Front Office Box

For the last year I’ve become increasingly frustrated by the outrageous claims made by pimps claiming there’s a new phenomena – this nirvana Social Media. Worse, these pimps have been claiming they’re experts – most of them offering to get me more followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook. The one place where there’s a real business proposition is teaching people to make money using social media. But it’s the only place. Real people are far too busy to read all that stuff posted by pimps. I’m very definitely one of those Pete Cashmore has in mind when he sums up with: “such stats provide fodder for those who would say that social media — which is touching every industry from entertainment to air travel — is simply hot air.”

Social media is growing fast, but how fast? Using Tweepsearch to search bios on Twitter profiles, blogger B. L. Ochman found there were 4,487 social media experts in May 2009. Today there are 15,740.

The stats, which include variations like social media- “guru”, “ninja” and “superstar,” show that “marketer” is by far the most-used name.

There’s amusement to be found in the numbers, too: The blog Broadstuff points out that “This represents a 3.5x increase every six months. Projecting this growth forward means that there will be nearly 30m social media experts etc on Twitter by this time in 2012.”

That humorous observation raises a legitimate point: A growing industry needs trust and reputation. With social media growing so rapidly and no certification yet established, how do we go about establishing reputation? Without it, such stats provide fodder for those who would say that social media — which is touching every industry from entertainment to air travel — is simply hot air.