Social climbing.

By Gonzalo López Martí – LMMIAMI.COM

-Hi, I’m here to interview for the brand manager job.
-Welcome, take a seat. So…. How many followers do you have on Twitter?
-Errr… I’m not on Twitter.
-Facebook friends?
-Err… 31
-Instagram?
-….
-Tumblr?
-…. I’m not really into social media…
-So you want a job as brand manager at a packaged goods company in 2015 and “you’re not into social media”. What are you into then, if I may ask? Office politics?
-Yes! That and PowerPoint!

To the best of my knowledge, this imaginary job interview has never taken place.
Yet.

• It will, though.
• Sooner rather than later.
• So you don’t do social media?
• Do you have something to hide?
• Have you nothing interesting to say?
• Are your life & career hopelessly boring?
• Pardon the rhetorical questions but this is exactly how an awful lot of people is going to react if you are not active on Twitbook & Linkedgram.
• Whether you like it or not.
• Your social media traction & footprint will be the ultimate personal & professional litmus tests.
• I ain’t saying it’s fair.
• I ain’t saying it’s right.
• I’m just saying it will happen.
• The folks at Linkedin have seen this coming.
• Hence their annoyingly addictive “endorse” feature.
• They have barely scratched the surface though.
• The “endorse” functionality is limited to peers you know IRL (in real life).
• We ain’t seen nothing yet.
• Sure, as a marketing or brand manager you’ll have socmed specialists working for you.
• I mean, granted: you can be a great soccer player and a horrible soccer coach.
• Or vice versa.
• However, if you work in marketing or advertising, you are supposed to be someone who has something to say for yourself, sans ghostwriters.
• Even if you have nothing interesting to say, you’re supposed to be able to say things interestingly.
• Whether we like it or not, social media is the ultimate arbiter of “interestingness” these days.
• The age of social empowerment can expose your limitations.
• Ten years ago, all I needed to do to keep my job as an advertising creative was: please my boss, please my client, please one or two focus groups, repeat.
• Piece of cake.
• A walk in the park.
• I did it in my sleep (sometimes literally in my sleep).
• Moreover, during my college years, all I had to do to advance was ingratiate myself with one (just one) professor at a time.
• Maybe two.
• Today, your professional chops are put to the test at every turn on the wide open social world.
• You are only as good as your last tweet.
• Particularly so on the agency side.
• Would you hire a copywriter or strategic planner who’s accumulated all of 40 followers on Twitter?
• Would you hire a photographer who only had 40 followers on Instagram?
• An Art Director or designer with just 40 followers on Instagram/Tumblr?
• Whose judgment should we trust: the biased taste of a few individuals in positions of power or the voice of the social masses?
• You wanted democracy, didn’t you?
• Here’s democracy: Katie Perry & Justin Bieber have more followers on Twitter than the pope.
• Ten times more.
• I’m not saying KP or JB are more influential than the pope.
• The jury is out on that one.
• But it certainly is a reality that should make us think.
• There are porn stars with more social media traction than Nobel laureates and eminent scientists.
• So you wanted an egalitarian, open society with flattened hierarchies?
• Brace yourself.
• It’s here.
• Be careful what you wish for.