partly because we are constantly trying to make the correct decisions

and those are based on assumptions we are making that either patterns will continue

or a hiccup in the routine is due.

when it comes to social media i know exactly what something means

if a brand puts a warning on its facebook page, for example

it means the social media person has no clue what theyre doing

or it means their boss told them to do it because he has no clue what social is.

i’ll explain briefly what social media is: it is a street fight with no rules and invisible foes.

and lots of them.

so if you are, say, a social media omg director, and you tell people in the wide open public that

social media is hard

then the foes will know you dont know how to fight in this jungle

which means you will make all the rookie mistakes.

brands, btw, are not allowed to fight in public. its a bad look.

which is why great social media brands ninja that shit.

quietly.

seamlessly.

with no paper trail.

bro is just flailing, making a mess, banning and blocking furiously.

sometimes i forget im so much older than the kids

sometimes i forget that they didnt see the rise of all of this, first hand, in the front row.

so they are reacting

instead of directing.

sometimes i forget not everyone is in the jobs they are best suited for

and that can make them anxious and self conscious and riddled with imposter syndrome

and thats when i would say

life is so short.

if you are faking it, and you know you dont love your path, then change it.

do the thing that you arent a terrified phony at.

do the thing you omg love even if you cant be the director of it

even if you have to start all over again at the bottom.

bc i’ll tell you this, people at the bottom who love the thing, rocket to the top.

in college i was a fine sports editor

but i had an assistant who was great. maybe the best.

i stepped down for her because it was just so obvious.

she ended up being a pro journalist for decades and even a college journalism instructor for a bunch of time – because it was the thing she loved.

stop fucking around, do the thing you love, quit the thing you suck at.

throwing basic bitch links on basic bitch stories is not hard

neither is moderating a facebook thread.

go start your OF

it depresses the hell out of me

but i need to keep up with everything so i can work

and feed my family

and pay off this mortgage

and cut these credit cards

and keep my cats in that good kitty litter.

but damn is it depressing.

this is an excerpt from her podcast
i wonder how quickly youtube deletes it

so listen while you can because it’s two and a half minutes of exactly what i think of social media

at first i thought it was distractions

and maybe it is

but it’s not the ones i thought

what if my biggest distractions are facebook and twitter and instagram and reddit and snapchat?

i always tell people that it if wasnt my job i would just huck my phone

or have phone office hours and then turn it off the rest of the day

but i read those things constantly because they are a constant source of joy and information

beauty and inspiration

ways to be wicked

and 65 new ways to be a damn good person.

even if the articles are bunk im looking at the design, the SEO, the graphics, the sound

when bono sang IM WIDE AWAKE i didnt understand at the time because it was the ’80s

but im so awake its scary.

how am i supposed to focus?

and you know maybe thats the podcast right there: an hour unedited

hit record, upload, move on to the next one.

i have zero interest or time to fix shit in post.

do you have any idea how many ideas i need to get out there?

and they keep coming.

i remember when robyn bell asked me if i would be interested in leaving the letters and science dept at UCSB and come over to the college of creative studies

and i asked, creativity, eh?

then i asked, do you think our creativity drains up after a while?

and she said, nope.

and she did not lie.

Some say there’s no place for a social media professional once he hits a certain age.

Some say it’s a job for millennials, an entry-level gig that once you turn, say, 35, you’ve worn out your welcome.

While that may be the case in regards to some brands, when it comes to news, especially entertainment news – with all its rich history – I say it’s good to have someone around who knows that D.A. Pennebaker’s classic Dylan doc doesn’t have an apostrophe in its first word.

I think it’s good to have someone around who knows that N.W.A dropped the last period in their name.

I think it’s helpful to have someone in the social media department who knows that Donna Summer had been dead for years before posting on FB that she had just passed.

What’s the value of ensuring that an organizations tweets are as solid as its copy? Pennies? Dollars? Tens of thousands of dollars?

Serious people who realize social media posts are capable of flying around the world in a split-second might say that it’s priceless to give off the perception that you actually know what you’re tweeting about.

And unfortunately 25 year olds, talented as they may be, can’t know everything.

.. and sometimes they skip the factchecking part where you go to IMDb to double-check spelling.

When I was hired to do the lowly task of editing the closed captions for the E! Networks, I had a boss who told me “look up every single name, even if you love that person.”

I’ll never forget that direction. For in even a fleeting caption, our job was to be accurate.

Today the trades, the experts, and even AP did a great disservice to an award-winning documentarian. In part, I believe, while experienced pros are sitting on the bench… or in my case wasting away on the free agent wire, patiently waiting for the phone to ring.