I’m no longer a young professional, right? Please say I’m not.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and E-mails Could be Disconnecting Your Client/Employee Relationships
By: Amy Juneau
“Hi. Long time no see! Wait . . . wait a minute. We saw each other yesterday and I am sure we spoke. Was it on Facebook? LinkedIn? Did you respond to my tweet?”Does this sound like a conversation you had with a client lately or employee? Were they upset that you didn’t recognize them when you met them for lunch or happy hour? Hmm. These are signs you’ve given up face-time with your co-workers and clients for simpler (and lazier) relationship-building efforts.
Yes, there are some web, creative and IT gurus who support their peer group’s stereotype of antisocial behavior. Regardless, we are conditioned as humans to seek contact with each other. The information you receive when you are meeting with someone offline is invaluable to growing business relationships. You cannot receive real-time body language, emotive voice inflections or facial expression with someone’s Twitter or Facebook postings.
Also, despite the fact that Facebook allows you to virtually send gifts or drinks or greeting cards; those sentiments are a very watered-down experience to the real thing. Sending peeps in your department a show of appreciation this way doesn’t communicate the same sincerity. It can say, “I’m way too busy to walk 50 feet down the hall to wish you a Happy Birthday or invite you to a happy hour. Or, you are not important enough to waste my time to bother doing so in person.” Do your peers seem surprised at your recent show of intense, in-person angst about their progress on a project you are overseeing, but you only have communicated a fraction of the same feeling via emails?
Lastly, are you shocked, because the client complained that their customers said they feel ‘disengaged’ or not ‘really cared about’ as a devoted consumer of your client’s brand?
Read more about this topic via these Business Week and AdAge.
Does this organization have any idea what it’s doing?
