A friend of mine recently commented that he still doesn't get Twitter.
I understand how he feels because I was there…many of us were when we started. And from trial and error and all the hours spent, we start to see the value – or don't.
But the flood of negative responses surprised me because you could see they were from people who'd based their opinions on things they'd heard or read. Not from a personal experience with the site.
I think the notion of dismissing social networks without fair consideration underscores a larger issue for boomers and not-so-boomers trying to cling to things they know and love. They're grasping for familiarity in the hopes that it will shield them from social media shifts.
But rapid change is the new normal. Not long ago, we knew how to do our jobs because we were taught a series of steps and followed them, hopefully improving our technique along the way. Now, we need to evolve in real time.
A recent article in Forbes.com compares web.1.0 businesses (Netscape, Yahoo, AOL, Google), web 2.0 businesses (Facebook, LinkedIn) and what web 3.0 might look like (i.e. Instagram) . It contends organizations disappear because they fail to adapt to subtle generational differences. For example, Google isn't doing a very good job at social and Facebook hasn't truly embraced the next wave – mobile, that is. And while it may be difficult to think these successful companies could whither away, it's a distinct possibility.
So how can you survive and thrive in this landscape? Here are five things you can do:
- Use your imagination. Just because you're doing your job one way today doesn't mean it can't be dismantled and reengineered. That happened for me in PR (thankfully). Social media has given me a new outlook on communications.
- Look ahead and reason back – that's part of game theory. Try to visualize where you want to go and then look back to figure out the path to get there.
- But don't lose your head in science fiction. Otherwise you'll get too far ahead (or on the wrong track) and people won't be ready for your breakthrough ideas.
- Set aside your natural instinct to say no. That's a tough habit to break. You can do it by adopting a scientific approach: experiment, evaluate, adjust.
- Know when to pull the plug. This may be the most difficult thing to do because it takes a combination of risk and reason, you're operating without a safety net and past success can cloud your decision.
It's far easier to be negative and 'hang onto what we got' than see potential. But if we don't give up on comfort for comfort's sake, we could resign our businesses and ourselves to the scrap heap of irrelevance.
I'm interested to hear your take.
I’ve about given up on my not-so-boomers. My brother and have been trying for 20 years to get my mother (now 97) to at least the email level without luck. Now it appears even my generation has dug in its heels on eBooks. “Just send me a paper copy,” they say. “There isn’t a paper copy,” I say. “You can’t look up words, play the video, listen to the audio, link to the background stuff, see the high quality photos, or look at the sources in the paper copy !” “Oh, that would be nice, but just send me the paper copy,” they say. Is this a whole demographic that must be written off ?
I hope not @JohnDavenport. My mother’s the same, but so are some friends. Maybe a friendly reminder from time to time?
Great post Martin! I hear those boomer objections often, usually accompanied by a dismissive critique of systems they’ve never touched. Change really is hard. Re: item 4 – I call that “self-healing strategy” – plan to fail, and learn from it.
Thanks @dblacombe. I like the idea of self-healing strategy a lot…
Great article Martin. I still hear many professionals, some very successful, complaining that they don’t “get” Twitter or that it’s a waste of time. Others tell me that they’re surviving very nicely without a Twitter presence, thank you very much, so why bother? For those of us in the communications sector, especially if we still have many years of work ahead of us, dismissal of social media is not an option but I can see how people resist. While I find Twitter a breeze now and happily teach others how to leverage it, it’s taken me two years, lots of trial and error, lots of following and unfollowing and daily effort to get to that point – effort I would rather have used reading a great novel. Everyone is busy and the thought of squeezing in another skill, especially one that can’t just be “taught” but which requires frequent personal interaction can scare off even the most open-minded person. In a way, those of us in the agency world are lucky. We had to adapt and do it quickly. Maybe 5 or 10 years from now we’ll be in high demand helping the rest of the world catch up.
Thanks @TorontoLouise. Hopefully, that will the the case – being in high demand, that is :). We’ve worked together a long time, back when media barely left a job, and we’ve seen how easy is is for people to become complacent. But complacency leads to boredom and I find curiosity a much more inspiring track.