If you have a gun held to your head, how do you make a choice between social networking and money? Bottom line profit has always been and will always be Job #1 for a business. No matter how much you love what you do, you’ve got to make a profit, or you won’t be able to continue doing it.
However … Robin Good recently wrote an interesting take on why he doesn’t want venture capital money and why he doesn’t sell his hot list to a big publisher to really leverage his social marketing results. Good’s plan reveals his view on the true value of social networking:
“My key need is not having more money, but having more passionate young learners that can capture and grow inside this new media culture being created right now. People are my real key asset … I am interested in creating and building tools and resources that can help other individuals become more effective agents of change: as I call them, communication agents.
“By sharing what I have learned and keep discovering about how to communicate and collaborate effectively online I can truly enable more people to affect change in their personal lives than any amount of big government spending on education can do.”
Naive? Idealistic? Robin Good is certainly in the minority. On the other hand, just by the nature of social networking, idealists are probably a significant niche in online social marketing. And no matter what enterprise you may be building, finding the right people – those who truly share your passion – will usually get you closer to achieving your goals than a pile of venture capital will.
The #1 value of social networking is the ability to connect with like-minded people. Does that depend on money? To an extent. But even more, it’s knowing where your best “agents of change” are likely to hang out. So find a few. Talk with them, study them, understand them … and then, provide the environment that is a perfect gathering place for them. That will probably get you the best social networking results, and it won’t take a huge pile of dollars to accomplish.
