Get Social Media?

Over a drink, I’m trying to explain to a colleague the concept of social media for the umpteenth time.  I mean, it’s wonderfull that they show an interest, but the fact that they keep asking what’s it all about shows how far we are from Web 2.0.

It’s hard for people who frequently use social media to understand this.  What’s so difficult about “Say what you are doing in 140 characters”?  After all, it’s not rocket science – you don’t have to read a 200-page manual to get started.  This should be easy!  I don’t expect my mom to understand what Twitter is all about.  And even if I try to explain, she’d probably say “I have to do something constructive with my life!”  But surely other marketers should know what it’s all about?!

But then again, they aren’t asking what it is, but why it is?  Why should I tell people what I’m doing?  Why should I write a blog?  Why should I connect to people I haven’t even met in real life?  What’s the point?

We are professional idiots.  As soon as a new application is released we try to see some value in it, we don’t ask that why-question anymore because we already made the decision for ourselves that we understand what it’s all about and why it’s useful for us.

We constantly try to answer the wrong questions.  And they can’t help it, because they don’t know what questions to ask.  Instead of trying to explain what it is or how easy it is to use, we should still tell them what the advantages are, the basics.  They’ll figure out for themselves what applications they can use, they don’t need a bunch of overexcited geeks like you and I to do that.