Would You Take Advice From a ‘Dude’ in a Wrinkled Shirt?

by Scot Duke on June 15, 2010

How many times do you hear someone say..

“I really don’t have time for all this LinkedIn and Twitter crap. I have tried it and all I find are people who are flaky. I need to spend my time finding newer and younger customers who are working and have a lot of money”.

Well, you may not hear it a lot, but I do.

To many mainstream business owners and executives online social networking is still seen as something ‘Geeks without any social skills use to sell their rubber chickens’. I have talked with many business owners who have questionable attitudes towards social media and I find nearly everyone of them could use social media if they just knew how.

In a recent conversation at the Business Golf Country Club Dallas Chapter launch I spent a few minutes with a gentleman who just cannot see how he, or his business, could benefit from being online. His attitude towards what social media is and how it works was based on who and how it was explained to him. That impression remained with him and expanded to encompass anything and anyone who consults on social media. He now takes that negative image he has and passes it own throughout his entire offline business network.

There are a large number of business people still are lost in the adjustment the world markets made in 2008 and seem to be fighting to change to how business is done today. If I was approached by some of the people they say are approaching them to consult on social media I would probably have the same impression of social media.

What I have found to be one of the main reasons why some of these wayward business people do not accept social media and advanced social networking is who and how they are being approached. In most cases I find many of the business people would take a look at social media methods of marketing if they could find someone they “like”, “trust” or “get along with” to instructor them.

In some of their observations they provided I can agree with their concern.

“Would you want to take the advice from someone who looks like they live in a clothes dryer?”

These type of remarks come from a growing number of business people who are reaching out for help with social media and connecting with people who are lacking in social/professional skills. When I ask these business people where they are going to get social media advice the list is long, but overall they find these people in the very places they should find them..social networking events and online business networks.

I have been to a large number of offline gatherings and have run into the so called ‘experts of social media’ that, more than likely, could be the social media experts these business people are talking about. Maybe you have seen them also, or (lets hope not) are one of these people who take casual dress to an extreme.

The first impression a person has of someone is the impression that stays with them. The same goes with the way information is passed. If causal or sloppy dress is the image of the person delivering the message more than likely that is the image of the information being passed off as expert advice.

It really does not help the economy and the business people who professionally consult on social media methods of doing business if they have to fight the negative image of social media produced by people who do not take themselves seriously.

What is the answer to this concern? What do you think?

Let me know know how I can help.