What Went Wrong With Twitter + How to Get the Magic Back

I’ve been reflecting a lot of late on how we’ve really lost our way on social. The worst part of it is that I don’t really have an answer on how to course correct, but I do know that what most people are doing today isn’t very social.

Last weekend, I didn’t make a video or write an article here because we were in Ireland, and while we were traveling something amazing happened that reminded me of why I fell in love with the social web in the first place. It inspired this week’s video:

I don’t mean to be all ‘inside baseball’ here, but there have been many mistakes made by many players along the way that landed us in this position.

Social platforms made mistakes by designing features that encouraged competition rather than conversation (I cover this in the video).

Brands made mistakes by jumping in and treating social like it is another advertising medium (I've covered this in previous videos).

Agencies made mistakes by letting brands dictate what they wanted to do with social.

And people made mistakes by focusing on the numbers and portraying unrealistic lives.

All of the mistakes are quite human, really. Competition encourages activity (which the platforms want), defaulting to the devil we know is much easier (which brands have done), the fear of loss makes us do things that we aren’t always proud of (the tenuous position agencies are in today), and we are all afraid of being judged (which drives us to paint a nicer picture of our lives).

That being said, there are many benefits of social - for brands or individuals - that are being lost in the shuffle towards turning the platforms into a race. Here are just a few real benefits for brands:

1. social creates a direct connection with your customer that was previously only achieved when they walked into your place of business.
2. social gives you the opportunity to understand your customer as a whole person, not just as a transaction.
3. social allows you to build a deeper relationship with your customers, not like besties, but like associates. Having any relationship or connection with a brand - whether it’s through a person who works for the brand or through positive experiences with the brand - goes a long way to building word of mouth.

SIDE NOTE: (I'm still exploring the question - can brands be truly social? - through research and interviews right now as I know it's a big, hairy question! Stay tuned...it's taking more digging than I initially expected)

And the benefits for individuals:

1. social helps us find our tribes - people with common interests and goals - where we used to feel alone.
2. social helps us grow - we learn more about the world and ourselves as we expand our networks.
3. social connects us and human beings need connections.

For me, social has helped build the kind of relationships that leads to all sorts of opportunities, personal and professional. I have followers BECAUSE I’m social (and have been for quite some time). Is social the silver bullet? No. I don't think so. Is it important? Yes, absolutely.

I hope the video resonates with you. I don’t think all hope is lost. We can reset this.

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Truly Social is a web series that you can share with your boss or client when they're not really "getting" social.

I've been working on this social stuff for over 16 years and I've been a participant in the social web since 1992. My videos will come out every SUNDAY-ish...with 2-5 minute "lessons" on what are truly social practices (and what are NOT).