AVOID SOCIAL MEDIA AT YOUR OWN RISK

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My wife & I recently went to see Buddy—The Buddy Holly Story & had the best time.  Buddy is in his early twenties & has the good fortune to sign a recording contract with Decca Records.  However, Decca wanted him to sing gospel & Buddy wanted to sing rock & roll.  The issue was adults were afraid of rock & roll.  They didn’t understand it & thought it would ruin their children.

So Buddy quit Decca & shortly thereafter signed with a record company that would allow him sing rock & roll.  Between August ‘57 & August ‘58, Holly charted seven Top Forty Singles & became a rock & roll legend.

This is exactly what is going on with social media.  I got a call from the head administrator of an economic development agency in North Alabama.  She said the Mayor received a complaint that an employee was caught on Facebook when she should have been working.  So the Mayor banned all social media from the work place.

Actually, I understand the Mayor’s concerns.  But the same thing could & probably was said about the telephone.  We all see people waste time on phone calls at work every day.  Would any of you think it would be a good idea yank out all the phones?  It’s pretty clear no business could operate without them.

My niece, Amanda, who is a senior at the University of Georgia, asked me for help with social media.  She is in the final few months of school & is looking for a job in a bad economy.  On several interviews, she was asked about her knowledge of social media. Amanda is bright, smart, & aggressive.  She will do fine, but Georgia has put her at a terrible disadvantage not offering social media in their marketing program.

Facebook is growing at 5 million members a week; LinkedIn at 1 million new members every twelve days.  You can think social media is going away, but you do so at your own risk.  This is David Sher your WeMentor Guy saying it’s not what you know, but whoo you know.