Saturday Silliness and Social Media

Holy Cow KJ has been on a roll the last couple of days.  Really funny stuff coming out of her mouth lately.  She's got a great sense of humor.  Last night I told her she was killing me and she said, "I know.  I've really got to get off the funny train."  She's very dry and sarcastic.  I have no idea where she gets it from!  She's sowing her sassy oats and middle school should be interesting. 

And now it's time to talk about social media.  I loved FB when it first came out.  I loved living in Alabama and being able to keep up with friends and family around the country/around the world.  I loved seeing photos of my friend's kids and I loved hearing about their accomplishments and adventures.  Then it started to get annoying.  I became inundated with Farmville Requests and friends started to use FB as a personal diary and ended up sounding like immature 12 year old little girls (you know the type, the friend that posts about EVERYTHING.  Every little mundane detail of their life:  "Packing for vacation!"  "Driving to airport!"  "Waiting at airport!"  "Boo!  I hate going through security!"  "Sitting on runway!"  "Just landed!"  "At hotel!"  And, thanks to FB I now think "ever" is the most over-used word on the planet -- "Best husband EVER!"  "Prettiest baby EVER"  "Happy birthday to the best son EVER"  Oh!  And the photos of the food you're about to eat.  Those are my favorites!  You get the point.  And I'll admit it.  I'm sure at some point in the game I did the same thing. 

Then came Twitter.  Luv, Luv, Luv Twitter.  I can decided who I want to interact with and, more importantly, who I DON'T want to interact with.  And, I don't get dire messages about some one's Golden Unicorn that is about to die unless I give them 15 bales of silver hay or whatever the hell.  If I don't agree or appreciate some one's tweets, I stop following them.  It's nothing personal.  No big deal.  I love checking in with my favorite news outlets during the day, sports scores, etc.  Love getting a laugh from the Sarcastic Wonka, the Fake ESPN, Denis Leary, Lisa Lampenelli, etc.  RevRun's tweets are a great pick-me up, too.  It's fast, it's succinct and Twitter reminds me of one of my favorite Jackie Kennedy quotes:  "I want minimum information given with maximum politeness."  Just give it to me straight.  Yup.  That's why Twitter is for me. 

And then we were introduced to Pinterest.  The blogger in me personally loved Pinterest.  The traveler in me, the fashionista in me, the book nerd in me, the history geek in me, the closet interior designer in me.  Yes, all of me loved Pinterest.  So visually stimulating!  So inspirational!  All in one glorious place!  It's the coolest encylopedia on the planet!  And then, I noticed something.  It took me a while (yeah, I'm a slow learner) but I noticed people using social media (my beloved Twitter and Pinterest!) to push their product.  I'm not talking about big name brands like Apple, Coca-Cola, Nike.  I'm talking about mom and pop operations.  One of my favorite Pinners (who shall remain nameless) had amazing photos/pins of beautiful home decor items.  I re-pinned several of them because I was inspired.  I thought, "Wow!  I could do this in my own home!" or "Wow!  That would look great on my mantel!"  Then I realized I was no better than a drug dealer.  I was helping her push her product onto other naive, unsuspecting Pinners.  I've noticed folks on Twitter doing the same thing (they shall remain nameless, too).  Sometimes they add a photo or Instagram to their Tweet, sometimes a link to their website.  I think it's amazing when someone can make a living doing something they love.  That's a wonderful gift my friend.  Don't abuse it.  However, when all of your tweets are about your Etsy site, your Scentsy stuff and you "friended" me on FB so I would join your legions of cooking/baking minions, I will delete you in a heart beat. 

We (Cosmo & I) will help anyone in any way, shape or form we can.  We have friends that own their own businesses and we support them.  We support and promote them as often as we can -- whether it's a local restaurant, a dental office, an art gallery downtown, a local politician running for office.  You name it.  We've supported our friends.  And have loved doing it.  We've always felt it was a great honor to be included in that kind of stuff.  Let's face it.  When you're a new business there are people you HAVE to invite and then there are people you WANT to invite.  Drop me an e-mail, give me a phone call, send me a formal invite.  Just make it a little personal, make the effort.  If our schedule permits, we'll be there.  If it's important to you, it's important to us.  Don't be sneaky and push your drugs on your FB, Pinterest or Twitter accounts.