4 Steps to Avoiding the Echo Chamber

Tired of hearing social media experts talk to other social media experts about social media?

I’ll admit it – I can’t stand the echo chamber. It’s mind-numbing of late – signal-to-noise ratio is really tilted toward blowhards talking a good ballgame.

There’s a better way. Actually, here’s a 4-step program. 1/3 the steps of a 12-step program. Go!

1. Ignore “Influence.”

That’s right – don’t give a hoot about whether someone has a Clout-a-riffic score of 8000 degrees Kelvin, or whether they are a best-selling author of self-help books for descendants of Vikings.

This means that you should interact with people on the social channels – Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, VikingDate.com – with one question in mind:

Is this person interesting?

2. Exit the Bubble.

Everyone reads blogs about social media. Everyone blogs about social media. Social media blogs exist so people who blog about social media can be read by everyone who blogs about social media.

Does this make you want to scream?

Don’t get us wrong – there are dozens of GOOD social media blogs out there. But once you start getting out of the bubble, you discover that there are actually people who are writing about stuff that you might be interested in.

Exit. The. Bubble.

3. Have a POINT – and only visit blogs that have one.

Our point behind blogging is simple: thought leadership and positioning of our firm – StraterEdge Consulting – as people who know what we’re talking about when it comes to Sales Velocity and Marketing Effectiveness.

When you visit a blog that says “Random musings” or “Ramblings” or “One twenty-something’s journey toward” something…this is likely a blog without a point.

4. Don’t Believe the Hype.

Everyone. Is. Awesome!

If you visit enough blogs it will appear that the same 15 people seem to comment on the same 15 blogs and then they cross-pollinate on each other’s blogs and it becomes a circumlocution of awesomeness.

You can do one of two things: hang out and try to crack the code, or realize that the Awesomeness Cliques will always be there, social media is like high school, and it’s time to move on.

There’s a world OUTSIDE of the Social Media Bubble. Go find it.