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| Dumbs down social media |
Wes Snidely, the IT coordinator at the Metro Community
Foundation, says he is meeting with great success calling social media “Magic”
instead of a group of web-based and mobile-based technologies which are used to
turn communication into interactive dialogue among organizations, communities,
and individuals.
Snidely, 22, is the only IT person at the Foundation, which
raises money to help a wide variety of community initiatives. He provides
computer and database services and looks after the Foundation’s out-of-date
website. Since he was hired last year all his colleagues have been asking him
about is social media.
“They all want to know about it – the CEO, the fundraising
manager and even the communications manager. They’re like all in the 50s and
don’t know jack about it,” Snidely said. “They think I do because like I’m way
younger than they are.”
But Snidely says he was unsuccessful trying to educate his
colleagues about the 300-odd social media platforms and how to use them.
“Like, I told them that social media technologies take on
many different forms including magazines, Internet forums, weblogs, social
blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating
and social bookmarking,” recalls Snidely. “Then I told them that there are six
different types of social media, including collaborative projects, blogs and
microblogs like Twitter, content communities like YouTube, social networking
sites such as Facebook, virtual game
worlds like the way cool World of
Warcraft, and virtual social worlds like that funky Second Life stuff. Man that
is hot! Always makes my netbook crash, though.”
However, his explanation, which included a really cool
multimedia presentation that he worked on for four days straight, was
completely lost on his audience.
“They asked me to repeat what I said again, but slower. Then
the communications manager thanked me for explaining it to them, pulled out a
mickey of whiskey and started drinking right then and there. They just didn’t
get it. Man, it was bad. Way bad.”
That’s when Snidely got the idea to dumb down the whole
thing into language that even the CEO could understand.
“These guys were like so dumb they reminded me of characters
I saw in Disney movies when I was a kid. And that’s when it hit me, man. That’s
how I could explain it!”
Snidely called the same group of colleagues back together and
told them that everything he had told them before was a lie, and that all
social media was in fact “magic”. That was much more successful.
“I said to them, dudes, I shouldn’t be telling you Muggles
this but all social media runs on magic. You know, the Harry Potter kind,”
Snidely said. “They broke into smiles, started listening and in an hour they
understood everything I had been telling them. It was amazing.”
Snidely said Facebook was run by good elves from the Kingdom
of Light who wanted to communicate with people in order to save them from bad
guys who had like a really wicked cool bad guy name that couldn’t be spoken,
but sounded like “Zuckerberg”. He told them Twitter was in fact a digital spell
and potion log and that YouTube was somewhat like the Magic Mirror in Snow
White.
“I basically told them that I was a wizard and that
everything I do was magic,” he said. “That really worked. Not only could they
actually understand what I was proposing but also Janet the finance director
started treating me nicer and stuff because she thought I might turn her into a
frog or something.”
Snidely was able to get the Foundation to invest in a new
way cool website and a full suite of social media “magic”. He also got a
no-questions-asked expense account to invest in further “magical potions and
spells”.
“Dumbing it down for these
guys was the best thing ever. I have a nice new office. Some new
computer gear. People leave me alone. I even think some of the girls who work
in events are beginning to like me. Like, this has become a dream job.”
Snidely says he plans next to explain planned giving as “evil
magic” and launch a career in fundraising.
