Social Faux .

I had to laugh when I read someone’s email signature the other day. It was about a paragraph long. Not only did he have the typical contact info — direct line, fax, email, URL — he had a host of links to his blogs, social media sites and instant messenger handles.

Am I the only one that thinks I’ve granted permission too much? Let me back up for a second. At least once weekly I get an email asking me to connect with someone in the business, a colleague, a recruiter, a salesperson — you name it I get an invite. While they say it’s good to be popular, give me a break already. How many “friends” or connections can one person truly have?

Don’t get me wrong, I am one of the biggest fans of social media. It amazes me how our culture has not only embraced it but become addicted to it. When is enough enough?

I had someone ask to be my “friend” on Facebook a while back. I didn’t know who the person was or how she knew me. She didn’t customize the invite to make it personal. It was the cookie cutter, “Seana please join me.” I didn’t respond, as I wanted to think of who this person was.

I had another incident where someone asked me to be their friend on Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo for business and LinkedIn all in the same couple of days. Was someone updating their database, perhaps?

There was a point in time that I felt weird ignoring a message or not opting in. Now I could care less. I know that probably seems off-putting — but if someone really wants to reach me, they’ll be able to reach me.

For instance, a childhood friend recently sent me an email reaching out. We’d lost touch about four years ago. While I think of her often, it was one of those things where time just flew by. I looked at the email in auto preview of Outlook while I was on my latop. I didn’t recognize the email addy. Then the subject line said her name and referenced looking for me. I’m so jaded in this business that I thought (for a moment) spammers were getting really creative. I’m thrilled to bits I opened it up and saw it was my long-lost but not forgotten friend. She told me where she’d found me. Take a guess. Of course, she Googled me. Let’s face it, when you write weekly and are in business for yourself, it’s pretty easy to be tracked.

Actually I was surprised that she’d found me via that route. I thought for sure she would have found me through Facebook or MySpace. After all, we went to school together.

Forrester just put out some intriguing info: We are predicted to be headed into a recession, ad budgets have been tightened, but marketers and advertisers say they are willing to spend more ad dollars on social media rather than traditional media. (Source: )

According to eMarketer, “Spending on social media sites will exceed $1.5 billion in 2008, up from $920 million last year and will not be solely focused on ads on sites like MySpace or Facebook.” (Source: )

So yet another reason to love social media — we probably won’t be out of jobs. Kidding aside, social media marketing is not just throwing up a page on MySpace, Facebook or any other social media site for that matter. You’ve seen some of the biggest U.S. agencies do that for their clients over the past year or so. These folks have patted themselves on the back for being trailblazers.

Newsflash: That is not trailblazing, that is ignorant. I could go on and on. However, the bottom line is, look at the ethnographics of such audiences. Consider their life styles and how they use technology. Watch and learn. Don’t just hop over the fence of a walled garden with a sign saying you have 500 friends.

By Seana Mulcahy
Courtesy of http://www.mediapost.com

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