Twitter: Time Suck or Road to the Olympics?

Posted by Shelly Kramer on February 23, 2010 · 17 Comments

The lovely and extraordinary @extraordmommy

This is a social media success story. This is for all those doubters out there who look down their noses at the apparent ridicularity that is social media. The time suck whiners. The “how do I monetize this” sharks. The questioners. The doubters. You know who you are.

Social media is like moving to a new town. You get there, you get your stuff put away, and you venture out and meet your neighbors. You find a dry cleaner, a grocery store, a gym. You set out to build a life for yourself, get to know people and make connections in this new town.

That’s exactly what happened to my friend, Danielle Smith. A few years ago, with two little ones at home and a career as a TV anchor and reporter in the distant past, she began noticing all the conversations going on between moms about how difficult it is – this job of mommyhood. And she wanted to remind them all that they were all extraordinary women, doing extraordinary things, so she developed a website intended to do just that. Nothing if not sharper than a tack, Danielle quickly realized that a static website wasn’t an engaging one, and engagement is what she was after. So, she changed paths, learned yet another skill set between the relatively quiet hours of midnight and 2am, (which is when she often does her best work) and started blogging. Her following quickly took off and she built a community of moms within the “walls” of her blog.

Danielle began dabbling on Twitter and quickly found many amazing people there – some moms with young children, some with grown children, and many people who aren’t parents at all – but who are just great people. She started to get more serious about this new career of hers and investing in herself and growing her skill set by attending various blogging-related conferences. In 2009, she attended Blissdom, BlogHer and then the Type-A Mom Conference. She found that she was making great connections online, but when she was able to add networking in person to the mix, it really helped to further the relationships and the community that she was building via social mediums.

One of the people Danielle met and interacted with on Twitter early on was Stephanie Smirnov, a savvy PR exec, principal at DeVries PR who also happens to be a mom and a blogger – (and, as an aside, if you’re a professional woman who is not reading her blog, you’re missing out). They had the chance to meet IRL at the Type-A Mom conference and found they had great synergy. When Stephanie’s company decided to become a major sponsor of the 140Characters Conference in Los Angeles, she knew instantly that Danielle had the type of on-camera skills that she wanted to help make the most out of that sponsorship opportunity. And so, the camera, once again, swung back to Danielle. Via the path of social media and the time she invested there, and the friendships she made and fostered.

Fast forward a few months later, and when it was time for P&G (one of Smirnov’s clients) to send a team of bloggers to Vancouver to represent the brand at the Olympics, the selection of the lovely and talented Danielle Smith as part of that team was, quite simply, a no-brainer. The brand loves her, people love her and now Olympics junkies the world over know and love her, too. All because of a time suck like Twitter.

I told you before – it’s just like moving to a new town. If you don’t invest of yourself in exploring, experimenting with new friends and new places and new experiences, you’ll never like that new town. And the same is true with Twitter and any other form of social media. Invest yourself. Invest yourself in a genuine and transparent manner. Be prepared for it to take time, effort and energy. And then more time, effort and energy. But once you do, you can also reap some pretty amazing rewards. Just ask Danielle.

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Filed under Featured Articles, Social Media Marketing · Tagged with @extraordmommy, @ssmirnov, Blissdom, BlogHer, Danielle Smith, Olympics, P&G, social media, Social Media Marketing, Stephanie Smirnov, twitter, Type-A Mom

http://twitter.com/KarinaTweedell Karina Tweedell

People who often refer to Twitter and other social media as the “time suck” are approaching it from the point that whatever happens there stays online. And I can't lie saying that it's not the case. I love this story for showing how people actually get out and do something with all the knowledge and ideas they get online.
grammar mama

hey shelly – love this post! you have a typo in your second sentence. just thought you'd want to know you're missing an is.
ShellyKramer

I love this story, too, Karina … and that's why telling it was such a pleasure. You have to want to put it all together and make it happen – and that's exactly what Danielle did.

So glad you enjoyed her story
ShellyKramer

Honey, I'm a grammar freak — and soo appreciate the heads up! Fixed!! You rock.
paulgraham123

You could almost have written that to me SK

The thing is that social media doesn't work for all types of businesses, and won't ever. You run a consultancy business, so it's all about networking and PR. For that it fits well, but I'm far from convinced that it works well for the huge majority of bricks and mortar businesses.

Dell have made a big thing about it lately. They did millions in sales from Twitter promotions, but what they didn't publicise was that they spent tens of millions, probably more, getting it off the ground. It's easy to spend 10 million to make a million. They simply used that story to generate some hype through more traditional advertising mediums.

For most I think it is a time suck that won't pay dividends at all, but for certain things it will work phenomenally well. That's what you need to consider… it isn't as clear-cut as saying there's “doubters” and “believers”…. every business is different and for many, if not most, it will be a time suck.

“The “how do I monetize this” sharks.”

That's a particularly bad comment to make, because business is all about monetization. It's simply about making more than you spend.

If the work you do on social media gets you coverage elsewhere, which translates to sales, cool. It's all good. If it doesn't and you've no way of tracking how the effort you're putting in translates to revenue it's bad.

That doesn't make them sharks. It's just how business works.
http://www.3hatscommunications.com davinabrewer

A good social media WORKS story… the caveat being, if you put the WORK into it. The key is that Danielle started this a few YEARS ago, began investing time in her blog and connecting on Twitter. I so agree with you: Social media success takes a considerable investment of time, talent and a commitment to reaching people.
ShellyKramer

Hey Paul,

You know you're one of my all time favorite people and I totally get all your points. My argument is not against the monetization of business. I make money because of the investment I make in social media, along with other marketing efforts. And I work with my clients to do the same. I'm all for monetization!

What I am not for is people who are perpetually looking for yet another “get rich quick” avenue or hawking those “fabulous opportunities” via social media (read that: Forex, White Teeth, Ripped Abs, Trump Network, etc.). Those are scams and clutter everyone's lives in an unwelcome manner. In my world, those people are sharks.

I am also opposed to people who tell my clients that they can reasonably expect to invest “just 15 minutes a day” in social media and reap TONS of benefits. Not gonna happen. In my world, these people are borderline sharks.

And I totally and completely agree that social media is not for all businesses. It is a tactic. A tool. Not a means to an end by any stretch of the imagination – and as you know, I write and speak and blather about that ad nauseum.

So, at the end of it all, we agree, Paul. Social media is not for everyone. It is not the answer. It is a time suck. It doesn't work for everyone. It is not worth it if you can't, ultimately, monetize your efforts in some way. My story above was illustrative that Danielle did, most definitely, invest considerable time, effort and energy in social media AND other methods of “marketing” herself and reaped great benefits as a result. After much hard work.

Thanks for showing up here – you know I love you madly – and for always keeping me on my toes!
ShellyKramer

Amen, Davinia!!
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http://twitter.com/CherryWoodburn Cherry Woodburn

Good post but a time suck for me because there were so many things I could click on and allow my made-from-birth-tangential-brain to follow and read. First I went to Smirnov's blog, read one post and then clicked on her link to The Bloggess and read that but it was a continuation, part 2 kind of thing so had to Read part 1 and then looked around and thought I needed to get back here so I did but just remembered I wanted to click on Blissdom because who doesn't want Bliss? But I do need to finish developing my Yoga and Stories Around the Campfire retreat for women that I really hope you'll come to. Then I'll tweet about it, get others interested and know for sure that Twitter is not a time-suck. Whew. I'm exhausted but enjoyed every word and twist and turn.
ShellyKramer

Have never laughed more, Cherry. And you've perfectly described just about every moment of every single one of my ding dong days! And I wouldn't trade them for the world. I will most definitely come to your retreat if I can – will there be wine?
http://twitter.com/CherryWoodburn Cherry Woodburn

Not to worry, there will be wine.
http://blog.feeltiptop.com/ Greg Martin

Great story Shelly! Your post reminded me of ways TipTop helps people get around and make the most of our experiences in the social media frontier, as in this post http://bit.ly/4YnhPX and the timely Tweeting for the Gold: Social Media & the 2010 Winter Olympic Games http://ftt.nu/olympics.
Cheers, Greg
http://www.umcle.com Tim Baran

Wow! What a lovely, affirming story! Especially for those of us who love these emerging platforms, give a lot to it and get so much from in return. You framed it beautifully, Shelly – like moving to a new town. The opportunity to engage in meaningful ways, or absolute frivolity, to build relationships, to affirm and be affirmed, right at our fingertips with 24/7 access is truly remarkable.
Thanks for this smile inducing piece
ShellyKramer

Thanks, Tim. I'm glad you enjoyed it!!
sue_anne

I think Twitter (and other social media) can be a time suck, but so can email, talking on the phone, hanging out in the coffee shop talking with people, etc. It's all about how you use the tools for your business and use your own time management / common sense to get things done.
DebbyBruck

Isn't this what blogging is all about, Shelly? Showing your admiration, respect and giving back to all those with whom we interact in the social networks. We really become “more” as we venture out into this vast twitterverse and social scape we call the internet. And, it's all constantly changing and dynamic as the technology changes as we are the ones evolving. Many blessings to all, Debby