What next?

I find myself asking this, because I remember recently a social media Business whiz told me that Generation Y uses email less and they concentrate on the beloved free tool available to every business – social media.

This thought leader from the world of online marketing was explaining that within 20 years email could be a thing of the past.

How, I asked?

The like of Face book that is now bigger than, well it grows by the hour doesn’t it? So it’s pointless giving you a statistics here because by tomorrow it will be false. But be safe in the knowledge that it’s growing faster than our economy for one.

And with this massive growth, many people are sidelining email in favour of the world of social media.

But I for one wonder, what next?

As founder of The BWN and running my own business I get well over 500 emails a week, and that doesn’t include the junk special pill ones, or my social media, that all gets filtered away to deal with every week.

However less than 2 years ago, I could safely ignore Face book,  Twitter and linked in for a few days, so I was not at risk of procrastination to get on with business, but now I could miss people wanting to book events, people wanting to learn more about coaching or the network, the list is endless.

I remember years ago, and we are not talking when the pidgeon and telegrams were great forms of communication, we loved our fax machines. I can remembering telling my boss that we could save a fortune if staff emailed purchase orders, he feared that men would be standing around with no work to be done, or parts to do it with, so when the new fangled fax did save us time he was impressed. The office staff cursed that it was not as much fun. Where was the human contact? Where was the “How was your weekend conversation?” that they used to start their phone calls with before they got down to business.

I now feel that I am beginning to mourn the loss of the phone. I actually love to surprise business owners by picking up the phone and answering their enquiry over the phone, it can really freak people out.

Is there a large sector of the business community that does not want to talk to people? If so how do they do business? I wonder when they have new customers and they need to do business do they stand next to them eyeing the floor and sending them a quick twitter on their blackberry or iPhone?

So I do ask what next?

Will it be good to only use social media? Will we have virtual meetings only? Are we at risk of only knowing what someone looks like if they have a profile picture?

I think as with all things there is a fantastic level of progress to be appreciated here, but let’s not forget the power of conversation. The ability to be able to gage what someone is saying before they have uttered a word thanks to body language.

So bring on the new world without email, and who knows what, but please don’t forget to talk to people, to connect with your staff, your suppliers and most importantly YOUR customers. And I don’t mean just send them an email.

Pick up the phone; schedule a catch up – because if you don’t go that extra mile and use ALL forms of communication to your advantage, I can guarantee there is a competitor out there that is!

And on that note here is my mobile 07989 935556 (brave you say, No, it is just another form of communication to add to your list to ensure I am always able to keep in touch with you) If you ever need anything for your business success, The Business Woman’s Network is happy to oblige, so get in touch and tell us what that is, and how we can help.