10 Reasons You Should NOT Be on Social Media

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Sullivan on June 12, 2009 at 8:04am

You know, this is more than a little offensive and because of that no, it really doesn't make the point about social media. It doesn't make any constructive point at all. And in the interest of full disclosure, my son is a self-advocate for the ARC of Indiana and my daughter is a family advocate. Their job is to help individuals and families become aware of and take steps to attain what (often limited) services are available in Indiana (an 8-10 year waiting list for Medicaid waivers for example-- go to www.arcind.org and find out more, if you aren't already familiar with this and other problems confronting persons with disabilities). In addition my son participates on the ARC's government affairs committee and regularly talks to our legislators about the issues facing persons with disabilities.

So, here's a challenge for you that should test the power of social media and go a long way towards making up for the stupid picture above. Take a look at the ARC Indiana website and become familiar with its public and legislative agendas and their objectives for advocacy. Look at the associated websites to get more information on the issues. Then pick a key issue and design a social media-driven, grassroots campaign to educate a large, statewide target audience on the issue and motivate them to some specific, constructive action to address one of the defined problems and thereby make a measurable, positive change in people's lives. Demonstrate that you can use social media to reach a wide audience outside of the disability rights community and demonstrably expand the visibility and impact of the ARC of Indiana. Volunteer your time and talents to do this. Start here, on SI -that's a potential audience pool of over 6,000. I'll bet my kids and I can help arrange a partnership between and the ARC of Indiana to help you with subject matter expertise and resources. But as part of the challenge, use multiple social media channels to go beyond that for your audience. As far as I know, no on in Indiana has used social media to accomplish something like this. Let's see what this stuff can do.

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Permalink Reply by Erik Deckers on June 12, 2009 at 9:28am

Amen, Patrick. Well said.

Brian, the least you should do is apologize.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Morgan on June 1, 2009 at 9:59pm

>>>
The Future of Internet Marketing (i.e. Professional Services, Retail Sales ...)

There are many differences for any "buyer" and their "buying habits" - stuff like this can't be measured or predicted in my opinion for many "purchase decisions". The variables are immense.

I might blow $2,000 on a nice fast new computer, & fun things to complement it - as a whim, no research other than past experience and my inherent technical knowledge. I recently did the same with a Drum Set, I went in looking at regular Drum Sets - talked to the salesperson/owner of the store and in 45 minutes left after buying a $1600 Yamaha Drum Set, totally random purchase - (due to "convenience, referral from the store owner, and trust in the brand).

Where as another $100 decision for say a new speaker set for my PC might actually take me 3-5 hours research to find the right set (sound / audio frequency spectrum) because the Klipsch Speakers I currently have are discontinued and I know that I can't simply add 4 more of the same Klipsch to my PC / Home Theater - so I had to search for the best ones for around $100 / pair.

Variables tossed into a decision making process seem to really distort the "pretty picture" & "dynamics" that a seller might inherently believe he/she is dealing with before making a sale to me.

I will say that, with some belief, the next generation of tech savvy kids will probably be making personal and small business decisions based on the sellers ability to chat in real time - and I am assuming this will mean "video chat" via webcam. The instant gratification lure (compulsion) works wonders for the "buyer" and "seller" > I think it's more efficient to find what you want instantly - instead of wasting hours or days doing mind numbing searches and research.

I guess if I could have went-Live with a Klipsch Staff Rep at the point that I was looking for new PC Speakers - I would not have spent 5 hours searching, and also Klipsch would have sold me 4 more speakers. As it was I went to Best Buy and bought some of the best rated PC speakers (that were in stock; rated on Cnet) and did not get my Favs the Klipsch.
Just some fyi from my opinion...

I will probably wonder at the end of my life why I spent so much stupid time and hours wasted doing business - when perhaps my real ambitions might lie doing one of my various hobbies, dot dot dot. I love ambiguousness :)

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Permalink Reply by PK Koduri on June 1, 2009 at 11:22pm

Here is some strong evidence to show that Social Media is here to stay whether we like it or not :-)

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Permalink Reply by Kyle Lacy on June 2, 2009 at 6:22am

Amen.

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Permalink Reply by Nicki Laycoax on June 2, 2009 at 1:24pm

Here's another tip that it's going to be around for a while... My 8 year old's know what Twitter is, and want to use it. My oldest daughter gets invitations at least once a week to join her friends on Facebook. That's a whole other generation that will not only use it, but make it even better.

In addition, it's one of the easiest ways to communicate a message without spending thousands of dollars. With budgets being cut in large companies, many, many more will be jumping aboard within the next year. Everyone is hearing about it, a large percentage of the business population knows that they should be using it and are seeking out consultation on why and how to do it...

Like it or not, find it effective or not, think you should be doing it or not, you really need to get on board to get ahead of the curve while it's still early in the game...

Just my opinion and forecast...

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Permalink Reply by Amy Stark on June 2, 2009 at 9:57pm

I am ONLY responding to this, Chris, because Nicki asked me to post a story that I shared with her.

A few weeks back I tweeted something about how I will always shop at Kroger because I prefer their dairy products. Within moments @Meijer started following me and asked me to explain.

I think you may be a bit too isolated from the reality that social media is here to stay, Chris, and irrevocably changing the way we communicate person-to-person and business-to-consumer. You can either embrace it, or continue to manufacture horse carriages and buggy-whips while living in an automobile culture.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Morgan on June 4, 2009 at 2:12am

Taking "shots" at people ( I should say people outside the 'norm' of modern technology ) is a normal way to illustrate a "point" and give some sort of definition to the "point". These are small non-publicized discussion forums, not a main stream news media channel - thus offending people or types/groups of people ( folks living in an obsolete technological world ) is highly unlikely. The "audience" here is Smaller Indiana, not everyone else or anyone else.

Horse Carriages & Buggy Whips are "dead" technologies; much like LP Records, VHS Tapes, and even dial-up internet service. Currently the "2009 web content" on the Internet does not support dial-up technology; that was perhaps 5 years ago or more. Bandwidth has increased so much that dial-up won't work effectively on most 2009 websites, this makes dial-up an obsolete technology an obsolete group of people.

There is ( only IMO ) a large difference in "taking shots at someone" with different ideas; than "taking shots at someone" who is complaining about their "troubles" in locating a new tire for their horse and buggy - clearly the horse and buggy generation has not kept up with technology and is not on Smaller Indiana.

Opening Text for SI:
"Smaller Indiana makes creative people and innovative ideas easier to find. This is the place for you to share your ideas and engage with Indiana's most creative and inspired souls...working together to build community, culture, and commerce."

Since these are very "focused" discussions, I doubt anyone will be offended, let alone "stumble" into one of these forums...unless they enjoy the sharing & engaging going on here in the forums - which characterizes & labels us ( SI Groupies ) as a group of folks with certain like-nesses, dot dot.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Morgan on June 4, 2009 at 2:18am

For a genre of people in a very small town, they perhaps can follow the "biggest" news and trends in the "city" by reading one Sunday Paper every 6 months - cause nothing is changing... ( in contrast to say a city like Miami for instance )

Where-as very large cities have everyday changes, every week changes, and I think social media is one attempt for this "large city group/genre" to stay informed of what's new, what's happening, and looking for new & exciting events & news...; news directly from individuals, rather than needing to schedule a 1 hour slot of time daily to be able to "catch" the TV News, etc.

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Permalink Reply by Jeren Touch-Werner on June 4, 2009 at 9:41am

I am reading all this with great interest.

I went to Michael Reynolds free presentation on how to twitter - and started to. on a third day of joining - I woke up, and saw that T. Harv Eker was following me.

My ego was not wiggling behind my back (my ego is a little tail no more); but what it did - it just added to the feeling I am living with right now: and that is: I AM GROWING HUGE WINGS TO FLY over this life, third time in my life. You see, I was not following T.Harv. He found me. And that was a confirmation from the Universe. A nice feeling of being noticed.

I am posting this in reply to Amy Stark, I do not know if this will post here or will go to the end of the line; I definitely have more things to say; Oh, and BTW I just twittered how much I am loving this heated and awesome discussion! Makes me satisfied of having lived in Indiana for 14 years - all the years in America.

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Permalink Reply by Steph Woodward on June 2, 2009 at 1:38pm

Oh boy, this was a frustrating thread to read through. First, because some people don’t seem to understand the concept of context. I found this to be an amusing statement about the use of social media… but I have a sense of humor. For those that don’t… I’m sorry. Perhaps you should invest in one before criticizing others for utilizing theirs.

I do have to admit, Chris reprimanding anybody for being disrespectful toward people who don’t do things the way they do seems like the dictionary definition of irony. After reading through multiple threads on this site, it seems fairly clear that the concept of the pot and the kettle is not a part of your repertoire, Chris. I recommend investigating the adage… perhaps we can all have a semantic debate over it when you become familiar with it, and you can continue to tell all of us how we SHOULD be posting in the thread to fulfill your expectations.

Moving on, I think a far more important point that has been completely overlooked in this thread is the fact that most of the obstacles presented here do not actually support the idea that a business is better off NOT using social media… but rather, they support using social media appropriately. In the examples provided by Patrick, the lesson to be taken from these is that a business should be appropriately prepared before you utilize social media, by having safety measures in place and appropriate procedures for the use of such tools… but none of those points actually support the idea that the business would not benefit from the use of these tools. Chris’s examples are all focused on the fact that not all businesses would benefit from using these tools for promotional purposes, and while I felt that many of these points were independently arguable, I think the bigger oversight is the fact that social media tools can be utilized for more than just promotion. It’s also a way to stay connected with your consumers, learn about your competitors, and stay abreast of developments in the markets or technologies, etc. which are applicable to your business. None of the listed examples have provided support for how a business could not benefit from applying the use of social media in these capacities.

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Permalink Reply by Steph Woodward on June 2, 2009 at 2:00pm

First... seriously? You have to be kidding me. Grow up.

Second, as far as I can see, Kyle did not call groups names or anything like that either. As a matter of fact, his comments were light-hearted commentary about specific behaviors... you are disrespectful in a far more malicious manner in your own posts. What makes his post disrespectful that you don't have in your own posts? Because he did it light-heartedly without intending to actually insult anyone? God forbid.

And finally... please provide specific examples to back that opinion up. I would like to see concrete evidence showing that social media is less efficient and cost effective for all of the above capacities.

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