Social climbing.
January 13, 2015
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.