Social Media Offensive or Offensive Social Media?

Over the last week I have gotten 56 Facebook updates from one company who has not shared with me one tip or trick to either:

                1- Help my company run better

                2- Help me save money

                3- Help me gain 20 yards with my driver

                4- Update me on my friend’s activity or a children’s update

                5- Lose weight

Seriously, they have given me nothing. Every post has been “It’s Monday- visit XYZ.com”, “Challenge yourself- visit XYZ.com”, “Don’t be afraid to show your personality- visit XYZ.com” or one of 20 other pointless, useless messages that keep recycling like the latest controversy on Fox News. Even worse, they tweet the exact same messages so they also show up in my timeline a second time and a third time. Every hour, on the hour. 14 posts today already. It must be nice to have so much time on your hands.

OK, I know your question: Why not delete them from my timeline? Easy answer- same as the one about looking away from the train wreck- you just can’t. Somewhere deep down there is something about it you enjoy.

In all seriousness, the reason MySpace, inside911 and countless other sites became irrelevant because the exact same thing started to happen with more and more companies. Personally I think business and personal stuff should have stayed separate, but that cat is out of the bag. All we can do now is to try and deliver more purposeful content and let the others burn themselves out. It WILL happen. Eventually they go away because no one will be watching. It happens. Just ask ALF.

Businesses, Social Media and the Problem with Silly Posts and Shameless Self Promotion

Social media for businesses shouldn’t be about pointless posts, shameless self-promotion, or posting silly messages just for the sake of creating content- social media should be a two way street, a way for businesses and their constituencies to engage in meaningful dialog. Social media should be a conversation.

We all know those people- the ones who fill our Facebook and Twitter pages with ridiculous post after ridiculous post. “It’s a great day to eat tomatoes”.  “Who loves tomatoes more than us?” “Company X- Enhance your world with tomatoes!” The problem is, companies like that never actually teach us anything about tomatoes. They post and they post just for the sake of creating content. Eventually, consumers realize this and those companies become irrelevant. We all know who they are.

My point is- I already get 3000-4000 brand messages a day competing for my attention. If you are going to post, don’t try and be funny (unless it is a really good joke or a great link), just give me something that I can use. Don’t make me wish I had back the 2.1 seconds I actually spent reading your pointless post.

Just my two cents…

Times They are a Changing.....

Think about it; just ten years ago LinkedIn, Facebook and countless other platforms didn’t exist. People emailed. Or called. Or even more rarely, wrote letters. Today people tweet, post, text and blog, and the wonderful details that made life go great have been reduced, boiled and strained to 147 characters or less. Just think about that. I wonder what tools we will be using ten years from now? Sure wish I could patent one of those ahead of time.