How much progress have we really made?  We still enjoy good conversations and sometimes we need someone to connect us with others who are interested in engaging dialogue.  We’re not looking for idle chit-chat.  What does it look like to peek inside the digital switchboard of a Social Connector? We are looking for advice on buying products, insight to future business ventures, or for personal development and direction.  We are Social Connectors in a digital switchboard era.

Digital Consoles of a Social Connector

• Blippr “Well, you’re right, it is funny. But, blippr is much more than just a trendy set of letters. It’s a really easy way to discover, talk about, and organize great apps, books, games, movies, and music. We figure that hey, why not make it easy to talk about and then find even more great stuff to talk about?” Blippr.com
• American Express Open Forum “See why small businesses have the power to reengineer our economy and how OPEN Forum has tools that can help them.” OpenForum.com

• Mashable: HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter “Twitter has roughly 6 million users and is projected to grow to 18.1 million users by 2010. With all those people, the chances for networking are endless and connecting with new people can lead to career opportunities, so it is essential that your personal brand exists on the service.” Mashable.com

Social networking sites have become the personal operated switchboard exchange panels for the 2010 individual.  A recent article shows that more people share links to resources on Facebook rather than through sending an email.  Links shared on Facebook not only benefit the friend to friend connections but to others who see the shared link.

Digital Circuits of a Social Connector

• AddtoAny “According to AddToAny, Facebook now dominates sharing, with 24 percent of shares from the widget consisting of users posting items to the social network.” Mashable.com
• StumbleUpon “Using a combination of human opinions and machine learning to immediately deliver relevant content, StumbleUpon presents only web sites that have been suggested by other like-minded Stumblers.” StumbleUpon.com
• FriendFeed “Read and share however you want — from your email, your phone or even from Facebook. Publish your FriendFeed to your website or blog, or to services you already use, like Twitter.” FriendFeed.com

Have the social norms of sharing links and recommending our friends and colleagues allowed us to tap into an altruistic thread deeply embedded within our social DNA?  I realize my question may seem all too idealistic to the realist and social media pessimists, nevertheless I claim my stake in the optimist camp.  Social Connectors look for opportunities for sharing and introductions.

Digital Frequencies of a Social Connector

• Mr. Tweet “To get found by people who would be interested in what you do, there is no better way than to get MrTweet recommendations from your fans!”  MrTweet.com
• Twellow “Twellow is a directory of public Twitter accounts, with hundreds of categories and search features to help you find people who matter to you.”  Twellow.com
• Plaxo “It’s a dashboard for seeing what the people you know are creating and sharing all over the open web. You can hook your Pulse account up to all the places where you create or share stuff (your blog, Flickr, Twitter, Yelp, and more than 30 other sites).”  Plaxo.com

Are you a Social Connector? Are you building social capital to fund the new entrepreneurs, innovators and catalysts of tomorrow?  This is the tribe to which I belong.  We have built upon the adage “Its not what you know, but who you know” and re-branded it to say, “It’s what you know and who you share it with.” That is how to define someone who is a Social Connector.” We think in terms of personal vitalization, social equity, and global collaboration.

By the way, if you liked what I have shared with you, I hope you will share it with someone else.  Don’t just send them the link, tell them why you are sending it to them because that’s what Social Connectors do.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

“Confidential Shredding & Recycling, Inc. is the premier mobile document shredding service which values client’s privacy and time.  Our mobile unit is equipped with a hydraulic lift system, which instantly feeds your confidential materials directly into the shredder.  With this state of the art equipment, our bonded professionals are able to shred your sensitive materials, hands free.  The shredding process may be viewed on our security surveillance camera system.  Clients’ are then provided with a Certificate of Destruction.” csrshredding.com

CSR gets it. Do a Google search for Confidential Shredding & Recycling in Tallahassee and you will find many reasons why they are deservedly the winner.  Take one look at their digital footprint and the evidence is clear: Social Media is an essential component of their marketing strategy.

Winner Small Business of the Year 1-4 Employees:

Website: Confidential Shredding & Recycling, Inc.

Facebook Fan Page for Confidential Shredding & Recycling

Twitter: http://twitter.com/CSRShredding

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/confidentialshredding

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/confidentialshredding

Trusteria.com: http://www.trusteria.com/csrshredding/contact

Blogger: http://csrshredding.blogspot.com

What makes CSR a winner in my book is not just the fact that they have tackled Social Media head on, but that they are very involved in the Tallahassee community.  Within the same Google search, one can see CSR’s involvement with the Tallahassee Red Cross, Keep Tallahassee Leon County Beautiful and the Children’s Home Society.

Congratulations Confidential Shredding & Recycling! I am a big fan and a follower.

Best wishes and prosperity to you and your staff!

#1 Tallahassee Small Business Leveraging Social Media

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A similar assessment might be taken in regards to activities and conversations within social media.  Thousands and thousands of updates about experiences at coffee shops, restaurants and grocery stores are posted everyday.  Each of those updates/comments are recorded and posted on blogs, walls and message boards.  These digital logs are a new kind of online account statement.  Each update is an informational transaction.  The insight that could be learned by these digital statements could result in valuable assessments for a company that was paying attention.

Recently, I was preparing a Social Media proposal for a new client who requested case studies to be included in the documentation.  I came across hundreds of studies.  Surprisingly, this kind of market research has been circulating since 2005.  Everyday the conversation of how do businesses engage in social media arises, to which I reply, it’s never too late to join the conversation.  I always recommend listening and observing as a starting point.

If you are in charge of marketing at your company or you are the owner of a small business and need more convincing that Social Media is a viable means to grow your business, I am including some of the case study websites that I have found extremely helpful in attempting to reconcile the online statements of social media.

Case Studies

35 Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action

Word Of Mouth Marketing Association – Comprehensive Case Study Library

Groundswell by Forrester Research – 65 Corporate examples and 25 full case studies

Social Media Statements Tallahassee

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Social media is like conversations in a global coffee shop. If you are on Facebook or on Twitter, you are listening in on the conversation. Has someone on Facebook or Twitter ever helped you find a store, locate a bank or given you technical advice? Have you returned the favor? Did you send them a thank you note? Did you stay in contact with that person? Why not? Why wouldn’t you look to pay it forward?

Imagine if you could listen to the conversations that are about what you are interested in while turning down the volume on all the other unrelated voices. Current estimates show Twitter alone has 14 to 19 million users, and that number is growing every day. That is a bunch of conversations! The ability to chime in to just one topic is a powerful capability. Harnessing that information can provide valuable insight to companies and individuals. Tools like Tweetdeck and Seesmic are free applications that will allow you to key in on multiple topics and feed the results right to your desktop.

Search is probably the fastest growing segment of web technology today. Look at the huge success of Google; everyone is searching for something. Not everyone who searches is lost. With so many people looking, now is the time to invest in becoming an expert guide in your field of service or product line. Don’t try to be the one size fits all solution. The niche guides are the winners in this game. How do you know if you qualify as an expert? One benchmark is 10,000 hours of experience. Check out Malcolm Gladwell’s recent book Outliers for more on the 10,000 hour benchmark.

As a business in today’s digital media landscape, it is essential to have your ears open. If you haven’t dedicated a portion of your time and resources to social media, please consider it. Every Fortune 500 company spends at least 20% of its resources on research and development. Take three 15 minute breaks in your day and follow a conversation or two on Twitter. I recommend taking notes along the way. After a week of following conversations, compile a report of your findings and present that to your manager/owner. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. There is a global conversation about your business. Are you listening?

Art of listening in Social Media

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How many people contemplate their comprehensive insurance policy or the diversity of their financial portfolio on the way to the bathroom? Why is the community bulletin board still a viable media channel for advertising? As an advertiser, you are gambling that everyone that visits that establishment will visit the restrooms. Is this cutting edge media placement?

Do you really expect someone to grab your card off the cork board on their way into the powder room? Have you ever had someone call you and say, “Yeah, I got your card off the bathroom wall at ______ and I was wondering if…” Does that really work? I guess if you want to take a shotgun blast in the dark that’s one strategy.

I love Sprint’s idea of media placement. You’re sitting in the theater getting ready to watch a movie and the trailers are showing. The next trailer is about a monkey trying to negotiate director credits and theme song input with the movie producers. The punch line is: “It takes many calls to make a movie, but only one to ruin it. Please turn off your cell phone.” Brilliant. The message is creative and the delivery is relevant. Nice job, Sprint.

As a local business, you don’t have to have a Sprint size budget to craft relevant, creative messages. Social media channels are becoming one of the largest growing communication methods. The traditional media placement questions are who, where, and when to send your message.  In social media, the question is how does your message interact with the audience? Unlike the intrusions of traditional advertising, relevant messages can be engaged with people who are already talking about that specific topic or interest.

A couple of things to consider when interacting inside social media channels:

Remember, it’s social – All business and no play is no fun! Social media is a two-way communication channel. Keep that in mind and put away the bullhorn strategy. Social media is like being invited to a global cocktail party; there are plenty of opportunities to connect.

Listen before you speak – Before you jump into a conversation, it’s always good to make sure you’re on topic. (ex: Tweetdeck, Google Alerts, BlogPulse, and Trendrr) Take at least 30 days to monitor the tone and volume of your topic of conversation.

Give good directions – If you are expecting for people to follow you, make sure you know where you are going. If your updates are about business and money, don’t have them click on a blog site about rubber chickens. Just because you don’t carry it or offer it, doesn’t mean you can’t help point someone in the right direction. Pay it forward is socially correct.

Be creative –Many companies are using blogs/micro-sites as landing pages rather than linking to boring institutional corporate sites. This web strategy allows for flexibility and niche specific content within a large or small scale product line or service industry.

Talking with the right people at the right time with the right message is possible. Listening to the conversation is the best way to stumble into your biggest fans. The alternative is to place your business card on the cork board on the way to the bathroom. Let me know how that works for you.

Branding Social Media in Tallahassee?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The debate is whether these sites are just a trend or are they new channels of communicating in a modern digital era.  Regardless where a business stands on the social media platform, the answer is that millions of new users are exploring these sites every month.  Social media users are not just teens, college students or businesses either.  It’s everyone from every demographic.

With the growing number of newcomers to the digital communities, the world has become a more connected planet.  The once essential long distance phone plan barrier has been removed and replaced with open lines of communication.

With keyword search capabilities built within Twitter, it is very easy to jump into the specific conversation topic you are most interested in.  Rather than having to search Google page after page looking for websites for information, keywords are now delivered straight to your desktop: Getting in on the latest trends and updates has never been easier.

If it is so easy to gain access to this information, why are some business locking the doors to these social media channels?  Just because people spend personal time on the phone, do you take the company phones off the hook?  Just because employees send personal emails from work, do you turn off the email servers?  Just because staff members often hang out in employee offices for long periods of time, does that mean you lock all the doors until 5pm everyday?

No.  In each given situation, a progressive company views each channel of communication as a way for people to connect with the business or organization.  A proactive company will develop a strategy of how to best use each channel and provide training for maximizing each channel.  Whether it is direct policy or an outline of best practices, the best use of communication tools should be developed and optimized.

If you have locked Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace out, who else have you locked out of being able to interact with your company or products?  One huge benefit of social media sites is the fact that they are open 24/7.  Leveraging social media can allow your clients and/or prospects to weave in and out of the purchase or service life cycle.  Just because the front doors are closed after 5pm, doesn’t mean the customer has to come back later.  In fact, they might just go down the street, or in the digital world just click to the next tweet if you keep them out!

What is your Social Media Strategy?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

In the business model of 2000, the goal was to gain more customers, assign them a customer number and watch them walk through the customer life cycle.  With the rules of free enterprise changing rapidly, assigning customer numbers isn’t going to get your business into the business 2010 era.

Social Media is changing everything.  In my previous article “Breadcrumbs to Business Growth,” I outlined the digital media journey of local coffee house Tuscan Sun Coffee.  Typing in the keywords “Tuscan Sun Coffee Tallahassee” into Google search, I was able to see what the web said about that business.  (The little hamsters upstairs should start running a little faster from here on out.)

Let’s look at Social Media from a different angle.  Say I am a Public Relations Manager for a local business that is trying to keep up with the times and I regularly do a Google search of the name of my business.  Google has been indexing the “status updates” on various Social Media sites for some time now.  If someone has a good or bad experience related to their visit to my business and they “tweet” or “status update” about that experience, it will show up on a Google search. If they name my business specifically, their comment will be a clickable link.  (You might want to Google search your business right now and look through every page just in case.)

Remember the “Comment Card” box? Imagine your comment cards being posted on the web. Would that be a good thing or not?  How would you handle a less than satisfactory experience if someone completed a comment card and dropped it in the box?  You should treat a Social Media comment with the same level of attention as you would a card dropped in the little black box labeled “Comments.”

Many national companies are listening to what the avatars (a small icon representing the user profile of a given social media) are saying.  I have read article after article of companies like Blackberry, Target, and Starbucks replying to comments left on Facebook and/or Twitter from people who had a negative experience with their product or service.  Often, the solution to the problem turns a negative complaint into a loyal fan telling their “friends” and “followers” about how the company redeemed its reputation.  The digital voice of a loyal avatar is the new word of mouth.

Here’s the point: 1000 loyal avatars equals 10,000 tribe members (a new kind of customer number)!

What if your business doesn’t listen to the “tweets” and/or “status updates?”  I guess you better get a bigger comment card box so that you will have something to pack up your desk with when they decide to bring in the new PR director who understands Social Media and why status updates matter.

By the way, did you ever think to do a search on your competitor to see what people are saying about them?  If they are smart, they already did one on your business and are thinking creatively on how to capitalize on your area of weakness.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you listened to that and you’re not ready to pursue your dream with 100% passion, then you must be inhaling way too much of the corporate toxins being pumped through the ventilation shafts.  Try this:  Pull up a Word document, in big, bold letters type, “I AM BATMAN!”(or CATWOMAN).  Now, go to the copy room and make 100 copies and leave it on the copier.  Don’t let anyone know that it was you. Shhhh, it’s our little secret.

If you are even 1% unhappy with where you are in your occupational role, do something about it TODAY!

Let me help you get started.  Tonight after everyone is asleep, go to GoDaddy.com.  Condense what you are most passionate about into two words or less and type that in the domain search bar, top right corner of the page.  If that domain is taken, then try a couple different combinations until you get one that is available.  Now, BUY it!  For less than what you spend at AMC 20 on a movie, popcorn and a drink, you can take ownership in your own digital space.  If you don’t do it tonight, I don’t ever want you to read this blog again; It will only make you more depressed.  Come on, just do it. You are going to CRUSH it!

Now that’s the way to start off the weekend!

My name is Michael Winn, and I am OBSESSED with New Business!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Examples of this line of thinking:
1. Enhance your purpose; rethink how you define it
2. Enhance your prospects; rethink where you find them
3. Enhance your public profile; rethink how you think of others
4. Enhance your business alliances; rethink how you slice up the pie
5. Enhance your client relationships; rethink how you talk with them
6. Enhance your services; rethink where you provide them
7. Enhance your tools; rethink what you create with them
8. Enhance your market; rethink the channels of revenue
9. Enhance your digital space; rethink how people use it

Before you toss one of the essentials of your business, give the most creative people in your organization a shot at rethinking the who, what, where, when and how. If you are about completely give up, bail out, or kick to the curb one of your products or services, go to the most positive, energetic person in the building (maybe the mail guy/girl) and ask them to pull out their 64 pack of Crayola Crayons and scribble as far outside the lines as they want.

When they are done, take off the glasses of the status quo and look closely at what they have come up with. You might be surprised at how they see value in what you were about to hit the delete button on!

If you would like to ask questions but would rather keep them confidential please indicate “Just between you and me” in your comment and I will keep your questions confidential. I have had several people contact me and I value your comments, thanks for keeping the conversation going!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.