Tuesday 15 July 2014

Frustrations of social media

From working on many social media accounts, for various reality TV shows, channels, and companies, I have learnt the following (and forgive the rant!):
  • The audience assumes there is an omnipotent presence monitoring the accounts 24/7, 365, and said presence has all the answers related to the brand on that social media account. No, people, it is just a normal personal employed to manage and maintain these accounts. Most of the time, answering queries is a back and forth process between departments to get just the right answer. 
  • It has made people lazy to search for the information they want. Ever heard of google? Its an ingenious search engine, that will help you find anything on the web, really! Want to know what time a TV show starts, or when is the repeat? Here's a tip: Look in the TV guide.
  • In relation to the above, people do not read the updates with the attention it deserves. For example, if the status update reads: "Tune into the show tonight at 17:00 on [insert channel]." We will no doubt see comments like "when is the show?", "what channel?". READ. THE. UPDATE! 
  • Online, people have no filter, they say anything, and I do mean anything! It has actually made me loose a lot of faith in human kind. I wonder if such people would ever say those things in person! Highly doubtful...
  • And the spam! Stop with the damn pornographic content, xenophobia, racism, ponzi schemes, and get-rich-quick cons. It makes moderating pages a nightmare! 
  • People are forgetting how to spell and structure proper sentences... the level of deterioration of English is scary!
  • It astounds me how the audience invests so much into these shows. Its a TV show, that is all. Get over it. 
  • Audiences are rarely happy with anything that happens on a show, we've seen it all: "The judges are crap", "voting is rigged", "I won't watch the show anymore", "bring back the ousted contestant". Yawn! 
It has altered my personal approach to my accounts, and how I deal with brands too. So before you fire off on any social media platform in the future, please remember these points.