The Cynical Girl: Social Media Saturday: Influence

---

Social Media Saturday: Influence Posted: 25 Jun 2011 03:45 AM PDT You may be wondering — I’m on Facebook and Twitter. I’m following a bunch of people. How do I know if they matter? Whether it’s social media or the real world, chances are that most people don’t matter. We all suck. None of us are important. We all fail at being interesting, decent, and influential at the times when it matters most. In short: we’re all normal. And you can’t follow someone ‘influential’ in social media and expect anything magical to happen because most of those accounts — for as authentic as they sound — are fabricated and managed by PR or marketing firms. I should know. I work as a social media strategist at a marketing firm. There are all kinds of tools to measure influence. Klout is one. Empire Avenue is another one. The truth is that social media is another form of advertising where you can also happen to stalk your ex-husband and check out his new girlfriend. It’s a weird, evolving, strange form of communication. Trying to determine influence is useless. If you want to follow someone, go for it. If you want to avoid famous celebrities on these sites, do it. Your social media accounts are still your own. For now. Exercise some individual thinking — before they just implant the chips in our brains and we’re connected 24/7.

You are subscribed to email updates from The Cynical Girl To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610