I first came to the US in the mid 1990’s and was amused to find that the most common question my new American ‘friends’ asked (normally in a bar after several beers) was:
“Does it bother you that we kicked your ass in the revolutionary war?”
I have to admit that at the time I didn’t know much about that particular war. Being British it is one of countless wars over the last 1,500 years and really isn’t high on the list of “most interesting conflicts” (especially as we lost it).
Students of British military history can go back as far as 54 B.C. (to the Battle of Verulamium) but a more interesting battle was around 455 A.D. (the Battle of Aylesford) which, by some accounts, had the Briton Vortimer rising against the Saxons. It would seem Harry Potter’s nemesis has a distant relative.
From a British perspective there are many other more substantial wars including the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), the War of the Roses (1455-1485) and the English Civil War (1642-1651) together with countless battles against the French, Spanish, German and Scottish covering several hundred years.
My inability to respond to the ‘kicked your ass’ comment led me on a path of learning and resulted in my current stock answer; “There’s a reason why the army at Yorktown was called ‘Franco-American’; there were more Frenchmen there than Americans!”
It’s weak, I know, but few American’s like to admit how much help they received from the French during the Revolutionary war. It’s far easier to point out how much America helped the French during the First and Second World Wars (remember that the next time someone tries to rename ‘French Fries’ to ‘Freedom Fries’).
John Churchill
And it was Churchill that crossed my mind yesterday when an intelligent business partner (who is in the real estate industry) again questioned the lifespan of social media. One specific comment stuck with me:
“Facebook will be gone in a couple of years, I just want to make money off it while I can”
That this came from an American struck me as tragically ironic. I have long believed that social media is of historical importance. Why? Because social media equals free speech and this country, more than any other, should not only recognize that but embrace it.
The title of this post is part of a Churchill quote and I think it highlights something of huge importance not only to the general public but also to Realtors. For the first time in history one person can have a global voice and as a Realtor that means you have the opportunity to use social media and it’s copious tools to position yourself as the center of all things in your community. And despite how you might feel that opportunity still exists. Why? because never in the field of human communication was so much available to so many yet used by so few.
I’m sure my misuse of Sir Winston’s quotes will have him turning in his grave but I’ve said this many times before; Realtors have never had such an amazing opportunity to own their market. Despite their current dominance Facebook and twitter will eventually be supplanted by bigger and better tools but social media won’t go away, ever, for one simple reason; it isn’t revolutionary, it’s evolutionary. As a result I expect history will record social media as having an impact as great as the printing press, radio, TV and ultimately the Internet.
The real problem, if we are going to be honest, is ignorance or (more politely) a lack of understanding. One question being asked by individuals and corporations all over the world is “How can we use social media effectively?”
I have two suggestions:
1. Work out what you want to achieve first. If you don’t have objectives you won’t know if you have succeeded.
2. Educate yourself. There are lots of tools to use but not all of them will help you achieve your objectives. All the answers exist, you just need to go get them and think a bit. Laziness is the only reason for ignorance in 2010.
It doesn’t matter to me if you don’t use social media, now or ever, but the world you live in will be using it and that is never going to stop. I can’t tell you what your business objectives should be but I can help with the education. Mashable provides a great guide to Facebook. It has answers to all the questions you should be asking. To access the guide go to:
http://mashable.com/guidebook/facebook/
So you have a decision to make; do you want to participate? Or put another way “Do you want to kick ass?”
Stephen – Excellent points; thanks for the historical perspective. I agree, what we call social media now is a road from which there will be no turning back. It will be interesting to see the evolution of the revolution as they unfold.
Hi Stephen, when I arrived in the US back in 1997 from the UK, I got asked very similar questions.
The more interesting question was the following year when I got on the web and started building websites with my trusty copy of Microsoft’s Frontpage. The question was:
“Do you really want to meet people off of the internet?”
My immediate response was “OOOhhh, yes please!”
Facebook and blogging are really just rather more efficient ways of answering that question …..
Being one of the American friends you refer to as having asked the question, I feel compelled to make one minor correction to your version of history. Of the estimated 18,000 troops at Yorktown, 9,500 were American (so we outnumbered the French). We even outnumbered the British, who had just over 8,000 troops. Seems to me the French may only have been there to steal some credit. After all the only thing we Americans needed was French money, not their men. Oh and we needed their ships too – that helped a lot. So besides money, ships and their recognition of our independence on the world stage we didn’t really need the French at all. No, we Americans did it all on our own.
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