…and nothing is a brand. Hanging out in social media as I do and with my business proclivities, I often come across people talking about “people as brands.” I scoff. I’m very protective of my turf.
As an early user of social media in market research, I made some serious money understanding its power to influence consumers. That said, I like to think I’m an early adopter of the notion that today’s “influencers” are kind of a sham. Especially those who use influence for influence’s sake.
I do, however, love the early influencers on social. Those people with key motivations behind their postings: Emo Girl, Melting Mama, Kandee Johnson, Bob Lefsetz, Robert Scoble and dana boyd. They were/are SMEs. And if not exactly SMEs, they were certainly capturers of attention.
Faris (Is it too soon to use only his first name?) likes to say we live in the attention economy. And, yes, having curators helps. But influencers? To me the title has a bad reputation. Today’s influencers and their acolytes use the word brand too much. To them everything is a brand. And when everything is a brand, nothing is. I like my social media influencers rare. Not medium or well done.
Share. Not to make money but to make life better. More entertaining. Interesting. Fulfilling. Don’t share your shit to make yourself more commercial.
Peace.
