Have I said enough about the importance of social networking in business change? Nope. Not even close.
A new survey from the dating site Are You Interested reveals a trend that can only be seen as disturbing. Fully one in four people think that it’s OK to break up with somebody by posting a change to your Facebook relationship status.
If you can, forget the societal impact of this trend. Society is by nature an ever-changing construct, and while I’m personally horrified that so many people are so disconnected as to treat their supposed “significant other” that way I have to accept that this looks normal enough to a wide enough swath of people that maybe I’m . . . just . . . a . . . dinosaur.
My kids would agree with that last statement, by the way, and I’m pretty sure that it isn’t only because I’m A) Old and B) Dad. They’d understand my concern, but they’d also dismiss it by telling me that their generation (whatever that means) are simply coming from a different place.
And let’s face it: the survey was self-selecting, meaning that its validity is questionable when applied to groups of people outside the survey pool.
But the overall message is valid: you need, need, need to get your social networking strategy together and under control, because even if it looks weird or creepy or whatever, social networking is real, and getting more real every day.
It’s the very definition of business change. Your job is to manage it.