Are You Fast Enough to Keep Up with Social Media?

A few years ago I got to witness a high speed police chase and while it may not have been a media spectacle like the infamous OJ Simpson chase, it certainly was memorable to me, but not just for being a crazy party story, but because of how it has shaped my outlook on response times for social media.

Coming home from dinner on a snowy night, I was driving southbound on Sheridan past Sloan’s Lake, when I saw a stream of police cars come streaming towards me. I quickly pulled over to the side of the road. As the police cars came closer, I realized that they were following a dark car with no headlights on. Shortly after the chase passed my car, it came to a resolution – by turning onto a side street and crashing. After waiting for the area to clear a bit I left and went home and immediately contacted my local news station to find out what happened.

I was so eager to find out what caused the chase and what happened – but the minutes kept ticking by with no response from the news. They eventually did respond about 30 minutes later, but my disappointment had already set in that the news didn’t give me a quicker response.

Now before anybody @’s me with “You millennials are so impatient!”, let me stop you right there.

Yes. Yes, we are. We are as a society – and not just a certain generation. In fact, we are starting to see a greater shift on people relying on social media as a tool to communicate with brands and their expectations are set for decreased response times. Not surprisingly, the ones that choose to have it as a major focus in their business are the ones who are succeeding today and will be tomorrow.

The biggest take away that you should have from this article is to check on your social media and engage – who knows, you may have a lead waiting on your response.