ICM - Leeds Design Agency

Social networking is getting a bit of battering from the press at the moment, but to believe all the rubbish and not participate is to miss an opportunity. See We need social networking with a human face as a good example. Plus our good friend Liz Cable from Reach Further was on radio Leeds last week defending social networking and she didn’t get an easy ride. So this got me thinking, why is everyone so ready to hate Facebook and Twitter?

My conclusion: fear. People are afraid that they’re getting left behind. They can’t understand how these communication tools work and so instead of giving them a try they create reasons why they are evil and dangerous. And as a result they are missing out on a fantastic opportunity to make new contacts and to communicate with their existing network.

Every business, of any size, has an opportunity to grow by using simple techniques that are social. Meet someone at a networking event and later that day you could be following them on Twitter, checking out their network on Linked In and beginning to build up that relationship. You can even phone them as well, but in the meantime you’ve shared information and learnt a little more about each other.

So if you’re reading this and worrying that social networking may turn you into a robot, go to Twitter now and join up. Then follow me @tashaharrison and @richardpeacock and we’ll follow you back.

Oh and also read this article: Why the Twitters Haters Are Wrong.