Don’t try to start lame conversations in social media

Do you see companies and nonprofits trying too hard to hang out with the cool kids on Facebook?

It’s embarrassing. Mission Paradox Blog noticed it too, and reports at Fake Community about hearing the following on the radio:

Join the VISA Pre-Paid Debit Card Conversation on Facebook.

Really. Imagine someone with a perfectly straight face and completely non-ironic intentions thinking anybody wants to spend even one second of their life in a conversation about pre-paid debit cards, VISA or otherwise.

But we see nonprofits doing pretty much the same thing: Thinking their internal conversation about who they are and what they do will naturally become part of the conversations happening on Facebook.

It doesn’t work. As Mission Paradox notes:

If what you have is self serving, or boring, or lazy, dumping it into social media will not magically turn it into something else. It’s still self serving. It’s still boring. This is why so many social media efforts fail…

Facebook is a compelling place. That’s why more than 500 million people have signed up for it. But you don’t become compelling just by showing up and opening your mouth.

Remember your mom’s advice about making friends: “Talk to people about the things they’re interested, not just the thing’s you are interested in.”