This weekend I watched an amazing video from Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs at a Ted Conference, and what really hit home is how many people struggle to be new media douchebags in a web 2.0 world. If you're the kind of person who wants to have 50,000 twitter friends, be a power Digg user, make the front page of  Techmeme, get mentioned on Techcrunch, avoid getting mentioned in Valleywag, and it isn't filling your wallet, then you are a Web 2.0 Weenie Living on Bullshit Social Media Economics.

Last week the reality cops showed up at the web 2.0 frat party and started shutting things down. Exactly what happened, Robert Scoble got fired. Sure the PR folks and spin misters will say he left to go on to new endeavors and challenges, but in the real world if your sponsor cancels their ads, and your boss says we don't need you to show up on monday, you got fired. This isn't meant to be mean or hurtful, but listen Robert you were the poster boy for web 2.0 weenies riding that wave of pseudo celebrity for so long, now it's time to pay the piper.

Social media can be very productive and profitable, case and point Aaron Chronister (aka the Mad Hat) used it as tool to turn bacon and sausage into a book deal. Dell uses twitter as a 1 million dollar sales channel, and JetBlue uses it to auction off airline tickets. Social media can and does work, when it's used as a tool to help you get work done, not when it's used as an excuse to get out of work, or not do work at all.

Social media should make you more productive, more efficient, and more profitable, by allowing you to extend your reach and message to the people who are in your target market and are interested in what you have to say. Social media should not be used to waste time and money on awareness and branding exercises broadcasting messages that are unremarkable to the uninterested masses.

Social media is filled with false gods and idols, who try to sell you their own "secret sauce" in get rich quick schemes, and hundreds are duped in by the lure of easy money. The truth is if you approach social media with a cookie cutter plan from one of these guru's it wont work for you. I can't tell you the secret of making money, I can only tell you what works for me, and chances are since you don't think and approach problems the way I do, they won't work for you. The best I can do, is give a you some basic pointers and tell you where the cliffs are so you don't walk off, after that you'll have to get off you butt, work at it and fail more than once, if you want to make some money.

I'm turning off comments, because the last thing I want, is a bunch of "way to go", "atta boy", and "I agree" comments, or the pointless debates that follow. If you've ever talked with me in depth, you know I've got that high school teacher pay it forward mentality, and I don't write these posts for you to agree with me and pat me on the back. Want to show me you appreciate this post and got the message … stop wasting time on social media … and start finding ways to ues it help add to the size of your wallet or pocket book not make it smaller.
photo credit: TheBusyBrain

PS: This post is aimed at the marketing community, and not at the general population, if you want to use social media tools on your time to communicate and connect, that's fine, just don't do it on your boss's dime, and call it work.

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