Social Media’s Changing Culture: Stop Begging for Recognition and Earn It

Lost in Space Wiki:  “Doctor Smith”

Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester analyst and social media thought leader, provides an in depth look at the wreckage that can accompany the work load of social media “Looking Behind the Curtain on the Social Media Stage: Humans Don’t Scale.” Peter Kim highlighted Jeremiah’s post as a point in an even bigger issue within social media: social media’s changing culture.

3 Reasons Why Social Media’s Culture Is Changing

According to Peter there are three points to this changing culture:

• Limitations: “People have been stretched thin, failed to scale, and are close to burnout.”  We agree and believe that understanding human limits and planning will help alleviate burnout. Don’t take on more than is possible means don’t try to be on every social network or use every tool
• Attention: “attention (e.g. links, retweets, comments) functions as currency in the socialsphere. The influentials started to realize that their money was more valuable than others.  To retain value, many influentials have become stingy with their pocketbooks.”  We believe this is the factor that is driving the poor behavior and possible shift in social media’s culture. The idea that attention to one’s blog or social network is the only goal often means the content and value of content suffers tremendously

• Unashamed Begging: “On the other side of the coin, many participants are unashamed to beg for handouts.  Messages public and private that ask “link to me,” “pls RT,” and “comments appreciated” now come from complete strangers. We can not agree enough with Peter’s point about begging. Everyday strangers ask us for Linkedin recommnedations, RTs on their tweets, to read their blog articles and comment,  to become Facebook friends and fans, and to give them recognition. In most cases, we need to understand a person’s work and to get to know them, even if just on a limited basis, before we can vouch for them

Social Media Strategy: How to Stop Begging

• Engage first and often to build a relationship with your intended audience. Do not expect people to support you until they know something about your intentions, follow through, and willingness to give value