Shut Up Whiner, No One Cares.

This phrase drew me back to the social media webinar I had, until that moment, drifted away from – repulsed by the presenter’s cutesy font choice for her slides.
I had mistakenly thought I was too smart, too cool, too advanced to gain anything from the presentation.  You see, I live, eat, breathe, dream even about communications and media as they relates to well, everything…nonprofits, education, shopping, food, eating, vacationing, etc and it is from these foolish thoughts that I almost missed my own learning opportunity amid the webinar experience. It was only then that she presented something I have always known, but never really been able to articulate about social media users to pass along to a novice or expert client regarding social media as a fluid and living organism. This is not the key to the universe – but it IS simple enough to be my jump off point for a brief tip on social media strategy.

“Shut up whiner, no one cares,” while seemingly obvious is really applicable to your social media strategy as a person and a brand.

“Shut up whiner, no one cares” reminds us that while we are forgiving as a community and a people, we are not beyond turning down the volume on the negative, pushing it to the end of our conversational queues and then continuing on our merry way with other conversations that bring us aid.
What’s the practical application of this phrase?  Simple.

Chadwick Martin Bailey, a total baller in the social marketing research world, distilled social media’s top three reasons people read and share your content:

1) it’s interesting and/or entertaining,
2) it’s helpful, making their lives easier or more full, and
3) it’s funny.

Please note that none of those reasons included;

• “they are out of honey oat bread at the Subway on Fuller AGAIN,”
• “Phil Coke sucks,” or
• “that b***h in the white Mercedes is on her phone, beating her kids, watching a movie, twirling her hair won’t leave the left lane #FML”

Just as in real life, people are happiest when surrounded with supportive and positive influences.
The Interwebz are no different.  If all you ever do is complain or take joy in the misfortune of others, people might “follow” you – but they won’t be enamored with you to act when called upon by you or your brand.  I know, I know…wildly disappointing, yet, so very, very true.

Will they donate to your cause?  Will they buy your product?  Will they contact their legislator?  After you spent the last 50 posts or tweets complaining about things, probably not. So, “shut up whiner, no one cares” turns out to be the most powerful social media strategy I nearly missed because I was focusing on the negative and allowing myself to be distracted by my contrasting aesthetic preferences from the presenter. Yeah, go back and read that … it was pretty powerful.  Now that you know better, don’t waste time lamenting all those terrible tweets; instead be useful and change the world.  Sharing something of value instead of spewing your worldly hates via Twitter isn’t so hard, is it?

Adrienne Wallace is a social media geek who loves honey oat bread at Subway, is disappointed in the Tiger’s relief pitching this season and hates slow drivers that missed the memo they can’t and shouldn’t multi-task while in the left lane.  The Negative Nelly tweets listed were her own.