Ninjas cannot sell their personality, nor can you buy it, nor can you co-opt it. It doesn’t exist. It is a facade. The ability to create a unique community is more than a skill, it is essentially a figment of their imagination if it was built upon their personal brand. The minute the ninja puts their brand up for sale, it’s value is meaningless because their brand is not your product, and if it is, you have bigger problems.
Anyone can create a profile, anyone can create a blog and anyone can connect them together, it does not take a ninja to do that for you at any price. In fact, a ninja cannot build your personal brand, nor your product’s identity, only you can.
Social media is a medium, just like television advertising is a medium, and acquiring a designation for television advertising sounds ridiculous, just as much as social media as a designation sounds ridiculous. The idea that you feel there is value in marketing a designation that you can check email, or post a fan page on Facebook is in and of itself ridiculous.
You cannot buy a ninja’s ego, and you probably shouldn’t. Quite simply, no one but the ninja bought into their own ego in the first place by not realizing that their ego is built on something else altogether. It is not a skill to be a ninja- the skill is in what the ninja can do for you, and I doubt there is much they can do that you cannot do yourself for the price of free. A ninja is only valuable to his or her own brand.
There is nothing wrong with companies that utilize social media as part of their marcom offering. What is wrong is the idea that ego has value, especially in social media.
We write and talk about social media all the time, but we’re pretty clear that no one is here to sell a magic formula. Our mission is to talk about emerging trends and tools that you may find valuable. But we must keep a clear head about these things, calm down, and look at them rationally, past the hype. I’m sure folks were excited when the television was invented, and I’m sure people were ecstatic about the radio, and we all certainly loved the telephone, and yes, we’re all excited about social media- but a little perspective, please.
What are your thoughts?
