"That's the new color children"

So now everybody is falling all over each other to get on Pinterest, and bloggers are writing about your "Pinterest strategy" and asking if it's the new Facebook.

You may remember that 3-4 months ago, they were asking if Google + is the new Facebook.

Did you ever see "The Wiz"? I'm thinking specifically of the "Emerald City Sequence". YouTube won't let me embed it, but here's a handy-dandy link so you can watch it.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Aaaaaand we're back. Did you notice how (at 2:25) while everybody is loving Green, The Wiz (Richard Pryor) announces that "I thought it over, and Green is dead. 'Til I change my mind, the color's red."

And oh, do we all love Red. But wait, at 4:36, he comes back on the horn. "Last week when y'all were wearing pink, already for me Red was old. The ultimate yellow brick is Gold! (That's the new color children.)"

And that's pretty much what it looks like to me as we run from MySpace to Facebook to Twitter, to Google + to Pinterest and all around the rest of the Lesser Sites and back again.

Green. Red. Gold. And On and On.

Look, just because a newspaper, magazine, radio station, web site or television network exists doesn't mean you absolutely, positively have to be in it or on it, does it? Of course not.

By the same token, just because another digital genius (and I don't mean that with any sarcasm) comes up with another whiz-bang medium for oversharing doesn't mean you have to automatically be there.

And yet, we all know people who feel the need to immediately get their this-page, that-page and the-other-page up and running and maintained with daily updates. And much of it is of the "here's our daily special" or "it's nice weather so come and see us soon!" or "here's what we did this morning" variety.

I think that in many, many cases, it's because it seems like a "free" way to reach customers, guests or clients. Actually, unless you don't value your time at all, it's not free. There is a cost associated with creating and properly maintaining all of those social media outlets. And you have to wonder - or at least I wonder - whether or not there is a measurable return - in as in $$$ - as a result of it.

I'm not going to discount the value of social media, obviously. I Tweet once a day with what I hope is a value statement for those who follow us. Something they can use. Those Nasuti & Hinkle Tweets are linked to my LinkedIn page and Karen's as well, and I put stuff up on our company Facebook page when I think it's appropriate. And I try to blog 2- times a week.

I just think that it's a it silly to turn yourself inside-out making sure you are all over whatever Latest Thing there is.

What you need to turn yourself inside-out over is making sure you're using the Best Thing there is to reach your target. Maybe it's Pinterest.

And maybe it's not.