I spend a lot of time reading various social media blogs, comments, tweets, articles, whatever. I do this for professional reasons, to stay in touch with latest trends, thoughts, memes, technologies and ideas. I spend even more time trying to wrap my head around what it all means, and how will people be using it not just tomorrow but years into the future. So not just which technologies, but what kinds of interactions will stick.
Lately, I think a lot about Twitter. Sometimes it seems like Twitter has two kinds of people on it: "Social media experts," talking to each other, and a bunch of regular (well, early-adopter) folks living their lives out loud and online. The experts are sifting through Twitter looking for keywords and trends and then discussing them. Everybody else is chatting (and, um, being sifted through).
One thing about following social media experts is that there is SO MUCH discussion. (Yes, it's professional, but still, a lot!) By definition, these are people who love to communicate online, in as many different ways as possible. Therefore, you have a LOT of communication. Not that this is a bad thing. But boy, we have some major information management challenges. And of course, it's not just Twitter.
I have seen multiple blog posts about how to cope with all this information -- from social media experts, of course. Those experts are probably the most well-equipped to deal with this onslaught of information. Often these are people (yes, me too) who have been working in and around technology for years. For them, each step has been incremental, with just that many more communication sources to wrap their heads around. It probably hasn't been as overwhelming as it might be for other people entering the onslaught now.
There's no question, information management tools are critical for professionals. TweetDeck, for example, is completely necessary for me to Twitter for an organization. But what about regular people? How do you deal with tweets from friends, business, news sources, etc.
Twitter has been referred to as a "water cooler" for the work-at-home set. Heck, I am in that group, and it's definitely part of the appeal. Facebook, too, with all the photos of my friends' awkward teen years. But for all those other people using it, what's the analogy? Town square? Community Center? News Channel? I'm sure there isn't one answer for everyone.
I'm curious, what percent of the people you follow are friends, institutions, businesses, other? Is it mostly professional or mostly personal? Does the world divide into people who use Twitter professionally, or maybe to stay in touch with specific communities, and those who use it just for fun? And if you follow businesses (@starbucks? @virginamerica?), why? And is there a cap to how many you might follow?
These are just a few of the questions I am currently pondering. And not just the current answers to these questions, but the future ones. All thoughts, opinions, and comments welcome.
This hound has a new home…
13 years ago
I just posted a comment about the onslaught and how I deal with it on the Pro Marketers group at LinkedIn, in response to a discussion called "Information overload?" http://tinyurl.com/bp9drt
ReplyDeleteThe gist of what I said is that it's about focus. I'm in the process of visiting and revisiting all my connections, social networks, Twits, and such so I can decide where I want to go further and what I want to let go of.
Interestingly, I just updated the homepage of my website and speak exactly to this issue. The headline is "First, take a deep breath" and I cover, in a hopefully humorous way, how overwhelming and confusing it all can be and how I help marketers simplify things. Now it's time to take my own advice.
To answer your question more directly, probably 85% of the people I follow are professional connections but many of them are also friends. I want to know what they're up to socially as well.
I tend to believe that the "social media" world segments into the groups you say: professionals trying to keep up with marketing trends and folks using it for fun. The ones I know who use it for fun seem to be driven either by their own compulsiveness or by the compulsiveness that's becoming endemic to our culture. The ones using it for business, like me, are either onto something or trying to be.
I think many of these tools are here to stay with core users who've found a home with them, either professionally or personally. But there will be a backlash, I predict. As an example, Alex Bogusky, creative leader at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, who, as you can imagine, had loads of followers, just publicly announced that he's "Signing off twitter. Just not for me..." Someone of his professional stature announcing he's out will probably give others permission to leave. Meanwhile, the rest of us are in it to win it.
I think none of this will work for the masses until we can easily segment our connections, and control privacy.
ReplyDeleteThat brings up a whole other set of thoughts I don't have time to go into right now. (Mom, do you mind if I don't pick you up at the airport?)
There are people out there saying that the trend is to less privacy and more sharing. I suspect that is a young-person trend and always will be. As adults mature, I think we necessarily become more private, particularly those with professional careers.
More thoughts for another day.