Social media fatigue

June 9, 2010 By 3 Comments

Deeply unfashionable though it might be to admit this, but the truth is I’m bored with social media

I never got into Facebook. I tried to use it for a couple of months but it just infuriated me. The benefits in no way matched the value of my personal data. Despite people telling me “it’s just about being sociable..” I quit over a year ago. That’s not strictly true. I have a Facebook account for my cat where I post pictures of her friends and victims.

I tried to use Twitter for a year or so, but found myself stuck reading tweets from the same hundred and fifty or so people.  It turned out that I wasn’t interested enough to go find more people to follow. Since I never followed anyone who followed me just for the sake of it, my Twitter network stalled about there. And like many people, I got bored of the spam and the social media gurus talking endlessly about…yes, you’ve guessed it, social media.

I joined Xing and connected with a girlfriend from a long time ago,  but apart from that, didn’t use it. I quit Ecademy after a couple of years listening to people bullshitting about their egos and prowess.  I spend a year commenting in 4Networking, UKBF, UKBusiness Labs and other such forums until I got tired of the inevitability that everything online degenerates to argument and abuse.

I still have a LinkedIn profile but, like many people, still don’t quite know why – although I quite like the way that LinkedIn seems to be following the ‘softly, softly, catchee monkey’ approach and avoiding the vulgar rush to ‘monetize’ that has characterised most of the other online networks.

I’ve joined and left hundreds of social media sites, without the slightest sense of loss of anything I cared about or couldn’t do without.

Throughout that time, I’ve also been doing more and more work in the real world and less and less in the online world. Coincidentally (not!), my real world network has increased; I’m doing more valuable and fulfilling work and enjoying it far more and I’m learning a lot beside.  The range of opportunities open to me has increased in inverse proportion to the amount of energy and time I’ve spent online.

In the last year alone, I’ve traveled to India, Taiwan, Spain, Norway and the US on real-world business, earning a real world salary and working working on real-world projects with real people. It’s been great and most important of all, it’s been interesting.

I can’t help noticing that the more successful and confident I feel, the less appealing spending time on social media becomes.

Am I alone in that?

Filed Under: business insight Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Social Computing: social media inside a walled community

March 19, 2010 By 4 Comments

Is Microsoft’s Sharepoint an example of social media  inside a walled community?

The idea of ‘social media’ within a firewalled community strikes me as both logical and incongruent.

Logical, because I can of course, understand why an organisation only wants social networking to occur within its own walls. Who wants to give away knowledge and insight to a competitor, right?

So where’s the incongruence?

For me, its in the tension between social media’s inherent tendency to break down walls, increase connection and transparency and the need of business to use that effect locally in pursuit of a competitive advantage.

If there’s one message coming through to us in the 21st century – a cold, wet fish-slap-in-the-face – it’s that, as a species, we really may be close to the end of that ‘win-lose’ way of doing things. Are we as a species ready to look at that? Will we – and our ideas about business – be able to evolve into something sustainable for the human species?

And does social media really have a role to play in that process?

What do you think?

Filed Under: critical approach to online media, what do you think? Tagged With: , , , ,

Pleaserobme.com: a great way to make a point about social media

February 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

www.pleaserobme.com demonstrates just how uncritical many social media users really are

Just came across this story on BBC website about a Dutch youngster who built a site that uses Twitter information about peoples’ locations to pintpoint empty homes.

The site’s makers say that they did it to make the point that anyone with half a brain can misuse the kind of personal information that people readily give for free every time they create content or sign up for a new ‘app’ in a social networking site. [Read more...]

Filed Under: critical approach to online media, what do you think? Tagged With: , , , , , ,

“Online reputation? I’ve never really thought about it..”

February 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Too many people don’t even think about their online reputation until it’s in ruins

One thing that most – if not all – of my clients have in common is that they didn’t know what an online reputation was until it jumped up and bit them in the proverbial ass.  Another thing they have in common is that when they find something negative about themselves online, no matter what they might have done to deserve it, it hurts in a very human way. [Read more...]

Filed Under: online reputation management Tagged With: , , , , ,

Online reputation: all your traces in one lump

January 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Why is online reputation so important? Because the web puts all the traces you leave together in one big pile for people to make a judgment about

Once apon a time, you went somewhere, did something in the real world. Whatever you did, you left traces.  Footprints, DNA, garbage, bits of paper, notes, recordings..  But whatever traces you left stayed where you left them.  The only way somebody else would find those traces would be if they took the same journey as you; if they literally ‘re-traced’ your steps.  That’s why Columbo was such fun. That’s why the TV ‘serial killer’ was all the rage in the days before Google.

Your reputation was the same.  Because it was either ‘word-of-mouth’ or ‘old-fashioned-media’ it could be different in different places.  In this village you might be thought of as a scoundrel.  In that City, a respectable member of the community.  Unless you got into the broadcast media, the traces of your behaviour tended to stay where you left them – visible only to the people directly affected by them.

But things are different now – very different.

Google brings the traces of everything you’ve ever done online together into one big, steaming lump.  And very soon, Google will be adding everything you’re doing right now – every Tweet and every Facebook update – to the pile in real time.

What does that mean, Lt. Columbo? I’m glad you asked that question, Sir, I really am.

What it means is that people nowadays assess your reputation from the bigger picture they get when they look at that pile, not from any single thing in it.

Your online reputation – how someone perceives you – is the sum total of the following 3 risk factors:

  1. The things you choose to say about yourself (your websites, blogs, profiles etc)
  2. The traces you leave of yourself (your participation in any online discussions, activities etc)
  3. The things that other people choose to say about you (customers, critics, friends, enemies)

The real problem for most people is that they only really give their online reputation any thought when something significant happens in the 3rd risk area i.e. someone starts maligning them or their business on a blog or a forum.  My clients are invariably reeling from the shock of finding themselves under attack when they contact me.

Of course there is plenty we can do at that point to repair the damage and build a stronger reputation to limit the damage of any future attacks – and there’s nothing like being in a bit of discomfort to focus the mind on the issue.

Of course, the secret is to think about your online reputation before you come under attack.

So, to sum up: take notice of the fact that from here on in,  Google WILL bring together everything you do and say online for people to form an instant – and lasting – impression of you.

And start behaving accordingly ;-)

Filed Under: critical approach to online media, online reputation management Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

‘mu:kaumedia’s Sam Deeks proud to have helped at Davos

January 30, 2010 By 2 Comments

Sam Deeks proud to have used social media to get a difficult issue in front of a world audience at Davos

Two weeks ago my friend Julia Lalla-Maharaj heard about the YouTube Davos competition.  Activists all around the world were invited to create video pitches for the issues or campaigns they felt most passionate about.  The YouTube community and a panel of 3 world-renowned speakers would be the judges. The prize for the winner would be the chance to debate their issue with world leaders at the World Economic Forum at Davos this past week.

Having given up her career to campaign against the painful and repressive tradition of female genital mutilation (FGM), Julia jumped at the chance, only just making the deadline to film her video pitch.

Next, we hurriedly bought the domain www.endfgmnow.org and set up email addresses. A friend made a holding page that outlined the basic campaign aims.

Then, suddenly, to her surprise, Julia made the last 5 shortlist. The YouTube community voted away like mad.  Some of the shortlisted campaigners had huge YouTube communities behind them (one had 250,000 followers at the start of the race).  Others, like Julia left the starting blocks complete unknowns.

A friend’s flat became campaign HQ.  First line of attack was Twitter – creating a new account and leapfrogging quickly to follow a huge web of influential women who might be interested in FGM and the chance to take an issue about empowerment for women to the centre of a global stage.

Within a few days, we were following a couple of thousand key people – and being followed back by about 1/4 of those.  Julia and her team pulled all the best strings from her years as a communications / PR consultant in London and all the links she’d made in her work volunteering in the 3rd sector.

If you believed the YouTube view count, Julia’s capaign didn’t stand a chance of winning. But I was confident that it wasn’t about clicky numbers from an invisible audience, or nice-sounding campaigns with palatable aims like making the whole world feel a bit better.  The organisers were clearly looking for an issue that was real and focused enough for a group of influential – and powerful – people to have a meaningful debate about on a world stage.

Which is why Julia’s pitch won. Suddenly, the Google film crew were at the flat making a ‘Davos Diary’ and the interviews and news features began in earnest.

We quickly installed a WordPress blog on the www.endfgmnow.org domain and began to fill it with video content and the occasional emailed text blogs from Julia (who by this time was whirling around Davos getting into the black books of the likes of Bill Clinton, the Gates, Klaus Schwab, Paulo Coehlo and a whole host of others).

The campaign came to a climax today with a live YouTube streamed debate exploring how the different nations can work together to end FGM – and end it soon.

It was great to see social media playing its part in this campaign in a powerful and refreshingly unself-conscious way.  This wasn’t about cute, cool social media gazing at its own navel.  It was about getting things done in a real, offline world.

But it was only when I was watching the debate live from Davos this afternoon and I heard Julia say “…and that will be on my site shortly” that it hit me that she was talking to me, sitting on my sofa in Devon with one eye on the YouTube window and the other on the tweaks I was making to the End FGM Now site.

It’s at moments like that I see how amazing tools like WordPress and Twitter really are and – despite the nerdy frustration they can bring and the cringe-inducing self-obsession – how empowering they can be.

Filed Under: Benefits of blogging, WOW! Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Expo Guide and World Business Directory: Could Twitter kill off these nasty scams?

November 5, 2009 By 2 Comments

Could the wisdom of the business crowd decide the fate of Expo Guide and World Business Directory?

TwitterMonsterThe challenge

You’ve arrived here because of my Tweet about the Expo Guide and World Business Directory scams.  First of all, thanks for coming.  Second, I’d like to invite you to take part in an experiment.  Could Twitter kill these nasty scams stone dead?

Have a look at the evidence (below) and if you want to play a part in stopping these scammers, then please RT the Tweet that brought you here to people in your network and let’s see if we can help stop people getting ripped off.

The Scam

As some of you may already know the world of business is still being swept by a family of scams which deliberately set out to fool people into inadvertently signing expensive contracts they don’t want.  An early and well documented version of this is what’s known as the “Construct Data scam” originating from Austria.  The most recent variants of this scourge are European City Guide, Expo-Guide and World Business Directory.

How it works

  • You get a letter in the post (or email with pdf attachment) from the company.  It’s designed to make you think they’re offering you a free listing in their online directory.  It asks you to sign and stamp the form.  You do and send or email it back
  • Nothing happens for a while
  • A couple of months later you get a demand for something in the region of €3,000
  • Their demands direct you to the form where – for the first time – you notice to your horror the tiny, faint small-print saying “signing and stamping this form constitutes a contract for 3 years entry into our directory at c. €900 per year..”.
  • A couple of months later, you start getting various demands.  Eventually, you get formal letters from a debt collection agency.  Now you start to worry.  What if they take you to court?  What if your boss finds out?
  • You write back to the company saying it’s a rip-off and you don’t feel you should have to pay.  Eventually, they graciously agree to let you off with just one year’s fee out of three.  Maybe you pay up so you can put this whole traumatic episode behind you.

This scam has been running for years and shows no sign of stopping.  Why?  Because there will always be enough people out there who can be bullied or shamed into paying some – if not all – of this extortionate fee.

Governments seem to have little or no interest in stopping it.  Watchdogs aren’t particularly bothered.  It’s down to a few individuals like Jules Woodell to campaign against it – see http://stopecg.org/ and http://stopecg.blogspot.com/ for a thorough history of all the main mutations of this scam.  For my own posts on the subject (and to read more than 50 comments from victims) click here.  You’ll get some idea of the kind of worry and distress this scam causes.

This scam is real and current and it’s costing business people like you and me a lot of money, stress and worry.  This site gets 20+ new visitors every day searching for help on this issue – most of whom are new victims of the scam from all over the world.

Personal

For your information, I didn’t get stung personally by these scams (too long in the tooth!).  However, like millions of others, I regularly receive their scammy emails.  My motivation is to use the blog / Google platform to mess up their operation a bit and prevent others from being ripped off ;-)

Filed Under: scam, scam warning, Scambusters!, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Life, the Twitterverse and Everything

November 1, 2009 By 2 Comments

“I love this tool for cleaning up follower issues. Cannot live without it”

Saw this comment in a Tweet just now. The words “Can’t live without it” keep ringing (or is that ‘twinging’?) in my ears. This person is talking about some bit of software that let’s them prune their follower list…or something. Which is kind of amusing since most people using Twitter seem to be in a hurry to get as many followers as possible as quickly as possible.

Its not just the crazy sense of perspective in that Tweet. It also reminded me how self-referential the Twittersphere has become; how obsessed with itself and technology it is. And how grand it’s sense of it’s own place in history and its power to shape current affairs and even democracy itself.

Twitter is fascinating to watch, for sure. I read in the paper today one of the founders likened creating Twitter to putting a bat and a ball into a jungle clearing and hiding while the natives invented baseball.

Have people really reached a point where they can’t live without it? It looks like some have. Personally, I’m teetering at a point where the prospect of stopping using it is almost as attractive as using it, as I did with Facebook some months back.

Filed Under: change, history Tagged With: , ,

Even Twitter will die….

September 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Twitter WILL pass away

It will.  One day in the not too distant future, we will look back and cringe.  One day, Twitter will be history.

Personally, I’ve suddenly lost interest in Twitter and I’m at that ‘I think I might just de-activate’ stage’.  One more foot firmly OFF the social media bandwagon.

So what’s the matter with Twitter?  Well, nothing, really.  What’s wrong is me.  I’m just bored with the same people talking the same stuff every day.  No offense, everyone, but I’ve had it up to here with the endless chatter about social media.  And that includes me, by the way.  I’m fed up reading Tweets from people whose lives consist of lurching from one drink after another (do they really have no idea they have a problem?) and I’m tired of the whole undercurrent of small businesses looking to Twitter as a kind of Holy Grail of how to make money.

And the problem with Twitter is that if you’re bored with reading (or writing) the same stuff every day, it seems that there are only two real options open to you: either follow more people or get off the bus.  Since I don’t want to do more of something that doesn’t interest me any longer, I guess the only option is to get off.

And that’s ok because as I get older, I find I like solitude, peace and stillness more and real life as opposed to life experienced through piddly little screens.  And I also have less and less important or grandiose to say and less of an urge to say it these days.  I’m less concerned with how popular I am  or how many followers I’ve got.  I’m not sure I can even be bothered to blog any more or worry about a website.

Eckhart Tolle says that things aren’t a problem until we start seeking ourselves in them.  A work colleague of mine in London the other day spontaneously announced she had suddenly woken up and realised how much she hated the person she had become since using Facebook: vain, egotistical and self-obsessed.  Hungry and addicted.

I think I’ve reached a point where NOT doing things is becoming much more attractive than doing them.  Like NOT having to upgrade;  NOT talking about ‘social media’ all the time; NOT Tweeting; NOT needing the latest laptop or the newest phone; NOT chasing top Google spots; NOT worrying about followers, subscribers and hits or how to monetise traffic.

Ahhh. Can you imagine it?

Filed Under: critical approach to online media, Twitter, what do you think? Tagged With: , , , ,

FriendsReunited: what’s it really worth?

August 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

FriendsReunited is worth about as much as RMS Titanic shortly after it hit the iceberg.

titanic4It doesn’t matter how big or fancy your ship is – or how many souls there are on board. If it’s sinking, it’s worth nothing in a financial sense. You can’t do anything with it except watch with grim fascination as it slips beneath the waves.

But there is a lot to be learned about social media from its demise.

FriendsReunited started with a great idea – to use the web to reconnect people with other people. Nothing wrong in that – it’s what people want to spend all day doing, given half a chance. So where did it go wrong? Two big – simple – mistakes.

1) Horrible, clunky, counterintuitive and frustrating user interface. Yes. It was an awful experience. Whenever I used it, I had no idea where I was or what I was doing. The site developers couldn’t see past their own thought-processes. Full steam ahead, no matter what was happening around it.

2) Even the free membership wasn’t worth the effort, so there was no chance for those poor people in First Class. Ok, that’s stretching the Titanic analogy a bit but developers beware. If you’re trying to charge for what other people do better for free, you’re history.

Meanwhile, expect to see the social media war become anything but social over the next couple of years as the big players seek to herd all the people in the world on board a single, um, unsinkable network. :-)

Filed Under: critical approach to online media, marketing Tagged With: , , ,
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