves any problems– for me, anyway. I’m happy to stay behind and help clean up the reputational mess left behind by our less admirable colleagues. It’s our burden…

In Soviet Russia Facebook Owns YOU!

OK, that was a tortured piece of text to get in a Yakov Smirnoff reference, but Boss Todd Defren (speaking of working for SHIFT) made a nice point about marketing on Facebook (or any other not-your site); you are on Facebook’s domain, and are limited in what you can do and take out of it. That doesn’t mean you can’t be an effective marketer on Facebook, but it’s great to keep in mind that you don’t really own your environment when you work on Facebook.

This thinking is a nice companion to the recent reminders (or warnings) that your stuff is on the cloud, and could go away without warning.

Does PR Have the Proverbial Seat at the Table?

If this AdAge article has it right, then- increasingly- yes. Bonus: social media is the reason. I would be curious to know if any of you have seen this in action– is PR getting an increased role in corporate marketing?

Updating the Presidential Records Act for Social Media

Reading this WhiteHouse.gov blog post, it seems that social media (including email, so maybe that’s not the right term) is covered under the 1978 law (I believe many cities have similar laws, Mr. Mayor). Nevertheless, they are trying to make their archiving systems more explicitly compatible for the new forms of communication.

Will laws being written today regarding particular technologies still be relevant in 30 years? I wonder.

Also interesting:

The White House is not archiving all content or activity across social networks where we have a page – nor do we want to.  The only content archived is what is voluntarily published on the White House’s official pages on these sites or what is voluntarily sent to a White House account.

Referring back to the Facebook item above, that seems fair, but will people cry foul if White House communications on outside channels are not preserved? Will Congress even know the difference?

Twitteleh (Twitter For Your Jewish Mother)

I don’t care how many people have posted this Twitter parody. I don’t care that Rosh Hashanah has ended and I’m late publishing this post. It’s still funny and I’m putting it here.

A belated L’shanah tovah, y’all. (HT: Mashable):