I think about 80% of Social Media interaction SUCKS! In fact, it sucks so friggin’ much that I think I am going to cut out about 80% of my network and only allow real people in! Sounds radical? Maybe not.
A group of Social Media Panelists were talking about how to engage your audience. As a speaker, I am really engaging. Face-to-face; on the phone, or on a stage in front of thousands I can make every person in the room feel like we are chatting over coffee; but on “Social” Media; not really. It always feels like I have to study before I engage; it feels so forced. So I couldn’t wait to hear these experts tell me how to be more engaging on social media.
Here is what they said:
- Step 1: Use Hoot Suite or some other tool to manage your entire Social Media life such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and nearly everything else.
- Step 2: Grab quotes, write articles in advanced, find other article that you like, etc. and schedule them to “post to your network”
- Step 3: Find out when your network is active and then have the article post during those times.
WTF!!! If my network is doing the same thing that I am doing then isn’t my Hoot Suite is just talking to their Hoot Suite? When do we actually ENGAGE? When do we actually get social? Or is the goal for our Owls to grow old together?
I thought, “This can’t be right.” So I decided to check.
The first thing that I noticed is the content. Lots of people are just quoting other people. I could give a crap what Einstein or Steve Jobs said. If I wanted to know I would read the book. If it’s not the quotes then I have to know about every article that they passed by at some point in their lives. There is no way in hell that these people are reading 20-30 articles per day. Next, I am the most popular person in the world as I have more invitations in my inbox that anyone else! Finally my favorite is specifically on Twitter. “#FF” is like a popularity contest letting people know who is in your clique or better yet, who hooted whom the most.
But I was determined not to be jaded; I wanted to test the waters of Social Media to see what was real and what was fake. So I attempted to communicate with people only moments after their tweet or post would hit the airwaves. My attempts were consistently met with silence. Maybe they passed out on the keyboard only milliseconds after the post went out or maybe I was connected with one of the damn automated owls on HOOT SUITE!
I even asked people if they wanted to meet for coffee or have a real conversation (like on the phone) and again; the response was silence.
Am I bitter?
Not really. I just refuse to waste time talking to an owl. Call me crazy, but I want real conversations with real people. I want to be – dare I say – Social! And I want to be social with people that have their own original thoughts; write their own articles; and have something to say other than what someone else said.
Next week is going to be Social Media Purge week for me. I don’t mind if people post their own articles; or have something interesting to say about something they actually read. However, I will be dropping anyone that is 100% automated; that quotes others constantly; and does not have enough of a brain stem to actually interact socially. I will be accepting real people that really want to interact.
Does this mean that I will be on 24 hours a day? No I have a life. But it does mean that when you reach out to me you will get an answer other than a HOOT!
You can find me (not HOOTSUITE) on Twitter @dawnnastlouis; on Facebook at dawnnas; and on LinkedIN @ [email protected].
What do you think happened to the SOCIAL in Social Media?