Recently the inimitable pundit Brian Solis published a “Twitterverse” graphic. You can see it below and also where I originally found it here. 

I saw this because I was looking at a different solutions company that purports to connect marketers and advertisers with “influencers” across social media on a moment to moment basis through channels and brand platforms we all know. I’m constantly evaluating things like this for my clients. 

So, I read their limited website content and then decided to throw them a bone and follow them on Twitter. [This is what I consider to be the lowest form of affinity a user might opt into, by the way. It can be a way of saying, "I don't really know for sure whether your little venture is relevant, but I'll give you a shot on Twitter and maybe you'll put something great in front of me at some point. If you don't, well, no big deal. I'll just ignore your posts and/or maybe even unfollow you later." Of course other times I follow much more enthusiastically, but that's usually a more personally-prompted connection.] 

Anyway, the solutions company’s Twitter feed included something that caught my eye: yet another Brian Solis social media infographic, this time about the universe of solutions available to marketers for Twitter. 

I had to click on it, of course. This is what I saw when I got there: 

Graphic depiction of various solutions associated with Twitter

 Question for you: whose job is it in your company to know all these names and what they do? Who do you think knows the most about what all these things can do to make you a successful online marketer? The eMarketing Manager? The PR department, perhaps? Or more likely, the agencies you work with? What are we to make of this mess of options?

I believe that right now, none of these people have a solid grip on this stuff – and that includes Brian Solis (it takes more than basic categorization, alas). And this goes not only for the “Twitterverse”, but for the eMarketing solutions universe as a whole. The reason why is because it’s too damn big and it changes way too fast – and it’s growing at an ever-increasing rate. And guess what? No one has it in their job description to spend most of their time researching this stuff. We end up doing it as a (small) part of our real jobs and/or in our spare time. And we can’t keep up. And it’s getting worse. eMarketers are thus in a tough spot. 

One cause of this proliferation is that emerging media continues to evolve and grow in cool new directions. Every time something new materializes, a bevy of point solutions sprouts up practically overnight. This happens because programming and product development techniques have evolved to the point that new SaaS products and services can be created so cheaply and quickly that literally thousands of garage ventures with bona fide value-added point solutions can – and do – sprout. Overnight. 

One of the implications of this is that it’s hard to compare one social media service provider to another. The impossibility of any one of them really knowing the universe of technology solutions out there is only part of it. 

It’s also a question of results measurement. Social media impact can be measured, but you can’t really measure the benefit of one social media practitioner’s benefit against another’s. Oh sure, it’s possible – but ultimately it’s impractical. All one can really say is, “I use X practitioner, they do Y things for me, and they are getting me Z results.” 

Given the situation, another practitioner can always come along and take advantage of victims’ ignorance – by asking questions such as “Are you using the [insert esoteric technology solution here] or the [insert far-from-an-established-benefit keyword-seeding technique here]?” And the client is left without an answer and trying to decide what to do. Is the new provider really better or are they just telling you what they think you need to hear to convince you to switch? 

It’s a tough world out there, and a lot of snake oil salesmen (and women!). Having pointed this out, all I can suggest to marketing services buyers out there is to be wary. Talk to some of their current clients. Are the good to work with? Responsive? Do they bring well-researched, good ideas to you? Are they trying to understand your business and your role as a marketer? Do you trust them? Are they obsessed with getting you meaningful results (your definition of meaningful is what counts, by the way, not theirs)? And, I might add: Do they spend their Saturdays researching new stuff on your behalf? 

It’s not a perfect way to make such decisions, but it ought to be more pleasant than shopping for snake oil.