I had an interesting conversation today, well, interesting to me anyway! All be it there were no actual people involved. It started like this; “Has anyone got any advice on which email client to use for my business?”. You guessed it, it was on Facebook, the wonder of the world just now and the place where, wait for it – 2 billion people log in each and every month! That’s more than the population of China – eek!!
I watched the feed with bated breath as everyone and their dog waded in with options, expert advice and routes for this person to take. The problem – not once did I see anyone ask the question “What are you trying to achieve” or “How much time in your working week do you have to use this software?”.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for helping people out, in fact that’s exactly why I started Digital Divas, to help lovely ladies like you to overcome the fear of technology and boost their businesses and achieve the lifestyle that you desire. But, and it’s a rather big butt – everybody else’s opinion and solution may not be right for you and your business. Let me say that again because it’s so, so important. Everybody else’s opinion and solution may not be right for you and your business.
Don’t listen to other people unless you know 100% what you want to achieve yourself. I’ve spent far too many hours researching different options of technology, software, programs. It’s not the tool that makes the difference, although it can speed things up for you. It’s your idea, motivation and reason for needing the tool that is key to dig deep into first – then find the correct tool to meet that need.
So, back to that insanely vague question on Facebook. There were a number of suggestions and offers of help on the thread, all of which seemed to be positioning the writer of the post as an expert. An expert in Mailchimp, an expert in marketing, design, cooking, sport blah blah blah Is everybody a darn expert at everything?
Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers coined the golden rule: “10 thousand hours is the magic number of greatness, people aren’t born geniuses, they get there through effort”.
Why does Facebook make people want to help too often?
It may be because, posting on Facebook takes little commitment, it’s a quick post, a post that once you’re done writing you forget about, until that red little notification monster pings in the top right corner ‘Someone has responded to your post’ It’s all too easy for anyone to position themselves as experts.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for community solutions and the wisdom of the crowd. But, the internet is a giant WIKI. Read, review, check out the source and overall, the most important thing – remember it’s just one person’s opinion. What’s right for you.