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Corpus Christi is a late-adopter market. There’s nothing wrong with this – we know we’re not Silicon Valley by any stretch of the imagination. It takes a while for technology to trickle down to our south Texas market. Maybe it’s our easy-going coastal lifestyle, maybe it is our geographic location (does technology rely on gravity to reach us?). Who knows?
What I have noticed as someone who has kept her eye on social media for the past two years is that not only has social media use caught up with the average American, but so has the misuse.
Offender #1: The turnkey “entrepreneur”
You’ve probably had it happen to you already. You add someone as a friend on Facebook and they send you an endearing message about how you are birds of feather, then one week later – blam! You’re hit with an only-somewhat related comment on something you posted and a link to their turnkey business that promises to save/earn you money.
Solution: Delete comment. Unfriend. The best way to show your disapproval is to not participate. Buh-bye.
Offender #2: The unethical “citizen journalist”
Oh man. If you’re in the Corpus Christi Facebook network you know exactly who I am referring to. This individual has actually created fake Facebook users and has conversations with them, or er, himself, on Facebook. This individual seems to think a.) we’re all morons who can’t tell that the four archetypical users you’ve created (supermom, single sexy female, handicapped older gentleman [seriously?!], and a young doubting guy to be an antagonist) are fake, given that they are new to Facebook and their only friend is this “citizen journalist,” b.) Facebook is an AOL chat room, posting numerous “I’m waiting” messages to one commenter as if all Facebook conversation happens immediately, and c.) that anyone would buy this muck-raking crap as truth.
It is a sad, sad thing taking place in my social media sphere. It makes me quake with anger that someone would misuse social media so brashly to further a cause this person calls citizen journalism. It makes me saddened and angry as a social media user, as a blogger, and as a champion of citizen journalism. You’re giving us all a bad name.
Solution: Unfriend this person. Report them to Facebook, especially the fake profiles. Do not participate in conversation with them. Urge your friends to do the same via private message on Facebook. Take a lesson from the blogosphere: Don’t feed the trolls.
Offender #3: The spammy “social media expert”
This person is clogging up your Twitter feed and your Facebook news feed with what seems like a billion messages about how to kick out the spammers (ironically), get followers, and do social media “right.” Every day. All day. They are probably using some kind of scheduling application to make sure they are posting these messages continuously around the clock to both networks.
Solution: Block on Twitter. Hide in Facebook news feed. It doesn’t mean you’re not “friends,” but it does mean you don’t have to see their spam.
These are the three biggest offenders that come to my mind. Who are you top offender and how do you deal with them?
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October 2, 2009 11:20 am
I am a boomer, and many within my generation don't get how social networks can help them. The commercial showing the Dad tweeting "I'm sitting on the porch" is funny, but also true of many tweets regardless of the age of the sender, they don't have substance.
That being said, not everyone of your friends and network associates are going to have something substantial to say to YOU every time, but in the long run, you are following them because you respect their opinion and creativity and every now and then, they give you a gem.
What is really interesting to me is how someone you've never met wants something right away from you, even though they have no "relationship currency" in their account. That is what bothers me the most.
October 2, 2009 12:53 pm
@Chris, great points. I do think the challenge and benefits of excellent social media networking has a lot to do with being ingenuity regarding how you filter your information and decide where you'll focus your attention. This is always a constantly evolving process too.
The best way, in my opinion to deal with these folks who want something is to not take it personally and figure out a way to circumvent interaction with them all together.
October 5, 2009 12:41 pm
Chris, I think you raise two points here: one is what we call "signal-to-noise ratio," and the other is called "social capital" or "wuffie."
Signal-to-noise is one of the biggest problems facing everyday social networking users. Basically, it's the ratio of crap (Facebook quiz results, for example) to actual information that's useful to the user (like news). How we manage our news "streams" can help reduce the "noise," as JR says above. I subscribe to a lot of blogs (about 150 of them) that I skim daily. Every month or two, I purge them. I ask myself, how much "signal" (or "gems" as you called them) am I getting in comparison to the "noise"? Are the gems worth wading through the noise for?
Social capital, or "whuffie" as Tara Hunt outlines in her book "The Whuffie Factor" (which is fantastic), is the good will you build up on social networks. It's the worth you possess as someone who provides "gems." Tara Hunt says: "Without Whuffie you lose your connections and any recommendation you make will be seen as spam, met with negative reactions and a loss of social capital."
So, these folks who are hitting you up right away are doing it all wrong... they aren't taking the time to build up their social capital before trying to spend it.
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Grad School Zone
UVA (Darden) MBA Admissions Deadlines for 2010-2011
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The University of Virginia's Darden School of Business recently published its application deadlines for the coming admissions season. Here they are, followed by our comments in italics:
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