5 Straw Man Arguments to Take a Pass on Social Media

5. It's just trendy

No, it's not. I participated in the first social networks and helped build and curate one almost 10 years ago and things are just getting interesting business-wise now. The Cluetrain Manifesto is 11 years old and at this point, you're either in or you're going to be left out.

Free in not a benefit, it's a feature. The benefit is what you build with it. What's in your strategy?

4. Companies don't have enough control

Control is an illusion, whether it's on Facebook or the fax machine. Do you tap the phones? Do you know what your sales people are telling customers? Really? I didn't think so. Who talks to vendors at your company? That's additional exposure.

Your employees want to know what the business is about, they will gladly share about it if you explain things in simple enough terms. It's not because they're simple, it's the business that needs to learn to articulate what it's about simply to be remembered and talked about.

3. Traditional marketing is a better investment

This is like saying meetings are a better investment than the telephone. The Internet has made spam very cheap, that's why there's so much of it. It has also made it easier for people to vote on what they're interested in. That is good.

There are more ways to connect with fans and people who are looking for what you offer than there have ever been before. Why continue burying your head in the sand as if turning on and off a dialogue was still the best or only way to go? Can you afford to be thought of as spam? 

2. There are too many social media experts and I don't know which ones are legit

I agree this is a problem - but it's a cop-out as a show stopper. How do YOU think companies should find legit people? We discussed a public relations candidate job description a couple of days ago. I say look at execution and results.

Or you could look at how many followers they have on Twitter and fans on Facebook (kidding!).

1. The only people on the Internet are kids

Guess what, there's fewer of us in the current online-crazed group. And you'd be surprised to find out that in the 6 month period ending July 4th, 2009 that Facebook saw 513% Growth in 55+ Year Old Users.

Want to sit this one out?

[image by Björn Söderqvist]

Comments

[Jeff Hurt]

Here's a sixth one that I hear frequently.

6. The whole thing, social media, texting and the Internet, is going to implode anyway. And when it does, the younger generation will not know how to communicate. We're sticking with what we've always done in our business. It will start working again soon.

I think those words speak loudly of people unwilling to change and those living in denial. I wonder if their parents and grandparents said the same thing about TV, the telephone and the fax machine?

[Bruce Christensen]

Yeah... I made the 51.3% group on the Social networks!

My day job is running a manufacturing company. I have heard each of these 5 deal-killing ideas floated in one or more of our sales management meetings. I agree with Valeria that they are just excuses for not moving forward.
It is time move... not sit on the sideline!

[Elizabeth]

In working with client companies, I hear your number one argument the most. In a recent conversation a client said, "Why are we mainly focusing on the internet? Our customers are middle-aged or older adults and they aren't using social media." Oh goodness do I have a ways to go on this one.

[Rich Becker]

Yes, I think all these arguments were made against the telephone. I'm not sure about the fax machine though; the adoption curve was quick for that one (and recent drop off even quicker).

There are some days I want to grab some folks by the collar and shake them to say ... um, it's a communication channel.

Best,
Rich

[Ike]

Variation on Jeff's addition, #6:

"These networks don't have any business model, and I don't want to invest in something that will fold."

Whatever does disappear will be replaced with something that replicates the old funcationality or even surpasses the expectations and capabilities.

Social Media is Electronic Word of Mouth. Once people know the value of certain forms of networking, they will seek to continue it.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Jeff - was that a real conversation? Wow! When I ask business owners how people find out about their services, the correlation is often made to word of mouth. Why wouldn't you want to give those people more tools to spread the word abut you?

@Bruce - I don't think I ever figured out that you were in manufacturing. It wasn't in your about you entry ;)

@Elizabeth - maybe that study I linked here will help you muster more evidence for your clients. It really is hard to change ways, i get it. Perhaps doing small experiments and tweaking in niche markets is a way to hedge perceived risk.

@Rich - if you do that, I want photos to post ;) The fax machine was inefficient in that it delivered information only from point A to point B - didn't allow for conferencing more than one party, like the telephone, for example. Users expand use.

@Ike - I think it's smart to want to have a sustainable strategy. One recommendation I make is to build a base on an owned site first, and integrate the other activities into it.

[Julio R Varela]

I have one. This is all frivolous fun. I am wasting my days by not working, etc. etc. When we started to promote my brother Fernando Varela and his music, my company could not invest in traditional marketing. We went into social media and one of his songs "Por ti volaré" is a #1 song on iTunes. Nothing frivolous about that. Excellent excellent post. Just RTd it and will post on FB page. Thanks for writing this!

[Christian]

Ah, I love the way you said control is an illusion. This is one of the ones I hear most often. Business owners are concerned that people are going to say bad things about them. Ha! They're saying bad things about you whether you're participating or not :) Being involved in the conversation is simply a way to be responsive and put yourself in a position to be able to help. Being oblivious to negative comments does not mean they don't exist.

[Alexandra Goldstein]

...and to carry on what Christian said, isn't it just possible that they'll say more GOOD things about you if you offer them multiple ways to get in touch, ask questions and even have their complaints answered faster?

It's bizarre- and slightly arrogant - to think you control the conversation any more than you would if you wandered into a pub with a loudspeaker, shouting people down. But if you dropped in regularly and were friendly and approachable... etc etc.

Okay, I'm done preaching to the converted now. :)

[Mike Keliher]

Great summary, and thanks for keeping it succinct.

Another: "If we have people twittering and blogging and facebooking, it's going to be more of a distraction from real work than anything else." The same was said about having a telephone on each desk, wasn't it?

Another still: "We can't use social media because we're in a heavily regulated industry." As Shel Holtz so pointedly says, there's an easy solution for that: Don't violate the regulations! It's possible. If Dell can have an investor relations blog (http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/dell_shares/), just about anything is possible.

mjk

[Leigh Durst]

Always salient, Valeria.

As I have been saying for more than 18 years... in the history of media and communication, no channel has replaced another. We still have print, signs, broadcast communications, cable, phone, etc. Certainly the channels evolve, but if companies fail to move with it - they will become fossils.

Fear change and fossilize... or embrace your trepidation and evolve!

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Julio - congratulations on your brother's success. It must feel good to have drawn a correlation between work and results.

@Christian - there are two solutions to people saying bad things 1) be helpful and positive, no matter what 2) provide an amazing service with good attitude. That's what you can control. If you do that, there will be others in the community who will call out unfairness when someone complains.

@Alexandra - good rant. Thank you.

@Mike - not to mention that today's rules were just as invented as the excuses.

@Leigh - at the end of the day, if you want to have a conversation you might as well go where people are. We do that in the physical world, don't be? We know that we cannot expect the world to come to our doorstep.

[Marie]

Fantastic post and comments!! The internet and the social medias are additional doors we can open to meet the like-minded, the experienced and those that might be seeking assistance in our field. Now social media has been recognised as an effective form of marketing, businesses are jumping on the wagon from all directions, whether they know what they're using it for or not!

This is an exciting time for social media where more and more people are joining and willing to meet, trust and learn from others. Thanks for sharing!

Marie
MySmallBusinessBible.com