Social Media
It all comes down to who you know.
Are you an entrepreneur or an employee? If you plan on being an employee, you’re gonna have to know a lot of people and have a good rep, or you won’t be able to get a job.
There’s a fascinating story in Thursday’s "New York Times" about Eric Lefkofsky.
Who?
Turns out he’s worth $750 million. And he’s only 40. He’s an entrepreneur/investor. You know him best as the bankroller of Groupon. Which started out as ThePoint.com, which was a failure because it lacked the social experience.
I know, you hate social media. More people despise Twitter than use it. You like Facebook, but you’re scared of its Big Brother qualities.
Well, you probably don’t understand that Twitter is the number one news source for news happening right now. But if you can’t wrap your head around that, maybe you should look into SproutSocial, which is a Lefkofsky company that allows you to track your company in social media. And if you don’t think social media is key to your company’s future, you’re on the road to extinction.
The problem the record business had is its audience knew too many people, who could connect with each other online. All the labels knew were radio station employees and retailers. That’s a fraction of the overall consumer base, and technically, they’re not even consumers, just middlemen. Once the consumers started talking to each other not only did they spread the word about Napster, but they also let each other know which records were good and which ones were bad. Suddenly, a label could no longer jam records down the public’s throat. It’s bad enough when albums leak in advance and are dead on arrival due to bad word of mouth, see Lenny Kravitz for example, but even those that make it to release date intact are guaranteed a week’s worth of sales at best. Because by the end of seven days, the target audience knows whether the album is worth owning.
And the target audience is smaller than you think it is.
And if you don’t know who your target audience is, you’re screwed.
Imagine trying to sell CDs without knowing the name of retailers.
Imagine trying to sell files, to establish an act without knowing consumers’ e-mail addresses. Sure, e-mail may be fading, especially amongst the younger generation, but everybody’s got a presence online. But can you penetrate their personal firewall? And behind each firewall is not one person, but many. Everybody’s got a network. Screw one person and you screw many. Because this one person tells everybody he knows. Ditto in the reverse.
But the reason I’m writing this is because of the job market.
I hate to frighten you, but all your topless and drunken pictures are gonna work against you in the job market. Inebriation is not a criterion for employment, not even at Budweiser. You see you’re building your resume every day online. And whether you can get a job or not is based on this resume and who you know.
People have complained for eons they couldn’t get a job in the entertainment industry because they weren’t connected. Hate to tell you, but it just got worse! No one’s gonna hire anyone without a history, who can’t be recommended by someone. The days of placing a blind ad and taking on all comers is history. That doesn’t even work well on Craigslist, and no one advertises for a good job on that site.
If you want to succeed in the future, you’ve got to know people. Who can vouch for you. Ever get called for a reference? You never lie if you know the caller, its you reputation on the line.  And now that we’re all networked, there’s always someone who knows you, who if they won’t say something negative, certainly won’t say something positive.
You think you’re just playing online?
That’s wrong.
Do you think I’m gonna vouchsafe for the people who e-mail me with attitude? Think about that. Unless you’re selling attitude, you’re screwed. Because people constantly ask me my opinion on people. And I talk to a lot of people.
Scary, isn’t it?
You see we all live in a social media world.
Read this article. This guy is on the money. Social media is not a fad. It’s just the past on steroids.
