I Tweeted this week that social media is not about the conversation?
It had a few retweets and I thought I would post them here.
‘The C-Word’ RT @lyndoman: If anyone says “it’s about the conversation” at a social media conference, throw a sticky bun at them.
RT @lyndoman: If anyone says “it’s about the conversation” at a social media conference, throw a sticky bun at them.
RT @SceptreSocial: RT @lyndoman: If anyone says “it’s about the conversation” at a social media conference, throw a sticky bun at them.
RT @SceptreSocial: RT @lyndoman: If anyone says “it’s about the conversation” at a social media conference, throw a sticky bun at them.
RT @AutomotivePR: RT @SceptreSocial: RT @lyndoman: If anyone says “it’s about the conversation” at a social media conference, throw a sticky bun at them.
But am I not having a conversation right now and isn’t that a good thing?
Yes it is, but that is not what social media is about.
The “conversation” is a stepping stone, a communication tool that we use to get to our real objective.
I hear you say, “but the social media gurus say it’s all about the conversation.” Some do, but you will find that their real objective, the stuff that gets them out of bed an put on their Star Trek boxer shorts is selling their books, conference talks, advertising on their sites.
The conversation is simply the tool they power up to fund their collection of Sci Fi boxer shorts.
What social media is really about is persuasion, it’s about communicating a message that gets you to do stuff. The social media gurus are experts at getting you to do stuff and using the tool of conversation to promote that.
Nothing wrong with that, we all use various communication tools to persuade people to do what we want. You could say that a pair of very tight jeans is a communication tool design to persuade people to look at the wearer in a particular way.
Yes this is pushing the envelope a little. But communication is all around us, most of it designed to persuade. Even if it is to get you to press a button on a microwave when your Chunky Chile Chicken is done, just with a ping.
The ping on a microwave as a tool of persuasive communication?
Is that taking it too far?
