Stop Shouting At Me!

Someone recently friended me on Digg, and has been shouting at me ever since. I didn't know the guy, but I thought, "Hey, why not? I'll friend him...he seems to have dug some similar stuff as me." Next thing I know, the guy has made it his life's mission to shout me to death. He's passed along wonderfully insightful comments such as, "Very Impressed by these" and "Very Unique Art Work." Perhaps the best part is that he friended me twice with two separate profiles...twice the spam? Awesome. That guy got blocked within days. Classic. Social media is a new generation of advertising and marketing, designed to enable conversations and build meaningful community. What we have here is an individual who is using new media, in an old way. The old way: Want someone's attention? Shove it down their throat. The new way: Want someone's attention? Earn their trust through meaningful participation. Anyhow, I just found that to be a good example of the confusion of digital marketing and reminded me a bit of that cell phone analogy I mentioned the other day. The shift from the "old" way of marketing to the "new" way is not like the shift from radio ads to TV ads--same idea just a different medium. Social media is built on an entirely different foundation and we can no longer operate within the same guidelines. I'm thinking about creating a support group for those who have suffered at the ignorant hands of social media spammers, would anyone be interested? I invite you to release your baggage and find healing...