The Temporal Black Hole of Filtering Data or “Where did the day go?”

Yet another ambly, rambly post from a caffeine fueled hospitality dork. This is more waxing than anything, and is a state of affairs and insight rather than some exciting insider news. Hopefully, if you actually finish it, it will just make you nod your head and think a bit. This is about how we spend out time…. and however it ebbs, however fast; it’s an issue nowadays.  “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”  Might be easy for Albert Einstein to say that…. but it sort of seems like everything *is* happening at once nowadays.

You know what we do. I know what we do. We goof off all day long online!  <ducking>

Ha ha… I kid I kid! But there are moments I feel a hairsbreadth from snapping, lost and boggled while in the stream… panicked with glazed over and angry eyes just trying to read the matrix. Then a client calls and wants me to explain what I am doing?  Yeah right… like I have to answer to them (tongue firmly in cheek).

So we social media people do a couple things. Of those things, I think we mainly get overwhelmed with the depressing fact that, of the 100% of things we see, only a small percentage of the data is relevant.  Beyond the natural conversation, CRM, and carrying a torch for your brand…. I think most of us start our mornings by filtering content, right?  And … OH!… so much content!

Sometimes during this process, I come close to forgetting to walk Pavlov, or eat lunch (like today), or take a break… or look up.  Sometimes when I do look up, it’s 9pm.  Frankly, I *have* started to get a unique balance of work/life between all these influences, something especially complex in that so many of these social media platforms cross back and forth from the personal world to the professional realm.  It isn’t easy to balance, but I think we are all getting there. This isn’t about work/life balance however, but if you have any good tricks let me hear them!

Honestly, some of my aforementioned dementia is rollicking good hyperbole, but I *KNOW* you are aware of what I am speaking about.  I am a hotelier at heart and in practice, but now I am part of this league of social media people with some very peculiar problems.  As for this chaotic side to our job that is less about conversation and more about keywords – what would we like to call it?  Content management?  Data filtering?  I know we have to have google alerts, rss’, twitter searches, flicker searches, and an endless amount of other minutia.  I am not sure how much of my day is spent *working* versus *filtering*.  What’s more, unless you are deft with boolean logic, the sheer volume of stuff that comes our way into readers, email reminders, and feeds is insurmountable.  More and more I find I am choosing my battles, and scarily deleting whole streams of keywords that just don’t feel relevant enough vs. the amount of time I would need to comprehend all of them.

The frustrating thing is that a monkey (or bright lemur) could perform a decent chunk of this.  There are great solutions for these time and data management issues, such as Radian6, but they provide a whole new level of work and have a price point some of us cannot justify. So, many of us our relegated to doing our own work… HEY NO FAIR!

The problem with the amount of time consumed by this is that it keeps us from the real conversation and CRM duties we are being paid to accomplish. For proper yelp and tripadvisor responses, or the courting of potential clients on twitter, you need a fairly robust intellect bolstered by a grasp of how to inject professionalism, personality, and passion into your interactions, coupled with the tactful skill of being deferential *and* confident?  That stuff isn’t easy…. but then these same people are sitting and filtering keywords and conversations for relevancy…. A mind numbing task that a smart 6 year old could do for you. It isn’t a bad idea really… I think they work real cheap.

Whenever I get somewhat insecure or OCD-tweeked with the robotic like filtering of keywords, data, images, and the basic conversation… I just remind myself that someone has to do it.  It is sort of like a B-52 bomber right?  The guys up top had a job to do navigating and bombing, while us little brand watchers in the belly of the plane have to survey the landscape…. watch what’s going on… and shoot when necessary (The coffee this morn was so strong it beat up that weak analogy).

Basically what I am saying is that it is part of a larger picture, and is basically moot. For our purposes, it is just a daunting necessity…. And part of our world. In fact, I see that it is getting its hooks into me… a casual 2 minute weekend web search for dinner reservations or a movie showtime can turn into an exhausting foray into my new drug. While my fiancée readies for our evening excursion, I am sneaking about like some philanderer, furtively injecting my head with this addiction via rss feeds and alerts. As she emerges from our bedroom I scurry away from the computer for fear of getting caught dosing myself and basking in the dimly lit glow of my screen. “But someone might be mentioning the brand!” I think to myself. I realize that social media’s speed *DOES* mean that you need to be on top of it, and join in the conversation as soon as it happens – But there is a limit.

This *huge* aspect of our job is tantamount to trying to beat the internet. Just a friendly reminder that isn’t possible. So what’s the point here? Why the complaining if there is nothing to be done about it??

The issue is the client.

Not only do clients not always “get” social media (that is why they have hired you), but they also may have sneaking suspicions about how much work you are doing versus playing. All the boomers like to talk about “productivity in the workplace dropping”, but if the old days of business were anything like “Mad Men” I think a little playing online during the day is just fine, compared to being drunk on scotch at half past ten (sounds lovely, to be sure).

In the end, this all may be born of my insecurities. I admit I have some concerns with relating the work we do for clients, and resolving the best way to inform them of it. I have spoken about Social Media ROI and getting over it, but I saw a very sanguine and concise point in a blog comment recently: “I know it’s hard, but this is business and it just isn’t right that we can’t measure it”. It’s true. It’s business. It needs to be measured. I think we will get some level of measurement someday, but it’s still evolving. For now, I still think the ROI is the “return on ignoring” social media…. But it still doesn’t make it okay that we can’t get a grip on it.

My clients are happy whether or not they “get” social media, because the end result has been more bookings, better brand image, and people talking about them. Therefore, they are incredibly trusting and supportive, even in relation to the above issues. We social media people need a lot of room, and a long leash, so we can really dig in and gets are hands dirty. But many of my clients don’t understand some core aspects of what we do… namely the amount of time we spend just *getting* to the conversation. Sometimes the important conversations aren’t that apparent, or don’t just come to you via your facebook page. What’s more, I am concerned about measurement for *me*, and not just my clients. This, again, is about time management. At the end of the week, or month, I would love a way to hand over all my work in the form of a single document, spreadsheet, etc, as compared to the lengthy phone calls I need to have. When clients don’t understand social media, and you start showing it to them in the form of work accomplished (building a twitter account and participating, or commenting on a blog, etc)… it may just go over their head. I have seen a number of shrugged shoulders and a “well you have obviously done something….”. I know it is our job to get across what we are doing, but most of what I am doing now is showing them the actual conversation and chatting about it at length… let’s look at twitter, then flickr, then youtube, then…. Aaaaaaaaaaand my day is over and once again I haven’t gotten to any real work. Ha. There’s the rub. Forget sleeping or dreaming (for the Shakespear fans)

All of this is more consumption of time (yes… same as this post too), and it just adds to the dilemma of actually getting work done when you are simply filtering data on the front end, and trying to explain the work you did on the back end. Informing your clients about your work is vital, and if *ANYONE* has ingenious thoughts or methods of efficiently and succinctly relating your social media campaigns to your clients.. I would love to hear them.

Until then, don’t try to beat the internet. Not only is that impossible, but if you literally do it your laptop will be busted into smithereens, and your router will be in shambles. =) Time for lunch at 2pm!