I've never liked small talk. I like to jump into the deep. To find out what makes two people tick together like an old fashioned grandfather's clock. I seek conversations that juice my creativity, that help me navigate all types of love and to put in perspective the difficulties of this wild life. But I do this in person, with my friends -- in a Yoga or Aikido class, over dinner, on a walk, on the phone -- not through social networking.
I don't want to know when you're going to sleep or if you sweated up a storm in your latest workout. I don't want to hear about your baby's poop habits, or the tiff with the neighbor. Give me nourishment, not trivia.
On social networks I want five things.
On social networks I don't want to know these five things.
We have all read and heard, ad nauseum, to be in the moment and just do what you are doing. Nike's famous phrase comes to mind. "Just do it." This doesn't include Tweeting on Twitter, posting on Facebook, or now, Pinning on Pinterest. If you're doing something, just do it. Thinking about how you're going to share it with all the people you don't know on all your social networks sullies the experience. It takes you away from the full pleasure of just being. Just be for godsakes. You don't need to pin it, post it, blog it or tweet it.
Susan Harrow is the author of Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul. She runs a Media Consultancy where she helps everyone from Fortune 500 CEOs to celebrity chefs, entrepreneurs to authors grow their business through media coaching and the power of PR. For more information please contact Susan.
Follow Susan Harrow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/soundbitesiren
Generally, when doing things, I think "this is really awesome and I want to share it with others". That's pretty much how every one I know approaches it.
But here's the thing. Social media does a great job of portraying people accurately. If you're a fake person who sets things up just for social media it will show. If you're the kind of person who friends people just to have a lot of friend it will show (and your feed will be full of crap you don't care about). If you have dull friends, it will show. So on and so forth.
If your news feed is full of stuff you don't care about you're doing it wrong. Plain and simple.
Interesting website.
Sounds like someone is having a bad hair day!
I agree with you, social media conversations can be tedious at times, but we often find that happening in the off line world. Remember too, not all tweets or timeline comments are directed towards us, we just happen to be within earshot.
When we meet someone the conversation usually starts out small and social media is no different. If you find the discussion is uninteresting or irrelevant then perhaps you're not connecting with the right people. Look at their profile if they have one ... Just as legs are a great way to escape a boring person, Twitter's 'Unfollow' button serves the same purpose!
Search your interests using the # tag for interesting topics such as #Environmental, #Copywriting or #WorldLeaders etc. Never pay to get followers, unless you only want numbers and don't care about relevance.
"Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative." That being said, the solution is really simple, don't follow unimaginative people :o)
Cheers,
Paul Thomas
I suspect she already knows how to 'search your interests' etc. Geesh.