Social Media: Passion Required

Lunch today with some talented friends from a local digital agency yielded a quote that gave me a simple epiphany.

We were pointing out the fallacy in assuming that younger digital natives are social media naturals and how older, er, more mature digital immigrants are not usually tech-savvy.

So if age isn't necessarily relevant, what skills are needed to figure out how all this stuff is supposed to work -- from a bigger, strategic picture to the hands on tactical elements?

"It doesn't matter what you're learning or why (work/school/play/profit). You need passion to figure out social media."

Yeah, this is far from earth-shattering. And it could easily be applied to more than just social media. But it helps explain why you see folks attend social media workshops and sit through presentations and discussions with a blank stare on their face. You assume they're there more because they know they need to learn than because they want to learn.

Social media doesn't come in pill form. Be curious, play with it, apply it. Results will vary.

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tags | social media

Comments

[Leo]

Wow. Such Depth.

Did anybody really learn PowerPoint -- or WordPerfect 1.2 for that matter -- without just playing with it?

[Kevin Dugan]

lol - yeah, I knew I might take some heat for this one. It seemed like a bigger deal over lunch. But I really do think folks get overwhelmed and blow it off instead of just jumping in.

[Stan]

I work in online communications too, and I've come to the conclusion that PR in the web 2.0 era is the one field where you should hire people way younger than you, because they are actually the ones with the most experience.

[Kevin Dugan]

Stan - That is not necessarily a guarantee though. I know of a few folks in this space that have more digital experience and are more than a couple of months older than me. And while at University of Georgia Athens recently, there were as many students asking questions as there were older folks. In fact, at UGA the teachers are sharing their online experiences with things like Twitter with their students and having them try it out as part of class work.

[Gavin Heaton]

I agree ... I think it's about being curious. You have to want to understand how things work, why social networks grow and what makes others think and respond to ideas. When we are younger we are naturally curious -- creating our own identities, establishing our careers and refining our tastes. But these set over time -- so social media fits nicely here ... and provides a reference to tell our own stories to others we know and some that we don't.

But as our identities harden, we often become less curious about the worlds outside our own. We also forget how to play and experiment. Social media can give us all the chance to remember the joy of the unexpected connection -- but you need to sign up. You need to play and experiment. Long live curiosity!

[Abby]

I agree. I am interning at an agency right now and the owners are just now getting into social media and realizing how much impact it has. I applaud anyone who has the passion to do this-- no matter what their age may be.

[Allie]

I think it's interesting that you bring this up. Have you seen the webkins website? I babysitt for 2-9 year old and they all have social networking ID's with their stuffed animanls. Yes, even the 2-year-old can navigate a social networking site. I really think that anyone can navigate the sites, it's just a matter of who is online that will get people interested and savvy with them.

[Kevin Dugan]

Allie - My daughter is almost seven and has been on webkinz for awhile now.

http://prblog.typepad.com/strategic_public_relation/2007/07/when-social-net.html