A few days ago, I saw a video floating around on Facebook and Twitter – it was a speech by Scott Stratten, otherwise known as @unmarketing. Often, when you see speeches or videos flying around, you almost want to avoid clicking because you know it just can’t be as good as everyone is saying. However, I decided to give this one a chance. Here it is:
Before watching this speech, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what Scott Stratten was about. Sure he had done some really amazing and cool things for charity, and I had heard that he was a really nice guy. But I had also seen some of his speeches, seen some of his Tweets, and I’m in the process of reading Unmarketing, Scott’s book. I thought, “Ok, this is one of those guys who really is nice but who likes to give the impression that they are kind of jerky and intimidating.”
Can you still feel that way after watching his speech?
I admit that I had drawn conclusions about Scott based on what I had seen on Twitter and in his book. I was wrong. I only had skimmed the surface.
What’s happening away from that computer?
All of us who use Social Media have a small fence drawn around us and our computers when we sit there. To different extents, we like to create personas for ourselves online. We determine what people will learn about us through our online activities. And yet, it always seems surprising to us that people draw conclusions about us based on what they see through our Facebook updates or our tweets.
Factually, you can’t really know the whole story of a person just based on what they do in the world of Social Media. It’s easy to think that you do because, after all you see this person “talking” to you perhaps on a daily basis. But there is that whole world extending beyond that little fence that ties you to your computer. We don’t get to see what goes on there most of the time.
I have learned an important lesson beyond what Scott presents in his speech. You don’t really have a true fix on people based on their Social Media presence. You aren’t really seeing their entire life story. You don’t really know everything that is going on around them.
Will this affect how you interact with people? Will this affect how you yourself act on Social Media sites? For me, it is something to ponder.