Social Media Gurus & Value
For what it’s worth, this post gets funny later on.
I’m not, and have never been a fan of social media experts, gurus, ninjas, or whatever other pompous titles they use. From where I’m sitting, social media as it is used by most companies and individuals isn’t overwhelmingly complicated. The volume of free video, blog posts & infographic tutorials is staggering, and none of it is a substitute for just using the platforms on your own. If you’ve never actively used this stuff, you don’t understand it.
The two people who really taught me about social media were there at the beginning, well before it was “social media.” Their (and other early thinkers/doers) posts, actions and successes are the foundation on which all of these current “experts” have set up shop, reiterating the same messages in an endless loop. It’s worth noting that both of the people who taught me about social media have vast knowledge about the Internet and technology in general.
There are some good social media consultants out there, but they are very few and far between.
For my part, social media is not, and never has been a passion of mine. My love is for the Internet on which these platforms are built.
Anyway… All of this was spurred on by a hilarious video from the Onion with a mock social media guru speaking at in a TED-esque setting.
“Social media eliminates the need to provide value to your clients.” This is depressingly spot-on for those of us who are trying to make things that do provide value, and have to watch in horror as money is flushed down the toilet that is the Facebook Fan Page.
(Via BoingBoing)
Obama & Social Media
Obama joined Foursquare this week! OMG, this is like totally news!
I can’t bring myself to care about the President’s presence in social media. It’s nothing personal, but he isn’t really on Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook, some low level staffer is on Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook as Obama.
If I thought the President’s accounts were really him, I might follow him, but it’s just PR.
Can we stop treating this stuff like it’s news?
Use a Profile Photo, You Aren’t Your Political Beliefs
Everyone knows someone like this…
- All conversations lead to his / her politics
- They hold an unyielding belief that the fate of all existence depends the next election
- Their social media streams endless party-line anti-liberal or anti-conservative garbage
- And their profile pic has become a political banner like this one…
Jackamo – Cross between a jackass and a moron (Urban Dictionary). It’s my new favorite word.
If this sounds like you, you have become your political beliefs, and this crap is annoying the people who care about you. The only people who like it are fellow joyless partisans who have helped you create an echo chamber of thoughtless, one-sided dribble.
This isn’t the person you actually are.
- Turn off the cable news
- Spend politics-free time with loved ones
- Get a hobby
- And use a real photo of yourself with either loved ones, or performing said hobby
Must Use Social Applications
Recently I’ve been asked by many people who work in communications what social sites they should be using. I decided to put together a short list of must-use sites. The only way to truly understand any of these sites is to actually use them. If you don’t use them, you don’t understand them. End of story.
Love it or hate it, this is one of the places where the action is. If you are looking to interact with people online, this is a great place to do it. If you’re a professional communicator or a web professional, you need to understand Facebook, how it’s used and why it’s so damn popular.
It’s ugly, clunky and I find it annoying. That being said, professionally it’s fairly ubiquitous. If you are looking to network, or think you might be in the future, LinkedIn is the site to use. This is in large part because all of the professionals who aren’t on Facebook are on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is also useful for determining ways to meet people you don’t know but want to because it shows you how to network through your existing connections.
If you haven’t tried Twitter yet, you probably believe the stereotype that it’s just a ton of people announcing the mundane BS of their lives.
The truth about Twitter is that it is whatever you make it. There are many brilliant people who tweet very interesting things. It’s a great place to share ideas, learn new things, meet people from around the world, and pose questions to a large volume of people. It’s all about who you follow, and what you tweet. If you follow boring people, and tweet boring stuff then Twitter is going to be boring.
WordPress (Blogging)
If you have any passion for writing, blogging is a very fulfilling activity. The power to publish your ideas to the world is something that was impossible for all but the a small number of people for centuries.
If you write for a living, the ability to write about any topic of your choosing, in any style is especially liberating.
You don’t have to use WordPress, Tumblr and Blogger are suitable alternatives. That being said, I greatly prefer WordPress. The point is that there is a lot you can learn about yourself, through blogging. It also helps to understand the mentality of bloggers in general.
Wrap Up
There are plenty of other social sites that are worth using, these are the four must-use sites at the moment.
If you take anything away from this, it should be:
If you don’t actually use these social sites on a regular basis for a prolonged period of time, you do not understand them. It doesn’t matter how many articles you’ve read on social media, if you don’t live it, you don’t get it.
Interesting Infographics
TUAW has an great map showing the density of Apple users in the US. Based on this I bet that there is a correlation between owning an Apple and voting for Democrats.
Now Sourcing has 10 interesting infographics on social media:
They are:
- World Map of Social Networks
- Age Distribution on Social Network Sites
- Social Media Periodic Table of Elements
- The Conversation Prism
- The Boom of Social Sites
- Make Social Media Work For Your Company
- Hubspot Twitter Territory
- How Twitter Got Attacked by DDOS
- Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment V.2
- Visualizing 6 Years of Facebook
United Breaks Guitars Part II
Here’s the sequel to United Airlines’ glorious social media nightmare:
This one is good, but the original is way better.
Thank to Adriana Lukas for sharing.
United Breaks Guitars – In Defense of United Airlines
Before reading this, you should watch this video. It explains everything extremely well… and it’s catchy:
Now, don’t get me wrong, I would be mad as hell if some United Airlines employees were throwing one of my guitars around and broke (and none of my guitars are as nice as the beautiful Taylor that they broke).
United is catching a lot of flak for this incident, and I think someone needs to take a stand for the airline!
Sure they are a piss poor airline, with unhelpful employees, bad food, an aging fleet, they broke Canadian folk musician, Dave Carroll’s guitar, refused to pay to fix it, and then completely blew the management of their social media crisis… But, in United’s defense, I’m sure they never would have reacted this way had they realized that Carroll was going to write a catchy four minute song about the incident, and post it on YouTube where it would be viewed by upwards of 3.1 million people.
Yeah, I know you are thinking, “it’s not the crisis, it’s the reaction to it; where is the sincere response on YouTube; why aren’t they embracing the catastrophe to mitigate the damage; et cetera.” Look, if you are thinking any of those thoughts you need to realize that United is a dinosaur of a company, and you are asking it to act all young and spry like those whippersnappers at JetBlue or Virgin Atlantic. It’s just not their style.
You wouldn’t beat up your grandpa? So why are you going to beat up on old United?
Small correction
I forgot to mention that Adriana Lukas sent this my way. Thanks Adriana!
