Of globes and cyclical learning

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Photo owned by ^@^ina (cc)

One of my favourite jobs while in college was selling globes. Well, I worked in a bookshop, but I sold globes like no one’s business. I sold the small technicoloured desktops, the larger antique-coloured oak jobs. Globes with lights. Globes without lights. Globes whose longitudinal segments could be replaced on state dissolution. Globes that fit the budget of moms wanting to drum to some point-and-learn geography into their kids. All sorts.

The thing about selling globes or selling anything at all, is that every interaction I had with customers was a valuable transaction. Selling something was just an economic one.

Being open, friendly and helpful meant I could learn about what they wanted. “Those are too expensive”. “I can’t read the text”. “How much energy does that consume?”

More than this, it challenged me to ask myself loads of questions and gave me an opportunity to learn new skills.

I’m not a Social Media cowboy, but it’s a 24/7 pitstop. Some of the lessons from selling globes are universal -  listening, learning and talking. Impacting change from those interactions. If Social Media be anything, it’s an endless opportunity to learn new things about people.

Looking across the rodeo, it’s not just about Moonfruiting yourself by flooding hashtags or just creating a blogger evening hoping for videos or collateral content to float up.

Seeding interest without first trying to learn and impact your business misses the point. Kinda like ringing someone up and then not being able to get in a word edgeways. Who wants to buy from a business that does that? Do they really respect you as a customer or as a browser?

Social Media isn’t just business, isn’t your Facebook page and isn’t your friends tweeting fart jokes – it’s an open door. If we avoid learning, we’re flushing time, money and effort down the toilet to appease the buzzword monkeys.

July 16th, 2009 at 12:08 pm • Filed in Business, Geekery



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