If you are one of those people in who has to spend time evangelizing social media within your company, I’m sure you’ve heard something similar to the question, “Why do I care that so-and-so just ate Doritos for lunch?”
This is one of the common statements often made to trivialize social media and minimize its usefulness. Let’s look at some of the other things you can find on social media that may seem at first glance to be trivial.
Social media streams may seem to contain many little bits of nearly meaningless information.
- Blippy tells me that Matt Cutts (from Google) spent $6.99 at Amazon to buy the book “How to Be Rich”
- Twitter tells me that Grant Imahara (from MythBusters) “Finally saw The Hurt Locker.” And he thought it was “Totally riveting.”
- Foursquare tells me that Julien Smith (of trustagent.com and inoveryourhead.net) is now mayor of the Home Depot in Montreal. (How domestic of him!?)
- Tripit tells me if there is anyone I know nearby when I’m travelling.
- Yelp tells me that somebody I know really liked the mexican restaurant nearby.
- Etc…
Each of these bits of information when taken independently are relatively trivial and almost meaningless.
But the point isn’t to read a single tweet or one post of a blog.
Imagine that James Bond had a twitter account. I could imagine his twitter stream containing the following tweet:
Sitting in Miami Airport, drinking bourbon and thinking about life and death.
Which would lead to the first line of Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger: “James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and though about life and death.”
Santiago’s tweet:
Sitting alone in my skiff. It’s been 84 days since I caught a fish.
Is the opening line of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea opens: “He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.”
Each post, each tweet, each photo you post tells a little bit about the story of you. Taken individually they don’t mean very much, but when you put them all together, they tell your story.
One of the reasons why social media is important is because it lets people into the story of each other’s lives. It lets draws you closer and lets you connect in ways you may not otherwise connect.
Sure, it is possible to overshare. You probably don’t want to tell the world about the intimate details of your last night out with your significant other. And it’s definitely not wise to post those questionable pictures taken at your frat party. But there is definitely value in letting people know what you’re up to and giving them insight into the real you.
Sure, there are lots of other great uses for social media too. But if you are genuine in your twitter stream, if you are honest in your facebook posts, if you are consistent with your Daily Mugshots; the intimate connections you can develop by letting people into your life are a great justification for tweeting what you ate for lunch today.
I had cottage cheese, pineapple, Doritos and Almond Joy M&Ms. Mmmm. :-)
