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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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Geoffrey Moore’s curve still matters

It may seem like I’m piling on Steve Rubel. I’m not, really. I like the guy, admire him, respect him and often agree with him. But re-reading his post on the Pollara survey that shows people trust friends and family more tha A-list bloggers, a line he tossed off grabbed my attention; I’d glossed over it before.

This comes as more of the action shifts to micro communities like Twitter or Friendfeed…

I would challenge this assumption. What action, exactly, is switching to Twitter and Friendfeed? Yes, some action is, but it’s the action of the innovators and early adopters, not the mainstream. The mainstream hasn’t heard of Twitter. They’re still wrapping their minds around Facebook and blogs. And Friendfeed? Way, way too leading edge.

Don’t get me wrong. I love both Twitter and Friendfeed, and am waiting to get an invitation to SocialThing. But I’m an early adopter. I’m a geek (and proud of it).

I’ve just spent two days in Saskatchewan talking to recruiters from several large companies about how to use social media in their recruiting efforts. I did three sessions with a total of maybe 30 people. None of them had heard of Twitter. Not one of them. Neither had my client, a local agency that brought me up to do the talks for their clients. If the recruiters haven’t heard of Twitter, it’s a safe bet the people they’re trying to recruit (such as agronomists) haven’t either (with the rare geek exception). These folks are still just getting accustomed to the idea of “social media,” the label Steve wants us to abandon in favor of just calling it all “media.”

Are we really ready to ascribe our innovator and early-adopter behaviors to others who reside elsewhere—early majority, late majority, and laggards—on Geoffrey Moore’s curve? They do represent the majority of the people we seek to reach through our PR efforts, and where they are today is roughly where Steve was three or four years ago.

I’ve always resisted the idea that the PR social media space is an echo chamber, but if we’re ready to say bloggers are moving to Twitter and Friendfeed—and their readers are following—then I may have to change my tune.

04/04/08 | 6 Comments | Geoffrey Moore’s curve still matters

Comments

  • 1.Shel, you are lagging. @steverubel announced the death of blogging this afternoon in a tweet prompted by @gapingvoid 's tweet last night that he was dropping out of the blogosphere.

    Kidding aside (although the above is true), you are, as usual, on the money. As communicators, our professional eye had better be on the mainstream, not the frontier. I might talk about Twitter with clients -- at lunch -- but that's a far cry from advocating they make it a part of their comms strategy.

    And, yet, just this morning I read a Norwegian PR agency blog inviting clients to talk to them about how to apply Twitter to their communication. The blogger has been on Twitter a month. I'd love to be a fly on the wall at that meeting.

    Allan Jenkins | April 2008 | Hjelm, M?n, Denmark

  • 2.Shel, I had an extra SocialThing invite, and I've just sent it your way!

    Bryan Person, BryanPerson.com | April 2008 | Boston

  • 3.Thanks, Bryan! And I still have four Evernote invites, if you'd like one.

    Allan, I've been on planes today so I missed that. However, sad to say, I'm not surprised. On the other hand, I recommended Twitter to one of my clients, but it's part of a blogger outreach effort; the people we're trying to reach are, to some degree there. So, if I may presume, it depends...

    Shel Holtz | April 2008 | Concord, CA

  • 4.Evernote looks very cool. Happy if you'd send an invite my way, Shel!

    Bryan Person, BryanPerson.com | April 2008 | Boston

  • 5.I would find it difficult to believe people are leaving their blog, FaceBook, etc. in favor of Twitter or Friendfeed, I can believe, and have witnessed people expanding their circle of conversation to include emerging technologies but to walk away from the others I don't see happening. I even send people a handwritten note occasionally -- just because I begin using something new doesn't mean I forsake the old.

    Mark Cork | April 2008 | Kansas City

  • 6.You make a great point. I have the Twitter app on my Facebook page, so every time I tweet, it shows up there. I can't count how many times someone has asked me either on Facebook or in person what Twitter is. Most of them really have no clue and think something's wrong with me ("Why are you twittering all the time? Are you ok?"). And these are folks that are at least somewhat into new media.

    Kelly King | April 2008

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