Ten Things I’ve Learned in Social Media
10. A little monkey can hit Send. And look adorable doing it. If that’s all I’m doing, I should be replaced. (Please get the little monkey a hat!)
9. The metrics that show failure are the most valuable.
8. Social media evangelism is hucksterism worthy of a snake oil wagon. Let people adopt what they want to when they want to.
7. Writing for social media is a craft and a discipline. Good content isn’t delivered in tanker trucks.
6. See this photo? It’s me on a frozen lake in the Yukon. I posted it and my friends responded and I did a Facebook Live video and I was connected to California, Carolina, and Kolkata. It has always been possible to be alone in a crowd. Now the opposite can also happen.
5. 5 A profile picture should show people what you look like.
5. I once chatted for three hours from a company Twitter account with a single mom whose fridge broke down in a heat wave. She had her toddler on her back, and our truck replacing her newly purchased fridge was late. I talked to her until the replacement fridge arrived. I did it so executives could scoff and say, “That’s not scalable.”
4. I’ve groan to enjoy puns in short writing. Like this:
3. Twitter is Spanish; Facebook is French; LinkedIn is German; Instagram is Italian. If someone has not practiced the language, throwing them up there and expecting them to sound like a native is not just risky. It’s offensive to fluent speakers.
2. Paying to be liked is just as sad as it sounds.
- Authentic engagement is that moment when you open your mouth and you’re not sure how to express what’s on your mind and the listener sees your vulnerability and their eyes get wide as they turn to fully face you and you say _______________.
That’s when it begins.
Jeff Elder has led social media for a Fortune 50 company, a hot startup, a top 10 website, and his fat Calico cat, Talker.
