You won’t admit it publicly, but it’s OK. I’ll take care of it.
You LOVE Rick Astley.
No shame in it. Great pop artist from the 1980s who, despite being the punchline for countless jokes has always seemed like an easy-going, play-along-with-it kinda guy.
His most famous song, of course, is “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Here is one of my favorite versions (yes, I fancy myself an aficionado of the song):
Do you know what he’s singing about? My guess is that you are thinking “love” or “lust” or maybe even some form of 1980s narcotic. 
Nope. He’s giving everyone a lesson on social media.
Let’s examine a few lyrics to prove the point:
“You know the rules and so do I” – Social Media, while still a vast, unexplored frontier, has some rules. Common courtesy, polite discourse and give-and-take debate rules all. Play nicely, kiddies!
“A full commitment’s what I’m looking for” – To be successful in social media, you need to jump in head-first and stay neck-deep. If you don’t participate in the discussion as much as possible, you’ll be left behind. That’s not to mean that you have to be connected 100% of the time. Just do it and do it right as it fits within your schedule.
“I just wanna tell you how I’m feeling” – Be honest online. Be yourself. The more honesty you give, the more honesty you’ll get and you’ll build real professional and personal connections with people.
“Never gonna give you up” - Don’t stop! Even if it’s hard and frustrating, keep on keeping on. You made a full commitment, right?
“Never gonna let you down” – With content, you’ll never make EVERYONE happy. However, give it your best effort, be it a Tweet, a video or a blog post. Give your all and be authentic to yourself and that will resonate with your growing community.
“Never gonna make you cry” – Yes, the truth does hurt sometimes, but don’t offend people just to offend people. While shock-jocks may get good radio ratings for a while, ticking people off just to be shocking is a one-way ticket to obscurity and irrelevance in the social media realm.
“Never gonna say goodbye” – Full commitment, remember?
The rest of the song basically hammers home these points, in a glorious lyrical method.
So what are the main lessons Rick Astley has taught us about social media?
1. Be there.
2. Be yourself.
3. Be part of the community.
4. Be committed to being awesome.
And if you can’t commit to being awesome, just what are you doing reading my blog?
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by mikeschaffer: Rick Astley & Social Media http://bit.ly/b1Esua #sm #music…
[...] few weeks ago, Rick Astley helped me introduce the concept of being committed to being awesome. But there was The most awesome shirt [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mikeschaffer, Alex Priest. Alex Priest said: RT @mikeschaffer: Awsm! My blog about Rick Astley & #SocialMedia was linked on Rick's official website forum! http://bit.ly/ajY8VV // nice! [...]
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Rick Astley & Social Media | The Buzz by Mike Schaffer…
I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog
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[...] Long-time readers may be aware of my somewhat unhealthy obsession with Rick Astley’s music. I mean, Rick Astley DID teach me everything I need to know about social media! [...]
[...] mean, he taught me everything I need to know about social media HERE and was the inspiration for one of my favorite phrases, Social Media [...]
[...] 1) Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up: The biggest online meme of all time is “Rick Rolling,” telling someone you are sending them a video of ANYTHING, but when they open the file, it’s Rick Astley’s hit song. No clue where it started, but, man, it’s still funny! It works because it’s a true guilty pleasure. Everyone loves the song (secretly), including me. [...]
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