Okay...I'm slightly bent, having just spent the past week on a well deserved vacation. A vacation that coincided with SXSW, unfortunately, for me. Unfortunate because I made the mistake of keeping my phone with me at all times and heard nothing but the constant notification of both Twitter feeds and Facebook updates and a lot of straight text messages--all a mind-numbing string of endless quips of 'brilliance' from the conference. Now I know the folks there were excited and inspired but passing along short, mostly incomprehensible, out-of-context snippets was both confusing and a huge waste of my time, trying to keep up with sorting through essential messages and all of those ramblings. It was excruciating.
The worst part became apparent as I read one particularly long set of text messages--34 in one string--stuff like "great post","match digital spend to traditional spend", "Ha, that was funny", and on and on. Then another long group of folks 'checking in' at every restaurant, party, and concert.... Whew, exhausting.
So here's my takeaway. All this stuff is good. It ALWAYS BEGINS GOOD. But it's misuse that turns it bad. Like when advertisers discovered 'MySpaceInvasions'. Or 'Flickrtising'. And now it's 'Boresquare'--the hot new rage where I get a notice every time someone checks into their bathroom. Enough, please.
I just wish folks would stop and consider what effect they're having by over-socializing. It become gray matter--noise--adds to the clutter we tell clients to avoid. Look, again, it's all good stuff--it's just abuse by a few that ruins it for most. You know that one person on your Facebook that posts every 5 minutes--literally! Or the FourSquare addict that spends their day checking into every place but work, or so it seems. On and on...
My advice: Remember, you post because you assume/believe you have an audience that wants to read and keep in touch. But too much of any good thing becomes a very bad thing--so post wisely. And less often, please. And never take vacation when SXSW is going on. Or leave your phone at home.
Okay, time to check into my kitchen again for another cup of coffee.
Stephen
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