4 years of engineering makes you breathe numbers, digest concepts and play with applications. And then you drop it and choose a whole new path for yourself. And guess what, to top it all, you choose something that isn't so mainstream at all.
The last time I tried to explain to someone what do I exactly do led to the following conversation -
- Oh so you mean you sit on Facebook the whole day? Or
- What's the difference between Facebook and Twitter anyway? Twitter is just Facebook without photos, isn't it?
- People actually get paid to do that?
- YouTube is a social media channel?
Honestly, I don't blame them because how much so ever updated one might be; explaining digital, especially social media management to them remains a painstaking task.
Entering the digital space as an outsider and living in it for almost a year now, I have learnt a few things that are absolutely unique to the kind of work we do and people will never get these.
1. Others might not believe it but launching a Facebook page can be as demanding as bringing up a baby. You check on it time and time again, you feed it with new content and then you protect it from spammers!
2. We too have crisis! Recently somebody asked me - after all, your work is not about life and death, so what's the panic about? The panic is about protecting your property from unwanted people at any hour - day or night.
3. Having a social presence is not only about 'posting' out-of-context quotes and getting a million 'likes' or following everyone on Twitter so that they follow you back. There is 'strategy' that goes into every aspect of what we do too.
4. 9 PM - 5 PM? Come again?
The web doesn't sleep so how can we? You never know who, where, is sitting and waiting to be offended by something that your client sells or does. So next time you give a bad review/remark online after eating dinner late at night - remember someone like us is getting thrashed the next day!
5. It seems to everyone that we never work. Whenever someone will come by our desk - they will see the likes of HootSuite, TweetDeck running all the time. This doesn't mean that we aren't working, that IS OUR WORK!
6. Lastly, people always say - 'you guys are so lucky'. Seriously? Try being on Facebook/Twitter as 4 different people with completely different personalities for a week and the same tools you love, you will despise. I mean imagine talking like 4 people - an engineer, a businessman, a corporate executive and a social worker at the same time.
The last time I tried to explain to someone what do I exactly do led to the following conversation -
- Oh so you mean you sit on Facebook the whole day? Or
- What's the difference between Facebook and Twitter anyway? Twitter is just Facebook without photos, isn't it?
- People actually get paid to do that?
- YouTube is a social media channel?
Honestly, I don't blame them because how much so ever updated one might be; explaining digital, especially social media management to them remains a painstaking task.
Entering the digital space as an outsider and living in it for almost a year now, I have learnt a few things that are absolutely unique to the kind of work we do and people will never get these.
1. Others might not believe it but launching a Facebook page can be as demanding as bringing up a baby. You check on it time and time again, you feed it with new content and then you protect it from spammers!
2. We too have crisis! Recently somebody asked me - after all, your work is not about life and death, so what's the panic about? The panic is about protecting your property from unwanted people at any hour - day or night.
3. Having a social presence is not only about 'posting' out-of-context quotes and getting a million 'likes' or following everyone on Twitter so that they follow you back. There is 'strategy' that goes into every aspect of what we do too.
4. 9 PM - 5 PM? Come again?
The web doesn't sleep so how can we? You never know who, where, is sitting and waiting to be offended by something that your client sells or does. So next time you give a bad review/remark online after eating dinner late at night - remember someone like us is getting thrashed the next day!
5. It seems to everyone that we never work. Whenever someone will come by our desk - they will see the likes of HootSuite, TweetDeck running all the time. This doesn't mean that we aren't working, that IS OUR WORK!
6. Lastly, people always say - 'you guys are so lucky'. Seriously? Try being on Facebook/Twitter as 4 different people with completely different personalities for a week and the same tools you love, you will despise. I mean imagine talking like 4 people - an engineer, a businessman, a corporate executive and a social worker at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment