A bad social media workman is scared of his tools

This visualisation of social media marketing tools has been doing the rounds of late:

I found it on Business Insider. It was created by BuddyMedia

The general reaction has been something along the lines of:

Oh no! Woe is me! It’s all so complicated! I thought Social Media was just Twitter and Facebook!

You know what’s worse? Look at this:

ALL THOSE TOOLS.

Whatever am I going to do with them all? House maintenance is too complicated!

Now, here’s the thing: exactly how seriously would you take a tradesman who turned up to your house with one size of spanner and a single screwdriver, and complained when the job required more than that?

You’d kick them straight out the door, and throw their tools after them.

True craftsmen respect a diversity of tools, know that different occasions call for the use of different tools, and they have the skill and knowledge to adapt when the task requires it.

I wouldn’t like to suggest that the social media “profession” is one rather over-burdened with amateur hacks who’ve learnt how to use two or three tools by rote. No, I’m not suggesting that.

I’m stating it.

The social media world is split between people who look at that diagram and go “oh my God, how do I cope” and those who go “Oooh, possibilities.”

Can I suggest that you’d be better working with the latter? People who are excited by possibilities are so much more fun than those who are afraid of them…