ReinventingErica.com » Social Media

The SXSWi 2009 Wrap-Up Post Part I

Erica — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:06:33 +0000

Wowsers. This is a long time coming, and I’m sure I’m going to miss stuff…but here’s my best shot at Part I of a SXSWi Wrap-up Post. We’ll start with Pre-SXSWi, Thursday & Friday.

For me, like most years, SXSWi started long before March. I had the awesome opportunity to serve on the SXSW Advisory Board for a brand new program called the SXSW Accelerator. This is Southby’s version of Demo or TechCrunch50 (40, etc). In fact, one of my client companies ended up as a runner-up in the program. Congrats to Blellow, and thanks to Chris Valentine & Hugh Forrest for asking me to be on the board.

I also had a Pre-SXSW/Some Other Pre-Conference dinner with Mandi Leman, Veronica Jordan, Chris Brogan & Jay Berkowitz

I got to Austin on Thursday night, and was rooming with Tara Hunt & Jen Myronuk across from The Austin Convention Center. As expected, I couldn’t go 2 feet without running into someone I knew. But that’s the power of SXSW It’s like one huge High School Reunion – only you actually like all the people in attendance.

Friday was my Un-Birthday Party. What’s an Un-Birthday Party…well it’s when you turn 30 in January but decide not to have your party until March so all your friends from all over the world can come! I hired a company called The Go Game to host an adventure with me and my friends. Think part Scavenger Hunt, part Mission Impossible, and part Comedy Improv – The Go Game Has it All! MORE PHOTOS HERE

Thanks to everyone for coming out and celebrating my birthday with me. I love you all! Especially those of you who flew in early just to come and then slept in and missed it (I’m looking at you Pete & Michelle…hehe).

After my Big 3-0 Birthday Bash, I had lunch with some dear friends including Paige Craig, Joanna Lord, Pete Cashmore, Michelle DeForest, and I met Sarah Townsend. Definitely a great pre-start to SXSWi.

Friday night I decided to stay in and conserve my energy for the next day. Oh and I almost forgot – I also caught Chris Heuer in a Skirt!

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#TCOT IS DEAD. LONG LIVE #TCOT.

Erica — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:33:57 +0000

Let’s Take The Ego Out Of It

Petty disputes between the #TCOT ¹ co-founders are leaving a black eye on Conservatives this week. I think it’s just a matter of less ego, and more big picture thinking. As we say here in Houston, “Credit is Infinitely Divisible”.

On today’s Social Media Hour w/Chris Heuer, I called in and asked Jackie Peters and Nicole Jordan to tell me the biggest problem they’ve had when dealing with their Social Communications* clients. Nicole said that organizations don’t understand Social Media Etiquette or why they’re doing it in the first place. While Jackie said that clients are scared to give up control of their message and terrified of losing the starring role in their own organizations. They don’t want feedback or transperancy. They want to play in the Social Media Space, but they don’t want to get their jeans muddy.

This reaction is typical of individuals and organizations who don’t understand the Social Landscape. For them, it’s more important to have control and ownership over their ideas, then to see those ideas spread.

Which brings me back to the #TCOT Scandal (Yes Scandal is an Exaggeration). #TCOT stands for Top Conservatives on Twitter. And to most of the world it’s just a HashTag. But apparently there is also an accompanying website. So I’ve traced back the tweets, and as far as I can tell (feel free to correct me if you believe I’m wrong), this is where it all began:

This was accompanied by the following letter describing the conflict:

http://kithbridge.com/tcot/index.php/tcot-feed

The backlash from the Twitter community was immediate and harsh. Here’s are just some of the sentiments expressed.

As the bickering wore on and tempers continued to flare, some of the more liberal twitterati decided to grab a bowl of popcorn and watch the cat fight.

And of course, the Techies & Open Source folks had to voice an opinion too.

There is much more, and you can read all the tweets and replies by going here: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=tcot+rneppell or here: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=tcot+michaelpleahy

One of the original founders of the #TCOT hashtag (and subsequent website) stated that the reason he was fighting so hard for this issue was that it was his work. And he wanted credit for it. Fine. Except. It’s just a Hashtag. And one person didn’t single-handedly make it popular. Lots of people were responsible for it’s adoption and popularity.

Let’s contrast this with #FollowFriday. #FollowFriday was originally created by Micah Baldwin. And to date I haven’t seen him ever attempt to issue guidelines or control over how #FollowFriday is used or spread. It could be argued that #FollowFriday is much more popular than #TCOT, and yet we don’t see Micah claiming to be the reason for it’s success. We see just the opposite.

I’m one of the biggest capitalists around. I believe in making lots of money and being paid what I’m worth. But what this #TCOT co-founder was talking about was not Capitalism. Whatever the original intentions of #TCOT might have been on the part of the founders, they were not responsible for it’s success. If you did all the work, then you can take all the credit, but #TCOT was a combination of luck and passion on behalf of all the conservatives who finally had a flag to wave on Twitter. Lots of popular politicians and twitterati adopted and spread this meme. I don’t think they would have been so quick to spread the good word, if they thought the intentions of these founders was to capitalize and attempt to cash-out on #TCOT. And if that was the intention – maybe they should have stated it more clearly.

As Laura Fitton so brilliantly expressed in a chat we had earlier about this issue: “Human Nature tells us to dominate others to prove our own value.” It looks like the people on Twitter aren’t interested in being dominated or controlled. #TCOT is DEAD. LONG LIVE #TCOT.

**Note: *Social Communications – An alternative to Social Media, New Media, and New Media Relations.**

TCOT stands for Top Conservatives on Twitter ↩

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Putting the Personal Back In My Relationships

Erica — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:53:28 +0000

Photo by clickykbd

I’m the On The Road Correspondent for a local radio show called The Business Makers (Talk Radio 950, KPRC – a Clear Channel Station), and the last question I always ask my guests is, “What Do You Want Your Legacy To Be?”. I’ve noticed that there is a similar theme among most of the answers. People want to make a difference in the world. If nothing else they want to change the life of at least one person for the better. This is especially true of Entrepreneurs.

Over the years I’ve had the honor and privilege to interview some pretty amazing people. I love to give interviews because I love people. I love learning about them, I love sharing ideas, and most of all I love building friendships. Chris Brogan once told me that our interview was the best he’d ever had the privilege of participating in (Awesome praise from one of the superheroes of my life).

The Problem With Social Media & Personal Legacy

When I first got started in Social Media (circa 1998), the online world was a very different place. It was much easier to connect with people on an intimate level. Why? Because there was simply less online activity. There were hundreds of blogs instead of hundreds of thousands. There were only a few online forums dedicated to a particular topic instead of dozens. When you started participating in a community you could quickly and easily get to know all of the key players and form 3-dimensional relationships with them. You knew about their families, their day jobs, their hopes, their dreams, and their fears.

Today this is much harder. There are just too many of us. As Bruce Sterling said at his State of the World Address in 2006,

“You are too big, this year. You are too professional, this year. Even the tech panels are no longer intimate and personal, this year. I have been to standing room only Web 2.0 tech panels at this gig; this is a huge gig.”

I couldn’t agree more. Social Media, Technology, The Glitterati, Twitterati, Technorati, there are just too many of us. Social Media, like BarCamp, does not scale well on an intimate & personal level.

Whether your goal is to Change the World, or Change the Life of One Person, an intimate & personal connection with as many people as possible is crucial.

An Experiment

So I’ve decided to conduct a personal experiment to try and figure out if personal and intimate connections are possible on a massive scale? And if so, what does that look like? Each week I’ll be direct messaging 10 people on Twitter asking you for some information. If you’d like to participate in this experiment just send your reply. If not, feel free to ignore my message. No hard feelings, promise.

This experiment will take exactly 60 weeks to complete, and once the experiment is underway, I’ll be reporting back here each week on what I’ve learned.

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Invasion of the Opportunists

Erica — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:19:26 +0000

I’ve been thinking about writing a post on Twitter Spammers for a long time. Well actually a specific Twitter Spammer. But since I never think it’s a good idea to go around name calling (it’s bad for you, and it gives too much attention to the person in question) let’s approach this in another way.

My friend Brian Solis has a personal policy of never saying anything negative about a specific person. If you ask him about someone that he dislikes, he says: “I won’t tell you what I think about John Doe, but I will tell you what I think about people like him.” Subtle and yet direct at the same time. Plus no one can ever claim he said anything negative about John Doe. It’s a win-win.

So we’ll leave my specific Twitter Spammer unnamed (mostly because I don’t want to give her the google juice)…but I will say what I think about people like her.

Why Does This Matter?

There is a disturbing trend happening on Twitter. The Opportunists are popping up everywhere. Opportunists are people who follow trends or fads, and try to Get Rich Quick by tricking innocent people. They try to capitalize on the Talent and Hard Work of the people who came before them. They pretend to be something they are not – and if no one calls them on it – THEY GET AWAY WITH IT. I’ve said for a long time that Perception is Reality. This is especially true in Social Media.

So I’m writing this post as a call to action. Not just for my own community here in Houston, but for the hundreds of communities all over the World who are dealing with Spammers & Opportunists of their own.

You’re A Twitter Coach – Wait…Strategist?

So now you’re probably wondering what a Twitter Spammer/Opportunist looks like. Well for starters, their Twitter bio states that they are a “Twitter Coach”, “Twitter Strategist”, “New Media Thought Leader” or some variation thereof. Okay – I’m not exactly sure what a Twitter Coach does – and I’d actually be willing to buy that…except the people making these claims have been on Twitter for less than 6 months and don’t really know the first thing about Social Media, Technology, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, or even Psychology. The problem is – they’ve never actually done anything but claim to be experts. If you ask them about The Clue Train Manifesto they stare at you blankly, and if you mention Plurk or Pownce they think you’re speaking a foreign language.

There’s nothing wrong with being late to the party (we can’t all be early adopters). But it’s not okay to substitute the knowledge and hard work of the people who paved the way as your own. And it’s definitely not okay to claim credit for things you didn’t do, or to pass off other people’s work as your own. Especially when you’re trying to get paid for it.

Real Influence

The second way you can tell a Twitter Opportunist, is that they talk about their follower number A LOT. They talk about how they went from 100 to 16K twitter followers in 4 months. And then they claim that this is Organic Growth, while at the same time trying to sell you a program to increase your twitter followers or worse a Twitter for Profits Course.

They think that influence has something to do with numbers, and yes sometimes that can play a part. But real influence has very little to do with follower count, and much more to do with deep relationships that are built over time. In fact, some of the most influential people I know on twitter have less than 100 followers. But they can pick up a phone and with one call make unbelievable things happen.

Twitter Opportunists treat their Twitter Followers like cattle. The more heads the better. They think that this buys them protection or leverage. And they are wrong on both counts. As my friend Jeremy likes to say:

“Sure, build an ‘Elite Power Account’, but don’t call yourself expert, maven, guru, or coach. Spamming Twitter does not make you a Premier Thought Leader. It makes you an Idiot. A paper millionaire with a fistful of Enron stock. The numbers are impressive, but have no value outside of impressing people who don’t know any better.”

It’s like that old saying, “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice…wait you can’t fool me twice” (you know it’s a problem when I’m stooping to quote Bush). But seriously, Influence and Social Capital aren’t just buzz words that can be thrown around willy nilly.

So What Can You Do?

I’ve done a lot of soul searching on this issue, and I’m going to give you a list of things I think we can do to help manage this problem (I’m not naive enough to think it’s going to go away). But first, I want to tell you why you should do something.

The question I keep asking myself is why haven’t more people called her out publicly for her behavior? Is it because they are scared of her, or because they don’t want to give her more attention? Probably no on the first count, but possibly on the later. And then I was talking to one of my bestfriends Tara Hunt and she said that the real problem is that in “Proper Society” it’s not okay to call people out or embarrass them in public. That’s just bad manners.

She’s right. It’s bad manners. But if we all stand around being “proper” and trying to “rise above it” – we’re going to wake up one day to an even bigger mess then we are facing right now. Then we’ll have let the Opportunists win. It’s just like standing by and watching someone get bullied – but not stepping in to help. Only we’re the ones getting bullied!

Well – I say enough is enough. So here’s what you can do to help us save Twitter (and any other Social Network or Real Life Network for that matter) from the invasion of the Opportunists:

Block Them. In Twitter there is a text link in the right sidebar that says “block”. Use it. If enough people block someone on twitter they are removed from the system.
If you see someone taking credit for something they didn’t do, telling a half-truth, or bold faced lie – Call them out. Send them an email first, but then if they continue the behavior call them out publicly. If enough people call Bullshitake (yes I’m quoting Guy cause I love him) on these people, they won’t be able to trick the people who don’t know any better. Think of it like doing your civic duty to keep our community safe & secure.
Tell your friends. One of the things I’ve been guilty of in the past is not protecting my friends from people I knew were Opportunists. I would make the assumption that they were smart and would figure it out for themselves. And they usually did – but a lot of times it was AFTER they had already been burned. So if you know someone has the wrong intentions, is an Opportunist, Spammer, or Social Climber – warn your friends.
UPDATE: Thanks to NickW for reminding me of this point. Email Twitter with your concerns. If you love this service – send them a message and let them know that you’d like to see them take more action on their end. And when you block someone – also send their name to spam@twitter.com. And if you do email them – be sure and mention this simple UI change proposed by Andrew Hyde: A Simple UI Change to Make Twitter Unattractive to Spammers

The moral of this story is that together we have a much stronger voice then any of these Spammers with their inflated twitter accounts, we just need to use it. My friend Angela told me tonight that a lot of people are in my corner, and knowing that gave me the courage to write this post. Let’s use our voice to give every member of our communities that same courage.

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Give Up This Life

Erica — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:51:29 +0000

Photo by Faungg

There is a saying by Rumi that says: “Give up this life, and get a hundred new lives.” I think there comes a point in life when change is the only way to move forward. Some changes are small, like taking a new route to work – but other changes force us to give up the life we are living – so as to have the life that is waiting for us (to paraphrase Joseph Campbell).

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned this past year is that it’s better to be in front of the wave instead of riding it. A lot of people spot a trend and decide to “Ride the Wave”. Social Media is a good illustration of this phenomenon. In the last 2 years – I’ve watched as wave upon wave of people have jumped into the Social Media Space. Most of them are just hoping to make a quick buck by catering to people’s fears, insecurities, hopes, and dreams. But some of these people are worth their weight in gold. The trick is knowing the difference.

I love Social Media – and I imagine I’ll always love it. And I hope I’ll always get to work in this space in some form or fashion. But I think I’ve spotted what’s next – and I’m getting ready to swim out in front of that wave. Wish me luck – and I hope I’ll see you when I get to shore!

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Ada Lovelace Day – or Why I Love Women in Tech

Erica — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:07:10 +0000

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace was the Founder of Scientific Computing – it is tradition that on this day we pay tribute to women all over the globe who are rawkin’ the Tech World.

Normally I’d start by honoring Tara Hunt (one of my closest and dearest friends), but since I wrote my last post honoring her contributions both to the Tech & Social Media World – as well as the profound influence she’s had on my life – I thought I would focus on some of the other AMAZING Women in Tech. Side Note, Tara’s new book The Whuffie Factor comes out on April 21st. I’ve read it. It’s fantastic. You should totally buy it!

The first woman I’d like to honor is Laura Mayes. Laura is the co-founder of Kirtsy (it’s like Digg for Chicks), and one of my closest friends. I love Laura because she has the kind of can-do attitude and eternal optimism that makes anything seem possible.

Next I’d like to honor a woman who works harder than almost any behind the scenes woman in Tech today – Karen Hartline. Karen is the Events Director for Mashable and Events Coordinator at Blurb.com. She rocks because she gets things done. And in the world of Tech – that’s saying something.

And last but certainly not least – I’d like to honor Lisa Stone. Lisa is the Co-Founder of Blogher, The Community for Women Who Blog. I recently met Lisa at the Mom2Summit, and was instantly wowed by her intelligence, compassion, and kindness. She’s already risen to the top of my list of favorite women in Tech – and I hope I’ll get the opportunity to spend more time with her in the future.

Obviously I could continue this list all day. There are so many amazing Women in Technology it would be impossible to honor them all here.

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SummerMash 2008 Off to a Great Start!

Erica — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:40:45 +0000

SocialMediaCamp, Parties, Pete Cashmore, Mashable, Karen Hartline, The Yoono Team, Stickam, Freshbooks, Seattle, Pete Cashmore, More Parties, Social Media Club, WordPress, TechZulu, Twiistup, VenCorps, Los Angeles, Tara Hunt, Qik, Twitter, Will Pate, MySites, Blue Flavor, Brian Solis, San Francisco, Rubicon Project, CollarFree, Nicole Jordan, Pete Cashmore, After Parties, Marc Salsberry, Marianne Masculino, The Viceroy, Steve Wiebe, Adam Hirsch, Half-Baked, Natalie Lent, Step & Repeat, Cups That Turn Blue, Planes, Cabs, Limos, and did I mention Pete Cashmore?

I think that just about sums it up!

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Social Media Club Announces New Interim Board of Directors

Erica — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:18:34 +0000

I’m both honored and privileged to be a member of the Social Media Club Interim Board of Directors. It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to work with such a talented and innovative group of people.

The Social Media Club (SMC), a new media and advocacy organization focused on social media, today announced that 42 well-regarded industry leaders have volunteered to form an interim Board of Directors.

The new interim board has been charted to address several key organizational and strategic deliverables, including development of membership goals, acceleration of local chapter development, increase in adoption of industry standards and implementation of a new legal structure to enhance future growth.

New interim Board Member and Adjunct Professor of Social Media at University of Miami Alex de Carvalho said “Social Media Club is an important industry organization that has been working to establish social media standards and ethics. The voluntary participation of such noted industry leaders to further its mission is a clear indication of the Social Media Club’s value and contributions. I look forward to collaborating with the new interim board to progress the Social Media Club from being a ‘big idea’ to serving the community as a prominent agent of change.”

According to Chris Heuer, founder of Social Media Club and Partner at The Conversation Group, “The Social Media Club is honored to have so many accomplished and well-regarded industry evangelists come forward to lead the organization. While the interim board will focus on charting the organization’s future direction, our core mission will remain the same: promotion of media literacy; support of industry standards efforts such as Creative Commons licensing, Microformats, Data Portability and OpenID; discussion and promotion of ethical behavior; and sharing our knowledge among our members and the industry community at large.”

Co-Founder and Social Media Club President Kristie Wells added, “We are grateful to have received so much support from around the world over the past two years. With nearly 200 paying members and over 500 open members – we are deeply appreciative of the volunteer efforts to make the Social Media Club a success. With leading corporate members, such as Business Wire and SHIFT Communications, as well as dedicated individual professionals, the Social Media Club will continue to gain momentum and serve the greater needs of the industry while sharing our lessons learned along the way.”

The board will also focus on increasing its research efforts and strengthening relationships with other organizations such as the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) and the International Association for Business Communicators (IABC). The interim board’s work will be completed once the club reorganizes as a new entity, and holds an election amongst its members for a formal Board of Directors.

The newly named/appointed members of the interim board are leading social media analysts, bloggers and business leaders, and are as follows:

Lee Aase – Social Media University, Global
Rohit Bhargava – Influential Marketing Blog and Personality Not Included
Richard Binhammer – RichardatDell
Michael Brito – Britopian and Conversations Matter
Chris Brogan – ChrisBrogan.com
Mike Chapman – Austin Social Media Club and Every Dot Connects
Megan Cole – MeganCole.org
Alex de Carvalho – alexdc.org and Social Object
Todd Defren – SHIFT Communications and www.pr-squared.com
Serena Ehrlich – Business Wire
Jason Falls – Social Media Explorer
Maggie Fox – Social Media Group
Jon Gatrell – spatiallyrelevant.org
Howard Greenstein – HowardGreenstein.com
Francine Hardaway – Stealthmode
Josh Hallett – Hyku
Annie Heckenberger – pikpr.blogspot.com and redspurs.com
Chuck Hester – iContact
Chris Heuer – ChrisHeuer.com
Sherry Heyl – Mind Blogging
Tara Hunt – HorsePigCow
Bill Johnston – Forum One Networks Forum and Online Community Report
Jennifer McClure – Society for New Communications Research
Mike McGrath – Dogpatch Dispatch
Jake McKee – CommunityGuy.com and Ant’s Eye View
Gregory Narain – SocialTwister
Lee Odden – Online Marketing Blog and TopRank
Erica OGrady – ReinventingErica.com and Peanut Butter Media
Jeremiah Owyang – Web Strategist
David Parmet – Marketing Begins At Home, LLC and PerkettPR
Jackie Peters – heavyBlog
Doug Pollei – pollei.com
Pierre-Yves Platini – Yoono
Douglas Pollei – Pollei.com
Connie Reece – Every Dot Connects and Austin Social Media Club
Chris Saad – ChrisSaad.com
Andy Sernovitz – Word of Mouth Marketing and GasPedal
Brian Solis – PR2.0
J.J. Toothman – jjtoothman.net and Red Pill
Todd Van Hoosear – Tech PR Gems
Des Walsh –
Kristie Wells – KristieWells.com

About the Social Media Club

The Social Media Club centers on the sharing of best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and promoting media literacy with a focus on the emerging discipline of Social Media. The Social Media Club brings together journalists, publishers, communication professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaborators who create and consume media and have an interest in seeing the industry improve and evolve. The Social Media Club provides a forum for diverse groups and individuals to discover, connect, share and learn about social media and to play a role in its future evolution.

To find out more about the opportunities in social media and connect with other practitioners, visit: http://www.socialmediaclub.org

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No, Having A Blog Does NOT Make You A Social Media Guru

Erica — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:35:38 +0000

A couple years ago my friend Bryan created a site called Buzzword Hell. This was, naturally, where all good Buzzwords went to die. Only – they didn’t die. They went mainstream. And suddenly everyone was using terms like Web 2.0 and AJAX. And it didn’t matter that they had no idea what these words meant – using them just felt cool.

Each year at SXSWi there is a series called: “How to Bluff Your Way in _________”. In 2005 it was – “How to Bluff Your Way in CSS”, 2006 brought us “How to Bluff Your Way in Dom Scripting”, and by 2007 we were bluffing our way in Web 2.0.

The idea behind this series – is to learn just enough jargon about a particular topic to fool your friends and collegues at parties and social gatherings. And though it’s all meant in good fun – the sad truth is that’s what a lot of people are doing in Social Media today.

In the late 1990′s, Life Coaching became popular – and suddenly everyone was a Life Coach, Creativity Coach, Executive Coach, or Lifestyles Coach. Now don’t get me wrong – some of these “coaches” were amazingly effective at helping their clients achieve their goals. In fact, I had a “Life Coach” for several years – and am extremely grateful to her for helping me to become the person I am today.

However, not all Life Coaches were created equal. And a fair many of them were capitalizing on a fad. They figured out that “Coaching” was the latest fashion – and so they dressed themselves up with the latest jargon and buzzwords – and they found out that it worked! Suddenly they had paying clients – and were being billed as experts. And because “Perception is Reality” a lot of times – they got away with it. The trouble with wearing the latest fashion trends – is that sooner or later they are going to go out of style.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen the exact same trend with Social Media. And so has my friend Brian Solis – who posted a similar article today entitled “Get Rich Quick with Social Media“. 3 months ago – hardly anyone in my little neck of the woods had heard of Social Media – now there are “Social Media Gurus” popping up all over the place. And let’s not forget the “Blogging Coaches”, “Podcasting Coaches”, and even “Web 2.0 Gurus” <– YUCK!

I’ve been working in New Media for nearly 7 years and in web design for nearly 15 years. I started my first blog in 2001. I know a lot of the people who created the so-called “Web 2.0″ tools that are popular today – and I’ve private beta tested more applications than I can even begin to count. But guess what? I’m NOT a Social Media Guru. Not even close. And the truth is – I’m not sure I want to be.

The problem is – Social Media is NOT about technology or Web 2.0 applications. The first question a potential client usually asks me is “What is Social Media?”. Here’s the answer I always give.

Social Media is Word-of-Mouth or Community Based Marketing that leverages technology to enable conversation.

Let’s break that down.

First and foremost Social Media is Word-of-Mouth Marketing. This concept is by no means new. When my Grandma Opal was young – chances are she went to the same stores as her mother went to, used the same mechanic, bought her meat from the same butcher, and got her hair cut at the same beauty salon. Why? Because her mother recommended them – and what’s more – she already had an established relationship with them. Relationships mattered. People mattered.

Social Media also helps people to connect and create communities around, well, almost anything. Pick a topic, product, service,idea – or even an “object” – and you can use Social Media to create a living breathing community. Of course the health of that community is only as good as the people and ideas who make it up – but that’s another post all together.

Social Media Leverages Technology. Did you notice that I didn’t say Social Media IS Technology? Social Media uses the power of online tools and social networks to help people communicate. Period.

The Tools – the Technology. They only do one thing. They enable conversation. And conversations help build relationships between people. And Social Media is about relationships. People want to do business with people they trust. And people don’t trust strangers. So once again Relationships Matter. People Matter.

So if you want to participate in this new Social Media revolution. And you want to be more than just a fad. Then it’s time to find your own uniqueness, stop using jargon and buzzwords, and start being authentic. Maybe then you’ll become a classic.

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Company-Customer Pact – Have You Signed Yet?

Erica — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:07:38 +0000

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