PR Tuesday: #Oversharing?

It’s that time again! Happy PR Tuesday!

In the last post, I wrote about under what circumstances I think a tweet should be favourited. There was a bit of discussion, and it trended towards agreeing with what I suggested.

@JTerr88 Glad somebody agrees with me on the favourite-"ing" vs. being lazy! Thanks

— EnviroJan (@EnviroJan) April 17, 2013

This week, I thought I would tackle a topic that I know I am guilty of, as are many people I know who use social media: oversharing of information.

Social media is fascinating, as I mentioned, because it allows you to instantly connect with people from across the world who have similar interests (and differing opinions). It provides a glimpse into a person’s life. Sometimes, it’s less of a glimpse and more of a “hey, look who’s getting changed with the blinds open” view.

An example of oversharing

https://twitter.com/JTerr88/status/326487636703326208

Yes, I totally am willing to admit that I fall prey to this. Who cares?! What is the relevance? This isn’t going to spark conversation, it is meaningless to every single person who reads it. Yet, in today’s day and age, it’s ingrained in people to share the minute details of their lives this way.

We see it all the time – people  tweeting about going to bed, taking photos on Instagram of their food/dogs/kittens/offices and checking in every ten minutes on FourSquare to tell strangers where they can be found. Creeping is easy, with location-based apps.

Mashable has suggestions on how to avoid oversharing; the action has gotten people arrested, caused them to lose out on a job opportunity and much more. Really think about what you share – posting a photo of your dog may seem innocuous enough, but don’t be too surprised if your bank account gets hacked and someone was able to get in because that was your security question! Perhaps I’m going to an extreme, but it makes the point.

There’s a balance to be struck; there are things in our personal lives that are interesting and worth sharing. They spark conversation and debate. But I’m going to be monitoring more closely what I say, as I have a feeling nobody cares if I have spaghetti for dinner or am wearing flip-flops. It doesn’t do anything to benefit my personal brand. I’m going to take an approach like this: if it isn’t something I wouldn’t tell a stranger on the street, it’s not going on social media.

PR Tuesday: Why “favourite” a Tweet?

First: let me thank you for your patience. I know I had promised to post on a weekly basis, but life intervened. It’s been a busy time at work, but I’m here now and that’s what matters.

Second: as many of you know, I work in the wonderful world of PR! I decided that, you know, I have some thoughts on general trends in PR and I should share them! So I’ve decided to dedicated Tuesday posts to the very topic. I hope you at least find them somewhat insightful.

With that in mind, I had two posts in mind. I decided to go with this one and save the other idea for next week.

The majority of my readers are on Twitter; I can say that because I know that most of my traffic is derived from clicks through my personal account. One of the features of Twitter (as you know) is the ability to “favourite” a Tweet (and yes, there is a “u” in favourite – this is a Canadian blog). I think most of you would agree that there are two reasons to favourite a tweet: to show the author that you have seen and enjoyed what they said and/or to save the tweet for later.

I think marking a tweet as a favourite for the first reason is pointless. The action is a very passive form of engagement – it’s Twitter at its laziest. If you think something that somebody has said on Twitter is funny, interesting or controversial, there’s a far better solution: say so! Social media is exactly that: social. It’s an opportunity to engage, to connect with people across the globe who share similar (or not) views. I can’t count the times I’ve engaged in political debate with people across Canada who, I’ve never met and likely never will.

What do you mean?

Here’s a great example of a discussion I had with somebody today:

https://twitter.com/JTerr88/status/324260088439250944

Marking a tweet as a favourite is just as lame as clicking “like” on Facebook. What’s the purpose? A virtual thumbs up or gold star says, well, nothing. It’s something that was reinforced with me in discussion with a friend recently: a like is objectifying, in a sense. As I said: social media is social. Why be quiet and hide in the corner? Talk to people who say things you like!

Where being able to mark a tweet as a favourite comes in handy is very simple, at least for me: it’s when somebody shares something I want to view later (a link I want to visit from my own computer, after work, for example) or is something I want to follow up on (ie: someone replying to me, but not being able to reply immediately for one reason or another). In that case, a favourite serves as a bookmark.

So, what do you think? Do you agree that marking something as a “favourite” or “like” is passive? Or is it a form of meaningful engagement?

February Photo a Day Challenge: Continued

So, I’ve stuck with the February “Photo a Day” Challenge for another week and thought I’d share some more photos. I’m obviously a big fan now of Instagram, but I remain anything but a photographer.

Day Seven: Button

Pretty straight forward, really. This is a button from my coat (which, thanks to my gym efforts, is starting to get too small).

Day Eight: Sun

This was taken in 2008 by my friend Amy, so I cheated a bit… However, it’s my favourite sunset photo. She took it while we were driving back from Thunder Bay with our friend Heather and a noisy cat who was on baby Gravol (don’t ask).

Day Nine: Front Door

Pretty straight forward again… This is the front door to my apartment in all it’s khaki-green goodness.

Day 10: Self-Portrait

Before you freak out – yes, I’ve stopped typing out the words for the numbers. CP Style, after all (you get it, PR and journalism friends). Anyways, I was clearly having a thrilling day on Friday and this was the result.

Day 11: Something I Love

If you know me, you knew it would be a hard choice between bed and coffee. So why choose?

So, there you have it. Another five days successfully completed.