Whisperings from Whispered Pearls

In my daily perusal of the Twitterverse today, and the ensuing reading of Scoble’s column, I realized again that not everyone is at the same place I am in the whirl of social media. It still kind of astonishes me when I hear about friends who still don’t have either a MySpace, Facebook or Twitter account, or ALL of them, as I do. (To say nothing of Pownce, Mahalo and all the other ones that are popping up after them.)

Scoble’s assessment is that you are only as strong as the people YOU follow or add as friends on the various sites. I would agree with that. But I would go further to say that media has changed. It is very much a pro-active game now. And WE, as in WE THE PEOPLE, are in control of it now. It’s an essential distinction.

I actually had someone on my friends list on Facebook try to sell me on his new application which featured movies from Paramount that I could add to my site. When he approached me, he explained that people like it ” because it gives them a measure of fame and some contact with Paramount.” I promptly wrote him back, and said, boy howdy, YOU are the one who doesn’t get it here.

We have surpassed Paramount. Why do you think YouTube is so popular? Because Paramount seeded it with its movies, and bowed down to us little people? No. Because WE (we the people) decided what we liked and thought was funny (much as we do in our regular lives) and passed it along to our friends.

And what he was essentially asking me to do, as I pointed out to him, is to pimp out my friends, and blast Paramount’s videos at them. Essentially an ad for Paramount. For FREE. On my page. What does he think I am? Stupid?

So, after I unfriended him, I replied that I don’t do that, and that if he’s working for a social media company, he better get with the way it really works out here in social media land. People are my friends (even on MySpace, where I have close to 15,000 on one account) because I DON’T blast ads at them. Or, if I do, like my choices on iLike on my Facebook account, it’s because I personally think it’s cool. If they choose to click on it, they can decide for themselves.

It is the height of arrogance and a sure way to get unfriended on any social media platform to blast ads at your friends. This is even true on platforms like Second Life. Remember, first and foremost, these are ALL communities.

Sure maybe all 15,000 of my friends aren’t close and personal, but I treat them as if they are. I respect them enough to not sell them crap. And expect the same treatment in return. It’s the unwritten etiquette of the world of social media.

What others who don’t get who aren’t participating in these new worlds yet is that it’s a fabulous way to meet new friends, colleagues, people with like interests. Just respect the turf, man.