This is my first foray for Social Media Today and as I mentioned to both Robin and Brenda, I am somewhat unorthodox and filled with much sarcasm.
In fact I think my veins are filled with half caffeine and half sarcasm... but I can't prove that.Just wanted to give you a bit of a heads up re: my style of writing...
Ok, enough of that. The title of my first blog post pretty much says it all... well, sort of.
Those of us who espouse Social Media, who truly believe in its power and reach are often faced with non-believers, those who consider Social Media just another way to spend our time aimlessly on the world wide web. Time that, in their estimation, would be better served curing cancer, bringing upon world peace or solving other monumental matters.
'Twitter? Isn't that where people say what they had for breakfast? What do I care?"
"Facebook? Why would I want to reconnect with people I never liked in the first place?"
"LinkedIn? Oh yeah, like I have time for that."
It is the aforementioned LinkedIn where I posted this very simple yet thought-provoking query:
"What's the first thing you think of when you hear 'Social Media?'"
I couched it as a sort of word association game.
You know, like I say black and you say white. I say up, you say down. I say BP and you say money-grubbing-bloodsucking-proft-mongering-rapacious-company. Ok, maybe you don't say QUITE that, but... you get the idea.
I posed my LI query with the best of intentions... it was merely an unscientific socialogical experiment.
Here's just a sampling of the answers I received: (the names are being withheld to protect the clueless)
"I say Facebook even though I don't have a FB account."
- Consultant working with Private, Public and Not-for Profit Organizations
"Where millions of selves go to talk about themselves."
-Website Developer
"Time waster! There is still no [way] to effectively utilize all this traffic to help clients, but we are lead to believe that it is the be all and end all.. therefore "time waster" gets my vote"
-Advertising Account Manager
"Time suck."
-Author
"Noise. As in "There's alot of noise in the social media channel, and our job as marketers is to cut through that noise without contributing to it."
-Web Developer/SEO Consultant
"High School popularity contest while you should be working."
-Certified Small Business Consultant
The good news is not ALL responses were so, oh I don't know... inane. Many folks wrote back telling me of the opportunties they were granted via Social Media.
But help me out here, kids. I realize I am not the brightest knife or sharpest bulb but... you tell me it's a waste of time yet you're on LinkedIn responding to my query in the first place. Let that sink in for a minute then help me understand cause I still don't get it.
What is probably most disconcerting is the fact that many of the head-in-sand crowd purport themselves to be those who should evangelize, sermonize and dogmatize the almighty Social Media in the first place.
Hello, McFly?
"...our job as marketers is to cut through that noise without contributing to it."
"There is still no [way] to effectively utilize all this traffic to help clients."
What?
You want to repeat that?
Oh that's right you can't speak right now cause your mouth is full of sand.
I am not here to tell those folks who consider Social Media a waste of time that Social Media is some magic elixir. Far from it.
Social Media needs to be one part... ONE PART of a comprehensive and cohesive marketing/advertising campaign.
But for people to just dismiss it as they would some snake oil salesman knocking on their door would be ridicuously shortsighted and essentially a death blow (yeah, I went there) for your future business considerations and opportunities.
Now, where's my coffee? It's been five minutes since my last cup...