What Is Social Media? I Mean Really.

Jonathan is a 2008 graduate of the Farmer School at Miami University. He works at a small web development firm in Cincinnati where he brings a fresh interdisciplinary approach to project management and business operations. He’s always either checking in or tweeting his iPhone and he’s passionate about people and bringing digital connections into reality. He’s an active blogger for continuous web and a founder of the group’s Cincinnati meet-up. Got questions, shoot him an e-mail

What (the hell) is social media? I hate that question. I even hate the term. It’s truly just the Internet. It’s so many things and it’s expanding every day and, quite honestly, I don’t care how it’s defined. What’s great about everything that’s happening in the digital space right now is that it can mean something different to every single one of us. Let me explain:

In game theory, utility is defined as “a measure of that which is sought to be maximized in any situation involving a choice” Another definition says “the state of being useful, profitable, or beneficial.”

Here are the important words that I see in those definitions: choice, maximized, useful, beneficial. What’s so great about those words? They can mean entirely different things to you than they do to me. They’re all tied to intrinsic value, REAL value…not market value — and “real” means whatever I decide that it means. It’s what is essential to me.

What does utility have to do with social media? In short: everything. In our country, we seem to have a fixation on ROI. In a social space, it’s difficult impossible to put a measurable ROI on interaction…on being involved. ROI in this space is, by definition, unquantifiable. How many dollars will I make? How many customers will I gain? Traditionally, that’s how a business might measure its return on investment when investing its time, people, research, and dollars into a new venture. When investing in social media there needs to be a paradigm shift.

Someday soon, it won’t be about the ROI some business gets for investing in social media — it will be about the ROI that a consumer person gets for investing in a brand. (aside: i’m not talking about a financial investment, I’m talking time and energy. The important question will be “What do I get for interacting with your brand”) That ROI will be measured in utility.

I believe that we’ll see a shift toward a consumer-centric economy where extrinsic value is replaced by intrinsic value. @nickseguin and I have had many discussions about the importance of intrinsic value and how the success or failure of a brand will correlate directly with its ability to engage its audience. Rather than brands and organizations asking about ROI, they’ll be asking how they can improve the consumer experience. The consumers will be the ones making decisions based on ROI.

As a rational (economically) consumer of goods and services, I will be choosing to engage with brands (products, services, organizations, etc.) that provide me with utility.  The paradigm shift that I mention earlier relates directly to this — brands are losing control of not only the content, but the medium on which that content is exchanged. Social media The Internet will be how i digest this content. At my convenience. AT. MY. CONVENIENCE.

As consumers, we will become the center of the universe for brands. And damn it, I can’t wait!

Social Media Creates TRUE Networking

I have talked at length about the value of combining your offline and online networking. I have been believer in the absolute value of social networking sites being the pinnacle of true networking… the pinnacle of creating a valuable relationship between two people.

I was reading a post at the Winnepeg Sun called The Re-Wired Generation. Although this article was written about the Internet driven Generation Y it had an excerpt from University of Toronto sociology professor, Berry Wellman:

“Far from replacing face to face time and breeding a generation of reclusives, Facebook and Twitter are actually enhancing interpersonal relationships offline…

The Internet is complementing, continuing and maintains relationships,” he said. “It’s letting weaker relationships stay in contact.”

There was a time in the business world where you would meet individuals at networking events and forget them the next day. The faces and names would be categorized into a business card pile and shoved into a dark desk drawer. This “networking for forgetting” has been all but erased if the two people are connected on a social media platform  like LinkedIn. The personal development between an individual and their client is based on touch-points. The more touch-points you have with a person the greater the relationship (we would like to think so). The essence of social media is built around the touch-points on the Internet. Can you connect to prospect using LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook? The wealth of information given to you in a single sitting is exponential!

Instead of dismissing social media and using the old forms of communication. Try developing your weaker business or personal relationships using an online model. You may be pleasantly surprised.

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Social Media from a Generation Y Perspective

Jenn Lisak is a senior marketing major at Butler University who is currently looking for a post-graduation job utilizing her skills in marketing, advertising, and social media. She is currently interning at TF Publishing in Indianapolis, and she is passionate about social media communication.

Almost ten years ago, I joined social media networks, such as MySpace and Facebook, for the sole purpose of staying connected with my friends and family on the worldwide web. Most of Generation Y joined these networks for this reason, and I would even argue that we initiated the social media movement over the span of the last decade. We constantly updated our statuses, we posted pictures, and we created an online community that our parents joked about. Little did they know that social media would become a part of their lives soon enough. (And not just as a social network either).

In the past year alone, business executives and corporations have become a large part of the social media community, especially on Twitter. In November of 2009, I decided to create an account on Twitter in order to find out more about these major corporations and what’s happening in the business world. However, I noticed that this social network was different from what I knew, and that I wanted to use it differently than MySpace or Facebook. During my first couple of days on Twitter, I simply looked at what other people posted and got a general feel for the network. When I was exploring the site, I stumbled upon even more social media networks that people were using, and I observed a difference in how these networks were used as well. Finally, I came to an important realization; these networks, including MySpace and Facebook, weren’t just used for social communication anymore. The world of social media had transformed into a place to market brand names, to post news stories, to provide customer service, and to become more knowledgeable about many different fields. In other words, social media had changed for me. Social media had changed for everyone!

Social media networks have become playgrounds for businesses: they’re free, fun, and accessible. But these businesses take up social media space. So, what does this mean for Generation Y? For one, we are shocked that the Baby Boomers and Generation X have taken over the online community that we initiated. On the other hand, we know that we now have complete access to business professionals and social media experts that we would not have access to otherwise. But the best part about the change is that the social media revolution has created thousands of awesome jobs that WE can fill!

Where do I think social media is going? I think it’s going in exactly the right direction. Technology and social media communication have provided us with resources that we need to embrace instead of resist. Social media isn’t just a pastime anymore — it’s a necessary tool for businesses to serve their customers more effectively. It’s created a whole job industry in the midst of a recession. For some, it’s created a lifestyle. And it gives us access to the people we want to know about.

My advice to all businesses is to use social media. Decide what you want to represent in the social media world. Integrate your marketing communications across all channels. Most importantly, don’t just use social media for the benefit of yourself. Use it to create a community, help other people, and learn from the experts! Just as Becky Robinson said, social media is about relationships. Make them and use them!

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Empower Your Employees to Win with Social Media

I mentioned in a previous post that I have been reading Seth Godin‘s book Free Prize Inside for a… I think… fourth time.  In the beginning of the book is a quote that I have underlined another four times:

“If your goal is growth, marketing is all that matters–and everything you do is now part of marketing… Every product and every service can be made remarkable. And anyone in your organization can make it happen!”

This excerpt from the book hit me pretty hard when it comes to online marketing and using social media. The concept of EVERYTHING you possibly do in your company (both large and small) being connected to marketing is still an idea that is buried. I still have conversations with corporate employees or owners who are mistified that the PR side of a company doesn’t discuss anything with the marketing side or vice versa.

Every service you create. Every phone call you take. Every PR release and marketing campaign you run.

It is all connected to growing a brand… to growing your company.  If you want your employees to talk about it. If you want every piece of your business to be a marketing vehicle… doesn’t social media make sense as a communication platform? Zappos has perfected the use of Twitter as an employee communication model.. Why can’t you? It is time to stop being afraid of the massive force of online communication. It is time to stop putting firewalls up because your afraid your employees are not being productive. They are not being productive for a reason… and it’s not Facebook. If they love what they do… maybe it is time to allow them to communicate that fact.. and if they don’t.. You probably have more problems than communication.

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Marketing Through Social Media is Not Easy. Plan Accordingly.

If you haven’t figured this out already… running a small business is not easy… managing a network of 100 sales professionals is not easy… running a marketing department with a budget of $100 million is not easy. Accordingly

Marketing your products and services 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 (Ben Affleck in Boiler Room)… The majority of us have not found the seed to grow a tree that sheds Mr. Benjamin Franklin ($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.

Integrating social media into your marketing is not easy and it is not cheap. If you want the intangible (branding) and tangible (product sales) benefits of social media you have to agree to work hard or pay someone to work hard for you.

Don’t confuse or try to convince yourself that social media is 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? We use an acronym to explain the process of marketing through social media.

MOST: Monitoring. Objectives. Strategy. Technology.

Listen. Build. Plan. Interact.

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Twitter Marketing : Basics Strategies and Tactics

I had the pleasure of presenting in South Bend, Indiana yesterday to the Indiana Small Business Development Center. My presentation was part of a 3 month Twitter Marketing tour sponsored by the ISBDC in support of my Twitter Marketing for Dummies book.

I wanted to post the slideshare that consists of my presentation in order to make sure the attendees of the event are able to remember the 4 hours of material presented. It was a blast.

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Involving Your Corporate Culture in Social Media

There is a massively argumentative and substantially humorous conversation circling the steel and glass of corporate culture.

1. When should we jump into social media? Loaded question.

2. Should the CEO have a blog? Should upper management have a blog? Maybe even the peons? Yes. Yes. Yes.

3. Should the blog be Internal or External or BOTH!? This is all dependent on your strategy.

4. How do we combine a work tool with a social tool? Check out Social Media Tool’s for Work and Learning and also Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation.

5. Should Sharepoint be used as a social media tool? HELL NO. Do you have a paper towel? I just threw up on myself. Okay.. maybe I am over-reacting. You get to it Microsoft! Don’t take my word for it… read this from ReadWriteWeb.

6. How do we manage and protect proprietary information on social media platforms? You can’t. Unless you control the social media platform (refer to question 4). It is extremely important to start building out policies that relate to the use of social media for internal communication (as well as external)

There are, of course, hundreds of questions that follow the simple ones listed above. The biggest problem corporate America has with social media is not necessarily managing and building of the platform… it is the beginning. How do we get in and utilize social media? What is the best way to enter the information flow? Should it be a corporate strategy or a marketing strategy?

Douglas Karr does a great job at answering this question:

I advise that social media and blogging are not a marketing strategy, they’re a corporate strategy. It’s not simply putting yourself out on the market to jump on the latest band wagon and consumers will flock to you. Social media takes time, a strategy and the right resources (both tools and people).

As one of the leading GENIUSES behind Corporate Social Media, Douglas knows what he is talking about. Both Douglas and I have written extensively about being authentic when writing a blog or getting involved in a social media community.

Also from Doug: You must involve all the leaders in your company – those who own the strategy of the corporation.

Strategy and Marketing should go hand-in-hand when debating whether to enter the social media world. This message is not only catered to corporations it should also be the focus for small businesses. Do not throw yourself into social media (whether blogging or networking) if you do not have a sound strategy. Without a social media plan/goals your productivity will plummet! You will be inundated with thousands of pieces of information and overwhelmed (as will your employees)

Strategy. Content. Participation. Authenticity.

Social media can be a fragile world, an extremely narrow path, proceed with care.

Most of all, HAVE FUN! This isn’t a corporate board meeting with Fiji water bottles. This is the information highway BABY! Take your time, hit it hard, and reap the benefits of open-communication!

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