Ugh – the phrase 2011 social media resolutions returns more than 12 million search results on Google and I find most of them totally insufferable. Let me guess – in 2011, you resolve to “blog more often,” “double the number of Twitter followers you have,” “stop spending so much time on Facebook,” and “engage more with your customers/readers?” Two years ago, I even did one of these posts myself.
So why do I have such an aversion to these posts now? To start, most of them are cliche (blog more often!), totally ambiguous (engage more!), or common sense (listen to other people!). For most people, the social media resolutions post has become blog filler that doesn’t really offer any value, to the author or to the reader. Now, if you really want to make some social media resolutions, here are the ones that I wish I’d see more of among those 12 million.
- I will stop using the terms “guru,” “ninja,” “evangelist,” “rockstar,” and “czar” to refer to people who know how to use social media.
- I will blog less. I will stop filling the Interwebs with my self-important crap and instead blog only when I have something valuable to share, not so that I can maintain some search engine ranking or social media web ranking.
- I will do at least a cursory Google search before I write a new post to see what other people are saying about the topic about which I’m going to write.
- I will not copy and paste other people’s entire blog posts onto my blog with two lines of “analysis” and claim it’s a post that I wrote.
- I will write about someone other than myself or my company at least once in a while.
- I will read every blog comment I write at least once to myself before clicking submit to make sure I don’t sound like an idiot.
- I will check the facts of the content that I post before I upload it.
- When I make a mistake, I will apologize and correct it as soon as possible.
- I will attribute all content to the original author if it’s not my own.
- I will stop getting frustrated with people who don’t understand social media and instead will empathize with them.
- I will finally come to the realization that for all the hype I help spread about Twitter, it’s still only used by less than 10% of the U.S. population.
- I will stop telling my clients that they have to have a Facebook page, Twitter account, Second Life presence, or blog. I will instead help them integrate these tools into their strategies where it makes sense.
What about you – what social media new year’s resolutions would you like to see more of?
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I agree with you Steve, you’ve highlighted very clever social media resolutions for 2011. And here are my top 3 resolutions:
1. Be a better listener.
2. Comment more.
3. Be careful what you say online and how many times you say it as well as aim at sharing valuable content.
I think it will be interesting for you to check out this infographic on social media resolutions created by Radian6 >> http://higher-and-higher.com/2011/01/03/social-media-resolutions-for-2011/
Best wishes,
Petya
@pgeorgieva
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Cool infographic Petya – I like it! I think the reason I don’t like a majority of these sorts of resolutions posts is because so many are focused creating more stuff, working the system for your own benefit, etc. and they so often forget the real problems that are plaguing our industry – too much stuff/crap; too much focus on me, me, me; and isolation in the social media echo chamber. These, and the ones you’ve identified above, are resolutions that I wish all those social media marketers, ninjas, and gurus would make instead of trying to get more Twitter followers or improving their search engine rankings.
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Cool infographic Petya – I like it! I think the reason I don’t like a majority of these sorts of resolutions posts is because so many are focused creating more stuff, working the system for your own benefit, etc. and they so often forget the real problems that are plaguing our industry – too much stuff/crap; too much focus on me, me, me; and isolation in the social media echo chamber. These, and the ones you’ve identified above, are resolutions that I wish all those social media marketers, ninjas, and gurus would make instead of trying to get more Twitter followers or improving their search engine rankings.
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Ah Steve the voice of reason in a world of insanity. Whenever I hear the term “listen” I think of a very old United commercial ( back when anyone liked United) that showed a company representatives realizing that they needed to get on planes and go talk to their customers including the CEO who decided to go talk to a customer who had just canceled a large contract.
My resolution is to keep social media about listening and talking to people, but more importantly talk to them directly in person or on the phone.
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No. 1 and 4 on the list really caught my attention. And I hope other “gurus” too.
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To #1, can we add “maven”? And, thank you for the reminder of #3.
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Steve–This is a very refreshing take on the annual tradition of resolutions–Thank you! Regarding #10, if interested in the concept of empathy and how it can be applied to work, I’d recommend that book Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy. It offers some good examples of what true empathy can look like and be translated to business. It’s an interesting read and offers a unqiue perspective to view challenges/problems and the process to discovering the best solution.
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Thanks Alex – I thought you’d like this post. My wife, who works for our non-profit clients, actually mentioned that book to me before. When she told me about it, I just nodded and said ok, but now that you recommend it, I think I should probably check it out 🙂
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Steve –
Its a refreshing & clever social media resolutions for 2011resolution.. Each point make sense. It will be interesting for you to look at http://www.factualz.com.. It helps us in organizing our blogs, tweets, etc., at one place.
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It’s refreshing for someone to finally argue against those individuals who call themselves ninja’s or rock star’s…
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So, just about one month in..how goes progress on these resolutions?
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Judging by my Tweetstream, Facebook stream, and blog posts, I’ve read, I think this industry has a long way to go!
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