Confessions of an Internet Marketer | Business 2 Community

Social Media has become an invaluable marketing tool, enabling companies to leverage community activity and engaged audiences to drive sales. Blogs provide important back link development, networking, and promotional opportunities. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, RSS feeds and other community forums enable companies to grow their market reach and support brand development. These tremendous opportunities are not in question, nor should they be denied. Every day I read article after article, blog after blog, highlighting and exalting social media as a revolutionary medium of empowerment: a movement that has enabled customers to identify themselves and reach out to others based on similar interests and brand loyalties.

And this scares me.

Pinterest, a social media site that allows users to post photos of ?Products They Love,? is now the third most popular social networking site in the US. A new 2012 Digital Marketer report from Experian praises Pinterest?s ability to foster ?meaningful connections? between retailers and consumers. Experian sees Pinterest as a way for people to express and promote themselves through brand recognition and evangelical consumerism. And the report credits the site?s potential for retail marketing. ?As communities become less about friends and more about common interests, retail brands in particular need to take note if they want to make more meaningful connections with their customers.?

What does it mean when meaningless brand identification surpasses even the most inhuman forms of social expression, networking, and community involvement?

I, personally, am afraid that as people become more and more physically disconnected and dissociated, they are turning to social media and brand identity to fill the void. As a society, we are feeling a great and depersonalized angst, a loss that we fill with consumerism. When we no longer feel self-empowered, or self-assured, we reassure ourselves and re-empower ourselves by Liking, Sharing, Pining, Posting, and everything else. Why else would somebody Like Wallmart on Facebook? Why would somebody Pin a Prada bag or Stoli Vodka on Pinterest?

An article from the New York Times, ?Psychology of Sharing,? breaks down the social media community into six types of people, each with five motivations for sharing.

The Six Types of Social Media Members:

1. Altruist sharers are helpful, reliable, thoughtful, connected, and use email to share.
2. Careerists are intelligent business networkers and are more likely to share content on LinkedIn.
3. Hipsters are less likely than others to use email for sharing content, and these sharers are creative, young, and popular. They consume content that is on the cutting edge and they care about defining their identity through their shares.
4. Boomerangs share information to get a reaction and to feel validated. They are empowered by social media and tend to use both Twitter and Facebook.
5. Connectors are creative, relaxed, thoughtful, and use both email and Facebook to make plans and share information.
6. Selectives are resourceful, careful, and thoughtful. They share content that is informative and frequently use email to share content with individuals.

The Five Motivations of Sharing:

1. To bring valuable and entertaining content to one another. 94% of respondents carefully consider how the information they share will be useful to recipients.
2. To define themselves to others. 68% of respondents share to give people a better sense of who they are and what they care about.
3. To grow and nourish relationships. 78% of respondents share information online because it enables them to stay connected to people they might not otherwise stay in touch with.
4. For Self-Fulfillment. 69% of respondents share information because it allows them to feel more involved in the world.
5. To get the word out about causes they care about. 84% of respondents share because it is a way to support causes or issues that they care about.

I think we all act according to the six character types and share according to each of the five motivations. These are not defined and un-bending rules, but rather tendencies. When I consider my own social media activity, I know that I post useful and constructive blog articles to share relevant information, to grow my internet marketing business network, and to establish my brand as an effective internet marketer. I write articles on causes I believe in, and I Like others on Facebook. I share video highlights of great dunks by Gerald Green on the New Jersey Nets to develop my own ?Brand? and connect with friends.

But there it is. Rather than actively supporting causes we believe in, we too frequently passively ?support? them online. Rather than actively networking and developing real relationships, we passively post and repost. Rather than actively finding areas for our own self-fulfillment, we look for brands to do it for us.

Consumerism for the sake of consumerism seems to be at least part of the direction that social media is currently taking our society. Because we are more able to express our Likes and Interests unencumbered by the traditional limitations of actual social interaction, we meaninglessly hopelessly attempt to Click and Share ourselves out of the void.

And Yes, I realize the irony of posting this confession in the social media realm.

carrot top george huguely whitney houston casket photo match play championship the national enquirer marie colvin cm punk