When It’s Smart To Be Stupid In Social Media

The professional lives under a terrible curse: they can never look stupid. Stupid is a death blow to the consultant, creative professional, marketer, or PR professional. Looking stupid ruins your credibility, loses business and gets you taken off all the lists that you want to be on. Stupid people are shunned, omitted from all the best gatherings and worst of all, they are ignored. Who would want to be stupid, especially in the “always on” public sphere of social media?

Here’s the really stupid thing about all of this, though: some people who look profoundly stupid turn out to be incredibly successful. And trust me, it’s not because of their incredible physical attributes. Well, not all of the time.

Here are some of the ways that successful people look stupid in social media:

Asking questions

As a professional you are supposed to have all of the answers. After all, that’s why you get paid the big bucks, right? You’re smarter than the average schmoe and you are supposed to know it all. Therefore, asking questions will only betray your stupidity to paying clients.

Well … wait a moment. None of us are telepathic, right? We need to get information somehow and, let’s face it, people don’t always volunteer the information right away. So, OK, I guess you do have to ask a few questions because you’re not omniscient.

Come to think of it: people do like to be asked questions and they do like to respond in public if looks like it’s a win-win scenario to do so. Another thought: there is that technique known as the “leading question,” when you ask a question because you know what the answer will and you want a bunch of people to know. Sometimes that’s uncomfortable in the court room, but it can be a valuable learning tool.

Is it always appropriate to ask questions in public forums? It depends on the question, of course, but maybe there’s more to be gained by letting the conversation happen in public view.

Maybe asking questions in social media isn’t so stupid after all.

Giving your opinion

Rants never helped anyone; criticism didn’t either. A number of smart people have remarked that social media exists for complaining. It provides a global platform to virtually everyone to moan about the things that bother them. It’s stupid to rant in public; it just makes you look like a jerk. (Right, Jason? Heh.)

Well … except when it doesn’t. The public stage is not the most graceful forum to give feedback at times, but sometimes it’s effective. No matter what you may think of the infamous “DELL HELL” incident from a few years back, that experience helped bring some positive change in the way Dell deals with their customers. Was it stupid for Jeff Jarvis to complain so loudly and so persistently? It sure doesn’t look like it was stupid if it did have a positive impact.

Being vulnerable

I’m not a communications or reputation management professional, but it sure seems like it would be stupid to be vulnerable online, especially if you are a company. If your company’s private customer data got published to the public Web, it would sure make you look stupid if you admitted that publicly, right? You can just hear that share price falling right now, can’t you?

Perhaps it would seem stupid to be vulnerable, at least in the short term. However, not only is disclosure a legal and ethical requirement, sometimes it’s the first step in defending and improving a reputation. People are usually more forgiving of a mistake (even a stupid one) than they are of denial or hiding.

Sometimes letting your shields down in social media means losing a battle in the short term, but it may be the only way to win the war over the long term.

Asking for help

I think I’m fighting a losing battle here. Since I’ve gotten through all of the prior reasons, I remembered little things like crowdsourcing, partnering and collaboration. Professionals are supposed to be self-sufficient and asking for help is the worst display of weakness.

Then I remembered a clever little term called scale and I realized that asking for help isn’t stupid at all. No one gets big, meaningful work done alone. And trying to go it alone all of the time may be the stupidest thing of all.

With the broad coverage of social networks and the Internet in general, asking for help using social media may be the most efficient, effective, and smartest thing of all.

So, dear reader, what do you think? Do you think it is ever smart to be stupid in social media? The comments, as always, are yours.

Related articles

• Cup of Joe: Is Social Media Making Us Stupid? (marketingpilgrim.com)
• Social media lessons from politics (holykaw.alltop.com)