Why Social Media ISN’T a Waste of Time

After an extensive career in IT systems development, Robby Slaughter discovered that to become more effective and efficient at work, we need to empower individuals with authority and responsibility. He founded Slaughter Development in 2003 to focus exclusively on assessing workflow challenges and creating stakeholder satisfaction in businesses throughout Indianapolis. For more information, visit www.slaughterdevelopment.com.

Although many of the people reading this blog might think that social media is one of the most important inventions in modern history, there are millions of others who dismiss social media as a “waste of time.” Why the disparity?

As a productivity expert, I’m often called upon to make pronouncements about what is and is not an efficient use of time. So let me make this claim: social media is not a waste of time, because it’s a mechanism by which we engage in social behavior.

That’s really what sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are all about. It’s the reason we blog, Stumble Upon and comment. We’re being social. As John Donne famously noted: “No man is an island.” We’re all connected to each other and depend upon each other, and social media is yet another way to express that connection.

So why do people dismiss Facebook? Why do they scoff at Twitter? Why won’t people join sites like Smaller Indiana? I believe the reason is dangerous misconception: many people think of social media as a video game.

That’s not to disparage the multi-billion dollar business of gaming, or to say that gaming doesn’t have its own complex social structures or myriad benefits. Rather, people think of gaming as merely entertaining pastime, conducted in the quiet of our own homes by the glow of a screen. If you reduce the entirety of social media to a form of electronic solitaire, it’s pretty easy to rationalize this world to a “waste of time.” If we think of social media without thinking about society, it’s just an interesting distraction.

This way of conceptualizing social media is outright destructive. It causes employers to ban social networking websites at the office, because of the thought that they necessarily prevent work. By this logic, however, we should also ban idle conversation at the water cooler and prohibit people from receiving a personal phone call. If we really don’t want people to use social media, we are asking them to not be social.

Perhaps it is more fundamental, however, to note that so many of our critical roles in our business and personal lives rely upon social dynamics. Sales and marketing comes from building rapport; research and development arises from teams that foster creativity and embrace both failure and success. Routine tasks are done with more enthusiasm when we have someone to share them with. Friendships and families are built not on procedures but on socialization. We need each other not just to grow, but to survive.

The belief that social media is a waste of time is based on a misconception of social media. Although these are services made possible through cool technology, they are powered by our fundamental propensity to connect. We need to work together. Social media merely makes doing so easier and faster than ever before.

Your Industry is Holding You Back

Chris Theisen is the director of digital communications for Hare Chevrolet the “Oldest Transportation Company in America” Chris believes in the power of engaging current and future customers via new digital media, and uses it on a daily basis. When not attached to some sort of technology device he enjoys golf, tennis, bowling and coaching youth sports. Chris, his wife Liz and their sons Michael and Jonathon live in Noblesville. He can be reached by email at ctheisen@hareauto.com

If you are a business would you rather go to Lowe’s or Sherwin-Williams to buy paint?

Lowe’s has a good selection to choose from, seems to have a knowledgeable staff and has other things you may need to pickup. They may even give you a discount if you do enough business with them.

Sherwin-Williams specializes in selling paint. They know paint. They eat, sleep and breath paint (the last ones not such a good idea by the way)

While Lowe’s isnt a bad choice (they get alot of my paycheck) I would argue Sherwin-Williams is a better option. If the price is close to the same why not go with someone who specializes in your need? You can take this example and adapt it to many different areas of your business.

The auto industry is noted for being WAY behind the technology curve. I have noticed this first hand ever since I started working in digital communications at Hare Chevrolet. With the buzz around social media, new media and internet marketing spreading like wildfire everyday the auto industry has taken notice. Car dealership principals who have a hard time sending email are now being told they have to be on Facebook and Twitter and and and.

The management at most car dealerships are smarter and more business savvy than they are given credit for, but not when it comes to new media. They listen to every consultant that posts an article on an industry think tank blog, speaks the language of the car dealer or attends the national conferences. They take their word as bible and regurgitate it to anyone that will listen and think they are in tune to this social media thing. Its amazing the amount of bad advice and tons of money being spent on new media inside an industry that doesnt understand the medium.

There are template websites that dont provide options for on page SEO best practices or flexibility. Consultants touting numerous micro-sites as the ticket to a link building strategy, only to have those sites not get indexed because of lack of content. Social media strategies that your 6th grader could tell you arent the best way to engage your customers.f

You may be saying “well thats because its the auto industry, WE know better” While you may have a good grasp on any one of the digital marketing strategies that need to be employed in this day and age I’d be willing to bet your company falls back into industry specific traps. If you use a website provider because they “tailor” their product to fit your industry, stop now. If you use a website provider because your competitor does, stop now. Find someone who specializes in website development. If you are selling products via your site then find an e-commerce specialist, not someone in your industry who offers “e-commerce optimization” of your site. They may have read a post or attending a conference on the topic but they dont practice it as their main way of bringing in income.

The website example is just one of many you can make. Plug in social media instead of website and you get the idea. Find someone who practices it and makes their living doing it, not someone who attending a conference or read a blog about it. Plug in whatever area of your business (not just digital marketing) you would like and if you use an industry specific vendor you are probably being short sighted and too narrow in your vendor options.

The same goes for your online presence and your education in this ever changing world. Dont listen, read and follow only people in your industry. Branch out. Take what a restaurant is doing and adapt it to your carpet cleaning business. Take what a car dealership is doing and adapt it to your wholesale document imaging company.

Another reason to look outside of your industry. Many times specialists and leaders in your area of need are located right in your own backyard. Hare Chevrolet is located in the Indianapolis suburb of Noblesville. A good portion of you reading this either already know the great talent located in and around Indy or you will be hearing from them soon. Hare is starting to align ourselves with local vendors such as Compendium Blogware and have been in contact with industry leaders Slingshot SEO and ExactTarget, both based in Indy. Why wouldnt we use a firm in our backyard who is an international leader in their area of expertise? Most times your local vendors are in the same price point, or cheaper, as your current vendors regardless of where you live or your business is headquartered.

The other added benefit to branching outside of your industry and dealing locally? Your local vendors will, or should, promote you through their posting of their own work throughout their networks. Guess who is in their networks? You guessed right, your customers. Think your customers follow, have heard of or interact with that consultant or industry specific web firm on the coast? Doubt it.

5 Ways to Use Twitter to Develop Personally and Professionally

Today’s guest post is by Dana Nelson. Dana Owns @Danmnelson where she helps connect people to build community.

1. Monitor

Monitor your name,  brand, company, competitors and industry. Watch for your favorite trade topics. Follow interesting people and thought leaders within your company and industry.

Watch for topics about which you are passionate, such as your favorite charities,  hobbies, sports teams, actors or role models.

2. Listen

Listen to people, whether it is your 80 year old neighbor or Cisco’s CTO.  That tweet came from a PERSON. Would you ignore your neighbor if she were there in person?  Would you disregard the advice of @Padmasree  if she were sitting across your desk?
Over time, when you listen to people, you get to know and help them, and they you. THIS builds trust and relationship.

3. Engage

Talk to them – That tweet came from a real person.
Don’t be afraid to tweet people. As a newbie, I tweeted @zappos . He tweeted back! I about fell on the floor!   Research showed that he not only answers his tweets, but ALL Zappoes employees must answer the phones and take customer service calls. (He gets it!)
Comment on a picture, disagree politely, ask a question, but ENGAGE PEOPLE!

@sradick said,  “I can teach you how to tweet. I can’t teach you basic communication skills.” Twitter is no different than any other conversation.  Keep that in mind as you interact.

4. Support

Share your knowledge. Many people say they can’t blog, because they don’t have much to say. These people talk for hours IF asked about the right topic. Most people are passionate about, skilled or expert in something and could advise on that topic if asked. This is Twitter.  Share your expertise in a tweet.
Reach out.  These are REAL people. Emotionally support those in your Twitter circle, as you would  co-workers sitting next to you.  Show you care.

5. Prospect

Get a job. Tweet to show prospective employers who you are.  Show your subject matter expertise.  Show your caring  compassion, and your teamwork.   Show your passion and engagement.  (Employers will look anyway, so make it good!)
Find employees with Twitter. See how often and on what topics prospects are tweeting, check their twitpics and with whom they tweet regularly.  A tweeting brand advocate can be a valuable asset. (Once hired, they will hopefully become your brand advocate.) HELP someone else. If you know someone is looking for a job, RT it! If you know someone seeking a new employee RT it! Both sides will be grateful.

Build the community! Is there a local event that supports one of your causes or involves the whole community?  Tweet about it!  Is a charity new to twitter? #FF them.  People will be grateful.  If you do these things,  prospects will find YOU!  By supporting and engaging the people in your Twitterville community, you will have plenty of business and personal “prospects.”

Experts at Your Fingertips – The Value of Social Q&A

Bryan Povlinski is a recent IU graduate and currently works as an Online Marketing Specialist at ecommerce fulfillment provider Fifth Gear.  He is part of the Orr Fellowship program in Indianapolis, and you can find his blog about online tools at www.bryanpovlinski.com

Let’s say you’re in your weekly team meeting planning your next big initiative. The team decides that you need a Facebook page specifically for this new campaign.  Since you’re pretty savvy with social media you decide to take on this part of the project and build the page yourself.  You walk out of the meeting excited to get started, and eager to make a major contribution to the campaign.  You get down to business and start adding your company information and all the basic components of a Facebook Page.  You have some great ideas about how you want it to look, with custom design, interactive apps, etc.  Then you realize that this might be a little bit more work than you first thought.  Facebook has it’s own markup language (FBML) that you would use just like you would use HTML to build a web page – but inside of Facebook.  The logical next step would be to search Google for some resources on FBML so you can try to get the hang of it yourself.  Chances are with something so new you’re going to get stuck at some point.  Then you have a couple options:

A. Keep plugging away trying to figure it out yourself

B. Find someone in the office to help you

C. Inform your team that you aren’t able to complete the project

That may not be a 100% comprehensive list (you could find a friend who could help you out, outsource the project to a site like Elance or oDesk, pay a freelancer, etc), but let’s talk about a new option that’s made possible through social media.  Wouldn’t it be great to pose your question to a network of experts that are actively looking to help out and share their expertise?  With tools like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Aardvark you can expect quick, high quality responses to questions you ask.  Your experience may vary and you won’t always get the perfect answer, but the cost (free) and the time it takes to submit a question makes it well worth a shot.  There are many services that offer question and answers, but the three that I’ve found most useful are:

1. LinkedIn

Out of all the services I’ve used I’ve had the best experience with LinkedIn Answers.  This is where you can get the most detailed with your questions because it’s likely going to be seen only by people with the specific expertise you need.  LinkedIn makes it very easy to subscribe, by RSS feed, to categories of questions.  So if you’re an SEO expert, you can subscribe to that particular feed and browse through the incoming questions about SEO.  If you think about it, that’s a great way for experts or consultants to get new business – help others who are looking for advice on their subject for free.  Recently I had a technical issue that I needed help with, and I turned to LinkedIn.  I needed to convert an XML feed to a CSV file and was hoping to find a free tool that would do that without any development work.  Within an hour I had 2 responses, and eventually had 6 responses.  I even followed up with one of the guys that provided an answer so that I could clarify the solution he gave me.  My problem was solved, and I didn’t have to worry about trying to download questionable software programs that came up when I searched “XML to CSV” on Google.  Some even think that LinkedIn can revolutionize networking, and I tend to agree because it can connect you with people you likely would have never met.

2. Twitter

In my experience it’s difficult to get as detailed on Twitter as you might be able to on LinkedIn with your questions.  Anyone looking to help you has only 140 characters for a response (unless you decide to exchange email addresses) and that’s rarely enough for a detailed response.  Twitter has great search capabilities, and desktop programs like Tweetdeck and Seesmic have made it easy to monitor tweets on a particular topic.  So if you’re a WordPress developer you better have a saved Twitter search on the term “WordPress” because your competitors will beat you to opportunities if you don’t.  People like Chris Brogan swear by using Twitter for answers, and with over 100,000 followers it’s no wonder that he gets a flood of answers immediately when he asks a question.  In my experience, Twitter is best for things like recommendations.  What’s the best Android app for music?  What’s a good book to read on entrepreneurial finance?  Those can be answered in 140 characters, and they’re easy for people in your network and people searching on a keyword to answer quickly.  For a great play-by-play analysis of using Twitter for answers check out Don Schindler’s post.

I didn’t mention Facebook in here, but it can definitely be a great source of help as well – if you connect with business colleagues.  On the other networks there are people you don’t know actively searching for questions that they can help with.  In my experience that isn’t the case with Facebook.  I’m a recent college graduate and the majority of my friends on Facebook are my friends from college and high school.  If I need help with something at work, I have only a handful of friends that work in marketing/technology so it’s not necessarily the best place for me to ask questions.  If you have a lot of friends in the same industry on Facebook it might be a completely different experience for you so it’s definitely worth trying out.

Facebook Evolution: Business Communication Tool to Viable Conversion Platform

Since 2002, Chad H. Pollitt has played an integral role in designing, developing, deploying, executing and tracking robust web marketing strategies for over 100 client companies and organizations and is an internet marketing expert. He holds a BS in Entrepreneurship from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and an Internet Marketing Masters Certification from the University of San Francisco’s prestigious School of Business and Management.

With over 400 million users, a valuation of greater than $10 billion and the recent title of most traveled place on the “Internets,” Facebook has become a juggernaut.  As a result, businesses are scrambling to find their place on this most popular internet platform and have been for the last several years.  Their biggest challenge isn’t setting up a Facebook Fan Page, but the deployment of a viable and measurable strategy that converts visitors into customers.

Social Media is a communication tool by its very nature and lacks a true internet marketing sales funnel that businesses can utilize to convince visitors to take action.  Facebook is no different.  These strategic sales funnels are usually reserved for the company’s conversion platform, it’s website.  Because of this, businesses are forced to “encourage” visitors of their Facebook Fan page to take the leap from Facebook to their website.  Internet marketing professionals have known for years that click-through rates drop significantly when people have to jump to a different website.

As a communication tool, Facebook is great for building brand awareness, growing SOV, and building relationships.  As a conversion platform, Facebook is inflexible and breaks commonly known conversion conventions.  That has been changing over the last 12 months with the proliferation of custom applications that enable businesses to utilize more gracile elements of conversion conventions.  That all changed when Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. launched its newest Facebook application called TabSite.

The Facebook TabSite application allows businesses to easily build a website on their Facebook Fan page.  This website can have multiple pages, a contact form and it even allows for the use of flash animation.  Companies will now have the ability to deploy a robust conversion strategy on their Facebook Fan page just like they would on their website.   With TabSite Facebook has officially evolved from a social media communication and networking tool to a robust conversion platform that businesses can take advantage of.

It is commonly accepted that people only go to the web for two reasons: to solve a problem or to be entertained. Most companies on Facebook are in the business of solving problems. As a result, applications such as TabSite allow for businesses to present their unique value proposition utilizing the creativity of a custom website and commonly used conversion conventions. Facebook Fan pages are also indexed by Google for search. This begs the question, will websites go away with Facebook being the preferred platform for gathering information? I believe it’s too early to tell, but companies like Honda have already began to push past and prospective customers to their Facebook Fan page in lue of their website. This may be the next logical evolutionary step for Facebook and social media.

E-Mail’s Role in Social Media

Rory Carlyle is an Email-Geek, frequent twitter hound, web-analytics nut and an all around dweeb. With experience in consulting, agency work and as an Email Marketing Manager; Rory has seen issues regarding email from many perspectives. Continuing on a 6+ year march through all things interactive marketing with a strong affinity for email, Rory hopes to make the web a better place one inbox at a time. Outside of his email passion he fills his time with beer/food/books and the occasional flight to somewhere random.

Quite a few years have gone by since 2004, the year an article was put out by John C. Dvorak regarding the death of e-mail. Since then numerous articles have followed suit in 2007, 2008 as well as 2009. Each post has valid points and comparisons; most of these posts reference SPAM and online social vehicles for the diminishing usefulness of e-mail. While I would whole-heartedly agree that there are numerous reasons why e-mail may not be the prime vehicle for communication online, I would argue that e-mail is far from dead, maybe even still in its infancy.

E-mail today still plays a pivotal role within online communication, even within the social arena. The ‘social inbox’ is just another indication of how valuable e-mail is to users on social networks. David Daniels of Forrester released the US E-mail Marketing Forecast, 2009 To 2014 mid last year with a projection that e-mail will continue to grow for the next 4 years – at least. Spending in e-mail will increase to $2 billion. Peripheral research also suggests that “Social Networkers Still Love E-mail”, noting that 42% of social network users check their inboxes more that 4+ times a day. I would agree with that considering I leave my Gmail web client open all day to monitor my inbox and I’m an avid Twitter and Facebook user.

I predict, going forward e-mail will continue to play a large role in online marketing and social media. E-mail marketers are becoming smarter and better equipped to facilitate direct personalized communication to consumers; the usage of advanced list segmentation, behavioral targeting, and retention based automated deployments will all play a huge role of reducing e-mail clutter and becoming a huge tool for social networks to continue providing services to users.

My call-to-action for my fellow interactive marketers would be to embrace e-mail and leverage it into each and every marketing effort; social marketing will not eradicate e-mail marketing, it will only envelop it. E-mail marketing and e-mail in general is here to stay due to the start-to-finish measurability and fantastic ROI of the channel. Don’t believe for a second that e-mail is dead.

Thanks for listening to my blabbering; much thanks goes to Kyle Lacy for allowing me a guest spot on the blog. Viva la E-mail!

Connect with me @rorycarlyle

Disco is Dead, and So is the Lone Ranger

Mary Biever is a social media strategist and trainer with DanaMNelson.com.

Disco is dead, and so is the Lone Ranger.

In Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta loves to dance but stands alone as he poses for the movie poster. With Social Media, you can too. Dress up, preen with every post and make sure it’s all about you. Shake your booty and show us all you’ve got.

The Shake Your Booty Outfit goes in the What Not to Wear closet for social media.

Instead of Shake Your Booty, try the Move and Shaker Ensemble. Move and shake your resources to build your local community. Listen to your customers, care about them, and answer them. Showcase unsung heroes. Inspire those you know to dig deeper, reach higher, and help each other.

Reality TV gets viewers. Reality branding is here, but most companies haven’t figured that out. Show us behind the scenes in your business. Let us meet the people in your office and get to know them. Give them and your fan base a real voice through social media.

If you become known as the Mover and Shaker, you won’t stand alone on the dance floor at the end of the party. Instead, you’ll be like Patrick Swayze at the end of Dirty Dancing.

Lots of mistakes are made in Dirty Dancing, but everyone gets a fresh start at movie’s end. Johnny puts a new record on the player. He and Francis begin to dance. The other staff join in the dance. They pull in the resort guests. By the end of the song, everyone is dancing together and trying new steps. New relationships begin.

This is what good corporate social media strategy can do. Your moves on the dance floor now determine whether everyone’s dancing with you.
Don’t be a solo act wonder.

Bye, Bye Barbie – Hello BlackBerry

– Caity Kauffman is a 20-year-old, social media-obsessed journalism student dabbling in sports writing, news writing and broadcast. Follow her on twitter at @caitykauffman.

As technology is filtering down to younger and younger generations (I have a friend who gave his three-year-old niece his iPhone when he upgraded to the 3G. No joke.) there is a rise in the concern of its effects on the developing brain.

Being born in the late-1980s, I’m the first generation to literally grow up in a digital world. Somewhere in the depths of a scrapbook, there’s baby picture of me poking away at an IBM computer the size of mini-fridge. When I was 10-years-old, my parents gave me my first desktop Gateway. I filmed and digitally edited my 13th birthday party, and the same year I got my first cell phone – a silver Motorola flip phone the size of a brick. I don’t have veins, I have wires.

Question is: is the digital world helping the Internet generation utilize our brains, or are we just distracting it with multitasking overload?

There are times, I’ll admit, my digital savvy has been more distracting than productive. I’ve fiddled away hours clicking through Facebook statuses or played mindless hours of Guitar Hero until my thumb nearly cracks off.

Last week, my honors reading class at Florida Gulf Coast University discussed of Don Tapscott’s “Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World.” Our class of seven (plus one journalism professor to keep us on track) seemed to all agree that the baby boomers’ implications that NetGen-ers lack concentration, productivity and retain less information aren’t all true.

Tapscott wrote about interactive technology, and how regularly playing an action video game can change how the brain processes information.

John, an outspoken, bearded philosophy major can vouch for video games, using Halo as an example. “You notice your radar, how much ammo you have, where your teammates are, how much life you have left all while you’re having a conversation with your team on a headset,” he says.  “We are able to instantly compartmentalize every aspect of the game.”

I guess it’s no surprise teenage boys lock themselves into their bedrooms for hours at a time, committing virtual massacres inside their TV screen: there’s a hell of a lot to process simultaneously.

Audrey, a soft spoken 21-year-old from Malaysia, takes multitasking to an entirely new realm. She says in order to concentrate, she listens to Chinese music (one of four languages she speaks) as she reads her textbooks that are written in English, writes her blog in English all while switching back and forth from Facebook.

She does admit the the United States’ reliance on technology has made her a little lazy since moving to the states to attend college. “I grew up in Malaysia, and we had to memorize a lot,” she says. “Here, we copy and paste. I think it has to do with culture.”

But why memorize when we carry around Google on our iPhones?

As much as my generation is reliant on our BlackBerrys to help us find the nearest coffee shop, I think it has to be more with efficiency than laziness. The world moves faster than ever, and there’s an increasing urgency for productivity. If Merriam-Webster says “google” is a legitimate verb, then Google I will.

Corporate Communication on a Non-Profit Budget

My day job is to manage communications for a tiny program in a tiny non-profit. For those of you familiar with the non-profit world, you read into that exactly what I meant to imply—small budget. In my experience with corporate and private sector communications, it’s not unrealistic to expect a budget of several thousands of dollars per project. If you work for a non-profit, you’re lucky to get that much for all of your communications projects for an entire year.
If I was being honest, I like the challenge. Every day I am tasked with effectively communicating important messages both internally and to the masses in a way that is engaging, exciting, and essentially, well, free.

This is why I am shocked at how few non-profits are utilizing social media. When it comes to my organization, I’m not updating Twitter and Facebook daily—but hourly. We also have a blog and are putting time and a portion of our budget into redeveloping a website. Has it been effective for us? Absolutely. And better yet—it completely fits my budget.

Since beefing up our project’s web presence, there has been an increase in clients, public awareness, and media interaction. In an organization that grows by reputation, typically an increase in one or more of those categories yields something: A BIGGER increase in clients, public awareness, and media interaction.
Even though non-profits are organizations not all of them are always organized. Utilizing the web has also helped me streamline messaging and collateral. Because my project is so tied into Colorado’s non-profit network, it’s important that I can easily send messages and materials to other partners, sponsors, funders, etc.
And let’s face it: Not only are non-profits not organized, they can also be living in the dark ages. Still, current and potential funders love to see new, innovative systems in place that will effectively maximize the dollars they’re granting. I’m pretty sure we all want happy funders.

Here’s the other thing that all those groups are seeing: the same thing. Regardless of the medium, an online presence allows you to create a voice, or a brand, that can be communicated consistently to a broader group through different resources. Constituents reading our blog might not follow us on Twitter, but they’re receiving the same messages overall. And I bet they like choosing how they receive those messages.

So, to recap, I have found a way to effectively streamline messaging, brand the project, and communicate to the public, the media, internal groups, statewide partners, and current and potential funders for free.

Did you get that?

Therefore, non-profit or not, my question to you is, “Are you utilizing social media to further your company’s mission?” If the answer to that question is no, I have to ask, “WHY NOT?”

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How Intuit Stays Relevant Using Social Media

Christen Wegner is a former journalist turned resident Gen Yer on the communications team at Intuit. When not on Twitter, she is usually texting, on Facebook, or writing for various blogs like Small Business United and TurboTax.

One of the hottest topics for any business, from the small to the large is social. So my first thought when Kyle Lacy sent me a tweet asking me to write a guest blog post I was like “Oh cool, Intuit is doing so much, yay, let’s share.”

So I started collecting info regarding all out campaigns, events, and information and started sharing that with friends and family. But what floored me was what I would find out after talking with a couple former coworkers. Companies are actually still banning their employees from social media – things like Facebook, Twitter, and gasp, personal blogs.

I guess I live in a little bubble and take for granted the fact that at Intuit, we are trusted that we will do what is right as THE voice of Intuit on social channels. And without those social channels there is no way Intuit could have done anything fun, interesting or relevant to what small businesses want and need.

One of those conversations was with a former colleague who told me her company has just blocked Facebook and MySpace from their computers stating employees were “wasting too much time on the social networks.” Of course, her IT department didn’t account for the mobile applications and now employees are frequently seen gripping their Blackberry’s and iPhones.

Thriving with social

When I joined Intuit, social media wasn’t new but it was this undiscovered territory. We were trying to find the right balance between keeping our employees happy and keeping them productive. Happily three years later I can sit here, write this article, have TweetDeck running in the background, and occasionally check out Facebook.

In fact, Intuit encourages employees to do just that. We have employees who train customer service reps, engineers and developers how to start interacting in such social channels. On our Intuit Community dozens of different employees interact every day answering questions, solving problems and simply act as a sounding board for our customers. And what is even better is the Community is where customers go to talk to other customers as well.

And our Small Business team was one of the first teams at Intuit on Twitter. Today we have more than 50 teams and individuals out there. What they learned early on meant a change in strategy for Intuit and insights into how we can help small businesses succeed.

Much of that success led to a desire for other social networking events like town halls, small business events, and a blog where regular experts discuss their tips and tricks (http://smallbusiness.intuit.com/blog/). All of this to help small businesses succeed in business and thrive in the social realm.

Over the last eight months we have managed the Love a Local Business Campaign in which Intuit is putting small businesses on the map. The idea is that fans, including customers, vendors, employees, and the community, determine what small businesses deserve some love with winners receiving small business grants.

That’s right, free money for doing what these small business do every day – take care of their customers and being social.

A big part of our strategy reflects a changing world where people and businesses are increasingly connected. We want to arm all small businesses and employees with tools , ways to listen, and create strong customer engagement as one small business community.

I don’t think any of this could have been done without access to our social channels. So thanks Intuit for letting me and my team stay relevant. And the hope is that our work helps small businesses stay relevant as well.