The energy around Social Media conversations is pretty intense these days. It seems as if any time the topic comes up, people have reactions ranging from fear (“it’s all just a bunch of hype, it’ll go away”) to curiosity (“I’ve heard of it I think, should I be doing somethig about it?”) to active participation (“I’m changing how I market my business”) to intense evangelism (“It’s the best thing since sliced bread!!!”), and everything in-between.

But why is Social Media having such an impact on us? And why should businesses take it seriously?

I think the biggest issue of all is that as the next step in the evolution of the internet, Social Media has the capability to put power in the hands of consumers. This is frightening for most businesses – it completely turns the known business world upside-down.

Think about some of the major components of a business: Branding, Lead-generation, Marketing, Advertising, Sales, Customer Service, Customer Relationships, Support – most of these are involved with communicating with the Customer in one way or another.

The Marketing world alone derives much of its research, metrics, new product development and strategic goals from customer data and relationships. Suddenly the opportunities for engaging with and gathering information on our customers have opened up through all kinds of new opportunities and channels on the Social Web – it’s a whole new world.

In the past, we used to tell the consumer about our products and services, and waited for them to buy. Now, we can engage our customers, with information, with value, with content that they can comment on, reply to, share, recommend and review. From a business owner’s perspective, that’s a lot of power to put in someone else’s hands.

That power brings risk  – the risk that we don’t know or don’t like what’s being said about our brand,  we don’t know what our customer wants, and we’re not keeping up with our competitors. But that risk can be mitigated, by being involved. Become engaged, provide excellent service, be where your customers are and take your business to another level – that’s the power that Social Media offers – and why it’s potential is so great. It raises the bar for us, and that’s a challenge that only some will meet.

Speaking of “Upside Down”, this is one of my favorite songs by Jack Johnson – just thought it would be nice to share…

Business Brands on Twitter

For those of you who want to know if there are major commercial brands on Twitter – here’s a short list of the some of the top name-brands that use Twitter to connect with their customers. ..

Take a look at some of the innovative and fresh ways these companies are using Social Media to engage with their audience – inspiration, anyone?

For the first time in SuperBowl history, a major US corporation shunned the mainstream advertising campaigns at half-time. Instead, Pepsi created one of the most innovative Social Media campaigns to date – the Pepsi Refresh Project. Launched on January 13^th, 2010 on Facebook and Twitter, within a matter of weeks the Pepsi Refresh Project gathered over half a million Facebook fans and 21,000 Twitter followers.

The Pepsi Refresh Project allows people to submit ideas for local community-based projects, for profit or non-profit, in a variety of categories: Arts & Culture, Health, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods and Education.  Up to 1,000 ideas every month are selected to be the recipients of Pepsi grants – from $5,000 to $250,000.

The reason for the success of this campaign? Pepsi discovered “the power of the people”. Instead of spending millions of dollars on an expensive, short-lived SuperBowl ad campaign with temporary marketing results and a fleeting branding opportunity, Pepsi opted to create a lasting, long-term impact with social reach and a positive contribution. Now who can say ‘brilliant” louder? This is one heck of a way to change the advertising landscape – and Madison Avenue’s pocketbook.

Powerful? Absolutely. Pepsi took a huge risk by walking away from traditional advertising – and the millions of people who saw the half-time SuperBowl show. But Pepsi created something greater – it re-positioned its brand as caring and community-oriented – and that ultimately means more to me, and to you – than all the flash and pomp of half-time. By creating a direct connection with its audience, and creating a campaign that benefits the things that you and I care about in our communities, Pepsi also created a sustained and long-lasting relationship with it’s audience – something NO SuperBowl ad can accomplish.

So ultimately, the benefit to Pepsi is that they’ve collected potential customers because they’re doing something of value – something that matters to me, and to you – by putting money back into my community and yours, into projects that we care about – instead of just lining the pockets of corporate ad executives.

It’s about making a change, and even effecting social change, using the power of the Internet to communicate and contribute – changing the rules of the game.

That’s potent stuff – and it’s what makes Social Media so powerful – and so frightening to the traditional advertising and marketing world. Change is scary, and with the advent of the Social Web, it’s happening on a massive scale in Marketing, Sales, Advertising, Customer Relationships, Customer Service, Public Relations, Branding…

So Social Media is about a lot more than some Tweets and posting some family pictures online. The Social Web is having a tremendous impact on how we do business and affecting and transforming how we communicate with each other.

It’s a whole new wide, wild world.

So you’ve heard about blogging, your friend is blogging, you’ve thought “maybe I should be blogging too”, but you’re not really even sure what a blog is and why you should really invest the time, resources and effort…Here’s what you need to know to get started and why it’s an essential tool in your marketing toolkit.

So…What’s a Blog?
A blog is nothing more that a website that allows you to update the content on your site using a built-in Content Management System – which is simply the editing software that allows you to post your content, without needing technical or programming skills.

The word blog is derived from the word “web log” – intended originally as an online diary that allowed people without technical knowledge to easily post information, ideas and opinions online quickly and easily. This site – www.neighborhoodnowinc.com – is built using a blogging platform, Wordpress.

The History of Blogging
Before individual blogging, people shared information in online discussion forums and other digital communities, like Usenet, bulletin board systems like Compuserve and other internet “threaded” conversations. By the late 1990’s, people started using services like Open Diary, LiveJournal and Blogger to post running commentaries on their personal lives and news. Open Diary, founded by Bruce Ableson in 1998, was the first social blogging platform to allow others to post comments on each other’s diaries, and is credited with being the first to bring “online diary writers” together into a community.

With the advent of Blogger, acquired by Google in 2003, and the evolution of b2/cafelog, an open source blogging development platform, into WordPress in 2003, blogging became more and more popular as people discovered their voice could be heard with ease online.

The Psychology of Blogging…
Well, I think one of the most interesting aspects of blogging is that it’s fundamentally a channel of self-expression. Jessica Wapner wrote a fascinating piece in The Scientific American in June 2008 on the very real benefits of expressive and creative writing to our mental and physiological being…and how blogging may very well stimulate us in the same manner as other creative or stimulating outlets including music, art and even sports.

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that we all want to be heard – which is why Social Media is becoming such a transformational engine of online communication. Blogging allows us to express our opinion – and publish it to the wide wild world (my version of the www) – and suddenly we’re authors, creators, producers and creative geniuses (we hope) instead of just consumers. It gives us a sense of control – and who doesn’t want that?

Why Should you Blog?
So other than the fact that I think it’s an incredibly healthy creative outlet, here’s my list of the Top 10 Reasons why I think you should blog for your business:

The Top 10 Reasons to Blog:

10. To Demonstrate Commitment - you want people to know that you’re dedicated to your line of work, and that you’re willing to put time and effort into collecting and sharing information for your customers.

9. To Increase Name Recognition – with a blog, you can promote and manage your brand and your reputation to some extent – at least to the extent that you publish information about yourself.

8. To Establish yourself as an Expert – build credibility, gain trust and tell your audience why they should buy from you.

7. Blogs are Search-Engine friendly – a blog is mostly text (unless it’s a video blog), but either way it’s generally text-rich and link-rich, which are things that search engines like when looking for content that’s relevant and of high value to people who are looking for information on the web. Another reason blogs are search-engine friendly is that they’re frequently updated (or should be) – so it gives search engines a reason to come back and re-visit and re-index the website.  

6. To put a Human face on your Business – your blog should be as real and as authentic as you, a reflection of who you are. Remember, people prefer to do business with real people, not nameless, corporate entities.

5. To Create and Leverage Influence – have an opinion that you want to express? It’s especially important to remember that you can leverage your blog to generate and create influence, just be aware that it may have an effect on how you do business.

4. To Build an Information Library  – older blogs are archived, and if you blog over a period of time, you’ll build quite an information resource – great for your audience, your customers and for continuing to show up in online searches.

3. To Engage your Customers – blogs allow you create a following with your audience, as you build a relationship with your readers – and blogs that allow comments give your customers a reason to engage with you in a two-way conversation – which is even better for deepening that relationship.

2. To Learn More about your Business - in order to blog effectively, you’ll learn very quickly that you have to research and refer to other sources, check facts and learn even more about your line of business. It’s a great way to build knowledge about your industry.

And the #1 reason to blog….

1. To connect, connect, and connect again – those of you who’ve attended any of my seminars know I talk about Value a lot - you must provide value in your blog content so that your audience feels that you’re giving them a reason to have a connection – and an ongoing conversation – with you. And as you build that connection, you have the opportunity to gain trust, create credibility and convert leads into customers.