Comments on: Social Media: It’s about the people, not the tools

By: Stilgherrian · Thank you, corporate supporters

Stilgherrian · Thank you, corporate supporters — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:02:39 +0000

[...] Project TOTO for ActionAid Australia, courtesy of our supporters. While I’ve said before that social media is about the people not the tools, this kind of support is great. So, what’s in the [...]

By: It is about people; not the technology

It is about people; not the technology — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:50:44 +0000

[...] excellent post Social Media: It’s about the people, not the tools sparked this [...]

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:56:48 +0000

@Crispin: Reminds me of a conversation with my doctor of the last 12 years who, when I said I had the ‘flu, interrupted me:

Stilgherrian, let’s get one thing straight here. I’m the doctor, you’re the patient. You tell me the symptoms, and then I do the diagnosis, OK?

My response:

OK, I’ll just write my diagnosis on this piece of paper, you do your doctor thing, and then we’ll see what I wrote down.

Arrogant or what?

Of course that completely undermines what I just said…

By: Crispin

Crispin — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:43:03 +0000

Stilgherrian, this is part of my continuing fight with techies, IT managers, and many small business managers. IT is a tool that you use to acheive a business objective. I recently wrote a summary of this: My role is not to talk with customers about their computing and network requests, but to help those customers understand how to translate thier underlying business requirements into technology and services that can help you meet those requirements. Professionally I focus on the use of technology and services to drive business outcomes and support business processes. I continually get asked for "This server", "That storage unit" or "Another xxx model router". I usually respond along the lines of: "That's nice. While the account manager gets you a quote, can you tell me why you want xxx?" Almost invariably the customer is happier and gets a better result.