Controversial declarations and smokescreens

maggiefox, January 3 2007

So, unless you live under a rock, away from all the social media and web 2.0 buzz, you’ve probably heard that on December 22nd, MicroSoft gave a bunch of bloggers laptops. However, all did not go as planned – there was backlash and more backlash. Many bloggers and readers felt that this was a MicroSoft “bribe” (a few decided to auction or give the laptops away, though most kept them). THEN – apparently what started off as a “you can keep it if you want” ended up being “this is a review PC – please return it or give it away when you’re done” (along with some tips about disclosure). Which was even worse. The blogosphere got really mad!

Shortly afterwards, on December 28th, huge amounts of discussion and blog inches were redirected to the sudden (and one might say bizarre) declaration from famed blogger-turned-high-profile-Edelman-social-media-wizard (actually, he’s been in communications for 15 years), Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion. Steve announced that Social Media was No Mo. Naturally, the socialmedia-o-sphere erupted with thorough explanations of why this was absolutely untrue. Mostly because most of the population and much of industry still hasn’t grasped the concept. How can something be over before anyone knows about it? Doesn’t it have to be widely adopted first??

Needless to say, the laptop thing was a badly-handled PR mess, orchestrated by… Edelman. I have a question: does anyone see any coincidence with the timing of Steve’s declaration and all the obscuring fuss it caused? Anyone?

Hat tip to Brian Solis