Social Media for Old Folks Like You
by Andrew MIllar
If you’re in business today and you are of a certain age (that being one for whom hand held calculators were an innovation in the 80’s, let alone computers), your head has likely been spinning for years now with the constant introduction of new and reimagined ways to use the internet. This blog is about social media for old folks like you (and me.) If you are 40+ years old you did not grow up using computers in school. You likely first encountered very job specific software in the workplace and eventually taught yourself to use one at home.
I’m writing about this because in business today you have to be web and internet savvy. No matter who you are or what you do you need to jump in with both feet and begin to use the communication tools available to increase your online (and local community) profile.
Facebook is no longer the darling of the teenage crowd. With its discovery by the adult world, the teens are opting out to Twitter (http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/22/tech/social-media/pew-teens-facebook) and business has moved in to capitalize on FB’s universality. Facebook itself has grown up, gone public and is now finally monetizing itself through online advertising. Does your business have a FB Page? If not, why not? Do you or someone in your operation monitor it by updating and refreshing content and staying relevant? If not, why not?
The same thing holds true for Twitter. You can stick your head in the sand, laugh it off and throw your hands in the air in capitulation but that does not change the fact that your competition is positioning itself through these social media to be the authority in your field. And you are missing the boat! I’ll bet you that there are plenty of underemployed senior newspapermen and women out there who wish they had accepted the changes they saw coming. Today in every mid-size city in the country the daily paper is a shell of its former self and all the news is found online.
There is plenty of advice online about how to use social media. The point is to accept now that it is here to stay in some form or another. The sooner you participate with it, experiment with it, make blunders, embarrass yourself and learn to use it, the sooner you will be seen by your public as a contemporary businessperson engaged in the trends of the times.
So go show some Pinterest in your Twitter account while friending your company’s loyal customer base.
And don’t let anyone say social media isn’t for old folks like you!