Twittered to death? Social media suicide is painless
January 6th, 2010 • Posted by Seth Gardenswartz • Permalink
A new business is helping you start out 2010 with a clean slate. A few keystrokes can kill the parade of web 2.0 drivel that many of us live with (and help create) on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, et al. You can read all about the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine on your own, but the real question is why? What has become so unbearable about social media that just when small businesses are opting in, the cool kids are jumping out the window?
The reason is simple; some users have suffocated the value in medium. For many it has become just another venue for soul-sucking self promotion and narcissism. When you consume media (magazines, TV, radio and web-portals like Yahoo.com for example) you know that part of the deal is you become "eyeballs" that are sold to "advertisers" who are buying your "impressions." By contrast people who see your social media are generally your "friends" or "followers." When you bury them in a toxic combination of personal minutia, Farmville updates and corny "buy from me" tweets, they just might slit their digital wrists.
What to do? More important is what not to do. Do not share/tweet/post personal musings about your pet to your customers or prospects. Yes, some personality is generally welcome. Just ask yourself "who is my target, are they my friends/followers and will they find this post/tweet helpful, annoying or inane?"
Some simple guidance: have a separate business and personal accounts for Twitter. For example: you can follow me (sethgarden) or SpaBoom (spaboom) on twitter. You will see a difference in the content! On FaceBook, set up a "page" to promote your business. Use that page for events, announcements and promotions, while keeping the scanned 80′s photos of you, uploaded by old friends with too much time and and a scanner (I'm not bitter; Denice and Rob), away from your professional contacts, customers and prospects. If that sounds like too much work, try using tweetdeck.com, which will let you monitor and update multiple twitter accounts and FaceBook from one control panel. It if still sounds like too much work perhaps you need to rethink your online branding strategy.
Social media can be a great way to communicate with your clients and your local community. Just don't smother them-and don't forget email. A good Facebook page or Twitter stream does not replace email or an updated website as a medium for clients (and it won't get there in 2010). If you have any questions, call us. We can help you set up email, website and social media marketing without driving your customers to consider something drastic.
Seth, you should definitely post more on this blog forum. Good stuff! Yes, I have seen people just go on and on and on with "this day in 1970 the top song was this?" Are you trying to make this a radio gig? I told that guy to ease up on the posts and he did for a while and now he is back to posting every 4 minutes or so… so I had to "unfriend" him! Oh well.
You are right about separate business and personal. No one really needs to here me talk about American Idol on my business Twitter account! Social media can be overdone… so a little bit at a time is fine… don't go crazy with it because "more" is not always a better connection with people.
Happy New Year Everyone! Let's make it a GREAT one!
–Jan
Have any of you utilzed Twitter for announcing discounted aptmt timeslots on a slower week to fill up your schedule? If so, are there any do or donts that you suggest?
Thanks Janet! "Unfriending" or "unfollowing" (see On Language — Why Does Justice Antonin Scalia Hate the Word 'Choate'? for how new words are created by prefix) is the homicide of social media. Your radio geek is a good example of how you will loose the business followers you are looking for by over-sharing. I am really interested in feedback from JoAnn's question too. I kind of wonder what kind of traffic you get from twitter that you would not get from email. Perhaps a wider audience, but if your opted-in clients are not responding to your emails (or if you have not build or maintained your list) that is certainly the sign of another problem you should address.
Email lists are not as hip as they used to be. People are bombarded. They will unsubscribe and say, "Sorry — I'm on too many lists," and that's ok with me, I understand. Just last Friday I sent out a Twitter message saying that we had a few openings left for Saturday and then I included our phone number (make it easy on your Twitter readers) and one of my local followers called up and took 3 services! It was pretty much the power of suggestion. She had had a rough week and my message kinda hit home. So there was no discounting. Just someone who was tired and worn out and me with a little "suggestion." JoAnn, you can discount the last minute services but really only do that once in a while. If that's all you use it for people will not follow anymore. Make it a real special deal too — like only 2 openings available type thing. It's fun! And really connects you with locals and others around the world too… neat. –Jan (BTW I find Twitter is fast and quick — email I have to put more thought into.)
[...] "Nothing's permanent, not even death." – from the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. So what if you want to do more than take a break from social media? Now with morbid flair there is a new tool encouraging users to clean the slate and "meet their real neighbors again." The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, apparently seems to be working, Facebook recently blocked the service from their network, citing privacy violation. However given how the service works, by blanking out entries rather than deleting, I think it may help expose the fact that it's not affecting the privacy of users – rather the information being gathered by advertisers. [...]