Whoa!  That got my attention!  I guy I respected in the business was talking about something I had dismissed out of hand.  What was I missing?

I’m an early-adopter who hates not being aware of all things new, so I decided to find out what was going on.  I joined Twitter.  And I posted. Mundane stuff.  At first I stuck to answering the question that Twitter suggests you ask yourself before posting: “What are you doing?”

Well, within a week or so, I was not only growing bored with sending out short, 140 character comments, but I was also getting a little peeved that nobody was following me (boo hoo).  Plus, my mind hadn’t made the proper connections to figure out how big this thing really is.  I also talked to several of my friends and learned none of them was using it… yet.

What was Zimmerman talking about?

“I’d better find out how people get followed, and figure out who I need to follow,” I thought.

And so I spent an hour or so Googling all things Twitter.  And gradually I saw the light.  This isn’t just kid stuff.  I’ve identified and follow several thought leaders I want to get to know, along with a small but growing cadre of Tallahassee Twitter Users.  Several of them are following me, too.

Having used it for a while, I know that for the uninitiated Twitter pretty much defies explanation. It just does. The only proof that I can offer is that I know the unique mode of communication that Twitter has tapped into is going to be something huge. Rather than try to explain why, here are three fictitious but already-have-happened business examples:

Example 1:

Joe has a little sandwich shop. One of his teenage employees spends her break time “tweeting” (Twitter posting) on her iPhone with friends. It comes up in conversation.

“All your friends are on it?” he asks.

“Yes, and I also follow my older brother who just graduated from college and all of his friends. It’s a great way to build relationships,” she says.

“Relationships?”  Joe asks.  “Tell me more.”

The next day Joe puts up a sign next to the cash register that says, “Follow Me on Twitter For Great Meal Deals” and includes his Twitter address. For the uninitiated, next to the sign he places a stack of instruction sheets explaining what Twitter is all about and how to sign up and follow him.

Soon, Joe has followers.  So, a couple days a week about an hour before lunch, he tweets out a daily special that begins: “Show this tweet for cheap eats!  Today’s special is…”

On rainy days, he sends out reminders about his delivery service.  Before holidays, he tweets about his party platters. Joe is a happy Twitterer.

Example 2:

Fred is in sales in a midsized Midwest town.  He reads blogs by the thought leaders in his industry.  He knows from experience about how long it takes for a new “next big thing” to work its way from New York or Boston or LA to his little burb.  Reading blogs has helped improve his sales but it’s also been very time-consuming.

One day he learns that some of his favorite bloggers are also using Twitter, so he gives it a try.  He starts following the people he’s been reading.  And then he starts following some of their followers.  Over a couple months, he builds a great base of social network friends in situations similar to his in different podunk towns across America and they all start sharing sales ideas that help him. While he didn’t comment often in the blogs, he finds it less difficult to initiate conversations with people who told him (and the rest of the world) what they had for breakfast.

Example 3:

Mary is the customer service manager for a large chain of small retail stores. Her son tells her that he was playing with Twitter search and put in her company name.  What people were saying mostly wasn’t very good.  So she sets up her own Twitter account, starts regularly searching for keywords related to her company, and when she learns of complaints she sends direct tweets to those with problems, takes the conversation off-line and resolves the issues.

The bottom line:

Twitter is about a lot more than just the everyday happenings in its users lives.  But it appears that those doses of personal texture and flavor facilitate types of connections among former strangers that don’t usually happen in the “real world.”

As for me, I’ll just have to get over not being like some of the hard core Twitterholics with ten gazillion followers… they’re in big cities.  I’m in the boonies.  My time will come.

Note: In later posts, I’ll cover some of the most popular Twitter web applications and real-life examples of how people are using Twitter to get wins in their businesses and careers.

Welcome to whatsnextnow.net. I guess the best place for me to start is to tell you what this blog is all about.  Then I’ll explain what inspired me and who I want to help.  Finally, I’ll share with you some of my qualifications as they relate to what I’m trying to do here.

What This Blog is About

Whatsnextnow.net is all about personal, organizational and business communications and the powerful changes appearing on the horizon.  I hope to engage you in conversations about how we can best use traditional skills to leverage Web 2.0 technologies and Social Media innovations .

Now, the term “Web 2.0″ has a rather hazy definition, and you’ll get different explanations about it depending on who you ask.  What isn’t in doubt is that Tim O’Reilly coined the term in 2004, and defined it at length from a technical perspective here.  The definition of “Social Media” is a bit more clear, and Wikipedia’s page on it is very helpful.  But both of these sources aren’t very clear or practical so far as what this new stuff means to people who write, present or build relationships for a living.  So, I will try to distill it down to three big ideas.

Three Big Ideas

1. The first big idea behind all the Web 2.0 hype is that web content – written words, images, video and sound -  is independent from web site design.  In Web 1.0 your content was presented mostly in a rigid, one-way-street message medium, integrated with and dependent on code and design.  Any interaction you may have had with users, was not “with” the content, but parallel to it at best.  Today, thanks to Web 2.0, your content can be made far more flexible; allowing your users not only to easily share it, but also access it and interact with it in lots of different ways. In effect, your audience decides the medium.
2. The second big idea is that because it is unbound, Web 2.0 facilitates Social Media.  The new technologies allow you and your audience to easily share content interactively without needing to know how the technology works.  Use it well and you can inspire people – clients, prospects, stakeholders and others – to become engaged in conversations both within and interconnectedly with your content… and your brand.
3. The third big idea is that these conversations happen in “virtual time;” that is, your “now” shifts to whenever content is read and commented on. This means that these new conversations are bestowed with a sort of permanence and can be revisited and revived numerous times.

Something Scary

These three ideas hint a little at something that can seem a whole lot scary.  As these new communications norms become more widely adopted, you and your organization must manage conversations about your brand in an environment you cannot control and that you probably cannot erase.  If you want to use the new tools, you must have an ever-evolving plan to engage with conversation participants.  Their motives will range from brand-loyal or positively interested to disinterested in or strongly opposed to your interests.  Left unchecked, people who feel they have a reason to dislike you can effectively become your “advertising” and affect your brand.

Know this:  If you choose not to work at managing the new communications environment, it will be managed for you.

With all this in mind, my posts will primarily be crafted with an eye on helping you succeed while making sense of what new technologies are right for you.  The path ahead will require you to become familiar with some new applications, both on your computer desktop and on the Internet.  I’ll write about those that make the most sense and work the best for me; consider me your guinea pig, the one who has gone out to the edge and bled a little so that you don’t have to. If you want to know about something I have not covered, ask me.  If it makes sense for me to test it for you, I will.

I want to encourage conversations here, and I hope to persuade some of the bleeding-edge thought leaders, those actually shaping these new communication modes and applications, to comment and offer concurring and contrasting opinions.

The Audience That Inspired Me

I decided to start this project because I have so many long-time friends and colleagues, those of early Generation X all the way through the Baby Boom years, who have really great old-school communication skills, but are not yet aware of the radically different communications requirements that will confront them during the second half of their careers.

Some people my age understand and apply this stuff well already, but not that many and surely not enough.  A few more may have heard a few things – maybe they maintain a FaceBook or LinkedIn account – but they don’t really grasp the bigger picture of what these developing tools mean for their futures.  Then there are those, I believe its the majority of my main audience,  who don’t get what is going on at all.  I’m concerned they’re about to be blindsided by a whole new reality.

These aren’t just minor things.  They have some very heavy implications:  People and organizations will either work with the new tools to manage their brands, or Google will enable others to manage them instead.

So, I want to help people who, with a little coaxing, prodding and teaching, will be better enabled to use their trusted, proven skills to fully leverage the new tools.

My Qualifications

I began my career as a communications professional in 1982 after earning my degree in public relations. The executive communications and public affairs roles I’ve had include:

• Communications director at a funeral home and cemetery corporation
• Finance director for a congressional campaign
• Fundraising director for a major non-profit group
• Lobbyist for a statewide healthcare organization
• Marketing executive for a public hospital chain
• Consultant at an international training company
• Political campaign consultant & manager (numerous times)
• Communications executive at state agencies
• Communications company president (current)

In 1988, when I first laid my hands on a personal computer, a Tandy 1000TX, I knew that the PC was going to change the way we all communicated.  Ever since, I’ve been both informally and professionally advising employers, clients and friends about computers and information technology.

Here are some of the technology-related things I have done:

• Managed a FoxPro-based demographic and past-behaviour analysis tool to advise my colleagues about how best to handle key stakeholders within our market
• Uploaded my first hand-coded html web page in 1994
• Marketed reports from a voter targeting Access database I created, both to a major statewide political campaign and to several lower tier candidates
• Developed and trained users on a hardware inventory tracking system for a large Hospital
• Wrote content and did design for my first contract to build a corporate web site in 1997
• Passed the test for my first Microsoft Professional Certification in 1999
• Earned my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) status in 2000
• Founded a niche hybrid computer/communications company in 2000
• Created my first blog in 2003 and have created and been a contributor to numerous, mostly defunct, blogs and forums since then
• Managed the redesign of a state agency project web site
• Advise clients about web content, strategy and selection of new technologies (current)

Two decades ago, my friends looked at me curiously as I lugged a 26-pound laptop around in my work, swearing that they’d never want or need a portable computer. Ever since, I’ve been passionate about what’s next, always curious and always experimenting. While my first company’s run ended thanks mostly to the dot com bubble burst and the 9/11 tragedy, moving me on to other great jobs and projects, I have kept current with all this fascinating new stuff and feel compelled to share it and discuss it.

As I see it, communication is my craft and technology is my toolbox.  That’s why I’m so jazzed about whats next now and whatsnextnow.net.

I hope that you find this site useful and take the time to become a part of the conversation.

Bob Finch