Welcome to the Revolution...

With the Thanksgiving Holiday over, and the food coma relinquishing its grips on my body, I find that time spent with family often makes me think about life in a different way.  This is similar to the scene from Dead Poets Society when Robin Williams asks the class to stand on the desk and look at the world from a different perspective. 

I find it interesting that the older I get, the new perspectives and I have for things I experienced as a child.  When I hear the famous “Everything I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten” phrase, I laugh a little and think about how true that statement really is when expanded to say childhood, rather than kindergarten.  Take the great story of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.  There is a particular interaction that takes place between Alice and the Cheshire cat, which I believe exemplifies what many business leaders struggle with on a daily basis.

"Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go?", said Alice.
"That depends on where you want to get to,” said the cat.
"I don’t much care where-", said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the cat.
"-so long as I get somewhere” said Alice
"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the cat, "if only you keep walking."

Too often, business leaders’ focus on keeping a business moving as that is what they have all been trained to do.  They fail to work towards a goal as they consume their days with the “day-to-day”, rather than dedicating time to planning for the future.  I often hear that “due to tough economic conditions, our main goal as a business is simply to stay alive”.  This presents a major problem:  When your business is competing on a macro, or global, scale and narrows their focus to micro, or national, economic conditions they leave themselves vulnerable and often are left behind.  And those businesses that ignore the “Socialnomics” of business will eventually become an afterthought in a world migrating to the web.

Today, businesses must recognize the fact that in order to stay competitive they must think, and act, globally.  What might be a tough economic period for one country could be the beginning of an economic boom for another.  And while most businesses in America today are working to “stay alive”, they fail to realize that they are working away from something, the fear of eventual death to the business, rather than towards a goal, the reason why they are in business in the first place. 

So how can a business compete on a global level, react quickly, and stay in front of the learning curve? Social Media!!!  Our world is transforming, and while many say that business need to start listening rather than speaking, many fail to do so.  Social Media Marketing allows businesses to join the conversations about their companies, react quickly to customer concerns, promote their brand in a way that speaks to their customers, and ultimately provide products and services that their customers are asking for. 

The 18^th and 19^th centuries had the Industrial Revolution, and now the 21^st Century has the Social Revolution.  It is time to join the revolution.  Businesses need to plan their road maps, define their goals, and listen to their customers.  They need to communicate with, not to, and they need to travel down the social roadmap that has been there all along.

 

Posted in: Social Media