Hello, all! This is my first foray into the Blogosphere, and so far, it’s going quite well, as do most maiden voyages setting sail for the high seas.
To say I am a neo-Luddite when it comes to embracing social media technology is a bit extreme. I prefer the term “slow adopter”. This way, I can leave myself some “wiggle” room to get over my awe for the power and scale of social media and leap right into the digital divide. The real irony is no one cares if I leap or not, but for those that have chosen to leap, I can observe they are on a path that greatly leverages their chances for success.
Now old Ned Luddite had this little problem in Great Britain back in 1811. He resented mill owners that purchased new mechanized looms and employed unskilled labor to increase production and profits. In his opinion, this new technology stole jobs from skilled handloom weavers, and this bothered him to the point that he started a social movement, encouraging artisans to destroy mechanized looms (a man Charles Manson could admire). This movement lasted through 1812 and required the British Army to step in more than once to restore the peace and end the movement.
Although the message of his movement ultimately fell by the way, Ned grasped a major concept that many businesses are wrestling with today: you’ve got to have a social presence to create momentum to get others to pay attention to your (message/company/product) to remain viable next year, or on into the future.
Which brings me to my point. I attended a social media event this past Sunday afternoon that is challenging my notions about the importance of social media. I watched a You Tube presentation titled Socialnomics that put the following stats into perspective. It took 38 years for radio to reach a 50 million listener audience, but it only took Facebook 9 months to reach a 100 million social media audience.
I am still processing the enormity of these statistics, but you can bet I’m going to find a way to incorporate social media into my company’s marketing plan – it’s that important!