Are You Using Social Media to Talk to Yourself?
Of all the people you follow on Twitter what percentage have interests or values different than your own?
A recent visit to our campus by journalist Chantal Hébert and her lecture “Missing the Forest for the Trees: A Look at the State of Political Coverage in the Social Media Era” had me thinking about how I use these tools.
For those unfamiliar with Hébert, she is best know for her work as a weekly participant on the political panel At Issue on the CBC’s The National (in Canada The National is like … if it was food you’d spread it on toast and have it sustain you for life. It’s a big deal here).
She is also a national affairs writer with the Toronto Star, a guest columnist for Le Devoir and L’Actualité, and has been covering the major moments of Canadian politics since I was old enough to have a driver’s license.
One of the key messages of her lecture was that – in her experience – social media tends to narrow people’s perspective, not widen it.
Black Swans and Ground Hogs: Communication, Not Prediction
Happy Groundhog Day, WUL readers!
If you are anything like me, you’re a big fan of the once famous Bill Murray movie surrounding one of the littlest celebrated holidays in American culture.
It’s a day when a small number of people in Pennsylvania wait to see whether or not a rodent of the family Sciuriade “thinks”certain meteorological conditions will persist for six weeks or if inhabitants of the northeast US will be able to break out their flip flops a little early.
This annual ritual, if taken seriously, leaves a slew of questions for any hard-nosed reporter who can’t take a joke:
- For starters, how do we know if Punxsutawney Phil is afraid of his shadow or something else?
- Have scientists developed some unusual way of communicating with groundhogs or translating their grunts or gibbering into language as we know it today?
- And who exactly are the top hat-donning handlers, known as the Inner Circle, who take care of Phil?
Why Customers Are Generalizing Your Business
It’s not a good idea to search for a doctor online.
I told my mother that when she asked me to. She agreed. And I began my search.
After three days, I handed over a grand total of two name-and-number pairs. “They had good ratings,” I said, somewhat helplessly. My mother nodded at the strange syllables and locations.
And she still hasn’t called them.
This is what is happening to most of your visitors, buth online and offline.
They discover your name, your shop, or your number somehow. They note your information. And they leave, never to return. Yes, even if you have “good ratings.”
You see, you have this vague idea that you want to be known as “fast,” “smart,” “caring,” or “cutting-edge.” I know because you put it on your business card. Plenty of your customers say you are, too.
