Social Media Slappin'

Social media. Shhh. Don't say it too loud.  I mean, just imagine a crack addict who hears a dealer on the corner has a stash for sale.

News management can't go more than an hour without hearing it, saying it, tweeting or facebooking about it, or they do get the shakes.   Thanks to the kool-aid consultants have news management drinking these days,  tweets and facebook wall posts are hotter than that Justin Beaver (or Bieber as I recently learned was his actual name. Though I prefer Beaver).

SOCIAL MEDIA is being treated like the Second Coming.  Mention such social media in a story pitch and well, a turd of a story just got dipped in gold.  (Hey, TV stories are only about a minute long. Gold-plated is good enough.)

And, I must admit.  A year and a few months now since the mandate came down in our newsroom to tweet and facebook as part of our daily routine, (saying this under my breath) I actually don't mind it too much.

Having said that, I am not the most professional when it comes to this.  The idea is to tease your upcoming story, post links to the station website, etc.  I just checked, and my last tweet went a little something like this:

"Do you think Lakers player Gasol uses Soul Glo?"

(note: my story last night was not about the NBA Finals or the jheri curl.)

So fine.  I get to have some fun.  But there's a fine line between fun and fun house weirdos.  Thanks to facebook and twitter, it's like an open casting call for the freak show.  Case and point:  Last week, I wrote a tweet about a woman I was interviewing about a BBQ joint we were profiling.  She told me "This BBQ is SLAP YOUR MAMA GOOD!"

So, I shared on twitter.  "A woman just told me her BBQ was SLAP YOUR MAMA GOOD."

The first response on twitter directed at me:

"E, Did you have some? Do you wanna do some SLAPPIN'?!"

Hmmm. Can I think about it?

Consider this your inappropriate social media comment of the week.  Many more to come.