When it comes to people who care about Social Media (everything from blogs to Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, etc.) there are generally two types.
People that know the basics, and people who are still learning them.
And, in general, people who know the basics are looking for more advanced stuff, and people still learning will soak up as much of that as possible.
Yes, there is a small “middle” section in that group. A segment of people that have a good grip on some, but not all, of what they want to know. But I think that group is constantly in flux, because with a lot of social media, once you “get” the way something works a lot of other things suddenly make sense.
This segmentation matters because you have to understand who you’re talking to.
If you’re a social media blogger, you have to decide if you’re going to cover the basics (and do a great job like Mack Collier, Chris Brogan, and Jason Falls) or push the envelope with higher level thinking (like Alan Wolk, Greg Verdino, Paul Isakson, and Valeria Maltoni).
If you’re writing instructions, or explaining your new web service, you have to understand if people get the concept of “friending” or “tweeting”.
I’d like to think that I fall somewhere in the middle on this blog. Where are you? What kind of content do you look for?
2 Responses and Counting...
I thought you were going to write: there are two kinds of people, those who split the world into two kinds, and those who do not
You are very kind (no pun intended), Matt and I see I am in exceptionally good company.
Matt: Thanks for putting me in such good company.
I think your theory here is spot on.
Just remember though that in reality, the blue “Explain The Basics” circle is always going to be much, much larger: people always gravitate to the middle. It's why the latest crime novel best-seller will do twice as much business (or three or four times as much) as the literary novel.
Not right or wrong, just how it is.