We’re Talent Specialists, so you can imagine we like having conversations and sometimes, we pick up nuances of trends and the way people and companies are thinking. So we’d like to share this with you…
Does this sound familiar? “Are you ‘doing’ Social Media yet?”
If you are not ‘doing it’ or not ‘doing it’ enough as a company or as an individual – Relax! You can stop rolling your eyes and move your finger away from the ‘back’ button. This is not a big ‘Call to Action’, nor is it a set of instructions, nor is it a bunch of alien words or snazzy technical jargon you have never heard of.
If you feel you’ve missed the boat a little, maybe you are too cool for school to come in late?You are not alone, that’s the first thing to say. Like anything which makes you uncomfortable,the first step is to admit it. Done that? Great – biggest hurdle out the way then.
If you are wondering why you may still not have adopted Social media as much as you’d like to, we love this blog by Jon Hickman one of our Social Media Partners (Jon developed the MA in Social Media at BCU ). He says “There’s something else though that I’ve noticed over the years, and that’s people who see themselves as pioneers, natural early adopters, who refuse to engage with something because they come across it too late, just when it’s hitting an early majority and becoming mainstream. Even when the laggards are comfortably installed they still haven’t engaged because that’s so over. These are the folk who position themselves as innovators, dabblers, and experimenters. They might be trend spotters, influencers or cool hunters, and admitting they came to something late is bad karma for their frand”.
(We dare you to look up ‘Frand’)
If Jon’s comments sound familiar and you like to think of yourself as a bit of a “Come hard or go home” to quote Mr Rascal kind of person or company, then suddenly launching yourself into social media now may be tough for your ego – but, we really don’t think it matters when you get into it, as long as you get into it.
Back in 1981, MTV changed the way we think of and view television,you wouldn’t stop watching TV just because you missed the first video on there would you? (In case you are still avoiding watching TV because of this very reason, we’ve included the link of MTVs first broadcast to help you out)
Ever been on London Underground (LU)? It opened in 1863 and it nowhas more than one billion passengers a year. Can you imagine people walking around “too cool for school” to get on the tube today because they weren’t there for the first few journeys? (Yes we know, you have to imagine mortality rates being a little different first)! You can see our point though?
So is it just you? No it certainly isn’t. Harvard Business Review Analytics Services recently published “The New Conversation: Taking Social Media from Talk to Action” They found that “Only a small group — 12%— of the companies in the survey said they felt they were currently effective users of social media… but the majority of these companies also said they were still struggling with how to best use the different channels, gauge their effectiveness, and integrate social media into their strategies. Two-thirds of users have no formalized social media strategy in place. Sixty-one percent reported a significant learning curve before they can truly utilize social media. Many companies reported they are still searching to find the best way to demonstrate the impact of social media and the contribution to the bottom line”.
So, this blog is not about why you should – you already know why, nor is it telling you that you should – you know that too. It’s is asking you to give yourself permission to have a go, have a play and see where it takes you because every single person and organisation ‘doing’ Social Media has had to open their Facebook with no friends,post their first tweet with no followers, publish their first YouTube video with no views and upload their Linkedin profile with no invites.
If you do any of the above today, we salute you. If you don’t, well, we hope you will tomorrow. There is time.
Our closing note comes from the famous sage that is Sonic the Hedgehog “It’s not about winning … it’s about fun”
Author: Mel Geen, Write Research Group