Stop the hysteria: Social media isn't ludicrously complicated.

 Business Insider is getting lots of buzz by re-posting this graphic with the ridiculous headline "This INSANE Graphic Shows How Ludicrously Complicated Social Media Marketing Is Now":

Graphic via Buddy Media

What percentage of these logos are totally useless to a marketer trying achieve his or her goals? Eighty-plus percent? Ninety-plus percent?

A media buyer could create the same graphic out of TV networks, TV shows, cable providers, satellite providers and DVRs. Would Business Insider blare the headline "This INSANE Graphic Shows How Ludicrously Complicated Television Advertising Is Now!!!"

No. With a TV buy, you define your audience and select the networks and or/programs that your audience watches.

Hmm.

Know your target audience. Listen and discover which social platforms it uses. Then narrow the field and engage in the few areas that matter to helping you achieve your goals.

In fairness to Buddy Media, that was the point. And that's what they help marketers do: listen and narrow the field. The graphic went viral, so good for them.

And yet, I can hear the trees screaming in the forest right now as armies of social media shysters print this graphic and shove it in front of prospects to scare them into buying services to spread their messages to places it doesn't need to go.

Listening and learning isn't ludicrious, or insane, or scary. It's how you make the complex more simple, more focused. It doesn't matter if the subject is social media or cold fusion or baking cakes. The upfront work helps show the path.