I’m not the sort of person that one would immediately think of as an apologist for social media. I have no MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter accounts, for example. The reasons for this aren’t very interesting, so we’ll skip the rationalizations for right now, and instead move on to the thing that’s bothering me about all this stuff at the moment.
Lots of corporations are moving into the social media space, which is a tricky thing to think about. When individuals sign up for these sites, it implies a desire to be communicated with. They want to be friended, messaged, gifted, whatever, by people they know who already use these sites, and they also might possibly want to meet (virtually, at least) strangers whose interests might be compatible with their own. They want to talk.
A company with a Twitter account or a Facebook page may not want these things. In fact, it’s highly likely that all they’re after is some sort of marketing gimmick, another in the long line of additions to the cost of doing business.
But that unwillingness to engage in a real two-way conversation is no betrayal of the social media ethos. Corporations are purposely constructed in such a way as to isolate decision-makers from the customers on whom their decisions have an impact. They mediate their communications accordingly, whether it’s via phone, email, or website. So it goes with social media.
No, the thing that bothers me is how some individuals are treating social media. That is, individuals who treat social media as if they themselves were giant, faceless corporations. These are people who, in keeping up with the latest career-building advice, have been bombarded by the message that a successful person needs to engage in the social web if they want to stay successful. So they build their profiles wherever the current fashion tells them they should, and they begin the long process of connecting them up to people they believe might be able to help them.
This, in itself, isn’t so bad. What’s annoying is when they grouse about it. Because they might get lots of friend requests or communication attempts from lots of strangers — strangers they see no benefit in associating with. That’s what they complain about; constantly having to slough off the human detritus with which there is no point in engaging, because there’s no concievable profitable transaction to be had from them.
Actually, I can sympathize with this point of view — I have much more silly irritants, let me tell you — but I’m kind of tired of hearing about it. I don’t care to hear about your struggles with signal (your marketing message) to noise (passers-by who want to communicat with you for fun) because, honestly, you need that noise if your plan is going to work.
There are professional-oriented sites that do the same thing as Facebook and MySpace. But, in restricting your audience, you reduce the possibility that the person you want to talk to will actually find you. Social media sites are desirable venues for marketing precisely because so many disparate people use them. Aunt Mandy, who signed on to MySpace in order to keep up with her nieces and nephews, might just possibly know someone in publishing or fashion, and you write off her attempts to engage with your stated interest in Shih Tzu breeding or some other unprofessional hobby at your peril.
Thing is, I hardly hear people complaining about the kind of offline networking that’s become de rigeur for professional people; I suspect that as time goes on, we’ll stop hearing complaints about its online counterpart. At least, I hope that’s the case, because I’m rapidly losing patience with those whiney professionals out there. Look, selling your ass has never been an easy, thing; the Internet hasn’t changed that fact.
