If you added up all the Tweets, blog posts, workshops, books, and random thoughts floating around about social media, you’d quickly be buried in a landslide of excitement and, perhaps, opportunism.  It’s hard not to be terribly interested in the possibility of harnessing these tools for doing marketing good, and any time you can bring the consumer into the equation, that’s an enormous opportunity.

However…

Many marketers are treating social media like a steamer pulling out of its wharf on the Seattle waterfront during the Alaskan Gold Rush.  They’re bound and determined to be on it, whether it makes all that much sense or not. So, yes, we are believers in social media (if you check our current workshop schedule, you’ll likely see several sessions devoted to this topic), but we are believers in using it wisely and with a plan — not just jumping aboard for the heck of it.

David Baker, the well-respected business consultant to design firms, has stated the case for sane social media about as well as anyone. So, we’ll get out of the way and let you read what he has to say, his contrarian approach to social media. And since this is a blog — a shining example of social media — why don’t you leave your comments if you do or don’t agree with him?