You’re doing it wrong!
Social Media experts are quick to tell an outsider or newbie they’re using “our” tools wrong or in ways that are “clearly dumb.” And I would totally put myself into this group, I have defiantly laughed at poor execution and scoffed at those that didn’t get it. Was I right to do so? Perhaps not.
Using thing incorrectly has led to some of the most fun I’ve ever had and perhaps there’s a lesson in that. We experts continue to tout only our one way of doing things, we’ve given rules to Twitter; be clear, don’t spam and be authentic, but is that right? Who set those rules? I don’t know. I’ve enjoyed Fake Steve Jobs and Darth Vader more than I have reading Tweets from friends. Don’t be too corporate. Really? I think Dell offering discounts to followers is pretty cool. So what about our rules? Maybe we’ve been totally wrong. I think kayaks may teach a good lesson about rules.
Kayaks are by far more fun when rolled over and used for chicken fights.
It feels like forever ago but during a summer in my teen years, when my father was going through a huge kayaking phase of boatmanship, he rented us two large green kayaks for a week. They were open bow; the kind you use to surf waves or haul tourists around tropic bays. So for Elliot and I, as well as Louie and Martin our friends from Montreal; four boys that would rather teach each other curses in our respective languages and quote bad jokes, kayaking just wasn’t all that fun. But, after an hour or so of ramming each other (that’s the reason for the life jackets, the bow of a kayak hitting you isn’t the most pleasurable on bare skin), we somehow decided that rolling them over and standing on them was way more fun. It was!!! We spent HOURS trying to stand and shove each other off of the boats.
Perhaps there is a lesson there for us experts. I laughed at my mother’s first tweet (“Is this the box to send to everyone?“) and originally thought that Shaq’s involvement was novel and a joke, but watching how well he has leveraged his audience and entertain us, I know I was totally wrong.
I think we haven’t even begun to see all the possibilities of how Twitter can be leveraged or reach people. I do know that the “novels on Twitter” experiments HAVE to stop, THAT is annoying, but I would totally encourage other experimentation. I think it’s all going to boil down to if you believe in what you’re doing and approach it with creativity, the kind that made even boring green kayaks fun.
Mom, there’s hope…
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