Putting The Social Back In Social Media

Recently I attended Affiliate Summit West 2010 and although I met many, many wonderful people, it only takes one to ruin your opinion of “Twitter celebrities.” I have admired this person, who shall remain nameless, for quite some time for both their work online on Twitter and during presentations, but when I saw this person in the hallway by themselves and casually mentioned that I liked their presentation, the response was, “Like I’ve never heard that before…” Wow. Just wow. The only thing I could think to do was turn and walk away.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I was multitasking last night, participating in both #blogchat and #journchat – two of my favorite Twitter chats (#blogchat is usually on Sundays but postponed a day because of the Superbowl). There were great topics on both, but I thought that the #blogchat topic of Music Marketing via Social Media would be something different. I didn’t know how different…about an hour into the chat we were joined by Curt Smith from Tears for Fears and his manager, Arlene Wszalek. They provided an artist’s and manager’s perspective on how to use social media to “normalize” fame. Curt was very down to earth, responsive, and definitely NOT a Twitter Snob. Although he proceeded to tell me what he had for dinner (inane Tweets being a personal following taboo that I had posted earlier in #blogchat) I’ll be following both Curt and Arlene to see what other insights they have to share.

That’s not to say that if I met them in a hallway outside a concert venue that I wouldn’t get the same blow-off given by the aforementioned “Twitter celebrity” but a girl can always hope that the social stays in social media, can’t she? Let me know if you agree (or disagree) that the social belongs in social media, both online and in real life, by posting a reply below!