Business and Social Media – When Worlds Collide

Filed under Social Media by on September 3, 2009 at 4:03 pm {no comments}

Business and Social Media – When Worlds Collide

Business and Social Media – When Worlds Collide
By John Cousins

About 2 years ago there I am listening to one of those casually dressed internet guru types tell me how social media is going to change my world. “Nothing will be the same. It will change business forever!” I thought to myself (insert sarcastic tone) Oh great because I just love the fact that when my blackberry goes off at 10 at night people think I should gleefully answer it. In the mean time my company’s Chief Marketing Officer is going on and on about the impending revolution, about communities, and open communication. Blithering on about what it means to our business.

Me I’m not a high ranking kind of guy. My role in life is more akin to that of the chief cook and bottle washer type. But I live in the tech world so new technology isn’t all that scary to me. At that point admittedly I’d been on Linked In for several years and My Space for a bit. One kept me in touch with a world filled with my professional contacts which made perfect sense. In sales and business it’s not always what you know, but who you know. On the other site let’s just admit I was an online loser. I had my dad, my sister, wife, one daughter, and host of bands, film makers and comedians who wanted to be my friend but no one real. The horrible flash backs to life as an unpopular nerdy boy in grade school aside I continued on. Had my first experience with social media been a singles bar not only would I be going home alone but my buddies would have ditched me, leaving me in a questionable neighborhood with no money and no ride. Fortunately for me it was just the internet.

So, like a good soldier I listened. I ran out to sign up for Facebook, bought a copy of the Clue Train Manifesto (which I am sure buying anything with the word manifesto in it puts you on some type of government watch list)and Wikinomics and waited for my professional life to start a Groundswell and take on a highly profitable cyber fueled virtual life of its own.

This time around I added a few people I knew from work and my friends list grew modestly, then I joined a few networks, and it grew a little more. Over time a few vendors found me, then a few customers. It looked like anything else you get out what you put into it unless you had a really hot picture of yourself. Amazingly enough even on the internet a guy in blue polo isn’t considered excessively hot even if he leaves his pocket protector at home.

Being reclusive I did my best to ignore the application invites. Things like join my mob, send me a drink and other nonsense seemed like a frivolous waste of time at this point in life. Then it happened a few college friends added me. Then a few more. Sometimes it felt great to hear from them yet other times it was a why in the world do I care what they are doing now moments. Bus still I accepted their requests no reason to be rude. A few Ex girlfriends came by to say hi. I’m older, wiser, more worldly so why would I care. It’s harmless right?

Besides time has been kind to me, I have a pretty great life. And that’s when it hit me do I really want the girl I liked in kindergarten to know what my customers are saying and more importantly do I want my business associates, customers, and co workers to know anything about my past based on comments from people who knew me when I was young, dumb, and awkward.

There’s not much that I hide from but the thought of me in a hideous suit my mother made me wear for school pictures as 12 year old might be one of them, there was the one wild weekend at college when I looked like John Belushi on a bender that was not indicative of my studious book worm nature, or worse yet me and my assortment of other dweeb friends playing Dungeons and Dragons on a perfectly lovely Friday night in 1985. Yes I played D&D and I looked exactly like the stereo typical guy who played D&D did. So my worlds collided but just a little at a time. Is Facebook the root of all evil? Time will tell. Will our culture become ubiquitous, open and tolerant of the teenage geek turned married professional? The ugly duckling turned into the proverbial swan, maybe but it’s unlikely. Most of all do I want to prove to the guy who beat me up in the 5th grade that his inclinations about me were indisputably correct three decades later and that I am in fact a geek.

NO! People still tell me every day that social media is going to change the world. That business and life are bound to become inexplicably linked. To which I say thanks but no thanks. The business hasn’t come rolling in. Social Media might be a great way to go if you’re hawking get rich quick schemes or connecting with already established customers but at the moment I’m not finding wild and new exotic markets and customers to sell to and in turn they are not finding me either. With all the great things the internet has brought into my life social media just isn’t one of them. So call me old fashioned but I’m just happy I can order books on Amazon at a discount, get free shipping, and not pay sales tax…for now.

Now If you’ll excuse me I’m off to upload more pictures of my flower gardens so more people can poke fun at me. On the upside it’ll make my mother happy. Then I’m off to call write on my favorite DM’s wall.

John Cousins has over 20 years of corporate business to business sales experience. He a begrudging technology junkie, an over seasoned traveler, and regular contributor sales technology contributor to the The UnNatural Salesman and is currently doing data collection for the upcoming Sales Career Resource Guide Sales Career Resource Guide.

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