In the immensely disappointing movie Greenberg, there’s an exchange between misanthrope Ben Stiller (the eponymous character) and Ivan Schrank (Rhys Infas). The two are having drinks and discussing life:

Ivan Schrank: Youth is wasted on the young.
Roger Greenberg: I’d go further. I’d go: ‘Life is wasted on people.’

Now, I really didn’t agree with either sentiment when I saw the movie a few weeks ago. I was reminded of it again for some reason while recently attending a local party. I found myself in a conversation with an extremely bright woman about SEO and social media.

Long story short: we became friends on Facebook and the woman is much younger than I had thought. Barely out of college, I was amazed that she is able to comprehend concepts lost on people twice her age. She gets the importance of Google page ranks, keywords, backlinks, and the like. Beyond knowing what these are, she knows that using them effectively—much less mastering them—takes time, money, and effort.

Yes, this woman is wise beyond her years, especially in contrast to the two types of SEO characters in the last few months:

• Those who fail to understand the importance of it it.
• Those who think that it’s a box to be checked.

Looking Past SEO and Social Media

Beyond SEO, though, I could be talking about something else, say social media. Many small business owners just don’t get it—or think that setting up a Facebook page means that they’re “doing” social media.

They’re not.

If you want more out of something, put more into it.

Of course, if these people just let it go, that would be fine. Except they don’t. They erroneously think that SEO is a myth or social media is all hype because they’re not doing either right. Yes, WordPress plug-ins can expedite things, but installing a little code will not catapult a small business to the top of popular searches.

Simon Says

Heed the following rule and you’ll be better off: If you want more out of something, put more into it.