Which shoe salesman are you in social media?

I was reading 10 Simple Secrets of the World's Greatest Business Communicators and in it, Carmine Gallo relates the story of Akio Morita (cofounder of a little electronics company called Sony and the guy that brought us into the era of portable electronics thanks to a gadget you might have heard of – the Walkman!)

It seems Mr. Morita had great trouble convincing colleagues and investors that anyone would want to use, much less want to buy, a portable music player. It seems that Mr. Morita took to telling the story of the two shoe salesmen in the jungle. The jist of the story is this:

Two successful shoe salesmen from competing companies were sent to Africa to see of there were any opportunities there.

The first shoe salesman arrived in Africa and immediately began his assessment of this new wide open market. Less then an hour into it, he quickly phoned back to his headquarters: “I can’t sell shoes here! Nobody wears them, everyone is barefoot!”

The second shoe salesman arrived in Africa and also began his assessment. He quickly became thrilled at what he observed and called headquarters: “I can’t believe what I’m seeing, everyone is barefoot over here! Send me as much stock as you can spare, we are going to make a killing!”

Can you even imagine someone today, in the age of smartphones , netbooks, portable GPS, etc, questioning the viability of a portable music device? Of course not! And yet I see that type of mentality all of the time in social media. This kind of reasoning seems to come back every time something new comes out.

Remember Twitter? How many people clamoured, in web and in print, that it was doomed from the start? “140 characters? Nobody is going to want to use this.”; “I give it a month.”; “Nobody wants to read about what you had for breakfast”; “There is just no practical use for this”.

Twitter may have had a very simple premise when it was created but the community found uses for it. Individuals and groups looked for the opportunity to use the tool to fill some of their needs and it worked. Now Twitter is the fastest growing social media channel out there and it is being used:

• by individuals as a communication and research tool,
• by corporations for PR,
• by public figures for branding (Ashton, Oprah, Britney)
• by politicians for campaigning
• by government agencies for advertizing, media monitoring, and crisis communications
• by advocacy groups and non-profit organizations for outreach and funding campaigns

It reminds me of the story of Victor "I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company." Kiam. In his autobiography, Mr. Kiam tell the story of how when he was Vice President of Marketing at Playtex in 1958, he was offered the option on a patent for a new kind of fastener for bras. He decided it would never catch on and passed on it. The product was Velcro! Mr. Kiam admits he failed to see the potential of the product beyond what the inventor had foreseen and vowed never to make the same mistake again.

So, which shoe salesman are you? The one who dismisses new social media channels out of hand or the one who tries to see the opportunities that lie just beyond the moment?

P.S.
If you think you are due for a quick brain shake-up, read Good Idea or Bad Idea? by Joel Saltzman

Twitter Poetry: one account - many voices

Ok I admit it. I read and occasionally even write poetry.

Browsing the Web the other day, I happened upon a Haiku, a short form of poem from Japan. I immediately thought of Twitter and how it would be perfect for this type of short, very image laced poetry.

I went on Google to see if anyone had had the same idea. Of course they had! I found a few blogs where people had posted poetry they had created, and twittered.

So, the question became, how could all of the Twitter poetry lovers effectively share their creations? We could create a hash tag. Something like #poet3. But some people really, and I mean really hate hash tags. Then I remembered this post from Geek Thoughts Twitter Groups Done Right! (aka: I hate Hash Tags).

Taking their advice to heart, I created a Twitter account (Poet3) for the sole purpose of allowing all of the Twitter poets to share their poem posts. Everyone can now post to it by starting a tweet with an @Poet3 which will leave the post in your normal posting stream as well for your followers, or send a direct message which will only be accessible to those that want to follow the topic.

I mentioned the Haiku above but feel free to freeform your poetry if that's what you're into. I blogged a while back (See Twitter Stories no. 1) about the need for the community to come up with new uses for the medium and this is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. So hop on over to http://twitter.com/Poet3 and start posting. Don’t forget to follow the Poet3 account if you want to see others posts.

Look forward to reading you on Twitter.

Use Twitter to update your Facebook Status

Did you know you could use Facebook to update your Facebook status automatically?

It’s easy as one, two, three…four, five… Oh, just follow the bullet list below!

• Log in to your Facebook account (If you don’t have one, why are you reading this?)


• On the right, you should have the Applications tab, click “edit”


• If Twitter isn’t in the list of applications, click on the “Browse more applications” button on the top right


• Now, you can either click through endless pages looking for it or you can type “twitter” in the applications search box on the top right.


• Twitter should be the first in the list (if not, check your spelling). Click on it.


• Click on the “Go to application” button


• Click on the “Allow” button


• Enter your Twitter Username and Twitter Password in the appropriate text boxes and hit “Log In”


• On the top right, you should have a long button that reads: Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status. Well, what are you waiting for? Click on it!


• Read the little text (or not) and click on the “Allow Status Updates” button


• Just for the heck of it, go to twitter and post a message, then rush back to Facebook. You status message should be the same as your recent post. If it isn’t, go back to the top of this list and try to see where you screwed up.

If you liked this post, have a look at these other Twitter related articles from this blog:

• Customize your Twitter Page


• Twitter Story No. 1: Time well wasted!

Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Twitter Story No. 1: Time well wasted!

It has been argued that Twitter is no more than a fun way to waste some time during the day - entertaining for sure, but with no real-life applications, and no business value.

The Ad Contrarian, in Twitters Never Win. Winners Never Twit stated in no uncertain terms that Twitter was a monumental waste of time (I won’t repeat the exact terms here because my nieces and nephews occasionally reads my posts and I don’t want them picking up this sort of language, at least not from me). He also states that his critique is based on the fact that he “tried” Twitter (for a total of 6 days).

I understand that Mr. Contrarian (if that is your real name!) generates most of his traffic by being overly obnoxious and in-your-face so as to goad people into linking to his blog, so I have purposely avoided doing so (you can easily find his blog if you really want to).

Thus was born Twitter Stories, a series of posts based on micro case studies of the use of Twitter in real-life and business situations. This post is the first in a series that I hope will show practical applications of Twitter by the folk who really and honestly use it.


Micro case study number 1: Mitch Joel vs the Airline

October 14, 2008,
Mitch Joel is waiting for a flight to Winnipeg where he is set to speak Personal Branding at a Power Within event.

At 6:53, he posts the following tweet:

need help: anyone know anyone who talks on the subject of Web 2.0 and Social Media and is based n Winnipeg? DM me details please :)

He does not get the tweetback he is looking for, so at 7:23 he posts a follow-up tweet:

really need your help. my flight is delayed. do you know anyone who can talk about online marketing in Winnipeg? Please DM me. It's urgent.

October 15, Mitch posts the following on Twitter:

Twitter & Facebook win! Was able to find Joel Parent who kept the crowd engaged while my flight was delayed. Managed to squeak in 40 mins.

Outcome: Twitter is a business contact and emergency services tool

This is the new business reality that Twitter and other Social Media offers to those who are willing to invest in it. And by invest, I mean take the time to develop ties to a broader community. It goes far beyond networking in the traditional sense. It not just a matter of collecting business cards and doing the occasional follow-up phone call. Here, two professionals who didn’t know each other beyond their social networks were able to come together and collaborate on a specific project. Mitch was able to reach out to someone, and to verify his qualifications to get the job done, primarily through Twitter and by extension, through Facebook.

Twitter, like other social media, is a tool and is only as good as the ties you have made and nourished and to the brand and the reputation you have built up. But for those who can use them properly, these new tool offer incredible new opportunities never seen before, many of which have yet to be discovered.

To know more about the story, read Mitch’s post Twitter For Business Works

If you have any such experiences you would like to share, please comment on this blog or email me at alainlemay69@gmail.com

Of course, you can also contact me via Twitter under: Alain_Lemay69

Customize your Twitter Page - Update!

At Podcamp Montreal, Adele McAlear did a session on how to build and monitor your brand using Twitter.

One of her recommendations was to create a background image that displays your branding and whatever contact information you want to put right up front. She used Wayne Sutton's Twitter page and her own Twitter page as samples.

I was intrigued by this and did a little research.

Here are a few posts that describe different ways of creating a customized background for your Twitter page:

• Create A Twitter Background Using PowerPoint (very Creative) by The Closet Entrepreneur
• Twitter background Guidelines by Croncast Archives
• Free Twitter Backgrounds from Twitterbacks.com
• Monetize Your Twitter Background by Kevin Muldoon from System0 (Approach this one with caution! Not for everyone!!!)
• Make a Good Impression with a Custom Twitter Background from Twitip
• Photoshop template to customize your Twitter profile page from Boingboing
• 26 awesome backgrounds for twitter fanboys on webdistortion
• How to make a Twitter Background Picture with Photoshop by Lawfulevilville
• How about a Twitter Background Gallery
• My Tweet Space has a background generator but I have experienced mixed results.

If you try any of these, please come back to this post and share your experience.

Can you hear the whispers?

Imagine being in a crowd of millions and someone, somewhere, is whispering your name, talking about you or your business.

In the real world, this potential friend, or potential business lead, would be lost to you because there would be no way for you to find this person. Worse, you probably wouldn't even know about it. For an individual, it might meen that someone simply commented on their picture in Facebook. For a company, it might meen that a customer is praising, or trashing your campany name online for all to see.

The classic example is the case of the guy who realised he could open his supposedly inbreakable Kryptonyte bicycle lock with a simple bic pen. He filmed it and posted it on Youtube. It went viral with thousands upon thousands of people viewing it (Steve Rubel has an excellent post on his blog, Micro Persuasion, that outlines this story in greater detail). When the company heard about this video, they immediately...did nothing. It cost them dearly. Not only that but the video has inspired dozens more who are trying everything they can to see if they can break the lock - and are of course filming it and posting it to Youtube. I have seen multiple ways of opening this lock, from using a car jack, to sawing through it with a carbide rod.

I first saw this video in a presentation Mitch Joel gave at a big conference I attended for Government of Canada communicators. It was a real eye opener and spurred me on to learn more about monitoring your brand, in my case, my personal brand, online. Now, the purpose of this post is not to discuss the value of monitoring your name/brand online. Better men, and women, than me have discussed this topic at lenght. But knowing about the concept and seeing it in action are two different things. Sure, I have a Google alert account that sends me emails when something is posted somewhere about me, mostly by me :( , and from time to time I visit Technorati to confirm just how invisible my blogs are, but there is a hop and a leap from that to serious brand monitoring.

A little while ago, Mitch Joel posted a link on twitter asking for suggestions about online monitoring tools. On his blog, Six Pixels of Seperation, he listed the major free tools and asked if anyone knew of other ones. It just so happened that, that very week, I had read about a company called Radian6 that did just that, so I replied to Mitch via twitter. It was only a matter of hours before I had a tweet from the VP Marketing of Radian6 thanking me for my recommendation and offering to demo their product in more detail.

Wow! I must admit I was impressed. You have to understand that in terms of the Web, I am not well known. I am that whisper in the crowd and most would not strain the ear to hear what I have to say. But those who take their business seriously, the real pros, don't miss a beat. They know that every whisper is a potential client, or a potential lead to other clients, and in the business world of today, this can make all the difference in the world.

Knowing who is talking about you and what they are saying is not just a good-to-have, it is a must-have for anyone doing business and a should-have for everyone else.

Note: I am not affiliated in any way with Radian6, Google, Mitch Joel, or Steve Rubel, other than by the fact that I follow their (Mike's and Steve's) blogs regularly for those pearls of wisdom that help make me a better blogger and a better communicator. I have not been offered and do not expect to profit financially in any way from this posting.