Social Media is a Language of Its Own

The only thing is that you're not letting some ppl hear you in a different environment that will probably want to. You've got a great take on things and you're possibly limiting the amount of ppl who can hear it. Please reconsider twitter.

And to think Jacki was worried about upsetting people who "get" social media ;-)

The comments so far definitely show that while social media can be great both personally and professionally, it doesn't need to be for everyone. But even if someone doesn't use it, they can still instill a nice discussion between proponents and non-users.

Good to see.

Aww, thanks Lucio - maybe I'll see you around on my blog too :)

Jacki Brown´s last blog post..I smell a rant

Ahhhhh... Jacki, you're a star!
Great great time reading your post, I'm so glad I did!
People don't know what they don't know! It seems obvious but it's not.
This sort of writting you post here, just makes me sure about things I wrote on my last post ( marketingeasy (dot) net - George Clooney post)
Goodonya!
Luio

lucio´s last blog post..George Clooney is web2.0, Danny Devito is 1

Hi Danny - thanks for your reply! I think for me, I dont *get* Twitter, and it seems like an awful time sink as far as I'm concerned. I fully accept that maybe I'm wrong, and obviously people are getting benefit out of it.

Bear in mind that I'm exceptionally sceptical of the snake-oil sold on ProBlogger-type sites, because very few of them are open enough these days to show stats or back up their claims of how much traffic things like Twitter bring them!

Gerard´s last blog post..Should I SEO my website?

Hello all! It appears I have a fan club :) And here I was waiting to read a whole bunch of "you are a complete idiot" comments, lol - which is probably true...

But here is my point. I know that these things work when used appropriately. Everyone knows my husband. If you haven't heard of Danny Brown, then you are not reading this. BUT as socially awesome as he is, he never has to leave the house.

What is this world coming to, when my husband, Mr. Social Butterfly, has more pairs of pajamas then jeans?

And someone recently invited me to get LinkedIn - ahem... DELETE

lol

I'm glad you follow my rants and blogs, it makes them worth it. You'll probably see me on Twitter soon. I'll eventually crack and want to figure out what it means to be "tweeted" but it will be a long time from now. I probably received 30 Facebook requests before i caved and joined. But I'm very basic on Facebook. No need for groups or albums or applications... no patience, no time.

Jacki Brown´s last blog post..I smell a rant

@ Jayadeep. You're 100% right - we can evangelize about social media all day long but if it's not to be for someone, perhaps it's not to be. As you say, the challenge is to show why social media may be great for individuals - I think we get too wrapped up in portraying its business benefits that we forget the individuals too. Some redirection needed, perhaps?

@ Tara. I think this is the problem, and one that Jacki highlighted really well. The web DOES change so fast and already we're seeing so many tools fall by the wayside. I've mentioned it before in a previous post, but perhaps when social media finally settles and has justa few standard toolsets to use, more people will "get it". Until then, it's probably the early adopters that will use it and the rest of the world will happily carry on regardless. ;-)

Thanks for reading and sharing your views, guys appreciate it.

@ Lucretia. Some great analogies there. You're 100% right - it isn't for everyone and even those who "get" social media don't use every single tool available (or if they do, I can only see confusion coming out of it and diluted effectiveness). Certain tools WILL always be better than others, dependent on what you want to get out of it. Either way, social media is something to enjoy if you choose to - we should never force our views onto others.

@ Gerard. I'd both agree and disagree with you. Certainly the amount of social media tools, sites and networks available can lead to people either mistaking their use or abusing them. In the Digg situation (and similar sites like Stumbleupon), it's quite clear that constant self-promotion is not looked upon kindly - the closing or suspending of accounts is the natural result. But yes, too much time on social media does definitely take away the ability to build quality content.

I'd probably disagree about Twitter - I've found some great "lesser" people on there, as well as been found - many new readers and subscribers to this blog have come from there, via recommendations by these people and Chris Brogan, funnily enough. If you join the conversation (even with the "superstars") you can find the return surprising.

@ Susan. I think Jacki may have found some new social media friends on here! :) As you say, we can live in a bubble and we don't realize it because we're too used to everyone else sharing the same perspective. It's nice to have this kind of reminder now and again that there are other worlds apart from the social media one.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views, and maybe I'll let Jacki post on here again sometime, Suze... ;-)

Jacki, Danny, what a refreshing post. As a web geek myself, I use most of the above mentioned tools but I have always been frustrated by my fellow new media colleagues and the way they present these tools. Like you said, Jacki, the average person 1. doesn't use them and 2. just doesn't care and why should they? Things change so fast in the websphere that you are almost wasting your time to keep up with everything. Bottom line, people want useful help and information. It doesn't matter what platform you use to get it to them.

Tara´s last blog post..Watching Culture Evolve: A New Cultural Creative Study To Be Released Soon

Gosh Jacki !

You have taught us a lesson with your post. Thanks !

You have brought about a new challenge to social media protagonists to bridge that gap between the evident and the not so evident.

Now..lets turn around and witness how social media giants start to influence you through a social media platform. :)

Having said that, I hope to see you in "Twitter" one day....soon ! :-)

Jacki you rock. Thanks for shedding a new perspective on this. Us social media fans do tend to live in a bubble sometimes. It's perspectives like yours that help us to balance our self-centred views and see that indeed, there's more than one way to do things.

I do agree with what Lucretia says about the community building aspect of social media. Social media tools help to create a one-to-many relationship as opposed to a one on one. That kind of communication is not necessary for everyone, but there is value in it for many people.

At the end of the day, it's definitely not essential that people use or even know what these tools are about. They do have their place, but it's up to each individual what they use and how they use it.

Thanks for sharing your perspective, I look forward to you taking over Danny's blog more often! :-)

Susan Murphy´s last blog post..On Thankfulness

I thought I'd respond to Lucretia - as a serial procrastinator, the plethora of social media and networking tools are a complete time sink for me. If I'm using these, I'm not creating content.

Personally, I believe that the wide array of tools has cost a lot of blog entrepreneurs from achieving their true potential. As they flood the social media sites trying to promote themselves, you get the type of backlash they had on Digg. And my slant on services like Twitter is they're a fantastic way to follow the big players like Scoble et al, but finding a platform for yourself is much harder.

Gerard´s last blog post..Self-employed me, week three

"But are all these things really necessary?"

Nope. Not at all, actually.

I recently gave a presentation to a bunch of people at a conference that was basically "social media tools 101" and the part that apparently surprised most of the audience was the part where I said "not every tool is right for every person or business - just because the 'early adopters' are all raving about it doesn't mean you'll ever want or need to use it. Let your message determine the medium."

This, apparently, is rocket science.

Then again, maybe not - because you just said the exact same thing in a different format.

Would it be much easier for your husband to copy & paste a link in email to you? It would be if he wants you to actually read the frickin' thing. ;) But if he wants to build a community with other Stumble Upon users and use it to drive traffic? Well, that won't happen with email.

Is Twitter incredibly worthwhile for most people? Um... no. And this is coming from someone who is a bit more than a Twitter addict. The *average* twitter user follows less than 10 people and is followed by less than 10 people. The only reason they use it instead of email or text messaging? Because it's faster than email, shorter (so it doesn't have to be all formal) and not interrupting the other person like a text. (The other guy decides when he reads it, if he reads it.) For someone in Social Media or Marketing or PR or (well I could go on) it's a different world... and yeah, kind of important.

But it's like bars to me. Some people like dance clubs, some the neighborhood bar, some pool halls, and others wine bars (again, I could go on) but we all find our niches and what works for us and that's where you'll find us.

Thanks to your husband, I can now find you over at one of your two blogs. And don't worry about the pictures thing - post them only if you want to! :)

Lucretia Pruitt´s last blog post..Even a Chatterbox like Me Listens…

Glad you enjoyed the post, Lynn, and I'm grateful to Jacki for reminding us that sometimes we may forget that we're not all in the same boat. :)

What a great idea Danny! And thanks to you Jacki for writing this because you definitely represent a much larger chunk of our society than do Social Media/PR people.
Most of my friends and family look at me like I'm from Mars when I talk about the stuff I do online - as you say, I'm using a different language.
Now I will definitely be more aware of just letting people know the information that might be of interest vs. how I found it or who told me.

Lynn Crymble´s last blog post..Where's the Love for Canadian Internet Users?