I was just attending a webinar by the author David Meerman Scott on his book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR. I read the book and enjoyed it, even putting some of the principles into play at work.
However, it wasn’t until I attended the webinar today that I had an “aha” moment. One of the points Scott makes is that marketers by nature crave attention: from the media, from various departments within their companies, from their customers, from potential customers, etc. Everything we do as marketers is to capture someone’s attention.
I spend 40 plus hours a week trying to capture the attention of others and get their approval. Is it any wonder this is starting to translate to my personal life? I’ve never in my life been this needy. Hmmm. Something to think about.
You got my attention. Interesting post – something I hadn’t really considered. Does social media make us needy?
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by David Meerman Scott. David Meerman Scott said: @AdriMS asks: "Has my career made me needy?" http://bit.ly/d6XStW […]
@David – Thank you for stopping by my blog! Do I think social media make us needy?
Absolutely. As you know, social media is an outlet through which we can share, build relationships, communicate, build brand recognition, etc. For all of this to happen successfully, someone has to be on the other end receiving the message (hence the social part) and so we are dependent.
In the cases in which social media response determines how successful a particular campaign will be, marketers are needy. We crave feedback; our livelihood often depends on it.
Is this vastly different from old school marketing? No, we were still dependent on feedback, but measuring the effectiveness of social media is faster and lends itself to more instant gratification.
I also think social media makes the general population more needy. With a FB status or RT in Twitter, you can instantly see the approval (or lack of approval) of a particular post. These tools are feeding those that crave constant attention.
Do you think social media makes marketers or people in general more needy?