Business and Social Media – When Worlds Collide

About two years ago, I listened to one of these casually dressed internet gurus inform me how social media will exchange my international. “Nothing can be equal. It will alternate commercial enterprise forever!” I think to myself (insert sarcastic tone), Oh, incredible, because I love the truth that once my Blackberry goes off at ten at night, human beings suppose I should gleefully solve it. At the implied time, my company’s Chief Marketing Officer is going on about the approaching revolution, groups, open verbal exchange, and blithering on what it means to our commercial enterprise.

Me, I’m now not a high-ranking type of guy. My lifestyle function is comparable to that of a leading cook and bottle washer. But I stay in the tech global, so a new era isn’t frightening. At that point, admittedly, I’d been on Linked In for several years and My Space for a bit. One stored me in contact with a global filled with my expert contacts, which made perfect sense. It is not constantly what you already know in income and commercial enterprise, but who you know. On the alternative website online, let’s admit I changed into a web loser. I had my dad, my sister, my wife, one daughter, and a host of bands, filmmakers, and comedians who desired to be my buddy but no person. The horrible flashbacks to life as an unpopular nerdy boy in grade school aside, I continued. Had my first experience with social media been at a singles bar, I might not have been going domestic alone; however, my buddies might have ditched me, leaving me in a questionable community without cash and no ride. Fortunately for me, it has become just the internet.

So, like a great soldier, I listened. I ran out to enroll in Facebook and sold a copy of the Clue Train Manifesto. I am positive buying something with the word” manifest”o in it places you on some government watch list)and Wikinomics, and waited for my professional life to start a Groundswell and take on a noticeably worthwhile cyber-fueled digital life for its personnel.

This time, I brought a few people I knew from paintings, and my pals listing grew modestly; then I joined some networks, and it grew a touch more. Over time, a few vendors found me and then some clients. It looked like something else you get from what you put into it, except you had an honestly hot image of yourself. Amazingly, even on the internet, a man in a blue polo isn’t considered excessively warm even though he leaves his pocket protector at home.

Being reclusive, I did my best to disregard the software invites. Things like joining my mob, sending me a drink, and other nonsense seemed like a frivolous waste of time at this point in my life. Then it came about, and some university friends brought it to me. Then some extra. Sometimes, it felt tremendous to listen to them, but it changed into a way inside the global Do I care what they may be doing now? Bus nevertheless, I widely wide-spread their requests with no motive to be impolite. A few ex-girlfriends came with the aid of mentioning hello. I’m older, wiser, and extra-worldly, so why would I care? It’s innocent.

Besides, the time has been kind to me, and I have a beautiful life. And that’s when it hit me: do I need the female I favored in kindergarten to understand what my customers are pronouncing, and more importantly, do I want my commercial enterprise friends, customers, and co-employees to understand whatever approximately my beyond based totally on comments from those who knew me once I was young, dumb, and awkward.

There’s no longer a whole lot that I hide from. Still, the concept of me in hideous healthy my mother made me wear for school photographs at 12 years old is probably one in every one of them; there has been one wild weekend at college once I gave the impression of John Belushi on a bender that became no longer indicative of my intellectual ebook computer virus nature, or worse but for me and my collection of other dweeb buddies gambling Dungeons and Dragons on a wonderfully precious Friday night time in 1985.

Yes, I performed D&D and was regarded precisely like the usual stereo man who played D&D. So my worlds collided, but just a little at a time. Is Facebook the basis of all evil? Time will inform. Will our tradition become ubiquitous, open, and tolerant of the teenage geek who grew to become a married expert? The unsightly duckling becomes the proverbial swan, and maybe it’s not going. Most of all, do I need to prove to the fellow who beat me up in the 5th grade that his inclinations toward me were indeed accurate three many years later and that I am, in truth, a geek?

NO! People still tell me every day that social Media goes to exchange the world. That commercial enterprise and life are bound to grow to be inexplicably connected. To which I say thank you; however, no thanks. The business hasn’t come rolling in. Social Media is probably an incredible way to move if you’re hawking get-rich short schemes or connecting with already installed customers; however, in the meantime, I’m now not finding wild and new distinct markets and clients to promote to, and in turn, they’re now not locating me either. With all the incredible things the internet has added to my lifestyle, Social media isn’t always one of them. So, call me old school; however, I’m satisfied that I can order books on Amazon at a discount, get loose delivery, and not pay sales tax for now.