Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Social Media Expert | Mission Impossible

It seems like every day one more company comes out with the next best phone/computer/tech toy that is on every must have list. There are some toys that I admittedly roll my eyes at, like the iBook or Kindle. Call me old fashioned (I might blush) but I'm a sucker for the crackly sound and musty smell of a book I borrow from the good ol' public library. I know, for the world traveler, lugging around a suitcase of books is not logical. And with the cost of checked luggage increasing as rapidly as new techy toys hit the market, the iBook or Kindle might actually be just the ticket.

I think the only thing hitting iWorld faster than new tech toys are new social media sites. In the search for my next new career adventure I hear/read the words "social media expert" A LOT! Usually an easy term to simply glaze over but today I found myself exploring a new site called Cliqset. Touted to integrate your social media empire I was more than excited to bring my tweets, links, FB updates and even blog posts under one roof. It wasn't until I started adding these services to my Cliqset account that I realized I was closer to social media stupid, than savvy. With 80+ social media services available to link under your own little Cliqset roof I had four, yes, FOUR relevant to my iWorld. I grinned, still thrilled to see what Cliqset could do for me and hobbled away with my iCane thinking about that title again..."social media expert".

What a daunting title that could turn out to be. First you think you're all that, then reality hits and you realize you have no life, you have physically never met any of your friends and although you make millions being this expert you can't leave your house because you will be too busy keeping up with your social media expertness and the 40 new social media sites that come out next week. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Ironically enough, creating a Twitter account was a huge jump for me. I hardly ever wrote anything on FaceBook and loathed reading updates from my friends about what sandwich they ate for lunch, or that their dog had his first morning at doggy day-care. Truth be told, I love the "hide" tool on FB more than I love my dog...oh wait, I don't have a dog. But I still love the hide tool because if you say stupid things too much I will hide you and you will never know it. And if you never know it and I can avoid deleting you as a friend and thus avoid having to answer your question about why I deleted you as a friend, then aren't we all just a little happier? See...I think you can understand why I was a little timid about Twitter. It was however, on the top of the to do list when it came to looking for a job so I bit the bullet and jumped in on a strictly professional level.

Now, back to the ironic thing...generally speaking I only follow a few personal friends and the rest are strictly career oriented Tweeters. So why is it that I have had to unfollow a number of these supposed professional career people for tweeting about what they ate for lunch? I wasn't quick to jump on the unfollow button either, I waited it out and watched their tweets carefully. But with page after page of tweets more about eating ice cream with their kids and less about my next perfect job, they got dumped!

So what I'm thinking is that being a social media expert is real life suicide. And as for those who make a living tweeting advice about careers, they should probably take a lesson from their own playbook and tweet check a little more often. Yet, if you still find yourself fighting the urge to tweet all about how your kid ate all her vegetables, then create a second Twitter account and have a hay-day! In the mean time let's focus on me and get to tweeting about a job or two.

On a side note, I am super proud of my use of the iWords in this post. I think I'm pretty clever, don't you?

On a second side note, I have finally let lose a little on FB and started to share a little more personally with all my truest friends in my iWorld. Still not sure I'll be sharing my meal menu with ya, that's for sure!

1 comment:

Supershepherds said...

My dear...you should be a columnist for a living. How can we get your posts more national exposure?