This Social Thing Has Been Around for a While
We act like social networking is a new thing or that social media hasn’t been around since the first cave paintings. Who are we convincing? We learn the rules of relationships before we learn to read. Then we get into business and progressively learn how to undo them.
The part that is new thing was separating the “personal” from the “business.”
If you think about it, it’s … um … inhuman.
How can you give personal service when you leave relationships at the door?
Now we’re talking about social networking and social media marketing. Social business is not a new thing.
What Every Small Town Always Knew About Social Business
Step into any small town — say a town of 2000. Visit the general store and watch the owner go through a day of business. It may strike you that it’s a little like watching a Twitterstream.
- Connecting conversation: The owner will have a short chat with customers about their families or their businesses.
- Extending Relationships: Hang around and you’ll probably see the owner head off with a vendor to have lunch at a local diner — a “meetup” to “eat-up.”
- Social Networking: The store owner will introduce the diner folks to the vendor. And they all know the lawyer and the banker.
- Reciprocity: The diner owner will probably stop by the store later to pick what she needs for dinner.
- Co-opetition: The store owner will probably leave huge tip because he knows that business is slow at the diner.
- Multiplicity of Contexts: The store owner will see the diner owner and the vendor at the ball field when their kids’ teams play each other.
- Mutual History and Values: Some customers and owners went to the same schools together. A few of them might even remember who wet his pants in first grade and who has a criminal record for staying out past curfew — when they still had one.
In small towns, businesses build a history together that is linked and interconnected. To try to check the social at the door would be ridiculous. Relationships and conversation are the currency that builds the ecosystem. Authenticity, trust, and reputation pile on the transactions that have been made on handshakes and over conversations at weddings.
People invest in each other. The resulting business has the same quality as the relationships.
Have you ever seen a real-life social business ecosystem?
Think we have a chance of building that on the Internet?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
I live in that small town! I recommend businesses join their local chamber of commerce – you’d be amazed at what businesses are in town that you had no clue about. It’s all about networking and sharing – keep local business local.
@debworks
The multiplicity of contexts is an exceptional point and one that gives credence to allowing different aspects of oneself to “leak” into one’s social media presence. If personal branding in this space is too tight, then this valuable aspect of human interaction cannot unfold.
Hi Liz! Downtown Dallas – where we live and own a small business on Main St. is a “small town” right now…and I love it! Your description of a day sounds like a day at Sedona’s front counter and one of my smling excursions out for food. 😉
I do hope the new media landscape does continue to incorporate PEOPLE and “neighborhood” ~ it’s why I’m here.
Luv you, mean it!
@Zaneology **wink
Yesterday a group of four came in to our restaurant for a late breakfast and sat at the counter. We were chatting away, and discovered that one of the group was the owner of a soon-to-be new pizza/subs/bar in town and he and his crew were working on getting the place (an existing building/restaurant that’s been out of business for almost a decade and an eyesore on Main St) in tip-top shape with a projected opening of mid-May.
We talked about this very thing – that in a small town all the business owners know each other and send each other business. While they were enjoying their steak and eggs, three of our locals came in, one of which is (along with his wife) very active in a group called the “flying fifties” – mostly early retirees who now live in Lincoln (at least during ski season) and is also on the planning board; another is one of the major contributors to our professional community theatre. I introduced Anthony to Bill, John and Marilyn.
Before heading home after closing the restaurant, we headed to the local meat market for freshly-ground burger and stew beef. We used to buy our ground beef from one of our food vendors, but prefer to deal with other local businesses.
Over the course of the day I chatted with dozens of folks – from the two girls in their best Easter outfits – one in a red dress and the other in yellow who swapped napkins so they’d match (I made sure the kitchen served their breakfasts on the appropriate colored plates) to the locals who came in after our scheduled closing time but who we fed anyway.
Liz, you’ve nailed it – my day was just like a twitter stream. Lots of different conversations going on all at once, all the while making sure people were seated, that tables were cleaned, and that everyone had a good time. Just call me “social director.”
I think we definitely have that opportunity on the internet. Sure, it’s a bit non-personal at times, but then other times it closely imitates real life. Opportunities for connection are limitless, as long as they’re not simply commodified.
I just wrote a piece on the nature of blogging that I think deals with a similar subject. http://www.reamofpaper.com/2009/04/13/7-rabbits-of-wiley-infective-bloggers/ The social aspect of the WWW is a great tool. Let’s use it wisely.
Quote: “People invest in each other. The resulting business has the same quality as the relationships.”
Hi Liz,
I wonder if you know how profound you really are? 🙂 My roommate and I have been talking a lot lately about how the average Internet Marketer doesn’t get this and that it is ruining the Twitter experience.
Too many people forget that business is about people not sales. Sales come when people find value in what you offer. That value usually is in the relationship you build with them as well as the quality of your product.
People do business with people they like and trust. Internet marketers need to remember this and stop advertising and start connecting.
Thanks again for another “right on” post. 🙂 Very simply put, you ROCK, Liz.
Funnily enough I wrote a piece about Henri, who owns the hardware store in our little Spanish village, along very similar lines. He doesn’t own a computer, but he’d be a genius on Social Media sites if he did.
I don’t want to be cheeky and link to it, but if people want to read it, just search on the site for “Blog as a shop”
I see it happening more when people collaborate and do business in the open. Open-source is a good example of this eco-system.
Yes I think we have a chance and hope to help.
Hi Deb!
It’s amazing isn’t it? How much we can if we don’t get involved? The first year I was online all my clients were every where but in my own town.
What I came to realize is that I’m bringing skills onto the interwebs and learning skills here and bring them back out. Are you having the same experience?
Richard!
The many ways we follow and find each others all over the Internet and all over the natural world. The consistency and variety of our responses is what gives depth and personality to who we are. The second time I met you I knew more. The third time, I look forward to even more. 🙂
I think we do too, Zane!
Those of us who want to are doing it already — setting up our own neighborhoods of support and care for each other. And now we’re making real roads that connect and link us in the real too.
That’s why I have to keep track of my glasses. 🙂
That’s it, Mary!
I grew up in just such a situation. My dad gave and received from everyone around him and they did the same with him. Relationships were a natural part of how business to place.
Thank you for that wonderful story. 🙂
Hi reamofpaper,
Thank you for sharing your link with us. I agree that our ability to connect is limitless and so remarkable we really need to value it. 🙂
Hi Dan,
I so value your visits. Thank you for saying what I’ve seen too. If only we all valued each other more, things would be so much easier and fulfilling. 🙂
Mike,
Your link is more than welcome. Please feel free to return and bring it. I’m looking forward to you sharing it. 🙂
Tim,
I think our chances grow with each person who makes a great relationship and finds folks of like minds to share ideas. We’re redefining community. 🙂
Since I have been participating in social media I have been reminded often of the relationships my granparents had with their customers in the general store and coffee shop. Perhaps that’s why I am so drawn to this platform. It feels like going home. And yes, I believe we can build a similar community on the internet
That’s generous of you Liz. Here’s the link to my post along quite similar lines:
http://www.mikeslife.org/content/your-blog-shop
I love the way you’ve compared digital social scenes with real-world ones. In the end, success in either comes down to whether or not you possess a single set of people skills and are willing to give freely of yourself and your knowledge to help others.
It’s funny – I’m online all the time. All my work is virtual & I also spend plenty of time on sites like facebook and twitter. My beau is a landscaper/hardscaper who turns on his computer maybe once every 30 days. Our two worlds seem to be so far apart, but the truth is each of us engages in the same types of social interaction and networking – it’s just that I do mine online and he does his via phone calls and face-to-face meetings.
It brings to mind the Marshall McLuhan’s “The medium is the message” quote. But, is it? The medium may change the presentation or consumption of the message, but I think the message stays the same – and it’s all about building relationships on trust, affinity, and reciprocal benefits.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post.