Social Media in Real Life
On the way home from Vegas I was tired. My feet hurt, my body hurt my shoulder was about to fall off and I was recovering from some toxins (wine) and information people meeting overload. I stepped out of the taxi that I share wiht Melinda from Earth Mama Angel Baby and did self check in. Without thinking twice I decided to upgrade to first class and just ignored the extra charge – I felt deserving.
After having a glass of wine in my plush first class seat and reading the newspaper I closed my eyes and relaxed. I opened them and saw the nice gentelman sitting next to me open his laptop and Fisher Price pop up. Hmmm, I suddenly perked up and saw my expensive seat as an investment and opportunity. Being the soical person I am we struck up a coverstation and it was a flight that was filled with eco-friendly product development talk, consumer demand, toy engineering (he was the lead engineer for toy development), packaging, Fisher Price history and corporate carbon footprints. A man that had worked for Fisher Price for 20 years and was obviouslly loyal but also eco-friendly in his own right; buying a push mower that was fueled by his muscles and energy as well as recently using vinegar for his fabric softener.
The point to this being that sometimes it helps to network online and be social but in real life it also helps to live on the edge and be social. Take off the headset, stop chatting with your own circle of friends and branch out and see just who is that person sitting next to you – he or she might become a good friend, business contact or help you network. They might know someone that knows someone who is intrested in your business or services. With any luck the 3 Green Angels will get lucky (Clear Throat: Fisher Price is not on Facebook or Twitter and a eco-friendly line…nope!) Good thing I upgraded to 1st class! Have you ever had an experience like this?
Social Media Impacts Green Business Practices
It was recently reported that social media influences how businesses are handling their eco friendly practices. It makes sense seeing that 15 million people use Facebook and companies such as Ford are hiring Mom Bloggers to help with social media campaigns. Companies are engaging in social media to hopefully learn more from their consumers but to also put it all out there and let the consumers understand their business practices and efforts.
Social media to a mom blogger and business person mean different things. As a mom I think of social media that same as I would think of calling my friend to tell her a movie was bad or that I loved a new soap I tried on my baby. It means conversation and making friends the same as I would at the library or park with my kids. I wouldn’t expect a stranger to take my word but someone who I see every week at the library and who begins to trust me; I would think my advice and word would hold some weight and visa versa.
For companies I think of social media in the same way, a conversation but one that involves more listening and understanding. Free market research, advice and a great way to really hear what people are saying because there are lots of different “rooms” so to speak to be that fly on the wall. Engaging as a business is more than just blasting a message out there but if you’ve listened, had a dialogue and become trusted because the business is genuine then the result is much the same as it is for the mom.
Companies ask me often whether I believe social media and blogging will become commercialized and that there are concerns that there is Twitter on the news and wonders if people will tune out like they do with commercials or other forms of advertising.
It depends on what goggles you are looking through. For me, I think it means success to see moms being rated by Nielsen and Twitter on the news and my husband realizing that I do something important. I also think if you’re using social media to communicate, engage and listen with full transparency and to learn with the rest of us – those that do get too commercialized will fail and others will blow by them.
Are you engaged as a business?
Twitter and Your Business
One of the latest and greatest social networking sites is Twitter. It sounds like a movement birds make. In fact it is a quick way to send messages to your favorite people via the Internet. Due to its popularity with people all over the world, many entrepreneurs wonder if Twitter can actually help them grow their business.
In order to answer that question we first need to find out what exactly Twitter is? It is a social networking site which allows people to keep in touch with friends, family, and others. Through a series of short posts, important information is sent to a person’s followers. Those short posts are called “tweets.”
Twitter has been used by people to send messages to their friends. The posts can be 140 characters long at most, which allows for quick, precise exchanges of information. If you wanted to let your family know that the reunion this year is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and they needed to volunteer to do something, it would be easy to send them all a tweet at one time. When someone logs into their Twitter account or views your Twitter profile page, they would then see the message. They can then respond to you by posting a tweet of their own.
Twitter is real time communication for people who need to contact others right away. Some wondered if Twitter was just a fancy way of texting someone on the computer. Send a tweet to your husband to say dinner is moved to 7:30. Tell a girlfriend you’ve just bought that blouse you saw last week. If you only want to allow certain people to see the messages you are sending, you can easily mark your profile and updates as private.
Although many use Twitter as a more personal way to communicate, even more treat it as a virtual water cooler to connect with all types of people the world over. It seems as if tweeting would get boring after a while. Not so. With talkative friends you could be tweeted to death in a matter of days. Many actually find themselves losing precious time in their day chit-chatting with those with similar interests.
For the skeptical folks who want to know if tweeting will eventually tank, businesses have found a use for the social network that can increase their utilization and visibility on the Internet. First, let’s say that you have an office of fifty employees. Sending a memo every time there is a big announcement creates a lot of paper to file or leave for the trash man.
Businesses can now use protected Twitter messages to keep employees updated on departmental changes as well as company wide agendas. Employees can subscribe to the company feed set up on Twitter. Whenever there is something important posted, they will be notified.
The same goes for small one-owner and Internet businesses and their customers. Customers can subscribe to the company feed to learn about new products and other useful information. New businesses can create interesting tweets that produce interest and can be re-posted by others to help get the business or owner noticed.
Twitter fills a niche in the social networking sector and is here to stay. Businesses have found a way to make Twitter work to their advantage, whether they are work at home moms longing for adult interaction or reaching out to a broader audience to increase profit.
