Why Social Media isn't Good for My Business

I got the inspiration to write this blog post from Andrea Vascellari's posting "Carve out a nice."

There're still numerous business owners who think that Internet is just for the kids and Social Media don't have any meaning for their businesses. I try to cover some of the arguments.

1. Internet is too big for my small business.
   - The message is, I don't want to grow, prosper, and by no means get rich
   - The business owner don't realize the nice marketing potential of Internet
   
   
2. Social Media is just for kids, my clients are not on facebook, twitter, pownce, myspace, etc.
   - The "adult industry" is one of the biggest on the Internet
   - There are all kinds of people on the Internet
   
   
3. People of my age don't have time with Internet
   - I guess the baby boomers are a big part of the Internet today
   - The Internet wasn't created by kids, even though they understood its potential early
   
   
4. My company's products are so unique and complex that they can't be explained on the net
   - Sales people like the idea that big ticket sales can only be done face-to-face
   - The message might be complicated when nobody tried to simplify the story
   
   
5. What if we get too many orders?
   - That would be a great problem for many businesses
   - There is something called "delivery time"
   - You can use "pricing" to control order flow
   
   
6. Our clients are not on Internet
   - They don't have the time
   - They just use email
   - Some might pay their bills on Internet
   - They just buy books, flight tickets, book hotels, order PC's, download music, etc.
   - We're not in that kind of businesses
   
   
7. We've to control our employees for not spending too much time on Internet
   - Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, you name it, they rob valuable working time
   - Employees should concentrate on their work and not "build relationships"
   - We're not in the dating business

I could continue with an endless list. Internet is dangerous, full of viruses, it's the devils nest with no or limited importance for any "serious business". What should we say about Microsoft, Cisco, Nokia, Google, Yahoo, IBM, and thousands of other businesses that have learned to use Internet to build customer relationships and loyality?