Everyone wants to integrate social media into their marketing plans. They pay big bucks to learn how to do so. They spend hours or their lives and travel many miles in search of the of some golden tidbit they can take back to their company so management will finally give them a budget.

But this isn’t their only problem. Buy in from management, while important, isn’t REALLY what’s holding them back. These people have barely grasped the internet.

While on a panel at the Direct Marketing Association 2009 conference, held in the lovely San Diego Convention Center, one thing was READILY apparent.

NO ONE HAD LAPTOPS.

I know that laptops and netbooks aren’t required to use social media, but they help. I get that you don’t need a smartphone to use twitter or Facebook, but they help. I also understand that these people, ranging from late 20s to late 60s, don’t have to PERSONALLY use social media, but damn it, how can you expect to compete in a realm where everything can be put online?

I can make a video and upload it in less than one minute on my iPhone 3GS. Around 2000 people will see it. I can send a funny picture to those same 2000 followers. I can record audio and share it, too.

So how do I know most people are so far behind that they’ll never catch up? When they asked us to slow down in giving recommendations because they couldn’t write fast enough.

You want to be on the cutting edge of technology? You want to learn how to position yourself and/or your company for future success? Start by using the tools required.

Twitter isn’t tough, neither is Facebook. Blogs take minutes to post. But you can’t teach adoption. I can’t show you how to recognize an event and then disseminate it into shareable form. I can’t teach you how to see a smartphone as more than hardware. I can’t teach you that the internet is no longer a separate place, that it’s a communication channel just like morse code and the telephone.

You need to figure THAT out on your own.

Posted via email from Tyler says…

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