Small Business is Warming to Social Media

A recent survey showed that 45% of small business owners have turned to Facebook and Twitter to help market their companies

According to the survey, which ran in mid-September 2009, 45 percent of small-business owners have Twitter or Facebook accounts. That’s astonishing considering that today only 44 percent of all small businesses have websites, according to some surveys. Remember, the Internet is over a decade old, but social media is really only two to three years old, if that.

And it just isn’t small companies. Take Skittles for example. Their entire site is nothing more than a Twitter feed of people talking about Skittles.

Social media is low-cost, easy to use and has the added benefit that it is viral by nature – it is ‘social’ media after all. And as the article points out, social media is only 2 to 3 years old. And as more users come up with new and creative ways to use sites like Facebook and Twitter to market their products, more and more organizations – both big and small – will turn to social media to promote themselves.

Guest Editorial in the Tennessean

I wrote a guest editorial in the Tennessean this week about about legislation to impose consumer privacy rules on websites and advertisers.

The Internet has transformed our daily lives in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. From e-mail to Internet phone service, cell phones and social networking, the Internet has changed the way we shop, network, find information, manage finances, schedule our lives and even the way we communicate.

And while the Internet offers us many benefits — and promises to give us more mobility, choices and flexibility — many consumers are growing concerned about their privacy online.

I believe that the best solutions to the public policy issues effecting the technology industry are best solved when consumers, technology companies and regulators work together on

No law or government regulation will solve all privacy and security concerns. Technology companies need to continue to offer marketplace solutions and, most importantly, consumers need to protect themselves…

NBA to Unveil Social Media Policy

ESPN recently reported that the NBA is set to unveil and social media policy this week.

The primary restriction of the policy is expected to prevent various team representatives from tweeting during games, after the stir caused late last season when Detroit Pistons forward Charlie Villanueva, then with Milwaukee, tweeted from the Bucks’ locker room during halftime.

While the NBA is imposing what it calls”minimal” guidelines, should they really have to put a policy in place? For many players, coaches and officials, Twitter acts as another media outlet.

I believe Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has the right response. When talking about Twitter he said:

I will talk to the guys about never venting or talking about team business on Twitter. That’s usually what creates problems. [But] Twitter is just another form of media. What you say on Twitter is like saying it on ESPN.

Gov 2.0 Expo and Summit

I attended the Gov 2.0 Expo today. Heard a lot of great stories how Government is implementing social media strategies to get information out.

A great case study is how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) used social media tools to get their message out during the peanut butter and peanut product recall earlier this year.

The FDA had a challenge because many products not naturally thought of as containing peanuts, like ice creams, were part of the recall. So the FDA used social networks, and other tools for the first time to reach their audiences – with great success. NextGov reported that the

“FDA’s recall widget was used 1.4 million times in nine days.”

It is good to see the FDA using social media and collaborating with other agencies. While the FDA had a lot of success, I believe their efforts would have been even more successful had they spent the time and resources to build and prior to the recall.

Airlines Offering “Cheeps” and “Twares” on Twitter

An article in today’s Chicago Tribune shows how United and JetBlue are using Twitter to offer deals to their followers.

Our goal really was to take advantage of all the great followers we already had on Twitter,” said JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin. “The goal with Cheeps is to put options out there for really great fare deals that are close-in – within that week,” Baldwin said. “It’s for customers who have flexibility or want a last-minute getaway.

As of today JetBlue had almost a million followers on Twitter and United had just over 20,000.

More Signs of Twitters Growth – the Korean Central News Agency is Sending Tweets

The news broke today that the Korean Central News Agency is using Twitter. Maybe they saw how Twitter was being used in Iran and decided to get ahead of the game.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – It’s best known as the place to tell millions what you had for breakfast. But dispatches from North Korea’s state news agency have begun popping up on Twitter.

A feed under the name “kcna_dprk”—acronyms of Pyongyang’s state Korean Central News Agency and the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—provides links to hundreds of the agency’s English-language stories. The background of the Twitter page for the feed shows the North’s red-and-blue national flag.

Interesting Article on How Social Media is Deepening Face to Face Relationships

Interesting article in yesterday’s Boston Globe about how social media is being used now that so many people – statistics show 1 of every 3 Americans are now using Facebook – are using social networks.

The Boston Globe’s article quotes author Clay Shirky:

We are witnessing the death of cyberspace, the death of the idea that the Internet or digital networks are an alternative to real life,” says Clay Shirky, author of “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations,” which examines the cultural implications of online social networks.Once everyone you know is online, the Internet becomes an augmentation of real life rather than a replacement for it.

The article also gives several examples of how people are using social networks to strengthen face to face relationships.

“Yet as Facebook marks its fifth anniversary and Twitter-mania spreads, it is becoming clear that many users employ social media to spend more time with friends, not less.”

While users of these networks quickly see the benefits of using social networks to keep up to date on their friends lives, businesses and associations are just beginning utilize social networks to communicate and build relationships with customers.

“Online contact seems to deepen offline contact. When it comes to social media, the emphasis is on the social, not the media.”

Analog Government in a Digital Age

The Center for American Progress held a conference this week on how the Government is using Web 2.0. The Washington Post had a good article on the event.

The panelists discussed several obstacles (many of which corporations and associations also face) to implementing social media activities including: small social media staffs, the fear of making mistakes and – perhaps the biggest challenge – how to allow individuals to act on the behalf of the organization.

But should an individual working within the government be allowed to participate in the conversation as an individual, or should they remain a faceless staffer, Swire asked. O’Reilly said allowing people to reveal their identities and personalities online is key.

“If individuals in government cannot act as individuals, government will never be successful,” he said. “This is all about individuals connecting with individuals.”

Despite the challenges, the Government seems to be having some success. Alec Ross, a senior adviser on innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, shared how the Dept. of State posted a video of President Obama speaking directly to the Pakastani people. And they also set up shortcodes to collect donations to the refugee relief fund – as task that went from idea to implementation in only 4 days.

We are entering a “messy, exciting time with a lot of potential,” said O’Reilly. “Let’s figure out how to use this opportunity to build a better country.”

Pew Survey Finds Majority Got Political Info Online

A Pew survey released last week found that a majority of adults got their political information online during the 2008 elections.

Some 74% of internet users–representing 55% of the entire adult population–went online in 2008 to get involved in the political process or to get news and information about the election. This marks the first time that a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey has found that more than half of the voting-age population used the internet to get involved in the political process during an election year.

And while younger users continue to have the largest online presence, politicians and advocacy organizations need to have aggressive online campaigns when they want to reach a voters of all age groups.

Some more interesting facts from the report:

• Nearly one in five (18%) internet users posted their thoughts, comments or questions about the campaign on an online forum such as a blog or social networking site.
• Fully 45% of internet users went online to watch a video related to the campaign.
• One in three internet users forwarded political content to others. Indeed, the sharing of political content (whether writing and commentary or audio and video clips) increased notably over the course of the 2008 election cycle. While young adults led the way in many political activities, seniors were highly engaged in forwarding political content to their friends and family members.

Why Monitoring Modern Media is Important to Brand Protection

Dominos is learning the hard way why it is important for companies to constantly monitor their brand on social media networks – and respond quickly to threats to brand reputation.  Corporations are quickly learning the implications of an old political addage: “Speed Kills.”

As the New York Times reported today:

When two Domino’s Pizza employees filmed a prank in the restaurant’s kitchen, they decided to post it online. In a few days, thanks to the power of social media, they ended up with felony charges, more than a million disgusted viewers, and a major company facing a public relations crisis.

Unfortunately for Dominos, this video was allowed to grow virally for days with no response from the company.

By Wednesday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than a million times on YouTube. References to it were in five of the 12 results on the first page of Google search for “Dominos,” and discussions about Domino’s had spread throughout Twitter.

And once the company found out about the video, they were hesitant to respond immediately.

As the company learned about the video on Tuesday, Mr. McIntyre said, executives decided not to respond aggressively, hoping the controversy would quiet down. “What we missed was the perpetual mushroom effect of viral sensations,” he said.

The lesson to be learned is to consistently monitor your brand and when you detect a threat you need to respond immediately and appropriately.  As Dominos found out, it does not always take a company mistake to create a PR crisis.

“We got blindsided by two idiots with a video camera and an awful idea,” said a Domino’s spokesman, Tim McIntyre, who added that the company was preparing a civil lawsuit.

- as a Dominos spokesperson said in the NYT “We got blindsided by two idiots with a video camera and an awful idea.”