I was remarking to someone yesterday about how the world of social media has changed so much in just a couple of years. When I started writing for Daily Fix in early 2006, most companies were still on the sidelines when it came to engaging and interacting with their customers via social media. Most people then had never heard of “Twitter” (I hadn’t), but my how times have changed.
Today, companies and individuals are rushing to this space, and it’s exciting to see. And as people discover this space, they are looking for people to give them guidance. Which is often where the trouble starts, because it’s where people start hearing about social media’s ‘rules’. They start hearing about the ‘right’ way to blog, or the ‘correct’ way to use Twitter.
What they are really hearing is someone take the way that THEY use these tools, and offer them as being the ONLY way to use these tools.
Here’s my rule: Don’t listen to these people.
I’ve left over 13,000 tweets on Twitter, and have been using it for almost 2 years. I can give you plenty of advice on how *I* use Twitter effectively. But is MY way the best for YOU? Maybe, maybe not. And for the record, the way I use Twitter has changed about 10 times in those 2 years, and continues to evolve.
In the aftermath of Dell Hell, the blogosphere insisting that Dell had to start blogging. Many of the ‘A-Lister’ bloggers called for Dell to launch a blog, and finally in 2006, they did. And many of those same bloggers that all but demanded that Dell start blogging, immediately slammed the company when their first blog launched. Dell had followed the ‘rules’, they had listened to bloggers, and bloggers immediately slapped them on the wrist for doing so. My friend Beth Harte blogged about how Motrin and Chris Brogan also ran into problems because they apparently violated the ‘rules’ of social media.
This worries me because I see new people flocking to Twitter in droves. And not just new people, but people that work for companies and agenices. People that are likely coming to Twitter in great part to learn more about social media. I fear these people will follow the ‘power’ users, and think that how they use Twitter is the ‘right’ way. Or that there is a ‘right’ way to blog.
Don’t confuse guidelines with rules. The great thing about social media is that the space is evolving and we are all learning together. Find your own path, then when you reach your destination, you can help teach the rest of us what you learned along the way.
Great post Mack. I agree 100%. I have been on Twitter for over 2 years as well.
Twitter is a communication channel and tool. Business people need to decide their use case before the go out and start collecting friends and not fully understanding how they want to listen, engage and what the clearly defined objectives are.
Numbers of followers are only relatively important. What is more important is who, why and how you connect with people.
More details with use cases, case studies, best practices, etc. in my forthcoming book on Twitter.
Cheers!
Rodney Rumford
Nice post – if we stuck to the ‘rules’ of social media, or attempted to create them, it would simply stagnate.
It’s important to always try new things, risk falling flat on your face (I believe that’s the hardest part) and congratulate yourself when it goes right!
You’ve really hit the nail on the head with the use of the term “evolve.” Every serious user of social media has continuously evolved his/her usage, and the space itself is rapidly evolving. It’s difficult to promulgate hard-and-fast rules when we’re all making it up as we go along!
Great post Mack – I think that people forget this sometimes and think that just because they’ve been successful using it one way, they think others have to do the same. I’m going through this right now with our internal platform of E2.0 tools where our development team are locking down certain features/users so that the tool is used in the “right” way, aka the way they think it should be used.
Thanks, Mack. We’ve recently come to the same conclusion, that we need to figure out how it can work for us and for our clients (we’re an agency). Right now there are more questions than answers, and far too many examples of people flooding the media with pure valueless noise. Businesses being urged to jump into social media have to look at the cacophony and wonder if this is something they should be involved with. As advisors we need to get make to marketing fundamentals and be disciplined in our advice.
Since social media is about being social, it forces businesses to be more accessible to customers. That can be good, but it also can prove the opposite depending upon public perception of your brand and a number of other factors. Start a Facebook fan page, for example, and at present there is no way to moderate posts on your wall — unless you login frequently and “report” abusive posts.
Since every business is different, I see a clearer need for customization rather than approaching the space in a recommended manner.
It’s kind of like Fight Club: Rule #1 is There Are No Rules.
Good point and particularly necessary as more and more newcomers find SM and are greeted by snake oil sellers trying to hustle them on a bunch of “rules”
Your usual enlightened perspective, Mack. I love that you and some others fight the push to put this new medium into the same old pigeonholes.
Thanks for the comments, eveyone! I tend to gravitate toward Twitter as an example here because my own usage continues to change. I followed 500 people, then 900. Then decided that was way too many, went back to 500. Then I found TweetDeck, and discovered it let me get organized enough to now follow over 1,600.
I think the thing about social media is that there isn’t one SET way to use it properly. And many people entering this space are looking to the ‘influencers’ as their guide, but many of this group are really early adopters, that use SM a bit differently than the average person. That needs to be taken into consideration.
The beauty of SM is that the space is constantly changing and evolving. We can ALL learn from each other, and the flipside is, we can all be teachers as well.
Mack,
Great post. I think the idea that there are no rules in social media ties in closely with the belief that there are not experts in social media. It is a new concept that I don’t think anyone has really gotten a complete grasp of quite yet. There are undoubtedly leaders in social media but no one can really claim to be an expert as of now. It’s on my list of things to blog about ^_^
There is no single way to use social media. It needs to be molded into what suits your interests best and needs to be approached based on your needs.
Thanks,
Dave
ps I just subscribed and look forward to reading more.
Great post Mack! I remember talking with you about this on Twitter.
Dave I think that most people that are leaders in the social media space do NOT think of themselves as ‘experts’. They understand that the space is changing too rapidly, and the best they can hope for is to stay as up-to-date as possible.
The few people that truly bill themselves as ’social media experts’ are usually anything but.
You da man, Mack. Rules are for suckers. But norms are important. I think we’re in the normalization phase, not the rule-making phase, but maybe that’s just semantics.
Social media is almost a damned if you do, damned if you don’t, situation right now. On one hand people are hesitant to get involved because they don’t understand it, but on the other hand, they can’t understand it if they aren’t involved and they’re afraid of missing out if they’re not trying.
As one who has dabbled in social media, but is not anywhere near competent in it, I believe that you highlight a most important ‘guideline’: to share what you learn so that others can more readily pick up how to best use social media for themselves.
Thanks for doing your part!
I enjoyed this article, Mack. With all of the talk about authenticity and transparency these days (rightfully so), I’ve tried to take the ‘rules’ that I keep reading about in regards to SM (especially Twitter) with a grain of salt. In using Twitter, for example, I’ve decided just to be myself. What a concept, huh? I loved this blog post, as it helped put things in perspective for me (as did yours, Mack): “The only Twitter Rule you need” http://is.gd/edtR
Very refreshing read. Thanks for your insight.
I’m professionally online for a good 14 years and am still reluctant in calling myself an “expert” for exactly the ever evolving phenomenon social media is. And yes, there are no rules! Guidlines, a few! “Respect others” for example goes a long way…
Looking forward to reading your next blog entry.
As a college student studying PR and trying to break in on the world of social media, this post is very inspiring. It’s great to know that I shouldn’t have to listen to all the “rules” of social media. At first, and even still today after months of Twittering and blogging, I am still intimidated by these rules, so knowing that they’re irrelevant for the most part is a load off my mind.
It’s also neat to hear people, like yourself, who are more experienced in the social media world talk about how it keeps evolving. It’s kinda cool to think about how social media is always being updated, and changing, and producing new trends. I can’t help but wonder where the world of social media will be in a year or two.
Thanks for this post and the inspiration I have gained from it. I look forward to keeping up with your blog in the future!
I think it’s important to remember that no one in this industry is really an “expert”. The rules of the game change constantly, and we all need to be on our toes.