I’m not particularly keen on ‘Social Media Geeks’. A bit like I’m not particularly keen on ‘Architecture Geeks’. You know, the type of people who talk only to their friends and people in their own sphere, and who can’t stop spouting incomprehensible twaddle in language only their converts can understand.
However, things can get interesting if you can ignore the twaddle and look for the point they are making underneath, a message that could be transferred to your own environment.
Some of these people are very successful business people, after all. They must be getting something right.
This is what happened with Robert Scoble’s Posterous Blog today. I was on the train and scanning through Saturday’s daily update of what people had been writing, and I came across this post:
How Ford got my trust on a comparison to Toyota Prius; @chrisbrogan what do you think?
Oh Boring.
Firstly its about cars (I’m only interested in cars if I can drive them, not talk about them) and then it asks his friend Chris Brogan for his opinion.
Fortunately I managed to read further and found the article was about how Robert Scoble had run into a Ford man and told him how he’d just bought a Toyota Prius, and how the Ford man reacted.
“What did he do? He admitted he bought one too. Then he promptly praised it. Then he explained how his product was different. He also made sure to mention his company’s advantages (that they’ve been doing this longer). All three got me to trust him. Well, as much as I’d trust anyone pitching a product.”
After that Robert goes on to explain that the Ford man, Steve Kovak, cares enough about the safety features on cars that he’s willing to engage in an honest discussion about what is important for the future of vehicle engineering, irrespective of what company he works for.
I think this is really important for architects.
Firstly, when was the last time you picked up the phone to a client who told you they wanted a particular service and said ‘Yes we do’ even though you never have before and know that there is a practice much better at that particular service in your area that they should use instead?
Maybe you even said yes when you know how difficult it is for you to make money on those sort of jobs because you really work better at something else?
Secondly, how long do you think that kind of behaviour is going to go on, now that we have the interactivity of the internet?
The power of interactivity is in the conversation. The conversations are taking place, with or without you. They always have done, but now they can be seen.
Its time to be honest about what you are good at, what others are better at, and look after everyone who contacts you. If we don’t do this the profession will die out.
*apologies to Robert Scoble for calling him a SM Geek. He does it himself, most people probably agree, and he’s a nice guy.
Mime image: The Mime at work by Noël Zia Lee
Ah – nice one, Su. I’ve had this for years, and now people are suggesting they are “Social Media Experts” even when we hardly see them on Twitter – which surely is up there as one particularly strong aspect of SM.
Many years ago I was not allowed to join a BRE (as it was then – now BRX) group with my web design agency – the IT service providers “did” that and so I was not welcome. Sigh! And now the whole area of Internet marketing is so wide it’s more than one person can really take care of, alongside other clients. Working with people more expert than you on results in much happier customers – for any Google Adwords, for instance, I send them over to Nikki Pilkington. The temptation to say “yes I can” to everything may well end up costing you more in available time than you can afford. Pass it on and it’s likely to be reciprocated.
Its really important that people in business, especially in smaller businesses, work together. It widens your reach so much, agreed.
This is true, at the same time, we need to continually adapt and use the skills we have doing new and different things. I get bored doing the same thing time and time again. After working on speculative apartments, I moved into shop fit outs, then got into designing schools, and at the moment I´m mostly doing private houses… lots of crossover in design skills, project management, design coordination, contract administration, etc… just different briefs.
Just because you haven´t done that precise thing before doesn´t mean that you can´t do it very well. Although I concur, that once you´ve done it once it´s probably easier to do it more profitably the second time around, so in terms of business this makes a lot of sense.
Thanks for the input Jane. I agree that one can’t stand still, one just gets stale. Even when I’ve worked for specialist architects practices, they have evolved what they do and what they can offer their clients. New opportunities come up all the time.
I don’t have any problem with learning new things, its a good thing – what I have a problem with is not being honest about one’s abilities. I have a problem with architects who say ‘yes’ to everything even when it doesn’t make commercial sense, because they haven’t learned to say ‘no’.
You´re quite right that as a profession we could be much better at business.
There are times when a longer term strategy might mean it´s worth taking a short term commercial risk – if you´re breaking into a new area perhaps it´s necessary to do an initial project as a loss leader simply to prove that you´re capable. Especially if you need to diversify, or like me your business is fresh and new without a long track record to comfort clients with.
It comes back to trust – do you trust the person you are dealing with? So if the client asks you to do something you don’t normally do, or is not in your particular specialism, why have they done it? Because they trust you?
It’s so hard to say no to someone that has shown trust in you. I have passed contacts, even existing clients, on to others who can do the work more easily. You could take on the work and sub-contract it to someone more expert in that field?
Sue, good article and great advice. Likewise, I’ve often wondered what would happen if architects began to turned down work if clients are not willing, say, as an example, to pursue a minimum level of sustainability (whatever that is) or consider brownfield sites as opposed to greenfield ones. Historically, architects design things to be built, so there’s no reason to think that an architect would advocate for not building. However I believe there’s a lot of room for our profession to make demands that benefit more than the client. Thanks again!
Sue, I agree; people do business with people (not firms). And when you develop a trust between client and consultant that is a powerful bond. I have acted for some people for 25 years. The trust is mutual – sometimes you get asked to do things without ‘proper’ instructions / agreements in place. I sort out the housekeeping later. I think it is important though to tell clients when you can’t do something – either for conflict or expertise reasons. TI think they respect you more – especially if you offer them a solution (that might be another person!). Tim
Tim, your point about respect is very good.
Always give the best possible advice, they you’ll be known for it.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
You had me at “Stop Pretending”