When Social Media Becomes Hollow
March 29th, 2010 | Posted in blog 20 Comments »
I attended Podcamp Salt Lake City (Podcampslc.org) on Friday for the third year in a row. The attendees have fluctuated. The first year, about 30 attended. The next year, about 90 attended. This year, the attendees decreased to around 45.
Sometimes events just suffer from poor timing. We are all so busy. But I noticed another trend: more and more sessions focused on social media, almost as much as podcasting. Here are a few of the session titles:
- Client Attraction with Digital Media
- Using social media to promote your content
- Leveraging New / Social Media for Personal Branding
- 5 Killer Press Release Strategies For Your Podcasts
At one point I wondered if the social media club had infiltrated the podcasting crowd. Among the audience, it seemed everyone was genuinely interested in using social media to grow their business.
Thom Allen, the organizer of PodcampSLC, is even considering changing the name and focus of the conference to broaden the scope next year. I mentioned that we could change it to a “Social Media Camp” and include podcasting as a subtrack, fitting it into the larger trend of social media. If we changed that focus, I’m confident we would have 95+ bouncy people attending.
Many of the topics around social media included strategies for increasing your visibility and followers. One presenter laid down a social media methodology: get the reader’s attention, ask permission to interact (via a newsletter sign up), build trust with content, and then use that trust to influence decisions. It’s the same strategy Jason Van Orden teaches.
Other social media tips recommended by presenters included registering domain names in every social media space available, responding to every Facebook, Twitter, and email reply you receive from readers, and maintaining a presence in all major social media spheres, even the untrendy MySpace.
I’m not a huge social media fan, and during one IM moment with Jane, at home with the kids, she said, “I hate social media.” She says she uses Twitter because she wants to interact with her friends, not to “promote her brand.” She wants any “fame” to follow naturally from the content she produces rather than from spending 10 hours a day doing social media networking.
Me too. It’s not that I dislike Twitter or blogging or podcasting or Facebook or the infinite number of new social sites. For me, it’s the idea that social media’s only purpose is to grow your business and readership. I dislike the idea that it’s all essentially a business motive. You build trust so you can influence others and get them to follow you and subscribe to your newsletter. You engage in social media so you can increase your visibility, so people will link back to you, buy your products and services, and so you can take in more money and increase your product offerings. You engage in social media so you can expand your reach and little by little dominate the world.
When the discussion about social media revolves around this end game, I start to feel uneasy. It’s the same ill feeling I had in college when I would speak with business majors. Whereas most of us were engaged in literature or science, business majors seemed to focus only on schemes to make money. Is that how they interpret social media? As another scheme to make money?
I didn’t tweet much during the first half of Podcamp because I simply didn’t feel like it. After my presentation, I was a bit more relaxed and exhausted at the same time. My brain was numb from having stayed up too late the night before preparing my presentation and fulfilling other assignments. But after I ran into an old mission buddy at Podcamp, things started to turn around. I found a second wind and became much more alive. I started asking questions to the presenters, began posting a few tweets, and overall became more engaged.
When I post a tweet, publish a blog post, record a podcast, or engage in any other form of social media, I don’t consciously do it with the intent of growing my readership and increasing my brand or business. I don’t engage in social media for the business-motivated end game. I’m not trying to build trust with readers so that I can later influence them with product or service decisions. I’m just expressing and communicating about things I’m interested in. If the consequence is that people follow me and we interact, great. But my actions aren’t a ploy for influence. Influence comes from being passionate about something that captures you entirely, not from calculating SEO techniques to maximize visibility on every social media platform.
This year may mark the end of PodcampSLC and the genesis of a “Social Media Camp” of some kind. Businesses looking to increase their social savvy will send their marketing team to learn all about the rules of transparency and authenticity. They’ll discover the need for openness and unfiltered interaction with readers and clients. But if the entire social media strategy is built up with an end game of increased sales and customer followers, it will be a hollow endeavor.
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Tags: business majors, jason van orden, motives, Podcamp, podcampslc, Podcasting, social media, social media club, Thom Allen
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I am so glad to hear that. I agree with what you said. To me social media is about learning and sharing.
Hallo Tom, I agree with you. The sales side of things is a by-product of what really matters: we and our readers are having fun and helping each other. On the other hand, it’s useful to be able to put a business case together when we need someone to cough up the money for the tools and infrastructure. Thanks for a thought provoking post.
Cheers, Sarah
I think Lugiron is producing a tool that helps track metrics for social media. Definitely important to justify time and roles.
Well put, Tom. It’s a hard balance to maintain. I want (and need) to promote my services and social media is an effective format. But I don’t want to “invest” in people or relationships simply to see a monetary return on that investment. That’s using people. I don’t subscribe to the “win friends and influence people” model, but I find myself veering toward it occasionally when it comes to using social media.
In the end, I have to keep my mission front and center at all times: My work exists to restore order, create life-giving culture, and point to truth, goodness, and beauty. My role is as a helper to other businesses so that they can flourish.
Thanks for your comment, Bill. It reminds me of a philosophy essay I read in college from Kierkegaard about a Judge William. You definitely are following the same school of thought there. It’s a dilemma. In Kierkegaard’s case, he was wary of using other people to fulfill his own goals, even if those goals are to serve that person in some way. At least that’s how I remember it.
Thanks, Tom. I agree with you that using social media as a means to a (money-making) end is inappropriate. But….
All of us who use social media, unless it’s purely social (chatting with friends), need to understand that we HAVE a personal brand and that social media influence that brand to a great extent. Although I’ve never met your personally, I know you through your podcasts, your blogs, and your Twitter feed. I have an opinion about you. That fact that it’s a good opinion, is largely due to the way you portray yourself on social media.
Finally, I don’t have a stake in the game but I hope that next year’s Podcamp is still a Podcamp. As a Podcamp it fills a need for an audience with a specific, focused interest. As a Social Media camp it’ll be one of dozens, probably hundreds, of events competing in the same space. For whatever it’s worth.
Larry, if you’re attending the Summit in Dallas, definitely say hello to me. I know I have a brand, and I guess I would be disingenuous to say that I don’t try to maintain that brand. I do keep my posts focused on tech comm topics. And I try to focus Twitter a bit on tech comm as well (though not as much). I do have many other sides to me, but I guess it I have chosen a focus and brand to further my professional goals. So perhaps I’m guilty of the exact thing I’m condemning in this post (thanks for pointing this out, by the way). However, having a focus (which leads to a brand) also is a good strategy for writing, as it opens up topics and gives me more ideas to write about. Additionally, it’s not bad as a professional move. If I wrote about everything, from music to politics to religion to sports, the effect is dilution and it’s harder to find an audience.
“Perhaps I’m guilty of the exact thing I’m condemning in this post.” You say that like it’s a bad thing.
I think that you and I take very similar approaches: our blogs are focused on technical communication and our tweets reveal a little more about our personal lives. But we stay well away from things that are intensely personal or controversial. In my case, it’s because I want to interact with the community as a professional and not have other stuff get in the way.
I’ll definitely look for you at the Summit in Dallas.
Tom, I enjoyed this post and am glad to hear your opinion on this subject. You were among the first bloggers whom I followed, so in many ways you sparked my interest in social media. Your post is very timely for me, as I have been pondering over the very questions that you raise.
For the past few years I have run a one-person business with a niche market, and I could cater to that market by splashing my name/company name all over the place. I simply don’t want to occupy every waking moment with a “social media strategy.”
My presence online has brought me some work, but I use my blog (not as much as I should), Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn mainly to stay connected to my network. For example, I tweet roughly once a day just to share a link to a technology-related article or story from my email inbox. I rarely say anything personal unless there’s something major going on in my personal life, such as the effects of this year’s major east coast snowstorm. I don’t see anything wrong with personal tweets; I’m just more comfortable tweeting about technology. I reserve personal stuff for Facebook and don’t want to create a business page there.
Social media is here to stay, and it has made our world more connected and open than ever. Overall, that’s a good thing, but I see no reason to obsess over it. And as I continue to move toward my… … twilight years, I like to have some quiet moments in my life without the online “buzz.”
Twilight years? Wow, I’m only 34 but I can see that coming my way too. You’re right about enjoying the quiet moments. I hadn’t thought of social media as noise in my life, but you’re right — that’s a good comparison. There’s something to be said for living the quiet, reflective life that doesn’t involve a maddening rush to respond to every facebook message, to twitter every little thought and action before the world. It’s nice to keep some things private, or to write and publish independent of the noise going on around you. Thanks again for the comment.
Love this post. To me, social media is just another form of marketing. And if you have a great product (content) then people will naturally follow you. Love what your wife says. “Fame” to follow naturally from the content she produces rather than hustling on social media channels. We all have seen evidence of the social media hustle. A couple of years ago, it passed with flying colors. Today, you see through it.
Tom:
I, too am cheering your attitude toward social media. It offers new ways of connecting with friends and family, with others in our field, etc., but the people using it only for its money-making possibilities appall me just as much as the obsessive game-players that are always trying to enlist me in farmville or oceanville, or to offer me an imaginary Easter egg or treat.
However, I have taken advantage of it to post information about the STC Atlanta Currents Conference where you are giving the keynote address. (April 17, 2010 http://stcatlanta.org/currents-conference)
Thanks Margaret. Post away ….
I look forward to meeting you in Atlanta.
I’m a HUGE believer in the power of social media to do many of the things you said make you uneasy (except for making money, although the more people that follow you to buy your product or utilize your service will eventually increase your revenue).
But that’s just it: that’s why I’m so excited about social media. It really allows businesses, authors, artists, etc a new way to interact with their clientele. If used right, it can bring back the mom and pop shop feeling that’s so lacking from our busy, go, go, go lives anymore.
And, unfortunately, to get great results and meaningful interactions, social media does take time and a lot of effort. Also, someone commented above that it’s a form of marketing. Yes, it sure is. But that also goes back to why I’m excited about it: there’s definitely downsides, but it also makes companies more accountable, responsible and accessible like never before.
And if you’re socially inclined anyway, social media can be a great way to meet loads of new people. On my other blog, Haunt Jaunts, I’ve met an astounding number of people I wouldn’t have if not for Twitter, Facebook and my blog. (Because blogs qualify as social media too.)
It’s not all bad. It DOES need to be used responsibly, but another thing: people can smell the money maker marketers a mile away. They don’t really get followed or have the build up they might like people to think they have. When it comes down to it, people want to follow people like yourself: very genuine, very real, and very approachable.
I really liked Courtney’s comments, especially her last paragraph. The people who know social media marketing agree overwhelmingly that you have to listen to your customers before you talk to them, and that you have to give them something of value even though in most cases you won’t receive anything in return.
For now, at least, it seems like the natural laws of human dynamics are working in the marketplace to reward traits like generosity and genuineness.
You know, I completely agree with the listening aspect. But I’m not so good at promptly responding to comments. I tend to get overwhelmed with all the things to do to keep up. So I can see how companies might slack off on this a little, if they get hundreds of comments.
Thanks for your insightful comment, Courtney. I agree with everything you say. Social media, if used correctly and authentically, is one of the most powerful tools available to companies. Maybe I was a bit too harsh in my post.
Not harsh. You were letting it out and laying it down. You also had a lot of good points. Sadly, if it can be abused, people tend to find a way to abuse it. Even social media. But those who know how to use it right? They always shine through! You are a fine example of that!
I loved your line: Influence comes from being passionate about something that captures you entirely, not from calculating SEO techniques to maximize visibility on every social media platform.
That is so true! People always talk about SEO like it’s a magic bullet. But focusing on your content and your passion will speak for itself and that’s what people will come back for.
Great post!
You know, I ran into a couple of people this past month that got me thinking about the value of enthusiasm/passion. It really does make a huge impact on me, and it’s inspiring.