“Business is stuffy. Your being human makes you approachable and someone I want to talk to.” That’s a comment I got recently when a client and friend watched the video below.
My friend’s comment got me thinking about how both the quality and number of relationships I have with those I used to call “business associates” has increased over the last two years. Over those years, like many of you, I have been active in social media and community. Social media allows you to humanize yourself in the eyes of your customers and friends daily. Without social media, you pretty much had to wait for the next face-to-face meeting to show others how human you are.
Think about my color strategy business like social media for a minute. Like social media, color is fun. What’s not fun about color, sometimes, is the tools we use to produce and pick the right color. Think back to the early versions of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. They never worked quite right, they went down often, and ….. oh wait, they still do. The point is: We continue to use them anyway because we love social media, NOT because we love the tools.
Doing business with you is about your humanity. It’s not about how cool your stuffy electronic gadgets are. It’s not about how well your lawyer wrote the contract you are asking your partner/customer to sign. It’s about how human you really are. Double check that you are using the tools in your social media arsenal to demonstrate your humanity and not to overtly promote yourself and your company. (Yes, of course, I am guilty of this sometimes – we write about what we know after all.)
I think I try to find a balance with being human and over promoting myself. I always try to make sure friends and family members keep me in check if I am over promoting. When you are passionate about your business like I can see you are Jim it is difficult to not write about your experiences and use them as examples.
Being human is key and so many people miss out on that. By being human I have been able to learn many things from you. Have a great week!
Thank you, your humanity also shows through. I love all the tweets about your little girl. I sometimes think the key is the tweets that “just don’t matter” – like “sitting on the couch watching TV with my wife.” The ones that prove we are all really the same 🙂