Martha says no to Facebook - should anyone care?

Martha Stewart thinks Facebook is "dippy"

She is a domestic goddess with a net worth upwards of 600 million dollars. She has a magazine, television show and a syndicated talk show. She even knows her way around a stock exchange. But for all of her considerable talents, Martha Stewart is clueless when it comes to social media.

Recently in an interview with The Daily Beast, Stewart proclaimed Twitter "the Walmart of the Internet."

Now, I am not sure what that is supposed to mean, especially given her deal with K-Mart but whatever. Typically, one doesn't associate Walmart as being the gold standard for shopping, but yet Martha obviously meant this as a compliment when describing Twitter. How odd.

Twitter - It's a good thing!

Martha went on to say that Twitter was better than Facebook because "you don’t have to spend any time on it, and, second of all, you reach a lot more people. And I don’t have to ‘befriend’ and do all that other dippy stuff that they do on Facebook."

I guess that Martha hasn't kept very current with the site traffic of Facebook and Twitter. In not so "breaking news" Facebook has 250 million users while Twitter is a meager 20 million and that Facebook's monthly traffic dwarfs Twitter's. I think what Martha meant to say was that her Twitter account has more followers than her personal profile has on Facebook. I'd go on to further hypothesize that Martha, or rather the person who updates her social profiles because I am quite sure it isn't her, has spent more time cultivating a following on Twitter. This is probably because it is easier, and garnering a follower base on Twitter takes little to no effort. If you are a celebrity of Martha's calibre, one shout out on your television show will probably bring 20,000 - 30,000 new followers.

The real missed opportunity here (hate that phrase but it fits in this case) is that Facebook has an exponentially larger user base than Twitter. It has a real advertising platform associated with it and way to make money. Everything that Martha could possibly do with Twitter, she could do on Facebook. She could still run the same promotions she does on Twitter but actually engage with her fans in a more dynamic way, from video, photos, links and even real time chat. Hey, if it is good enough for the President, I am guessing it would do well enough for Martha Stewart.

Celebrities still don't get social media

Why do celebrities seem to flock to Twitter over Facebook? I think Martha actually did a good job summing it up with her critique of Facebook. Celebrities just don't want to befriend their fans, and they'd rather spend little or (in Stewart's case) no time learning to use the tools. For celebrities, Twitter is a megaphone to get out a message. It's little more than a one-way communication vehicle. There aren't effective ways to have groups of people organize on Twitter, to group conversations or to even have a dialogue with another person, especially if there isn't reciprocity in follows.

Martha has over a million followers but only follows 32 people herself. How likely is it that she is scanning Twitter for mentions of her name? If I am a fan and I want to reach out to Martha, would she even notice? My guess is no and that isn't "a good thing."

Alright, you get it by now - I have a low opinion of celebrities posing as social media experts. That isn't to say they are all self-obsessed self promoters.

Look at Shaq for example. He routinely has tweet ups and engages his fans. In fact, most of Shaq's Twitter updates are actually conversations with other Twitter followers. He still has a disproportionate number of followers to followees (not a word I realize) but you can tell he at least is interested in what his followers say. Look no further than Martha Stewart's first page of updates to see that she clearly isn't. When many of your tweets come from HootSuite, a tool that is designed to spit out automated messages, you start to get the picture. Maybe this is what Martha meant when she said you didn't have to put any time into Twitter.

Do you agree with Martha Stewart that Twitter is better than Facebook? Do you think that befriending people online is "dippy?" Let me know in comments!