Facebook: Love / Hate Relationship

Lately I have been feeling a bit annoyed with my Facebook friends. Unlike some other users, it has nothing to do with the systems itself -shit it’s free, who can complain right? It’s my own social cloud that is getting on my nerves.

First, their status updates seem like tag lines to soap operas.

The girls claim “Where would I be without him”, “I am your princess, you are my prince.” Who wants to read that?

Married couples hot tag lines are “Spent a great day with the baby, only two spit ups!”. What? Is that REALLY the most interesting piece of information in your life?

Then of course it always the unoriginal Monday and Tuesday updates, who just rotate “UGh it’s Monday!” and “Ya! It’s Friday!”. Makes me wonder if they have a career or still work hourly at Burger King.

Of course there are the several really cool things Facebook has brought my life. I’ve moved around quite a bit over the past 10 or so years, loosing a few good friends. Waking up this morning, Facebook left me a little love note in my email, stating yet another old friend found me. This time, it was one I wonder if died off and I missed the funeral.

So for every group of crappy, I really don’t know that person request (and some are darn persistent with their requests…like LEAVE me alone!), I find one golden friend from the past.

Thanks Facebook…I love you but damn you are annoying sometimes!

Veracious Moments

It’s the end of seven long days, to which several repeating moments helped concrete several truths I know:

1) Facebook is the friends you used to know, Twitter are for those you want to know better.
Repeating a Tweet, I find this to be very true. In the course of one week, I have been bothered by 10 friend requests on Facebook. It is an interruption since not one of these people actually “know me”. They are either friends of friends, or attended the same college, neither of which I constitute as substantial evidence to argue friend status. Twitter does allow me to stretch a hand out to those I don’t know but wish to suck their knowledge from.

2) Texting is NOT a conversation.
Email can be a great way to contact a potential client or prospect, but you will never be able to close the sale via email. You have to actually open your big fat mouth and SPEAK to the person, that is the only way to close the sale. Same with texting. There are people who understand texting is for quick drops of information, not full fledged conversations. The following is the lamest way to coax a conversation:
Text: how are you? Working from home?
Reply: Fine.
Text: What have you been up to? Hows work?
Reply: Great.
Text: Share some of the great?
*Phone turned off*
If I don’t reply to your text, it means the “conversation” is done. Get the hint.

3) Content is one thing, but connection is the key.
I will agree the outspoken self-declaration of cable repair men becoming SEO / social media experts over night, is getting old. There is a trend to which people are selling “knowledge” without any tangible service connected. You can go about anywhere and hear stories of companies paying thousands for SEO consultants to “tell” them what to do, but no doing with it. So, if SEO/SEM is bullshit, then your content is magically indexed right? Um, NO.

You can can create content all fucking day, night, week…but if you don’t use social media networks, (Twitter, cross-blogging, Digg, Stumble Upon, cross link, etc) your site will never really exists. So while “knowledge” workers may be a fading trend, there is an opportunity for real “workers” to put their thumb to the key board and do the grinding work for companies. I mean, how many CEO’s have time to spend all fucking day Twittering and run a company? (Besides social media CEO’s…hello…). There needs to be a balance, and those who offer a balance, can provide valuable service.