Why Social Media is like Cup-A-Soup

This thought hit me this morning on my way to work. I have just been through a few days of heavy phlegm on the chest. I’ve been through something like this before, but it has always been part of a bout of flu or a common cold. And every time I go through the recovery process I have lots and lots of Cup-A Soup. Except this time. I did not have flu, so I did not need Cup-A-Soup. However I think because my brain is so accustomed to a certain diet throughout the recovery process.. I could not get Cup-A-Soup off of my subconscious. And because I’m always thinking about or doing something related to social media, I guess the subconscious just made its own mashup while I was busy commuting.. reading selected chapters from “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” for the umpteenth time.

So why does my brain think social media is like Cup-A-Soup?

1. Variety of Flavours
There are currently so many social networks in so many different niches, I bet if I Google the phrase “Chinese in West Street, Durban, South Africa”.. and I look really hard – I’ll find some online network dedicated to that group. Not that I can read Chinese or anything like that, but why do we have Google Translate? Social networks are segmented by geography, ethnicity, age, gender, business interests, marketing disciplines, sexual orientation and a plethora of other segments. There is literally a social network for almost everybody.

2. Quick & Easy Preparation
In all the years we’ve had internet access in South Africa (that’s roughtly from 1994), social networks are the easiest things to get up and running online. You complete a short form, check your email, click a link and bam! – you’re up and running. From there on you can either leave your profile as is or populate it, but you’re in. No more questions to answer or hoops to jump through. You’re a fully “paid-up” member. You automatically have access to all the same functionality as the guy that’s on there for 3 years and has 6000 friends. (to borrow a phrase from MWEB) Just like that.

3. Comes with Instructions
If you’re internet illiterate.. or just a little bit literate.. and you can follow simple instructions, then you can be up and running on a social network in no time. They made it so easy, my 7-year old daughter has a profile on Facebook and Twitter. You just look for Step 1, Step 2 and the “Submit” button. Done.

4. Small portions or Large
There are no hard and fast rules about how to “do” social media, but the “experts” suggest that before you jump in – first listen. By that they mean have a look around, see what others are doing, see how they do it, what they talk about etc etc.. and then – when you’re good and ready – do exactly as they do. Bulltwang actually. If you feel you just want to only be friends with people you talk to on email as well, by all means go ahead. If you feel you wanna befriend only Japanese nuclear physicists – be my guest. If you want to have 20 000 Facebook friends and own 500 Facebook groups – do your thing. Social media epitomises democracy (to a large extent), and therefore the only one who determines how big or small a chunk of the social network you wanna bite off.. is YOU.

5. Dilute to feed more
Like with everything in life, it lasts longer the thinner you spread it, or you can really enjoy it if you lay it on thick. Social networking is no different. If you want 10 000 followers on Twitter, you’re bound to have tough time keeping up with everybody’s tweets, and an even tougher time seeing and responding to tweets directed at you (unless you have Tweetdeck of course). But 100 Twitter followers makes for a nice, close-knit community of people who can really interact and sustain that interaction. More is less. Less is more.

6. Enjoy in any weather
Soup used to be something your granny made over the coal stove in a cauldron – during winter. Now that we have instant soup, we can have it whenever we like.. in whatever quantities we like. Before I got married I lived alone, and would stock up on 2-minute noodles and Cup-A-Soup for those nights take-away food just doesn’t have any appeal. I ran through two or three boxes in a day – during summer months. (yeah I was lazy to cook or go buy food).Like that, social networking isn’t something you do only when you feel social, or when you’re alone. With the strong connectivity and mobile technology we have available these days, we “do” social media everywhere.. all.. the.. time. Feelings, weather.. immaterial.

7. With or without bread
And it doesn’t satisfy the “social appetite” to just be on 10 individual social networks. These days we have services like Friendfeed and we have APIs that plug one network into another, so we have social networks of social networks. We – naturally – have the option of not plugging them into one another, or only plugging one into two more etc. It doesn’t matter which additive you like or dislike, the option to have it is always available.

8. Comes nicely packaged
Social network front-ends (that’s the part you see on your monitor) are like “digital honey”. Almost all of them are designed and uses colour to trigger an attraction.. an affinity. Almost like when you walk down a supermarket aisle that you’ve traversed hundreds of times before and suddenly those little green boxes just snatch your attention? Same thing happens when you log onto most social networks. And the best part is.. it works.

9. Off the shelf
This is the part of social networks that I personally can’t stand. Apart from Myspace and Posterous, everybody’s page on most social networks looks exactly the same. I cannot understand why social network owners don’t allow “profile customizability”. It’s like the great Prophet Marc Zuckerberg came down from Mount Silicon with just one tablet that has the inscription: “Thou shall not customize, otherwise thou shalt covet the neigbor’s theme”. And then everybody obeyed.
This reminds me of how I can have chicken noodle, beef and noodle, but not bacon noodle soup.. and I love both bacon and noodles. I mean c’mon. To be social is to be human. To be human means you’re gonna feel like change at some point. Even if it’s just a little change. Sadly, if you buy “off the shelf”.. no change.

And you’ve probably already noticed that I only have nine points. Perhaps you have a points you can share on why you think Social media is like Cup-A-Soup, and that will make it ten. Feel free to do that right now.

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