I’m the social media intern for a small company this term. They (we) are getting ready to launch a new project that sounds pretty cool, the Librarian Brain, and that is exciting. There is also a website revamp happening, so I get to help with content for that as we prepare for launch, which is pretty cool too. But I spend a lot of time on social media. I mean a lot of time. It is amazing to me how much time I spend on social media. It isn’t even posting and tweeting and whatever that takes up most of that time, it’s trying to get some sort of grip on the conversation. That’s what social media is all about isn’t it? The Conversation. Being the place where consumers can connect with business, where people can connect with each other to share ideas and be thought provoking. But here’s the thing, natural conversations don’t happen 140 characters at a time. Conversations aren’t hashtagged into obscurity to make them searchable. So it feels like everyone is sending their own one-sided conversation into the social media void hoping someone will see it and butt in with a vaguely relevant reply. Even better if it’s someone with lots and lots of followers.
When I first started Twittering I was shocked by how much time and effort it takes to get nothing done. I logged into the account thinking it’d be fairly simple to start retweeting interesting things from accounts we followed or who followed us while getting a grip on the “voice” of the account so eventually I could start producing some original content. I was so wrong! One of the first things I noticed is how much utter crap people tweet just because they have to. And you do have to keep tweeting ALL THE TIME in order to stay relevant, to stay at the top of the news feed. A lot of these accounts just tweet random ads for how to gain followers (usually by paying for them) with a shit load of hashtags that don’t really make sense. Because that’s what social media is really about: how many followers do you have, and how can you get more? I can’t follow the conversation, because there is no conversation. Sure there are moments when conversation happens, but mostly it’s about getting more followers, getting more exposure, getting more influence. Being louder than everyone else so they follow you, retweet you, pin you, like you, favorite you.
I try to limit myself to 25 minutes a day, since I have to be on social media every day that is nearly 3 hours a week. That’s not enough. The only reason I try to limit it is because I have other things to do, other research for other projects, other writing projects, other things. Social media is full time job. You can’t just retweet, repin, repost, you have to create as well. And you can’t create without a lot of work. I can’t just pin or tweet an article, I have to read it (or at least thoroughly skim it) so I know it fits the persona this handle is presenting to the world. It’s a lot of work for one sentence of product and a link. I did research into this, I read the articles, I looked at what others in the industry were doing, and I have determined that I don’t get social media. I mean, I can do it: I can do the #TBTs, I can follow, I can create new content and repin, repost, retweet things relevant to company, I just don’t get it. I think social media has somewhat lost the plot, we’ve all gotten so damn busy collecting followers no one can make out what the fuck anyone is saying any more. I have a grand social media plan that I have lovingly researched and worked out and presented (with praise and positive feedback), but to implement it would be a full time job. I do my internship for about 8-8.5 hours a week (though I am terrible at remembering to record my time), so I can barely scratch the surface of social media, and so far I only do Twitter and Pinterest.
This internship has already taught me a lot, and I am sure the next few weeks will teach me even more. But it is exhausting. There are days I just can’t face another tweet, another pin, another like-share-favorite-whatever. I think in hashtags, I dream of how to make things more searchable, I see the world in pins. When I see and dream and think these things however, I’m not processes the world in terms of conversations, I’m counting followers, and repins, and likes, I’m counting who says they are listening to me, not who’s talking back. Resistance is futile, my technological DNA is slowly being incorporated into the hive mind of the social network; I still don’t get it, but I can feel it in there changing the way I interact with the people and the world around me, changing the way I think. I constantly feel like I am teetering on the edge of the cliff staring into the void of the Twittersphere, but at least I got six new followers on this week.
