In the spirit of the CCK08 theme of the week (Networks) I must ask about a roadblock I am seeing in involving the masses in social media.

Does marketing own social media? The social media groups I am involved with are all run by marketers. The marketing group in my company are the early adopters of social media in the Enterprise. Marketers see the reasons for connecting, breaking through silos, etc.

But marketers don’t have to implement these solutions. They don’t have to do really deal with the fallout from people talking openly about information that needed to stay within a group. They can get righteously indignant at the IT guys who block access to the tools they want to use, since they won’t have to work 48 hours straight when one of those tools introduces a virus that makes all nodes on the corporate network inoperable.

Marketers can talk about how awesome these new tools are and how we have to open access to all of them RIGHT NOW!!!!

Which puts the rest of us in a bad position. Sometimes all that enthusiasm comes across the wrong way to folks who have t put these exciting plans into motion.

Our bosses want to know if we have time to blog, read blogs and feeds, are we really working? How is all the new media different? How will it affect current revenue streams? Or is this just another fad that marketers are getting all worked up over?

Yeah, that is where I am. I think my management sees me as too technical to do social media. Even though social media tools could help me connect to my audience. Cut through silos to give me a genuine feedback loop for the training I develop.

So let me bring this back to the network. In my company, the people who develop courses have to become SMEs. I used to be a sysadmin, and now I am expected to learn the products I write about until I am an SME. I help write our Proven Professional Certification Exams, in fact most of the courses I have been involved with support these certifications.

So marketers may want links into the geek networks that are made up of folks holding our certifications. I am already a node in that network of certified geeks. So who would have an easier time accessing that network? Someone who knows the language, the norms, etc of the network? Or someone trying to connect to the network for the first time?

In IP networking terms, my connection to the network is the least expensive because I have the fewest amount of hops before I reach the network. So, you would think that I would be a perfect candidate to facilitate social media plans for these groups.

Except I am not in marketing. I am an SME that creates technical training. Infinite Loop.

So all you SM gurus: how do I change that perception?