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What Comes Next? Part 2: The Suckage!

By Tac Anderson ⋅ August 28, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment
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SIERRA MADRE, CA - MAY 29: Seventieth anniver...
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As a follow on to yesterday’s post on the 80% online US adoption rate. I’d like to point out the down side: Suckage.

Yep, pure suckage. Are you tired of spam? Are you tired of Twitter/Facebook spam? Wait until you start getting location based social spam, from your “friends”. Think a lot of people are jumping on the social media bandwaggon now? Man you ain’t seen nothing yet. It’s about to get ridiculously disgusting.

Tired of the echo chamber? At least up until now it’s been filled by people with above average intelligences. You think washed up real estate agents turned social media experts are bad? We’re about to enter the Wal-Mart age of social media.

Remember back in the mid 90′s when EVERYTHING was eXXXtreme!!!!!? Yeah, that bad. It’s coming.

The worst part is that a lot of people are going to tune out. A lot of the smart people are going to leave in disgust. And really I can’t blame them. It’s too bad because finding those really smart people to have great online conversations with is already hard enough.

Trail blazers rarely stick around when the settlers show up. Revolutionaries get shot when the war is over.

The irony is that there are still some social media Utopians out there that believe that everything will be ok as long as you’re transparent. Yes be transparent but that doesn’t make everything better. It just exposes the assholes.

No one said to themselves as a kid I want to grow up and be a marketer so that I can deceive and manipulate people. That’s why they become lawyers (I’m kidding Nipper).

But inevitably every form of marketing has turned into that. Advertising started off as way to support some media that provided a service. And advertising itself used to be a service people appreciated. Same with direct mail and email marketing. Eventually they all get abused and social media is no different. Kind of sucks huh?

But this isn’t a doom and gloom post (I’m saving that for later). Just trying to be pragmatic. The only way to get above the suckage is to not succumb to it. Don’t spam your friends with mass event blasts on Facebook, email or Twitter.

Be thoughtful about who you’re communicating with in any channel.

So what are you going to do about it?

  • I’m going to keep writing this blog and I promise to never suck.
  • I’m going to keep sharing everything I find interesting.
  • I’m going to have a blast doing a job I love.
  • I’m not going to keep following everyone on Twitter (although I’ll follow most).
  • I’m not going to follow anyone on Facebook I don’t know personally.
  • I’m not going to suck.

The day I start sucking is the day I leave social media.

What are you going to do?

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About Tac

Social media anthropologist. Communications strategist. Business model junkie. Chief blogger here at New Comm Biz.

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  • http://twittermaven.blogspot.com warrenss

    Tac, excellent points. We complain about the echo chamber and social media carpetbaggers, but only 36% of online users are on Facebook and certainly far less on Twitter. Wait til the tsunami of mediocrity hits! Thanks for the great advice on staying above the fray and not succumbing to the suckage.

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com tacanderson

    Thanks Warrenss, We've all seen it happen with a million other trends I just find it funny that some people still don't think it'll happen to social media. I actually think it could be much much worse in social media than any other field. Put on the wading boots :)

  • http://twittermaven.blogspot.com warrenss

    Given the low barriers to entry in social media, you are probably right about putting on the wading boots. Interestingly, there is a lot being written about this subject today:
    - Armano, social media's top 10 dirty little secrets http://tinyurl.com/ltqts6.
    - Clickz, Here Come the Social Media Carpetbaggers http://bit.ly/bQIdD

    So has SM jumped the shark?

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com tacanderson

    No, I think we've just reached full saturation. Jumping the shark happens when a trend is no longer cool or useful. Social media may not be cool but it's very useful and the real business applications are just starting to surface.

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/the-future-of-social-media-has-arived-the-war-is-over/ New Comm Biz » The Future of Social Media has Arived! The War is Over!

    [...] What Comes Next? Part 2: The Suckage! (newcommbiz.com) [...]

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/conversations-vs-sharing-wheres-the-value/ New Comm Biz » Conversations vs Sharing. Where’s the Value?

    [...] What Comes Next? Part 2: The Suckage! (newcommbiz.com) [...]

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/marketers-are-getting-a-little-too-excited-over-location-based-data/ New Comm Biz » Marketers are getting a little too excited over location based data

    [...] What Comes Next? Part 2: The Suckage! (newcommbiz.com) [...]

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