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Some “get it”, some don’t – yet

Blaine Millet — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:10:47 +0000

Today was a fairly typical day in the “Social Media Business World” – some executives who “get it” and some who don’t.

Most of my interactions seem to sort out whether someone is going to be an “early adopter” and take a “wait and see” attitude about this Revolution called Social Media. Talking to different people and realizing how people can have such different views from the same information is always interesting. The crux of the issue is whether or not they feel this revolution called Social Media is going to impact them. The ones that get it are almost emotional because they realize this is “game changing” and business will never be the same going forward.

For the others, it is just a matter of time. They too will understand the power of this new way to communicate and build deeper and more trusted relationships – someday. It is clearly a question of “when”, not “if” any longer as to how social media will impact their business.

One individual we met with today was Dennis Brislawn of Brislawn Lofton LLP law firm. Dennis is one of the “early adopters” that not only “gets it” but is very passionate about it and understands how it will change both the legal profession and other businesses – way to go Dennis!! For those executives out there not quite sure, hang in there, the first sign generally comes when a major competitor starts using it and getting results – then they “get it.”

Blaine

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Why bother with Social Media…

Blaine Millet — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:59:16 +0000

People everywhere are talking about the “buzz” of Social Media – in the darkest recesses of business. Twitter this, facebook that, blogs here, LinkedIn there – its everywhere. But with such mass awareness and potential adoption, there are two ugly words that raise their head – CONTROL and RISK.

However, I believe that with this new found freedom from Social Media, companies can “reach out and touch” people so much “faster, deeper and cheaper” than they ever could before while building “broader” and “stronger” relationships. At at the end of the day, isn’t that what we all want in business? As the “official tweeter” for Sharpie pens said (@SharpieSusan) said in a recent interview, “I think you’d have to be living in a cave to have missed the social media movement and the power it can wield over brands.”

Enter side stage, the “stalwarts” of traditional media and, of course, their “lock it down, don’t lose any control or assume any risk” – The Wall Street Journal. They recently published their “conduct rules” for such Social Media tools as twitter and facebook (among others). My question to them, “WHY BOTHER TO ENGAGE IN SOCIAL MEDIA?” There isn’t anything in these “conduct rules” that reinforces what Social Media is all about – engaging in a dialog with your audience in a personal, authentic and honest manner to share how you feel and what can help your audience.

My advice to the WSJ. Just keep doing what you’re doing and each morning when I back out of the driveway I won’t even realize I have run over the newspaper since it will be so thin it won’t even be a “bump” any longer.

Blaine

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Deer in headlights? Some deer move…

Blaine Millet — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:37:23 +0000

When clay and I first started doing seminars on “What CEOs need to know about Social Media, it was to address a real issue we were seeing in small and middle-market businesses. The CEOs and owners were clueless to what Social Media was all about and completely unaware of this Tsunami in communications heading toward them and their business.

What is interesting to me today is that after giving almost 30 speeches to close to 500 people, the percentage of top executives that are clueless remains over 80% – that is shocking to me. So while we continue our journey to help “educate” and “enlighten” as many as we can, we hope to reduce this number as rapidly as possible.

However, at the same time, what is also very encouraging to me is how many of the “deer are getting out of the way” of oncoming traffic and starting to do something about it – way to go! They are moving from the “experimental” and “enlightenment” arena to the “mainstream” – doing something about it and “engaging” in the Revolution. I would encourage anyone that has considered doing something to just do it (with a plan of course) but GET IN THE GAME.

This can’t be learned from the sidelines – only with active participation. And participation by top executives, owners, CEOs and others – not the 28 year old marketing person that happens to know Facebook really well. This is your business and livelihood – make the investment and get out of the way of the headlights and you will reap some massive rewards – faster, deeper and cheaper than you could ever have done before. Don’t be the deer that gets caught in the headlights…we all know how that story ends.

Blaine

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