Is it Me, or Is More of What We’re Reading Online a Bunch of B.S.?

Since becoming an independent editing, writing and marketing consultant, I’ve been reading more and more stuff coming into my email inbox than ever before. Newsletters, blogs, tweets, company Websites, you name it. I still read my trusty (and trustworthy) printed New York Times every morning over breakfast, BusinessWeek and others, but I’m finding that I’m spending more of my reading time with internet babble.

I may be sounding like a youngish Andy Rooney here, but it just appears that more and more online b-to-b material written by the so-called experts consists of such experts just shooting off their keyboards more than anything else. They toss out a few ideas; some may be usable, some may even be implementable. But by in large, I’m finding more of it to be internet babble.

Sh*t, what I’m typing right now is basically internet babble, isn’t it? It’ll hopefully stir you up a little, but in reality, I’m just another online talking head.

There is a pro side to this: It is my intent to get you thinking with my prose here. Other bloggers are basically doing the same thing more or less. But although there’s plenty of very good and useful stuff to be read, some who toss out so-called actionable tips are basically shooting from the hip more than anything else.

Hey, I love feedback. And as a former editorial director I reported to once said, “I love getting hate mail.” Take me to the mat here. Tell me how wrong (or right) I am. Hit me with your best shot, and let’s get a good debate going.

Keep Up With Social Media’s Rapid Advances

I saw a report on CBS News last night that focused on a company (don’t know which one) that not long ago cracked down on its employees’ personal use of the Internet during work hours. This company has I.T. people who monitor how much time employees spend on all Websites during the days and concluded that lots of employees were using many work hours for Facebook, among other non-work uses. In fact, the CBS reporter claimed the company could monitor every keystroke on every computer, though I think he may have gotten that wrong: It can monitor every action, every site visited, but I don’t believe every keystroke.

Anyway, in that same report, this company said that it had recently reversed its policy, especially with regard to use of social media sites.  Instead, it’s encouraging employees to use them, especially for business purposes. In fact, an executive was interviewed and right in the middle of the interview, he could be seen keying in a response to a customer comment on Twitter or Facebook right on his smart phone.

The nature of social media and its assorted uses, both in business and personal, will continue to change and evolve. This report only goes to prove that it’s changing super fast. Since I got word that I was about to be laid off, I’ve done a complete overhaul of my LinkedIn page; next up, I need to get going on my Facebook page, then Twitter. Both of those I’ve all but ignored to this point, but I can no longer afford to.

So my message du jour is this: Whether you’re in the media, marketing, advertising or whatever else, if you’re not active in these sites, you may want to start doing so. They’re permeating everything we do in this society and their impact is only going to increase in the future. Don’t get left behind.