Social Media: The Bad and The Ugly

by Jason

October 12, 2009

In response to Patrick O’Keefe’s ManagingCommunities.com post on his BlogWorld Expo Panel “Social Media: The Bad and the Ugly”. My ugly social media is simply the knee jerk attack responses that I seem to see more and more of each day.

I try not to be negative at all online outside of customer service complaints. But especially when a more constructive response or the offering of a solution would be a better response.

I hope more people will decide to stay positive when reacting to individuals and companies that are making a strong effort to enter the social media space.

Patrick’s Blogworld Expo panel will include Patrick, Wayne Sutton, Amber Naslund, and Robert Scoble.

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katgritzmacher

Peace, love and understanding. That's how I roll...

On the other hand, sometimes people or organizations do need to be called out when their tactics are not ethical or defeat the community's objectives. That's part of what I think keeps people accountable with social media and the Internet...there should be some level of fear that if you do something stupid, you could get called out. Have respect. THINK before you publish...that's all.

-Kat
@katgritzmacher

Jason Keath

To an extent I think you are right. If something is absurd, then call it that. But keep out of making things personal. Keep out of straying from the constructive and concrete. Focus on improving, not tearing down.

bethharte

Amen Jason! Lauren Fernandez had a somewhat similar post (bit.ly/Q3Dyh) on community a few days ago. A new trend perhaps? Are people tiring of the lack of real community, self-promoting ladder climbing, and attacks?

Personally, I think the attacking all leads back to personal branding and it's just one more reason why I disagree with the notion of it. If someone is secure in who they are, their reputation, what they bring to the table, etc. they don't typically attack people or situations because they know how to bring sound, implementable, and constructive advice/criticism to the table.

It's the folks that don't have the actual experience but are trying to make a name for themselves (i.e. personal branding) that I see attacking and finger pointing.

You are 100% right...what good does it serve to attack companies trying to make their way into the social media waters? Besides most of the time, from what I've seen, the attacks are baseless because the company's audience is *their* customer (imagine that?!) and not the "social media guru."

We all need to up the anty and discuss the next level of social media and attacks aren't the way to get there.

Beth Harte
Community Manager, MarketingProfs
@bethharte

Jason Keath

Great thoughts here Beth. I had not dived into this personal branding side of the thought process, but I think you definitely have something here. I think the attacks are a bit of a crutch, an equalizer almost for people who think they need an edge to get noticed.