The Social Media Scrooge

We have all seen them or more likely we have all heard them. They are the folks who make a face when­ever we talk about our Twit­ter friends. Roll their eyes when we share Face­book sto­ries. They are also the folks who will tell you that real busi­ness doesn’t hap­pen when you waste time on the social networks.

Are they wrong?

Yes and no.

Yes, if your employ­ees are play­ing Mafia Wars instead of fill­ing out that all impor­tant TPS report. No, if the con­nec­tion they make from a Twit­ter post (tweet) gets them a phone or face-to-face appoint­ment with a poten­tial client.

Yet, how can some­one be con­vinced of the merit of adding social media to their busi­ness? One way is to intro­duce case stud­ies and offer exam­ples of social media gone right. Zap­pos, Com­cast and Dell spring to mind. Take a real world exam­ple that you per­son­ally have done to show­case the effec­tive­ness of social media. Whether that was a form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, cus­tomer ser­vice or pro­mo­tional tool. Another option is to have them attend indus­try spe­cific events where the topic of social media is being addressed.

I am often asked to speak to groups about the prac­ti­cal use of social media. While I have shared how much I enjoy watch­ing light bulbs go off dur­ing a ses­sion, I’ve never talked about what it’s like to watch a Social Media Scrooge “get it”.

They are typ­i­cally suc­cess­ful busi­ness own­ers. They also know that if they keep hear­ing some­thing over and over again, they should pay atten­tion. They usu­ally walk in with a deter­mined look on their face. They may or may not chat with folks before­hand. They are there, but prob­a­bly feel they could have spent their time more productively.

It is appar­ent to me that this per­son is there because they keep get­ting told they need to “do social media”. They have no idea what that means, not sure if it is rel­e­vant for their busi­ness and feel that over­all it is a waste of time. If we go back to the pre­vi­ous Yes and No expla­na­tion above, they may or may not be right. How­ever, if they do not take the time to at least have a cur­sory under­stand­ing of what social media is, how can they make a fair judg­ment? So, the Social Media Scrooge will attend an event to find out for themselves.

What I have found is that one of the best ways to cut through the jar­gon and buzz words that are inher­ent in social media is to relate every­thing back to tra­di­tional terms. For exam­ple, when I talk about new media pod­casts and live online audio stream­ing I quickly com­pare it to tra­di­tional radio pro­grams and talk shows. The Social Media Scrooge under­stands radio and will nod their head. When I tell them that one of the biggest dif­fer­ences between the two is that pod­casts and online audio are instantly archived and avail­able to an entire con­nected global audi­ence. Their eyes widen in under­stand­ing just a bit.

The ses­sion con­tin­ues and by the end there is that moment when the light bulb goes off.  The for­mer Social Media Scrooge now has an under­stand­ing of the basics of what social media is and an idea of how it just might be a pow­er­ful part of their business.

If you know some­one who is a Social Media Scrooge, con­sider send­ing them to spend some time with me at the Tech­nol­ogy Con­nexus Hi-Tech Mixer on Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 10th from 5:30-8pm.

image by stri­atic

Tags: hi-tech mixer, San Antonio, scrooge, social media, speaking, technology connexus, texas