Why Be Anti-Social?

Over at the Bulldog Reporter, Paul Gillin has a commentary on "Five Stupid Reasons to Avoid Social Media." His list of dumb ideas, while not exhaustive, manages to cover a lot of the same points I've been making here and endorsing elsewhere. I agree with him completely: social media has changed, and will continue to change, the nature of all kinds of marketing, and marketers ignore it or refuse to acknowledge it at their peril.

To the reluctant PR person - for whatever reason - Gillin has a simple question: "If you agree with the many thought leaders who say that conversations are the future of marketing, then why would you not want to lead that charge? The most important people in any business are those who own the relationship with customers." Fair question. Given the estimate that consumers are estimated to have 3.5 billion brand conversations a day, it becomes pretty critical for a company to be a part of those conversations.

Check out Gillin's article. The arguments he hears, unfortunately, are the same ones many of us hear every day from reluctant PR and advertising and corporate communications people. His answers deserve to have a wider audience.