Social Media Bullshit Bingo

You’re probably already familiar with the office game called ‘bullshit bingo’ where you sit in a presentation given by a consultant, middle manager or other person full of their own self-importance. If you’re not, then I will quickly explain… you each have a set of ‘meaningless’ words that could be uttered and the first person to hear a given number or all of them has to shout “bingo”.

By ’meaningless’ terms, I’m referring to those buzz words that you typically heard in meetings, but in reality: have no real function), are nonsensical or are just plain bullshit. “Synergy”, “proactive” and “ballpark” were used all the time and most people had no idea (or cared about) what they meant. Consequently the bullshit game grew in usage during the heady 1980’s when people thought that being a ‘Yuppie’ was the best thing ever… kinda like Social Media is now.

To be honest I’ve not heard “bingo” shouted at the back of a presentation in quite a while. Now eleven years into the new millennium, you'd think people would have learnt that using this hyperbole is pretty pointless and only succeeds in separating the presenter from the audience . But perhaps not…. Because I think there’s now a new game to be played.

Social Media Bullshit Bingo

So how do you play it?

Well, in a very similar way to the original game actually. Each person has a list of the popular terms used in Social Media circles and brings them along to a presentation given by a consultant (or self-professed social media expert, guru, etc.) Then, as the presentation starts, you listen carefully for your chosen words and terms. A prize of your collective choosing then goes to the person first to shout out “Bingo” at the top of their voice.

Have fun playing the game and let me know how you get on!