You Deserve A Thumbs Up

by Planit Canada President, Peter Mate

There’s no doubt that we’ve all been forced to change how we live and conduct business. Change either comes by choice or by necessity. This time, a lot of change has come by necessity. It’s not all bad. Since we’ve been forced to distance, a lot of us have turned to online methods in order to keep the communication and relationships going.

There’s no replacing face to face communication. We’re human and it’s ingrained in our DNA. Over time, there have been additional communication methods that have complemented our face to face socializing. When we couldn’t be together physically, we turned to snail mail. It was better than nothing. I remember growing up and seeing the joy on my mom’s face when a letter from Europe arrived. They were spaced a few months apart and were a real treat for her to hear from her family abroad. She would sit and read through pages of handwritten words. Sometimes smiling, sometimes laughing and often crying.

The arrival of the telephone didn’t replace the letters, but rather complemented them. In between letters, expensive phone calls overseas were little bursts of news and catching up. As kids, the amount of time we spent on the phone was huge. Soon after, emails came along. Don’t we wish we could have skipped this method! These never replaced what in person time offered, but they were a great way to stay connected.

Today, we have yet another complimentary method. Social media with a plethora of platforms. Some people push back or refuse to use social media, but I encourage you to reconsider. It’s not intended to replace anything else, but rather it offers yet another avenue to continue communicating and building relationships.

During these times is a perfect opportunity to use social media to continue to communicate to your peers, your prospects, your suppliers and your clients. I can imagine that you didn’t get into woodworking to chit chat on social media platforms but give it a chance. There’s no woodworker that shouldn’t feel proud of showing their portfolio of what they’ve accomplished. Let social media be another platform for you to do that. It can just be another avenue for you to connect with people that are interested and care about what you do and why you do it.

Go on. Get started and let us see what you’re all about. Let us give you a thumbs up for a beautiful job you did. Let the world see what motivates you to wake up in the morning and get to work. You can’t build a woodworking project on social media, but you can sure highlight it. We know you build beautiful things, now let’s see them and hear the stories behind them!