When I talk to small business owners there's something that often comes up as soon as the phrase 'social media' is used. It's a sense of bewilderment or even alienation. Sometimes even if the company is embracing new ways of communicating with customers it's tinged with resignation: "you have to be doing this stuff now."
Plenty is written about social media being a 'revolution', but revolutions are generally short, sharp and bloody. It feels more like we're in the middle of an evolution, a natural, long-term change being brought about by a mix of factors: technological, cultural, economic and social.
If business owners can think of it this way, as a series of small, almost imperceptible steps, it might be more manageable. When faced with a barrage of stuff that tells them 'you have to do things differently' I can see why so many are wary, and some stick with the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' school of business.
Michael Brito talks about the 'evolution' of business towards 'social business' in this piece, arguing that it involves change across an organisation, but the payback is value creation. I like the idea of this being an evolution, not least of all because it takes the emphasis off of the minutiae of 'social media marketing' and onto holistic changes in how business is done.
