Proud to be a nobody

What risk do you run when you’re snarky to a colleague? In the case of Ragan Communications’ David Murray, the answer is subtle ridicule. What’s more, the target of the snarkiness isn’t the source of the ridicule. Instead, it’s being driven by the PR blogging community at large. Here’s the story:

In the current issue of Ragan’s Journal of Employee Communications Management (JECM), Murray questions the value of social media as a tool for internal communication. (I plan to address this in separate posts. Rather than offer my own views, I’ve solicited communicators from several organizations using social media to comment on the benefit they see accruing to their organizations.) In the course of making his point—that social media is not “the next big thing” in internal communications—he took aim squarely at Allan Jenkins:

There’s this guy named Allan Jenkins. Chances are, you’ve never heard of him. Well, he’s a communication consultant with a blog. (Which is like saying he’s a dog with a tail.) One day I was reading his stupidly-named blog, “Desirable Roasted Coffee.” I read his blog a lot, despite the fact that Jenkins is pretty much a nobody in the communication business.

Hmm. There are some 500 blogs by communicators; IABC alone has 14,000 members. Must be a lot of tailless dogs running around out there. But more to the point is the notion that Jenkins—an independent consultant working in Copenhagen—is a “nobody.” Technorati shows 299 links to Jenkins’ blog from 97 sites, Jenkins has served on the IABC executive board, and has been a prominent IABC member for years. I wonder what it takes in Murray’s mind to be a somebody?

In any case, it was communicator/blogger and dog-with-tail Eric Eggertson who first blogged about Murray’s slight. His post begins:

I’m pretty much a nobody in the communication business. Don’t take my word for it. Ask someone important, like David Murray.

Well, I guess you don’t have to be a somebody to kick off a conversation. A number of bloggers picked up on Eric’s missive, including Ike Pigott, who developed a “Nobody” webpage badge linking to a post by Andrea Weckerle, who proposes establishing the International Association of Nobodies. Among those proclaiming themselves proud charter members: Eggertson, Jenkins, and Lee Hopkins.

In his post, Jenkins disputes that he ever suggested social media was the next big thing in internal communications:

No, David, it is not the “Next Big Thing.” And I have never told you that. Neither have other “nobodies”: Holtz, Hobson, Hopkins, Pepper, Gahran, French, Hallett, Weckerle, Wagner, Eggertson, Bickford, Manuel, Albrycht, Gomes, Papacosta, Goldhammer…If you read us carefully—if you read us at all—you’ll find we all say something like “Social media is changing internal communication” and “Social media will change internal communication in ways that neither management, staff, or us can fully understand and predict… so let’s talk about it.”
None of us foresees revolution, upheaval or a New World Order.

There I am, a confirmed nobody. And damn proud to be one, too, as you can see by my proud display of the nobody badge, which you are free to copy and post on your own site. Special invitations go out to Neville, Jeremy Amy, Robert, Josh, John, Warren, Mike Elizabeth, Phil, Donna, and Gary…but it’s not an exclusive club. Anyone can join. (Well, maybe anyone but Rubel.)

Individually, we may all be nobodies. Collectively, we are somebody. We have a voice. And with that voice, we can proclaim loud and clear, “Jeez, David. Take a Xanax.”

1. Shel,

   Nice to see you’ve joined our humble group!

   Posted by Andrea Weckerle  on  04/06  at  11:54 AM

2. Don’t forget the official store!

   Posted by Ike  on  04/06  at  12:01 PM

3. Shel, you can call klutzy subtle and you can call bleeting ridicule, but you can’t make me allow the great, unified, all-knowing voice of the technocracy to determine which drugs I will take when. That’s Nobody’s business but mine.

   Posted by David Murray  on  04/06  at  02:19 PM

4. Hmm. Take two. And call it a suggestion.

   Posted by Shel Holtz  on  04/06  at  02:50 PM

5. This Murray-Jenkins kerfuffle is like the hammer to which everything is a nail.  As the Ragan website proclaims: “For more than three decades, Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc. has been the leading publisher of corporate communications… newsletters.”

   To a dead-tree newwwwzletter scribbler like Murray, everything must either be a newsletter or not worthy of his linotypical consideration.

   Posted by The Bach  on  04/07  at  06:23 AM

6. Sounds like Mr. Murry suffers from “blog envy.” Who died and left him boss of the blogosphere?  I enjoy Crescenzo’s column more in RR anyway.

   Posted by Mark  on  04/07  at  09:51 AM

7. I prefer to be a nobody in the zen sense: the best self-defense is having no self to defend

   - Amy Gahran

   Posted by Amy Gahran  on  04/09  at  05:38 AM

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