Forgive me for a few paragraphs as I feel the need to get a few things off my chest in regards to Social Media. I understand the benefits of using Social Media for business and I understand some of the flaws. What I don’t understand is how marketers and sales professionals are using Social Media as an excuse to be lazy. Since when did we determine that you don’t need hard work to succeed, but that success can come by simply joining Linkedin or Twitter and blasting off a few tweets? Or that all you have to do is flood enough groups with your self-promotional crap to generate new business? And when did Social Media develop so many different cliques? Sometimes I get flash backs to High School when I see all the same content being shared by the same people routinely. How about you take off the blinders and recognize some of the other kids at the school.
The laziness is probably the thing that bothers me most. If you met someone at a coffee shop and learned that you share the same taste in Venti Mocha Lattes, would you then ask if you could show them a demo? Building a relationship takes time, whether on Social Media or in person, so expecting to close a deal after one interaction is presumptuous, insane and pure laziness. Just because you re-tweeted some of my stuff doesn’t mean I’m going to talk to you let alone buy your stuff. Or is the idea now that you have instant access to your potential targets/prospects it’s ok for you to inundate them with requests for demos and pitch your product even though you’ve spent no time building a relationship?
Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m getting old, or maybe I was just taught business class from an outdated, over-the-hill way of thinking. I’m sorry if I feel it requires time, energy, research and respect to build my relationships on Social Media. And I’m sorry that I feel that people are abusing their Social Media privileges and making a mockery of themselves and their organizations by the way they handle their handles. Most of all though, I’m sorry that Social Media gave so many people an excuse to be lazy and not do their jobs properly. Actually, I’m not really sorry for any of it, I’m only sorry that we’ll have to spend another year looking at this crap as people continue to abuse these outlets.
Just my thoughts, thanks for letting me vent!
I like this blog, and especially the title . . . but . . . it is ironic to use social media to rant about its inherent weaknesses. Isn’t this like a telemarketer calling people to rail about the irritation from being interrupted by phone calls?
Anyway, thanks for the fresh approach and telling it as you see it.
Andrew, I don’t think that’s what he is doing? He’s commenting on the laziness of people using it. That’ was my take on the blog.
On your point, I think social media is a disaster for customer service, is built on thin relationships, is completely overhyped without proper supporting data (see http://work911.com/articles/indexsocialmedia.htm) for more. I think it PROMOTES laziness, and it has huge limitations as a two way communication tool.
That’s not to say it has NO value, OR that I can’t use it to comment. I simply don’t buy the claims.