You can’t eat Twitter followers ... can you?
The other weekend, a barbecue gave me a reality check.
I found that all the social media in the world can’t beat yarning with ten real people.
A short chat unexpectedly led to a new client, immediate work and welcome payment.
Once again I’ve learnt lessons.
1. Ivory Towers are Hard to Climb
In studying Web 2.0 for over a year, I associated chiefly with others who were on a similar path.
I thus formed the opinion that everyone knew the nature, purpose and importance of corporate blogs.
So, when asked at the BBQ what I’d been up to, I proudly listed my blogging endeavours.
The following silence was long and profound.
Finally someone asked: ‘What’s a blog?’
Nodding heads confirmed that I’d been preaching to the uninitiated.
I was stunned. These people were my age. How could they not know?!
2. Face to Face Beats Virtual
It later transpired that one person did know what I was talking about.
He had a corporate blog and he wanted it optimised.
As he was a good mate of a good mate, I’d assumed he knew all about my blogging service.
Further, I’d laid it out in posts, summarised it in a PDF and emailed it to every corner of the cosmos.
But, surprise surprise, he was unaware of my social media adventures.
This plum prospect had been under my nose for months.
3. Nobody is an Island
It may seem romantic to play the gifted, eccentric writer, ensconced in his garret, producing flawless works of beauty while the rest of humanity moils below.
In reality, it’s stupid and vain.
I now realise my flight to social media (to the exclusion of human interaction) meant putting all my eggs in one virtual basket.
Though I’m not a very social person, avoiding the human touch altogether seems bad for business.
Questions
The fact you’re reading this blog suggests you’re hip to the social media groove.
I’d therefore like to know:
- Have you replaced client face time with Facebook time?
- For generating business, do virtual interactions beat real ones?
- Could those who don’t know or care about blogs actually be right?
- Have you ever found a great new client at a BBQ or similar social event?
Serve it up!
Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire 
Get ready for business with MYOB and Wes...
5 simple steps to prepare your business ...
What’s Cooking: AccountRight Live ...
5 deadly sins of promising businesses
Working from home? You’re part of a ri...
Loading ...
Author
Megan from myBRC
February 16, 2010 at 9:58 am
Funny timing, Paul – I just read an article yesterday about Twitter fatigue http://www.theage.com.au/executive-style/culture/twitter-quitters-20100212-nww6.html
I don’t think it’s time to jump off but like everything, it’s important to keep things in perspective. Like a good diet, everything in moderation
Author
Paul Hassing
February 16, 2010 at 10:03 am
Far out, Megan. Interesting article (Miley Cyrus notwithstanding).
Ironically, I went to retweet this blog post earlier but Twitter has been ‘over capacity’ for the longest time I’ve seen since I joined more than a year ago.
Funny old world!
Author
Bambi Gordon
February 16, 2010 at 10:11 am
Gr8 post.
I can relate to point 2 in particular. We are often so close to our own marketing endeavours that for us our efforts to attract clients is on ‘high rotation’ but for those potential clients, they haven’t registered yet.
Back in my radio days I remember that the Programmers would only pull a hot track or a promo ad back once they felt it was really burnt out for those of us at the station listening all day long..because that was the point where the listeners would only just have registered that it was played multiple times across the day.
I think the common thought is that you need to been impacted by a marketing message 6 times before it sinks in…
So, though you had been marketing your business, you were yet to reach the right reach and frequency to be top of mind with that potential client.
There is also the argument that the quality of your marketing – face to face – was far greater because it was face to face, without distractions and interactive…in comparison to the email that may have lobbed in your clients inbox, or the quick glance at a PDF. It is often the argument of Magazines that they are a more valuable advertising vehicle than radio because people spend longer and are truely engaged within the environment of the ad.
Re sourcing clients at live events vs online – I don’t think it is an either/or. I think that all the elements of the mix add to each other and make a stronger link.
As far as Social Media replacing time that I would have spent outside of the garret, networking with social media has actually given me the confidence to take that out into the real world. I am far more social because of the web.
Thx Paul.
Author
Paul Hassing
February 16, 2010 at 10:17 am
Wow, Bambi; thanks for your response. It’s so good to get your perspective. You’ve really got me thinking now…
Author
Stephen Hamilton
February 16, 2010 at 10:19 am
Oh, you had me at BBQ! It’s true, I LOVE a barbie.
You make a salient point about many people not being hip to modern online means of interacting. I often have to remind myself of the same thing, otherwise I too wind up having blank stares and awkward silences!
Although they may have been rhetorical questions, I’ll answer aloud:
1. Not Facebook, so much (I use it, but pretty much loathe it), but I do tend to lose time to other similar activities if I am not careful, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, RSS reader etc etc.
2. The reason why I try to avoid this is that nothing beats real interaction. Face-to-face is best, but a phone call is good too. I remind myself that the goal of online interaction is to encourage actual ‘real-life’ interaction. Nothing beats ‘real’ interaction.
3. People who don’t know about blogs can often justify their ignorance and lack of interest – some people use other valuable methods of driving towards ‘real’ interactions. The challenge I (we?) face is recognising that online should be a complimentary discipline, not a core discipline. And yes, that even applies to people like me who consults and develops online business solutions.
4. Have I ever found a great contact or client at a social function? Absolutely! The aim of online interaction is to increase the circle of people who trust us to be experts in our chosen fields. But we can’t spend all our time stalking ‘friends’ on Facebook when there are mates, colleagues, relatives, neighbours etc etc who may have a need for our services.
Author
Paul Hassing
February 16, 2010 at 10:22 am
Good on you, Stephen. You sure are serving it up today. How cool to get a full answer to ALL FOUR of my questions. You’re generous as usual!
Author
Stephen Hamilton
February 16, 2010 at 10:22 am
Bambi – I really dig your point about radio stations playing tracks and ads on high rotation – you nail it why our marketing messages need to be constantly reinforced, and therefore necessarily repetitive. Ta!
Author
Stephen Glanville
February 16, 2010 at 11:03 am
Hi Folks,
Great Comments…and yes, your post was great too mate, as always ;-P
As usual, in light of the endemic sanity abounding these hallowed pages, I’ll play my usual cynical doomsayer role…just because…
G’day mate
I got an email Newsletter this morning…one of my subscriptions to MarketingProfs. No I don’t work for them, so that’s not a plug.
So why do I get their Newsletters? Because I admire their staggering commitment to irrelevant minutia. It is a constant reminder to me that truth can often take a back-seat to conviction…and that humans can convince other humans to pay for absolutely anything.
And I also want to see them run out of catchy cliches that they use to head their articles/webimars/whitepapers etc etc etc. It’s absolutely staggering. Mind you, they long ago discovered recycling
.
I imagine that they have this big BBQ-less room full of very pale semi-corporeal people, whose sole purpose is to scan the known Universe for contemporary Keywords and Trending Topics. Then these get funneled off to another group of pale entities that use algorithms to match them up against pending articles and newsletters.
The newsletter editors/publishers then access a massive database with massive selections of cliches that they can use in the titles of their newsletter/articles…blah, blah, blah.
So what’s the latest? Here’s a quote from the newsletter:
“As President and CEO of a search engine marketing company, (name removed to protect the insidious), has front-line info on how Bing SEO is a completely different animal from Google SEO and why even well-optimized companies need to rethink their SEO strategies. During this week’s online seminar, she’ll coach you on how to score big with Bing.”
Like WOW! What a surprise!
Yet another fine example of people looking after people, noble energy efficiency and designing for a future where technology makes our lives so much easier? Hmmm!
Ok! That might seem a bit off topic…but don’t lose hope…watch this:
# Have you replaced client face time with Facebook time? – I do not, have never had and never will have a Facebook account.
# For generating business, do virtual interactions beat real ones? Only when it’s not otherwise possible to have generated that business (e.g. Interstate, International contact). Also, refer to Bambi’s and Stephen’s excellent comments above…with which I heartily concur.
# Could those who don’t know or care about blogs actually be right? Yes!
# Have you ever found a great new client at a BBQ or similar social event? Yes! But like you, I’m not overly social…that said, the challenge for me is getting there. So, I have to take a leaf out of Adam’s Book of Oceanic Wisdom – http://bit.ly/9FLfsk …once I’m there I usually enjoy it.
Nothing beats being present! Evidence – As you know, my little noSh-it! Wood-Fired Pizza business met an early demise last year.
I then spent a couple of months picking up the pieces and devising a rebirth. I blogged about it, I Twittered about it and I blogged some more. Folks were morally supportive and well wishing…but until it becomes tangible and generates money for others, it’s just talk. Fortunately for me, my ‘talking’ was for my benefit as I began to clarify my project.
Enter Reality – As I reached a point where I felt clear about my project and my ability to adequately communicate it, I arranged a couple of meetings…with real people, in the real world.
It took one meeting and I got good traction and am now developing training programs to create Nationally Accredited pathways into the next evolution of the business and project (I blogged about that too
).
The BBQ Effect is a winner…:-)
Cheers
Stephen G
Author
Susan Oakes
February 16, 2010 at 11:08 am
Hi Paul,
I agree with Bambi it is a mix of online and offline. No marketing tactic is suitable for every business.
Like most things in this world social media is evolving. Last year everyone was telling small business owners that they should be on twitter, have a facebook page etc because that’s where their customers were. This year it is more about networking. In fact that is where I met you, Bambi and on this blog Stephen.
It really depends on what you are trying to achieve and whether these tactics are more suitable than others to pursue with the time or money you have allocated.
That said I have found opportunities primarily through blogs, especially in the US, but the converstations were always taken offline and developed.
Hope the sausages were not burnt during the stunned silence.
Author
Malcolm Owens
February 16, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Excellent post and great to see that common sense applies in the real and virtual world! I strongly believe and advocate the use of social media to a point and that points comes way before it becomes obsessive.
I accept the benefits of building business on line and the fantastic resource this provides. I write a blog every week http://successsurfer.blogspot.com/ which everyone should be reading every week because I spend hours crafting the content to be interesting and informative – so check it out!
Now that I have the shameless self promotion out of the way I will get back to the topic. I don’t have the time to update facebook every day, change my LinkedIn profile, create a Squidoo Lens, or tweet every 15 minutes throughout the day and I honestly don’t know where people get the time to do so.
Last night I was at a National Speakers meeting and half the audience had their heads in their laptops for the entire meeting tweeting away and continued to do so in the breaks effectively eliminating meaningful human contact. It appears that any task that requires ‘off line’ participation is seen with distaste. Funny that social networking can get in the way of social activity.
However I love the resources offered by great sites such as Ted.com, reading inspiring and motivating blogs, buying great stuff I don’t need on EBay and surfing through Flickr and Slideshare. All brilliant resources and I wonder how we ever did without them. Perhaps I’m not in the ‘space’ which allows social media to have a direct impact on me but I do understand the benefit of having a presence corporately ‘out there’.
I reckon nothing beats having a chat and a drink with some great mates so where social media stands, like most things in life, all good things in balance and moderation. Grab a can from the fridge and let’s have a chat about it.
Author
Paul Hassing
February 16, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Dear Stephen, Susan and Malcolm, it must be High Quality Comment Day, because all yours are rippers.
I have nothing witty or erudite to add, so I’ll just say thank you for augmenting this discussion.
Author
Stephen Hamilton
February 16, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Malcolm: I think it is interesting you mentioned TED straight after relating how at a conference many people were being anti-social because they were wrapped up with their gadgets.
It was only this morning I was reading on Robert Scoble’s blog that at TED you are only allowed to have a laptop in the main seminar if you sit in the back row. Listening and note-taking the ‘old-fashioned’ way seem to be valued highly by the organiser.
Perhaps it is something that more seminars and conferences could/chould consider…
Author
Paul Hassing
February 16, 2010 at 3:16 pm
I’ll buy that for a dollar, Stephen!
Author
Luke Arms
February 17, 2010 at 1:05 am
I must confess, I haven’t read everyone else’s responses yet, so I’m just wading in with a few observations. I hope they don’t double up too much.
Social media is used poorly by a lot of people. Old-fashioned marketers bring their old-school thinking to Twitter and Facebook and try to use it to push their old-style marketing messages to whoever will listen. They miss the point that social media is, in fact, social, and are surprised by the lack of value they get out of it. People don’t care about about marketing messages anymore. They care about what their friends like, and social media allows vendors to join those conversations, and provide value to people without expecting reimbursement (something else old-school thinkers aren’t good at doing, i.e. the whole “givers receive” thing).
I wouldn’t say that online interactions are “virtual”; they just take a different form to in-person interactions, and as with in-person scenarios, some are better at building valuable online connections than others. Of course some of these connections will evolve into in-person ones (as happens regularly at tweet-ups, for example), but referrals will often flow without any face-to-face contact, and that’s where the value is.
Of course, BBQ’s are networking opportunities too. Then you have groups like business chambers, BNI, etc. Wherever people are, there can be valuable networking. Where is it best to spend your time? I guess it comes down to identifying where the people you want to work for are talking, and then figuring out how best to join their conversation. Social media is just one tool at our disposal.
Oh, and about blogs: my blog is the focal point of my business. So I’d say some blogs can matter. You know, like this one
Author
Paul Hassing
February 17, 2010 at 5:32 am
You just made a whole lot of sense there, Luke. I think in terms of getting back more than I put in, this post takes the cake. Thank you for yet another intelligent take on an issue that is far more complex and layered than I ever imagined. Best regards, P.