Social media or the power of numbers

by Roger

Does this sound familiar?

Christmas dinner. 

A time where friends and family gather ’round a Christmas tree and stuff themselves with lots of food.  For some of them it has been a year since last time they’ve seen each other so there’s a lot of talking going on. 

At one time or another the question pops up: “What are you doing right now?”.  I explain (again) where I work and what I do (basically sell theater tickets and try not to screw up) and if they’re smart, they shut up and don’t ask any further.  But there’s always one smart ass uncle around the table, he’s the one that always has some controversial opinion about something political just for the hell of it. 

So I tell about social media and get a lot of confusing faces, it’s like teaching algebra to toddlers… it just doesn’t work.

Everything I throw at them, they don’t understand it.  They give me answers we all have heard a million times over and true or not… you can’t argue because there’s some truth in them.

Yes, you’re never sure if the person you’re talking to is exactly who he says he is.
Yes, a relationship in real life has a better chance of being a profound and meaningful relationship.
Yes, bodylanguage and tone of voice are very important in conversations.

Yes, yes, yes,…

Just before I decide to give up I throw the argument of numbers at them and they shut up.

There’s not really anything to counter that right?  If Social Media Guru X can reach about 50k people with just one tweet.  How can you deny that?  You can’t.  Social media is a numbers game.  You don’t have to befriend everyone at Facebook or add Tweeters and hope they follow you back.  It means that social media people have the tools, the possibilities and the knowledge to handle more connections than anyone in real life.  Is the relationship meaningful?  I don’t know, but does it has to be?  Does every connection have to be your friend?  Social media people are in the ‘we share’ business.  They don’t care if it’s someone they hardly know that asks something.  They’re just glad they could help.  And isn’t that meaningfull enough?

Now light a fire, pick up a bag of marshmellows and sing kumbaya! :)Tom is a marketing & communications manager at Kursaal Oostende in Ostend (Belgium). He writes about marketing, management and social media on Who’s Reading Anyway? and about customer relations on Who’s Listening Anyway?.

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