One of the major elements to surviving difficult circumstances is situational awareness. A realistic, real time appraisal of the conditions you find yourself in. Refusing to let go of the past, or delusional dreams of the future, will not contribute to your ability to survive. What is required is a blunt, honest assessment of your current circumstances and resources.
Are you betting your future on our economic model returning to what it used to be? Are you sure that job you used to have will really come back some day? Are you sure that if it does return that you even want to keep doing what you were doing? Do you believe that if you simply keep your head down and tighten your belt that the good times will return?
Have you truly grasped the significance of the exponential growth of Social Media and its impact on traditional marketing? If you really understand that shift, how does it impact your way of doing business or looking for a job? If Wikipedia, which has become one of the largest and most accurate of encyclopedias, was written by folks who, for the most part, never even met each other, what does that say about our need for offices and factories going forward?
In his book “Tribes”, Seth Godin states: “In unstable times, growth comes from leaders who create change and engage their organizations, instead of from managers who push their employees to do more for less”.
What are you doing, either as an individual or a business, to assess the changes that have altered the very fabric of our society? What are you doing to adapt? What are the real odds of your survival?
Would you like to find out how well equipped you are to survive these difficult times? Go to The Survivor Club, and click on the Recession Survivor IQ link.
It really is a paradigm shift isn’t it? This whole Social Media thing is not just another way to talk to someone but a new way of thinking, of connecting around very individual passions.
We “oldsters” really need to figure out how we can get on the bandwagon and make some form of this work for what we care about.
You have it right when you call it a matter of suirvival.
I think that Social Media networking is something we need to grasp, but I still think the most important way to market is to go out and talk to someone or pick up the phone.
LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter are just some of the social networking sites that could be advantageous if tackled in the right way. They can also be a big time waster if people aren’t careful.
Speaking of Social Media, blogs are becoming huge and I’ve recently started mine. Once a dialogue gets going that really helps your website. Seth Godin has some great ideas and I’ve recently subscribed to his blog.
Good to see you guys settling into the Coeur d’Alene-Spokane area!
John,
Thanks for the comment. I didn’t think to see if Seth Godin had a blog. I guess I should have known better. Thanks for the tip as I’m now a subscriber. I agree that Social Media marketing, like any form of marketing, needs to be justified and measured. A really good book that address these very issues and how to implement them is called (oddly enough) Social Media Marketing by Dave Evans. He discusses the history of Social Media Marketing, why and when it becomes important, how to measure an ROI, and how to focus ones attention so it doesn’t become a drain.
Thanks Dale! I’ll look that up.
In my recent studies on the changing marketing trends towards Social Media I was surprised at this stat: 90% are lurkers (read, investigate, etc) 9% are occasional contributors (comment, blog, etc) and a mere 1% of those of us online are creating the 90-95% of what’s posted on the internet! This, according to Steven Wood, author of Digital Body Language. When asked in a webinar if this was a current stat, he replied at most it may be 2%, but highly unlikely it has changed much at all.
The challenge now is for company executives to embrace the shift and understand that customers gain knowledge and information for FREE and they no longer look to marketing and sales reps to “feed” them product/service information. It’s up to companies to engage the customer, hear their needs and desire, and realize the customer is buying the result, not the solution.
Jim Gray, you are already on the bandwagon to success - you are reading and commenting on blogs! Reading and subscribing to blogs is step one in Social Marketing. Step two is commenting/interacting - you’ve got that down! And then Step three is creating your own blog. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and the like, provide a place to build and grow your network according to the conversations you are most interested in engaging in - Professional, micro-blogging, Social, Hobby, etc. They work together on building your credibility and authenticity online. I definitely agree in understanding how to measure an ROI and watching the time invested overall. Social Marketing is just that - social. Humans interacting has a different price than traditional marketing where you allot $1,000 for a radio spot. Time is money is certainly applicable here!