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Is Social Media Stretching You Out?

Is Social Media Stretching You Out?



Let me preface this post by saying that I wrote about half of it a week ago and decided to sleep on it to see if I was just in a funk or if my thoughts have changed. Some recent readings have allowed me to make some revisions and additions so I can let ‘er fly. I will apologize up front for the length of the post, but it is what it is. No video this time, just The Apartment Nerd in black and white. Enjoy.

Recently I have felt super stretched for the time to dedicate to blogs, twitter, email, and just my regular job and personal life. It’s been frustrating to not read blogs that I used to somehow find time to read and comment on, and to find myself getting buried in emails that require my attention but don’t get the immediate response they probably deserve. Then, by chance, I saw a tweet this weekend by Jeremiah Owyang*. He linked to the most recent post on his Web Strategy blog speaking to the scalability of humans. While he references how difficult it is for his peers online and in the blog world to scale what they do as they grow and do more, I think we can look at this as an example for why online Social Media and Social Networking is so challenging for anyone.

A couple weeks ago Lisa Trosien had an interesting post with "Maybe It Should Really Be Called Social NOTworking?" After commenting, feeling the way I have in recent weeks, and reading Jeremiah’s post, I want to ask the question a bit differently and more in general for all business and marketing. Should it really be called Social NOTworking because people just don't have time? And I'm not just saying us as companies trying to use the tools for networking and marketing, but also as a consumer.

We know it takes time from a business perspective to participate in social media, but are we making an assumption that consumers aren’t stretched for time as well? Maybe it’s too much to participate in social media and fulfill the needs of our day jobs and personal lives? I find myself up at midnight writing things like this blog post wondering if it's just a bunch of nerds getting psyched about social media for marketing and trying to push everyone else on board. How many everyday people really have the time or desire to participate online as a hobby or even regularly? Yes, the number of accounts and the growth has been staggering, but what about the ongoing usage and the falloff? Is social media just another fad?

Are we mainly connecting with a small group of nerds that will always think it’s cool, or is social media really sticky? How many of your friends on facebook never have new status updates? How many people do you know that don't even have a facebook account and never intend to? How many of you have completely abandoned your MySpace account? How many people do you know that have created a Twitter account, but have never posted to it and most likely never will? (And one post that says “Checking out this Twitter thing” doesn’t count.) Have you read about the recent studies on Twitter usage? How much time per week would you say you "waste" using social media sites? Do you feel guilty wasting that time? As a consumer, do you engage with any brands online consistently? I’m an Internet nerd and have never used Yelp!, ever. Is there too much focus on online reviews?

I may be contradicting some of my opinions and thoughts that I shared in commenting on Lisa's post (and in my general point of view), but I'm thinking things through a bit differently and playing devil’s advocate to myself I suppose. I love the multi-family, marketing, and social media relationships I've built using Twitter, facebook and www.multifamilyinsiders.com, but I don't take any time to engage with brands like Lexus, Apple, TaylorMade Golf, HyperLite Wakeboards, Nintendo, Samsung, Taco Bell, Gatorade, Budweiser, etc. Am I fans of these brands on facebook? Maybe. But that's as far as it goes as I just don’t have time. If we ourselves are not engaging with our favorite brands, why would we think our customers would do so? And even if they do, is it sustainable?

I believe there is a niche for social media in every business’s marketing plan, and I also believe that companies can leverage these tools to build keyword rankings on search engines, provide content for their brand, and communicate with customers. Let’s just not lose sight that there is a total plan and that there are many pieces to the puzzle that we still don’t do well in our industry as a whole. Email being one example. Heck, most statistics will tell us that just answering the phone is a challenge.

Unfortunately, I view social media as more of a challenge than a solution today in marketing apartments as well. It is a challenge as it fights for time with the phone, email, and good old face to face communication. It is also a challenge in that our customers face the same battle for time as we do in using the tools. Until social media tools can be used to consistently SAVE people time, I believe its best use is to enhance search engine optimization for a company and/or communities. There are exceptions to the rule, but I think those exceptions are rare and have not experienced the scalability challenges Jeremiah suggests in his post. I’m sure there will be an evolution in social media that addresses the issue of time and scalability, but until then I’m not certain the majority of consumers and businesses will completely embrace the tools available as we see them today. Thus, Social NOTworking.

*(If you’re not familiar with Jeremiah Owyang visit his blog with one of the links above or visit the NAA Education Conference website to learn more about him and his participation in the upcoming panel discussion on Social Media with Tony Tsieh - CEO of Zappos.com, Pete Flint - Founder of Trulia.com, and Moderator, Eric Wu - Co-Founder of RentWiki.com at next week’s conference in Las Vegas.)

as seen @ Tidbits from The Apartment Nerd

 
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Mark - love this post! I have been feeling quite the pansy lately because I look at social media items and don't know where to begin. I don't have time for Facebook or MySpace... am a Twitter beginner (though only because to do so socially takes 7 seconds)... maintain a LinkedIn account for work/personal and then here (which doesn't count as SM, I know). It's overwhelming, and mostly, for me, because the more I learn and hear people talking about different sites and applications, it adds to the already mounting list of things I don't have enough hours in the day to explore. Can't use it until I understand it and don't have the time to figure it out.

As a consumer, it's frustrating, because "no, I don't want to read your reviews" and "no, I don't want to check your company out on Twitter, I just want to talk to a person over the phone or exchange a simple email at my own leisure".

I think that for a company like my own... just getting started in the Social Media world is daunting. There's so much out there and so much debate on the efficacy of 1000 items that it's staggering. And for some, is easier to just not do because of such.
You know it's a problem when your children look at you and ask if the stuff on the "puter" is your friend. Today, it most certianly is not.

  Tara Smiley
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Hi Tara. Thanks for the comment. There is a lot to digest in the world of social media, but I think it's great that so many people are willing to dive in and see what works. My concern is that so many will just give up due to the complexity these tools bring to our lives. Communication tools should help streamline our world, and I think we'll have to wait and see how that all evolves moving forward for social media.

Mj

  Mark Juleen
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Hey Mark,
You captured the sentiment that so many are feeling and talking about re SM. I went to Jeremiah's Behind the Curtain post and have had the same thoughts about how much people are outsourcing their SM to others. It's such an interesting time to be engaging with these mediums as we are all trying to figure out the correct balance and use of our limited time. No doubt some of it serves us...the key is to determine which part! Thanks for taking your time to put these thoughts into words!

  Terri Norvell
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Thanks Terri for the comment. You really said it right when you say balance. I think social media is an expense (even though the tools are free) that everyone needs to have a plan/strategy and budget for. It's very easy to get consumed by the variety of tools. I look forward to your contributions to the site.

Mj

  Mark Juleen

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