Synapsys Snippets: Social Media is a Game

That doesn’t mean it’s not important. Let’s look at Twitter. Twitter seems like another on-line game in which its participants work to figure out the secret passageways and virtual handshakes to connect with as many followers as possible. That is not an inherently bad thing. But it is not an inherently good thing either. It just is. The question then is how does Twitter impact the lives of those that play? Are we learning to listen more or talk more? We all chatter so incessantly at each other that it seems as though no one listens. Our ability to see, feel, and respond to the needs of others is muted and desensitized by all the noise. How do we tease the signal from the noise? We must listen.

It strikes me that those willing to listen while everyone else is chattering away stand to learn a great deal otherwise lost for the chatterers. The listeners will then have an advantage over the chatterers. Listening does not preclude chatting; it is a fine balance that respects the fact that “we have two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we speak.” A sound analytics strategy is akin to resolving oneself that listening is valuable, and only through listening can we understand and gain insight.