Social Media and the Recession

When is the next phase of the Internet going to present itself? We hear talks about Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 but when are we going to see social media adapt into it’s third phase? It could be after the recession.

I was reading a post by Chris Charabaruk about social media surviving the recession and he makes a comment about social media adapting towards the end of 2009:

“I think that social media will survive the recession. The idea itself is so insidious, so viral that it’ll never be stamped out. But how the world of social media will appear at the end of the recession will certainly be much, much different than it looked like going in.”

I always liked to dream that the next phase of the Internet or social media would be through innovation and a new form of communication. When will the next phase come? When does innovation and quick development happen? In what Keith McFarland calls Hard Times University in his book Breakthrough Company.

When we are faced with hard times and adversity… the survivors shine through. I think we will see the advent of a new form of social media because of the economic crunch. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace will have to learn how to monetize or die and because of that market stress they will evolve or die.

I am excited to see the transition. In like every market there are deaths, changes, and rebirths.

Unless you are Ford and GM… then you get a bailout.

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Defining Twitter Using Your Goals

Twitter is slowly starting to shift mainstream and (believe me) this does not mean anyone really knows how to use the tool. It is a chameleon of sorts, shifting definitions with every new user who joins the network.  There are a few necessary rules that have been developed post the creation of the site.

Overall it is a growing mass of people spouting links, ideas, quotes, conversations, and sometimes the Sleestacks (Copyright Michelle Riggen-Ransom via Twittip).

The question now stands… How do you define Twitter for yourself and how do you use Twitter the right way? Remember how you use the tool is completely based around your definition.

Defining Twitter

Why define Twitter? It is pretty simple. SO YOU DON’T WASTE TIME! Social media can be a huge time-suck if you do not define how you use each site. Believe me… even the most dedicated can drown in the social media pool.

Ask yourself why you decided to use the tool. Was it because you heard it was the THING to do? Do you want to keep up with old friend and colleages? Do you want to use it as a business networking tool? Maybe lead generation?

The questions you ask yourself are extremely important. Be honest with the way you want to use the tool. Write down your goals for using the Twitter network. I will give you the first couple goals on my Jan 2008 list.

1. Increase brand recognition for Brandswag and Kyle Lacy.

2. Learn from the professionals in the social media world.

3. Become obsessive in order to help others use Twitter for their benefit.

Twitter is whatever you define it (business and personal goals). Honestly, that is what makes the tool so attractive in the long run. Your experience is based on how you use the tool, who follows you and vice-versa.

How do you define Twitter?

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Announcing a Bid for Congress on Facebook

(hat tip to Hoosier Access for the post about Brose McVey)

In my opinion the political world received a massive dose of social media when (now) President Obama created a massive viral MACHINE using sites like Facebook and Myspace. We are now experiencing a shift between traditional and new media marketing in the political world. This shift may be small but it is still being pushed across the mainstream world.

Brose McVey is running for the 5th Congressional District against Congressman “Indiana” Dan Burton. Where did I witness the announcement? Facebook. Brose McVey’s update status read something like this:

Brose McVey is running for Congress in the 5th CD.

Now… I know that Mr. McVey will have something extremely formal for his ACTUAL announcement but it is encouraging to see the political world embracing the use of tools like Facebook and Twitter.

As long as the use is genuine and not a hard sell.. Is Dan Burton on Facebook?

Guest Blog: America’s First Viral Restaurant: Kogi

Jamie Varon spends her days writing on her blog, intersected. Intersected is that place where work, love, and life all meet and you wonder, “Where the hell do I go from here?” She is also currently looking for a job (any takers?) and resides in the Bay Area. Her goal is to one day achieve world domination through her blog, but for now she’ll settle for a decent readership. Jamie is a writer, a marketer, a graphic designer, and on her good days, a comedian.

By now, I think most of us have heard about Kogi BBQ. It‘s been said to be “America’s first viral restaurant” because the Korean BBQ taco truck tweets where it will be headed to in LA and hundreds of people show up at the location they post on Twitter. It’s buzz and viral marketing at its best and even Twitter co-founder Evan Williams was impressed at how the taco truck had utilized his micro-blogging platform. What’s interesting about this company, beyond their “buzziness”, is that there are two very fundamental things to learn from them in regards to how small businesses can utilize social media.

1. There is no right or wrong way to use social media

No one could have predicted that Kogi was going to splash onto the social media scene and become as successful as they have. I’m sure many people would have thought Kogi’s idea was ridiculous: “You want to use Twitter to do what!? To tell people where you’ll truck will be? Yeah, like anyone will show up.” But now, it seems brilliantly simple. This mysterious and elusive taco truck can only be found through word of mouth; the Easter egg/scavenger hunt aspect of it only makes it more… cool. They utilized Twitter in a way that no one else had. And, that’s the essence of social media: make it work for you.

The internet and the landscape of social media has become intensely diverse that you’d be hard-pressed to find a niche that is not represented somewhere. For small businesses, that’s perfect for marketing your company. Find out where your niche is hanging out online and saturate that area. Be creative and mold what’s already available within social media into something that works for your business. Be inspired by what Kogi has done and how they have morphed a simple networking site into a legitimate cornerstone of what makes them successful.

2. Small or large business: there’s a place for you here

With over a million users on Twitter, Kogi isn’t attempting to reach all of them. Their audience is fairly narrow, because the only people that can visit the truck are the ones in the LA area. So, although Twitter far surpasses just the LA area, Kogi has found a way to reach their market within the broadness. They’ve found a voice within the interminable noise of millions of users. Small businesses can do that, even though social media can seem intimidating.

There’s a way for even the internet to feel local. There’s a way to shrink down the scope of social media, so you can have the “what a small world!” moments all the time.

Be creative. Be relevant. And find ways for social media to work for you.

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Yes. My Voice Matters.

I was reading through my weekly intake of Jason Falls at Social Media Explorer and came across a post with a reference from the Cluetrain Manifesto. First off, I love the book. I read it when it came out a couple of years ago and still keep it around my desk. In his post, Jason makes reference to Cluetrain point fingers at the marketing industry asking them, “Where is the consideration of the people?”

From Cluetrain:
Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

I agree with Jason when he says that the Cluetrain Manifesto basically introduced the concept of social media to Corporate America. It is also extremely important for small business owners to understand the concept of listening and starting conversations.

Social Media has a wide array of people. Some people need your product or service.. other people would rather not listen to your hard sell speech about blah. blah. blah. It is about the conversation.. the personality.. and the person on the other end, not you.

I would encourage you to read Jason’s post because it has some awesome points for all matter of people using social media as a strategy for growth. I want to focus on the concept of using a human voice while in the depths of social media. Whether you are using Twitter, Facebook, or Plaxo (etc) it is important to listen first and speak second.

How long is it going to take us to learn that the CONSUMER is now in control of the conversation? It is no longer about quantity. It is no longer about how many direct mail pieces you can send out or how many banner ads you can buy.

It is about the them not about you. Use Twitter and Facebook as a tool to speak as you would your best-friend at a barbeque (okay bad example but you get the drift). We are all in the same rat-race here. Trying to help each other succeed in the cut throat world of small business marketing.

Talk about what YOU do not the industry or the sale of the day. How do you help people? How do you creat relationships with your clients? That is what people what to hear. They are to be inspired.

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All Shapes and Sizes

Guest post by Social Media Consultant Colin Clark

I spend the majority of my day every day thinking up creative ways for businesses to use social media tools to improve their bottom line.  The one thing that I’ve found is that if I put together social media action plans for 10 different companies, all 10 would be very different, even if they were in similar industries.

The reason for this is that it’s extremely important to look at all aspects of your business before delving into social media, because once you do you’re baring your soul to anyone who you interact with online.  Since every business is composed of different types people, every strategy must be optimized to ensure those people will be successful in communicating with people online

So many consultants are saying ‘You must blog’ or ‘You must have a presence on Facebook‘.  It may or may not be the case.  The only ‘must’ is that you ‘must’ use good judgment and good marketing fundamentals to put together a strategy that’s going to be successful.

Hey Mediocrity. You can eat me.

Mediocrity- a disease that is spreading slowly through the ranks of small business owners across the country. It is infiltrating employees, products, services, and marketing…slowly dissecting and eating away at what YOU have worked so hard to build.

I see it happening on a daily basis (even in my own company at times). We get bogged down with everyday occurrences and it is hard for us to see weeks, months, or years into the future. It is hard to balance the daily routine when you (as the business owner) are so focused on growing the business in terms or revenue and new clients.

This post really has nothing to do with social media marketing… other than it is a new form of marketing that could differentiate you from the competition. It is more about being focused and understanding that NOW is the time to take risks.

NOW is the time to not hunker down …but to get PUMPED up for the day ahead. Your competition is hunkering down. Other businesses are cutting their marketing budgets and giving way to mediocrity. Now is the time to take advantage of the market and to move your company to new heights!

Position yourself as the business that is NOT going to give in to everything raining down on the economy. By the way… I would rather not hear the excuse that you don’t have a choice… that your market is suffering because of this down-trend.

Where there is a will… there is a way and mediocrity can shove it.

(Thanks to Mark Hayward for his post 10 Tips for Blogging Your Way to Small Biz Success which gave me the idea for this post)

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The Wiener Takes Blogging Seriously?

I love talking about advertising and this time Oscar Meyer has done something pretty rediculous or completely brilliant? I can’t decide yet. I was put on by this advertisement by a fellow Brandswag employee, Colin Clark. It was funny at first. I did laugh and then I thought to myself.. how ironic…

The wiener took out a print ad in major newspapers and talked about an online communication medium. HAHA.

I am not quite sure whether or not to take this ad seriously. It seems as if Oscar Meyer would rather play off of a trend then an actual buying pattern. So the question is… as bloggers… as social media advocates and users… should we laugh Oscar Meyer off the shelves or are they going to be laughing to the bank?

This Is Not Easy and It Shouldn’t Be

If you haven’t figured this out already… running a small business is not easy.
Marketing your small business’ services and products is not easy.

Nothing in this world that is worth anything of value is EASY to obtain. Well…unless you grow money on trees or you are just THAT good… The majority of us have not found the seed to grow a tree that sheds Mr. Ben Franklins ($100 bill for the layman) twice a year.

It is hard to get to where you WANT to go in life. It shouldn’t be easy.

I am amazed that people want the easy way out. How do we make this tool easier to use? How can we spend the LEAST amount of time possible to get a project completed? Why do we have to spend money on marketing? How can I get to the 4-hour work week? No thank you.

Social media marketing is not easy and it is not cheap. If you want the intangible and tangible benefits of social media tools you have to agree to work hard or pay someone to work hard for you.

Don’t confuse the concept of social media marketing to be the answer to all your problems and concerns. It works when you combine the new with the old, the traditional with the web 2.0/3.0.

If it was an easy thing to accomplish wouldn’t everyone be doing it? Wouldn’t everyone be successful at it?

What is the first step to tackling the monster? Read. Learn. Interact. Get on Facebook and go to WordPress and start a blog. After you have posted a couple of blogs and have used Facebook for at least a month… you are ready to contact a new media marketing company to take the next step.

Dive in.

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Main Point of Twitter? Re-Tweeting.

Shoot. What’s the point of Twitter? I have caught myself numerous times at meetings, seminars, and in casual conversations not being able to answer that question.

It goes something like this:

“Uh, well I use it for information gathering and well… some people use it to keep up to date with friends.. Yah, ya know… You might as well use it for 30 days and just figure out what it can do for you.”

Stupid answer. I know.

I have been debating this for awhile now and have even written about the concept of Twitter not having much of a brand identity (which I will write about later). I was reading a new post from David Armano of Logic+Emotion called Tapping Twitter’s Viral Nature and he has been talking about the “viral value” of re-tweeting. The main point of Twitter? I would lke to think so.

What are the two main marketing tools small business owners would love to have working on their side: Word-of-Mouth Marketing and Viral Marketing. When you are using Twitter the most valuable tool you have are the friends/followers who will re-tweet the information you are sharing.This is viral marketing at it’s finest.

Why is Re-Tweeting So Important?

1. Your followers are sharing the information you provided with the people following them. Your Twitter name gets shared, as well as your information. The link you provided or little nugget of information will be shared numerous times between (potentially) hundreds of people.

2. In my opinion, Re-Tweeting is the backbone of Twitter. It gives users the ability to combine information, share and converse on topics with hundreds of people at once.

Is there business value to Re-Tweeting and Twitter?

The business value of Twitter and re-tweeting could be a completely seperate post. The biz value of Twitter is all dependent on your goals when using social media as a marketing solution.

Do you feel Twitter and re-tweeting has business value? Is sharing content of your blog and other related information give you a return on investment for your time spent sharing information?

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