Friday, April 10, 2009

There Is No Social Media Department

Geoff Livingston (The Buzz Bin guy) has a great post today arguing there is no such thing as a social media department. His feeling (one that I agree with actually) is that every "department" has the capability to do social media. Granted, there will be people who become good at it, but that doesn't mean other departments cannot adopt it too.

By the way, it will be interesting to see how this blog changes (if at all). Geoff's firm was bought by CRT/tanaka.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Social Media Isn't for Everybody

When you make statements like that you sometimes have to duck. There are those who feel that social media is appropriate for everybody. Guess what? It isn't! If your stakeholders are not taking part in online conversations what makes you think joining one of them yourself will bring them there? What this article also says (thanks to Lisa Zone for sharing!) is that the listening phase of social media is critical. Again, I agree 1,000%.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135605

How do you define a social media expert?

The term "social media expert" has a negative conotation, particularly among the people who are quite obviously experts. There were three posts on the topic of social media experts this week, and I'd encourage you to check out all three:

Lisa Hoffmann - she had always been against using the term social media expert because it is difficult to be an expert on an industry that is moving so quickly. However, her post the other day argued that because she (and others) were unwilling to take the mantle that it had been taken over by people who were far from experts.

Mack Collier - his points are similar to Lisa's, though he does take some consultants to task for relying solely on a lengthly client list as a demonstration of expertise.

Beth Harte - she could be considered a social media expert, but doesn't want to take that title because her feeling is that once you become an expert you stop learning. (not sure I agree with her argument, but it's worth reading anyway)

Persistence: The Key to Social Media Strategy

It seems as if there have been a lot of posts on social media strategy lately, and this is no exception. David Finch argues, rightly I think, that building a "community" is not something you can pull off in a day.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Guarding your Online Reputation

One of the misconceptions of social media (at least in my opinion) is that joining Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the like is the only way you can participate in the process. Quite the contrary. Listening to your customers (if they are talking to each other through social networks) can be just as useful for companies, particularly from a online reputation managment perspective. Check out this example from Fortune Small Business that demonstrates just that.

The Power of Twitter Continues!

It's always cool to see examples of how companies used a social network, like Twitter, to reach and engage their customers. Check out this USA Today story

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Who Makes up the Facebook Community

These are just some interesting stats on the makeup of Facebook users worldwide from Matt Dickman. Check them out when you have a chance.