photo credit: rochelle, et. al.

Ben Parr asks on Mashable, Is Social Media an Industry?

If you count standing behind a barn drinking beer and hanging out with your buds, then yes.

Social Media is no more an industry than walking around with sandwich signs selling wares to passersby. Sure you're sharing your message, but are your really a multi-national conglomerate known for your innovations? Probably not.

Social Media is a communication channel. It is a highly effective communication channel, but nonetheless, nothing more. Innovators who build upon that communication channel may be creating an industry, but by itself Social Media is not an industry.

A phenomenon, yes. A paradigm shift, yes. An industry paying high wages to millions of people, not so much.

I've railed against this cheerleading in the past (see Publicity is Ruining Social Media, Get me, I'm Givin' Out Wings or Cluetrain Rides Again (and misses some arrows).) Cheerleading to support an exciting new model diminishes its relevance. I would much rather see results than excitement for the latest Twitter growth numbers or the amount of friends you now have on Facebook.

I liked this comment from Todd Lucier, "Social media is a space. Providing social media services can be a business an hence an industry if people are engaged in economic exchanges. Industry is measured by economic output, not users or pageviews."

When you can show me how you've impacted the Gross National Product of Spain, then I'll count you as an industry.

I was talking with Rich Becker this morning about public relations and social media measurement. He reminded me that you can't just say that because you have posted to a blog and 200 people have read your insights, and quite a few commented, that you have done anything that remotely equates to influence.

Counting words and the number of pageviews does not amount to much. You have to take it a step further. To prove value, you have to figure out how many people were moved to change after reading your blog post, Twitter Tweet, Facebook Status Update, et al.  How many were willing to go out and do something totally alien to how they were thinking moments before? To quote Rich Becker, "If you can move someone to shave their heads, then you've accomplished something."

Social media can direct influence. Companies will be created to improve how we utilize social media. Individuals will become social media stars. Does any of this create an industry? Likely not.

However, the day someone plops down cash to buy one of my highly collectible blog posts and then demands I create 100 more of them, then I'll change my mind. Social media will have arrived as a bona fide industry.