Social media, the darlings of the new world? Perchance, but it's not that simple. For sure, inter-personal communication, or even communication with the void, has never been easier. Millions of people can interact with both friends and "friends", sitting alone in their bedrooms, never having to leave the house to remain "connected". Of course, the most natural use of social media (SM) is to both remain connected using them, when out of town, or extremely busy, but then also interacting in a non-virtual sense on a regular basis. If they replace direct contact and interaction between real humans, then they serve to actually make isolation totally functional. One can stay home, on the computer or other device, all weekend, chatting or texting or updating, not even bothering to shower and dress, but stay completely up to date and in touch with many. SM as the perfect facilitator of unsociable behavior. Today, even among people being sociable, at dinner, or in bars, it is totally common to see a table of six friends or colleagues, with three of them buried in a device, and one rising from the table, "I'll be right back, I just have to take this call". The one person at the table who doesn't have a smartphone or unbelievably turns it off during social occasions, sits alone, staring at other tables. Do SM by default make us less sociable? That text or email or call just has to be more important than the person we met for drinks or dinner, right?
The most interesting development has been the pervasive entry of SM into the world of business. Initially, anyone over 35-40 could ignore the whole thing, as chatting and texting and Facebooking etc. were all in the domain of youth. "It's what my kids do, not me!" But as people began to realize that SM were in fact an ideal tool in the marketing canon of various businesses, tremors began to shake the offices of almost all senior executives, globally. All of a sudden, the kids had a skill set and toolbox that Daddy and Mommy needed, but were scared to death of having to open and use. To cut a long story short, some got with the picture, some didn't, and we are where we are today. SM have changed the way we do business, and by and large it's for the better. The business version of the unsociable bedsitter hiding out at home works much better. It's called inbound marketing, and one can get great traffic and results by "sitting at home" and driving people towards you and your products. All while sitting unwashed in your underwear. It's a dream come true, people! Isn't it?
One of the major purported benefits of SM is that they permit those who are awkward or inefficient communicators to suddenly join the conversation and interact with their audience. I don't actually think that this is strictly true. In my opinion, you can't be useless at dealing with people in person, but you are a brilliant SM user. It's still about communication and engagement, and you aren't going to turn a 52 year old who has never dealt with the people part of their business, and doesn't care, into a brilliant communicator and marketer. You can spot a malingerer, miles away. They have a LinkedIn account, with no picture, and no detailed description, the FB page has not seen a new entry in a month, and they started a blog two years ago, and there has been nothing new posted for 8 months. But they do have the latest high end smartphone. It's all about the image, not the function or content. Right? Wrong! I don'see any point in shelling out hundreds of bucks on a superphone on which you primarily are going to use the one old-fashioned function that your old dinosaur did faithfully, and cheaper. Yes, you sit down in the five-star restaurant and place your supertool onto the table, as gasps are heard at adjacent tables. "Oh my God, he has the new Monsterphone, this one can even give you an electric shock as part of your diary, so you are never late for a meeting!" Calm down people, he either doesn't know that function even exists, all those icons and apps are so much work, or it was never turned on; and yes, he's still late for meetings. It's image, not function!
Either one has to commit to "going back to school" and rewiring the way we do business and communicating our distinguishing features and products, or get someone who is better at it to do so. Worse still, don't appear to utilize all the latest bells and whistles, for image sake, but then do so badly. In general, seeing a FB page or Blog that has had no entry for many months, actually ages the image of a company incredibly, having the opposite effect than desired, amazingly enough. It makes them feel ancient somehow. One concludes that some executive banged the table demanding he/she had their own FB page and Blog and website, but then didn't have the stamina or enthusiasm to carry it through. These are not inert, static facades for a business, but are meant to be very dynamic aspects of a company's corporate message and marketing. In many ways, if you don't want to do it, and aren't going to do it well, or with any real passion, then don't bother; you can end up looking worse than if you had no SM at all. If you are truly old school, and prefer the meet'n'greets, the lunches, the conferences, the phone calls, and so on, go ahead, if it works for you. Doing things which take time and resources away from pursuits that are paying off is perhaps not the best way to go. We are all free to choose, as long as we choose smartly in a way that brings results for us.
Like all (potentially addictive) things in life, SM have both their good points and their other points, the latter of which could use some careful analysis and consideration before entering into the fray. Nevertheless, they do represent a major step forward for business, in particular, and as long as we do remember what the "S" stands for, and incorporate real contact and interaction with other humans as part of the equation, then we might just be able to have our cake and eat it as well. - Kevin Mc
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