There are many reasons why some people still aren’t onboard with Social Media.
For some, they are still waiting . . .
Waiting to see what happens with it and if it is indeed a fad.
Waiting to get some conclusive evidence regarding ROI.
For some its an unnecessary debate of traditional media and/or selling methods vs Social Media (which quite frankly, I don’t know why we can’t just do all of the above)
For some, they are downright scared the way I was when I first dipped my toe in the water back in 2008.
For many, I think its just easier for them to write a check as in . . .
Writing a check for that ad.
Writing a check for that mailer.
Writing a check for that tradeshow booth
Its just easier to continue writing checks instead of . . .
Investing the time and energy to . . .
Continually show up and build a community via Social Media.
Who the hell has time for that?
And don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t diss’n the notion of writing checks for those things;
I just happen to find that thought very motivating because . . .
If you’re willing to continually show up, outwork and “out care” your competitor and as a bonus . . . build a community around your brand . . .
Then it really doesn’t matter who has the deeper pockets because that community that you just invested all that time and energy in;
will not only sustain your message, they will evangelize it.
But still, most people would rather write the check or even do nothing instead of investing the time to build community.
Perhaps today is about making a commitment to leverage the heck out of that reality!
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Really great post Paul! I love your “writing cheques (ooops, I am Canadian)” analogy. They are doing what has always been done, and can we effectively track ROI from those investments? Not to my knowledge. The great thing about social media as you eluded too is you can see with your own eyes the fruits of your labour, and your online community growing. Imagine if more companies or self employed people focused their attention on social media vs traditional marketing strategies? Instead of randomly writing cheques and not knowing if it is worthwhile anymore, they could channel those funds in to other activities, while using social media which is relatively inexpensive. Thanks!
Thank you Tim!
I do think that all of these things can live together as opposed to one vs
the other but the challenge is that most would rather write the check instead of putting in the work to build the community.
Building the community is time consuming.
If you just take the concept of creating content and then (more importantly) sticking around to interact with your target audience (like responding to this comment for example)
I could go on and on but I’ll add one last thought . . . you have to CARE and for some, its just easier to write that check 🙂
Thanks again Tim. I’ll always appreciate you taking the time to stop by and offer your thoughts!
No problem Paul. Yeah it would be nice if these two things could live together. I think there is a tendency for people to “want it all” especially in today’s society without putting in the time and effort. You obviously do not subscribe to that and do put in massive amounts of time. Have a great week!
Wicked wise post sir – love it! Once the plunge is taken, you’ll never look back! With the instant gratification world we’re conditioned to, we need to get over the time and patience it takes because anything truly worth it requires a bit of both! 😉
A must share – thank you!!
Much kindness,
Elena
P.S. – I’m sooo glad to have come across your blog!
Now that was a very cool comment Elena . . . thank you so much 🙂
Delegating and paying for it is easier than doing things yourself, that’s always been true. I am not totally against that, I’ve done it in the past as well and still do it. It all depends on deciding what aspect of your business you want to develop in first person rather than allowing someone else to do it on your behalf. Since Social Media is so personal (or should be, at least), I prefer to do it myself.
Well stated Gabriele and I prefer to do this myself too.
Thank you for stopping by!
Paul good comments. I believe a lot of us are doing more with less, (a lot more) and something has to give. Social media is a great tool, but as you stated, “it takes time”. We have just so much time and energy. Maybe we are just putting time and energy in the wrong spot.
Not an easy decision when it comes to where to put our time especially when we are indeed doing more with less.
Its because of that very challenge that I shifted a really high
percentage of my activities after hours.
Definitly not an approach that will appeal to many but its worked out very nicely for me.
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your perspective Roger. I really appreciate it!
It is definitely easier to write checks my friend, but bottom line is in these economic times, a lot of us have no checks to write anyway so we might as well make social media an active part of our lives.
A lot of us aren’t as busy as we’d like to be anyway so we have the time to do it.
Thanks and have an awesome day uncle Paul!
Great point Peter and so much of this stuff is available for the low/low price of free!
Thank you for stopping by!
Writing checks is easier, but reading your blog and retweeting your great stuff is far more fun and awesome! Oh yes, and the other peeps are great, too.
Thank you Honoree . . . very nice of you to say that!
Too bad that this transcends business. Churches find it easier to get people to donate money than to volunteer. Political campaigns find it easier to get people to write the check than to be involved in grass roots activism. I volunteer to serve a community dinner every week at my church. We serve some people in need of food, and many in need of companionship and fellowship, or who are busy and tired and just need a night off. We have incredible generosity from the church to support the effort financially, but most would never come and work or socialize. For me, it has provided an opportunity to get to know people who I may never have met otherwise, and that makes me richer. Social media, like this experience, gives us an opportunity to connect on a very personal level. We are able to build community and experience the generosity of people from all over the world as we share with them. Yes, sometimes it is frustrating just like every other form of marketing, but the ROI is more profound than just a monetary return.
Definitely easier to write a check, but is it more effective? Social media, to me, is so amazingly important because it provides engagement like no other marketing medium has in the post. You can have a one-on-one conversation with your community. Mailers can’t do that. Ads can’t do that. And trade shows require your community to actually show up! In social media, they are already there…waiting. All you have to do is show up too. Is it really that hard? Time-consuming, yes. But it’s FREE ENGAGEMENT! What are the technophonbes waiting for?
Frankly I don’t really understand what kind of ROI “proof” the sceptics are waiting for. Entire businesses are built or saved by social media and inbound marketing. Just think about Gary V’s wine business or Marcus Sheridan’s pool business. I guess old habits die hard…
Wim