The irony of social media

I met up with a couple of young new media guru’s last night. When meeting experts in the old world, you used to be prepared to meet a 40-something, put a tie on and drink plenty of coffee. This doesn’t happen with social media. It’s clearly not a proven scientific test but if you’re booked in to meet a social media expert and they are wearing a suit, are over the age of 30 and look like they might be good at sport – you might need to worry! (OK, before I get lots of Tweets telling me about promising football careers cut short by freakish injury - I made up the sport thing.) Football injuries aside, the great irony of social media is the secret weapon that everyone I speak to says you need to have to be successful within this expanding sphere –get out there and meet people. What? The great digital age of globalised communications squashed by the reality of a having pint/glass of rose? Apparently it’s true. Key to your social media strategy should be to get out there and meet these guru’s of Twitter, Facebook and relevant blogs. So, perhaps reassuringly, in many ways not a lot has changed. Outrageous as it may seem, as far as rapport building goes nothing beats eyeballing over a beer. Not really rocket science is it but pretty crucial all the same. So next time the boss has a go about the expenses bill – tell them that they are endangering your social media strategy. (& mine’s a pint.)