Saddington’s Heroes at 8bit have done it. Someone with a voice in the modern Christian community finally stepped up to the line. Finally, someone with some pull has called out the pink elephant standing in the room for years.

Finally, someone has called BS on the Church using Spiritual Social Media, defaming the name of Jesus in the name of being hip, or by creating “Christian-safe alternatives”. Read it here.

Social Media is all about connecting to each other, not a pseudo-identity behind a corporate (or nonprofit) name. There is something inherently wrong about jumping on board with a concept just because it is the newest fad. When a company or nonprofit (or worse yet, church) uses their Social Media presence to simply market themselves in a new way instead of as connecting point, it’s BS. If you take the social part out of Social Media, it’s simply media.

Here’s a great example of Social Media like it should be. A couple weeks ago, I was looking for a new Excel book that would strengthen my skills in programming. After much frustration, I finally tweeted to ask if anyone had a suggestion. Que Publishing responded.

I’ve respected Que for many years; I often regard their book to be the bible for whatever product it was written for. Using Que’s Twitter account, a very helpful human, Lisa, came to my help. She began suggesting books. After telling her those books covered only what I already knew, she asked my specific goals in purchasing the book. She then suggested the perfect book for me. After learning I had a Kindle, she suggested I download the free sample chapter in case I didn’t know that I could do that. A few days later, she checked back with me to make sure I had downloaded the sample, and to see if that book fit my needs! That’s customer service if you ask me!

Did I follow Que on Twitter before Lisa contacted me? Nope.

Did Que follow me (like so many spammers do) before interacting with me? Nope.

Does Que use their Twitter feed to spew garbage about their stuff that resembles TV ads? Nope.

Did an actual human at Que interact with me, like a human? Yup.

Did Que meet my expectations? Nope, but they sure did blow them away!

Did I buy the book suggested by Lisa? No, but it is on my Christmas Wish List (hint, hint Shannon).

Are you inadvertently (or purposely) promoting Social Media BS by mindlessly spewing garbage? Are you actively engaging your customers/congregation through your chosen Social Media venues?