Social Media Top 5: Through Being Awesome, Content Quality & My Checkins Are Interesting

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One: OK, You’re Awesome- Now Get to Work

We hear a lot in the social media world about being “awesome.” some of the people who espouse this are great friends, others are simply well-known within our little industry. I’m all for building up our confidence with supportive epithets like this, I’m all for building up our own egos to the point that we are not afraid to do great work- but at some point we just need to show the work and stop speaking in bromides.

Maybe it’s just me– I’ve always had an aversion to the “self-empowerment” tropes, because. they tend to cross the line from helping people become self-assured into a tiresome Cult of Me. whatever happened to Being Awesome and not pushing other people to do it your way? Blah, I digress.

By the way, the word’s not just “awesome.” It can be anything, I’m just hearing that one a lot again right now.

OK, you’re awesome, I’m awesome- stop talking about it now and get to work and show your employers and clients that awesomeness.

Two: Levelator on video– simple media quality tasks

I am a big booster of “good enough” multimedia. By “good enough” I don’t mean “good enough to get by,” but “meeting a minimum technical requirement without taking your attention away from good content. People- and companies- have fallen hard for the “Flip cam” mentality of do-it-yourself style content. This make it easier to get things produced, but does not excuse poor content. What’s the floor? How about and audio podcast that is on a fascinating topic, with an interview of a fascinating person, but is unlistenable because the sound levels are all over the place? That helps noone– it just wastes everybody’s time, including the podcaster and interviewee.

That’s why I’m always happy to point to posts like this one by Christopher Penn, a step-by-step tutorial on using Levelator (I’m a huge fan) to improve audio in movies you edit with iMovie. It’s pretty simple, and can keep you from wasting your time and that of others.

Three: Someone Cares About Your Post– Don’t Listen to the Haters.

I have recently seen posts by people (I’m not even going to link because we all post silly one-off rants that may or may not represent our overall social media personae) looking down on what I call “mundane” checkins. For example, if you use Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Places to check in to your daily Starbucks visit, well, that’s just a waste of space and nobody’s interested (bevause, perhaps, there are no celebrities, natural or man-made disasters, or free schwag involved).

Wrong.

Noone should be telling you what is interesting or what is not when it comes to personal posting. I publish my checkins at the YMCA because people frequently comment on or like them, whether as inspiration to work out themselves, or to encourage me. Often I don’t even know, but appreciate it.

Brands certainly like it when you mention them. People near you may be interested, and the more context you add the better, but even the fact you are at a place or doing a certain thing is a signal to people you know. People who don’t care are wasting time asking you not to bother– they need to filter better.

We talk to our friends a lot, and some of the messages are subtle and passive. That’s OK. To the haters, well, ignore and move on — but don’t tell us what’s worthy– we, in turn, should ignore you. Yeah, I posted the following photo of my lunch to Twitter.