By any measure, 2009 was a huge year for social media. The phrase gained traction on magazine covers, Web pages and conference brochures, and as all the big “SocMed” sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn grew at breakneck speed, the prevailing advice was that every one of us needed to turn on and tune in – or risk dropping out of sight.
But just like those who turned on in the ’60s and can’t remember what happened next, a lot of impressionable people are using social media as today’s drug of choice. The effect, of course, can be overwhelming: Too many stimuli creating a bizarre alternate reality – and scrambled brainwaves in the end.
Social media is clearly here to stay, but it’ll take a bit of wisdom and good judgment to avoid turning it into an attention-thieving overdose of junk. Perhaps a few clear-headed resolutions for 2010 could help. Let’s start with three.
Resolve not to update your business contacts on the boring minutiae of your day.
If you’ve got a personal Facebook account, you’ve got carte blanche to tell friends and family that cold weather sucks or how much you love pudding. But if you’re building a conversation with partners, customers, potential clients and other hard-working folk, don’t waste their time with the tiny stuff.
Promise yourself that, before posting any comment, video or write-up, you’ll take a long, hard look at whether it truly adds anything to your fans’ and followers’ lives. “Lunch at LoDo Café is always delicious” might be interesting to food-seekers and helpful to the restaurant itself, but “I love tuna sammies!” brings enlightenment to few.
Resolve not to approach social media simply as free ad space.
It’s intriguing to think you could post a few quick notes about how marvelous you are and what useful services you provide, and the world would beat a path to your door. But nobody wants to read a lot of ads, and the more you burden your social network with commercials that are all about you, the less attention people will pay.
Make it your goal to give people information they’ll want, not self-serving shout-outs that interrupt the search for deeper truth. A post on the year’s new tax laws could be interesting and helpful to thousands, but a write-up on why people should trust you to handle their money is noise.
Resolve to look smart.
The quick-and-easy nature of the Internet has contaminated many a social-media post, from comments filled with inscrutable spelling to blog entries that seem to have been written by squirrels on crack. But when the goal is to attract people to your business or cause, looking stupid is not your best approach.
Challenge yourself to communicate clearly and intelligently whenever you’re writing for public consumption. A collection of wise and thoughtful posts will help people develop a positive impression of you and your work, and it’ll help us all keep the addictive world of social media from turning into another bad trip.
