What’s Important to Know?

Climate Change And Global Pollution To Be Discussed At Copenhagen SummitSome of the comments on the personal post of one of our writers brought up some points that I’ve been thinking about for awhile now. See a friend of mine spent two entire work days at a social media conference. After it was over, I asked him what he learned.

Imagine a very long, brief pause.  Then he started talking in circles, so I pushed again, “No, I mean what did you actually learn?” He proceeded to fess up that it was more of a networking event than an actual learning experience. All in all, he didn’t learn anything new.

Here at the PRBC there has been much debate about the necessity vs. uselessness of social media conferences, but this isn’t about that. Many of us are social media advocates – we praise the importance of social media, offer advice on how to navigate it – however, on occasion I get the feeling that we are just restating the same points over and over again.

Admit it: Have you ever clicked on a social media article that looked interesting, then proceeded to read through the two pages of text, only for the article to state that social media is important? Well, duh.

I think it’s safe to say that a person could spend 24/7 reading everything there is to know about social media, or going to a dozen different conferences – but when does the education process turn into repetition?

There is so much information and so many conferences out there spouting the latest technology developments to commenting on best practices on how to use these channels, which always makes me feel like I am missing something. Yet, when I get around to digging in deep on these topics, I quickly realize, “Hey, I already knew that.”

I try to read up on all things social media, all of the time, but I find it’s best if most of my energy is spent with the technologies that are relevant to my target audience.

Those of us that work in this space are under the constant pressure to know everything there is to know. I think it’s important to have an overall understanding of the social media sphere, but how often do you learn something so new that it actually blows your mind?

With the immense amount of information available, what do you feel is important to know? Where should you spend your efforts? Finally, do you think social media education is now turning into social media repetition?

[reus id=”6″][recent posts]