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Don’t be a Hammer – Be a Toolbox
Posted on May 31, 2011 by Bill Lublin
There’s an old saying “If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail” . Obviously , not all problems are nails, and you may end up with new problems if you treat them like one. In today’s social media world, we need to remember that “If the only tool you have is Facebook, all your solutions will be limited to that community”
Just as a good mechanic needs a toolbox to have the right tool to fix different problems, you need to have different strategies to reach your communities in the manner they want to be reached. Maybe your community reads blogs more than they pay attention to their Facebook wall. Or a section of your community might be active in LinkedIn groups, or on Flickr, or (heaven forbid) perhaps they communicate mostly on Twitter or on FourSquare.
By creating a cross channel presence in a variety of social media spaces, you can accomplish a lot more without a great deal more effort. The benefits are pretty simple;
- You will reach members of your community in the place they frequent most often
- You will communicate with them when and how they wish to be communicated with- giving your voice much more power.
- You will have the benefit of being connected to their different spheres of influence on each site, expanding your influence not only with them, but with the people they influence.
- You will reinforce your influence with members of your community that participate in more than one site.
- You will not be subject to the limitations of any one social platform, or be helped captive by their terms of service.
- As you use different social channels, you increase your social graph, and will become more proficient in your online communication
- You will be aware of trends in different communities, giving you more business intelligence than you would have if you were only functioning in one channel.
- You will increase your appearance as a technologically advanced professional
- You will increase the number of places you can be found by Google and every other search engine – sort of like scattering electronic business cards all over the social space.
- You will be able to be where your community is if they move and have a new site that gains their attention as it gains popularity.
Instead of just being another face on Facebook, maybe your photographic contributions will make you stand out on Flickr or Picasa. Perhaps your Videos on YouTube or Vimeo will be where people go to listen to you, or maybe you’ll find your inner Hemingway as a blogger. In any event you will multiply your presence and by doing so increase your opportunities to connect with others in a meaningful manner and that can’t be bad.
The final result of course, is that instead of being limited to one tool, you create a toolbox filled with alternatives for you to use in your social and business relationships. You might be surprised at the skills you develop, the relationships you make, the joy you encounter and the places you find most productive in participating in your online communities.
In any case, you know that using the right tool gets the best results with less difficulty – so do that in your online engagement as well as offline! Good Luck!
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3 Responses to Don’t be a Hammer – Be a Toolbox
So when I was very young and very poor I had to replace a fuel injector with the three tools I had… A screw driver, pliers and a hammer. You guessed it – installing a fuel injector with a hammer was a bad idea and the car went up in smoke.
Now, almost 20 years later I realize that it’s having the right tool and know how that keeps my cars from catching on fire
Bill, what do you think happens when we have too many tools?
… after reading my comment and in the interest of transparency – I rarely work on my car. I’ve gotten to a place where I can pay others to do that. Is there a metaphor there?
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