Social/broadcast media

Mack Collier at MarketingProfs questioned the habit of some - including social media pros - of using media like Twitter to announce new blog posts, and not much else:

Lately I’ve been seeing a troubling trend on some blogs, and especially on Twitter. What I’m noticing is that some well-known and established players in the social media space are using these tools not as ways to interact and be “social,” but instead as channels to “broadcast” the media they are creating.

This has always been somewhat of an issue with blogs, where some bloggers have a less than stellar reputation for encouraging and replying to comments from their readers. Seth Godin has a well-known “no-comment” policy on his blog (but Seth does at least quickly reply to emails).

But I’m really noticing a lack of interaction by some social media “experts” on Twitter. It seems you only see these people a couple of times a week, and that’s always to leave a “My latest post is up, here’s the link…” tweet. Of course if you try to reply and engage the person concerning the post, it falls on deaf ears as they are already long gone, just stopping by Twitter long enough to broadcast the availability of their latest post.

Here’s the problem: if you’re Robert Scoble with 27,000 followers on Twitter, how on earth are you going to actually converse with them? Here’s the question: if you use a medium to share your thoughts and people read because they are interested in your thoughts, is it social?

I’d say yes. I assume that people read this blog because they are interested in what Maureen and I have to say. We’re not representing an organization, we’re not speaking for anyone but ourselves, and presumably those of you reading are basing that decision on what we as people do. That’s a social connection, even if it’s not as social as the coworker down the hall you’ll sit and have coffee with.

I’ve done my share of “new blog post” tweets. I assume that people find them useful, because I see traffic coming back from Twitter. I assume those who don’t simply ignore them, and if they think I’m doing too much of that, they ignore me. (Which is fine.)

What’s the right balance? I can’t quantify it, I can only say it’s “what feels right and genuine and useful to your audience.”

Here’s what I can say is definitely not appropriate use of social media: using it as a broadcast medium and then spaming people with “follow” notices. Like this Yahoo! Live user.

Here’s the curious thing; what that person did, and far too many marketers do, is exactly what Barack Obama got lauded for in the primary campaign. He used Twitter as a broadcast medium, and his people kept sending follow notices; I got lots of “Barack Obama is following you on Twitter” emails, and yet there was no conversation there. People said he got it. (And it worked.)

What’s appropriate may have more to do with our expectation from a particular person or organization than anything else.

What do you think?

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