{EAV:66b20d526d37e2b8}

Yesterday I was in the checkout line at a local retail store. There were a few people in front of me and they didn’t have very many items. As I was waiting I noticed the cashier’s attitude. She wasn’t making any mistakes, she was very efficient, but she never spoke or looked up, almost like she was somewhere else. I took this as a challange and as I took my turn in line I tried to make her smile. After a few short exchanges there it was, a grin. She was a very pleasant young lady and seemed to know what she was doing, except when it came to people skills. She didn’t realize that engaging the people that came through her line will make work more fun, and make the day pass by faster. It would also make a better experience for the customer, since she was the last person you saw walking out the door.

As I was leaving I realized that I see the same senario a lot in social media. In the constant rush to ‘own the space’ and ‘be seen’, some companies forget why social media is important. Having a social media account that doesn’t interact is no different than having an employee that won’t talk to anyone. I advise businesses not to open a social media account unless they are prepared to learn how to use it and maintain it. This should be done at the highest level. How can a supervisor oversee a ‘community manager‘ or social media consultant, if they have no idea what they are doing? That’s a lot of trust. Have you ever heard someone say, ‘I know we need to be on facebook, but I’m not gonna pay someone to run it for us’ or how about ‘social media seems like such a waste of time me, but I’m seeing competitors do it’. Until there is a willingness to understand the fundamentals of social media, there will be no success.

If you have no desire to learn social media you can always outsource it. There’s no shortage of ‘experts’ you can hire, but unless you’re lucky enough to find Shelly Kramer and hire her, you may be rolling the dice. The reason I mention Shelly is because she is smart, honest, and one hell of a marketer. For every person like Shelly, there are dozens of ‘social media consultants’ who don’t know what they are doing, but will be happy to take your money, so be careful. If you take this route, do your research. Look into accounts they manage, see what they are doing, even engage them in these areas and see what the response time is.

Social media can be your best friend or your worst enemy, it’s all up to you. Most business owners agree that they need to be involved in social media on some level, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube. I agree, on the condition that they actually participate regularly, and engage. If you owned a retail business would you do inventory occasionally, or “whenever you have time”?. I think not. The same should be applied when talking to people your connected to on social platforms. Communicate with your staff, and make sure they communicate with your customers. Don’t be the employer that has a staff that’s always ‘somwhere else’.