This is the tale about how I find it hard to give a rat’s ass about this online ’social media’ service…
Now – I’m not for a moment saying that Twitter (twitter.com) won’t become a part of my or my company’s communication and marketing arsenal at some point…
…but at the moment I’m more than content to stay smiling respectfully from the sidelines while many others and their dog rush to sign on and keep up with the Twitter-Jones’s.
I should also say at this point that I don’t want to isolate Twitter as something that’s just not for me – I’d also like to add the likes of Facebook (facebook.com) and MySpace (myspace.com) to the list of time-sappers used by the Pied Piper of Social Media chew off time I’m barely able to juggle as it is.
No thanky. Theys is currently not for a simpul yung UK redneck likes me.
And there’s one of the points of this post – there are some styles of marketing and communication that suit one type of person more than another.
I know there are some potentially great business advantages to these incredible sites – but I also think you have to fit into that ’style’ of personality to be able to gain them…
For someone such as myself, Twitter, Facebook and all their social-site derivatives do not offer me a Little Big payoff right now – and that’s because with the type of person I am, there are other effective ways to claim a share of the business pie.
And most importantly, those other ways currently offer a far better time/reward ratio. And don’t ever misplace the value of that little 4-letter word. Everything you do and achieve is governed by how you use your own slice of Mr Time.
However, I can also see that in certain markets we are moving into being part of communities like Facebook or MySpace would make perfect sense.
Again, in that situation the ’sense’ would stem from the time spent being amply rewarded…
…not from the Pied Piper fluting buzz words from his pipe and generating the sense that the loss of not joining is like being the fat kid at school who never gets picked to play football (I just realised that’s a rubbish metaphor these days considering there are now on average 18 kids borderline obese in every class 
)
Remember: we’re often driven far too much by the fear of losing out on something rather than making the most of the things we already have. Some of the Social Media bandwagoning feels a little like that to me sometimes.
So anyway – if Twitting is your thang, or Facebooking gets you fierce, then I truly congratulate you on finding another useful avenue for extending your business and networking abilities.
But if you’re being sucked into it on the back of the social media vacuum cleaner, then at least consider whether you’re doing it to become a true Twitter-er, or just doing it to become the next herd-following Twit.
You can follow the rest of my posts on this subject by following me on Twitter, or catching up with my Facebook updates:
<joke!>
[though I do reserve the right to change my mind and start doing just that ]
PS…
Yes, thanks, I’m well aware: I was a complete twit years before the ‘ter’ bit came along, and am probably an even bigger one now!
