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Carlini's Comments

Twitter: Time-wasting Internet toy telling everyone routine?

CHICAGO - Are you tired of the hysteria of articles claiming that Twitter is such a must-have tool for your survival on Earth?

As I have said in an earlier column in April 2009, social media networking tools like Twitter are the latest “digital bling” you think you must exhibit in order to gain survival and acceptance by those who live life by the herd mentality. Too many people are getting a Beanie Baby frenzy mentality about following others on Twitter. Many people think:
  1. I just have to have it.
  2. I have to have at least 50,000 followers to be relevant.
  3. I must be registered in order to survive the rest of my life on Earth.
  4. If you are not on it by now, you must be such a social outcast.


Did you forget about Beanie Babies already?

Those were the little plush toys that people would drive around looking for at McDonald’s because they just had to have the purple squirrel. It was worth $1,500. You can now get them at a garage sale for a couple dollars a bunch. At the time, though, a peer-pressure frenzy of “you’ve got to get one before they run out” was pervasive.

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Aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves? All these people who are offering seminars on Twitter etiquette and “Twitterology” are a big joke. It’s the digital snake-oil hype of the 21st century. Some of you are brain-dead followers.

Do you really need an “expert” to show you how to basically sign up on a list and then subscribe to others? Isn’t that about as difficult to understand as pouring yourself a glass of water or maybe the more complicated coordinated skill that requires the Olympic-level training and dexterity for lighting a match? You’d better get an Olympic-level coach.

Did I offend those social media experts who are claiming to be world-renown Twitter experts? With the tool (let alone the concept) only being around for a couple years at best, I’m surprised at so many people claiming guru status when Twitter has yet to find its full potential. Are some universities thinking of offering a doctorate in social media tools?

A friend of mine who I think has a very mature understanding of PR and the applicability of these digital networking tools was asked if he could fill in a professor on all he knew so the professor could expound on “the virtues of learning the craft”. Why didn’t they just hire him to teach the course? Is there enough substance to even fill a course?

Put a Lid on It

To those who must put their latest seminar or Webinar on LinkedIn about the “Five Steps to Become Socially Relevant” or “Social Media Training & Torture,” put a lid on it. Many are tired of reading about it and the same tired examples. If people find an application for themselves or their business, that’s great for them, but don’t claim that it cures all ills and diseases.

Air, fire, wheel, Twitter? No. I think it’s more like pet rock, Cabbage Patch doll, Beanie Baby and Twitter when it comes to must-have social survival amenities. TWITTER stands for time-wasting Internet toy telling everyone routine.

Carlinism: Fads fade fast. Learn how to distinguish between toys and tools.

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James Carlini is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, and is president of Carlini & Associates. He can be reached at james.carlini@sbcglobal.net or 773-370-1888. Check out his blog at carliniscomments.com.

James Carlini has been asked to speak at the upcoming Department of Homeland Security's Workshop on Aging Infrastructure in New York City later this month.

This column previously appeared in MidwestBusiness.com, and was reprinted with its permission.

The opinions expressed herein or statements made in the above column are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wisconsin Technology Network, LLC.

Comments

Wendy Soucie responded 7 months ago: #1

James,
As with many of the "business tools" out there, they are not all necessary or right for your business. Even more so with social media, where use of these applications done incorrectly becomes detrimental for your business or exactly what you profess - a time waster.

I personally am in the camp that social media will become a solid structure in how we do business in the future. It will be a factor in customer service and support, human resource and talent management, co-creation in product development and yes done right, for sales and marketing.

I prefer the approach of an assessment first that looks at your customers and potential customers to see the places and spaces they are active online. Then reviewing brand, partners and competition. Only then can you make intelligent decision about if, how and where social media fits into your business goals.

Following a business focused methodology and framework for developing action plans and programs like that put forward by Social Media Academy (www.socialmedia-academy.com) is what I consider a solid approach to understanding this frenzy, clearing the hype out, and finally seeing the business reasons to participate or not.

Wendy Soucie, Principal
Certified Social Media Consultant
2009 Graduate of Social Media Academy

James Carlini responded 7 months ago: #2

WENDY

As I said in this article as well as an earlier one - there are toys and tools, first distinguish which are which.

If the hype was cleaned out, there might not be much left.

Until you have solid numbers and direct correlation between specific efforts with the tools and directly-related revenues - you have hype.

James Carlini responded 7 months ago: #3

HERE IS THE REALITY ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
Only two CEOs have Twitter accounts.
13 CEOs have LinkedIn profiles, and of those only three have more than 10 connections.
Not one Fortune 100 CEO has a blog.
81% of CEOs don’t have a personal Facebook page.
(Those are FACTS -- not hype)

Here is the LINK

http://www.uberceo.com/home/2009/6/23/its-official-fortune-100-ceos-are-social-media-slackers.html

Robert Merrill responded 6 months ago: #4

I use Twitter, sparingly, to follow experts I already know and respect. I pick up a couple of good article references and ideas a week, with lower overhead than RSS feeds or email lists. The key to Twitter is that it's tied to people, not organizations. And chains of trust are made of people.

Yes, you can waste a lot of time with social media. But it also gives you a way to get past the marketing smog and corporate spin.

The human voice is always found on the latest medium. Then the shills rush in, thinking that the magic is in the medium itself. The human voice moves on. I learned this 10 years ago from The Cluetrain Manifesto, and it still works.

As far as the CEOs and social media go:
1) this is a lagging indicator
2) just because it's a bad idea for CEOs doesn't mean its a bad idea for the rest of us
3) given where the collective wisdom of CEOs has taken our economy over the last couple of years, I'm not sure I want to imitate them anyway

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