Mashing Mashable
Written by Robert Bacal | 
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| The Never Ending Social Media Interview - Credibility and Trust |
Q: What's your opinion on Mashable.com as a reputable trustworthy source for information about social media?
A: I'd give it a massive failing grade. I'd expect a site that is so popular to show more ability to avoid publishing material that is wrong, misleading, false, or otherwise contains information that is not accurate. In my view a site with as much influence needs to show extra care and have extra integrity and controls in place. I don't see that.
Q: Do you feel a lot of their material is incorrect?
A: Almost every time I get suckered into going to mashable, I end up getting annoyed at the inaccuracies. For example, There's a headline for an article (actually a promo that goes to a CNN article) that says: How Dana White Built a UFC Empire with Social Media. Now, I don't want to give away too many secrets here, particularly those that any serious follower of the UFC knows anyway), but Twitter has had nothing to do with the growth of the UFC empire, which, in fact, predates active participation on it. UFC made it for a lot of reasons, none of which having to do with Twitter.
Not only is this the case, but anyone with half a brain could figure this out. Fighters need to get found on Twitter to have any effect via Twitter. FIRST, the fighters needed to become names so that people know to follow them. First comes the status, then Twitter can work.
Q: So you are seeing a lot of what you think is overstatements?
A: Yes. Mashable is not credible in my eyes on anything. When I view 10-15 posts on a site, and can find errors, mistakes, logic problems, or opinions passed on as fact in about 3/4 of them, how can I trust them? I can't. I go there for a laugh and to find more things to write about. But never ever for the realities of social media.
Q: Why do you think this is happening?
A: In the book that I'm working on, I try to explain that there are a number of reasons why hype and hope have converged at the social media door and how they've overcome rational analysis, particularly in the media, and double particularly when social media platforms are used to learn about social media. Sites like mashable exist because of social media. Is it that surprising that they want to hear positive things, and they want to report positive things? Or more exactly, they live inside the bubble of social media and as a fish in water, it's impossible for them to understand what "water" really is.
I'd be willing to bet that almost all of their contributors try to make a living from social media, or want to eventually. That's bias. And it's out of control
I think I may start a mashable watch section here, and post a daily Mashed Mashable message picking one wrong post each day. I figure I'll never run out of material.
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Scoundrel
MicroThoughts
You can tell your "social media expert" is a scoundrel or utterly ignorant if they use the phrase "They just don't get social media". The truth is that the expert doesn't get social media, or how human beings work and is unable to come up with anything better to refute arguments or disagreements about social media.
Mashable no-no
In response to a Mashable article about how Starbucks supposedly used social media to bring one million people into their stores in a day:
This is just terrible "journalism". First, the giveaways brought the people in. Second, we have no idea how many people came for the freebies hearing on it from Twitter or not. Third, They could have pulled people into their stores with this promotion in any of a number of ways. This is not a social media success, anymore than having sandwich board guys outside of each store would constitute a success for loitering.
Learn From Competition?
Some believe you should monitor and emulate your competition on social media. Here's a thought:
If you look at your competitors, will you end up looking like your competitors? The ongoing issue in any marketing or even in developing a network is how to standout FROM the competition, and not to BE like the competition.
Social Media Frauds
You know someone isn't worth following if they retweet compliments given to them by others. They are either frauds who are better at self-promotion than they are in their alleged area of expertise, or they are so insecure that they have to -- just have to, make sure that everyone knows how wonderful other people think they are. Hint: Run away. These folks are like empty drums. Bang on the outside and you get a cool sound. Empty inside -- nothing to offer.
Immersion
You cannot fully understand social media solely by being immersed in it. In fact, one reason why there is so much bad information about social media is that most of it comes from immersed people. The full picture is only available to people who can DISTANCE themselves emotionally and intellectually and see social media from the outside -- as most human beings view it.
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