The golden rule when it comes to social media marketing, or so the hundreds of 'social media gurus' would have you believe (you can tell when someone's a guru because it says so on their Twitter profile), is to "get to know your community." Inspired by The Tipping Point, they'll tell you that there's great gain to be had by "influencing the influencers." And they're right. But what happens when the community, and the influencers, changes?

The reason I started wondering about this was because recently I've started becoming more active here on SEOmoz again. There was no big reason why I'd become less active; running a team, blogging on Search Engine Land & my own site, Twitter, generally having a life - all these things had taken up time which used to be spent happily slumming it round the blogs & comment threads of the Moz. And just as there was no single reason why I became less Mozzish, so my return to Moz Towers has been for no other reason than the fact that I seem to end up here more often than I was a couple of months ago.

Stuff has changed, and so has my usage of the site.

And it's not just me: Roadies recently hit the main blog with his excellent post on the terrible song slagging off United's customer service that's been taking off on YouTube (sorry). Anyone newish to SEOmoz might think that was pretty good going for someone who appears to be new to the site, but in fact Jason (I hope he won't mind me calling him that) has been around here for longer than just about anyone other than Rand. Or take Rebecca: up until recently she was, along with Jane, one of the most well known members of the SEOmoz team but has now, just like Jane, moved on, no doubt to bigger and better things (Rebecca that is; Jane has to work with Rob every day and the only thing that's better than is street sweeping). 

The point remains the same though. Things change.

inflatemouse wrote about much the same thing, way back in 2007, when he pondered what had become of the non-staff bloggers who had populated SEOmoz before the addition of YOUmoz (I still miss EGOL & Gman's stuff). Many people reading this will probably wonder who the hell inflatemouse is, let alone the others (he's a very good dinner companion for what it's worth, as I found out at the inaugural SMX Advanced).

Because stuff happens, things change. People move in & out of digital communities just like they do in 'real ones': some people come to stay, some just prefer to hang out in Florida for the winter.

So what have we learned from any of this, other than the fact that I love a good analogy like Cristiano Ronaldo likes writing out his monthly salary in caviar on Paris Hilton's midriff*?

Well, we've learned that "getting to know your community" and "influencing the influencers" may not be as easy as it at first seems. Because the person who's number 3 in the community chart (i.e. me) might not be anywhere near as active as the guy at #4 (the irreplaceable rishil). Or the chap who looks like a newb, and therefore doesn't seem worth talking to, might have been around since God was a boy, and is the chap that the more mouthy ones really listen to. Or the girls you used to ping about getting on the round-up, or into their latest presentation, have moved on.

Just as with SEO, where the best link might actually be from the site with only 10 links pointing to it, so in social marketing it's often not who you know, but what you know. And there's nothing any guru can do about that.

*I'm sure that Ronaldo would never do something like this. He probably doesn't even like caviar.

Ciarán has been on SEOmoz since 2006 and recently moved to global media & comms agency Mindshare, where he's working with clients including Nike on how to incorporate search & social into their wider marketing mix.