Social Media Buggy Whips

I had a very enlightening conversation this morning with someone I have known and respected for many years. The conversation did not, however, go as I was expecting it to. He is a pillar of his community, a contribution to those around him, and an inspiration to all who know him. Let’s call him David.

David is a public speaker, and has been for decades, and he’s spoken in front of thousands, if not millions of people. He’s a “go to” guy for anything having to do with public speaking. He offers incredibly useful classes on public speaking and everyone who is anyone in the world of public speaking knows of David, and acknowledges David’s contribution to the speaking world.

In our conversation this morning, during which we discussed briefly the world of social media, David said something, something that revealed that he’s stuck in the 20th Century. “I deliver my message through email, fax and telephone,” he said. “Speakers speak. Speakers don’t Twitter. Speakers don’t Facebook. Speakers don’t LinkedIn. Speakers speak.”

David apparently teaches his students to deliver their messages through email, fax and telephone. David’s students also often write books. Whereas it may be true that speakers speak, they need to have an audience for their speaking. Speaking on a street corner soapbox does not work very well, and hasn’t since the late 19th Century. Direct mail, fax and email are effective, but attracting an audience only through those means is at best, incomplete.

Those who want an audience for what they have to say go where the audience is. The audience is on Twitter, on Facebook, and on LinkedIn, among many many other social media and social networking platforms. They’re on the internet.

A little poking around reveals that David has YouTube videos, a WordPress blog, a Meetup, an online radio show, a Squidoo web lens and an ordinary web site. I’m a little confused how someone who so emphatically rejects social media and social networking as useless distractions for his students can so flagrantly use the tools of social media and social networking to promote his own programs and materials.

If you’re an author, speaker, or someone who has a message to get out into the world, you need to be riding the wave of social media and social networking. Don’t listen to the buggy whip folks. Missing this wave would be an enormous mistake.

Unless David has a trust fund from which to pay you the money you will lose by failing to be actively and aggressively on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you need to develop and implement your social media strategy.

Get started! Pull the trigger!

Fire. Ready. Aim!