So there's my ongoing love/hate relationship with the concept of "social networking" and its role in business. (Now fortified with doctor-recommended levels of random outburst!)
Just to bring you up to speed in the event you don't want to read or re-read the referenced outburst: When we last met our fearful protagonist she was wholeheartedly skeptical of social media experts and consultants.
This hasn't changed, but there are a few cracks in the foundation. Scott McLeod is upfront with the declaration that he is not a social media expert, which frankly makes me like him. And he pretty much knows just about as much as any self-proclaimed expert. His message: Use it or lose it.
I think he's right.
Last week I attended a presentation by McLeod and was instantly struck by how strongly he stood behind his viewpoint that businesses and organizations need presences on Facebook and Twitter. I was also instantly swayed to his side of the argument upon observing the offputting way in which the marketing and public relations professionals in the room jumped to defend his presented examples of "how not to use" these tools that existed in the marketplace. One example was a higher ed blogger who refused to respond to her reader comments and was getting digitally flogged with negative remarks about her lack of two-way communication.
"Well, how could she have time to do that?" came the fiery pant-suited counter-attack. "Who made the rule that says she has to respond just because she wrote a blog post? Maybe she's not even writing it! Who has time to do all this stuff, anyway?"
Nothing irritates me more than people doing things half-assed just to say they have done them. The entire logic is utterly flawed. Ugh, I thought to myself. If you don't have time to do something properly, don't do it at all.
Which is exactly what the presenter said, adding in a very nice way that perhaps they could stop churning out pointless press releases and try devoting some actual time to creating authentic modern two-way communication channels on the fancy innernets machine.
Amen to that.
Performance anxiety
All this being said, it was with some trepidation that I entered the world of tweeting last week (on a personal level, that is -- haven't been tripped up using it professionally yet). Thus, I have not yet written my first micro-blog. After almost six years, I have certainly become quite accustomed to the concept of the maxi-blog. Most people don't give a crap about this particular little corner of the Web, but "It's me, Kate" does have a proud tradition of being appreciated by friends and family who for some reason (Masochism?) don't get enough of my quirkiness and petty sarcasm in real life.
As a long-time Facebook user, I also have experience writing "status updates" -- which are essentially the same as tweets. I've used Facebook to pontificate on everything from Trey Wingo's inane women's basketball coverage to the Bus FM's overplaying of Paul Revere & the Raiders. My ability to generate random thoughts of mild interest to my associates is not entirely absent. But I don't want my first tweet to be any of the things that are occurring to me at present, like, "Feeling too much pressure to write a funny and/or profound inaugural tweet," or "Streaming an interview with pro-split infinitive author of 'Origins of the Specious' on IPR," or "Sad that all my hydrangea arrangements have wilted and must find a favorite summer flower." Does anyone really care about any of that?
With limitless characters at my disposal, however, I feel perfectly comfortable annoying you with pointless thoughts. This is why I think Twitter might be good for me: It would force me to edit myself significantly. As an aspiring writer of something really long who actually makes her living putting things succinctly, I should theoretically excel in this forum.
But for now, 140 characters is not instinctively part of my character. But embracing a word-related challenge certainly is. It's got me all a-twitter.
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