I find it really interesting how many business owners I run into who are absolutely not interested in having anything to do with any Social Media method of marketing their business.  Why?  Most of them site their negative experiences online as what they have deduced as what the entire internet is all about.

There are many, many business owners only interested in drawing in only interested buyers or customers to their business.  They feel very strongly if someone enters their business with no intention to buy anything they presence is a total waste of their time. 

What’s up with these people?

This is a Good question.  I am sure most of us, if not all of us, have run into a few people who seem to be bulldozing their way through their market with marketing strategizes that are more, or less, offline and online Spam campaigns.  They also drastically lack any people skills which results in very, very poor customer service.

I am sometime set back with the number of people that have this attitude of if something does not have a measurable result it is not worth anything.  They throw Social Media in with the stuff they consider “Crap” or a “Game People Play”.

“I don’t play games in business and the Internet is just for those who want to play games.”

The negative reaction people have towards social media is usually developed from who they have talked to about marketing online previously who, like them, are not interested in explaining SM to them unless they were interested in doing business..or, they misguidedly went on their own and attempted to use their own social media style of Spamming everyone.  The results produced nothing and probably hurt them more than helped.

The old, “40 to 1” ratio method of sales philosophy is dead in today’s economy.  The old adage of ‘out of 40 people you talk to one is going to buy’ just is not true anymore.  People don’t buy anymore anything from how well someone pitches the products.  It’s like someone told me a while back,

“The only reason Billy May sold anything in his barrage of late night TV commercials was not due to what he said, but was due to the frequency of the ads placed on the air.  Someone could be selling crap and telling everyone how good it is to use crap and if it appears on TV enough people will believe it must be good are it would not be on TV so much.”

The game of barraging the market with advertising type messages on Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages and whatever is finally coming to an end. Yeah!  OH, there will be a few old traditional PR firms who are over invested in the past that will spend a trillion dollars to do a five year study proving Social Media does not work.  Meanwhile, those who have adapted effective social media strategizes that include taking time to get to know the real people in their market will pass them by and capture the ‘Big Box PR Firms’ client’s market.

If someone wants to make Social Media out to be a game, I would make it more of a game of Golf, since the name of the game in golf is trust.  The core value of Social Media is built on developing trust in the marketplace through getting to know the people in the market as people.  Looking at the market as a sea of idiots who need your product or service is a playing a game of foolishness.  Which game is your business willing to play? Let me know how I can help.