Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg, for Facebook. What a concept. Finally now we can get through the multiple personalities dilemma—you know the one—being one person at work, then someone totally different at home, and even someone else in social settings and networking events. The idea that started out as a way for college students to connect without leaving their dorm rooms has quickly become the glass door on closets previously filled with skeletons. Wow.
Progress can be a scary thing, but after listening to Eddie Money’s “I Wanna Go Back”: “I can’t go back…I know.” Springsteen’s “Glory Days” are in the past and today we face, or “Facebook” the future. The industrial age changed the world with the introduction of mass production, economies of scale, assembly-lines and factory workers. The primary goal was to increase profits by cutting costs and improving operational efficiencies. All well and good. Until the information age.
At that point consumers began researching what actually went into the products they were purchasing AND what the margins were on those products. Never again would an automobile dealer get a significant margin over invoice for a new car…the buyer KNEW what invoice was. KBB.com told them! Edmunds.com coached them about how to negotiate. Consumer Reports provided feedback from actual buyer experiences about the product and J.D. Power and Associates validated the dealership they were purchasing from. Only one thing was missing: The personal characteristics of the salesperson completing the transaction were relatively insignificant to the decision to purchase. Admittedly customers did relate to some reps better than others, but historically, the salespeople were not researched prior to the purchase decisions themselves. There was really no way to do that without building a long-term relationship over many years of repeat purchases…UNTIL NOW.
Welcome to the Transparency Age. Like it or not, it’s here to stay. And if you want to thrive in this environment, you’re going to have to participate in order to be trusted. Opening yourself up to the rest of the world will become the norm. Privacy is a factor, and issues with privacy have been well-documented relative to Facebook, but overall we will be influenced by others to provide information we are EXPECTED to share. Even though this is is not the final phase of this revolution (a future post will outline at least one more), it is certainly time to clean out the closets.
Just heard a radio ad promoting “60 days to social media success” and HAD to post. Although this may be possible in some markets and with some prospects, the promise of immediate gratification in social media is usually about as valid as the promise of finding a spouse in one night out at the bars. Do the organizations making these promises actually believe they have a “perfect formula” for accelerated relationship-building that will enable the client seeking answers to find them in 60 days? Sorry folks, it takes a lot longer than that to build a meaningful relationship…That IS what you’re looking for, right? If not, should it then be assumed that you don’t CARE about the people you serve or get involved with?
Who is this ad targeting? Simple: It’s a B2B ad looking for panicked business owners who suddenly realize they are behind and want to catch up with this trend by YESTERDAY. Everything is fast and easy, right? Everything except relationships.
Advertising has always been about the “easy solution”. Who has the time for anything else? Just throw out a hundred and two will stick. I’m not concerned about the two that bite and get frustrated after 6 months, not 60 days, that their plans are not working like this organization has promised. I’m concerned about the 98 who are skeptical about the opportunity that is in front of them because someone is making a traditional promise that is just too good to be true. Those 98 don’t know who to trust because they’ve been burned before. Please, 98, don’t give up. There are realistic people out there who value relationships and will treat you right. You just can’t find them in a radio ad. Look me up on Facebook. Connect with me on LinkedIn. I’ll introduce you to the same great people that have helped me develop my business over the last TWO YEARS. (The icons at the top of this page are links.)
Make it a great day.
The social media concepts we see in place today are affecting business relationships, specifically in the marketing and advertising worlds. Marketers can now identify with laser-accuracy the perfect customers based on personal tastes and preferences and narrow their messages to an exact profile. That’s very positive because the benefit is that the customer’s suitability to the business/individual they will be working with is far more compatible. The negative side is that non-suitable clients do not give attention to the business relationship because of a lack of commonality. NOTE: Many marketers and businesses truly believe this “trend” will fade and that the world will return to “the way it was”. Such an observation is both inaccurate and short-sighted and those that refuse to believe will be left behind.
This issue is extending to personal relationships as well. How many blogs are there? Over 1.9 Million and growing. What are they about? Better yet, what AREN’T they about? Individuals can literally search for any topic of interest and discuss it in any format they choose: Skype, e-mail, blog, text, phone, letter (not likely), FB, Twitter, My Space, YouTube, LinkedIn, …… You get the point. The challenge is that our tolerance for discussion of topics OUTSIDE our interests is drastically reduced…we’d far rather give attention to things we genuinely CARE about…not things SOMEONE ELSE cares about…There simply isn’t enough time in the day to learn enough about someone else’s interests to engage in an intellectual discussion with them included. Like it or not, this isn’t going to change. Call it information overload in the Information Age, call it targeted social interaction, call it whatever you want. It may or may not break down longstanding personal relationships depending on the coping capacity of the people involved in the discussion.
People are actually finding themselves drawn to others who share much more TARGETED interests than 20 years ago. Remember in the 80’s and 90’s? What did we have to talk about? Football, basketball, local news from the NEWSPAPER, what mixes well with watermelon schnapps…Are we on the same page? Today, we are all challenged with too much information. Dining room table conversations don’t happen like they used to, even when the entire family is present. Family gatherings are becoming stressful instead of relaxing because there are now MILLIONS of topics someone could possibly choose to discuss. For example: If a discussion begins about something for which you are totally unprepared, what do YOU do? I personally feel that’s the reason there’s football on Thanksgiving.
Happy Holidays.
In the industrial age, one of the predominant careers was agriculture. I grew up on a farm, but until recently didn’t understand the correlation between succeeding in the present environment with my own childhood. Someone once said that history will repeat itself. How prophetic.
In agriculture, seeds get planted with no guarantee that they will grow or generate a return. Yes, there is a lot riding on those corn and soybean plants, but there’s also a lot of patience, nurturing and faith that goes into the process as well. For example, why can a tractor only travel a little over 3 miles per hour when a farmer is cultivating corn? Two reasons: First, one sudden move can cause the implement to plow out the very plants it is cultivating. Second, if the implement is moving too fast, it throws dirt over the top of the plant’s leaves and stunts it growth, or even possibly kills it. I learned this from experience, and from attitude adjustments applied by my father.
Compare the example to the strategies of the present day, namely social media. The internet is touted as being the fastest, most efficient advertising and marketing vehicle on Earth. We have instant access to more information, more opinions and more people than ever before yet moving through it too fast will affect the very relationships that are required to grow a “crop” online. Moving recklessly through the “fields” could uproot seeds that have been planted for some time or stunt the growth of others by covering them up with unwanted “soil”.
Resist the temptation of accelerating through the fields just because you want and need your online crop to grow faster. Instead, plant, cultivate and nurture every seed you plant in every online relationship. It may take months or even years for the seeds to germinate, but in the end you’re more likely to be rewarded with a record harvest.
We all know that social media is here to stay, yet many are reluctant to engage. Traditional brands want to continue doing business in traditional ways…And they train all of the traditional best practices to traditional salespeople in their traditional courses. In yesterday’s presentation to a group of Iowa City Chamber of Commerce members, Maureen Osako of Infometrics stoked some new concerns for the long-term well-being of those who wish to refrain from these strategies. The biggest takeaways were surrounding two issues:
1. What’s the penalty for waiting?
2. What’s the penalty for just “jumping in” but doing it wrong?
The main challenge for those in either school of thought, in my opinion, is held in the context of these two strategic decisions.
The penalty for waiting in any game is the forced “catch-up” process… The panic instilled in oneself when they discover the boat has already left port and they’re still holding their suitcases. Trying to catch up with a moving boat leaves you exhausted, frustrated, and “all wet”. The greater challenge with social media is that it’s moving faster than the boat.
The penalty for doing it wrong is loss of credibility. If 95% of your Facebook posts are about what your company has to offer the general public and are “me-centered” instead of “them-centered”, it’s called mass marketing. If you tweet links to your business’ microsite 50 times a day, it’s SPAM. If one day you have 5 LinkedIn contacts and the next you have 500, what is that saying to your “audience” about the value you place on relationships?
So, what’s the context of your social media presence? What’s the history behind “why” you are doing what you are doing? What’s the “WIIFT” (not the traditional “WIIFM”)…What’s In It For Them: Your readers, friends, fans, contacts, followers, or whatever different platforms call those who are engaged in their conversations?
Thank you in advance for your comments.
