Social media has been around for a few years now and is finally becoming useful for personal, professional, and business reasons.

However, many B2B companies still believe social media is just a fad.  Some companies might see that social media is not a fad but believe that it is not applicable to their industry.  Often, even when a company acknowledges that social media is valuable, their online life does not reflect that understanding.

Has your B2B company fully accepted the power of social media?  If not, perhaps the following satistics will be very convincing:

Original source:  Social Media Today

In what ways has your company embraced (or not embraced) social media?

Yes, I said it.  That’s the ticket!  Who says you have to tell everybody everything?  Let me be clear though.  I am not saying be so afraid of protecting your privacy that you don’t participate at all.  I’m just saying be smart.  I see people all the time who slip up just enough to make themselves a target for people who are less than honest.  Good example, I just saw a Facebook status update that read, “Can’t wait to visit my folks in VA… 3 days to go.”  Does that make sense?  How about this simple but fact filled tweet that I saw that read, “Hungry, going to get a sandwich at the Subway.” Ok, just say you are going to leave the door open because this guy is very well known in the city.  It wouldn’t be hard to know where he lives and he’s always tweeting like this.

I ran across this very interesting article by Christopher Penn that puts a statistical spend on this issue of being transparent.  He reminds us that everybody is not a friend.  Now I know that stings but social media has made us drop our guard a little bit more than our mothers would recommend.  There are over 4,000 people who follow me on Twitter.  The moment I forget that I’m not just tweeting to my known business associates and my family then I’m putting myself at risk. 

Again let me emphasize that this is not about being so afraid that participation is impossible.  I’m saying be as smart online as you are in person.  In person, I take certain percautions, like keeping my purse on my arm instead of in the basket at the store.  Or, if someone who looks friendly approaches my car, I will not open the door or window.  Why? Because everyone is not friendly. That’s the reality of our world.

So what are some ways to share online without being totaly exposed?  I have a few suggestions.

• Never say that you are in a certain place at the time of your tweet or update.  Use past tense verbs.  Enjoyed my sandwich from Subway or really liked having coffee at Starbucks.  You’re not obligated to tell everyone that you’re still there.
• Don’t follow people automatically on Foursquare, Gowalla or any location based service.  Be a little bit more prudent here than on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or your blog.  The whole point of the location based services is to let people know what you’re doing and maybe even join you there.  Perhaps you have an app that let’s you see who’s near you.  So, just like we do in real life when we are deciding who to hang out with, vet these potential followers a little more before letting them in on your whereabouts.
• The changes Facebook made to the personal profile gives more information.  Be sure you visit the edit section and take out what you don’t want seen.  Also, Facebook decides what your top 5 pictures where you have been tagged will be but you can untag yourself on any that you don’t want or create a list of the ones you want to show.

I’m sure there are way more suggestions than this.  What would you suggest?  How do you remember to stay safe when online?

I was going through my usual routine of reading today’s news online when I came across this article in the New York Times:

One Step Back From the Digital World

The title really caught my eye.  Every few years, there seem to be people talking about how technology is not giving us that promised rest and less work that we were expecting.  My initial thought was we can’t step back, we’re in too deep.  However, as I read the article I began to agree with the writer.  It seems that his point is that we should put the technology down sometimes so we can be fully present for the people in our line of sight.

I know I am guilty of some things that I would never have thought would be me.  For instance, instead of climbing the stairs to say something to my husband, I will text him.  Yes, text him!  Honey, will you bring my reading glasses down with you?  I have to laugh as I remember that before SMS, I would have hollered or climbed the stairs. 

My husband and I are young baby boomers so text messaging each other in the house is one thing but we don’t text others more than just talk to them on the phone or in person.  Now, the young people we hang around, typically those in their teens and 20’s, amaze me with the amount of text messages they send out.  I asked a parent about this who said their teen sends about 3,000 messages a month.  I asked if that is a concern for most parents.  Most parents tell me that this is just the way it is now.  All the kids are doing it. (I won’t bother saying what my parents would have said to that. Are you old (I mean wise) enough to remember?

All of my own children are in their mid to late 20’s.  I continue to get my eyes opened when I watch their interactions with others.  Once I was in the room with my daughter while she was giving some advice to a teen about college.  Later, I asked her if she was bothered that the teen never looked up from her phone while they were talking.  My daughter hadn’t even noticed.  At this point texting all the time is just natural to her.  Is this a sign of the times?

Whatever happened to downtime?  The time every week where people relax, recreate, and rejuvenate sometimes alone but often with others.  I must admit that I try very hard to hold on to my weekends but often I feel guilty because I know that others are up and out even on Sundays handling business.  Now add the technology and you don’t even have to leave your house to be busy with handling business.  You could be at dinner across the table from your spouse and kids yet really be many miles away from what is going on right in front of you because of email, SMS, and other digital ways of being in other places. 

To say the least, the technology that allows us to communicate in real time is a great thing to have.  I  admit that I love meeting people who I might not have ever had the opportunity to know because of distance.  And, as a mother, I really enjoyed spying on all our kids while they were in college.  However, used relentlessly, I believe social networks can be the downfall of many other opportunities to communicate in real time.  I am a huge proponent of using all the technology available so I don’t believe we should let go of all the progress that has been made.  Perhaps we shouldn’t let that progress cause us to regress in terms of being actually present in person. 

Oh, excuse me while I answer this text. LOL!  

Now we have come to the meat and potatoes about using Twitter to help you achieve your business communication goals.  I say that you need to have a lot of tenacity to stick to going after building relationships with people that you meet on Twitter.  It is a major mind shift.  No longer are we just networking in person trying to get an introduction to someone important to our publicity strategy.  Now we need to understand how to play well with others on the digital playground or else we may not have many friends.

Use Twitter to connect with anyone you want.

Millions of people have a Twitter profile.  It can seem like a daunting task to really get to know anyone.

How do you connect and build relationships using Twitter?

Use Twitter to earn attention by establishing that you know what you are talking about.  You could:

Be the first to let the media know something is happening in your industry.

Be the first to report any news that you see along the way. It may seem unrelated to establishing your expertise but think about it like this, the squawking bird gets the attention.  The point is to just get used to using Twitter frequently and to get people following you because you are interesting.

Start blogging!  Twitter and blogs make a perfect pair.  Make sure your blog has an RSS feed so that it can be automatically tweeted whenever you create a new post.  Blogging is another way to be seen as the expert and it gives you the forum to put that expertise on display.

Give away information.  Write e-books, conduct surveys and give away the results in the form of a white paper or a PowerPoint presentation.  To get the most traction out of giving away information you should set it up like this: 

Create the content and build a landing page for it on your site,

Tweet the link to that landing page,

On the page, ask the person to fill out a form that ask for simple information (email the most important)

Let them download the content

Use Twitter to gain intelligence about the people with whom you want to connect.

After you follow the person, then go deeper.  You could:

Check their Twitter profile for links to their other places.  Are they on LinkedIn, FaceBook or do they blog?  Use the information to find out other places where you can connect with them a little closer.  For example, are you a 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd connection with them on LinkedIn.  You’d be surprised how many times you’ll find that you are already closer to the person than you know.

Notice what the people you want to connect to tweet about and find ways to involve yourself in the conversation.  Do they have a question you can answer or do you share a real love for dogs.  What can put you on common ground so your conversation will be natural.

Do you remember all those business cards in your desk drawer?  Get them out and try to find the people you’ve met in person on Twitter.  This will extend the conversations you started having in person.

Here’s a few tips that will help you play well with others on Twitter.

It’s about the business of being human, reaching out to people and creating community.

It’s ok to form communities outside of the ones under your own control.  For example, subscribe to someone else’s blog and really participate.

Always be humble. You’re not really the owner of your brand.

Listen and acknowledge.  Participation will help your community grow.

We’re talking about Twitter but building community is not about where. When you met people on Twitter you will find that they may be more visible on other sites and you’ll want to be willing to connect with them where they actually are.

Don’t you hate being at a party or event and end up talking to someone all night who just talks about themselves or who you feel only wants relationships as long as they are making money from you?  Once your basic needs are met, then the pursuit of happiness becomes more important.  In your desire to connect with people (and make money), think more about bringing happiness. Everybody needs that.  Listen to Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.  He explains this much better and his company is one of the best examples of good use of social media and creating company cultures that work (community).  Tony was interviewed on HP’s Input | Output program.

You can’t outsource community building.  Don’t give it to interns or outside workers.  You can outsource some of the administrative work like setting up the profiles or dashboards, training, or research.  However, do use consultants to help you develop the strategy and tools you will use so you don’t waste time figuring it all out.

Should you separate your personal life from your professional life?  The lines are blurring but you need to think about whom your main audience is so can tailor your online message.  Everything about you does not have to be broadcast.

Are you using some unique ways to connect with people on Twitter?  What are you doing?  We all want to know!

In the last post we talked about some of the problems people have with using Twitter. A major concern that I run into a lot is the idea of how to organize tweets to create or follow conversation. By far, the first thing that needs to happen is to select the tools for organizing your tweets. Twitter has heard this concern too and recently they changed the Twitter home page by adding features to help us utilize advanced functions. It works great. But what about Facebook, Fan Pages, and LinkedIn. Is there a way to have everything thing in one convenient place you may ask. My answer to you is a resounding yes! Here’s how. Use a tool such as Hootsuite, TweetDeck, or Seesmic . I have used all three and in my humble opinion, Hootsuite is the winner. However, I would suggest that you try out all three or whatever tool you like as long as it does the same as these. Now let’s take a look at Hootsuite as a social media organizational system.

Hootsuite gives you very powerful tools that bring everything you need to stay abreast of what is happening in your social media world. When selecting a tool such as this look for speed first. You don’t want to be sitting around all day just waiting for the thing to load or refresh. Also, consider ease of use. How much information can you see right on the dashboard. Is it easy to make comments or follow conversations. Take a moment to view this short video created by Chris Voss, of the Chris Voss Show, (that’s the Chris Voss Show, he always says it twice) as he talks about his first impression of Hootsuite.

Which one you select is not as important as knowing that it is easy to use so you will, well, use it.  Here’s another short video from Melissa who blogs at Adverturoo.  She’s a new find for me but I already love what I just saw of her mommy plus marketing blog.  In this video you’ll get a basic overview of a few of the major functions of Hootsuite.

Now that we’ve comvered the basic of organizing your tweets and other social media sites, let’s pick up again next week with a talk about strategy for building followers, dialogue, and relationships that help you meet your desired goals.

What are your questions about Hootsuite?  Go ahead to the comment box and ask away!