In the time I’ve spent playing in the social media space and in an official capacity advising folks on how to behave here, those unfamiliar with the surroundings have a tendency to think social media can do two things. The requests I face most often are to A) “Make this viral” and B) “Go find some traffic.”

Friends who play in the social media sandbox can relate and probably won’t get more than entertaining prose out of this post. What I’m going to write here is for clients, corporations and colleagues. This is not so much a listing of what social media is but rather what social media isn’t.