Social Media in 2013: Great, Another Year Of This Crap!
Forgive me for a few paragraphs as I feel the need to get a few things off my chest in regards to Social Media. I understand the benefits of using Social Media for business and I understand some of the flaws. What I don’t understand is how marketers and sales professionals are using Social Media as an excuse to be lazy. Since when did we determine that you don’t need hard work to succeed, but that success can come by simply joining Linkedin or Twitter and blasting off a few tweets? Or that all you have to do is flood enough groups with your self-promotional crap to generate new business? And when did Social Media develop so many different cliques? Sometimes I get flash backs to High School when I see all the same content being shared by the same people routinely. How about you take off the blinders and recognize some of the other kids at the school.
The laziness is probably the thing that bothers me most. If you met someone at a coffee shop and learned that you share the same taste in Venti Mocha Lattes, would you then ask if you could show them a demo? Building a relationship takes time, whether on Social Media or in person, so expecting to close a deal after one interaction is presumptuous, insane and pure laziness. Just because you re-tweeted some of my stuff doesn’t mean I’m going to talk to you let alone buy your stuff. Or is the idea now that you have instant access to your potential targets/prospects it’s ok for you to inundate them with requests for demos and pitch your product even though you’ve spent no time building a relationship?
Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m getting old, or maybe I was just taught business class from an outdated, over-the-hill way of thinking. I’m sorry if I feel it requires time, energy, research and respect to build my relationships on Social Media. And I’m sorry that I feel that people are abusing their Social Media privileges and making a mockery of themselves and their organizations by the way they handle their handles. Most of all though, I’m sorry that Social Media gave so many people an excuse to be lazy and not do their jobs properly. Actually, I’m not really sorry for any of it, I’m only sorry that we’ll have to spend another year looking at this crap as people continue to abuse these outlets.
Just my thoughts, thanks for letting me vent!