Quick show of hands: who here has email?

The first time I saw email was 1990, close to my college graduation. I was in the computer lab and some guy was typing a message on his computer, and then hit send. “This message,” he told me, “is now being instantaneously sent across campus to my friend’s computer where he can read it.”

I looked at him–stunned–and said, “that’s the dumbest thing I ever saw. In the time it took you to type out that message you could have called him and worked out the details. You don’t even know if he’s there right now…it could be hours before you hear back. That will never catch on.”

It wasn’t until years later when I got an AOL account that I realized that I could now stay in touch with friends around the world for free! (Outside of the $19.95 I was paying AOL every month.)

I don’t tell this story to point out my many shortcomings. Rather, to say that we don’t often notice the impact of a new communication tool until it’s upon us.

Social media is going to be bigger than email. Sure, it’s going to evolve and change, but as long as humans have computers or smart phones (or whatever comes next) that can connect to the Internet (or whatever comes next), social media will exist in some form.

You can either choose to embrace social media…or ignore it.

If you embrace social media that’s no guarantee of success: you might be doomed by a down economy or your biggest customer going out of business. Likewise, if you ignore social media you may be able to create products that are so unique or beautiful that people still beat a path to your door. However, even if you choose to ignore social media, one of your customers might take a photo of your hand-crafted armchair and post it to their Flickr or Facebook account where all their networked friends see it, fall in love with it, and demand to know where they can get it.

So you may turn your back on social media only to find it tapping you on the shoulder.

Whether or not you were an early adopter to email, it’s impossible to dismiss its impact on business communications. Social media is gaining users at an even faster pace, and is much more interactive and viral. The other day USA Today reported Twitter had over 114 million users. This week Time reported that Facebook was about to break 500 million users. Over 2 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day! Many of the top ten results for every search come from blogs! (Are those blogs on page one of Google yours or your competition’s?)

While social media marketing can’t guarantee your success, it can improve your online visibility, create connections and opportunities otherwise unavailable to you, and drive your best prospects right to your front door.

Rich Brooks
Social Media Marketer

Photo Credit: Pat Castaldo