Comments on: I’m Starting to Hate the Term “Social Media”

By: Why “Social Media” is Compelling at Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls.com

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:20:07 +0000

[...] always put that term in quotes, because of my uneasy relationship with it, but we have to call this bunch of tools [...]

By: Annie

Annie — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:47:52 +0000

It’s just the “web” and what you do with it. “Pipes” and “interwebby” are my prefered terms…

By: Howard Greenstein

Howard Greenstein — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:50:44 +0000

Why is Media something you consume? For me, it is something I produce and consume. For the generation younger then I am, it is something for them to watch, share, remix, etc. By definition most of the 30 and under crowd don’t differentiate social and media, but for many of my clients, including those in ‘traditional’ (for lack of a better term for newspapers, tv and magazine) media, they seem to like the modifier for media. I have had this discussion with Steve a few times. We may be sick of it, but clients are always looking to understand the thing that is different than what they already do. My $.02

By: I Too Hate The Term ‘Social Media’ - But Here’s Is A Definition | Screensumer

Sat, 10 May 2008 14:40:41 +0000

[...] Josh Bancroft is starting to hate the term social media. I too feel like John, that it’s the most overused and abused term these days. Well, then as an Internet Professional with 11 years of experience, can I attempt to define it myself. At least I can try. [...]

By: Josh Bernoff

Josh Bernoff — Sat, 10 May 2008 09:33:20 +0000

I always try to call them social APPLICATIONS and not social MEDIA.

It’s not media. Media is something you consume. It gets ads (typially) based on that consumption.

Applications are something you participate in.

See: http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2008/02/recession-comme.html

By: Josh Bancroft

Josh Bancroft — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:27:28 +0000

Man, Steve Rubel really brings the flow and the commenters. Thanks for the tweet, Steve!

@Jonathan – The terminology is spreading beyond the insiders/influencers, though. That’s how these things work. We influence how other people use these terms. Three years ago, it was brand new and unique to see a PR guy get up in front of a crowd of bloggers, and talk about influence (thinking of Steve Rubel at Gnomedex 2005). Now, you can’t swing a dead cat in the PR/marketing world without hitting someone willing to preach to you the ideals of “social media”. Sure, it’s not mainstream in the sense that a gas station attendant in the middle of Arkansas could tell you about it, but a few years ago, neither was email, the web, and IM.

These things start with the early adopters, and spread outwards from there through influencers. That’s how something becomes mainstream (mutating along the way, of course). That’s what I see happening here. I’m hoping to influence that mutation to get a more precise, useful, and less annoying lexicon to use when talking about this stuff.

And yes, I realize that such a wish is probably hopeless.

By: Dennis McDonald

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:17:08 +0000

Ha! I tried getting clients to give up the term “web 2.0″ and that was impossible. The problem is, you have to realize that the “social media insiders” speak differently than regular folks such as paying cuatomers.

I predict that when we come up with a better term for “social media” we’ll still be explaining the old term next year even though we’ve moved to something else.

Whatever new term we propose, though, could we please make it sexier and more serious sounding than terms like “blog” or “Twitter” or “wiki”?

By: Steve Woodruff

Steve Woodruff — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:09:46 +0000

Been wrestling with the same issue. Suggested, on my blog, Share Media (vs. Tell Media).

By: Jonathan Joseph

Jonathan Joseph — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:07:54 +0000

The only place that people are getting sick of the term “social media” is in the echo chamber of the early adopters. 85% of America couldn’t give you any answer as to what “social media” is and I’d be willing to bet that 40%-50% of the folks in this country haven’t even heard the term “social media” as of yet.

By: Merell Ligons

Merell Ligons — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:05:44 +0000

I feel the same way. Everything that has a url is being marketed as “Social Media”. Once Web 3.0 comes out then we’ll forget all about the term “Social Media”, the new term will be “Experiential Media” or something of the sort.