According to Seb Coe, the former British 1,500m Olympic
champion, there’s a correlation between
how much you tweet and how you perform.
 |
| Lord Coe expressed concerns that tweeting is a distraction for Olympians. |
“I have found quite a close
correlation between the number of tweets at competitive times and the level of
under-performance,” says his Lordship.
It’s an interesting question for sure. To what extent can
social media updates, that require such a small input of time and energy,
distract you from what you should be focused on?
Colleagues of mine spend a lot of time defending social
media, because it takes so little to fire out a tweet, or update Facebook. I
think it’s a reasonable defense. The
question is really what the wider cost is. What Seb Coe seems to be saying is
that talking to your audience a lot, may put you at risk of disappointing them.
But if you think about it, there are also positive
possibilities. To what extent do we alter our behavior in order to satisfy
our virtual audience?
I know people who like to sound clever on Facebook updates. No
kidding; I have had people confess to me after a couple of beers that they make
a real effort to sound smart and engaged when they post. They feel like it’s a
way to make a good impression, on friends, on family… they’re fueling their own
ego. They will read news sites and newspapers, looking for the day’s smart
story, so they can be seen to post it. If that sounds pathetic, OK – but
they’re still reading the newspaper. They never did before. In their attempts
to look engaged, they have accidentally become engaged.
Another friend of mine posts all his runs to Facebook, via
the Nike + app. So-and-so has just completed his 3.01 mile run in 28 minutes.
He claims to train more often and run faster because he knows it will be seen
and measured.
In reality Social Media represents a great way to
encourage accountability. What gets measured, gets done, right? So why not
openly encourage your staff to post their successes on every social media? Even
create your own social media networks inside your company to encourage
bragging. It might help the staff reach to achieve for something to brag about.
So the end of the day, an Olympic athlete shouldn’t need
Social Media to report on progress. They should have medals to wave around.
They should have newspaper clippings.
But for the rest of us, there’s no harm in wanting to look
better, especially if it encourages us to actually do better.
Do you have thoughts? Can Twitter help with productivity? Should athletes put the smartphone down?
Richard Spragg writes on various subjects including global engineering staffing and global engineering jobs.
