Facebook has been around for 15 years, and the other social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram have all come about and become popular more than 7 years ago.
Yet I still get people who don’t understand it or, as they say, have not had time for Facebook. Then when they meet me they want me to ‘quickly’ teach them how to do social media and how to do it effectively in the shortest time possible.
Like most people, these ‘sad idiots’ have now realised that the world has evolved and they have been left behind. I know that many people don’t believe social media is the way to go and I still get companies who block employees from using any social media whatsoever. If this approach works for you, then great, I am happy for you, your strategy is clearly better than mine. The question then is if your approach is working so well, why do you even ask about the possibilities of social media?
I get other people who want to take me out to lunch so that I can bring them up to speed quickly for the price of a steak. So let’s look at what needs to be learnt in any short course on social media, perhaps then it may be possible to determine the size of the steak that would need to be bought and how many lunches it may take to “quickly learn” what is needed.
What do you need to know to be effective?
- Your audience and what they like, how can you best get their attention and keep it? What happens if they get bored or if your competition takes their attention away from you?
- Can you deal with rejection? Perhaps the ideas you have are too futuristic or too old fashioned. How long will it take you to learn what they like?
- Can you work and never stop? It can take up to 18 hours a day to get the attention you are looking for and that process may need to continue for a good couple of years.
- Can you consistently produce interesting and diverse content, or do you plan to hire someone to do it for you? Realise that they will never do it with the same passion that you do, regardless of how much you pay them.
- Are you creative, can you think differently, can you write, can you script and produce short videos, can you take photos that will engage your audience?
This list has too many requirements and sounds impossible to accomplish, but if you speak to any true professional in the communication field, these are the skills they have gathered through many, many hours of working with people. So as you can see, I could not possibly eat an enormous steak slowly enough to be able to pass on my knowledge adequately in just one lunch or dinner!
Social media is not different from other forms of communication, except for the fact that you have potentially millions of people you could connect with at different times, you just need to be different so that you will be noticed.
If you think you have been left behind, ask yourself these questions: Am I teachable? Will I commit to being consistent, and can I accept rejection and failure along the way? If you can answer these three questions truthfully on a positive note, and you are prepared to learn, then contact me and we can discuss some possibilities.
Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/t-bone-steak-meat-grill-866600/
RichSimmonds 