Most of us have had the painful, enlightening experience of smashing an appendage with a hammer. Many of us have reacted by expressing our frustration, some more creatively than others, at that tool. When that happens, the problem is that it isn’t the tool’s fault that we’re in pain, it’s our own lack of skill or care in using that tool that has caused the pain. Case in point:
Spike Jones (@spikejones) of Brains on Fire had quite a few interesting things to say after our roundtable discussion with Congressman Bob Inglis (@bobinglis) Tuesday. One of his comments was:
“But don’t you think there are instances where it just doesn’t make sense for a company to use Twitter? Like the local mortuary? Or maybe the port-o-potty delivery guys?”
In fact, I think that a port-a-potty company could benefit from social media IF they use it to find event planners and construction companies and make connections with them (whether its via Twitter or whatever). There are actually tons of event planners on Twitter. Businesses can really benefit from those connections if they approach it the right way. The key here is balance and moderation.
Social media can be useful to any company that approaches it with the right attitude, a solid plan, and an understanding of their customers. Twitter and Facebook are tools for building community. Community is what drives your customers. If you can capture and tap into this motivation you’ll never need to worry about meeting your revenue goals.
Community drives our decisions. Without community you have no measurement of wealth. Some people want to be wealthy; some want to be happy; some want to be healthy. All these people have one thing in common. They use their communities to reach their goal. When the port-a-potty company learns to use Twitter to tap into the event planner community, that’s when using social media truly makes sense!
I believe that any and every company can use Twitter and other social media. On the other hand, I agree with Spike, I don’t think that they should be using social media because someone forced them to do it. They should be very careful of social media and expect to smash a thumb or two in the process.
Ask about ROI if you’re considering hiring someone to help you with social media. If they don’t have a way to track it and set goals against it then they’re not who you want to use. We can talk about this wrench (social media) all day long, or we can get dirty and fix something with it.
Update: Olivier Blanchard (@thebrandbuilder) has a great post on the same subject also inspired by Spike’s post. (Warning, it’s a LOT longer than this post 
)
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A funeral services company could certainly use Twitter with discretion. There are many things about the industry that are baffling. You wouldn’t want to be all light and breezy and “joke of the day” on Twitter with such a company, but you could certainly address sensitive topics and topics that are ancillary to funeral services (hospitals, florists, what to say to someone who suffers a loss, etc.).
“If I had a Twitter, I’d Twitter in the morning, I’d Twitter in the evening, and all the day long…”
I love the hammer metaphor. Much better than my crayon one. Just goes to show what our respective parents trusted us with. It’s just amazing that I somehow didn’t injure myself with a crayon — they were pretty sharp coming out of the box…
@Marie, I love your idea: a funeral service with a sense of humor. (What a great way to differentiate in that industry!) When my time comes, I’d like to have a stand-up comic presiding. We all gotta go sometime — might as well do it with a smile.
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