Social Media is NOT a conversation
Posted by at Oct 04, 2008 09:02 AM CDT
Categories: Social Media

Trust me, I am not some 23 year old, recent college graduate who doesn’t remember life before the internet. I am 38 years old with 2 kids, a dog, a mortgage, and a plummeting 401K. I offer that to assure you that I don’t consider everything an excuse to party, nor do I consider every mildly enjoyable time as the “best time ever!”

I have been browsing SlideShare.net again, and that always leads to trouble. I keep seeing the same phrase offered as a definition of social media. The phrase was present in presentation after presentation. Can you guess what the phrase is? Oh yeah, I kind of gave it away in the title of this post. The phrase is…

SOCIAL MEDIA IS A CONVERSATION!

And I say, well, something that Convio’s blogging software won’t let me say. Social media is not a conversation. No. It is not.

Social Media is a PARTY!

Party social media

Think about this: think about the 10 best parties you have ever been to in your life and try to identify the features of the party that made them really great. Your list of features probably includes:

  • Good friends
  • Interesting new people with common interests
  • Interesting new people with totally divergent interests
  • Good music
  • Exciting things to look at
  • New things to try
  • Opportunity to be someone different than who you normally are
  • Opportunity to go somewhere different than where you normally go
  • An atmosphere where everyone wants to become friends
  • A chance to relax in familiar settings
  • A chance to explore new surroundings, but you can’t get lost because the layout is just so intuitive
  • The solace to engage one on one, but the conviviality to be a part of the group

This is what social media is. Take another look at that list, with my personal spin.

  • Good friends - Facebook
  • Interesting new people with common interests - Joga
  • Interesting new people with totally divergent interests - MySpace
  • Good music - Pandora
  • Exciting things to look at - YouTube and Flickr
  • New things to try - OpenSource Food
  • Opportunity to be someone different than who you normally are - Second Life
  • Opportunity to go somewhere different than where you normally go - Dopplr
  • An atmosphere where everyone wants to become friends - All social networks
  • A chance to relax in familiar settings - ditto
  • A chance to explore new surroundings, but you can’t get lost because the layout is just so intuitive - ditto
  • The solace to engage one on one, but the conviviality to be a part of the group - ditto

I think this analogy might be useful to organizations trying to come up with a social media strategy. You all can plan a party, right? Think about your constituents, ask yourself what kind of party they would like, and plan that.

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