The most useful social media site for business is...
SteveWhat is the most useful social media site for business purposes?
What about the less publicized but more widely utilized social network called 'None'?
I was reading through the Rochester (NY) Business Journal print edition the other day, and I spotted the poll results that are in the image on the upper right. Apologies for the poor quality, I could not locate the poll results online.
Essentially of the about 600 respondents to the poll, and for now lets assume most people reading and responding to a poll in a local business newspaper are professionally engaged, 62% felt that social media sites were either 'Not at all important' or 'Not very important' for them in their work or profession.
Pressed for more insight as to which social media site these professionals felt was 'most useful in your work or professionally', the leading choice was 'None' with 43%. LinkedIn as could be expected was the second choice at 37%, with Facebook and Twitter barely registering on the 'usefulness' radar.
I really don't have any profound comments or conclusions to draw from a small poll of professionals, in a small city, from a business journal that I bet is only read by folks that live here.
Maybe it just sends a message that Rochester is in many ways an insular, kind of behind the times city. Perhaps the business community here is so small and tight-knit that traditional face to face, over the phone and/or email networking still predominates and is sufficient to help professionals meet their objectives.
I am not really sure, but I just wonder if I need to set up a new profile on the 'None' network and make sure my latest posts, tweets, and bizarre articles I share in Google Reader make it over the the 43% of folks hanging out there.
What it is like in your city? Does the 'None' social network dominate as well?
Reader Comments (9)
This is an interesting snapshot of what I've suspected, and perhaps the reason Google Wave didn't make the trip. People who sit in front of computers all day reading blogs, writing down their epiphanies and playing with some gizmo designed by techies for techies are just not the majority. And that's OK because the ideas percolating in social media have other ways of reaching people and impacting their lives than just social media. So, they may THINK social media isn't important to them but little do they know.... mwa ha ha ha ha!!!
Thanks for sharing this Steve. I've talked with several people who could be described as full time residents of the social media evangelists club recently about this same topic. While we (and I will put myself in that group) often get together and wonder what's next, talk about being bored with the same conversations, etc. there are still a ton of people out there who don't use social media in business or don't know how it could benefit their business.
I think it's important for us to remember that the adoption curve is very long in the business world and just because there's a group of early adopters seeking "what's next", there's still plenty of others who are not yet even on the curve.
Steve, I'm amazed the results of this poll surprised you. Within HR, bloggers and active tweeters are living in the same sort of self-referential Disneyland as the software companies in Silicon Valley who think businesses in NY and Chicago are actually run like theirs! In both cases, you may be the pioneers but not the majority.
At every conference I've gone to in the last two years, when attendees are asked to show hands about social network membership -- about 90% are on LinkedIn, a third on Facebook, and a handful on Twitter.
Wake up and smell the roses. You're mostly talking to each other! Didn't you know that?
That's one of the reason I started the HR Technology Conference group (on LinkedIn because that's why our audience is despite strong advice to the contrary) because I think social media does matter. And the same reason we're having Twitterversity at the conference this run by your friend and soon-to-be-former Punk Rock HR blogger Laurie Ruettimann, because I think Twitter matters a lot.
I hope you'll join her and help all those newbies understand how Twitter can help in their business lives and not just high-five their friends on-line for their latest posting or on-line discovery. That's how majorities are built, I think.
Steve –
I think maybe it says that those of us that are close to social networking may sometimes lose our perspective. Yes, maybe everyone else is slow to catch on. But honestly, I think HR digital influencers/early adopters tend to over-hype the workplace implications of social networking to death, at the risk of losing credibility.
@Laura - That is a good point, just because many folks are not engaging on these networks does not mean that they ideas and developments that are created and shared on social networks are not impacting them in other ways.
@Jennifer - So true, I bet that the results from the poll I referenced are not all that different from other cities as well. It emphasizes the importance of getting out of the echo chamber more, (something I know you do an amazing job at).
@Bill - Thanks Bill, I probably should not have been all the surprised. I think the LinkedIn group you created has been a great example of a positive and successful step in bridging these worlds.
@Dan - Good point about how easy it is to lose perspective. I also worry about the hype - we have seen (and I bet I have written) pieces about how organizations need to 'get on board' or 'risk being left behind' without enough real evidence to prove any of those theses.
My vote would go to Facebook.. it's multi dimensional in advantages versus Twitter, etc.
+1 for Facebook. Facebook is great with 500 million users out there!
Thanks for giving post on importance on social media.
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