The Benefits (and Limits) of Social Media

I read a lot about social media issues, both to keep up to date as a marketing practitioner and because I’m fascinated by social and technological movements. There is a lot of great information available on this topic, but it can be tough to cut through the background noise and decide what is truly relevant and useful.

I’ve come across three articles in the past few weeks that offer good insights into the growth of social media and its implications for society and the marketing profession.

Devin Friedman interviews young Silicon Valley entrepreneurs for a recent article in GQ. He captures the excitement—and lingering anxiety—that many of us feel about this medium:

For the past month, I’ve been trying to fully engage with the social layer. I joined and contributed to such services and platforms as Quora, Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, Blippy, Swipely, DailyBooth, Goodreads, Daytum, etc., etc. I tried to tweet five times a day… And what it all made me feel, mostly, was stupid. And anxious—that I didn’t have enough people following me and then that I was the kind of person who wants people to follow him. …I think old people like me (I’m 38) often do this stuff to feel like the world hasn’t yet left them behind, but we don’t have any natural hunger for it. It’s kind of like androids having sex: We know we’re supposed to do it, but we’re not really sure why. 

Another article, titled Social Media: Millenials’ Next Expected Skill Set, describes how social media tools are being integrated into college curricula, setting the stage for a new generation of graduates that understand how to leverage social tools for more than just keeping track of friends.

And finally, Malcolm Gladwell, author of the Tipping Point and other insightful books, writes in the New Yorker about social media’s capacity to truly drive social change:

 

Our acquaintances—not our friends—are our greatest source of new ideas and information. The Internet lets us exploit the power of these kinds of distant connections with marvellous efficiency. It’s terrific at the diffusion of innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, seamlessly matching up buyers and sellers, and the logistical functions of the dating world. But weak ties seldom lead to high-risk activism.

Gladwell makes a number of interesting observations about what social media tools do well—and not so well. Something to keep in mind when the hype begins to take over and you’re feeling anxious about being left behind.