Jul
17
The self-contained case study (It’s not about you)
Lately I’ve been having lots of conversations about why I’m involved at all in social media. In some cases it’s a conversation where I’m forced to defend the merits of social media.
Nearly one in every five of these conversations comes under the impression that everyone else uses uses the internet, e-mail, blogging, Twitter, Linked In, etc, exactly the way they do. Astounding.
I’ve come to call it the self-contained case study – the misplaced thought that trends are proven on a case study of one, and not much else matters. What follows are my responses to some comments and arguments I hear about the wide barrage of tactics to be had:
“I don’t use the Internet to generate leads or sales. My customers come to me.”
Great. Not everybody has the advantage of a never-ending flow of customers. I would argue that you don’t either.
“Why would I waste time on Twitter reading about what everybody else is doing?”
(Insert sarcastic voice here) You’re right, you wouldn’t like Twitter. (back to reality now) Follow your competitors much? Manage your own reputation a lot? Blogging and micro-blogging are tools to do that, however it can be a time suck depending on who you follow and what mindless drivel you publish.
“I don’t have time to get involved with social media.”
If that statement is followed by a modifier that says “one of my employees deals mainly with our online reputation” I’m ok with that mentality. The major decision makers of any larger organization might not have the time to dedicate. As a flat excuse however, it reeks of ignorance as to what social media and internet marketing involvement looks like.
“I’ve got twenty thousand names in my e-mail list.”
Did they opt in, and are you providing them non-spammy, regular, valuable content? An updated price list doesn’t count.
And many more. My final point to the rant is this – you are not your target market. You may be a piece of it, but please don’t qualify or disqualify your marketing tactics by the fact that you like them personally. I attribute one of my more favorite quotes to Jon Arnold at Tuitive:
“It’s not about you.”