Across the room, a computer chirps, or hums, or dings or rings. It’s the sound of a tweet, a post, a poke or maybe even a sheep being thrown.
For some people, the sound elicits heart-pounding excitement. Someone said something new, somewhere across this vast globe. For other people, it brings dread. What now? Who wants my attention? Why are you poking me? You just poked me yesterday, the day before and last Tuesday.
Whether the tool is Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, a blog or any of the numerous other social media developments, each are part of the vast new digital world connecting people from Tokyo to Baton Rouge to the Cote D’Ivoire.
And although the myriad of options might be confusing, overwhelming or redundant, you should be engaged if you want to develop or maintain a presence in the future business economy.
In particular, a presence on the three essential social-networking tools will be crucial for existing in the coming business climate.
The avatars
Chad Cornett, the director of business development for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, and Chad Ortte, an associate with Donnie Jarreau Real Estate, are joking as they click away at their respective BlackBerrys. The friends have wrapped up business for the day, but are still replying to business texts, e-mails and tweets.
“I have an iPhone and a BlackBerry,” Ortte says. “The best of both worlds.” There’s a moment of boyish bashfulness as he pulls the iPhone from his shirt pocket. “But I took Facebook off both of my phones. It was too much of a distraction.”
While Ortte and Cornett have the same philosophy about developing personal relationships with their clients and colleagues, they are worlds apart when it comes to the methods.
Ortte is a reluctant adopter of social-networking tools. Though he’s logged on to LinkedIn and Facebook, he barely uses the latter—primarily logging in only when he’s on vacation to upload photos of Paris, fishing in the Gulf of Mexico or hanging out with friends. His LinkedIn use is limited to creating a new profile, connecting to actual contacts and some occasional research.
Though he has a Twitter account and has posted three times, Ortte doesn’t use it at all. “I haven’t really gotten into it,” he says. “It’s hard to keep up with it all.”
Cornett, on the other hand, could be called a goal-oriented adopter. He uses social-networking skills almost exclusively to further his business goals, keep in touch with contacts and organize the almost 900 people he’s gotten to know over the past few years.
“I divide [my contacts] into three groups, A’s, B’s and C’s,” he says. “Every month, the A’s are going to get an e-mail, the B’s are going to get a phone call and the C’s are going to get a hand-written letter.” And Cornett will even reference things he saw on their Facebook or Twitter accounts. “I write things like, ‘Saw your vacation photos on Twitter. So cool.’”
But Cornett balances his use of social-networking tools as well. It’s all a part of the daily process. He checks Facebook and Twitter each morning, and LinkedIn when he’s looking for a contact. They all receive regular, but not excessive, updates. That helps keep him familiar with people he wouldn’t usually contact on a regular basis—which means he can reach them when he’s going to their part of the country.
“I’m going to San Francisco for the game developers conference,” he says. “So I clicked on the San Francisco [Facebook] network to see who I know out there. I sent them a quick message to say, ‘Hey, I know we worked on a deal together last year. Can we grab a beer and catch up?’”
The professionals
An entire industry has not only profited off these social networking tools, but now is centered almost exclusively on how to maximize their effectiveness for individuals and businesses.
On a national level, there are social media experts like the staff at Mashable. There’s TwitterCounter for tracking usage and popularity. TweetDeck and Skimmer [only the beta format is currently available] manage tweets, responses and direct messages. Skimmer even reformats the viewing experience of the tools and allows the user—when it isn’t bugged—the viewing experience and type of information displayed.
Regionally, Kent Blumberg, an executive career coach, and Paul Chaney, the Internet marketing director of Bizzuka, a Web design and marketing firm based in Lafayette, are teaching novices at the individual and company level how to utilize social-networking tools for growth and presence.
Blumberg has been blogging [now considered a classic tool] and using LinkedIn to help his clients execute smooth career transitions. Though most of his clients are high-level executives at large firms, they might not necessarily have the Web presence necessary when they seek to change jobs or gain a promotion.
Blumberg helps them “get into the top fold” of Google search results—a common metric for analyzing how effectively someone is managing their online presence.
“For example,” he says, “I was able to see a contact through one of my contacts that was the former plant manager out at Georgia-Pacific. Not only would I never have known he was even out there, but without LinkedIn, I never would have had the opportunity to request to be introduced to him.”
Gaining access to people, companies and resources are some of the primary reasons that Blumberg engages—and coaches his clients to engage—in social-networking tools. [For the purpose of full disclosure, this writer’s initial contact with Blumberg was through LinkedIn, and the interview request with Chaney was made through Twitter.]
Chaney was a late adopter to Facebook and LinkedIn, though he’d been blogging for a while. He’d also been coaching individuals on how to blog effectively for business growth and marketing purposes.
But he has since become engrossed in the tools that have become available—particularly the three essentials of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. If you were to search for Chaney’s name on Google, you’d not only see his blog posts, comments and professional organizations, but also all of his tool profiles.
“I talk a lot about the benefits of these tools,” he says. “For companies and individuals, it is all about brand building, distinguishing yourself from the competition and building stronger relationships.”
There’s a “digital handshake” that occurs with social-networking tools. “First you connect on LinkedIn,” Chaney says. “Then, after a while, you friend request them on Facebook. And, eventually, you follow them on Twitter.”
Above the fold
The ultimate questions regarding LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter usually comes down to importance. Why does it matter? Why isn’t e-mail good enough? Why should I be on it in the first place?
And the answers, say Ortte, Cornett, Blumberg and Chaney, is that the rest of the world has already joined the party. Don’t you want an invitation? What is happening is an exchange of information. It’s about personal contact information, job-history details, personality traits, sharing news, sharing insight and developing a community of intellectual capital.
“It’s just like those people who didn’t want to get a cell phone,” Chaney says.
Eventually they give in because there’s no way to participate without one. And then there was e-mail, text messaging and blogging. Each step of the way, there is resistance to the next level of technological advancement.
As the technology matures, so will the use of it. “We were on Facebook when it was just college students,” Ortte says. “Now everyone’s on it. Twitter will probably be the same way.”
It’s also one of the most simple, most important ways to get in touch with your audience or your clients, Chaney says. Not only can you find out about them on LinkedIn and Facebook, but if you search for them on Twitter, you can find out what they are thinking right then and there.
Marketing teams for Wal-Mart look for what people are saying about their experiences [for the record, most people say they are going begrudgingly]. Dell searches for customers complaining about a product and dispatches a support team member to jump into the conversation and help remedy the situation.
“There’s no easier way to find out what’s going on right now that to use one of these tools,” Chaney says.
Even BRAC uses it to find out why prospective economic development projects might want to relocate to the area. “I work with projects that all have code names,” Cornett says. “When they come in, they have all these secrets.”
He says it’s “standard operation” to use social-networking tools to analyze the project and the project’s players right out of the gate. “We first see if they’re on Google, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and then someone gives me a summary on it.”
Like cell phones, e-mail and text messaging, most potential users will eventually come around, the experts say. Because the tools available are not just about Facebook Mafia Wars, tweeting what you ate for dinner or a friend requesting strangers just because you share the same name, they are about the rapid transfer of knowledge, personal connections and growing a network of contacts that help users grow and succeed in an increasingly global climate.
“It’s all about social capital,” Cornett says. “It’s less about what you can do for me and about how we can all benefit from one another.”
TMI [too much information]
Kent Blumberg advises his clients that there is such a thing as too much information and the wrong kind of information. Here are a list of his don’ts:
• Don’t use any of your accounts—or any Web site or blog—as a means to express your anger. Things said in anger are often more disruptive than they would be when you’ve had time to cool down.
• Too much personal information [although this varies from person to person] is a bad thing. Don’t put anything out on the Web that you wouldn’t be OK having printed on the first page of the Business Report.
• Never reveal a secret of a friend, company or client on the Web. Even if you don’t directly identify the source, chances are someone will figure it out.
• Never post drunk photos. That includes on Facebook, Flickr or a personal blog. If they are on the Web, they can be found. And if someone posts one of you on Facebook, ask them to untag you and/or remove the photo altogether.
Tools of the trade
Your business suit – LinkedIn
Features:
•Resume
•Work history
•Skills
•Education
•Work and social contacts
Your business casual – Facebook
Features:
•Personal history
•Education
•Work experience
•Interests
•Activities
•Photos
•Personal and work contacts
The cocktail party – Twitter
Features:
•Short bio
•140-character [or less] tweets [status updates]
•Social, work and industry contacts [and strangers]
