Social Media Can’t Save Your Business

The phone rings, a business owner, friendly, chatty, concerned on the other end of the line. What do I do? How can I help them? Will it work?

Welcome to my every day

I’ve never exactly spilled this out here, but my consulting business is built on the backs of other small business people. It is a tough game, owning and running a small business. We do it for the passion. We do it because we’ve made that choice in life to pass up the safe game. And right now small business are hurting.

It’s not just the economy, though that has taken credit for more than its share of the blame. Most of the small businesspeople I speak to don’t even remember what it was like before the recession. They look back fondly but if I ask them to define what was so great about 2007 and before, they can’t quite pinpoint it. And the businesses that do remember, that only want to return to that era of excess, of hyper-consumption, of living off of credit, are even less sure why.

For one reason or another, they come to me. And they want me to save their business. They’ve heard of social media, they’ve seen their well-funded competition jump into the fray and all of a sudden not only is their business struggling, but the changed competitive environment is just one more cause for concern. They feel they are falling farther and farther behind. Before, their passion was enough to get them through. Maybe not to being rich, but to being satisfied.

That is no longer the case.

You can hear it in their voice

I know almost immediately when a business owner thinks social media is going to save their business. I can discern that slight intonation of excitement, of mania almost. They’ve contacted someone, they actually did something! They’ve taken a step!

It kills me, but it is so necessary to tell them first and foremost, social media is not going to save their business. If they are in their last throes, if they are flailing about and they are looking for a quick fix, social media is not the answer. I probably talk myself out of clients, I could probably fake it enough to take their money, redesign their website, train them in blogging, in Twitter, in Facebooking, in the importance of SEO. I could talk all day and all night about their community and how building it up will benefit them.

But I don’t. Because if you’ve come to me thinking social media is going to save your business, you are wrong. And because my reputation–my word– is all I have, I cannot shirk this duty. As soon as I’ve imparted what I must there is a moment of peace, of calm that washes over them. It’s probably because they knew it all along and it simply took my articulation of it for it to register.

You might be thinking that perhaps I tell people social media can’t save their business as some sort of manipulative ploy. If you are thinking that than you are a sneaky sneaky person. But good for you. It’s not true per se. I tell them that because it is true and I believe in radical honesty, especially in business.

After my commitment to radical honesty though, telling them that social media won’t save their business is how I judge how serious they are. Because before I ever write up a proposal, design a strategy, and ask for a check from a businessperson, I do a lot of research. We meet for lunches and coffees. We talk on the phone, late at night even. This is how I would want to be treated by someone servicing my own business. And so that is how I do…

Once I tell someone that social media isn’t going to revoluntionize their business, that sales don’t just magically start pouring in because you’ve started a Twitter account, I listen very closely. If I hear that intonation of disappointment and frustration, I know I am not dealing with someone that I want to deal with. But if I hear a moment of appreciation, for being honest, for being forthright, then I know that its time to hunker down and start listening.

Image courtesy of - luz - on Flickr