Robert Scoble Doesn’t Have Eleventy Billion Friends.
Nothing against Robert (Bob? Bobby? Scobie? Scoobie? Scoobie-Doo?) – but c’mon. Okay – he’s got tons of Web world street cred and made a lot of moola. He’s probably a great (real-world) friend to have and good to his Mother.
But, seriously.
The whole social media/friend/social networking thang is getting silly. I have a hard enough time keeping up with my measly, motley little group of 37 in FaceBook – and some of those have sorta snuck in. I’ve never actually met them, emailed or even “F’booked” ‘em, but they were friends of good friends.
Then FaceBook prompts me that I could become a friend with Scoble…Okay, I’m truly good friends (I’d take a bullet for him) with someone who’s real-world, “actually visit in person, have dinner with the wives” friends with Doc Searls who knows – well, pretty much anybody worth knowing in Web World , including Scoble. But, No. I’m not sending a note/friend “invite” to Scoble, or for that matter, Doc Searls (FaceBook has also prompted me about him). That’s just tacky. I’ve not met either of them or even been introduced electronically via a (real) mutual friend. So, it’ d be like me showing up at their front door on a Sunday, with kids in tow and shrimp to throw on the barbie. (“No, no, Bob – not little Mary Jr. – the shrimp! the shrimp!”)
So, the social media buzzy-buzz still comes down to: Who do you really know? And, how sincere are you in the connections?
There’s no shortcut to real relationships – online or virtual. I think “social media” is great – but the fundamentals haven’t changed. You gotta be real…and if you’re selling something, it’d better be good.
Related Post: (More and More) Social Media Snake Oil
Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, communications, social media, social marketing, Facebook
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My gut reaction to this is that it’s spam. I normally like your posts, but this really comes off as keyword bait. The number of friends, social or non, Mr. Scoble has is really totally irrelevant to the article. I feel mislead by the title. You know a person who knows a person who’s friends with him. Facebook’s logic wants more people to have more friends so they try to hook you up with him. Not exactly worthy of a blog post. I wouldn’t say it’s quite like showing up at his door either. Social media is just a ~tiny bit~ less formal than real life. (Sorry for the rant, but I feel like I wasted my time reading this post, and replying to it, just so you could, maybe, show up in searches for other people.)
Well, technically a blog post on someone’s own blog can’t be spam. And, I can’t make everyone happy – if I tried this would be a really boring blog and waste everyone’s time, including mine.
The issue I have with social media/networking is that it creates unrealistic expectations and faux friendships. And, many people (including many of my clients) have no idea who Scoble is (much less care) and they’re perplexed by the whole web/social media thing – and are thus feeling overwhelmed. What good does it do them to be “friends” with thousands? How does this help them in life and business? How do they make real connections? How do they find time to keep up with all the various friend invites and groups? (Answer: You can’t, at least not well.)
Personally, I really don’t like it when people show up at my electronic door wanting to be friends with no introduction and no previous contact at all. So, yes, it’s more informal but that doesn’t mean it has to be rude and presumptous.
…and Facebook isn’t trying to hook people up out of the goodness of their hearts either. It’s a cold, hard commercial effort.
Note that if I really wanted to “show up in searches” I would have also tagged for Scoble, Searls and a ton of other names and terms. I would have also embedded more links and posted the link to the blog post in Facebook and run around social media sites promoting the post (which is the sort of thing the social media snake oilers recommend to “build traffic.”) AND, I would have emailed 20 or so people and asked them to comment on the post (something else, social media “experts” often recommend.) I didn’t do any of that.
So, sure, feel free to rant – and a difference of opinion and perspective is healthy.
P.S. What you may not know – Scoble was banned by Facebook for a bit because it looked like he was scraping data (when he was, in fact, pulling his own friend data, and while there may not be eleventy billion there’s thousands and thousands. I’d link to his post about this, but don’t want you to get more upset…;-)
Linked In is a little more polite. They put up a list of people you might know and ask if you’re interested in connecting. I’ve actually found some long lost acquaintances that way.
But some folks are just perplexed by proper etiquette with this new media. Kind of like the endless forwarding emails I get from kindly relatives…..
p.s. don’t feed the trolls
Ah, Dad. Can’t I at least play with them?
He followed me home…
And, yes, Linked In can be helpful. I’ve had people find me from years ago!
Thanks for the reply Mary. I understand your points, and maybe I was a bit too harsh. There’s nothing wrong with writing a blog post that you hope shows up in search engines. (not that you were) That’s pretty much what I hope happens with all of my blog posts.
That’s interesting about Scoble being banned from Facebook. Like I said, I’ve subscribed to your blog for quite a while and most of your other posts have been very informative. I guess this one just wasn’t for me.
Well, I’ve got another coming soon about building a bare bones web site in WordPress which should be more up your alley!
Happy Friday!
(P.S. Doc Searls linked to this post…so you never know who’s out there! However, I still wont’ be showing up at Doc’s door on a Sunday afternoon.
Here’s my rule. You can’t be my friend in Facebook or other social media unless I’m likely to have a beer with you. You must be a co-worker, friend, or someone I’ve met in either the virtual world or in the real world. I will not friend you because you’re a friend of someone who is my friend. I’m not into six degrees of separation. There must be some relationship.
Charlize Theron and Reese Witherspoon are the exceptions that prove the rule:-)