Lately, I’ve watched a thousand voices jump on the expert bandwagon.
Everywhere you turn, there’s a social media expert, an SEO expert, a new marketing guru or somebody with a smart phone, perhaps a pair of geeky eyeglasses or a tricked out “over-sized” laptop knocking on the door selling the currency of relationship marketing.
If it’s not the constant barrage of spam in my email box promising “expert” services from Google, it’s the soccer mom down the street who just bought a book from Barnes and Noble ready to take over the world as a new connector in the world of fads and false promises.
If you haven’t considered it, there’s a new currency in town. In the age of “Me-dia,” everyone’s talking about relationships.
You know the ones. Those impersonal flatitudes that start with the “like” button, the “add a friend” button, or the “follow” button. Money can’t buy you love, but a few key strokes can improve your personal life, earn you riches and who knows? It may improve your real world persona? At least that’s what they’re saying at the University of Texas.
I don’t want to overstep my bounds here, but it seems to me this stuff is getting out of hand. It wasn’t that long ago social networks were intriguing in their infancy. However, as the streams grow, the updates persist and the ugly side of persuasion inflates the screen, I’m starting to think we’re seeing the same obsessions with did with pyramid marketing.
After all, pyramid marketing schemes promised wealth based on your networks. The more people you influenced to sell the soap, the herbs or invest in a questionable financial risk, the better outcome for number one. This seems to be the same notion that adding friends and fans will lead to a comparable obsession. After all, everyone wants to be loved, don’t they?
Trouble is, a Facebook “friend” is not really a friend is it? It’s a familiar face spreading their thoughts, photos and links from a keyboard. Some are even farmers! (Sorry Farmville residents)
We all know our true “friends” are usually earned over time as our quirky personas shift from saint to sinner and no matter how old we become – even our best of friends can be counted on our two hands.
In the real world, businesses will tell you that they are having a hard time getting anybody’s attention today (unless you have something people love). There’s so much clutter and too much information gushing from our gadgets that given too many choices – we don’t make any at all. That’s only gonna get worse.
I’m not writing this as insult or a wet blanket for anyone with hopes of truly becoming an expert. Anytime you can help anyone, I’m all for that. If gaining friends and followers is your thing, God speed. But let’s not bet our futures on the hype. This landscape is gonna change and it’s gonna happen fast. The moment you become a social media expert, the mood will shift.
Disco turned to area rock. Grunge replaced the hair and hip hop cleared the streets. Do you remember AOL, Friendster and MySpace? Technology is just like fashion and it’s gonna change as much as Charlie Sheen’s girlfriends, so don’t quit the day job. You may have some fans and friends for a while, but as the choices multiply and the promotional dribble starts to choke our time and attention, we’re gonna fade. We always do.
