I write a lot about social media and what it can do for business. Today I want to get down to the heart of what it means for a company to be involved. First, as times continue to change, as the baby-boomers retire and the kids of yesterday are becoming adults, the demands customers make change as well. Right now 51% of adult social media users think companies should maintain a social media presence (from emarketer).

More and more customers are expecting to have a relationship with a company, not just one or two buying experiences. They want to be able to ask questions, get immediate answers, and know what’s coming up. Unfortunately, the increase in demand for interaction is not being met. Most companies are far behind, failing to keep pace.

Why have a social media presence? Because as our world becomes more and more digital, we are losing that sense of personal communication. We call customer service and get a recorded voice. Recorded voices call our answering machines. We receive automated email. Most customers don’t have the time to browse a store and ask a sales rep a million questions that they may or may not have an answer to. But if a customer can find time online to interact with a social presence and feel like someone knowledge is spending personal time with them, it makes all the difference.

Recently, during a discussion about social media, a client asked me my opinion of youtube. I was surprised, mostly because I never really thought of youtube as a social media before. I’ve been viewing videos there for years but only in the last few months bothered to create an account. I suppose if you create a lot of video it makes more sense, but for a viewer… I don’t see much of a point.

Let me put it another way. I hardly ever find movies on youtube by just being on their site. I am almost always redirected there. It used to be by word-of-mouth or through a “funny videos” website. However, now, I almost always find videos after being directed by a social media website. I admit, I often browse the associated links but nearly all my interaction with youtube is sparked by an outside source. To me, youtube is merely a place to host content, not an interactive site.

The point I’m getting to is this: social media is now the driving force behind taking something “viral”. A viral video will get passed around on twitter, facebook and myspace, til it gains expectotential youtube views. Does youtube spark this kind of behavior? Nope. The network does.

A great example of this is the ever popular Dr. Horrible movie. If you haven’t seen it, you are missing out. With practically no advertising, Dr. Horrible became an instant classic. Where did you find out about it? Through someone else! Often that someone came in the form of a blog post or tweet.

If we step away from pop culture we can see viral type technology uses the engine of social media as well. Ping.fm is a closed website. You have to know someone who knows the “password” if you want to join. In fact, pretty much the only way to find out about Ping is to overhear someone else mention it in a social media forum.

Any business looking to create a forceful presence on the web needs to tap into the social media framework. It is the force that turns the key into unlocking the internet. Of course there are different ways to initiate a viral effect, but I’ll save that for another day.

After reading a blog about how different political parties use social media (Bang the Drum), I realized that many companies have the same problems.

People are finally starting to jump on the social media bandwagon, they are setting up a presence on Twitter, Facebook and Plurk. So now they are in the right place, but the question is: will the presence they created be effective? I will admit, that my answer to what makes an effective presence in a social media website is just my opinion, first let me share with you:

Top 5 Ineffective Social Media Accounts:

1. The Sitter: This is a an account for the sake of an account. The user-name is claimed, that’s all. No updates, no interaction. This is the kind of account that exists solely to create a back-link or two.

2. The Narcissist: This profile was created as one giant commercial. Often, the user will link to an RSS Feed from their blog or constantly post links back to their home page. The other version of the narcissist constantly updates about the awesome places they go or the famous people they meet. In other words every single post and topic consists of: me, me, me, me, me.

3. The Collector: This person spends time friending everyone. They will spend all their time adding replying to friends that they never post anything of value.

4. The Life-less: Often you find these on microblogging sites. They post every twenty seconds. Often their posts include what they are doing, watching, eating or any other bodily function. The hardly ever post anything with substance.

5. The Spaz: These are accounts that will be super active for a day and then disappear, often to reappear again in another few days. Their user is super busy, or just forgetful. They can be great when available but often trying to strike up a long-term dialog with them is impossible.

The Effective Presence: I think the effective social media account revolves around balance. The user takes time to interact with their friends and followers. They post about themselves, their and topics relevant to their interests and to the interests of others. Remember social media is a platform, not a stage. Businesses have a great opportunity to reach out to their customers through social media, but the key lies in opening up and responding to needs not regurgitating “I’m awesome” links.

What do you think makes an effective social media presence? Do you agree or disagree with balance being the most important part of a profile?

Step back Linked-In, there’s a new kid on the block. If you have not yet heard of N10, you should try it.

N10 is more than just another site to list people you know. Here are some features that make this site unique:

• Track Referrals: Ever meet someone and want to send them a referral but forget? This site allows you to link two people together in your network and then tracks how many referrals you’ve given them.
• Categorize Your Associations: There are lots of different reasons for networking. This site allows you to categorize people based on how they network and why you network with them. They even have a cute little quiz you can take.
• Find Out Who Your Most Powerful Assets are: Not only does N10 track the referrals you give but also the referrals you receive.
• Tips and Training: Need help on your one-on-one or think your 30 second intro needs some work? N10 has beautiful presentations that can help you be a better networker.
• Post Proof: One thing Linked-In doesn’t allow you to do is post examples of your work. N10 lets you post articles, video, images and audio.

Why am I excited about N10? I don’t think N10 is here to compete with Linked-in. Like all social media, both sites have their value. But the ability to instantly connect two people I know in a simple way is something that Linked-in doesn’t really provide. That alone makes N10 worth my time. Of course, the opportunity to actually post my work is awesome too. That and I like to keep my network organized, so the category function is incredible.

I had the opportunity to meet with Jim Penny, N10’s creator. He created the site based on his book: Networking Genius. Jim Penny has years of experience in networking and wants to make what he’s learned available to everyone else. He’s excited about the potential his system has.

The site is still in beta but I can only imagine that it will continue to grow and change into an invaluable tool for any serious networker. If you are in my personal circle expect to be receiving and invite from me so that we can send each other referrals more simply online!

I’ve reviewed almost a dozen social media sites for you. I’ve listed all their pros and cons, but why bother with social media?

Social media is not traditional media and many business have trouble figuring out exactly what to do with it because they can’t label it. Mack Collier talks about this in his article Why is Social Media so Hard for Businesses?

“The problem that I think many businesses have, is how they view
social media. I believe many businesses (of all sizes) see social
media sites and tools as new channels to publishmarketing channels.

Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Its true. Social media is its own unique genre of marketing. It is a new way to interact with customers and clients. It is an invaluable tool for feedback, polling and reviews. Did you know even the Pope uses social media to get his message across?

So why aren’t more businesses taking advantage of this free marketing tool?

Time: Businesses think social media is a waste of time. They don’t see an instant result so they aren’t willing to pursue it (despite the fact that many forms of advertising have a time lapse). Or they are unwilling to devote the time. I’m of the opinion you either make time or you hire someone to do it for you, internally or externally because the return on investment is huge.

Fear: We fear what we don’t understand. Many business, even mainstream ones don’t feel like they are up-to-date with technology. Smaller companies are worried about the time and energy it will take to get involved.

Knowledge: Too many business just don’t know these avenues exist or–worse!–they don’t think their clients aren’t using them.

Pride: I read a study on SEO once that said that in 2006 NIKE had not optimized their website and when you searched for NIKE tennis shoes, they weren’t even in the first page of links. I’m not sure if that is the case now, but imagine not even bothering because “you don’t need more business” or “your brand is built offline”. Social media is a way to gain more SEO and if you think your company just doesn’t need it, you should really evaluate your marketing stategy and see what else is out of date.

So why do it? Check out this article about how Firefox used social media to break a world record. And if that doesn’t hit you, go to a site like eMarkerter and start researching your target audience. Then decide how useful social media can be.

Get Started: It doesn’t matter where you start, just do it. Read some of my recent reviews, find a media that matches your style and go for it. Social media will only grow your traffic, so what can it hurt?

The past few posts I’ve been focusing my research and attention on the phenomenon of social media. I have to admit it fascinates me, but the goal of course is to make it work, from a business stand point. How can online social networking help your business? And how do you choose from the hundreds of sites that make this available?

I’m going to deal with a number of well-known sites, each one I have reviewed in the last few weeks. Now I’m going to list out each service’s pros and cons so they can all be compared.

Pros:

• Networking Intensive
• Open and chatty community
• real time answers.

Cons:

• Time intensive
• Navigation not intuitive
• Leans towards the internet savvy

Pros:

• Great way to “poll”
• Close to Real Time but simple to use
• Ability to automatically feed blog posts

Cons:

• Too much down time
• Often Tweeple are more interested in getting follower than networking
• Superfluous information

Pros:

• Community Opportunity
• Clean Profile look - user friendly
• Ability to create applications, events and blog posts

Cons:

• Audience not “marketing” friendly
• Networking more social
• Ability to be tagged in notes and images that may not be work appropriate

Pros:

• Massive Audience
• Forum opportunity
• Widely-Accepting to advertising

Cons:

• Spammy
• “Bathroom wall of the internet” - reputation isn’t great
• Friend Collectors instead of clients

Pros:

• Simple, Clean, Business-friendly
• Opportunity to get business feedback
• Chance to get reviewed by clients

Cons:

• People may “reject” your link because they don’t remember you
• Many users don’t check-up on their profile regularly
• Not all people network with others they actually know

Pros:

• Viral effect for blogs
• Simple way to get noticed
• Easy to use

Cons:

• Many people “digg” things because their friends do, not because they like it
• Hitting the front page of Digg has been known to crash websites from too much traffic
• Millions of submission to compete with

Pros:

• Easy for any website
• Allows for site indexing
• Allows for reviews and keywords

Cons:

• Takes a little more time
• Can be bad for niche sites with advertising
• Allows the opportunity for people to rate you negatively

Pros:

• One of the longest standing Social Bookmarking sites
• Allows you to import bookmarks
• Ability to share of keep private based on user needs

Cons:

• Usefulness is merely just an extra link without good user connections
• A hassle without a toolbar extension
• Format is not instinctive

Are there any other social media sites you’d like to see reviewed and added to this list? Let me know what business tools you use.