As I read this educational post on Mashable this morning I couldn't help but think back to a dinner conversation I had with my client and friend Walter a couple weeks ago when we were both in NYC for a Trade Show. Walter is in the pump business, double diaphragm pumps to be specific. He brought along a colleague from his office, Eric, who handles the social media responsibilities for the organization. It was fascinating listening to these two 30 somethings talk about where they saw things going on the social media front and how important it was going to be for their business. Now keep in mind .Walter is not in the most glamorous of businesses --in fact his business is rather old school when it comes to embracing digital marketing, let alone Twitter, Facebook, blogs etc. One of the things Walter said really stuck with me as he talked about how ubiquitous social media will be in our sales and marketing lives over the next couple years. He said, "Remember 15 years ago, almost nobody used e-mail. When e-mail first came out, all I heard was why do we need it."
No question the younger crowd is totally engrossed in the digital world. As the Mashable post points out, for upper level management in today's business world social media is an unpracticed art. That is going to change, I think pretty quickly. The business environment is changing in dramatic fashion and these changes are coming at us warp speed. Those in the executive suite who don't adapt to this changing world will find themselves ex-management in the not too distant future.
Top 5 Social Media Tips by Jennifer Van Grove
- Go where the people are
- Invest in people
- Be a subject matter expert
- Make it personal
- Don't neglect internal social media
