Social Media Mandate
A nudge for people like me.
Social media is a good thing for your professional development, growth of your company, engagement of your peers & employees & customers, better inter-company interaction and we all simply need to get on board.
If you are anything like me, you work hard. You put way too much time into your career (at the expense of your spouse, children, family & friends) and dismiss social media as a waist of time for folks without something better to do. If you are over 40 but not yet enjoying retirement, chances are you lean in that direction…if you have been in the automotive industry for the past 15+ years, you are overwhelmingly guilty.
I am amazed at the number of “marketers” that don’t even have a facebook account (or myspace, twitter, linkedin, etc) and refer to blogs like they are simply publications or channels for advertising. Most simply miss the fact that it is the clearest direct line to consumers thoughts and beliefs that exists and without participating they are losing a tremendous opportunity to do more than just improve their exposure.
Plus, they are missing a fabulous way to stay (at least) partially connected to friends with very little effort…that they would otherwise not talk with for years. It takes a bit of effort to get started…it takes a bit of courage to get over the additional “exposure”…but the rewards are certainly worth it.
The added benefit of actually learning to use these tools to branch out and meet others is the REAL value of this media that I am just learning about.
Jump in! Try it yourself.
Note: Forward this note of encourage through email or “snail mail” to someone you know that hasn’t yet joined the social media circle. They aren’t likely to find it on this blog anyway. I’m hoping that some of my reluctant nominees that are reading these “pre-posts” will get the hint. 
Tags: social media
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November 15th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Funny you should mention the amount of "marketers" that are not participating in social media. For businesses they will miss out on a cheap form of advertising. But even more important is the word of mouth advertising. When I was on the 9th floor, I don't think a single person in marketing did not have a TIVO. And that was 8 years ago. Yet we were spending all of our media on traditional forms of advertising.
November 15th, 2009 at 2:10 am
One of the things I've learned about Social Media is it really isn't as much about a medium for advertising as it is for truly connecting with people. If someone tries to use it to "spread messages" it just gets lost in the clutter (kind of like people who send 25 twitter messages before lunch–get turned out). I also think it is Dilbert material to see "Press Releases" on SM sites.
Using SM, I've really enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and seeing how their lives are going. It allows even lazy folks like me to keep others informed of what's going on and vice versa. I have also found it easier to throw in the personal plug for Ford products without being an idiot about it. It led to a friend asking about a Milan (offline) and I even supported an X-Plan as a result. Wouldn't it be nice if the whole world could easily get an X-Plan pricing as a result of being "connected" to a Ford employee is some social media network?
Thanks for reading….and commenting.