I think though, that the first-order view (direct users) is the wrong one. I made the argument to our CFO the other day that we ALL use Twitter (see full discussion) because the main users of Twitter are the folks responsible for 90% of the content creation on the Internet. From there, this minority, the content creators, creates the writing and the links that influence Google, which we all use.

When looked at in that light, investment in social media begins to make sense to some folks.

Thanks again for the post Laura, enjoyed the read.

Good post.

Reason #6 that i had posted in a recent blog is very related to the backlash http://b2bcmo.wordpress.com/

1. ‘Old School’ CEO mentality… While very good CMOs take risks and put themselves out there, CEOs are not rewarding innovation without a clear ROI–and consequently have not placed any value on a newly emerging communications medium. CMOs who work for these ‘old school’ CEOs therefore are not rewarded to take the risk.

Regards,
Jon

I recall a striking example about how, when you give people a choice of different free posters, for instance, those who are asked to explain why they picked the one they picked are later more dissatisfied with their choice than those who didn’t have to explain.

In Oct ’08 Hubspot published a post titled, Top 5 Excuses for Not Joining Twitter that’s worth a read, too. A person who goes by @usegraymatter wrote there that, “unfortunately, I think so many of these venues are still perceived as personal journal-blogging or just-baked-a-cake tweeting…but the virtual door for businesses to engage is wide open.”

In fact I just spoke with a CEO hours ago who remarked of social media in general: “It just seems really stupid. I don’t care what I had for breakfast, so why would anyone else care what I had for breakfast?”

And he did a hilarious impression of someone who takes Twitter far too seriously. I pretended to take the bait and feverishly defend Twitter as a business tool.

I dare say that, were we to quantify jargon by, say, pounds per square inch, surely inbound marketers, still vastly minority, have been exposed to more outbound marketing jargon in the course of a career.

Search engine optimization may encourage repetition of certain buzz words. I myself struggle to balance a desire to hit on key phrases in published content, with a need to break out of what Peter Kim so aptly calls ‘the echo chamber.’

It would be really interesting to hear a direct marketer speculate about why I’m sick of direct marketing speak. Indeed, I have had my fill of 101-level finger-wagging about segmenting my mailing list, the cleverest way to get past admins to the CxO, taking advantage of bulk rate postage, and other outbound marketing minutiae. “But, really,” he might say, “isn’t it because you’re afraid of what you don’t know?”

I suppose that’s one possibility. If I had to guess about my why I feel sick to death of hearing about direct marketing tips and tricks, I’d posit that it’s because I’ve evolved.

Experimental psychologists have shown how extraordinarily bad we are at introspecting about these sorts of things. I gather that when people are forced to explain their behaviors, their choices are very different than in “real life” circumstances. That is, in their natural environment, the wild and free executive will behave one way, but when you ask questions, all sorts of other ideas come out of them.

(I recall a striking example about how, when you give people a choice of different free posters, for instance, those who are asked to explain why they picked the one they picked, later they will be more dissatisfied with it than the ones who didn’t have to explain.)

Measuring people’s reactions to social media buzz may elicit theories that don’t reflect real behaviors. Depending on how some of this data was gathered, this measurement effect I am talking about might not be so strong.