Something has cropped up frequently, when dealing with one of the prime objections to building community using Social Media tools:  it takes too much time.  What a strange objection.

I read an article recently over here where a professor speaking at a 2006 Harvard conference on blogging, is quoted as saying:

“a majority of the blogs out there are created by teenagers (I would assume those teenagers are from class backgrounds where the afterschool or weekend job is unnecessary and  access to everyday computer use goes without saying).  The economy of time as a measure of successful blogging might also mean that working women with young children are underrepresented on the blogosphere, or at least are less likely to have successful blogs.”

OK, bloggers, you kids you.  Get back to doing real work.  I guess that means me, too.

Could this be the entrenched notion that today’s decision maker has towards investing time in building community?  That these new social media tools, are merely the playthings of people with too much time on their hands?

The experience of hearing objections to implementing Social Media seems to suggest this.  It seems a common objection we hear in our business is that organizations don’t have time or people to devote to building community, because they are all still busy doing things the old way.  The comfortable way.

The Old Way (or doing business in “analog”) is not entirely wrong as Terry Starbucker says.  Successful organizations are built upon that.  But any successful business person will tell you that looking for new ways to maintain constant improvement is an “analog” custom.  So why the fear of digital means?

The Old Way suggests that spending millions on TV ads that are not watched is a good investment, and sound ROI.  That print advertising which may or may not be actually seen is somehow rational.  That installing very expensive IVR systems to really frustrate your customer somehow improves your bottom line.

The logic doesn’t fit.  Spending hours of employee time, buying the same products, and doing things the same way because you are too busy to try something new, is the hallmark of extinction.

And just try and tell Motrin that Moms are under-represented in the blogoshpere.