I’ve used this example more than once recently: I of course have a telephone on my desk at work, but potential new vendors *shouldn’t* use it if they want to ask me to do business with them. I don’t particularly like talking on the phone to people I don’t know — especially anyone trying to sell me anything — and I particularly DISlike being interrupted in the middle of my work by a call about something that may not be relevant to me.

Because I don’t want to slam the door on everyone, I make myself easy to reach via e-mail, Twitter, or my blog. So it’s not that I keep myself incommunicado, but that I work within the channels I prefer. If the tables are turned and someone *I* want to talk to prefers the phone, I’ll pick up the phone.

I won’t belabor the analogy any further, except to say that social media (and Twitter in particular) won’t be right for everyone.

@LLiu

Your point that you should “go where your audience already is” makes me wonder: what if your audience isn’t tweeting/blogging/SMSing/podcasting/etc?

My target customer works at a mid- to large-size company that is implementing Lean manufacturing techniques. He’s swamped with work, and doesn’t have a lot of time to muck around with social media. In fact, to the extent he’s aware of it, he probably thinks it’s a waste of time.

I grant that social media is permeating all facets of the world pretty quickly. But my hunch is that investing too much time and energy into building a social network at this point is pure waste: my customers aren’t in this digital world, even though the SXSW, the Inbound Marketing Summit, and all the other hip conferences would have me believe they are.

Thoughts?

Best,
Aaron | @aaronstrout