Social media has so much unleveraged potential it’s mind-blowing. No, this is not a guest blogger, it’s really me sheepishly eating crow, admitting I’ve done a fair amount of scoffing, but saying that looking in the rearview mirror my negative opinion of internet connectedness was more about ignorance and a fear of authenticity than anything else.
At first blush both Facebook and Twitter turned me off. I couldn’t see beyond the wretched idea of a constant stream of seemingly meaningless monologues from “friends” and “followers” about where they were and what they were doing 24/7. Ouch! That statement is a little harsh, isn’t it? It’s just that my choice of Facebook friends was anything but judicious; I accepted any and all invitations. Instead of making time to investigate the use of controls and filters, I complained that my wall was full of unwanted graffiti. Uncertainty around what an unfriending would say about me coupled with my desire to be popular and nice barred me from the emancipation and relief I was desperately seeking. After my Facebook experience, the idea of Twitter sounded like anything but singing: I imagined cheeps, squawks, hoots and caws. With a barrage of unwanted information that I didn’t know how to shut off, I gave up and flew away.
In hindsight I now believe that I was initially discouraged because I was reactionary in my approach. Rather than studying how others were using this medium and thinking about this technology in terms of what it could do for me, what message I wanted to push out there, I instead reacted to what was being sent my way. I never extended friend invitations on Facebook, nor did I consider the value of the information that would be at my fingertips by choosing followers on Twitter.
Curiosity getting the best of me a few weeks ago, I clicked on the little blue bird icon a respected colleague has embedded in the electronic signature of her e-mail. Directed to her profile, I was fascinated to see how she uses this tool to share thought leadership around her passion. Maybe my change of heart is a little about timing for me, too. Since getting clear in 2012 about where I’m going with my life, enlisting Twitter seems like the right next step to get my message out there. Understanding how others are approaching this brings a whole new perspective on this very powerful tool.
What I am coming to love about Twitter is how it provides me with news tailored specifically to my interests. It’s like bird seed for creative thinking. I’m taking a proactive approach this time around, choosing which people, businesses, organizations, and communities I want to follow. I can try them on for size, following and unfollowing at will. And yes, I’ve even blocked a few who have expressed interest in me. While I am pleased they saw something in my messaging that inspires or intrigues them, I’m not sure I believe in the missions they purport. And when it comes down to it, social media is really about personal branding. Everything attached to us is out there on display. It’s another component of our digital footprint, to be girded as carefully as a social security number. It’s also a place to be purposefully mindful of how we want others to view us, an opportunity to design this vehicle to the exact specifications befitting our own very personal messages.
To me a tweet is a work of art. With only 140 characters, it’s all about getting to the point, challenging the writer to say something that entices her followers to open the link or photo attached. In my mind abbreviations and texting short-hand are cheating in this game of creative writing. How can the author strategically and poetically use her words to engage an audience and convey her ethos in a succinct phrase or two?
What we’re all really looking for on Twitter is the retweet, thinking about the original message in a different way. The mockingbird is known and named for this very mimicry. To me, this is the ultimate application of the artist’s concept that nothing is original, that all art is born from stealing, that your uniqueness comes out when you allow yourself to attempt to copy your influencers. When we’re successful at this, ideas and movements grow not incrementally, but geometrically. Isn’t that what social media is all about?
I’m solidly on the Twitter bandwagon now. I don’t know that I’ll ever go back to Facebook. From what I read these days, it feels a little bit like Facebook is fading into the gloaming, maybe ready to join My Space in the social media afterlife?
The next place I’m going is Google+. I don’t know much about it, but am piqued after Twitter (uh-huh, it’s a little addictive) led me to this opinion touting its business and personal branding toolkit: http://socialmediatoday.com/jc-kendall/1047376/facebook-waste-time-most-advertisers . Google’s got a (relatively) new app called Hangout. It’s free video conferencing that apparently blows Skype away, allowing something like 15 people to interact via their laptops and wireless phones. I immediately asked someone on my team to research this application.
With a career that has always needed to be exempt from relocation and significant travel, I’m continuously on the lookout for creative ways to deliver exceptional results and continue to grow on my own terms. Maybe Hangout goes nowhere, but think about the possibilities if I could bring my client a way to better connect our geographically challenged team. Is that a mockingbird I hear singing?
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