The burst pipe

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If you’re not a homeowner, you miss out on some of the joys of life, like taking out the garbage at 7 PM and wondering why water is spraying out the side of your house. That was last night for me – seeing water rushing out of the side of the house near the foundation and wondering what in the world was going on. One quick trip down to the basement revealed the very unhappy truth: one of the heating pipes near a partially frozen open window had cracked and was spraying water everywhere.

This is what my basement felt like.

In something of a panic, I did the first thing that came to mind and called my plumber, Paul. I said, “Hey Paul, I’ve got this pipe spraying water everywhere, and so much of it that the sump pump is actually having to work to empty out that part of the basement. Can you send someone over?” He said, “Of course, but my guy can’t be there for 2 hours. For now, why don’t you just shut off the water main?” After that he promptly hung up in order to call his emergency on-call plumber and get him assigned to our case.

For someone like me who knows little or nothing about plumbing and house design/construction in general, he might as well have said, “Why don’t you go take this scalpel and remove your gall bladder?” It took a minute or two and a fast Google search to figure out what a water main looked like and how to shut it off, but the moment I did, the water stopped rushing into the house and the immediate crisis was over.

After all was said and done, the repairs were completed, I settled up the very, very hefty bill, and thanked Paul and his team for another job well done. Despite the bill being astronomically high for a relatively straightforward repair (remove 2 inches of broken old pipe, insert new one), I was more than happy to pay it so that life could get back to normal. Fixing it myself was far beyond my knowledge of plumbing, which is close to zero. (although I now know where the water main is)

When we as experienced marketing professionals look at the social media landscape, there’s an awful lot of stuff we deem “snake oil”. People are selling books, DVDs, webinars, consultations, etc. on the most basic of basics, like how to set up a Facebook page or a Twitter account, and to veteran practitioners, it’s almost offensive what they charge for. We forget that there are an awful lot of people who have the marketing equivalent of a burst pipe in their shop, and they don’t know where the water main is, much less how to fix it themselves. Thus, they’ll pay just about anything to just about anyone in order to get the most basic repairs underway.

More important, there will always be a role for people doing the basics of social media on behalf of others for a tidy profit. Why? For the same reason that I will continue to pay Paul and his team to come out to my house in the night time and fix simple things: I don’t want to become a plumber. I’ll learn enough to get by for real basic stuff, but anything more than turning off the water main, I am happy to leave to him and his team. Likewise, there will be plenty of folks who want you to be their social media plumber. They don’t want to become digital marketers. Instead of berating them for not doing it themselves or mocking them for not knowing where the water main is, be helpful, provide your service with a smile, and like me calling Paul’s shop, they’ll always call you back for more and happily settle up whatever the bill is.

Comments

6 responses to “The burst pipe”

January 5, 2012

Henry Louis

Oh! It is quiet interesting to read. I like your way of presentation.

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January 5, 2012

Robert Dempsey

The curse of knowledge strikes again! And great point Chris. We all start out at 0. Some of us learn by doing, some of us pay for education, and others of us forego the learning altogether and hire someone because we don’t have the time/desire/need to learn it. There are a lot more businesses thanks to that last group of folks, mine included.

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January 5, 2012

Kimchi Ho

Thanks for sharing Chris, this is a great reminder of the basics t hat we often times forget. Keep this coming!
@kymchiho:twitter

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January 5, 2012

Daniel Milstein

I agree with you Christopher. The thing is for people who are unaware of how certain things work, it is very convenient to get over an expert explain or fix things up. When we marketeers think of things like setting up FB pages as very basic, for some it is a mammoth task. And I think that’s where those back to basics books create value for people. One thing I learned before I became a bestselling author and long before Inc Magazine voted my company as one of the fastest growing companies is anything that creates value for your customer is a sure winner.

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January 6, 2012

Ryan Holota

Fantastic post Chris. I spend my days sitting at a computer, reading, learning, and experimenting. It’s easy to forget that many of our customers are busy actually running their businesses – manning cash registers, counting dollars and cents, etc. Sometimes just recognizing the value that something (digital marketing/social media) has is enough for them.

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January 7, 2012

Rocky Walls

Great story and a solid message. Thanks for sharing!

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