Just In Case You Still Thought It Was A Waste of Time

The Internet is forever changing the way we do everything. If you need a little more proof that things will not be reverting anytime soon look no further than this week's headline from the UK. The British government is now recommending that Twitter, podcasting, blogging and social media become part of the mandatory curriculum in elementary schools.

There are still a lot of hard core skeptics that think this "social media thing" will soon pass just like all the other trends and fads. "It's a waste of time, pointless, not worth the time to learn."

That's what they said about the television and even the internet.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networks may not be around in years to come, but the ideas are here to stay. The choice and consequences are pretty simple. Knowing that things are going to continue to move in this direction, you can start to learn about it now and think about how it will affect your business/industry/career/life. You can then have a head start and start to evolve those areas. Since you are reading this blog, you have probably already decided to go this route. The other option is that you can avoid and reject change. Ignore it long enough and you might become the next music industry or newspaper industry.

Social media and Web 2.0 are here to stay.

Clicks, Quantity, and Censorship is not Social Media!

Even in the buzzing social media advocacy groups, there are still some actions and suggestions that need to be shot down. We're all feeling the impact of bad counsel, because within a community, you will have citizens that attempt to mislead the masses.

Clicks. I used to get giddy when I found out how many people frequented our blog daily in terms of ‘views,” but it’s really the “visits” that matter. This goes for clicking blog links on Twitter as well, as we need to investigate if a content link found a visitor reading rather than clicking-through without giving RSS subscription a second thought. Mashable’s Sarah Evans calls it ‘return on engagement,’ and that’s clearly how the success of one positioning themselves on a blog, microblog and social network space should be measured.

Go ahead and throw your arms up in the air with excitement over your latest view count, but let it be known that 0:00 speaks to how you long you’ve actually kept a user’s attention. Sitemeter is for blogs in this regard, so is Tweetburner for yielding your quality of impact on Twitter. While I’m at it, here’s a list of other stellar site measurement tools.

Quantity. The only high return I’ve witnessed on quantity has been within the Twitter community. It’s amazing how much trust a Twitterer will put in you, if you a) @ them with a friendly response to something they’ve just tweeted about, or perhaps, in researching them and their Web presence outside of Twitter, asking them a question or commenting on their interests; b) make it a habit to connect on a daily basis; and c) offer a suggestion or tip to earn their trust in working with or alongside of you.

Here are just a few quantity go-getters who have been quite effective in yielding high return on engagement: @prsarahevans, @briansolis, @ambercadabra, and my friend in the Twin Cities PR community, @arikhanson. I watched @arikhanson’s Twitter populace multiply (strides ahead of mine!) by simply engaging in micro-blogging-inspired spin-offs, such as journchat and Tweet-up.

But what’s up with users pursuing 500+ connections on LinkedIn?! As Peter Shankman noted in prefacing a marketer’s new LinkedIn strategies book, “I’m on LinkedIn, Now What?” it seems everyone’s response is to cash in on hundreds more followers they meet on Twitter. I’m guilty of one of these—for the simple fact that I really didn’t know this person when I added them to my pro network. Will I ever meet them? A slim chance if I’m not a quantity go-getter on Twitter. To really offer stronger takeaway both for users and the ‘at a glance’ prospects, LinkedIn might want to think about instituting a hierarchy of influence instead of link levels.

Censorship. I watched the comment stream over a recent Mashable post regarding an assumed flub in Skittles’ new social media venture, and then I saw it scrolling down: “Skittles should use search operators.” How is filtering comments social media when everyone is, by social media law, entitled to their own opinion? Let’s remember citizen journalism a.k.a. social media isn’t a far cry from real world politics.

Companies representing a brand via social Web space needn’t worry about the nay-sayers because fans will do their protective part by firing back, and soon after, silencing the antagonist. Naysayers still do have their place, and wall posts like the occasional "$%#! Apple” on Apple’s Facebook Group tell us that. Bad move not to take it down? I think not, because hiding behind a controversy or bad ad move (hoping someone like a PR spin-doctor will pick up the pieces) is no longer a reality. So keep that wall or feed adorned with the bad and let the brand evangelists communicate the good.

At the core, social media is a hands-off, all natural type of territory – so don’t get carried away with click-throughs, popularity, or climate control. It just won’t work.