At some point, somewhere around 1999, people realized that:
1) You could make big money on the Internet.
2) Anyone could publish on the internet.
Social media over has increased #2 trying to accomplish #1 exponentially.
The problem is that, in order to stand out among the voices, we have to convince people that we are smart and should be listened to. For some this is easy. Seth Godin was the expert on permission marketing long before there were targeted Facebook sidebars. Rick Warren was already the king of pithy one liners before he became the king of the retweets.
Most of don’t have the authority of Seth Godin or the communication skills of Rick Warren. And because of the immediacy of social media publishing, we don’t think about what we are saying or edit our words.
The end result is a lot of voicing clamouring to prove to world that they are an authority on something. Realistically, most of us aren’t authorities. Even if we are, the chances are that we will never make a living doing this.
What if, instead of trying to sound smart on the internet, we just talked about stuff we know and stuff we like. Twitter is the new cocktail party, and no one likes standing next to some guy trying to prove how smart he is.
If you’re going to publish online, just talk about what you love and pick your words carefully. You may never get thousands of followers or make a lot of money, but at least you will be honest and likable.
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