I apologize ahead of time. This blog post may very well provide a vision of me, sitting on my porch in the 90 degree heat of a south Louisiana summer, yelling at the kids as they ride their bikes up and down my street.
I don’t like Snapchat.
Oh…I totally “get” Snapchat. I understand the appeal and see why it’s grown by leaps and bounds (especially amongst the 12 – 24 or 34 or whatever demographic).
But I don’t like it.
At all.
God knows I’m an ‘early’ adopter of most anything; Yo? ‘Ello? invites to every beta thing I can scrounge? Yes, yes and yes. Good grief; I’ve had a Snapchat account since early 2014 (maybe end of 2013?? I dunno) and distinctly recall sending a snap to a friend with whom I was having lunch in Atlanta. It might well have been my first one and was a spectacular picture of the ketchup bottle. I tried to drum up some interest. We both tried to be amused.
Neither of us were amused.
I think I have sent exactly 1 snap since that auspicious beginning. I also received a fair number of male-genitalia “snaps” before I realized I didn’t have to, you know, open the stuff from random unknown people.
Interestingly enough no one seemed to really give a crap about Snapchat until all-of-a-sudden it seemed to explode, simultaneously, into the consciousness of my young-professional/Gen-X/even-the-Boomers circle of friends, family and acquaintances.
And then, heading into #SHRM16, SHRM hopped on the bandwagon. Lord. I have yet to decide whether this will take Snapchat amongst the general middle-aged populace into the stratosphere of popularity or foreshadow a rapid (like by the end of 2016) decline. After all, once your mom, grandma, or the HR-lady-wearing-capri-pants-and-a-cardigan gets on Snapchat… it’s all over; know what I mean?
Listen…there are people doing fun and awesome stuff in the recruiting/HR space on Snapchat; check this great post (featuring loads of smart and innovative people) from my friend Lars Schmidt at Amplify Talent.
I adore these people; but I’m just not feeling it.
And then SHRM decided to go full-tilt on Snapchat for #SHRM16. Again – people I love and adore chiming in on this, but..wow..someone is totally (totes!!) PUSHING Snapchat:
- Meet the Top 35+ HR Pros on SnapChat at #SHRM16
- 4 Reasons to Use Snapchat at #SHRM16
- Snapchat Basics for Beginners #SHRM16
Noble effort and I can applaud it but it strikes me as pissing into the wind; I just don’t see the average SHRM member/Annual Conference attendee spending his/her day snapping away between sessions on “The 3 Most Important Things to do for 2016 FLSA Compliance” and “Claim Your Seat! How to Be a Strategic HR Business Partner.”
I predict this will be like the e-n-d-l-e-s-s experiment to get HR gals/guys (with egg avatars!!!!) to tweet MADLY for the 4 days they’re living it up in the conference city after which, of course, they immediately forget they even have a Twitter account until 365 days later when it’s time for the next go-round.
I should be happy I guess; SHRM is attempting to appeal to the masses in a current and youthful (wow!) way. And, interestingly enough, on a channel where it’s a bit harder to measure the efforts of one’s efforts/engagement.
I truly do hope it’s fun for everyone; I just hope I don’t get any genitalia-snaps from SHRM attendees……
Now #GetOffMyLawn
