Social Media Isn't Rocket Science

So I was talking to my grandma about what I do as a community director at ERE. Now I know some of you have technology savvy grandparents but mine isn’t one of them. So I was explaining our website, different technology platforms, who we targeted, what I specifically did and I think she was more confused than ever.

So I dropped the rhetoric.

I dropped the buzzwords.

I dropped the technology.

I told her what I did. I talk with our customers, I figure out what they want and I try to deliver that to them every single day. Sometimes a person is looking for a piece of information. Another time a person is looking to connect with someone. Other times, a person is trying to figure out their own message.

Now you break it down to technology or specific actions and sure, you can get pretty complicated. You want to go all blogtwitterfacebookspacelinkedin on a newbie, they aren’t going to like that. But here is what I do know:

What I actually do will be slow to change whereas the tools and techniques I use will change constantly.

The technology I use a year from now could be totally different. But assuming I am still community director, what I do won’t change that much.

I hate that we complicate social media. I hate that some people have skin in the game to make social media more difficult than necessary to sell their wares.

When I was at the Social Media Plus conference, some audience member asked when was the best time to post a tweet on Twitter in order for it to be retweeted a lot and the speaker gave some absurdly specific answer. I wanted to slap them both around a little. Screw the perfect time to tweet. The ways we talk about of gaming the system, gaining new followers and building a brand run counter to building solid, real relationships with people. And that’s who is on the other side of this technology. People.

So instead of talking about what technology you are using this week, talk about what you’re doing with it. I build relationships, I communicate, I share interesting content and I promote what ERE and I are doing. What do you do?

Oh, and thanks grandma!