Spring is here and that means lots of purging. I decided to add my social media networks to my “spring cleaning” list. Alas, I decided to close my Facebook connections to only include my friends and family (meaning any professional acquaintances were going to be un-friended). Granted, people are always saying (including myself) that you need to think about what you’re using the social media tool for….but, in this case, I was on Facebook before it became so trendy and the phrase social media wasn’t even coined yet. Now, I’m trying to correct that.
So, while I was cleansing, I came across an extremely funny video by friend and comedian William Mullen on the darkside of social media - http://bit.ly/dwBmK7. It got me thinking about what the “right” way is to removing people from your social networks. How have others handled the un-connection or being dis-connected? What have others experienced? Did they care? Were they getting backlash? I even posted how I’m handling it.
I posted this query - http://bit.ly/aIcZUL - or similar queries to a number of online communities and discussion boards. What shocked me were the answers that came back. 98% of the people didn’t even answer the question that was asked. Instead, they pushed “how to use the various social media tools” much to my disappointment. The small group of people who did answer my query had some great insight, funny stories and helpful tips (which I will post later this week).
I can only assume that people are still not getting what it means to be authentic, genuine & helpful in today’s marketing world. People are still pushing their own agenda OR they just believe they have the “magic bullet.” Maybe I’m being too pessimistic in my outlook, but it’s truly disheartening to see this after all this time.
Perhaps you have a story of un-friending, de-Linked or disconnected from a tweeter on Twitter? Whether you’re the one doing it or having it done to you. Would love to hear your stories.