I am a big supporter of social media – don’t believe if I say I’m not. But right now, I can’t help thinking that brands, businesses and people like me have made it a cesspool of inane drivelling shit.
Some Blogs are still relevant (as are some Tweeters), but it’s becoming a revolving roundabout of he-says, she-says, they said, he said that I said, who cares?
If I have learned one thing while running a business for 12 years it’s this (and it’s a life lesson I would tell any youngster to take on board as soon as they can*).
You need to be able to sell and market yourself.
Sound simple? Maybe even contradictory to my aforementioned sniping at the Twitter crowd? It’s not. And this is why.
If you run a small business, cash is your friend. Not Followers, or visitor numbers to your website, or where you sit in Google for a search phrase – it’s cash. Not even Profit and Loss and Balance Sheets – it’s cash in the bank. It’s how you pay people, including yourself.
What’s more, it doesn’t matter how good you think you are, if you can’t make the sale you’re dead in the water.
I have to credit Daryll Scott (expert people person) with this insight about online social media that made some things very clear to me…
What social media has allowed many people to do is to use technology to avoid developing and adjusting their behaviours and skills. I’d question that many of the same people who flirt and are outgoing on Twitter and in Facebook, etc. are the same in real life.
So, when it comes down to it and you need to sit in front of a punter and sell a business service (I admit product and B2C may differ) you need to be able to convince the person across the table that you are the right person to trust their money with.
Social media is not the next big thing when it comes to marketing – unless you are a large consumer brand (or celebrity) who people give a damn about. Some people think it is the saviour or the route for the “little man” to get in the mix.
This means that Twitter will become even less useful. It also means that many companies and agencies are still trying to work out the point of it all and wondering if it’s just them that doesn’t get it.
When all is said and done, social media (Twitter in particular) does create relationships. But it needs to be about people – and that takes communication skills. The sort where you can sit with someone and have a real conversation.
* If I were 18 and knew what I knew now I would work in as many different sales and marketing environments as I could, especially on the front line – waiter, bar staff, telesales, etc.
