The amazing thing about social media is the idea behind communities. It's very much a "help me, help you" mentality.
I consistantly amaze my family with how I solve the harder questions (how do you get grape juice out of the carpet? How did they film that one scene in that other movie? etc.). I even overhead my father bragging on the phone the other day about my powers, "We'll be watching a movie or TV show and can't remember who that actor is and she'll have the answer in less than two minutes."
How do I do it? Google, Twitter and my social communities. And I'm also there when people need help. Yesterday the question on Twitter was, "Where in the world did FTW come from?" The popular internet shortcut phrase 'for the win,' is said to originated from the game show Hollywood Squares where the result of the player's response is expected to win the game. How did I know? Oh good old GoogleFu.
But there's also answers to non-Googeable questions, like "where's the best coffee in the Seattle airport?" If you've stuck around review websites for any length of time you noticed the amazing amount of discrepancies between reviews. Fake reviews abound and aren't to be trusted. This is time to turn to human powered social media sites. LiveJournal communities, Twitter, and Facebook friends have never let me down.
With all this sharing of free information you might be wondering why hotshots in the Internet are simply giving it away. I believe there are several reasons.
1. Social Media is all about relationship. In the book "The Psychology of Joss Whedon" (which I've been reading) the psychologists/authors of one essay put it this way, "Ultimately we need others â€" not only to survive, but to thrive and so realize our full potential." Relationships are the key to any great person. As the old adage says, "if you want to know the measure of a man you simply count his friends." Before you run out and bug a thousand people to follow you on Twitter or be your "friend" on Facebook let me be clear - this does not mean that Social Media is a numbers game. You can have "friends" and still be outside of social media relationships. True relationships online mirror those off-line. Does the person speak directly to you? Do you engage in discussions? Would this person help you? Those friends are valuable and worth being kept. Those friends are what Social Media is really about.
2. Social Media users are tired of being shouted at. About 6 years ago I stopped watching most network and cable news. I even joked one year that most of my news came from John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The truth of the matter was I was tired of being shouted at. The news was doom, gloom and things that go boom. I wanted to choose for myself what news I heard and when I heard it. That's why social media users are eager to help each other out, they're also tired of the traditional sources and dig up their own news (obvious pun...) and share it with their friends. Today Twitter and RSS feeds provide me my news (and without the long commercial breaks). Social Media users like choice. If they don't want to hear what Britney's latest fiasco is, they'll not click the link or they'll delete the email or they'll ignore the Facebook announcement.
3. People love being in touch with celebrities. Now this is celebrity with a small c. These are not the Brad Pitt and Prince Harry's of the world, but celebrities like Jeremiah Owyang, Guy Kawasaki, podcast novelist Scott Sigler, J.C. Hutchins and Mur Lafferty. Not only do these wonderful people appear in Social Media sites such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, but they also respond to their followers - regardless of how "important" or "unimportant" that follower would be. This creates impressive loyalty and continues the cycle of "help me.. help you."
How about you? Do you use your social media sites as a help me/help you platform?
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