A Tale of Social Media

One of my first experiences with the internet was reading the Drudge Report. The fact that a Website could break news before the big networks (ABC, CBS & NBC) really caught my attention. Fast forward a decade and social media has turned every subscriber or member into a potential Drudge Report. Anyone can pick up a tidbit of note worthy information and in an instant transmit it to hundreds of people. That’s great for anyone that has a story they want to tell, but what about the stories you’d prefer to keep to yourself?

My wife and I recently welcomed our first child into the world. We agreed that we would not use social media to announce her birth. Instead we wanted to keep the news to our selves and share it with our friends and family as we saw fit. We’d get photo’s to our parents by email or maybe set up a private site for an online album. There would be no Tweets, status updates or mass announcements.

Our daughter was born in the afternoon and by that evening the news was all over the social sphere. Her name, and photo’s were on Facebook and my email and voicemail was full of well wishes and requests for photo’s and Skype sessions.

Andy Warhol said, “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” How is it that despite my best efforts to stymie my daughters rise to internet notoriety she still got her 15 and then some?

In his book “Good to Great”, Jim Collins asserts that in business, technology is only an accelerator. If a firm’s core values and process are strong, the technology will help accelerate growth. If the same variables are weak, technology won’t fix a thing.

I think the same idea can be applied to social media. Before there was MySpace, social groups developed around coffee makers and water coolers. Informal organizations of people created their own rules and communication norms and there were very clear member versus non-member distinctions.

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn wrap technology around these informal organizations of people and allow members to transmit news, information and scuttlebutt at the speed of the internet.

It was naive to for me to think that I could control the flow of information about my child’s birth by not announcing it myself on Facebook. That kind of thinking is as futile as trying to stop the spread of good gossip by simply avoiding the water cooler.

It only took one person posting an update about my child’s arrival to start a chain reaction. Each new post made the information available to a wider interlocking network of friends and family. There was no way to control it and no way to stop it.

The birth of a child is good news and we all need more of that and less news about oil spills, Wall street’s shenanigans and Dancing with the Stars. It’s not a big deal that my daughter’s arrival was televised. But what about an unhappy customer? What kind of damage could be done with a few Tweets to a large enough audience? You can’t just avoid the water cooler.

So what do you do about it? I recommend four steps, the “four Be’s”

1. Be the Best – first, to avoid social networking crises; strive to make yourself and your business the best you possibly can. Pay attention to customers and do your best to meet their needs.
   
2. Be Involved – we know our business cannot be perfect and there will be times when customers find themselves unhappy. Some unhappy customers may never say anything to your firm, but they may spread their frustration with you through outlets such as social media. Thus, this point is to pay attention to social media. Use available utilities such as Cotweet to search social networks for information about your company and your customers.
3. Be Reactive – simply put: when social media presents something about your company, whether good or bad, do what you can to either encourage or amend the situation. Contact an unhappy customer or send a thank you note to a happy customer. Utilize these items to your advantage as you add value to your business.
4. Be Selective – use social media to post information about your business: blogs, seminars, updates, event, etc. However, be selective in what you give out to social media. People are easily annoyed by the person or firm who posts any and every little detail that comes to mind. Keep in touch, but make fewer posts with more pertinent information.

Social media is a daunting tool that can be terribly detrimental or extremely useful to your business. Examine and define your approach to social media carefully. If you or your small business are interested in utilizing Social Media, click here.   I’d be happy to discuss your plan.

Could your CEO be One of the Bay Area’s Most Admired?

I received this e-mail from the San Francisco Business Times last week.The publisher is taking applications from Bay Area firms for the publications list of the bay areas most admired CEOs.

If you admire your CEO, I suggest that you give this a look.  Accolades are always nice and this is an easy way to bring your business leader and your business to the attention of the San Francisco Business Times’ readership.

 The San Francisco Business Times will honor 12 outstanding leaders of Bay Area enterprises in a special report, and at a gala awards dinner recognizing the Bay Area’s Most Admired CEOs Thursday, November 19 at the Hilton San Francisco.

Nominees must be present November 19 to receive the award.  Nominees will be selected from the SFBT coverage area, including the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano.

About Jason:

Not Your Grandmothers Radio

Last week I reported to all you IT management avid bloggers out there about my recent traumatic accident. Well, it was more tragic for my Jeep and my left wrist than for me. Since last week I have purchased an awesome 2008 Jetta from Dublin Volkswagen (thanks Ryan). It’s so cute and nice inside, and I will be the first to admit that it’s a chick car, but pretty much the sweetest chick car out there.  Besides its engine stuff, great gas mileage (25/gallon) sleek interior, it comes with something I never even knew I wanted- Satellite Radio!

Since its inception several years ago I have been interested in this form of media. Television and radio have always been favorites of mine due to their constant nature and background noise.  It’s just a matter of transitioning to a format that I’m not used to that never pushed me into this new realm. I’m happy to see this venture becoming successful, I feared we would lose it due to people like me- nerds who want it but are too lazy to do anything. Sirius and XM have recently joined to become one satellite powerhouse.  It took a year of litigation to approve of this merger due to anti-trust laws and fear from old school radio networks. Although I’m pro mom and pop operations and against Walmart-esque monsters taking advantage of capitalist America, I feel that there is enough room and desire for Siri-ex (not sure how they have combined names, I like my idea).

My Jeep Grand Cherokee (Rest in Peace 1994-2008) had been sans radio for the last year, not to mention the persistent check engine light, humming at fast speeds, clicking noise which I could not locate and random shutting off of all music for no apparent reason. Poor girl needed to go the way of “old Yeller”, but I never had it in me, so instead I rear ended a Dodge Van in 580 morning commute! That being said, it’s not surprising that when I drove my 2008 Jetta for the first time and heard the awesomeness of satellite radio, that I no longer minded the hour long commute from Danville to Berkeley. I never realized that I would enjoy non -stop progressive techno at 8am, or Led Zeppelin blared at full volume, but I do.  Whomever decided that people enjoy listening to DJ’s talk about why Britney Spears is crazy, what happened on Dancing with the Stars the night before or any other topic on the repetitive laundry list of morning DJ programming, obviously doesn’t commute every day.  Just give me music. So if any of you hundreds of thousands of Bayareaitmanagement.com blog readers out there are on the fence about satellite radio, ditch your grandmothers radio and move into the future, your sanity will thank you!

More on Sirius and XM Merger:

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/25/business/fi-xm25

How Outsourced IT service’s work for small business?