Would you walk in to a bar, stand on a chair and shout out loud “I would like to introduce myself. I’m X, I sell Widgets and I’m brilliant. Here are my contact details”. What if you threw your business cards at everyone and then walked out? Would you expect a flood of enquiries?
When it comes to social media and
online networking, some people forget that as humans we have been around for thousands of years. Over that time our social skills have developed, matured and evolved to an undeniably refined level. In addition, we have learnt to discriminate and distinguish between what we like, what we don’t like and in particular, who we buy from.
In the
last two blogs I wrote about face-to-face networking and how trust or credibility in business grows with time. However, some people assume that because social media is a new technology, a new set of communication skills must be employed to engage with it and age-old methods can be forgotten. Unsure of what these new skills are, they broadcast random comments in discussion forums and hope for the best.
Personally, I think electronic communication requires more effort, not less - the very fact that our tone of voice or body language is not available to help convey any emotion or meaning behind a message means we have to work harder to establish our credibility or authority on a subject and this is only done through open discussion rather than one-way broadcasting.
So for the business owner who ventures on line, maybe they should realise people haven’t changed and neither have their social skills. The only element of difference is purely and simply the technology! I wonder if they ever walked in to a pub, bought a drink, stood by the bar and made some small talk with a stranger. After all, is that not what 'being sociable' is all about?
