What do you REALLY think about social media?

[ksm32]

Frankly, I hate it!   

I have a Facebook business account, it helps my nice little companies website SEO's (google rankings).  For the same reason I have a LinkedIn account, as well as a Youtube channel for posting before and after flooring makeover videos (my day job).

The FB soapbox grandstanding I see people get on is just crazy with those 'banners, quotes, and other crap that they didn't write' is a real turn off.   I don't want to filibuster so I won't. 

..but I could..

[Yorkshire pud]

In my opinion it's not very social now-removed from it's origins. Though try telling those who believe imparting the minutea of their lives to people they will never meet it's anything but.

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

[ksm32]

Well said.  Although, I actually, for a split second thought you were flipping me off.. then I realized you were looking at PUD!!

[Yorkshire pud]

Well said.  Although, I actually, for a split second thought you were flipping me off.. then I realized you were looking at PUD!!

[coaster]

I think its a burden to be honest. I'm required now to talk to people I don't care about. I've got relationships with people I haven't talked to since high school and I have to care about their day to day drivel. Thats energy wasted. Social media has created a world for me that I don't want to live in.

[b_dubb]

I have a small group of friends that I keep in touch with.  I get friend requests from people I went to high school with and they get ignored. 

Just say no.

[Wintermute]

Depends on the situation.

For the 12-19yr old, Facebook and Twitter aren't the hot place to be. If you are after that market segment in business, good luck. It's tough!

For the 20-30yr old, I'd bet you have a lot of friends on Facebook or Twitter so having a presence has some benefit. Thus businesses still flock to social media to engage these potential customers.

For a company that is after the 18-35yr old market (TV, radio, clothing, food...) having a presence is mandatory and gets you access to your customers.

For a B2B company, I don't see a lot of gain there. "Impressions" and "engagement" do not equate to direct sales in the B2B universe. Presence on social media for B2B is purely marketing to show that the company is not old-fashion.

For a B2C company that does not have a target age group (real estate, home improvement), it's shotgun marketing. They are trying to build a sales channel from a lot of noise.


So it's really what you use your chosen social platform for. Personally I use Twitter a lot and I am 40yrs old. Why? Because my friends are on there and using DM's on Twitter are how we interact rather than IM's, emails or phone calls.

[cweb]

It's a great source of news for fans of certain sports, like me. Twitter is wonderful for breaking reports, scores, and transactions.

Other than that niche market, it's largely a pain in the ass. Social media is responsible for really encouraging the trend of copypasta journalism/activism, whilst feeding on the narcissism of the human psyche. I have been annoyed by so many bullshit kneejerk articles posted on Facebook by people who want to feel good about themselves but don't feel like doing any research to form their own opinions.

If Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat were to disappear tomorrow, I'd be fine with it.

[Wintermute]

PS - I hate facebook. I quit the service for a year, then opened a new account and found it to be far worse than prior. Facebook will have to be more and more e-commerce related to continue to operate long-term. I don't know many people that find Facebook useful anymore because of odd Timeline algorithms, push-marketing, personal security, and general usability.

Basically Facebook is turning into MySpace... a really cluttered place where people have a profile and are marketed to. Once a viable alternative hits the marketplace, people will flee. The fact is today without a viable alternative, people are already leaving.

[Eddie Coyle]

     Anything increasing the odds of my having contact with former schoolmates, co-workers etc, absolutely sucks and should be proscribed.

[MrMajestik]

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[b_dubb]

It's only a matter of time till the facebook bubble implodes and everyone is standing around dumbfounded they invested in a web site where you're encouraged to "poke" people

[eddie dean]

[attachimg=1]

enabling narcissistic behavior since 2004

[wr250]

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enabling narcissistic behavior since 2004

facebook founded 2004
noory takes over coast 2004

theresh no coinshidences

[HorrorRetro]

I've had a pretty good experience with FB. I guess I'll be the dissenting voice. I only accept "friends" that I actually know or who are involved in photography groups. I started off using it mainly to keep up with family, since most of us are military and spread throughout the world at any given time.  I've been able to track down my best friend from elementary school, and we picked right back up where we left off and are now best friends again. My first boyfriend tracked me down a few days ago, and we've had a great time catching up. I'd been searching for my father for decades and managed to find out his sister lives just 12 miles from me. Unfortunately, my dad died in '79, long before we found the family, but my aunt and I are now great friends and have so much in common.

I use FB to participate in photography challenges, both local and worldwide. That's helped me improve my skills quite a bit. I've found a local mentor who has offered me advice as well as a local group dedicated to photography in Tacoma.

I think it's like any tool. It can be used for positive or negative pursuits. I see people with 500+ "friends" and know they just add these people to inflate their egos. I will say that the more invasive advertising is starting to make me look for an alternative. However, I don't think any alternative will survive without the same kind of advertising.

[paladin1991]

I think that Social Media is a shit hot way for .gov and anyone else to mine info fm or about you.  Sequestered by DHS?  Denied a job, because your just not the 'right fit?'  Social Fucking Media hung you out to dry.
Just my opinion, I cold be wrong.

[DigitalPigSnuggler]

I think its a burden to be honest. I'm required now to talk to people I don't care about. I've got relationships with people I haven't talked to since high school and I have to care about their day to day drivel. Thats energy wasted. Social media has created a world for me that I don't want to live in.

Can you explain why you (or anyone) is "required" to do these things?  I've never had a social media account of any type and have never felt like I am missing out on things.  I make new friends and contacts and keep current by staying in touch.  I lose touch when our lives or interests diverge.  Sometimes we reconnect later.  I don't feel at all deprived of social contact or information.

The whole social media fad puzzles me.  Go back a hundred years, and many people lived in small villages where everyone knew everyone else, and knew everyones business.  There was very little privacy.  If you fucked up, you wore the scarlet A forever.  People constructed pretentious lives to create positive, and false images about themselves out of necessity.

That social model hasn't been embraced where people have an alternative.  Most preferred the anonymity to be found in cities or larger towns.  People only know their neighbors superficially, unless they come in contact through other activities. 

And yet , here comes social media, offering all of the undesirable aspects of village life, but in return, cat photos.  The social media companies have figured out that if they slip their dick up there incrementally, you'll accept just about any kind of ass raping, even being a lab rat for psychology experiments without your knowledge or consent.  The government has figured out that they need not tackle the expense and negative publicity of 1984 surveillance, when people cheerfully share every aspect of their lives for the taking.  All this, and for what benefit?  I really don't get it.

[DigitalPigSnuggler]

I see people with 500+ "friends" and know they just add these people to inflate their egos.

I started getting "add me as a Linkdin contact" requests from someone awhile back.  Her only contact with me was ONE email that I sent to her on a business matter six years previously.

After about a year of it, I sent her email #2, telling her what I thought of people who troll for contacts just so they can brandish that utterly meaningless "500+ contacts" badge.

[Gd5150]

LinkedIN is great if you're a VP at Google. Between playing on one of the 2 playgrounds or visiting one of the 3 Startbucks in their corporate headquarters, you can go on LinkedIn and have all your employees humping your leg for a referral. After you're done ignoring them, you can hump your bosses leg for a referral. A good networking tool it is not. Real successful people don't use social networking, they don't have time, they have jobs and lives and don't waste their time with it.

Facebook is done. It was a good tool for people from 25-50 to get back in contact with their highschool counterparts. It allows them to show everyone how cool they've become and continue to be as well as sharing the salad they had for dinner. Facebook ads are as worthless as email spam and tv commercials. No one will ever pay to use Facebook.

Under 25ers are not using it. Teens will grow up with a cell phone number and their social network of the week so they'll never lose contact with their "friends lists". My teenage nieces think its a joke. Last time I spoke with them it was snapchat, tomorrow it'll be something else.

The idea corporations demand their employees give them access to their Facebook and other accounts is laughably absurd. Facebook will inevitably go down the toilet like AOL, MySpace, and a zillion other websites that we're "going to take over the world".

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

Well said.  Although, I actually, for a split second thought you were flipping me off.. then I realized you were looking at PUD!!

not my intent on both counts. it was my opinion on social media.