Sometimes Social Means Shut Up

We’re all witnessing it. With so many mediums at their disposal, we’re witness to the noisy and unnecessary rambling of companies, entrepreneurs, and people across Facebook, Twitter, and in corporate blogs. It’s so noisy.

It’s always been an issue with email marketing… marketers are expected to put out an email each week by their bosses. As a result, they do. And it sucks. And rather than converting, a potential prospect unsubscribes.

Email marketing takes more effort than throwing a status update out on your favorite social media site, though. These new mediums have provided much more opportunity for companies to talk… and boy do they. I spend more time these days unfollowing, unsubscribing, and blocking than I’ve ever done in the past.

An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind. Walter Bagehot

One of my friends (sorry – I can’t remember which!) came up with a great idea… Twitter should have a Pause button. That’s right folks, we need Twivo so we can skip the crap tweets and get to the ones that really matter. We’re not unfollowing or blocking… but we’re letting the person know that they’re simply talking too much. Got a friend livetweeting his D&D meetup? Pause!

I’m not just pointing the finger at others! In recent weeks my status updates have been few and far between – I’ve been working 20 hours a day just to keep up with some huge opportunities that have been given to me. What I’ve noticed is that I have more followers and fans now than I did when I was yapping all day.

Besides the times when there is nothing to say, there are also times when you should say nothing. I’m guilty of this one, too. Sometimes I can’t resist the opportunity to throw a sarcastic bomb out there when things go awry… and it’s made me look like an ass to some. As Erik Deckers so aptly put it, Image is Everything, Twitter is Forever.

The noise out there is getting louder and louder folks. Unless you’re saying something of substance, your voice becomes a numbing buzz in the background that everyone stops listening to. Social doesn’t mean that you have to always be talking; in fact, social is probably more about listening than anything else. Give your voice a rest and see what happens.