SocialMediaBust

After some long consideration, and after working on this book for 18 months, I've decided to shelve the project indefinitely. Starting writing projects, then stopping is not that atypical for me, and while I don't say I'll never do this book, I believe that it's a time sensitive topic. it will do no good at all to write a book about the social media bubble burst (in 2012) AFTER the fact.

The point of the book has always been to help businesses navigate what is certainly some of the most extreme hype and hope I've seen in the last 25 years. While social media isn't going anywhere, although individual companies are already starting to get sold, or just "wink out", its benefits are still largely undocumented beyond the success stories bandied about. The failures, which vastly outnumber successes, probably by a factor of at least nine to one, are never heard of, for obvious reasons.

My Reasons For Cancelling "Giving The Business To Social Media"

Sheesh. There's lots of reasons, both personal and business. I have a huge amount to say about social media and business and how the hype overshadows the reality and I have about 200 manuscript pages already done. A lot of the work is finished. However, here's some of the reasons I'm not going to release it as a book.

Personal Reasons:

First, and to be blunt about it, I've spent all the time on social media sites that I'm prepared to spend, and if I go ahead with the book, it will mean a) continuing to keep up with social media developments before publication, and b) then keeping up after. I can't imagine a worse punishment for anyone with three ounces of working gray matter than to HAVE to read social media content on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Twitter, in particular, seems to make even smart people sound incredibly stupid as they seem to revert to spouting either fortune cookie slogans, or otherwise partial truths. After all it's hard to capture any truth in 140 characters, and I've found only one or two people capable of being quotable on a consistent basis (Brogan, Goden, for example). However even those good at it are really passing on stuff that sounds profound, but almost always isn't.

Second, in terms of quality, clicking links posted on social media is a loser's game at this point. Links often go to articles that aren't representative of how they are portrayed, or blog posts that say exactly the same thing as the other 700 blog posts on the same topic, made the same day. I'm so often disappointed by both the quality and lack of accuracy of the landing pages, I can't be bothered any more. Look, the truth is, most people aren't that original, and most people aren't producing really innovative thoughts. I don't claim to either, but I sure like to find them, but I'm not on social media. It's all rehash of rehash of rehash.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not criticizing you if you spend time on social media connecting to your real world friends and family members, or even meeting some new people and forging relationships. I prefer to interact face to face with people, or through email, for reasons I'd have thought are pretty obvious -- just as I prefer sex with a real person IN person that...well, cyberwhatsis.

I happen to think Facebook is a very cool medium for connecting with friends. It's just not for me, but I have many colleagues who use it in very positive and PERSONAL ways.It's just not for me.

Bottom line. I find most conversations on social media too spammy, self-serving, dull, boring, superficial, and often misleading. I've never been a fan of watching average, regular folks talk about stuff they know little about. And, I simply don't find the brighter intellects that I want to learn from online. I find the wannabees, and successful marketers who appear to have things to say, until you a) think, and b) start asking them questions.

Business Reasons

Marketing issues, at least for writers, tend to plunk themselves down in front of you and glare, even before you have finished your book. I write about subjects for which I have passion (helping businesses navigate the social media propaganda is one), but I also write for READERS. At some point in a writing career, you realize that without people to read what you write, the whole writing exercise becomes way too "internalized" to be healthy or useful. If you cannot reach your market, and therefore convince people to read your book, then it fails on two levels. First you spent a lot of time communicating with nobody (golly that's alot like social media, actually), but second, you make no money.

Both are important to me, but the first, believe it or not is more important.

I've been running this blog and this site for long enough to come to the conclusion that it's unlikely I'll be able to use them to sell (both literally and figuratively) the book content to my target markets. The faithful members of the "Church of Social Media" simply aren'  interested in having their biblical wisdom questioned, and in any event, the this site doesn't have sufficient reach to make it work.

I'm not writing a book for 100 readers.

And, I'm  not interested in marketing the way the successful folks do who have written books on social media. Let's face it, even I could swing it, do I want to travel around going to social media conferences meeting the people I've loudly criticized? Why would I want to spend time with these folks? Or immerse myself in the social media/marketing world?

Well, I don't.

I suppose if a major publishing company said: "Robert, we've seen your posts and commentaries, and we'll lay a $50k advance on  you for this book", I'd probably go for it. Or, if I had a website that attracted a couple million social media business people interested in the full picture (not the empty cheerleading that passes for knowledge these days), I might even bite.

But, no. Neither of those is the case.

More interesting projects are on my calendar, and in fact, I figure I have enough books I want to write to keep me writing for at least the next ten years. I just released If It Wasn't For The Customers, I'd Really Like This Job, and it's the first in a series of books I'll be doing. I have a second edition rewrite of Performance Management - A Briefcase Book, due for McGraw-Hill, and then I'm going to work on a project, quite different in scope and style, that I've wanted to do for a good six years.

There are so many topics where I have a passion, and I don't feel like I have to talk a shower after interacting with people also involved in the topic (as is the case with interacting with social media zealots).

Regrets? You Bet

Ah, well, you don't write 200 pages of a book, then basically toss it, without regrets. It's a bit like a broken romance, but as with romance, there's a time to walk away. I feel we (and I mean all of us using social media) need reputable, unbiased truth hunting people to look beyond the superficial claims, the bogus research, the ignoring of information that doesn't "fit the bias", and so on, and I think business, in particular is going to find out rather unpleasantly, that social media is not a boon, but is just an additional "responsibility" to take on -- one that generates no return on investment.

It may take a long time for some business to realize this, and I was hoping to spare some pain. Then again, there are hundreds of businesses each day abandoning their social media initiatives, so they have discovered, sometimes through costly experience, that much of it's about hype. Still, I feel bad for the companies, and employees who WILL fall over the next two years in the social media sphere. It will happen, and it's already starting (i.e. check out how Twitter's new "rules" for developers" are going to affect employment and multiply that by 100x).

Finally, there's the ego thing. I was really looking forward to the eventuality of saying "I told you so", when the social media bubble bursts, venture capitalists bail, companies are absorbed and closed down, and, sadly, more people lose jobs and revenue. I'd like people to say: "Hey, that Robert Bacal predicted this crash back two years ago", but hey, who am I kidding?

I'm not interested or willing to do the things to reach that level of celebrity and I wouldn't like it even if I "got there".

Finally, I'm unsure what I'll do with this blog and this site. The original idea was to integrate it with the book, and I'm loathe to put a lot of extra effort into a blog on social media. I'm not sure we need 17 million blogs on social media, and I'm pretty sure, I'm not that interested. But yet, just a little interested. We'll see. Mind you, I have a number of other websites for which I DO have a passion, and also need my attention, on subjects like management, customer service, small business and conflict management.

The content of the book is, in my view, outstanding, and it's a shame not to release it in some form, probably pieces of it as I did with 

Giving The Business to Social Media Research (Kindle). Then again, nobody got to read that, so again, do I want to spend even minimal time creating content nobody will read? Nah. Over 92% of tweets create no response in anyone. I'd hate to work ever so much harder on content and have nobody read it.

PS. I should add that there are people garnering readers for their books on social media. If you want to do what's required to do that, and you love it, more power to ya. I hope you add something besides the rehashes. For me, I don't think I can make it work so enough people will benefit from what I think I have to say. My flaws. Nobody else's.

PPS. I haven't found anyone yet writing what I was writing, but there's some really good thinkers -- not a lot -- who are holding up some mirrors to the social media world. Jaron Lanier, for example. A few others who's names escape me. Go ye forth and look for perspectives that DISAGREE with your beliefs, and you will probably finally understand social media. Sadly, you won't be reading me.