Oh, but I’m doing that

That's a beautiful sunrise. Why would you look away? The same goes for good advice.

After working with a variety of clients and prospective clients over time, you start to see some patterns.  One of the more unfortunate of these is the “Oh, but I’m doing that” phenomenon.  The setting for this comment is usually a conversation about how someone is using social media.  A conversation is taking place, say with a small business, and a comment is made “You know, there are things you could do to improve your Facebook presence to connect with more followers and build your brand identity”.  Before even asking what they could do differently, the listener shuts down the conversation, “Oh, but I’m doing that”.  It’s understandable. Even when framed diplomatically, how many of us like to hear that we might be botching something, or not taking full advantage?  Not to mention, how would this make you feel if you had sunk hours and hours into Facebook?

But unfortunately, such comments are not made idly or even to drum up business.  There are a lot of people spending time and energy on social media that are not “doing it right”.  This can be as simple as having an itsy bitsy Facebook avatar.  It could be posting once per month.  It could be talking about religion, politics, and every other controversial issue you can find to Facebook followers.  There is so much free information out there and so much ability to improve your performance.  When we’ve heard this comments, more than not, the opposite is true.  Profiles have virtual tumble weeds blowing through them and a lot of other things wrong.  Being defensive or letting ego shut off new and useful information hurts you and hurts your business.  You don’t have to have pay someone for this advice and when it’s right there for the taking why not grab it with both hands?  Another question, what happens when your competitors ask, “What can I do?” rather than “Oh, but I’m doing that”?

 

Matt