The social media scam has cost investors billions. But advertisers? Not much. It goes to show that despite what some investors say, the joke is actually on them, and not advertisers.

Let’s examine some not-so-scientific stats. Do a quick search in Google and you see that:

- social media consultant returns 75.3M search results on Google
- social media expert resturns 14.9M search results on Google
- social media returns 92M search results on Google

Everywhere you look, social media is “coming at you” and scheduled to change media for good.

Problem is, while investors have gullibly (no, that’s not a word, but neither was Google 10 years ago) fallen for social media, advertisers have not… and guess what? They won’t.

Here’s why.

The Definition of Social Media

Social media, which is according to Wikipedia described as “an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understandings.”

Problem 1: social media is cool for social media experts because social media experts are a bunch of vain people, but to marketers, it is not worth a bucket of warm spit. Advertising is obtrusive, not embraced by users and all factors being equal, nothing will change that.

The Forms of Social Media

It “can take many different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few.”

Problem 2: None of those forms are actually worth a bucket of warm spit when it comes to ad inventory or ad delivery.

Social media experts get this, but by renaming crappy inventory into social media, they think that advertisers will fall for it. A few years into it, the jury is out: advertisers are not gullible; but investors apparently are.

Line up 100 random social media experts and ask them to list the number of advertiser (not marketers, actual advertisers) relationships they have. I’d say 80 of those 100 have never worked with a media planner or buyer, if not more.Social media has changed communications, no doubt there. But therein lies the problem, communications tools online (be it one on one tools like IM or one-to-many platforms such as message boards) have never, ever, ever been worth - you guessed it - a bucket of warm spit to advertisers.

Social Media is not a scam. It’s real, it’s got momentum and it will change media, publishing and online commerce; but advertising?

Nope… Not gonna do it.