Is Social Media Like Teen Sex?

October 24, 2014      Admin

Indeed. Social media is like teen sex. “Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise it’s not better.”

Attributed to Avinash Kaushik, the web analytics guru, the quotation encapsulates much of the frustration, ambiguity, misinformation and hyperbole surrounding social media.

Your intemperate Agitator once even explored the premise that Social Media is Bullshit.

facebookFortunately, time tempers us all. Thoughtful analysis and pursuit of actual facts seem to be gaining the upper hand where social media are concerned.

And so we were pleased to find in last Friday’s mailbox a note from the tireless and always vigilant Agitator reader Pamela Grow, author of the weekly Grow Report, alerting us to the decision by one that one of our favorite blogs — Copyblogger.com — was killing, deleting, ending its Facebook page.

You’ll find it all at Why Copyblogger Is Killing Its Facebook Page — a page with an audience of 38,000+. Before I summarize their reasons, here’s why Copyblogger’s decision should inform us all.

For 7 years Copyblogger has, in their words, “been teaching people how to create killer online content. Not bland corporate crap created to fill up a company webpage. Valuable information that attracts attention, drives traffic, and builds your business.

“5-6 articles a week about what’s working right now in online content marketing. And we’re not too humble to say it’s the most popular content marketing and writing blog on the planet.”

In fact they don’t overstate their value. Great stuff, honestly delivered. And they have 115,000 customers to prove it.

So it was with no small interest that we wondered why they’ve decided to dump Facebook.

Any nonprofit that’s spending time building the ‘Likes’ and audience on their Facebook page needs to read Copyblogger’s post and the comments/links of its social media expert carefully. You can find it all here. And if you’re really serious about a rigorous social media evaluation process, pursue the links included in that post.

Here are the main takeaways:

  • Fan numbers are meaningless. Paid ‘click farms’ for ‘Likes’ artificially inflate numbers and spoil true community. Their detailed explanation should serve as a wake-up call for us all.
  • Not every social media outlet is an ideal fit. For Copyblogger the real value is in Twitter and Google+
  • The main purpose of Copyblogger is to serve its audience and, in the end, that’s all that counts.

For Agitator readers concerned with serving their audience through social media, this series of posts and insights is must reading. Take an hour away from the screen. Put your desktop to sleep. Still your thumbs. Read all this.

What are you doing to re-examine how much time, money and expectations you’re putting into social media? And what channels — Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. — are working best for you?

Roger

P.S. An Agitator raise to @PamelaGrow for devoting time to separate the social media wheat from the chaff.

 

2 responses to “Is Social Media Like Teen Sex?”

  1. Simone Joyaux says:
    October 24, 2014 at 1:53 am

    Thanks for capturing this, Roger. Enough already. Excessive attachment to technology and social media doesn’t solve all of life’s problems. Every fundraiser – every manager – every leader needs to read Sherry Turkle’s book Alone Together. She is a social scientist at MIT.

    (And speaking of teen sex… Or not being able to have sex period…During a conversation about meaning and donors and loyalty at a presentation…A young male fundraiser asked me what the Twitter version was of what I had said. And I wanted to castrate him. Instead – with some force – that he had better learn to think and behave differently if we wanted to be successful in life or in fundraising.)

  2. Marty says:
    October 24, 2014 at 9:28 am

    The point of the article is that social media works when channel purpose is taken into account. For example, it would be silly for a visually inspiring story to NOT be on Facebook, it is the starting place for that type of media. Basically, what I am gleaning is that for B-to-B purposes (i.e. that of Copyblogger) they get more value out of Twitter and Google+ – which makes sense. Those are platforms better intended for niche conversations and groups. They understand their message and audience – basic functions of direct response.

    What is lost on me is the backlash social media has had over the years in the readers of the Agitator. Instead of using it as a one-way, outbound marketing channel – why not turn the tables and use it to listen? Oracle, IBM, SFDC all have strong social listening tools that allow organizations to listen for conversations across the web (not just the big social sites).

    Think – if you listened instead of promoted: How you could change your constituent’s journey within your organization? I would encourage all to read the book OUTSIDE IN written by Forrester Research analysts Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine.

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