What’s Next Now

Used by people reluctant to engage in social media

There was a short thread over at the LinkedIn Web 2.0 group that answered this question.  Here’s what I wrote:

From a business perspective, Twitter is as much (or more) about actively listening as it is about providing “follow-worthy” content, links, concepts, etc. There are numerous google-able examples of how active listening on Twitter leads to business wins, particularly in the customer service area. I’ve personally gotten big wins with Embarq and Comcast through Twitter… and I’ve tweeted to the world their praises afterward! I also landed my photographer a wedding gig by responding to a tweet.  So, the “win-win” scenarios are particularly interesting with this cool new social tool.

I want to follow people I might do business with locally, those I might learn from, globally, and those who appear to fit my prospect/client archetypes. Toward this end, I use various Twitter tools and mashups like Twellow and TwitterLocal (and about a dozen others) to find people to follow. Last week I attended my first “Tweet-up” and actually met face to face with several of the folks I’ve befriended on Twitter (including the bride of the aforementioned wedding).

My friends need to get this stuff, so I’ll keep prodding.

I’ll get around to discussing treatments for those who suffer from Social Media Avoidance Syndrome (SMAS).  I wonder if these are the sorts of folks who decided about a hundred years ago that they didn’t ever see the need to have an automobile because the horse suited them just fine.

Sharon Stinner who writes about boomers on the Internet at Examiner.com makes a good point in contending that we are actually shifting from an “unnatural” set of communications practices back to a more “natural” set.  We’ve gotten away from some of the vital pieces of human interaction that make society and culture cohesive and instead have, in large part, allowed ourselves to be told how to think by purveyors of one-way communication processes.

No wonder the print media can’t seem to get its footing in the social media landscape!  It runs too much against its grain.

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Okay.  So I’m pretty much ready to again tend to this “social media for the reluctant” project again.  I’ve unearthed my now seemingly ancient editorial calendar from last summer and find that it is, indeed, ancient.  About half the topics I had planned to write about before Tropical Storm Fay threw us its nasty curve ball are now irrelevant.  Too much has changed in the landscape I survey for the old list to be of much help.

So, I’ll be starting mostly from scratch.

As it is with all discussions of innovation, it is important for me to provide you with a little perspective.  This comes courtesy a blog post by Clayton Bell, a fellow Tallahassee Blogger and Twitterphile.  It made me laugh.

Sometimes we forget that we should be gobsmacked by how amazing the times in which we live in actually are.

What I’m trying to do with Whatsnextnow.net is get those of you who grew up in my era, those who can remember the time of rotary phones, no microwave ovens, having to get off your butt to change the channel, etc., to realize that all of the new communication tools offered within the realm of  “social media”  should be considered and approached just like all the other innovations you have adopted in your lifetimes.  Didn’t you crave a TV with a remote once you knew they were available?  Of course you did.

Know this: If you have more than a couple years left before retirement,  this  social media stuff almost certainly is going to matter to your workplace and career in a very big way.  Yes, much of it is now going through the same sort of shake-out period that those of us who bought Betamax TV recorders learned was risky.  But I can guarantee you that several social media platforms are going to become standardized and widely adopted by business for and become part of routine communication functions.

Why I’m here is because I want you to be ready for it.   Conversational social media platforms are to “Business Communications 2009″ as the fax machine was to “Business Communications 1984″ and email was to “Business Communications 1994.”  A recent Pew Adult Social Media Use Study suggests that fewer than 15% of us online adults 45 and older have taken even the first baby steps into establishing a presence, a “social media footprint” so to speak, by creating their first on-line profile.  I’ll wager that more than half of us who have created profiles have done nothing with them.  It may be too soon for many to see the value in it, but unbeknownst to them “too soon” is heading past them like an Airbus (would have used “locomotive” but it’s just too danged old an analogy).

When I write here, I’ll try to keep in mind any age-related disconnects you might have.

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This flood recovery thing is taking a lot longer and is taking a lot more out of me than I expected or considered when I last posted. The best thing that has come of it is that I have been able to experiment with using Social Media to get things done.

I have successfully used Twitter to leverage better and faster customer service. Now I am using other Social Apps to spread the word about some shady deals that must have occurred back when our subdivision was being built. The County Commission wants us, the property owners who have been harmed by bad faith dealings at the zoning department some 15 years ago, to pay exhorbitant fees to fix a messed up siuation made by either incompetent or corrupt officials.

That will not stand! So, this fight will be brought to our County Commission from every direction possible.

Stay tuned.

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Folks,

Tropical Storm Fay flooded our home in Tallahassee on August 23 and we’re still recovering.  I hope to be back at this, making regular posts during the latter part of October.

Thanks for your kind notes and expressed concern.  We’ll be fine here.

Bob Finch

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I came across this news article from South Africa while reviewing a Tweetscan email I received this morning:

Social media to rescue Jail4Bail campaign?.

“With about two weeks left in the campaign, the funds were about half way to target. And that is when social media, represented by Rafiq Phillips , stepped in.

Phillips is what can best be explained as “super-connected”. He has even featured as the face of Web 2.0 on Carte Blanche. And he understands new media, specifically its viral opportunities. Phillips believed that if the right social media tools were mobilised, more funds could be raised and the campaign could reach the global market. He seems to be right.

Started small

What started as a couple of twitter messages to the 700-odd people that follow Phillips has culminated in Jail4Bail receiving prominent exposure…”

In the 1980’s I ran the fund raising operation for a local unit of the American Cancer Society.  We had our own version of this type of fundraiser.  We “arrested” prominent local officials and put them in “jails” that were set up as props in various shopping malls.  There, a volunteer “judge” would try and sentence the arrestees to jail, from which they had to raise “bail” by calling all their friends and getting pledges.  It was a great media event, receiving excellent local TV and newspaper coverage.  (more…)

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