The Blog of Hans Eisenman

Web Ink Now: The US Air Force: Armed with social media

Hey if the US Air Force can go social, anyone can!  This is a great story which will hopefully get more attention in the business world and inspire even civilians to buck up and dive in to the world of social media.

Web Ink Now: The US Air Force: Armed with social media.

Recently I was checking out a bunch of people on Twitter who began to follow my updates @dmscott. When I went to @AFPAA I was surprised to see the Twitter ID belonged to the US Air Force. There were less than 200 people following the Air Force, indicating someone new to Twitter. Now this is interesting I thought, the Air Force on Twitter.

Social Media and Public Relations Consulting – PR Squared

Love the section on Twitter on this post re some of the latest PR buzz in the social media space this last week.  I had been following much of that through my Tweetdeck application (you can have a running search for certain keywords using Tweetdeck.  It's like watching a stream of consciousness go by, but only on the topics you find interesting) and this is a good summary.

Social Media and Public Relations Consulting – PR Squared.

Do Brands Belong on Twitter? This issue was raised in a Mashable post. Some folks maintain that brands shouldn’t create personality-free Twitter accounts that simply spam corporate news, or that don’t allow fellow tweeps to “know” an individual within the company. And some misguided purists still just dislike the idea of brands hanging out in Social Media forums at all.

My take: I am more aligned with the follow-up Mashable post by Lon Cohen. Twitter is opt-in. If you care to interact with a brand via their Twitter presence: go for it. Find it annoying? Buh-bye. Meanwhile I’d point to the folks at Dell, Comcast and my friend Lacy at RealNetworks (client) who strive to be helpful, human and creative online. This can only help a brand’s image. (Granted, the Twitter audience is still relatively small — but its influence is disproportionate: there are a ton of VIPs on Twitter.)

Tempests in a teapot? Perhaps. But these kerfuffles are important in helping us navigate a true course in Social Media. In an area that is still so new, everything is important. This is how rules are made.

GOP warned to embrace technology or face 'suicide' - CNN.com

 The machinations of politics and public office are often the last to belly up to the technology bar and yet here they are again, embracing Twitter this time to initiate their campaigns.

This is less about politics, though, and more about what we all need more of: relationships with people who are and remain interested in us and/or what we do.

Twitter will become, I think, THE way to start relationships with people, whether that be for political, business or personal purposes.   And Twitter is a great entrance point to those relationships.  As Perry Belcher (www.twitter.com/perrybelcher) put it in one of his excellent videos, Twitter is like showing up at a party.  The conversations get started in short bursts of back and forth messages as each person at the party tries to get to know a few people during the time they are there.  (Twitter only allows 140 characters in a message between people so here once again we have technology mimicking real life.) 

As the real-life party progresses, relationships get their start.  If they evolve, folks might become friends and start inviting each other to dinner at each other's houses (methaphor for getting someone to visit your website or blog). 

What's great about the political use of something like Twitter, is it breaks down all the barriers that normally keep a political candidate or incumbent sheltered from those whom s/he should be representing.  And how long have we been waiting for that to happen?!

But don't read this article and think this has nothing to do with you since you're not a politician.  You and your business are as profitable as you can attract and keep attention and nurture that attention into relationships with people out there.

Are Twitter and social media (Facebook, etc.) really the way to do that?  Well, ask yourself whether you would prefer to connect with someone who you at least know is a friend of a friend and/or is a member of a "party" you're already attending (sticking with the Facebook's of the world being like parties)--OR would you rather have someone cold call or carpet bomb you with printed media?  Are you more likely to do business with someone in an existing network to which you belong, or some unknown face who interrupts you as you walk down the street.  A referral from a friend or someone you've never met?

How do you prefer people start relationships with you?

GOP warned to embrace technology or face 'suicide' - CNN.com. (CNN) -- When Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis decided to throw his hat in the ring to head the Republican Party, he announced his intentions on an unlikely forum: Twitter.
...

The Republican Party is playing catch-up, hoping to compete with Democrats in the next two pivotal election cycles.

"It would be suicide for the Republican Party and conservatives to not aggressively embrace technology," said Matt Lewis, a writer for the conservative Web site Townhall.com. "The world is dramatically changing in the way people get their information and the way they communicate -- the party needs to change with it."

Hans Eisenman is Director of Sales for Richter 10.2 Media Group, LLC, which specializes in using social media to improve a company's online reputation, gain massive exposure and generate more profitable relationships.  You can "follow" him on Twitter here: www.twitter.com/heisenman 

greg cryns marketing blog

Sound advice from my new twitter friend, Greg Cryns.

greg cryns marketing blog.

According to a study by the American Business Press, in past recessions companies that maintained their advertising had increased their sales four times more two years later than companies that had cut their advertising because of the economic downturn. I once asked a client of mine who closed down her business to retire how long it took after she halted all of her marketing before the calls stopped. Six months, she said. Too often I’ve seen business owners become complacent about how well word of mouth was working for them. One day they’d wake up and realize referrals had dried up, and they’d have to begin creating a marketing pipeline, which might not start yielding new clients for months. In both good times and bad, you must therefore market to keep sales humming.

Birth of the Social Web: Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect Now Available to All « The Real McCrea

John McCrea of Plaxo on Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect--two new and probably shifting events for the Web.  More to come from others I'm sure, on this topic.

Birth of the Social Web: Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect Now Available to All « The Real McCrea.

December 4, 2008. Today may be remembered as the birth of the Social Web, as two major projects aimed at turning the Web social, emerged from their restricted beta periods for general availability, Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect. These events sounds the death knell for the walled garden phase of social networking. Early reactions to the news are quick to frame this as a head-to-head battle between Google and Facebook, but the truth requires a look at the details…

Plaxo, The Little [Social] Engine That Isn't

Has Plaxo gone blind?

Back when Plaxo first became popular, it was a marvelous tool because the days of losing one's most valuable asset/resource, contact information, were becoming numbered.  Anyone using Outlook, and later Apple's Address Book, could rest assured that if they were a Plaxo user, their PC/Mac could crash and the electronic "little black book" would still be safe and sound.

That's still the case today, except that finding one's contacts on Plaxo now demands too many clicks.  I know my contacts are safe on Plaxo, I just can't find them half the time.

Apparently Plaxo is bent on becoming the latest social network, like Facebook or LinkedIN.  Only it never will be that popular because it's becoming the poster child for "jack of all trades, master of none".

It makes me wonder what possesses a company to pile on non-core functions like this.  It's not just online businesses that do this.   One time I worked for a hedge fund which used this weakness in its model: the manager would look for companies which had taken on so many extra lines of business that they were choking on them and losing sight of what they really did for the world that made them so popular in the first place.  Midas (MDS) was a great example three or four years ago.  He'd catch them at a particular inflection point, right when they were realizing they had to make a change and had brought in a new CEO to clean up and get them back on track.  There were other factors but he picked up MDS at about $6 as I recall and sold it for $22+. 

That really undscores the power of not just focus, but what the lack of it can do to rob you of your or your companies intrinsic or at least potential value. 

Plaxo need to get back to rediscover what they are: an online address book and back-up utility for people's most valuable asset: their contacts.

Meanwhile, I was having a discussion about Plaxo today with some friends on, ironically, Plaxo about how the service has lost its sense of direction.   As a kind of perfect punctuation to my response to their questions, Plaxo wouldn't let me post because it was 262 characters too long.  Isn't that something a true social networking site would make clear?  With Twitter I know my limit because the whole model is built around SMS, which has a de facto 140 character limit.  Because that's all Twitter is.  It's a tool for posting short messages out to the world.  It knows that's what it is and it's not trying to be something else all the while.  It's ultra focused.

In any case, my response to their questions pretty well sums up what I think Plaxo is missing.  Just one man's POV, mind you:

The thing to keep in mind about social networking is that it can either be play or work.  One of  my favorite philosophers, in his book Problems of Work, defined work as "activity with purpose", while play has no  particular purpose by comparison.  Social networking like Twitter, can be used for play *or* for work.  This article by luminary Guy Kawasaki might help bring social networking into focus--showing how to use it as tool and get something done with it.  http://tinyurl.com/6fxmj9

Bob: I am a social networking hound and in fact use those tools to boost sales and PR for companies so there's no question about that area for me as far as its value. 

My beef with Plaxo is that it has lost its way, I feel, by downgrading its core focus (online address book and back-up utility for said address book) and is trying to Be a social networking site at the same time.  Fine if it wants to assist people in communicating to each other (as we are doing now), but to bury the Address Book feature (Plaxo's root function) and  make it two or three clicks away upon signin, is a big mistake I feel.  They are opening the door to someone rising up in their wake and silently cutting them off at the knees.  You can't even determine which page on Plaxo (Addresses, Plaxo Pulse stream, Inbox, Calendar, etc.) of its many features should be your first page when you log in.  That alone would probably have nullified my reason to write all this.

My point is, they have (had?) so much opportunity in the space of being an excellent utility for people to save their address book bacon, if you will, and the social networking space is so saturated (thankfully--gives me lots of tools with which to help my clients), that they are diluting their positioning.   Will this mistake begin their slide into e-obscurity? It's too early to say.

And who knows, maybe they'll read this blog posting (something they have done before) and take note. 

Rather than hold my breath for that, though, I'm going to suffer through the extra Plaxo clicks while I turn my eyes to the next  developer of online, contact management back-up utilities, whoever that may be. 

Nokia N97: Nokia launches 'iPhone killer' N97 phone - Telegraph

Bold new cell phone (PDA) offering from Nokia.  A 5 megapixel camera is pretty tantalizing, not to mention 48 gigabytes of memory.

Nokia N97: Nokia launches 'iPhone killer' N97 phone - Telegraph.

The Finnish mobile phone giant has dubbed its new N97 handset the "world's most advanced mobile computer", and promises it will bring users closer to the internet on the move. The device combines a large 3.5in touch-screen, similar to that found on the Apple iPhone, with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard reminiscent of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and the T-Mobile G1. Unlike the Apple iPhone, the N97 will be able to play the Flash videos used on many websites, including our own Telegraph news pages.

It also supports instant-messaging and email on the go, boasts a five-megapixel camera, and a huge 48GB of memory, capable of storing thousands more songs than the Apple iPhone and many other leading devices.