I have been doing a number of talks / presentations recently to business groups and networking groups entitled “Social Media – coming ready or not!” and I just wanted to apologise publicly for this.
I’m really very sorry!
It’s not that I feel that they weren’t full of good information or that they weren’t well received or even that they only scraped that surface of the subject at hand – although the latter is certainly true (but hopefully not the others!).
No, I wanted to apologise because I fear that the title is misleading. I worry that it gives the impression that social media, with blogging sitting at its centre, is something which has still to fully arrive and that we can watch its approach with a type of detached intellectual curiosity. I feel that perhaps people might think that if we all collectively close our eyes, then it might disappear and be replaced with something more friendly to the business marketing status quo.
Or perhaps, in the tried and tested disaster movie formula, we feel confident that the “social media asteroid” hurtling on a collision course with Earth will somehow be diverted from its course and we will all be saved … probably by Bruce Willis, if cinematic history is anything to go by.
This is all untrue. Social media is here … now.
It is already profoundly affecting what we do and how we interact. From a business perspective, it is impacting how we find, evaluate, promote, recommend and share information, products and services, as well as how we rate the companies and individuals which supply them. And of course, conversely it is changing the ways in which companies need to listen to us, their customers, and engage with us if they wish to succeed.
There are still companies which seem to believe that they can ignore or avoid it – well, they can certainly elect not to actively participate but that doesn’t mean that they won’t be involved. If people are talking about them then they are involved, albeit implicitely. Their reluctance to actively join the conversation simply means that they have no say in the discussion and so no control over what is being said or its future direction.
So, I say to those companies and individuals defiantly sitting there like King Canute hoping to stem the tide, don’t fight it but rather embrace it. At the very least, make sure that you have the tools in place to listen to what is being said, but ideally also make sure that you have the tools and knowledge to participate and, preferably, initiate conversations. It will certainly be beneficial and you never know, you might even enjoy it!
August 12th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
My favourite social media statistic is this:
If Facebook was a country, it would be the 8th most populated on the planet.
There are more social media ‘numbers’ here: http://tinyurl.com/p9ozju.
It’s big and businesses can’t avoid it!
August 13th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Absolutely Dan – it’s here and happening now. The challenge will be using the tools that are best suited to our individual businesses and learning how to channel the feedback to a place where we can benefit from it and benefit our readers. That’s where a blog comes in, but that’s a different post!
August 14th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Nice post, Mark – thanks! You say you do presentations on social media – how can we organise you coming to do one for our group? I think it would be a great topic that our members would find really useful.
August 15th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Hi John – simple really, just drop me a line and we can see what we can organise. Always happy to help spread the word, as it were, so if you have a group which would benefit then send me a message to mark@betterbusinessblogging.com or at @blogcoach. Look forward to hearing from you.
August 16th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Do you ever feel that you are being left behind?
All I hear is social media, social media, but what does it mean to someone who is selling an actual product?
Perhaps I was one of those companies who, as you put it “think they can avoid it” but thanks to well written posts like this one, I’m beginning to get the message.
Thanks for the gentle reminder.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Thanks for your comment Zafar – social media is certainly the current hot topic in online marketing (indeed has been for a while) but, for me, to get best coverage of your market, it’s still important to build in the other off- and online marketing tools that we have available. See what works best for you and then focus accordingly.
August 17th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Hi Mark
Social media is clearly hear and now and any business that igonres it / pretends it isn’t happening is going to miss out. Nevertheless, I’d love to know your thoughts on future trends? What is the future of blogging etc?
August 18th, 2009 at 9:28 am
I have just started blogging and signed up for a business gateway course on “how to blog”. I am in the class just now and during a search for good blogs section I came across yours.
It is really well laid out and has fantastic information that I will use. Thank you for this excellent resource.
This is my first blog in my new BLOGGER account set up last week for this course.
Click here to have a look.
Not as elaborate as yours but I will be working on it today.
Kind Regards
Charlie
August 18th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Thanks for your kind words, Charlie and good luck with your course and your developing blog. Any questions, then do drop me a line and perhaps we’ll also connect again on ecademy soon.
August 25th, 2009 at 8:04 am
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September 3rd, 2009 at 5:02 am
Your post provides much thought-provoking information which is also entertaining to read. One can only keep their head in the sand for so long….
September 10th, 2009 at 8:30 am
Hi Mark – after reading your post I added an introductory slide to a presentation I’ve recent been giving to essentially say “It’s here”.
I think part of the problem is too much “black or white”-ing.
Social media “gurus” do talks about how social media is changing absolutely everything. They focus on how Dell has been using twitter, or the viral videos on youtube.
But these don’t resonate with most businesses. They don’t see much impact from social media yet – and so when they hear about how it’s changing everything they just don’t believe it. They (rightly) figure out that they’re probably not going to get a viral video, and they don’t have offers to make via twitter to a global or national audience.
I find what works better is to give small but closer to home examples. The way a local lawyer has now got a number of instructions via twitter. How a local consultant has used Linkedin to double the number of referrals she gets. These are believable and they can see how they can do something similar.
Not that I want to discourage thinking big or out of the box. But sometimes focusing only on these exceptional examples puts off smaller or slightly more traditional businesses as they just can’t see how it would apply to them.
Ian
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:21 pm
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January 16th, 2010 at 1:10 am
Thanks for you share
January 25th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Anyone who isn’t using social media now is already behind. I always follow the big five and they are invaluable.
February 1st, 2010 at 5:20 am
Hi,
In the start of your blog You say sorry and apologies. I think everything is perfect. Social media is designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. I think Blog is example of social media.