Social Media Selling Out And Do We Care?

Once again I am sitting here in the coffee shop doing the whole job search thing which consists of 50 percent job search, 50 percent checking social media, 50 percent drinking coffee.  Today is no different and once again I have seen something on the web that gave birth to a thought which is not giving birth to this blog.

The thing that I saw was a tweet saying that Google+ is laying the ground work for company Google+ pages. Now, I know this is what we have come to expect from social media, but is it what we want?

Think back to the original days of Facebook, when it was just pure networking uninterrupted with 7 different news feeds, Farmville, and advertisements. It was a simpler time when you could post at your leisure and not worry about your every move on the internet being observed by someone somewhere… in short; it was a safe place to network with friends and contacts. 

This safety however is long since gone and now you have to watch your every step and for good reason. Studies show that employers are using social media to research and screen employees, citizens are using it to study up on politics, and businesses are abusing it to find customers. These, as I understand are not what social networking sites were created for… in fact, I believe social networking sites such as Facebook were created for college students to get connected, socialize, network with one another, and share information. 

Now, in no way am I upset about the way things have gone, and am definitely not blaming the companies who use this ultimate resource to their advantage, I am just commenting on the progression that these seemingly harmless “social” companies are becoming more and more focused on allowing advertisers to reach the public instead of allowing the public to reach on another. 

The most applicable thing that I can compare it to in my mind is a rock band that started out blasting original sounds to a few faithful fans in their garage folding under the pressure of society to make music that is “popular” and not true to the bands self… but in a society where we often have to choose between what we are and a boat load of cash who can blame them.

photo via thebsreport.wordpress.com

Stuck In A Rut- the story of a mud blogger

I am sitting here with about three word documents containing what seem to be the skeletons of three really low quality blogs that I can’t seem to push myself to publish. It is like each blog is a jacked up truck revving its way through a big mud whole and then WHAM! they hit a rut and sink into the mud forever. Recently it seems that everything that I write is going the way of the sunken mud bogger… or blogger

Realizing this caused me to take a step back and say well. If I was really out in the field with 4 trucks stuck in the mud, what would I do?... First, I would get the trucks unstuck… in the realm of driving trucks in mud, this is an easy fix, just run over get a bigger truck or tractor, hook it up to the stuck truck and pull her on outta there. Next, since I have never been one to back down from a good time in the mud, I line my truck back up at the start and get ready to go. Before slamming down on the gas however I would take a second to think about what caused me to get stuck on the previous run….

Most of the time when rooting around in the mud getting stuck is the result of an ill planned approach; you are lined up wrong, don’t have enough speed, too much speed, or a laundry list of other things that can cause you to go from 30 to 0 in less than a second (an uncomfortable jolt if you haven’t experienced it). Once taking a second look, I would get lined up and go for it.

This moment of evaluation is what I think I have been missing. I have not taken the time to look at why things are not moving forward and instead have just been running right back into the mud to get stuck again. It seems that this moment is often an overlooked action that quite people and businesses in their anxiousness to get moving again.

During one of my internships I had been put in charge of running the social media and on more than one occasion was confronted about something that I had posted, received a slap on the wrist, and then was sent on my way for the cycle to repeat itself, or to run another truck into the bog to get stuck. If in that case we (being me and the ones slapping my wrists) would have taken a moment to think “why are these posts being disapproved of?” maybe they would have stopped... 

Maybe this is just a fatal flaw of my own person being that it has seemed to begin to creep into other areas of my life, but I am hoping that since I have highlighted the dirty little [insert unspeakable word here] I can wring its neck and then stomp the life out of it eliminating the flaw for myself and the rest of humanity…. Regardless I am going to try and work on it and hope that you do to so you stop getting your truck stuck in the mud and can move on to the mud hole. 

If the advise doesn't help, I hope you can at least take joy in this guy getting himself stuck!

pic via brianromantoday.com

iPhone Post.

This is my first and more than likely last post that I am writing via my phone. It is a ridiculously trying tasking being that my thumbs are sausages and I can hardly hit two keys at once, let alone one, but I thought it would make for an interesting write.

Now for as long as I can remember bigger has been better... TVs, Trucks, Numbers in a bank account, the list goes on and on. There are occasional differences however. There are cell phones, surgery scars, skinny jeans (what a stupid trend), and waist sizes all desired to be smaller. This limited opposition to the bigger is better army is what gives birth to such ridiculous apps such as this.

I love micro-blogging/tweeting from my phone don't get me wrong, but there is a reason for the character limit.... THIS IS A STRAIN!... My eyes are getting sore from focusing on the small screen and my thumbs are getting a work out. I am not sure of the health repercussions not including my soon approaching insanity.

Totally separate from that is the functionality. Who is that desperate to blog that they would endure this on a regular basis. Are there people who are riding the train right now unable to access their computer needing to publish a post about the smelly man next to them? Outrageous.

Out of this I was able to find one positive attribute from this blogger mobile app. It allows the user edit on the go. I don't know how many times my sister has called me saying "you sound like an uneducated redneck, learn how to spell" to which i respond "...I'm an educated redneck..." and then sprint away to my laptop to fix the mistake, which I'm sure there are plenty in this post because it has been hard enough writing it and I could bare rereading it again on this tiny screen.

Hope you liked the post. I'm done. Later.

Tweeting on Behalf of Another

So, I have slowly been trying to get myself into volunteering with a candidate’s campaign for congress helping out with social media. I have not had a chance to jump right in, which is understandable because this isn’t like tweeting my new favorite restaurant or my current activity, this is tweeting things that could supposedly get a man elected (or not) into a government office.

Now, I have sent tweets on behalf of companies before and have always been rather relaxed about it because for some reason I felt like the tension wasn’t cranked as high. While at the companies it was always post something that aligned with the industry that the company was in and you are pretty much fine. It seems now after thinking more about it and reflecting on a previous post about having an intern at the helm of your ship … maybe I was wrong.

Maybe there isn’t a difference in representing a person running for office and a company. Both have reputations that can be tarnished, both have belief systems, both have values. Why have I had no trouble in the past posting on behalf of companies in the past and am so cautious with this man’s political campaign? …He is human.

I know that recently the government supposedly made corporations people with rights in some amendment, but that doesn’t mean that they have a relatable face and personality. When thinking about creating drafts to be reviewed for the campaign twitter I found myself asking “would he say this?” … “Does this align with the campaign message?”  I believe this is because I am able to identify that there is a clear cut message to align with and deviating from that message could have consequences and when working with companies in the past, I was unable to identify with that message… or find it at all.

Eventually I came to the realization that until you can find yourself caring about the effects of tweets before you post them, maybe you shouldn’t be helping with the social media. Which brings be back to companies need to make sure that the people representing them online understand their message and are invested in that message and care about how it is interpreted by the public, just like I find myself caring about my contribution to Jack’s campaign.

Regardless, the campaign manager was way ahead of me with this idea because the current procedure is for me to create drafts and then he will approve and post the, which may seem like a waste of time, but when the stakes are the success of his candidate maybe it is worth it. Let, me know what you think…how do you control the risk of an unretractable tweet? Do you delegate it? Do it yourself? Something in between? Leave a comment and let me know.

Are We Lowering Content Standards?

In a recent post on Digital B2B Marketing  by Eric Wittlake, he posed the opinion that Social Media was causing people to share lower quality content as a result of trying to meet the demand for a higher quantity of posts. At first I agreed with Mr. Wittlake, but as I toyed with the concept in my head I began to question the theory.

It seems that with the increased visibility and reach provided by social media that allows one user to have their content be viewed by untold amounts of people that they might think twice about the quality of what they are sharing. It is true that I am sure there are people out there, even me I am sure, who occasionally share a peace of content that doesn’t quite meet par, but to say that social media is lowering the quality of content all together is crazy.

There is too much high quality content to say that the standard has been lowered. Experts like Kyle Lacy, Doug Karr, Pete Cashmore, even Eric Wittlake and many many more share high quality content every day and I am not talking about sharing one of their personal blogs a day I mean sharing eight different articles from eight different blogs ALL of the highest quality. This is what causes me to believe social media is not lowering content quality. 

No, instead social media is just allowing lower quality content to be seen.

If you think that silly jokers weren’t trying to get crappy content published prior to social media then you are a silly joker yourself. They were mailing the crap to their family, friends, and publishers all trying to get someone to read them, but their stuff was not being shared to the masses because there was not efficient means of doing so.

So… to sum up I don’t agree that the quality of content is lowering, not even a little. What I do think is that most of quality of content being shared is rising, but social media is allowing content of poorer quality to be made visible and if a few crappy blog posts are the cost of all the benefits, well… I am willing to pay it. 

The Chinese Twitterphone

So the MTV VMA’s were last night and as you can assume the twitter world was cluttered with tweets about performances and award winners, both positive and negative. Many came out in full force to tweet their love of Adele’s soul moving performance as well as Lil-Weezey’s tight pants and some rather confusing tweets about Lady Gaga…. Or in light of some of the tweets Mr. Gaga???

I have not researched the topics very much yet, not being what you would call a “Pop culture expert” and thought this post would be better if written while still in my confused state. The nature of this post is to show the influence of a person or company’s actions on not only those who choose to follow you, but those who are friends with those people.

I understand that the rich and the famous do the things that they do on stage for a reason. They are carefully constructing their images so that we the public will stand in awe, but it seems that they often forget the dreaded Chinese telephone, or in this case twitterphone, effect. Point in case, Lady Gaga...I understand that she is not the most normal person in the world and I actually love her music. She has constructed some kind of reputation for herself. In no way can I begin to define her and maybe that is what she is going for, but according to tweets from last night she is a… sheman with junk who loves women and can’t make up her mind on if she likes meat or has meat…(a condensed compilation of about 12 tweets). This is outrageous.

Now realizing a company doesn’t really have a sexual orientation, the same thing can happen to companies. If a company makes a move that disagrees with a certain demographic they must realize that the Chinese twitterphone will take the actual action and throw it in a blender and unless they have carefully thought through the situation they may end up with an audience as confused as I am on Gaga.

I am not expert however, I believe that if you just take a second to think about what you are doing, realizing that your actions will have repercussions and then make the call if it is worth it or not. Then if you do decide to go for it, plan ahead to make sure your audience and their followers don’t turn you into a lesbian hermaphrodite which, if you are not, is not the most flattering of labels.

FYI I love Adele and really wish I would have seen her.

Pic via MTV.com

Interns and Social Media: by an Intern

This post is inspired by a post from a much wiser man than I, who has substantial more experience, Kyle Lacy. Anyway, I don’t want to dote on him, so I’ll move on to his post, “Do Not Leave Social Media to the Interns.”

As a former intern, I totally agree with this post and express the point of view of the intern who has said responsibility.

Now, I believe that it is more than possible for an intern to help manage a company’s social media strategy, the key word of that statement being “HELP”. I in past situations have run and/or controlled the social media of two different companies, the first was a smaller company in terms of social media presence and because they had less strict guidelines over what was being communicated to their audience, it was easier. I was able to easily align what I thought needed to be communicated to their audience with what the company’s personality was.

The second company was larger and much more difficult. When entering the position I was told to research the “best practices” on social media, which I did, referring to many different sites and blogs on internet marketing. With the information that I gathered I began to post what I saw as relevant comments on different social media sites. Many of the posts were relevant and relatable to the company and what it wanted to communicate to its audience…. And then there were some other posts… posts that some of the higher-ups didn’t quite believe aligned with the companies goals. Goals that didn’t exist in the best practices, documents that I was told to read… bummer I know.

SO… after all that rambling, my point is, if you are going to give your interns access to your social media accounts don’t refer them to a list of best practices and then spank them on the ass and tell them to hit the field. Instead, take control over your companies social media, delegate it to employees who have something invested in your company and know it inside and out.

And to you interns who have this responsibility slapped on you here is a tip. ASK what you should be posting…or use a tool that allows you to schedule your tweets a day in advance and then write them all out and have somebody (such as your boss) review them. If they seem too busy, then post something obscene and when they complain to you about it say something along the lines of “well I asked you to review them.”

There you have it, the honest opinion of a young professional who doesn’t know much. That last part about posting obscene things is a joke…. Kind of… no really it’s a joke.