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Social media is like a giant house party that’s been going on for years. Back in 2006, the party was relatively small. Facebook was only two years old and just starting to go from college-only to an open platform that anyone with an email address could join. Twit- ter had just launched, and most people didn’t know what to think of it (or say on it besides “I just showered”). YouTube was only a year old and still basking in the glory of the “Lazy Sunday” video.

At this social media house party, you felt like you could walk around and mingle with anyone. When you sent a tweet or up- dated a Facebook status, people actually saw it and responded. There certainly weren’t many brands pitching their products. Oh, and there definitely weren’t any social media experts, ma- vens, ninjas, whatever (please people, stop calling yourself these things). Social media was an incredibly effective way to commu- nicate with people, and you were almost guaranteed a response

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because there were relatively few people on these networks. Long before I started IWearYourShirt, I attended South By Southwest SXSW in 2007 with my design company co-founder Den- nis from Thought & Theory. This was our first time attending SXSW, and we had only decided to go because we had landed a big retainer client the month before. We were excited at the opportunity to at- tend SXSW, to see downtown Austin, Texas, and to learn as much as we could about what was going on in our respective industries (design for Dennis, and marketing for me).

I attended a panel that was geared toward using Twitter for your companies. It was during that panel that I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and signed up for a Twitter account (hello @ thejasonsadler, Twitter account # 696,013). I listened to the panel members talk about hash tags, which were simply words after a “#” symbol (e.g., #CreativityForSale). They talked about how they were starting conversations with complete strangers by using a popular hash tag and asking questions.

Being the curious extrovert I was (and still am), one of my first tweets was “Does anyone want to meet up at #SXSW?” Within seconds, I had people at SXSW replying that they’d love to meet at a certain lounge or at a party later that day. At the time, I was less- than-nobody, but Twitter was just that small and people were ac- tually listening and engaging. Funny enough, someone in the same room a few seats to my right saw my tweet and tweeted back at me.

Nowadays when you send a tweet, you’ll be lucky if you get a response, let alone meet up with new people at crowded events where everyone is tweeting and haphazardly using hash tags. #end- ofparagraph #youarereadingmybook #creativityforsale #book

When I got more active on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in 2008, there were definitely a lot more users, but the party was

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still navigable. You could tweet things, and people would respond and retweet them. You could put up witty Facebook statuses, and all your friends would comment on your wall. (Remember typing updates start with “. . . watching TV right now” because Facebook put “Jason is . . .” in all your updates? That was silly.) And YouTube, well, I didn’t start uploading my own YouTube videos until 2009, but I watched endless videos and commented on them, and the video creators responded. (What a novel idea! Actually talking with someone on social media!). The social media party wasn’t yet in out-of-control proportions, and you had time to stay for one or two more drinks.

Near the end of 2010, the floodgates opened up. Marketers and brands created accounts like they were going out of style. Groupon was dominating people’s inboxes (I bought more tooth whitening $40-for-$20 deals than I care to admit). Pinterest was just getting popular with its invite-only registration tactic (a brilliant marketing move that still works to generate buzz if your product is actually great). I even made the switch from my personal profile on Face- book to a brand page because I had hit the cap of 5,000 friends on my account (one of the dumbest things Facebook ever did in my opinion; capping at 5,000 friends). In short, the social media house party seemed to be bursting at the seams, and it was get- ting harder and harder to move through the party, let alone hear anything anyone was saying.

In mid-2011, the party erupted like the Icelandic volcano Ey- jafjallajökull (which coincidentally, had just erupted a year prior in 2010). Instead of spilling molten lava and spraying volcanic ash for hundreds of miles, the social media party erupted with brands, marketers, and social media experts flying in every direction. They had deals, offers, sales, follow-for-follows, e-books, and so much

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more. And there I was, caught in the middle of it. My little social media marketing company IWearYourShirt was no longer the new kid in town. Less people were actually talking to one another, and it seemed like everyone was just trying to sell something.

Don’t get me wrong; IWYS shared offers, deals, and sales, but we did that as sparingly as possible. We tried to focus on building relationships with brands and with fans, telling stories and creating unique and engaging content for people to enjoy. My issue is that the majority of people using social media forget all about the social part of it. Twitter isn’t the classified section in the back of a newspa- per or magazine. Facebook isn’t a new fancy billboard. These sites were built for interacting and creating two-way conversations, not for getting people to save 15% on their next pair of stupid skinny jeans. (Truthfully, I’m only mad at skinny jeans because my legs are too husky to fit in them.)