I came across this very interesting article on BusinessWeek, and it brings up a good point about social media’s popularity. Overhype of the importance of Twitter and Facebook accounts, along with the self-proclaimed gurus out there who act like “snake oil salesmen,” to quote the article’s reference.
With so much instantaneous information on Twitter and Facebook, traditional marketing can suffer… promotions within the same company can collide, communication withing a company’s employees breaks down, and I think we’re in the process of bursting the bubble of too much information. There was a cool Duran Duran song years ago about the media exploding with info overload, and with social media, we’re certainly reaching that point.
Social media also affect productivity of traditional 9-5 workers, who log on several times a day. Some companies encourage social media as part of the job, but the lines are blurring as to what is part of a job’s scope, and what isn’t.
While my motto is that all good things are best in moderation, with Twitter and Facebook I have seen probably so many PR/Marketing/Communications/Advertising professionals with their main credential being their ability to Tweet amazingly fast, and their ability to have thousands of followers and several hundreds of fans on FB. However, I hardly find good information through their tweets and their fan pages, plus I can’t find published articles or case studies, so I can’t help but question their “expertise.”
Who benefits from social media, and how are we contributing to a better society in the process? Is the social media hype just breeding conceited wannabe professionals?