That title isn’t to just grab your attention. That is exactly what a client said to me the other day. And yes, you didn’t come across an old post here at Darren’s, it is June 2011. Yet I find myself having this kind of conversation once a week no matter what.
But I think I know why
Of all the things I do, PERFORMING the social media function for my clients isn’t one of them, and that is for a reason. Because Twitter and Facebook and any other social watering hole online needs the care and feeding from the person or people who the interaction is going to be the most intimate with, and that in many cases, is with the owners themselves.
But because I teach people and train them on what they need to do, then turn it over to them to do, they rebel, thinking I have only taken them to the water’s edge.
But social media is like drinking from a fire hose
If you fall into the above group, I am going to try this one more time. Social media and the majority of online discussions are not meaningless, but it is easy to get swallowed up in the enormity of it all. But if you can just limit yourself to sticking with keywords or topics in your own particular service sector, in your own little part of the world, then you should find the experience fairly compelling.
Look at it this way, since when is talking to people about what you do for a living a bad thing?
If you can have a quality conversation with someone, who cares if you are doing it in a Starbucks on in your PJ’s? If learning what people are saying about you, your business, your industry or your market is a hassle, then don’t worry about it…just know that someone else will care about those things, and you will have to figure it out some other way.
But social media engagement has to be part of your DNA; it has to be what you care about if you plan on being in business 5 years from now.
How do I know?
Because I bet there are a few of you reading this post that said having a website was useless 5 years ago, and now you have one.
But where you are missing the point now is this. Wait too long to show up to the party and you just might miss out on the punch. Other contractors are out there getting bigger every day because of their online practices.
Guys like Greg at Bergen Decks, Chris at Magic Pools and Justin at Lone Star are all online everyday making their presence known to other contractors, clients and customers.
Now, if you don’t have the time to get into fray, I offer this little bit of advice. There is no magic bullet, but over time, with a little experience under your belt, the amount of time required to manage your business online will decrease.
And if you are reading this and saying to yourself that you don’t have a second in your day but you have 1000 posts on contractor forum somewhere, then I just found you your hour a day that you need to help grow your business. Because at the end of the day, it comes down to this, if you don’t want to eat your lunch, someone else will. So get to work. If you need help getting started with social media, then realize you have to get started somewhere, and soon.