I was running some errands yesterday with my dad – we were actually out fetching some lunch after doing some yard work. My dad is a radio nut, still, and Saturday mornings are always packed with sports shows, Whadya Know, and many other programs. My dad turned to a radio station and this guy was going on and about how it was “Sweetest Day.” “I have to go to the flower shop and the candy store after this and it’s just not fair. It’s not even a real holiday, but I have to support the sham!”
I wanted to jump into the radio and talk to this guy. I wanted to ask him 2 questions. First, if you feel that the holiday is just a way for greeting card companies to make money, why support it? And second, do you think your wife really appreciates the sentiment behind what you’re doing? “Here, I got you flowers because American Greetings said I had to, but I didn’t really want to.” Oh…wow. Thanks!
Often times, we find ourselves engaged in things that we really don’t believe in, but we feel we have to do them because there’s so much pressure to do it. I think Social Media may fall squarely into this category for some people and companies.
If you’re going to invest this kind of time, it had better be fun
At the College of Wooster, where I earned my undergraduate degree (that’s Wooster, Ohio, not Worcester, Massachusetts…I have the souvenirs to prove it), seniors had to do an Independent Study project. You had to turn it in right after Spring Vacation, and believe me, for most of us it was a labor of love that lasted the whole year. I learned during that year that if you aren’t really interested in something that you are committing a lot of time to, it not only becomes a real albatross around your neck, but it also becomes quite apparent that your heart is not in it.
In Social Media, too, it is very easy to tell when someone isn’t having fun, genuine fun, with what they are doing. Now, understand, when I say “fun,” I don’t mean you have to have videos of yourself juggling in every blog post (that would be bad news for me as I can’t even juggle 2 things at a time). Maybe the better word is passion, but then passion is getting overused lately. Let me put it this way. Every day, after I get home from work, I spend 3-4 hours engaging with my community in my Social Media world. I work on blogs, I go to Third Tribe, where I’m a member, I try to catch loose ends of conversations from Twitter, I comment on blogs, I participate in my chats, and I visit Facebook. To me, even though it’s a lot of effort and a lot of time, it’s fun. I love writing. I love communicating with people who may or may not have thoughts similar to my own. I love learning. I love helping. It’s fun for me.
If you have to spend 3-4 hours on something and you don’t think it’s doing any good, it will not do any good for you. It’s just as simple as that.
The ramifications of engaging in Social Media without enjoyment
If you are on Twitter or on a blog site because you feel like you have to be, but you don’t really believe in any of it and you don’t really enjoy it, there’s a lot that can blow up in your face. For example:
You could lose steam very quickly in updating your blog
Your Facebook account could lie dormant like a hibernating bear
Your Twitter friends will lament that you don’t call, you don’t write
On a personal level, these side effects can be bad. If you are using Social Media for your business, the effects of this seeming lack of dedication could be quite serious. You might be perceived of as being disorganized or not really dedicated. You didn’t have the endurance to stick with it. Maybe your company is no longer around. Maybe you’re not at that company anymore.
If you let people fill in the holes that you leave, they will seldom fill those holes with the best possible scenario.
Back to the pool
A lot of times, people (including me) use the good ole pool analogy when talking Social Media. “You don’t want to jump into the deep end.” “You want to see who else is in the pool first.” “You want to make sure there’s water before you do a swan dive.” I would add one more thing to the pool mix. Michael Phelps didn’t become an Olympic champion by dipping his little toe into the water here and there. He worked his tail off every day, swimming so much his body can’t keep enough weight on his bones. He worked himself raw. And look at the results.
Social Media can earn you the equivalent of gold medals too, whatever that might mean for you. But you have to have the fire. Otherwise, you’ll just sink. The water from the pool will douse you out, and fast.
So before you decide to try Twitter “one more time,” or before you finally cave in on doing Social Media just because someone won’t leave you alone about it, really think about it. It’s a major time investment. It’s dedicating a lot of brain power and hours to a cause you or your company define. Are you ready to do that? If not, talk to lots more people before doing something just to do it. Make sure you can defend the time you are spending. It’s far worse to start and stop then to wait to join. Something to think about.
Image by Diego de Araújo Dutra. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/diegodutr
Very wise advice, although you do have to allow for the occasional dip in enthusiasm, but that’s usually due to other pressures that squeeze the fun out of life at times.
I agree completely with you re: passion. I think the term passion has been overused during the past couple of years, much in the way that FM radio stations replay top 40 singles until you just can’t stand to hear them again.
Well sure…and you want to avoid burn-out. But if you don’t like what you’re doing in the first place you don’t get to those points 🙂
A lot of leadership is showing up. Ditto for social media. Readers can tell when you’re going through the motions and when you genuinely love what you do.
Thanks for sharing your joy with cyberworld, Margie.
Thanks, Mary. This is not really a hit at anyone I see. It just means that if you are hedging on jumping into Social Media or if you’re not convinced it’s going to work for you – it won’t.
Great article, and thanks for pointing this out. It’s one of my biggest pet-peeves!
I knew an entrepreneur who bitched about being on Twitter, even when it brought much notoriety to his blog. In fact, it’s the number one reason why people go to his blog, which he uses to establish credibility.
He likes Twitter,and even enjoys it, but he complains that the time he spends on it doesn’t really make him any money. So he thought about outsourcing his interactions with his VA.
Now I’m a fan of outsourcing, but if your social network is the number one reason why people even know you, then I don’t think you should be delegating this task.
I just think social networking is about building relationships with REAL people. If you don’t like meeting people in this platform, then you’re wasting your time doing it.
Likewise, if you like it, but feel that it’s a major time suck, then you should a) limit your time doing it, or b) don’t do it. There’s other avenues out there that require less time, and will bring in customers.
Outsourcing relationship management is like telling me I’m not valuable enough to get your time, because I don’t help you get money. But just in case I change my mind, you have your secretary there to pretend she’s interested in talking to me.
It’s even more disillusioning to see all these entrepreneurs jumping into the social media wagon because “they have to”. It’s like meeting someone at a party, and while shaking hands with them, you’re thinking “is he really interested in meeting me, or is he only doing this because he has to? Because I can do something for his business?”.
It makes me stop trusting people. Not to mention annoying!
haha, these are all great points. It’s hard to believe that an entrepreneur wouldn’t get “jazzed” about success. Usually folks get extra inspired when things start going well. Maybe there was something else going on there.
I agree, the idea of outsourcing Social Media makes me cringe a bit too. It seems to miss the whole point, doesn’t it? On the other hand, if you are a company and you need someone to help you with that (like an agency for example), there are ways to incorporate that person or agency into your culture so that they can extend your personality into their work. It’s not a black or white issue, though I’m sure some treat it that way.
Thank you for your great contribution to this conversation!
Should have been clear on that one. Social media management if you’re a busy company is fine. Even when there’s only five of you in a start-up. But it would be nice to have disclosure. Like, if an agency is doing your social media management, or someone specifically in your office handles the PR, then tell people who they are. I wouldn’t mind interacting with Steve Jobs secretary on Twitter, so long as I knew that was his secretary.
I see way too many going “Here’s my account. Pretend your me. That way, I don’t have to look at this. My time is too precious converting the people you lure in with social media thinking they follow me.”
But you’re right that it isn’t black or white. Just hard to find a balance, is all.
Agreed. Transparency in all things Social Media is a REALLY good idea, for all of the reasons you mention and more!