§ Subscribe

Alternatives

Enter your email address to receive blog updates by email:

Delivered by FeedBurner

§ Utterz

§ Podcast

• For Immediate Release
  A weekly podcast for professional communicators from Shel Holtz, ABC and Neville Hobson, ABC.
  Podcast Feed
  Vote for FIR

---

§ PR Search

---

View blog authority

---

§ Places

• Shel's link blog
• Blogs I read
• Holtz Communication + Technology
• IABC
• Ragan Communications
• Society for New Communications Research

---

§ Dead Trees

• How to Do Everything with Podcasting
  
  by Shel Holtz with Neville Hobson
  
  
  
  
• Blogging for Business
  
  by Shel Holtz and Ted Demopoulos
  
  
  
  
• Corporate Conversations
  
  by Shel Holtz
  
  
  
  
• Public Relations on the Net
  
  by Shel Holtz
  
  
  
  

---

§ License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

---

Technorati: Blogs that link here

Friday, April 04, 2008

Geoffrey Moore’s curve still matters

Share This!

It may seem like I’m piling on Steve Rubel. I’m not, really. I like the guy, admire him, respect him and often agree with him. But re-reading his post on the Pollara survey that shows people trust friends and family more tha A-list bloggers, a line he tossed off grabbed my attention; I’d glossed over it before.

This comes as more of the action shifts to micro communities like Twitter or Friendfeed...

I would challenge this assumption. What action, exactly, is switching to Twitter and Friendfeed? Yes, some action is, but it’s the action of the innovators and early adopters, not the mainstream. The mainstream hasn’t heard of Twitter. They’re still wrapping their minds around Facebook and blogs. And Friendfeed? Way, way too leading edge.

Don’t get me wrong. I love both Twitter and Friendfeed, and am waiting to get an invitation to SocialThing. But I’m an early adopter. I’m a geek (and proud of it).

I’ve just spent two days in Saskatchewan talking to recruiters from several large companies about how to use social media in their recruiting efforts. I did three sessions with a total of maybe 30 people. None of them had heard of Twitter. Not one of them. Neither had my client, a local agency that brought me up to do the talks for their clients. If the recruiters haven’t heard of Twitter, it’s a safe bet the people they’re trying to recruit (such as agronomists) haven’t either (with the rare geek exception). These folks are still just getting accustomed to the idea of “social media,” the label Steve wants us to abandon in favor of just calling it all “media.”

Are we really ready to ascribe our innovator and early-adopter behaviors to others who reside elsewhere—early majority, late majority, and laggards—on Geoffrey Moore’s curve? They do represent the majority of the people we seek to reach through our PR efforts, and where they are today is roughly where Steve was three or four years ago.

I’ve always resisted the idea that the PR social media space is an echo chamber, but if we’re ready to say bloggers are moving to Twitter and Friendfeed—and their readers are following—then I may have to change my tune.