Lately I have been thinking alot about what should and does matter when it comes to social media. Two blogs that have caught my attention when contemplating this question are posted by Tiffany Sellers and Brains on Fire. Tiffany addresses the issue of accumulating too many friends, followers, and blogs without contributing any substance to the conversation. Brains on Fire talks about the initial purpose for Facebook, Twitter, etc. as connecting to people, and how is has evolved into this competition to gain the most….the most of what though? Yeah, someone could have a million friends, followers, etc. but what are you contributing to the conversation? As the numbers begin to multiply, the value and sentiment of relationships diminishes. One of my favorite statements concerning this dualistic conflict of having the most and remaining true to the original purpose is:
There’s a lot of “playing around online” these days. And a lot of connecting (albeit in a shallow way) with people who you have no commonality with. It’s overconnection for the sake of numbers…
This relates to what Tiffany says about having too many connections that you simply can not keep up with. It can get to the point where the community that you thought you were so immersed in by “being friends” with everyone realizes that you have said nothing of substance and the shallow ”game” of who can have the most is recognized, resulting in community exile.
Tiffany quotes JP Holecka, “
In fact, lack of well-developed messaging strategy and openness to two-way symmetrical communication can ultimately make all those followers your worst nightmare. What could be worse than directly and personally pissing off several thousand people who used to be your biggest fans?”
So with all of this, we just need to keep in mind that as nice and exciting as it is to have lots of followers and friends, it’s just as important to remain true to our message (whatever that might be) and contribute to the conversation.
April 6, 2009 at 2:39 pm |
Thanks for the additional thoughts! It’s something I think about often. I really think that it’s getting to the point that the noise is becoming overwhelming. And it’s starting to feel a lot like traditional advertising – the exact thing it was heralded to replace. Too many message, too much noise. I think the next winners in this space are the ones that will provide the filters for us.
Great post!
April 6, 2009 at 3:14 pm |
Thank you very much for your comment! I always enjoy reading your posts and thinking about your insights.
April 6, 2009 at 4:04 pm |
Great post, Leslie! So, you must be referring to the post by Spike Jones that inspired this tweet:
@spikejones “Do you know what your facebook or twitter ranking is? If you do, please unfollow me.”
I like the sentiment. It pretty much sums up how I feel about turning relationship building into an anti-social media competition.
April 7, 2009 at 9:40 pm |
This is an interesting topic to write and think about. I used to look at other people’s profiles on Twitter and get a little discouraged when I realized that they had more followers and were following more people than me. After finding people to follow who tweet about things I enjoy reading and have interests that are similar to mine, I have accepted the truth that Twitter really is about quality rather than quantity. I would much rather have 20 followers who want to know what I have to say than 200 who are going to skip over my comments. Unfortunately, that is not the case for everyone. And as Twitter becomes more and more popular in the near future, I can see new users falling into this same trap. Just as you said… people need to add to the conversation, not just be there.
April 7, 2009 at 9:49 pm |
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