Be less Social, and much more Strategic

We all love social media, but I think there are problems even more fundamental than any potential fraudulent access or use of personal data that is currently making headlines.

As one example of a fundamental problem with social media, if you're a professional who relies heavily on social media and content marketing to drive your messaging, for your networking, your leads and your general market information gathering, then the information you're using is by definition already public knowledge. It has been socialised.

That mean all this socially gathered and shared information gives you absolutely no competitive advantage.

My guess is that will fly in the face of what many people think. That all this social media and content marketing is creating some kind of social capital that becomes your competitive advantage. But it doesn't. 

Is it time for you to change to being less social, or at least a little more judicious about what you socialise and how you strategise?

... all this socialised information gives you absolutely no competitive advantage

While we’re at it, who’s benefiting from you gathering all your valuable network contacts and their details on one or more web platforms like, say, LinkedIn?  Are you the one truly monetising your networks, or is it the platform that generates membership fees, advertising, sales, recruitment, training services and other revenue streams from your networks?  Is it time to stop giving away your data, and generating revenue for yourself from your network and activities?

Are you the one monetising your networks, or is it the platform?

A Most Valuable Resource - Data

I have no empirical data to back this up (yet) but anecdotally I think that the pressure of social media is distracting professionals from the truly valuable work of fostering and gathering unique market intelligence. They fail to gather and hoard and use the information that is strategically most valuable for building major client relationships. This in turn holds people back from building truly collaborative networks, all because they're too busy being social and sharing as much knowledge as they conceivably can.

Speaking as a long time professional, the most important information you have, or anyone responsible for growing a business has, you don't or at least shouldn't make public.  It's the inside information you have about your markets and clients and prospects; the who's who, their issues and challenges, their internal politics and motivations, their decision making processes and selection criteria, the projects on their drawing board, their skills and capacity gaps, and much more.

Research1 shows that over 70% of B2B buyers choose the provider who first provided insight and value. If you build personal trust and show immediate and complete value, they have no need to shop around or tender, or if they do, you probably already have the inside running. Relationships, trust and intimate knowledge of clients is what creates an environment where you can add the most value.

But learning how to leverage these knowledge assets for the creation of value for clients, and doing so in an ethical way, are skills that many people don't get the opportunity to hone, particularly if they have never worked at a large multinational consulting firm.

What's Better Than Social Media?

So if social media has these drawbacks what's better? What does being more strategic and less social look like?

In communications theory, the Allen Curve revealed a strong negative correlation between physical distance and the frequency of communication between professionals.

Allen's research showed that people communicate and share technical and professional information most, with those who they are regularly within 50 metres of.  And surprisingly that distance hasn't changed with technology.  Just think about the people who you share most of your social media with.  Typically the majority of the "friends" you share and interact with most on social media, will be people who you are within 50 metres of on a regular basis.  That's not to say you wont communicate with others too.  But frequent proximity lifts all interaction, including social media.

I recognise the irony of sharing these thoughts on social media, but social media, content marketing and jobs board sites all want us to feel like this public activity we undertake is actually a highly valuable form of professional networking and lead generation. That the sharing of valuable technical knowledge and market intelligence is good for our public persona and reputations.  And it can be.  But if we’re sharing too much of our valuable market intelligence, with everyone on the planet, that information is immediately devalued. And there's not doubt that the information sharing stakes continue to rise.

So maybe its time to become a little less social, and a lot more strategic.