Can we stop calling it social media yet?

JUST CHECKING. Darryl at Humongo joked on Twitter that he’s not going to use the phrase anymore. I asked if he was joking and he said, kinda-sorta, but that yes, he’s like to stop using it this year. RAISES HAND! Me too, except the problem with that is clients. While it’s something most agency-side crews would get behind, clients need labels to understand and grab hold of things.

Social media has already taken a beating from traditional agency thinking (another phrase to retire), that regards it as effective for little else beyond customer feedback, let alone having tangible metrics to point to such as number of followers. This is also a real concern of brands, in that, how do we quantify this stuff? They want sales, when what they’ll get is follows. Hard to get used to for some.

Taking away the label though just as they’re getting comfortable in the space will likely confuse them. “But we just started calling it social media, what will we call it now?” Uh, I don’t know... how about Twitter? Facebook? YouTube?

Don’t worry, we’ll think of something though. Social media people always do.*

*Look at me all self-effacing with social media.