Everything You Need to Know About Being a Social Media Cynic Can Be Summed Up by Conan O’Brien

This Man Has Something to Teach All of Us

Social media should be an incredible marketing asset for SMBs. Social media is cost effective, simpler than most marketing tools and can be immensely successful. Last week I did two break-out sessions at the Boulder Chamber event for using social media for SMBs/startups, which ended up being very disparate groups.

My first session was full of cynics. People who inherently believe that Twitter can’t deliver sales leads and is a giant waste of time. They were there because they felt should be there, but they had no inherent desire to learn.

My second session was full of those who wanted to learn but weren’t sure where to begin or start. They were eager to learn and add new tricks to their marketing arsenal. They didn’t know how social media would work, but they wanted to give it a try.

Two groups of similar small business owners, but who would likely see two disparate results from social media.

Everything you need to learn about being a social media cynic can be summed up by Conan O’Brien.

“I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.”

Marketing through social media is hard. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s time consuming, the technology can make you pull your hair out, the tools are constantly changing and not everything works to deliver results.

But you know what? So are the rest of marketing tools you might employ. You’re just more comfortable with other facets of marketing.

The second part that Conan nails about being a cynic is that awesome things don’t happen if you’re not nice. Do you promote other people’s content? Do you interact with other people on your social media tools? Or do you throw up your hands because you started a Twitter account and you’re getting nothing out of it.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a hard look at social media to evaluate if it works, and ask critical questions. But people who inherently believe social media won’t work will have a self-fulfilling prophesy on their hands. So if you decide to try social media, commit to it. Don’t keep it an arm’s length away.

Thanks to Groundfloor Media for having me at the Boulder Chamber event!