My favorite TV character ever is Alias’ Sydney Bristow. Besides kicking serious Euro-spy butt while disguised in assorted wigs and spandex, the zero-body-fat double agent has an awesome arsenal of techno-toys. A biometric sensor in her phone. A GPS in her lipstick case. And sneaky-smart ways to connect with anyone who can help her bring down the evil SD-6 empire.
Sadly, I’m no Sydney Bristow. My phone just makes and takes calls. My GPS is a 2003 Mapsco. And my business connections are, well, limited to those with whom I’ve actually done business.
So I jumped at the chance to listen to GCG Marketing’s Community Development Coordinator Kalyn Baldwin discuss social networking recently. Could Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn be my entrée to a wider circle of communications colleagues?
Kalyn’s fun and informative Social Media for Dummies tutorial prompted my own research into what’s been called the “democratization of information.” (Try telling that to college football coaches who’ve clamped down on players’ real-time blabbing via Twitter.)
The bottom line: Yes, it seems that I really could use what Conan O’Brien refers to as YouTwitFace to communicate more effectively.
Would I tweet, blog or post for personal use? Not likely. Who cares about the minutiae of my life? Imagine this: “Just cleaned litter box.” Zzzzzzz. Anyway, if you’re part of my circle of family and friends – and it’s a small radius – you already know enough about my life and times. There are no spring break photos to post. I won’t be e-stalking old flames or foes. I’m not among Ashton Kutcher’s 3.7 million closest friends.
But social media for business? Absolutely. While I suspect that much of Twitterdom involves people with way too much time on their hands, many businesses and professionals tweet usable, even valuable, information. Take GCG Senior Account Executive Allyson Cross, for example. She tweets and retweets timely, pertinent healthcare- and marketing-related information to clients and colleagues. She and other GCGers are helping to build and maintain the long-standing relationships for which the company is known.
And what’s great is that social networking is win-win. Those 140-character snippets benefit the tweeter as well as the tweetee, because besides getting the word out, Google’s search engine ranking looks favorably upon all those keywords embedded in the message. It’s like a code. Agent Bristow would be proud.
Actually, social networking doesn’t do anything that advertising, marketing and public relations agencies haven’t been doing for years: increasing awareness of a brand, service or company; creating and maintaining relationships with current and prospective clients, as well as colleagues and media; accessing and sharing information; and discovering new target markets and trends.
But the tools are new. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, videos and podcasts are here to stay, in one form or another. Don’t be too smug about how much you know, though; the Next Big Thing will replace them next year.
For now, I feel almost Sydney Bristow-like when researching a topic. I can get a dossier on anyone in the network, connect à la Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, collaborate and share intel, and get the job done. Without breaking a sweat.
So what have we learned on this mission?
To recap: Social networking for business – yes; updated phone and GPS that activates when rappelling off tall buildings – maybe; spandex – not a chance.
