Why Bother with Blogging or Social Media, part two.

Part Two of a discussion with blogger and change agent, William Azaroff.  Part One is found here.

My reasons for talking to William Azaroff were partly explained in my first post of this title. He’s built and continues to build a social media community and understands the various value propositions that most business people seem to miss. Intentionally. At least if that survey I mentioned were any indication. I’m reviewing that survey Friday.

I get the ROI question over and over when it comes to blogging, twitter, or whatever social media widget I’m explaining to business owners. What’s In It For Me is essentially what these busy folks are saying. And it is a good question which only you can answer. But the reality is nearly any business can generate solid business by playing online then it can in traditional ways.

William’s answers here, partly explained for me, why you might want to participate in social media. There are tons of people explaining the hard benefits of why you should participate. William offered a glimpse of balance in offline and online. Most importantly, for biz owners whose business is their life, their passion, I find William’s comments to be revealing and explain the softer benefits. Can you yield a profit from getting involved in social media like this?

My question: What community do you go to the most (outside of ChangeE)?

“My social media trifecta is my blog, LinkedIn and Facebook in that order. I'm also an occasional Twitterer.”

My question: I see on your LinkedIn profile what i see as a trend in online living -- Your Brand, Your Company's Brand, and Your Community Brand (at least one of them). Do you see people doing the same? Do you see it as empowerment to maintain a life outside of work, or has work completely fused through our lives that we'll no longer be able to just unplug for the weekend.

“This is such an interesting question. The lines between my personal life and work have never been more blurred, and that's just fine with me. I'm lucky to be in a job that I'm passionate about and deal with a subject matter that I have a lot of opinions on. As a result, it spills over into my life in ways I don't mind. If that were different, I'd want more of a separation between the two.

“In my normal life, I'd rather not unplug for the weekend. I find it more relaxing to be a little plugged in, and know what I'm walking into on a Monday morning. But we're all going to sound increasingly like addicts:  ‘Oh yeah, I can unplug anytime, no problem, I just don't want to this weekend.’”

As I see this – I’m given or I take the power to use my time for my company. There are times when I work less during the normal business hours and more on the weekend. Or at night. Now I realize that many brick and mortar stores don’t have this option, but I’ve read about retail biz owners who are leveraging the social media tools to give them more marketing time – that is, more time to find the path to profits. And if you grant the same flexibility (not total flexibility, mind you) to your employees, your team, you might find a lot of creative ideas for increasing profitability or cutting costs. Examples to come!