Tuned Out, Turned Off
Let’s be clear…I don’t think social media is a fad. The proof is in the pudding.
But I do think there is some shark jumping going on out there…specifically, in terms of the hubub around Google+.
Thinking about my own adaptive patterns…I was never on MySpace, joined the Book of Face to share pics of the kiddo, kicked out some Tweets fairly early, over-indexted on FourSquare and am currently dabbling in Instagram.
Notice I left Google+ out. Yes, I’m on there and have a few nifty nodes or circles or whatever. I like the interface. I like the ability curate the info I see. But the bottom-line: i have zero reason to go there. And I’m not alone: even the “smarty-pants tech” crowd has given it mixed reviews, at best.
But it’s obvious we’re seeing some “engagement fatigue” on the digital front. Even the most narcissistic of consumers would be hard pressed to post their plans on Facebook, Tweet who they’re with, check-in on Facebook, post a pic of the “amazing” dinner on Instgram and upload a review on Yelp.
Moreover…all of these actions, under the guise of being social, actually alienate the consumer from the actual experience…diminishing their ability to engage the humans sitting across from them, tasting the food and soaking in the atmosphere.
As marketers, we must be wary of what “engagement” really means. I was excited to see this new installation in NYC from Madrid based mmmm.
Look…REAL conversations. Eye contact. Humans!!!
While I certainly don’t feel brands need to be part of every conversation out there…how awesome would it have been for someone like say, Folgers, to incite real conversation over real coffee (ok…feel free to debate if Folgers is real coffee).
As marketers we must acknowledge that the noise in the “social” space is louder than that of the old-school broadcast network space. I’m sure when FourSquare announced that they were freeing up development for brand pages, someone in a really cool office called someone at a brand and said, “dood…we need to build a brand page on FourSquare RIGHT NOW!!”
Many out there will make bold statements on the future of social media, what matters, and profess themselves experts on how to help navigate the space. Oh, and they’re lying, too.
Everything is too new. Everything is to mushy. We just don’t really know what much of the data means…other than knowing there are still lots-o-eyeballs n’ keystrokes going down in these spaces. How brands speak, listen, engage and interact in these spaces? It’s still guesswork for the most part. How those things can actually drive bottom-line results or influence consideration and purchase behavior? Pure voodoo at this point.
Until someone smarter than me reaches into Pandora’s Box and pulls out the answer, marketers would be smart to do one single thing: create products and messages that have meaning and make people care.
PSFK | Mashable | Coolhunting