The social media used to be your friend. No, it used to be
more like your cool aunt whom you visited every once in awhile, always had a
great time with, but could leave behind at any time to spend real, face-to-face
time with your peers and business partners.
Social media later became like your
obsessive (and slightly abusive) boy/girl friend who you were infatuated
with but never really made you feel that good about yourself or your
professional ventures. Sure, you would go through spurts of happy times, but
there were many unanswered messages and the pain of visiting was sometimes
greater than if you had just stayed away.
Today, social media is like an annoying younger brother. You
fight with it, but love it and know that it is necessary to nurture this
relationship because that it here to stay. The fights don’t have the same
volatility they once had and you are more or less amicable, but it sometimes follows
you places you don’t want it to go and gets way more attention than it
deserves.
So how do we reconcile, especially in terms of our
professional lives? The term “social media” blankets anything that is on the Internet
and promotes interaction. Nearly every time you consume information online,
there is a chance for you to book, link, tweet, pin or stumble it. This gets
overwhelming, and most definitely irritating. But the important thing to
remember is that what we choose what to do – or rather, how we choose to
organize – this influx of stimuli and interaction is at our discretion.
You don’t have to suffer your way through the feed on
Facebook, blowing through advertisements and updates on your co-workers’ new cat-shaped
lamp. You don’t have to spend hours trying to create a business plan for how to
manage the over-populated and essentially unhelpful ‘professional’ groups on
LinkedIn, because something else already exists. If they suit you well, indeed
maintain them, but understand that there is another way to branch out and
address your professional needs that are not being met.
The solution?
Utilize your safe social media sites that function as the
storage place for a massive amount of
data (and advertisement), but ALSO include specialized
platformsthat prioritize content and the quality of relationships in your
repertoire.
Newer platforms are certainly at an initial disadvantage
because their community is smaller. However, this may just be the point.
Specialized and open social platforms create an environment where the exchange of meaningful content is the
chief reason for connection. When content becomes key, you eliminate
connections based on social convenience or obligation and find a network of
people you can utilize for real collaboration. That’s right, you no longer have
to accept the request of your mom’s co-worker who finally jumped on the social
media bandwagon. You can make use of your professional/social platform, ‘guilt
free’ and without feeds flooded with other’s self-inflation. You get what you
need, filtered and to the point.
Speak for yourself, but in 2012, I want my professional
network and B2B relationships to grow. I want people in my own and parallel
businesses to know what I have to say without having my post followed by that
of my cousin’s ex-girlfriend.
Can we call this business maturity? Sure. But as long as organization,
productivity and creation of meaningful interaction last on these smaller and
specialized social media platforms, you can call it
whatever you like.
Author Info: Erin Nelson is the Communication &
Marketing Manager for the Berlin-based startup, exploreB2B. The new social
platform, exploreB2B, allows individuals the opportunity to connect and
collaborate with other professionals through reading and writing self-published
articles.