Social media – killer of knowledge power?
In the old world order those who had the knowledge had the power. This applied to everything from when you were at school, to the guy in work who had certain “nuggets” that he would use for advantage through to the machinations of the power-brokers on the world stage.
What did these people do? They kept the knowledge to themselves and until needed for self-promotion and/or to influence key decisions in their favour – at least in the business/commercial world.
With the prevalence of social media and the increasing use of it as a driving force in business, knowledge and learning can easily be found. Sure, some of it is noise, but once you get past the noise , there is lots of knowledge being shared.
But if all this information is out in the world wide web for consumption, has this simply diluted knowledge based expertise to the point where people feel they don’t need to pay for that expertise?
There are two answers to this question, depending on whether you are the person imparting the information or the person who chooses to read/act upon that information.
“The Sharer”
Why is this person sharing their knowledge in the first place? Surely trade secrets that have taken years of learning and time are being given out for free? Well yes, they are.
But 95% of “stuff” that this person knows is never likely to make it out into the market place – they would be writing forever. What they are doing is showing a willingness to engage/help and hopefully off the back of this sharing comes business. So in this instance, knowledge sharing is knowledge power – the power to show the competence and credentials of the person sharing it.
What happens with this power? It gains business for that person.
“The Recipient”
It is more obvious what the readers of this knowledge/information gain.. that particular nugget that they can then use to help them, hopefully, make better decisions. A word of caution however. General information can be misleading. What applies to one, may not apply to another i.e. may not work for you or your business.
Is the person sharing the information actually the expert he/she purports to be? You won’t find out from one of two of their posts. Read everything they write and you need to engage directly with them if you are really serious about implementing some of the strategies being discussed, unless its simple affirmation of what you already know or suspect to be true.
Don’t get me wrong. Much of the knowledge being shared is extremely beneficial and useful for you. But it is being shared, for the most part, for a reason – the increase of business profile. Perhaps I’m being a little cynical?
Social media – enhancer, not killer, of the power of knowledge.
What are your thoughts?
Tags: business management, marketing, Small Business, trends
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definitely agree with that, knowledge is now being leveraged all the time by the web savvy who want to stand out from the pack. People are pushing to the front to share knowledge that would have been priceless in the past.
This is not completely new though. Frank J. Rumbauskas has talked for a few years now about how to leverage your expert status as a sales person. Before the explosion of blogs and youtube as legitimate sources of expert opinions he recommended that people write books, appear on television, or get a column in a trade magazine. Basically, put yourself on front of people and start “talkin the talk”.
Social media has cut out the middle man that was the broadcaster or the publisher. All you have to do now is to convince thousands of people to read your expert opinion!
definitely agree with that, knowledge is now being leveraged all the time by the web savvy who want to stand out from the pack. People are pushing to the front to share knowledge that would have been priceless in the past.
This is not completely new though. Frank J. Rumbauskas has talked for a few years now about how to leverage your expert status as a sales person. Before the explosion of blogs and youtube as legitimate sources of expert opinions he recommended that people write books, appear on television, or get a column in a trade magazine. Basically, put yourself on front of people and start “talkin the talk”.
Social media has cut out the middle man that was the broadcaster or the publisher. All you have to do now is to convince thousands of people to read your expert opinion!
Hi Padraig. Thanks for reading and for sharing the Frank J comment. Hadn't heard of it so will look it up. The thousands of people is, as you say, the big challenge
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Hi Padraig. Thanks for reading and for sharing the Frank J comment. Hadn't heard of it so will look it up. The thousands of people is, as you say, the big challenge
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