Still Thinking About Social Media? (What’s that?)
Funny how things work. In doing research for a product launch plan for a software client – I’m ending up in all kinds of virtual places, data hog that I am. (And, I sometimes get my best ideas in some seemingly unrelated reading. Gets me out of the mental rut.)
Today, for example, I somehow went from reading about trends in healthcare IT…to reading this survey about small businesses not using social media…to a really cool blog about social media, Penn Olson. It’s written by “kids” in Singapore (and elsewhere) and it’s easy on the eyes (no crammed, jammed K-Mart blue light special site here!), has easy-to-grok writing and…is fun to read. Just what I needed to recover from my increasingly bad case of social media fatigue.
Here are just three of the Penn Olson posts I read today:
Branding: Should Businesses Join The Social Media Rush? by Sarah Chong. From her takeaway: “To make your social media campaign successful, it requires you to interact and connect with people. That itself makes social media special.”
Ah, and that’s the hard part, isn’t it? You’ve got to open up and be human (and, yes, you’ll screw up.)
Five Reasons Why Businesses Should Not Buy Facebook Fans by Willis Wee
3 Benefits When Using Twitter As A Customer Service Tool by Willis Wee. My friend, Scott Westerman, regional VP of Comcast, fearlessly tweets – taking the good, the bad and the ugly. And, as a result, is transforming the company’s image. (He also gives out his biz card to seemingly everyone…with his direct line. See above about being human.)
Related Post: What Social Media Won’t Do For You. (Like replace hard work and real customer relationships.)
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Great post, Mary! I talk to people all the time who are fearful about using social media to promote their businesses. Much of it is simply not understanding the benefits. But part of it is also that they don’t have the time to do it themselves. That’s where I come in!
Kelly,
I’m sure you also run into fear:
“What if they don’t like me?” (So? If everyone likes you, you’re boring.)
“But, we don’t want our customers to know we have a problem.” (They already know and they’re talking about it all over the web…)