Why Social Media? – Julian Summerhayes

As opposed to:

• Talking to your clients face to face
• Writing to your clients
• Listening to your clients off line
• Having a systematised way of generating leads off-line
• Getting people in your organisation to spend more time together
• Investing in people
• Focusing on delivering a WOW service every single day
• Incremental improvement
• Saying thank you
• Being thoughtful
• Having a clear vision, purpose, mission that everyone believes in
• Working on the business as opposed to in the business
• Reading outside of your normal area of expertise
• Managing by wandering around

Frankly, the list is endless.

Few businesses understand and can articulate their purpose.

It’s not about making money.

That is simply a result.

Even less can describe their offering in a way that encroaches upon the idea of novel, remarkable or even different. Most concentrate on what they do … and they talk ad nauseum about something which, by and large, is just another commodity.

It’s no surprise therefore to find that when I (or others) posit this question – Why Social Media – few can describe in lucid terms their rationale.

For those that do have a go, few move beyond the realm of lead generation or customer service.

Social media, at its heart, is about democratisation.

It’s about giving your people (and your clients!) access, insight and the unbridled power to influence a tribe and change the perception of your business.

The Why has little to do with the tools. They are ephemeral. Yes, it’s nice when you get a few likes on Facebook or mentions on Twitter but how does that translate to your businesses vision, purpose and mission?

For the umpteenth time, social media is not about social media. Ipso facto it is about people and how you and they engage with one another.

Social media will continue to grow your influence but if all you do is focus on aligning yourself with the next sexy platform then you will be chasing a fool’s gold. Stick to what you know and like. I still believe that a blog, video and audio recording have the greatest potential. Of course, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook help to get the message out but the message should translate beyond the boundary of a few platforms, particularly if you throw into the mix a brilliant, memorable book, download or value laden podcast.

Don’t be afraid to keep asking this question. It’s not that you doubt your commitment to the cause but you need to make sure that you aren’t just chasing the crowd trying to spot the next platform so that you can obtain the benefit of early adoption.

Note: And if you haven’t yet built a blog, then it’s high time you did.

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