There are those who create content and those who help content find its audience. But the skills needed to excel at one or the other aren’t necessarily the same.

The noise you can’t ignore. That was the more-or-less official slogan of Jacor Broadcasting, one of the hot companies from back in my radio days.

Noise is good. It’s how people discover content, and is what drives the growth of the web. Social media guru Robert Scoble is fond of saying how “noisy” he is, and the same holds true for the top tier of SM personalities on services such as Digg, Reddit, Twitter, and FriendFeed. Together, they’re the Jacor of New Media.

Bring da Noise

Someone asked me the other day when I became one of “those social media guys.” I haven’t: I’m a web publisher. Content producers and the Noise are joined at the hip, but to excel at one or the other requires its own skill set and an exclusive commitment in time and energy. This is one of the reasons I’m becoming more selective in the services I utilize. There are simply a limited number of hours in a given day.

If you look at the top tier of social media personalities — the early adopters and Usual Suspects on the most popular social media sites — you’ll see most aren’t known as content producers. Sure, they communicate well, and many of them write about or are employed by the social media industry. But top social media people who are also content producers are few and far between.

The real deal

Anyone can print business cards or start a TypePad blog announcing themselves as a social media expert. To really do social media, though, requires a unique set of skills: being able to root out truly great content, wherever it might be hiding; a sharp sense for what could be popular and engaging; speed, organization, and the ability to manage extended networks of collaborators and fellow travelers.

It’s hard work, but it’s not the same as the creative process which powers effective content production. As with everything, there are exceptions to the rule. But content and social media are different sides of the New Media coin.

Content or the Noise — which are you?