There’s no doubt about it, many people have a much better understanding of the way things used to be. Personally, I’m old enough to be quite sentimental about a great many things. My desk is currently covered in Post-it notes, and this takes me back to a more familiar time when these were the coolest thing since sliced bread…and they only came in one color. I wanted to share the cartoon below because it really resonated with me on a few different levels. For one, the visual parallels are pretty accurate. I also can’t help but marvel at how young many of the represented social networks are.
Image Source: John Atkinson
Facebook was launched in February of 2004, Twitter was created in March of 2006, and Pinterest is a mere 3 years old. So how in the world is it that so many of us feel like we’re so behind the eight ball? Put simply, the hunger for technology has created a machine…a technology loop that is all but impossible to keep up with. This phenomenon is not new, with every new advancement there are those of us who are still dependent on the “old” technology. We see no real need to put ourselves through a painful learning curve when what we have is sufficient to meet our needs. What’s more, we’re all too busy doing what we do in order to make a living to keep up with what’s trendy. But therein lays the problem doesn’t it? Running a business requires that we keep up with what’s current in order to stay competitive.
Put aside any fears about the unknown just for a second and let’s compare ourselves to the rest of the world. Is it really too late to jump in and catch up? Is everyone else really that far ahead of you? Will you continue to ignore what is happening – or is it finally time for you to embrace and learn to leverage social media marketing?
Instead of waxing poetic and trying to boost your confidence enough for you to want to take the plunge, I’d like to share another very powerful image. It’s a living image that simply conveys the truth about how the world has embraced social media. Of the numbers you see adding up, keep in mind that many of these metrics are being generated by brand new users. Some are people who are for the very first time creating a Facebook page for their business; some are just today buying their first iPad. For all of these that arrived ahead of you, there is an exponential boatload of people coming onboard after you.
