The continuing development of social media but don't fear the technology

Vice-President of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Phil Jones took part in a panel discussion on social media and business networking last week.

He made three points

1.That he thought that Social media networking is a trend. In the same way that vinyl went to cassettes, then to CD's, then to MP3's. Traditional methods of networking are also transitioning.

2.Social media networking allows you to have a different type of conversation direct with a key stakeholder, bypassing traditional gatekeepers

3.Social media networking requires human capital investment, more than financial investment.

They are all good points.How much of a fad social networking is,we will have to wait and see but both the fact that it bypasses traditional communication channels and its need to have sufficient human resoures devoted to it are both very valid points.

On the topic of return on investment,Brian K. McDaniel makes a case for an alternative measure pointing out that

Businesses of all shapes and sizes are clamoring for a spot on the social media landscape, opening accounts and buying domain names at a furious pace and then trying to figure out how to use them and who to outsource to or purchase training from.

ad concludes that

the return on my relatively minimal investment of time and energy in social media has resulted in a profit.

One thing that puts people off is the fear of technology and over at the Biving's report David Murray writes that this should not be the case

Technology is a scary word. It means new and expensive. These words can spell death for a business or organization who is thinking of trying new things .

but he adds

Social Media is not new and it doesn’t need to be expensive (though, it can take time when done right). The point is, forget about technology.