The yin and yang of social media

Everyone below the age of xx (pick a number) is raving about some form of social media these days. Twitter is big and facebook is massive, supposedly, and they are going to change the world.

In today's Lost in a digital world, Seth Godin talks about how easy it is to hide. We think we're networking, building relationships, developing business, etc., but if we lose all human contact, all we're doing is hiding.

Owner/CEOs know that businesses are built by building relationships. And building those relationships requires a certain minimum amount of face to face contact. A lot can be accomplished from a distance electronically once you've established that eyeball-to-eyeball substantive contact.

Deal making is a great example. Teams can strategize by conference call and email, but due diligence requires your team to be on the ground touring facilities and talking to people face to face. And while document exchanges and haggling over contract language have been greatly facilitated by email and electronic document rooms, hard negotiations on difficult subjects almost always require physical meetings.

Web-based retail and internet marketing might at first appear to be different. Just look at the success of amazon.com and other online businesses. But amazon's business development officers are likely not meeting with publishers on facebook. They're in New York, or wherever, pitching them in person.

Once all the hype dies down, social media will be like all the great, but now mundane, business tools which came before (think telegraph, telephone, email - you get the idea).

By all means, experiment, test, and incorporate social media tools in your business wherever they make sense. But don't get carried away. You still have to sell stuff and make a profit to create real long-term value.

Comments

[Simon Sinek]

The world will never be the same again with these two social media powering the people's communication methods.

[Wayne]

Simon, you are probably correct that social media will bring about lasting change. But social media's time in the sun will also come to an end, and business owners will be better served if they take a realistic approach to the time investments required to make the various social media tools relevant to their individual businesses.