About Business and Social Media
This time around I added a few people I knew from work and my friends list grew modestly, then I joined a few networks, and it grew a little more. Over time a few vendors found me, then a few customers. It looked like anything else you get out what you put into it unless you had a really hot picture of yourself. Amazingly enough even on the internet a guy in blue polo isn’t considered excessively hot even if he leaves his pocket protector at home.
Being reclusive I did my best to ignore the application invites. Things like join my mob, send me a drink and other nonsense seemed like a frivolous waste of time at this point in life. Then it happened a few college friends added me. Then a few more. Sometimes it felt great to hear from them yet other times it was a why in the world do I care what they are doing now moments. Bus still I accepted their requests no reason to be rude. A few Ex girlfriends came by to say hi. I’m older, wiser, more worldly so why would I care. It’s harmless right?
Besides time has been kind to me, I have a pretty great life. And that’s when it hit me do I really want the girl I liked in kindergarten to know what my customers are saying and more importantly do I want my business associates, customers, and co workers to know anything about my past based on comments from people who knew me when I was young, dumb, and awkward.
There’s not much that I hide from but the thought of me in a hideous suit my mother made me wear for school pictures as 12 year old might be one of them, there was the one wild weekend at college when I looked like John Belushi on a bender that was not indicative of my studious book worm nature, or worse yet me and my assortment of other dweeb friends playing Dungeons and Dragons on a perfectly lovely Friday night in 1985. Yes I played D&D and I looked exactly like the stereo typical guy who played D&D did. So my worlds collided but just a little at a time. Is Facebook the root of all evil? Time will tell. Will our culture become ubiquitous, open and tolerant of the teenage geek turned married professional? The ugly duckling turned into the proverbial swan, maybe but it’s unlikely. Most of all do I want to prove to the guy who beat me up in the 5th grade that his inclinations about me were indisputably correct three decades later and that I am in fact a geek.
NO! People still tell me every day that social media is going to change the world. That business and life are bound to become inexplicably linked. To which I say thanks but no thanks. The business hasn’t come rolling in. Social Media might be a great way to go if you’re hawking get rich quick schemes or connecting with already established customers but at the moment I’m not finding wild and new exotic markets and customers to sell to and in turn they are not finding me either. With all the great things the internet has brought into my life social media just isn’t one of them. So call me old fashioned but I’m just happy I can order books on Amazon at a discount, get free shipping, and not pay sales tax…for now.
