You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow. Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here. -Mark Schaefer
Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe it’s a trend, but I’ve noticed a few posts lately with a theme of how social media is becoming a mind-mucked echo chamber of mind-numbing sameness.
If you’re in this camp, I’d like to give you a figurative kick in your sweet patootie.
This attitude seems incredibly WHINY to me. You are accountable for your own experience on the social web. If you’re bored with your experience, change it. If you are in the Echo Chamber of sameness, it is an environment that YOU created. Nobody put you there but you.
If you are sick of the regurgitated blog posts of A-list elitists and their sycophants, unfollow them (I have stopped reading most of their blogs and tweets = refreshing).
Think back to the initial excitement and wonder you experienced when you first realized the fun, the unbridled potential, and exhilarating first connections you made on the social web. Can you recapture that?
If you’re not feeling a little thrill every day from your experience on the social web. Maybe it’s time to re-energize:
Nuke your blog reader. I was following a lot of sucky blogs to be polite but hell, who even knows or cares if I’m following them or not? Simplify, simplify.
Unfollow the bastards. There are a number of self-proclaimed social media superstars that creep me out with their unfailing pomposity and consistently terrible advice. I was getting stressed just reading their inane tweets. I cleaned house and am having a much more pleasant experience now!
Find fresh faces. Twitter is joyful random synergy. Your followers are like atoms, bouncing around in your test tube waiting for a chemical reaction. But that reaction needs a catalyst, and that’s connection. Pick some random, interesting people from your follower list and strike up a conversation. Here’s the rule of Twitter: “You just never know.”
Fry your Facebook friends. Somebody asks me to “friend” a company or a cause. I usually do it. Now I’m stuck with the stream of clutter I could care less about. Time for an early spring cleaning?
LinkedIn losers — LinkedIn is usually a quiet yet vibrant place with a professional demeanor. That’s why I love it. But spam me once and you are OUT. Let’s keep it professional, OK?
Look outside your norm. Got to Technorati. Search for a great blog about something you LOVE. Fishing? Art? Science? Books? Freshen up your online experience. Connect with new thought leaders in a field you love.
C’mon folks. You’re living at a crossroads of history! For the first time, much of the world has access to free, global, instantaneous communication. You have a world of knowledge, entertainment, and connection at your fingertips. And you’re going to complain about THAT?
Take control of your experience. Be thrilled and delighted every day. There’s just no excuse.
(Mark sits back down, takes a deep breath).
OK, I feel much better now. So … what are you doing to keep your experience fresh and fun?
