Why most successful people don’t blog, network or Tweet

When I started in The Sunday Business Post in 1999, I only had to keep an eye on two things during the working day: my email and my phone. Today, as I write, I am plagued by the duty to monitor umpteen forums of communication:

-- email
-- Twitter
-- my blog
-- RSS feeds
-- Facebook
-- mobile
-- landline

That's not to mention whatever is breaking online.

The truth is that staying connected in a Web 2.0 way takes a hefty time commitment. And, to be honest, that is time that most successful people do not have.

Instead of Tweeting about how they plan one day to be successful, they're out closing a deal. Or are working throughout the night for a client. Or are writing a prospectus to pitch to someone. You even notice this among formerly frequent bloggers who are now making a commercial go of it somewhere -- their frequency and commitment to blogging has come right down.

Is this just the way of the world?

Think about this: take the top 10,000 business people in Ireland. How many of them Tweet? How many of them blog? Now take the top 10,000 Tweeters and bloggers in Ireland. How many of them are very successful?

I'm sure that this view might draw ire. But it's the truth.

Comments

[Margaret Ward]

Guess I'm just a loser with a successful biz then? Boo hoo!

Anyone in the comms biz who does not blog or tweet is missing big biz opportunities. We have generated much biz in this way.. teaching large companies about internal blogging (don't do it just to do it! Not always a good fit), also helping them understand how new technologies may affect how they communicate with different demographics.

As a journalist, it's also essential to use these comms outlets to follow international and domestic news trends. Many journos get ideas from Twitter (rightly or wrongly) and pass on breaking stories to their colleagues in print and broadcast.

Your post is a bit like telling people not to use those "newfangled" telephones because they're just for losers!

[Beyonze]

Hi Margaret, Nice to hear of someone running a successful business - can know the name and turnover of your business....

[Mark Coughlan]

I got my (admittedly freelance, though very-regular-shift-type) job almost solely from blogging. The editor picked me up straight from college, I'm the only person in my class with work... I'd call that "successful" though it may not fit your definition.

Also worth noting, since being hired my rate of blogging has since improved vastly...

How many of the 10,000 most successful business people in Ireland are under 35? It's relevant that the majority of bloggers and people on Twitter younger than that.

Surely, by your thinking, a Blackberry is a time-consumer rather than a useful tool.

[Adrian]

Mags, Mark,

It's true that a few journalists/marketers do blog a lot.

But in journalism, it's mainly freelancers. And why? Because it's aimed at generating business in the written word (as Mark testifies, above). If they had regular, secure employment with one business, and did not have to pitch for new business to those commissioning written articles, would they blog as much? The evidence seems clear, looking at the number of staff journalists who blog (ie hardly any).

In online marketing, those blogging are desperately trying to show potential clients that they are part of the conversation. That is the only reason they blog.

In other words, both of you are exceptions to the rule.

Even within the tech world, it is mainly the entry-level execs and workers who blog. True, there are a couple of exceptions.

But they really are exceptions.

[Mic FitzGerald]

Statistically, that is probably true, but for different reasons. I don't think 'successful' is the incorrect measure. Probably the "business setup" is the dereferencing factor. The business people that use social media the most, tend to be working on their own (or at least VERY small companies), and actually use social media as a social medium, since they don't have meetings with peers, the water cooler etc.
There are loads of successful people and business that tweet, but they're just not the head of large companies. And of the large company people that don't tweet - plenty are NOT that successful.

[Adrian]

Mic,

Fair points.

Also, proving your point, I clicked on your link and will now be waiting for Swiftaccounts.ie to go live :)

[Damien Mulley]

I literally cannot blog every day or use Twitter and the reason is I have lots of work to do. In my old job I was banging out blog posts at least twice a day and I could do it because I had lots of free time once I got my work done.

When I started working for myself I was still able to get work done and blog but that's changed drastically in the past few months. I dip in and out now and then when I can but even when I have free time, other things are taking priority. Blogging is a love of mine though so I force myself to blog as much as I can and there are still silent days on the blog. I am using FourSquare though as it's a mobile app and all about travel. In and out of meetings means I can use it.

I've seen some companies where they can afford to go off for three days in a row creating some new idea that popped into their head that leverages Twitter and I'm amazed that they can do that. I have 100 blog posts in draft and it might be January before I get time to play with them but this is the trade-off for earning a wage.

I do think Twitter does allow firing stuff out quickly in between tasks at work but you need to have great discipline.

[John F]

"take the top 10,000 business people in Ireland. How many of them Tweet? How many of them blog?"

Correlation does not imply causation.

[Gavin McConnon]

I have a twitter account, and only follow about 80 people, but even trying to keep up with their tweets requires checking twitter multiple times a day. I just don't have time. I find twitter handing for 'filtering' blogs. It people 'tweet' links to blogs, its usually a good read. And only follow people you have a interest in.

[Jean Wolfe]

Very interesting comments. I am not sure that successful people who are closing deals have ever organised the company brochure or sorted out the email campaign. Twitter and blogging are marketing tools - useful to some, and will probably never appeal to others. I have met lots of excellent salespeople/deal closers who feel ill at the thought of writing up the meeting...they would never want to be on twitter. Or like Philip Green have never written an email.
It's National Women's Enterprise Day here in UK and my blog post today suggests that online stuff appeals to women who are naturally communicators.
There could be gender divides not just successful / not successful - however that is measured.

[Damien Mulley]

@Jean
Twitter and blogs are communication tools not marketing tools. They *can* be used for such but are certainly not used just for that. Look further past the cubicle and you'll see CEOs blogging and Twittering and using it to build contacts. Just ask @marklittlenews and @liamcasey who are not into marketing at all.

[Darragh]

This very topic has been on my mind a lot and what's being said is making sense. I wish I had more time to blog, but normally it takes twice as much time to blog what I want to about an event as the event was itself. I don't feel I really know that I know how to blog or what a blog is any more.

I'm sitting on a site that has probably more content being put on it than any other in the country and yet find it difficult to sit down and decide what I'm going to blog about.

I think people need to start realising - blogging is hard work. Yes, some people are good at it. Some people know how to write well and have brevity to a t, but others just approach it with enthusiasm but real life gets in the way. Consistency and frequency is, genuinely, so important.

I wouldn't say I'm in any way less "committed" or passionate about blogging - I literally just don't have the time. There's only so much You Tube videos, top 5 favourite colours and rehashed press releases one blog can take.

Kudos if you're publishing loads and are successful - that's a skill I'd like to learn. Otherwise, publishing that much makes me wonder how you have time to do any work at all?

Good post Adrian, food for thought.

[Aaron McKenna]

It's a mixed bag, depending on which business and area you're in. Certainly I've found much less time to do any tweeting or reading etc since end of August... Then again, you do miss things when you do that, so it's a tradeoff, there's never enough hours in the day. I'm still here at 1930 having arrived to the office at 0800... Not uncommon these days, and very little time for tweets etc (this is my exceptional break... Offering an opinion is fun as an ex-hack ;-)

As for people who blog and tweet a lot... Well, in a business sense (schilling for business) my biggest criticism of Twitter etc is that there are so many people on there purely to schill. That's not valuable at all, and perhaps they drown one another out in a pure schill festival, schilling at one another all day.

As for freelancers and business consultants etc... Well, back in the day I built a freelance career through networking... Of course pre-social networking in a big way it was one on one, and that's the most valuable networking of all... But I do believe in having a network and working on it - though I don't go to networking events, business cards by the dozen in hand... Because the more networking happening in a room (or, say, a twitter network of people) the less valuable it can be at times.

It's a really, really complex one when you start mind mapping all the possibilities. In general, I'd say that networking is good for some freelancers/businesses... But too much is not. Similarly, the busier you get in work, the less time you have to network... I'm not a freelancer, as many here seem, so I don't need to worry about my networking pipeline for jobs, and I network in other fashions in my circle... If I were a freelancer, it might be more valuable to me.

Then again, the majority of us are not freelancers/business consultants etc... So you might say that success in our mediums is not to be gained through social networking.

If that makes sense?

Incidentally, speaking of success in it, I should mention that Komplett's social networking 'campaign' is actually making real euros these days... So not bad for what we saw as a branding exercise.

So, as in all good things, there's no black and white rule. But good discussion.

[Chris Dalzell]

It's how you use such streams, a strategy is often missing!

It's also excellent to keep tabs on competitors, it's amazing what some people will let slip on twitter!

[Nick McGivney]

I'd consider myself professionally active on pretty much the full list of touchpoints you list above, Adrian. Of the 'new' media, FB is probably weakest for me, as it's where I started and did most of my experimenting. Blogs (x3), Twitter, email and mobile all feed each other's contacts into a wider network and each of them has brought work. Much of it is freelance writing, and all of it puts pressure on the blog and on Twitter. But I won't stop blogging or tweeting, because it's fun and also because I'm smarter every week. Still stupid, but a little less so all the time. That is reflected in what I write, hopefully, which is in turn informed by what I read through the RSS. Beyond that, being on so many channels at once brings me an infinitely more varied diet of projects than the staid 9 to 5 ever did. And Hallelujah for that.

[Gucci handbags]

Very good post. Made me realize I was totally wrong about this issue. I figure that one learns something new everyday. Mrs Right learned her lesson! Nice, informative website by the way.

[Eoin]

Blogs and tweets are utterly narcissitic pursuits. The internet gives a voice to all while editorial control ensures lucid voices are heard. Newspapers are alive and well and will be for a while yet. Nice work though. Provocative.