Professional Prism of Trust from David Armano
I’m sick of “experts”.
I’m sick of people claiming that they know more about a subject than anyone else when it’s pretty damn obvious that they’ve missed the basics
I’m tired of people selling solutions that they obviously don’t believe in.
So I really really like this graphic which illustrates how much we, the public, trust people on a scale
Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook or simply a blog people sometimes forget that their audience is fickle.
If you spend too much time and energy “planning” and making grandiose promises of “things to come” will anyone really care or notice?
With Facebook “pages” there is little to be gained from putting up a “holding page” – you can simply choose not to make your page public, so you can tweak settings and layout privately.
With Twitter, however, it’s not that evident. Granted, you could choose to “protect” your updates, but you wouldn’t be able to hide your profile page and if you plan on using Twitter for your business “protection” may seem odd.
There has been plenty written about what Twitter is and isn’t, but ultimately if you don’t actually use it nobody will either notice or care.
Of course, conversely speaking, if you used it badly people would notice and probably criticise you …
However if your business’ Twitter status is frozen with a “coming soon” style tweet, then maybe you’ve really misunderstood the medium completely. A blank account would probably seem saner.
Earlier today Facebook launched their latest “service” – custom URLs for your profile or page.
Talk about hype gone mad!
While a lot of the other social media hubs have offered people the opportunity to use a short and memorable URL to reach their profile page for ages and done it as if it were “no big deal” (it’s not really!), Facebook has managed to make a simple “feature” appear as if it were “the next big thing”.
Expect to see lots of inane blog posts about in the coming days…
Reality check.
Facebook is, in many respects, a “walled garden”.
If you are not “friends” with someone chances are you either can’t see their profile at all or you can only see a very small and not particularly useful page.
In order to see everything you need to be logged in.
The “pages” are a different matter and have been reachable via relatively “sane” URLs for ages.
So what’s all the fuss about?
Frankly, I can’t understand it, so I had to giggle when I read Anil Dash’s post on the entire thing. One to bookmark!
It’s the summer – maybe people just need to go lie on a beach for a while with a good book instead of worrying about their usernames ….
Remember all the “wonderful” messages you used to get on Facebook? “You’ve been bitten by a vampire” etc., etc.,
They may have been fun if you were a twelve year old, but if you spend any length of time online these kind of interruptions just become annoying.
Now over on Twitter the same kind of thing happens.
This time round the latest annoyance is called SpyMaster, which is supposedly in “private beta”.
In typical web 2.0 fluffy language they’ve got the worst kept secret in Twitterville. Not only does everyone know about it, but they’ve also setup their application in such a way that it spams thousands of other Twitter users via “direct message”!
End result – not only has the application managed to alienate potential users, but it’s also managed to upset thousands of users who weren’t even playing the game.
You can see all the “tweets” from people playing and people complaining about the game here
Moral of the story – don’t annoy people
Do you ever read website copy and die a little inside?
Just because other people’s websites are full of meaningless “buzzwords” does not mean that yours has to be as well.
Sure. We all fall into the traps of using jargon instead of plain English from time to time, but the web 2.0 / social media guru types really take linguistic abuse to new levels.
You too can play the game.
Try this generator out for a bit of fun.
Now pick up a copy of your favourite business magazine or simply check out the company news section on most “web 2.0” sites. Anything look familiar?
Or how about the reinvention of language?
Ten years ago most people probably wouldn’t have associated the word “viral” with marketing. We’d have been thinking about physical ailments and infections. Along came “viral marketing” and the term took on a whole new meaning.
But wait! How can you “produce a viral” or “launch a viral”? Check the definition.
You can try to produce a “viral”, but you can’t guarantee that it will “go viral”, so why call it a “viral” in the first place?
The internet is a wonderful thing. It’s a great leveller. The CEO of a multinational corporation can “talk” to a startup and vice-versa..
Unfortunately it’s also far too easy for people to take advantage of others. The “web” is full of self-appointed “experts” and “gurus” who charge stupid amounts of money.
Enough already!
Just because you’ve read a couple of articles about marketing doesn’t make you a “professional marketer”
So what if you can record your own voice on your laptop. You’re still not a “professional podcaster”
And as for Twitter, Facebook and the plethora of other “social media” sites .. they act as magnets for the vocal yet inept.
Harsh?
Possibly.
The reality is that there are a lot of very talented people out there who know what they are doing. Who really “get” online business, marketing and social media.
Let’s cut through some of the “bull” and the rubbish and help people without assaulting their bank accounts
Want to help? Let us know by sending an email to ninja (at) socialmediaexpert.ie
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