Here are 5 THEN vs. NOW Observations

1 – Hesitation to Give Employees Access to Customers

(1995) “We can’t let our employees use email — it’s not considered official and we can’t control what they say. They’ll just gossip all day with their friends and relatives. Plus, our customers prefer telephone to email anyway.”
(2009) “We can’t control what people say about our company/brand in social media. We discourage our employees from talking about our company on Facebook and Twitter as they’re not part of our official communications department. Plus, our customers aren’t using social media anyway.”

2 – Only Young People Use It

(1995) “Email and the Web are only for academics, engineers and teenage boys searching for porn. Normal business people don’t use it, especially if they’re over 40 years old.”
(2009) “Social media is only for college kids and recent graduates. Normal business people don’t use it, especially if they’re over 40 years old.”

3 – I Don’t Have Enough Time
(1995) “People waste hours of time online talking to strangers they’ll never meet. They get addicted and ignore the real people in their life. I have real work to do and can’t be bothered.”
(2009) “I don’t care about what you had for lunch. Why should I Twitter with strangers and read blog comments? I don’t have enough time in the real world let alone the virtual one.”

4 – I Can’t Make Enough Money On It
(1995) “I’m not wasting my agency/organizations time learning about the Internet when there’s so little money to be made. I’m going to wait until a clear path to revenue has been established.”
(2009) “I can’t justify investing in a social media program unless you can prove an ROI. I’m going to wait until industry standard success metrics and money making formulas are established so I can sell this to my boss.”

5 – I Don’t Know How to Measure It
(1995) “I have no idea who is visiting my website and what they’re doing. Visits? Hits? Time on Site? And how does any of this help me improve my business?”
(2009) “Who is watching my YouTube videos? How can I get more Twitter followers? What’s the value of a view, comment, re-tweets and friend? And how does all this activity improve my business?”

Mind you, there’s a degree of truth to every comment – both then and now. My takeaway lesson is that when it comes to change, it’s good to not only reflect on where we’ve been, but also the vibe/climate that existed at that time. It might feel strangely familiar which gives you perspective on the challenges of today and the opportunities of tomorrow.

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