Sure not all fall into the “Intelligent User” category.

But with a community of over 300’000 members that we have built from ground up, mostly community builders using our free and open-source CB to build social networks and communities, over at our site (joomlapolis.com) i’m amazed how well and intelligently all people behave in public, vs in private.

So I guess:
Another huge difference of social media to normal “word of mouth” is that this word of mouth is not a private lisper, but a public discourse.

People behave differently (giving the best of them) in public than in private, or often just shut up if they don’t have something “intelligent” to add to the public discussion.

So yes, the “*Public* Intelligent User” not only exists, but it’s the overwhelming majority of people, in my professional social networks experience !

thing is, not all fall into this category.

Social media is also about “collective intelligence” and self-filtering of the noise/spam.

Understanding social media is understanding that others also have, often more, intelligence too. But most importantly that you can not control social media. You have the choice to be part of it or not. It will happen without you anyway.

@Jae Xavier That sub-niche of intelligent users is even more important to designers, not because they are one of them (which they typically are), but because they have the tools at their disposal to _empower_ them. It’s like the difference between being a soldier in the army and supplying them with powerful new weapons and tactics.

@Steve Kaiser About the non-chalant attitude, I think people want to get involved because they see something happening on Social Media hubs but, at the same time, they are holding back. It appears non-chalant because theyre stuck in stasis. Perhaps they don’t understand Social Media, or they don’t trust it (privacy is a big concern, perhaps a whole article’s worth of concern…), but the more we use it, the safer and more acceptable it becomes, and the more people will be willing to embrace it.

@Ron Morrison I’m glad you enjoyed the article. Where can I find The Cluetrain Manifesto: Markets are Conventions thesis you mentioned? Is it available online? I would very much like to read it.

I also enjoyed adding to my socmed vernacular the notion of the intellingent user. I do believe that there is also an intelligent buyer who is in large part made more intelligent vis-a-vis social media. At ronsmap our goal, we set out to “reach” this intelligence in buyers. To give the intelligent user/buyer more “intel”Further we set out to encourage and motivate the user to leverage their intelligence through social media platforms.

Don’t be a fraid of failure is a notion that I appreciated seeing in the article is well. Because it stands to reason that when developers attempt to stand their intelligence next to the vast intellect of the internet users, naturally the developer will experience failures in concept, design, and implementation.

Again – very nicely done! Thank you for your post.

Nonetheless, social media is definitely a powerful tool when used properly. And like Inside the Webb said, this is definitely one of the biggest assets of the Internet era for just anyone who uses it intelligently.