SocialMediaBust

Paul Sutton wrote an interesting blog which references me (I think) related to negativity online, consquences and such things, which brings up some issues of interest, so I thought I'd respond here and on his blog. The response below appears to be too large to include on his site in one chunk. Is All Fair In Love and Social Media

Great article, Paul, and I like the comments. I'm presuming Paul is talking about me here, which is fine. There's so much here to discuss, so I'll try to present some short related ideas and comments.

1) We really can't have a conversation about "negativity" in any intelligent way without defining it operationally -- what specific behaviors and phrases are exemplars of bad negativity and what are examplars of useful criticism.

2)My use of social media platforms to criticize both the platforms and the people using them is not odd at all. As Jaron Lanier says "Criticism of the digital world should not be left to Luddites". (You Are Not A Gadget) I don't like spending much time on telephones but it doesn't stop my friend and I from criticizing their weaker points on the phone. Likewise, I don't like the pollution from autos, but we still have critical discussions of same as we drive down the highway in a vehicle.

3) When I use the word ignorant, I understand why people don't like it, but it simply means not knowing. We are all ignorant about many things. No biggie. I think we should face that. All of us.

4) Who is potentially more valuable, the person who retweets the same quotes about social media or customer service or e-learning and says exactly, often word for word, what others say, or someone who says: "Whoa up. We need to think here". I'm the latter. No problem if you want the former, since God made so many of them on social media.

5) When social media fanatics tell "us" (businesses) what we HAVE to do, that's arrogance. My view, that's the best word. Worse this stuff comes from people with minimal track records in anything, particularly running businesses.

6) Can anyone say what they want? Sure, provided they are willing to take the consequences. Unfortunately, there is no useful self-regulation for many contexts, and since anonymity exists and one can be whoever one wants to be, there's room for much damage. I'm in favor of accountability, which is why I don't make anonymous comments, and I'm easy to find. I pay a price, no doubt both personally and financially.

Anyway Paul, that's a start for more convo. If I can add, those interested in seeing the errr..."negativity" can do so WITHIN CONTEXT and I believe that's important at:

http://socialmediabust.com
http://customerservicezone.com/wp/
http://thetrainingzone.com/wp/

PS. This will probably sound defensive, but what the heck. The reason context is important is that the "negativity" that Paul talks about is such a small part of my body of work and contributions over the last 20 years, so it's important to have that context to understand me as a person, and what I do. I only add this because several tweeters have commented about what MY contributions are. One only has to look and read.