Social media – it’s not either/or

Howard Mann, author of Your Business Brickyard wrote the following in Seth Godin’s free e-book ‘what-matters-now’ available here

“There are tens of thousands of businesses making many millions a year in profits that still haven’t ever heard of twitter, blogs or facebook. Are they all wrong? Have they missed out or is the joke really on us? They do business through personal relationships, by delivering great customer service and it’s working for them. They’re more successful than most of those businesses who spend hours pontificating about how others lose out by missing social media and the latest wave. And yet they’re doing business. Great business. Not writing about it. Doing it.

I’m continually amazed by the number of people on Twitter and on blogs, and the growth of people (and brands) on facebook. But I’m also amazed by how so many of us are spending our time. The echo chamber we’re building is getting larger and louder.

More megaphones don’t equal a better dialogue. We’ve become slaves to our mobile devices and the glow of our screens. It used to be much more simple and, somewhere, simple turned into slow.

We walk the streets with our heads down staring into 3-inch screens while the world whisks by doing the same. And yet we’re convinced we are more connected to each other than ever before. Multi-tasking has become a badge of honor. I want to know why.

I don’t have all the answers to these questions but I find myself thinking about them more and more. In between tweets, blog posts and facebook updates.”

I believe that too many people on the love it/loathe it side of the social media issue think it’s either or. We need both – face-to-face and ‘virtual’, on-line communication.

Social Media is another communication method, another marketing opportunity, another revenue stream. Some will be highly successful using only on-line or only bricks and mortar; others will take a blended approach. However, I believe that two things are true whatever the business model. You have to:

1. Love what you do

2. Love your cusomers

When the social media dust settles, I believe that people will realise that the technology speeds things up but that the values, communication skills and customer-focus requirements are the same as they are when dealing with people in the physical world. What the internet does do is level the playing field in many industries so that the small business can compete effectively with, and sometimes be better than, their larger counterparts.

And the other thing that many people will have to accept, and sometimes learn the hard way, is that whatever they right, on any forum/blog/website, will be there in black and white forever!

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