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It seems like small business owners get so caught up in the terminology of social media that they forget the objectives involved in employing any marketing tool or tactic.
Mind you, it’s not their fault, the media is always quick to promote the next new, new thing - I mean blogs are so social media 1.0.
If you develop objectives, you know - “what do we want to achieve by talking to and inviting our customers and prospects to help us develop, refine and evangelize our products and services?” - you might discover that just about any tool could help you achieve those objectives. (OK, for plumbing, a wrench works better than a hammer, but don’t get so hung up on the tools that you forget to develop the strategies first!)
I mean, doesn’t a telephone allow you to achieve a great deal of the promise of social media - content, contact, interaction, community.
I had a great conversation with Paul Gillin, author of the New Influencers, for a upcoming podcast episode where we discussed this very subject.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at May 21, 08 | 8:56 am and is filed under Blogging, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Back to the basics!!!
- Mike
Yes - It’s easy to overlook the simplicity and effectiveness of just picking up the phone! Still, as a social media tool, wouldn’t it have to be a conference call? - Lou
@Lou - I don’t know, can’t social be one to one?
The phone is more social; there is still some validity to the point that our online relationships are not tangible…we really don’t get close. Not to diminish online romance, but for the greater part, we get acquainted, then it becomes easier to move on.
That’s why the entire social media frenzy drives me nuts.
Social media is not new. And also: Isn’t all media social by nature? What’s “anti-social media”?
It’s that old bane, jargon, again. The tech-savvy use it a lot and often leave Joe and Jane Public scratching their heads thinking it’s all too hard. BTW, phones are not only a good example of social media they’re a good example of a virtual environment. If Gartner’s prediction proves to be correct that maybe the next buzzword Joe and Jane Public will have to wrap their heads around. Goody goody!
We have become so reliant on using technology to interact with our customers that we have lost sight of how much more personal the phone is. I experienced that today myself and just wrote a post about a similar issue.
We have encouraged our customers to not call us by implementing voice automated phone systems and our reps are conditioned to e-mail before they call. If we could take the extra 10 seconds to pick up the phone and call our customers, unbelievably we would be miles ahead of our competition!
Wrong, wrong, wrong as can be. The telephone is NOT social media because it’s one-person-only talking to one-person-only. It doesn’t allow multiple parties to participate (in most cases), it cannot be shared, commented on, or generate discussions about the discussion itself.
@Patty - you missed the point entirely, probably due to the emotion you felt in making your point, but just the other day I was on the phone with close 1000 people, all of whom were sharing and making comments.
With the advent of unified communications, virtually all communication mediums may be considered social media tools.
I agree that the telephone is social media tool, but you have to agree that is an old, is much easier to post your articles or products in social media sites than pick up the phone and call everyone in your phone book to tell them about your new article or product.
The telephone is ultimately one of the oldest and best known social media tools. It has of late been eclipsed by the buzz surrounding social media on the internet, however it’s value as a business tool can not ever be underestimated.
Have you ever e-mailed over a contract to only lose the client?
Have you ever used e-mail to update your client on a weekly basis only for them to tell you on your feedback form that your communication is “poor”?
Ever written an e-mail that could be printed out on more than one page?
I love this article. Are we defining “social media” or are we talking about what works? As one comment said, it is back to basics. The only problem is that many people never started at the basics. E-mail has already peaked. The Generation Y doesn’t even use it. They text. Look for my book: The Seven Levels of Communication: From Relationships to Referrals coming this Fall. I explore tried-and-true ways to raise your level of communication to retain and attract perfect clients.
Great blog John! I still have The Referral Flood on my bookshelf (with post-it notes marking my favorite places).
Michael
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