A Pew Study out this week tells us something most of us would have assumed naturally: The majority (66%) of Americans who use social media do it to stay in touch with friends and family members. Interestingly, 18% of older Americans (54+) use social media to conenct with new people who share similar interests, vs. 10% of the younger group.
For all the fretting about how the internet is changing relationships, and how “real life” is falling by the wayside, about how we can’t truly have as many friends as we do on Facebook (we don’t, and that’s okay), it’s clear that social media actually strengthens relationships rather than weakens them. It’s a tool to stay in touch, to deepen a connection, rather than make another superficial one. I find that very heartening, but not at all surprising. If you spend any time on Facebook, it’s clear it’s a tool to keep relationships familiar and strong.
According to the study, most people who use social media don’t specifically use it to connect to public figures, and many of the ones who do use Twitter. Again, this isn’t very surprising, but it does underscore the difference between Facebook and Twitter.
What does this mean for brands and marketing? It seems to me the most important thing is to understand and respect how people use social media. On Facebook, people are there to connect with their friends and family, not necessarily have a deep relationship with your brand. On Twitter, they may be there for news and public figures, but it’s also about friends and family connections. It’s critical to be authentic and embrace your role as a brand. Be friendly, but not too familiar. Keep it casual. Offer discounts and coupons. In other words, don’t try to force yourself into the fundamental friends/family relationship, but rather focus on how you can best complement it.
I think we all know this feeling.
undo your food with iPlate by Todd Borka
Tumblr just put up this site warning people about the dangers of PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Read up, kids. This is important.
Your morning homework: Read this letter from AOL, eBay, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo!, & Zynga. Then visit Tumblr’s page and take action.
I unplugged yesterday. Not 100%, but close to it. I stayed away from my computer and focused on the gorgeous weather, errands I needed to run, and life away from the internet.
It felt awfully good then, but it feels even better now that I’m back at my desk. I feel refreshed, energetic, and looking forward to my Silicon Alley Insider emails rather than overwhelmed by them. I’m more engaged with the challenges I’m facing and think I can provide better service to my clients and better support to my colleagues. That’s a lot to take away from one day!
I realize it may seem a little hypocritical to write about unplugging when my previous post was about executing the shit out of your to-do list. But for all I talk here and on Twitter about the web, its marvels and opportunities, it’s good to be reminded that sometimes there’s an equal power in turning it off for a while. That’s definitely something worth putting on your to-do list.
“Always have your to-do list. And then execute the shit out of it.” — #BrandsConf
I’m looking forward to reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, but in the meantime I enjoyed this ReadWriteWeb post that gives a glimpse into some of the book’s key lessons.
Steve was “a magician genius:”
He was, indeed, an example of what the mathematician Mark Kac called a magician genius, someone whose insights come out of the blue and require intuition more than mere mental processing power.
He was a metamorphosing butterfly:
“That’s what I’ve always tried to do—keep moving. Otherwise, as Dylan says, if you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying.”
And he was maniacally focused:
One of Jobs’s great strengths was knowing how to focus. “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do,” he said. “That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products.”
As RWW distills it: Intuition, Reinvention, Focus.
Steve is so iconic, and so often we talk about him in such soaring rhetoric, that it’s refreshing to hear these kind of details. We can all trust our gut, keep ourselves and our ideas fresh, and focus on what really matters. I don’t design products or run a computer company, but this—this I can do. My colleague recently changed her desktop background to an iconic photo of Steve, to remind herself constantly of all that an inspired, dedicated life can be. I might have to do the same, with those three words alongside it: Intuition, Reinvention, Focus.
This list of Twitter sins from Hubspot is great:
I’d add a couple more to the list:
I’ve heard folks on the executive level talk about trying to have an assistant run their Twitter account and tweet in their place. Online identity is about authenticity, and it’s a big mistake to misrepresent yourself on social media. There’s no substitute for your own voice, and there’s no denying the anger of people who find out they’ve been misled. Leveraging social media to build relationships takes work, but it’s worth the time.
No, I don’t mean mid-coitus. Rather, I’m talking about where you’re upset or worked up about something. Take the time to cool off and think about what you’re going to say—it’s easy to fire off an angry tweet, but no matter how quickly you delete it, some eyes will have been lain on it, and you can do a lot of damage!
What other sins would you add to the list?
“A wise CEO of a healthcare company gave me advice I’ll never forget. ‘Just start. Don’t wait for perfection. Just start and let the work teach you. No one expects you to get it right in the very beginning and you’ll learn more from your mistakes than you will from your early successes anyway. So, stop worrying so much and just look at your best bets and go.’”-Jacqueline Novogratz
(Spotted by fred-wilson and wearethedigitalkids,
(via changetheratio: via brit)
Love to see these images in ESPN’s The Body Issue celebrating all the human body is capable of. Of course, it helps that they’re incredibly sexy, too.
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