Sheenola

     Following up a bit on Wednesday's post - troubled actor Charlie Sheen has set the Guinness World Record for fastest Twitter to hit 1 million followers.
     Sheen set the record Tuesday/Wednesday of this week in 25 hours and 17 minutes.  Sheen only signed up for Twitter late Tuesday, and as soon as the word got out (you figure out how) his numbers took off like CBS exec's blood pressure readings.  If you want to follow him, his tag is "#winning."
      TIME magazine reports that the the reason that he joined the social media site was to make cash from endorsed tweets, and with celebrities like Kim Kardashian making a reported $10,000 per posting, the fact that Sheen is doing it makes him a very valuable property indeed both for himself and anyone he happens to endorse.  Read more at: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/04/the-real-reason-charlie-sheen-joined-twitter-money/#ixzz1FdselzEP  
      Now, let's consider this in light of Wednesday's post.  Any business would be overjoyed to have that many followers in that little amount of time - but to be realistic, unless you are one of Charlie's chosen, it probably won't happen.  Primarily because you deal in business, not in celebrity gossip.  However, Sheen's ability to garner that many followers should make you sit up and take notice, and here's why:  SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT GOING AWAY.
     Again, make the distinction between social social media and business social media.   In either case, it's the fastest way to reach an audience.  Who doesn't have a cell phone or smart phone with them all the time now?  Your social media people at work should constantly be updating data bases and tweaking in the new subscribers.
     But remember - don't inundate your audience with inane gossip, or your message will be lost, and possibly forever.
     For inane gossip, we have Charlie - who, fortunately for all of us out here following his rantings and ravings, doesn't appear to know s---- from Sheenola, but is apparently very business savvy.

Don't Be a Twit When You Tweet

      Social media is a wonderful thing.  As we've seen, it can topple dictators, spread the word about a hit film, diss the Oscars and get you updated on the latest MacBook Pro. (see previous post!)
However, many companies may still not be doing their best with Twitter, because their managers may still see it as ostensibly the greatest time waster since solitaire came out on the PC.
     Which it can be.
     However.
     Let's make a distinction between social social media and business social media.  The former, while including such magnificent feats as toppling Hosni Mubarak and making things miserable for Gaddafi, is also a veritable cesspool of information.  Let's be honest.  Who really cares what you had for breakfast and that you think Justin Bieber is the second coming and that Lady Gaga has a new shade of nail polish?  No one.  Getting messages like this during my busy day is a royal pain in the - well, you know.  And it also tells me you pretty much have no life.
     So businesses - take note.  Use business social media for the incredibly efficient, sales generating, word spreading, business growth platform it is.  Business social media is what radio was to your grandparents and great grandparents back in the 1930's.  An incredible outreach to EVERYONE.  But please, think before you send.  Every message should have meaning to a potential customer, client, etc.
     So get out there and tweet to beat the band.  Get your word heard!  But don't dilute your message with meaningless overkill and minutiae which will, I guarantee, have customers finally deleting before reading because they never get anything worthwhile.
     In other words, be a tweet.  Not a twit.

Are You Generating Business by being Paperless?

There was a time, in a galaxy far, far away....when people predicted the end of paper.  It would all be paperless offices.  Paperless this.  Paperless that.  Now, nearly forty years later, are we finally approaching this utopia?  And what's driving it to happen?
Case history.   Here I am, happily blogging away on my spanking new MacBook Pro with the special order 7200 RPM drive and etc., when what to my wondering eyes does appear - but a tweet and an email that brings me no cheer.
Yep.
You guessed it.
My spanking new toy, less than a month old...is outdated.  The new and improved MacBook Pro with the i-7 processor is out.
And here's where we talk about social media.
I was notified in a tweet.  I was notified in an email.  Both from those very generous folks at Apple.  Who, not missing an opportunity for a sale, let me know I could return my present machine (sans the software I purchased and already loaded) for a credit, and get the new toy.  After all is said and done, changing out machines will cost me about $160.  And I get the same machine, but with the i-7 processor.  Of course, I still have to ship the old one back and deal with that issue, but again the nice folks at Apple make it easy by preprinting my FedEx label and letting me know (again, via tweet and email) that I can print it out.
So.
A couple of tweets and emails, which cost Apple nothing.
I get a new computer, for which I pay Apple an additional $160.
And goodwill (except for the fact that if I get the new machine and they issue an update a week later) is generated all around.
All without paper.
All through social media/business connections.
Are you generating business by being paperless yet?

Don't tweet us...we'll tweet you

     Ok, folks.  If today's Ziggy strip is involved in social media....where are you?  More and more employers are looking for their new (and existing) employees to have a knowledge of how all of this stuff works.  Go look at the job listings under the header "Social Media" to see what I mean.  If you don't know what it's about, start doing your research now.  There are any number of sites you can go to to get started.  If you want the basic information, look it up on Wikipedia.
     Now, let's talk a moment about how this is all used.  Social media is not all tweets and FaceBook.  It's also YouTube and any other number of media outlets.  How many of us went to YouTube to see the Superbowl commercials again?  The VW spot with the kid in the Darth Vader costume went viral.  Employers, you are NO LONGER LIMITED to a couple of shots of advertising with the big networks - and for all the small operations out there, you now have the reach that used to be available only to the big boys - but only if you are ACTIVELY pursuing your product brand and placement through social media.  Do you have the people on your staff who can create a funny or driving video?  Do you have the people on your staff who can ensure that said video gets out the door into the digital world?  Do you have the people on your staff to keep it rolling once it's out there, and to keep tabs on all the feedback?
     If you don't -- hey, don't tweet us.  We'll tweet you.

Defining Social Media

    The social media revolution continues in the middle east - young versus old.  My money says that Libya's faltering strongman  has never sent an email in his life...and is terrified.  We'll keep watching...
     Meanwhile - how are you using this medium?  If you think it's just for shooting messages back and forth and toppling the occasional dictator - well, yeah.  But there are so many other ways to use the medium.  Here's a quick laundry list:

  internal communications
  external communications
  online reputation management
  online product evaluation
  blogging/microblogging
  influencing relations with customers, vendors, employees
  sales
  peer to peer collaboration and creativity enhancement
  emergency management

     In short, you can, and should, be using this medium for pretty much everything you used to rely on paper and word of mouth to accomplish.  Remember what it's called:  Social Media.  A quick look into dictionary.com for the word social brings back 12 definitions of the word as an adjective, one as a noun.

     Here's the adjective definition we are concerned with: "living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than in isolation  People are social beings."


   There is no definition for the phrase "social media" in dictionary.com.
     It's being defined as we speak.
     What's your definition going to be?

The hits just keep on comin'....

   And the hits, as they used to say, just keep on comin'.   Twitter and Facebook posts are galvanizing the Middle East.  The only reason nothing is happening in North Korea is because the Fearless Leader doesn't allow his poor subjects any access to anything other than the air they breathe.
    The current use of social media in the Middle East is probably the most powerful use of media since the early days of radio or the golden age of the Hearst newspapers.  Like any tool, it is most definitely a force for change if used in that context.
     Still, there are many businesses and managers out there who probably view social media as a frivolous time waster - and undeniably, it can be that, too.  It all depends on how you are using the tool.  Have you, as a manager, gotten your hands around this medium of communication?  If not now, when?  We'll talk more about the uses of social media in the next post.

Are Your Doors Open?

     How are you using social media today?  Are you reaching out to your customers via Twitter or Facebook?
     If you remember the dark ages before instant communication, you may remember a film entitled "Raiders of the Lost Ark."  Or one entitled "Ghostbusters."  In both cases, the film's studios thought they had probable clunkers on their hands, so they limited advertising.  In both cases, word of mouth made them into instant hits.
     Twitter is word of mouth advertising.  So is Facebook.  Social media is being used to topple regimes and to create a quick flash mob to see Lady Gaga.  Social media is your portal to the outside world - more than a portal, it's the outside world rushing to you and your business.
     Are your doors open?