We Don’t Need No Steenkin’ Social Media Gurus

July 2, 2011 by Robert Kozinets.

A couple of days ago, as I wrote in my last blog posting, I spoke at a Social Media Day gathering in an interesting, concert-like downtown Queen West Toronto venue, to an interesting and varied crowd.

After I had left the stage and assumed a position within the audience, beer in hand, a woman began talking to me in the crowd. Let‘s call her “Jennifer.“ Jennifer told me that she knew nothing about social media even a few weeks ago, but that her husband had bought her an iPad for their anniversary and now she was devoting all sorts of time to learning it. She had driven up from Niagara Falls –about a 2-hour drive–in order to see the Social Media Day event.

“I want to become a social media guru,“ she said to me, with a big, winning, business-y smile.

Gotta tell ya, Jennifer. That‘s just about the last thing the world needs. That, another horndog politician, and four bucks will get you a Starbucks latte.

I keep hearing this term “social media guru“ everywhere, usually in puffed-up self-proclamations (which my mom always taught me were faint praise, anyhow) as in “Hi, I‘m George, and I‘m an alcoholic–and a Social Media guru.“

Now, give me a big fat molten chocolate-covered break.

Yes, I know the word guru officially and originally meant “wise teacher? in Hindi. Even so, if you say you are a social media teacher, what are your designations, where is your accreditation, who certifies you to teach about it? It is supposed to mean one with great knowledge and/or wisdom, who uses that wisdom to teach and guide others on a spiritual path. What the heck does it mean to be a self-realized and Fully Ascended Social Media Master, anyways? Is there supposed to be something Intensely Spiritual about the Like Button?

And, here’s the gist. Doesn’t anyone using that honorific realize that, since the days of Bhagwan Shree Rhagneesh, EST, and the whole weird 1970s ESALEN California spirituality vibe thing, the use of the designation “guru” in the West always contains with it more than a salt shaker‘s worth of irony, as well a distinctly greenish tinge of worldly avarice lying just underneath spiritual rhetoric, and leading, almost inexorably, to fleets of Rolls Royces?

I mean, come on. “Guru?“ Guru? Really? In the West? In 2011? Without irony?

Me, I am a Ph.D who studied social media in my dissertation and a Full Professor now, and I have had a strong social media component to my classes since 1999. That’s twelves years ago, for those who are counting. I began teaching the first social media course in Canada, and one of the first in the world, in 2007, calling it “Word of Mouth Marketing.“ I have developed multiple courses at undergraduate, graduate, and PhD levels to teach Social Media Marketing and Management. Those course outlines are being used by dozens of other professors around the world right now.

And I am definitely no “Social Media Guru.” No thanks.

I much prefer to be known as a Still-Learning Social Media Expert-in-Progress. Or a Social Media Researcher. Social Media Pioneer? I think I have probably earned that one. I have been researching and writing in this area since 1995, with multiple publications in top peer-reviewed scientific journals. That is legitimacy. I pioneered a social media research approach and method. I have consulted to industry on these matters since before there were blogs. I was one of the first researchers to clearly specify the importance of social media to marketing. I have been in this space for 16 years. Like the few true experts in this area, I can give specific examples of what I have accomplished, rather than writing yet another book with some trendy title that is also subtitled “How Your Company Can Profit From Facebook and Twitter” and calling myself by some ridiculously inapplicable Indian honorific.

So please forgive me for being more than a little ticked off at the gathering of “Social Media Gurus” like ants at the proverbial picnic. While this boom is still booming, they will keep swarming. And I feel entitled to spray a little Raid.

As far as I am concerned, if someone comes up and tells you they are a social media guru, they are telling you, essentially, that they have a Facebook and Twitter account, talk about it to their friends and family, and hope to one day cash in on their “spiffy mailing list“ of 406 friends and 217 followers. Maybe they have even written one of the 968 popular business press books about social media you can find lying around the shelves of your local bookstore like old remaindered copies of The Celestine Prophesy or The Coming Stock Market Crash of 2003.

If they come up and tell you they are a Social Media Guru, here is what I think you should say to them. Because it is probably just as true. Don‘t ask them for their credentials (I will write more about some interested efforts at WOMMA, at Universities, and at NetBase soon to tap in this market need soon). Don‘t ask them what is new or original about their approach. Certainly don‘t ask them if they know more about social media itself, or about its application to real marketing or business strategy needs (that might really confuse them). No, you just look them right in the eye nice and steady and say:

“Wow. Me too.“

Posted in Academic Life, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Conferences & Presentation, Netnography, Word of Mouth Marketing, Marketing Research, Marketing News & Insights | Print | 1 Comment »

Talking Netnography in Toronto

June 29, 2011 by Robert Kozinets.

If you are in Toronto, and we haven’t met, here’s a last minute chance.

I will be talking tomorrow at the Social Media Day 2011 Mashup, as organized by Michael  Nussbacher.

I will be giving an introduction and overview of netnography. Some new stuff, mostly familiar stuff. It is intended for an audience unfamiliar with the virtues of cultural research using social media.

Here’s the link: http://www.meetup.com/Mashable/Toronto-CA/103816/

If you can make it, please introduce yourself. I enjoy meeting the readers of this blog, and thanking you in person for your support and readership.

Posted in Qualitative Research Methods, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Academic Life, Conferences & Presentation, Marketing Research, Technology, Netnography, Word of Mouth Marketing | Print | No Comments »

Social Media in 2011: A New Class

January 5, 2011 by Robert Kozinets.

First things first. Happy New Year to all my faithful blog readers, students, friends, SEO victims, and curious bystanders. May it be a fascinating, enriching, and wonder-filled year for each and every one of you. Now, to the King: content.

Welcome to my new extended classroom (cue not-so-sinister laugh here….).

Yes, for the next few weeks, I am going to be using this blog as part of my two new classes at the Schulich School of Business. Although I have been teaching courses in Word of Mouth Marketing and Social Media marketing as Independent Study courses since 2007, this year I launch full undergrad (BBA) and master’s program (MBA) courses in Social Media Marketing and Management.

The thing I am most excited about with these courses is that they are going to take place both in the classrooms at the heart of our gorgeous and glamorous (not, and definitely not) Keele and Finch campus but also in the public space of the social mediasphere (your loud applause here, please).

Yes, you deduced that correctly, Sherlock. Important class assignments throughout the course will have to be posted, cross-posted, and linked up to a variety of social media tools, such as this blog, and, most especially the new Facebook page for the class.

As such a public venture, and, again, as a little experiment, I am keeping the FB page open to everyone (yes, even you), and this blog is open, and I’ll be Tweeting the progress of the page. As well, I’m hoping the student makes liberal use of video formats, and that will probably mean YouTube, perhaps Flickr and other different kinds of sharing sites will be involved. I am hoping for a large range of different materials, shared in different ways.

The preparation begins with today’s BBA class, and builds next week with the MBA class. Then, in a week, student presentations begin, and those presentations must be shared through social media, using the Facebook page as a sort of hub to guide students and interested onlookers to the materials.

To give you a quick preview of what is to come, here are some of the potential (and likely) topics my eager and amazing social media students will be covering over the coming three months or so:

Word of mouth marketing

Word of mouth theory

Brand community (various aspects to consider)

Social media marketing associations and resources (e.g., WOMMA, CMA, AMA)

Understanding Social Media Collectives (e.g., etribes; tribes; subcultures)

Market segments in Social Media

Market Positioning with social media

Transmedia 101

Understanding the basics of brand narratives,

Storytelling and Social Media Management

A Company Campaign that uses Transmedia and/or Brand Narrative

Book Review: Convergence Culture

Book Review: Enterprise 2.0

Metrics in SMM campaigns

ROI and SMM

Looking at past campaign(s) and how they have measured the value of SMM (positive and negatives of approaches?)

Book reviews of books on metrics and SMMHow to get an ad to go viral: example

A SMM Research Method: Social network analysis

The analysis of influence

Online Forums and social media marketing

Online Research for Social Media Insight

 Netnography

Web analytics

Social media marketing research companies and products

Using SNS and Microblogs—principles and guidelines

Lessons from Facebook marketing campaigns

Other SNS (MySpace) campaigns and strategies

Lessons from Twitter campaigns

SMM uses of YouTube and Flickr“

Wikinomics” and innovation 

Eric von Hippel and lead users

“prosumers”

User-generated media

Book Review: Wikinomics

Book Review: Wikibrands

Wikis and SMM

Virtuals worlds and SMM

Mobile

Social marketing and SMM

Of course, there may be plenty of surprises in store as well….stay tuned. I think this is going to be a great start to the year for this blog, and for everyone who enjoys thinking about and learning about social media marketing and management.

Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Academic Life, Conferences & Presentation, Word of Mouth Marketing, Marketing News & Insights | Print | 1 Comment »