What I Have Learned Through Social Media

Everyone has a platform or the ability to build one with a click of a mouse. We call that social media. Fill in few lines, upload a picture (real or imaginary) and they have a space. Now what they do with that space is rather interesting.
1. Soapbox- It doesn't matter what it is, they think their audience wants to hear it. We are not talking once in a while, but often enough that you tend to unfollow or ignore their posts.
2. Complainers- This is an interesting group because sometimes their complaints are valid, but what is not valid is using their posts as a way to manipulate companies into doing something for them which is not warranted or deserved. The main group are people too lazy to pick up a phone or go to the Website, so they just post their gripe, and then gripe more if a representative from that company does not contact them publicly to air out their issues. It's manipulative at its core, but sadly, it's effective, particularly if the complainer has at large following.
3. You can throw a rock and hit a social media "expert." Most are not one, it's that plain and simple.
4. Tech writers are not that original. As a reader of nearly 15 of them, too often they tend to skim off each others ideas, even down to quoting the same material.
5. There are lots of VALID opportunities but you will have to sift through to find them. I partnered with some major companies on the basis of one tweet and an idea of how to utilize it. It completely changed the direction I was going.
6. You can make some great friends, but by all means keep out of the social media clicks and dramas. Millions of people may be on social sites, but you find the community is actually really small.
7. Handle your business. It can be easy with all the social media websites to get whiplash trying to decide which one(s) to be on. Really, it is a mute point if using for personal reasons. If using for business, go where your audience is, and that doesn't require much for most businesses.
8. Have fun. Way too often you can see one post too many telling you how you are doing it wrong, ignore them and talk to your people the way you like or the way they are used to you talking to them. My tweets are really mixed, because it is really built on my personality. As much as I have tried to change it, I always go back to it. I do that because I don't like games and I handle people online the same as I would if they were in my home. I don't have to try to remember how I am supposed to act.

So, you have a platform, use it but please never take people who have invited you into their virtual world for granted.

What say you?