“Social media”, is probably the most overused buzz word in 2009. A few months ago when my 83 year old father asked me “What’s this Twitter thing?”, I knew the jig was up. I am by no means a “social media expert” or “evangelist” (so creepy that phrase is [shiver]). I am, on a good day: an well educated designer. BUT, I do know what aspects of social media I like. What keeps me Tweeting and Facebooking is simple: I have a genuine interest in finding people that share my interests and sense of humor. That’s all. We all like to fly in flocks. I have a passion for certain things, and I talk/tweet/txt/post/..whatever..about them.
My issue is with those companies/people/institutions that are in this for the cash reward…the return, and not for the concept / journey of it. As much as one can like or even LOVE money. Wealth, in my opinion, isn’t a passion, it isn’t even an interest-it’s a side effect, or should be. I feel for those people I meet that say they want social media engagement in their company, when clearly, they don’t even LIKE people. They don’t want to even BE social. If you don’t like people, and primarily rely on social media to cram a sell down people’s throats, you’re gonna have trouble with the basic kindergarten principles that sites like Twitter and Facebook are built upon: freely sharing and freely learning.
It’s like getting invited to a party, to only attempt to pick pocket the people you just tried to be friends with, at some point, you’ll stop getting invited.
Successful social media strategies seem to revolve around the good guys. People who “play nice” and genuinely care about what they do-whatever “it” is..and are human. Who admit flaws, tell bad / good jokes, share, and most importantly: have very little fear in openly expressing their ideas.