Social Media Excuses, Excuses

Why Excuses Like “Too Time Consuming,” “Too Risky” and “Too Tech-y” Don’t Cut It

AZR October 2009

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Yes, social media is overhyped right now. But if you’ve been dodging Facebook, ignoring Twitter and covering your ears when folks talk blogging, we’ve got some bad news. This stuff isn’t going away anytime soon. Social media educator Brad Hanks has heard the excuses people give to justify staying off social networking sites. Here he tackles these excuses head on—and explains why social media naysayers may want to reconsider.

"Why bother?"

These social networks are where consumers are now congregating. We don’t have as much time as we used to have, so we find different ways to interact and engage. One of the significant ways is through social networking. To not be in these spaces is to be invisible to consumers in the social media landscape.

"It takes too much time."

That’s a valid concern. Setting yourself up on these sites takes some time, especially when you’re talking about a Facebook or LinkedIn profile. But once you’ve got your presence on these networks established, it just becomes a matter of managing and maintaining.

You have to apply some discipline to it because if you don’t, it will eat time away from your day. I don’t continuously go back to Facebook all day. I go in the morning or in the late afternoon. There are ways to manage your time wisely and be effective with the time you spend there.

If you don’t spend time in social media, you’re getting further and further behind the curve. Other agents are making contacts with prospects that you’d like, with past clients that you’ve had. If your competitors establish this presence and you don’t, you’re losing traction.

"That’s online. I want to do business face-to-face."

Yes, business will be done face-to-face. But relationship building can be done online. I’ve built relationships with people online that eventually led to phone calls, then to face-to-face meetings. And when those meetings happen, it feels like I’ve known them for a long time.

"I'm worried about the risks."

That is a valid concern. There is liability. There is risk. For those people who speak before they think, social media can be a tremendous risk. If people can think about what they’re saying before they push the update button, it will serve them well.

Use common sense. If you wouldn’t want your mother reading about it, it probably shouldn’t be posted. Anything you say, even if you think it’s a private community, could come back. It lives forever on the web.

In addition, brokers have to consider the risks of social media. They need to know not only what their agents are saying but also what consumers are saying about their company. They have to be paying attention to their social web. I would think it is actually more risky not to be on these networks.

"I can’t blog. I'm not a good writer. I won’t be able to think up things to say."

Blog readers aren’t necessarily waiting for some epiphany, some Pulitzer-Prize-winning piece. These social spaces are about starting conversations. Relationships develop out of those conversations.

I carry a notebook around with me—my blog book. If I have a flash of inspiration, I jot it down. I turn to that book and have a whole list of topics I can draw from.

If you sit down to write your blog and find that you’re in a prolific mood, cut the content into multiple pieces and build it up in a pipeline. Most platforms allow you to schedule posts at a later date and time. The best bloggers can go on vacation and still have their blog post on a regular basis.

For so many years, we’ve talked about blogging, and so few people have adopted it. Now is the perfect opportunity because we have more ways to build a readership. Before we’d throw a piece up in the blogosphere and hope and pray that somebody would find it. Unless your website was really well-placed with search engine optimization, it was hard to find readers. Now you can tap into your social networks.

"I'm not tech-y."

Social media is not about technology. It’s about engaging consumers, engaging peers. The technology is only the tool that enables us to reach out and connect. If people are comfortable surfing the web, they should be comfortable using these social media tools.

I drive a car. I know that at some point, I’m going to have to stop and get gas. But that’s the extent of my knowledge of the internal combustion engine. I don’t get caught up in the how-to’s and the why’s.

"I’ve got all of these people that I don’t know that want to connect with me."

That’s a personal decision you have to make—whether you want to allow these people into your network. For me, the point of social media is to expand my horizons and connect with people that I would not have connected with otherwise. Why just duplicate your current social network online? Look at it as opening doors. That’s what it’s all about.

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