Limited Audience

The biggest challenge to using social media to push information to the public is that not everybody is on facebook, twitter, myspace, or whatever network you choose. There are some people who live long productive lives without bothering with social networks. There are a bunch more who check their networks on occasion rather than daily. The vast majority are simply on a different network. You can’t reach that many people.

Access During a Disaster

Modern living is highly dependent on electricity. In the event of a destructive hurricane, earthquake, or other event that knocks out power indefinitely, it is likely that many people will be unable to receive disaster updates. After all, batteries don’t last forever. Even if you have a laptop you can plug into your vehicle for power, how will you get Internet when power is out? Theoretically, if you are in a disaster area, you are the most in need of information rather than people safely outside the area, right?

Limited Sphere of Influence

Not everybody has a million friends on social media. Plenty of people are content to have a few dozen friends. Even then, it’s just a few dozen friends, which may not include the Press.

How Social Media Can Help In Disasters

Social media is most useful when people rebroadcast updates to their own circles of friends prior to a disaster. Obviously, this only works when you know a disaster is coming, like a hurricane or giant meteor. This way, people are able to inform their friends and family with the latest. Let’s repeat that it does not reach everybody; but, you can always use the telephone too.

Another way that social media can help with a disaster is by organizing aid to the affected area afterwards. There is limited use for social media for people at the scene. Recovery efforts require manpower and resources, neither of which travels through the Internet. However, those organizing a response are able to connect and make things happen to bring both to the affected area.

That brings me to the final thought on the use of social media. It is all good and well that you want to raise awareness. Sadly, today’s populace wants to be told what to do and how to do it. We are slowly evolving to a nanny state where we look to others for direction. Awareness is not good enough. Your social media message should include instructions. Ask people to donate. Instruct people to evacuate. Let people know that you have space at your shelter. Tell people to stock up on supplies. Social media falls short in that it typically consists of “raising awareness”. Put some action items in your social media campaign. Don’t forget to instruct your audience to share that knowledge and instructions with their neighbors. Like political campaigns, disaster preparation and response depends highly on fieldwork. Connect and mobilize.

There is an increasing amount of evidence that human beings are very lousy at multitasking. Yes, we may be doing two or three things at once; but in the long-run, it takes us longer to accomplish these things in parallel than it would have taken us to do them in series. So, if saving time is your goal, then multitasking is one of the the last things you should do.

Not only do you take longer to accomplish tasks when switching back and forth, you also do a worse job than if you had focused on one task.

Having a smartphone is great. It allows me to do many of the same things that I would normally do at a computer. As a matter of fact, I check more email and other messages on my phone than at the computer. However, I have started to question the value of knowing when email comes in. So, I started with turning off audio notifications. This alone saved a lot of time as I’m not checking the phone with every ding. However, I still check more frequently than necessary because there is a visual notification. I’m going to turn that off next and only check messages when I choose to check rather than when they come in. That includes text messages. No more interruptions except phone calls, which I don’t get many of.

Also from now on, only one window open on my desktop at a time. This is a bit tricky and will probably be violated when writing, which invariably requires reading other references. Having multiple applications running leads one to compulsively switch amongst them for no good reason.

Social media is another time eater. I think I can batch my interactions rather than constantly checking or being notified what others are doing.

Finally, working without a plan has to stop. One of the reasons why I am a vicious multitasker is because of a lack of forethought. There is that saying that if you believe in nothing, you’ll fall for anything. Similarly, if you don’t have a plan on what to do with your time, you’ll do anything and everything. Having a plan in place should keep me focused on the work that needs to get done.

I am on the fence about turning off my phone or the ringer when I’m working. Interruptions are another variant of multitasking. The damage is done from having to switch from one task to another, which interruptions cause. For now, I do not get too many phone calls; however, that may change as I choke off other channels for people to communicate with me.

What do you think? Will it work?

Tonight I got to talk about web presence with some social media friends over dinner. We have all had experiences with clients who want a website or a social media presence; but they do not want to spend any time building it. By this, I don’t mean the technical parts; those can be outsourced. I mean, they do not want to spend any time building content for their web presence. They want to hire out the blogging, photography, social media interaction, and other aspects that require some inside knowledge of their business.

The first thing that is wrong with this scenario is that only somebody who is aware of the ins and outs of your business should be at the helm of your social media presence. Having a website is time consuming. One generally recommends that you spend time updating the site often with new content. Having a brochure website that simply lists basic information only will not cut it. It’s like opening another branch office in another town with a brochure rack inside.

The alternative is to at least put somebody on the task of fielding messages from the website. Open up that branch and at the minimum put a receptionist at that office. If you want a little bit better return on your branch investment, then put somebody at that branch that can handle communications and maybe even make a few sales.

The situation reminds me of a part in the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, where the author relates that landscapers often get requests from people to create gardens that don’t require maintenance. Of course, the answer is “if there is no gardener, there is no garden.” Same with a website; if there is no content creator, there is no benefit to your website.

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I first met Holly at Freelancecamp San Antonio where we discussed some ideas on how to get a social media community going. I’m still working on my end, but have challenges with traveling over a larger region. What is exciting is that if she and I successfully get our projects off the ground, Texas will be the best represented state in the social media sphere. It is for this reason that I suggest you follow Holly Hoffman on Twitter or other social media sites if you are in the Gulf Coast area.

Nobody wants to try it

It is funny that with over 1,000 twitter followers and I don’t know how many people read this blog, only four people have cared to share their location with me. It makes me wonder how successful the utility will be in the long run. I think, like social media, most people just “don’t get it”.

There are levels of trust

Here are a couple things to clarify about Latitude. First, you only share your position with people you choose; this means only people you trust will be able to see where you are on their Latitude phone app. You can trust them a little, so that they know in which town you are in; or you can trust them a lot, so they can know approximately in what neighborhood you are in. You can also choose to not share your location with specific people from time to time. Of course, you can also turn off the app completely. In other words, you control who knows your location at any time.

They’re watching you! No, they’re not.

The biggest concern I hear expressed is, “I don’t want Google knowing where I am.” I seem to recall the same argument about Gmail and contextual ads years ago when it was first launched, “I don’t want Google reading my emails.” Here we are many years later and millions of people have Gmail accounts, some even multiple accounts.

I think what happened was that people realized that nobody is reading your emails. A server out of many thousands at Google scans your email for context and matches the right ads to it. Nobody at Google has time to look at your email account riddled with forwards, bacn, spam, real messages, and email verifications. The manpower is not there; especially now with cutbacks The same is true with Latitude.

Raise your hands in the air, like Google just don’t care

Google doesn’t care where you are. The people you ought to be worried about knowing your location (see those black vans?) can already track your mobile phone without Latitude or GPS, and without your permission. Google, on the other hand, doesn’t benefit from knowing where you are; what do they care? The people who benefit are you, your friends who participate, and the coffee shop where you’ll meet up after seeing your friend nearby.

What is Google really doing?

Google’s aim is to create a platform that will open up social media in new ways. The fashion in social media these days is the Tweetup. You agree to meet with a friend or two at a predetermined location through Twitter. Other people then see your tweets and jump in. Latitude eliminates the pre-planning. Let’s say you see a friend in the neighborhood and start up a chat to maybe get together at the park or a cafe. Maybe you’re out of town and don’t know that a friend is also visiting the same town, instant meetup. Perhaps you saw a big news event on twitter and see that one of your friends is out near where it happened, you got yourself a first-hand witness (wait for news organizations to realize that one).

Latitude’s real value

The real value of Latitude has not sunk in. Latitude can help create social experiences that you might otherwise miss. There is only so much socializing you can do from your keyboard at home through social media; doing it in person adds a whole other dimension. You’re more likely to get together with people while you’re out and about. It’s like Second Life; except it’s real life (and you can’t fly or teleport).

Productivity and social media

It is an illusion that if your employees are not on social media that they are spending their time working. The get up to go to the bathroom, stop by the water cooler, to ask their co-workers what they are doing after work, in non-productive meetings, making personal phone calls, and probably even side-stepping your corporate network through their smartphones to use social media. Productivity comes in little spurts throughout the day. The rest of the day is just killing time between spurts. I propose that if you want to keep social media under control, you should probably require your employees to use it. We all know that as soon as we require something it stops being fun. Seriously, there is one case of a company that has most, if not all, employees on Twitter, check out Zappos. Obviously, they’ve taken this to an extreme; but guess what, they’re still in business. If social media were such a waste of time, wouldn’t they have stopped by now?

But we have an image to maintain

The reason why social media works in a company like Zappos is that instead of social media being an escape from the daily grind, it has a focus. Your company can use the socializing that would occur anyway to promote the business. Think about it, your employees could secretly spend time on social media, or openly do it while promoting your business. In companies where social media is forbidden, the employee does not mention, promote, or offer help people who have expressed frustration online. If you aren’t online to participate with your clients, what image does that give? They are talking about your company anyway; wouldn’t you rather resolve any problems before word gets out that your company left somebody dissatisfied?

Are there any recurring costs?

Most social media is free. Unless you are creating your own home-grown variety of community, your upfront cost is minimal. You already pay for internet, your employees have computers and mobile phones, many employees are already on social networks, and many are interested. All your company needs is the green light to sign up and go. You may want to spend a little time setting some ground rules, like no nude pics, so that everybody is clear that their online presence has a business purpose. The tools are there, you just have to use them.

When hiring social media consultants

If you aren’t sure about undertaking social media in your company, you can hire somebody to help you put a plan together. In the article I mentioned above, there is a very good case for companies not hiring out their social media presence. Social media is not a hired out campaign. There is good reason to believe that rather than hiring a marketing company for your company’s social media initiative, it is best if your company does its own social media in-house. This, of course, would save your company money and increase your understanding of what people are saying about your company directly from those who use your products and services. If you are considering the use of social media for your business, look for a consultant who will work themselves out of a job. The good guys know that once you know the ropes, you can take it from there.

The Grocery Store Analogy

The way I see social media is as an extension of people and organizations. Let me use the analogy of the supermarket. When you walk into the store, you pretty much have an idea how things work. You walk up and down the isles to find what you need. Every once in a while you have trouble finding something. What do you do? Do you look for the customer service counter? Some stores have one, but usually if you’re just looking for yams, you’ll ask the first employee you see. You don’t care if it’s a cashier, sacker, or manager. You just need somebody who knows how the store is organized to point you to where to find the yams.

Translated to social media, you want that ability to talk to somebody, anybody who can help with your problem. You don’t necessarily need one super employee who can solve any problem, just a liaison who can point you in the right direction. The first one you stumble upon will do. Yes, businesses can designate one guy to be your social media contact, or they can empower their cashiers, sackers, stockers, and managers to help. Not having a social media presence is like having all the staff working behind the customer service counter. The customer has to go hunt for somebody to get help, not exactly customer friendly. When you simply want to find yams, you don’t want to have to stand in the customer service line to ask.

Who’s In Charge?

The type of product or service you provide will determine who is in charge of your social media initiative. It is conventional wisdom amongst the social media crowd that people will talk about businesses whether they are involved in the conversation or not. Anybody wishing to control their message is better off being online participating in the conversations. Two ways of participating are to designate one person or a small group of people, or to empower almost everybody in the organization. In politics, for example, you may want one person in charge of the message because there is an art to saying things without burning bridges. Not everybody has this talent. But if you’re manufacturing park benches, so long as all the employees recognize their benches are the best, it doesn’t matter who says it, online or offline.

If you designate the one guy to do it, then your company takes a risk in that the one guy builds his own audience. When the one girl takes his place, she almost has to start over again because everybody will be looking for the one guy who moved on. She’ll have to re-establish relationships and learn the ropes. She’ll have the dual role of being a person and the company to your customers. For any worker, your biggest asset is the network you create while working at your company. Every time you lose that one guy, you have to rebuild the network.

In the other scenario where all or many of your employees participate in social media, customers will talk to the first available person. If that one person leaves, any other can be easily substituted because the customer knows in advance that they are all equally able to assist. Each employee only owns a small portion of your company’s social media contacts and may even share some of them with other employees. We’ve all been ticked off from time to time when an employee sheds any responsibility by saying, “it’s not my job.” Spreading out the social media responsibility means that it’s everybody’s job to help the customer.

I Thought Social Media Would Help Me Make Money

The only way you make money is by selling a product or service. Social media does not do either of these any more than your telephone does. The key difference is that whereas a telephone conversation is ethereal and one-to-one, social media is one-to-one and one-to-many. One employee can deal with an individual or with the public. In addition, social media is indexable and searchable. That knowledge is transferable. But going back to the searchable part, you can find leads interested in your product or service almost as soon as they express their interest. Social media doesn’t make you money, it helps you find and connect with people who need to exchange their money for your product or service. After the sale, social media helps you keep that connection to ensure customer satisfaction to keep them coming back for more. In the case where you have a client who is bad for your business, you can help them find a company better suited to their needs, like the competition.

Social Media Won’t Make You Smarter

You’ll notice I hardly mentioned any services other than Twitter. This is because the services are not one-size-fits-all. Furthermore, the social media services merely extend and amplify our reach. But for them to work, we still have to know who to reach and how. If you are a successful business person, social media won’t make you a better business person; your IQ won’t go up. Rather, social media can make your job easier by giving you options much like you choose your club when playing golf. You use different ones for different situations. Your God-given social skills are still the force behind your social media presence. For the company as a whole, your company culture is what the public will see.

If your company has poor internal communications or a dog-eat-dog culture, people will see that online and offline. If you’re a bad golf player, it doesn’t matter what club you use, you’ll still suck. Social media doesn’t have built-in functions to help you deal with irate customers. Calming the customer will depend on your own skills. Whoever you or your company are in real life are what you’ll be online. So, get your company squared away on how to deal with your customers now before you enter social media.

I Missed How to Integrate Social Media. What Are You Saying?

There is no integration of social media. You either let your employees use social media as employees or not. Set your policy to reflect your goals. To find out how your customers want to connect with you, ask them which social media services they prefer. Use them all and see which ones get the best response. If your customers speak Spanish, wouldn’t you have your employees learn Spanish? If your customers speak Facebook, then learn Facebook. You may find that the Marketing people prefer some services and the Accounting people prefer others. They have different audiences and should probably use different services. Let those connections happen organically. Just as you can’t predict whether something can go viral, you can’t expect that you’re organized approach will take your industry by storm. You can’t standardize relationships. As in life, the strength of your relationships is what will ultimately matter when it comes down to whether you make the sale or not. Make relationship-building your guide for integrating social media into your business just as you use conferences and corporate events to network.