Calling All Small Businesses!

If your a small business you NEED to be on a social networking site and you NEED to learn how to use it effectively. In the article Why Twitter Is a Big Win for Small Businesses , written by Erica Swallow, she interviews three small business owners that have successfully used Twitter and have gotten positive results from it. She asked each a series of nine questions and even used examples from their own Twitter accounts. The article was a great idea and could be of reference to other small business owners.

One business owner named Lev Ekster, stated when asked, "What's the top reason your business uses Twitter?"  that “It all just boils down to having a face and a voice to the company, where the customer feels that you’re reachable. With a bigger company, you don’t know who the owner is, you don’t know how to reach them, you feel like beyond the suggestion box in the store, there’s nothing else you can do. But [with social media], you get an instant response.”

I personally think that's a great response because it is true how many times have you been some where and had bad/good service or just wanted to make a comment about it and all they had was a place like a suggestion box. I always wondered if they even looked at what people put on a suggestion card, because you never get a response back like you would on Twitter. Also, other customers may never see what you put into a suggestion box but they would see what you tweeted about. Twitter makes me as a consumer feel more comfortable with communicating with a small business. It makes you feel like you have a voice and someone is actually listening to you.

I think this article could also apply to our project with Shenanigans, because it talks about how some businesses aren't using Twitter effectively so it isn't successful. I think we could use the responses of these business owners when thinking about how Shenanigans need to approach Twitter, if that is something we would even consider using.

The small business owners make good points in their responses, including how you shouldn't use an outsource to update your Twitter because they aren't they to know what is going on. They also recommend to take lots of pictures of everything, from  the chef making cupcake to a new dress that just arrived in your store. Then you can monitor how many people actually look at your pictures and they would give you an idea at how many active followers you have. 

This article should be read by all small business owners who are looking into using Twitter!

Change your Status to Change the Statistics!

Have you or anyone you know ever had cancer? I am sure everyone has been affected by cancer in some way shape or form. Everyone everywhere hopes that someday their is a cure for cancer so we can put an end to this awful disease. In the article #BeatCancer Aiming to Set World Record for Most Social Mentions , by Vadim Ladrusik, it discuss how Livestrong is trying to beat their own World Record of most mentions on Twitter and Facebook. Last year 209,771 mentions in 24 hours and this year they are looking to beat it.

Would you like to help? If  so, all you have to do, starting at 12 p.m. on Friday until 12 p.m. on Saturday, is mention the hashtag #BeatCancer in your Facebook status, Blog, or Twitter and $0.05 is donated to cancer charities. How simple is that!

I think this is such a creative/innovative idea to donate to cancer charities. Since social media is so popular, I think more organizations should use this technique. It's simple, they just need to pair up with a large organization or two that would be willing to donate money on behalf of the people who are spreading the word or awareness. I know I will be posting the hashtag on one of my social media accounts, will you?

Are Naive Adolescence Doomed?

Last week in class, we got to talking about what comes up on Google when you type in your own name and it really got me thinking about how a potential employer would perceive me. I Googled my name and nothing bad came up but it got me wondering what I would have done if something bad would have came up. What if something I did in high school, made a future employer have a bad opinion of me. I can honestly say that when I was in high school, I was not thinking about what I wanted to do in life and I wasn't thinking that future employers would be tracking me down on social media sites.

After wondering about all the things that I could have potentially written on my Facebook and others pages when I was younger, it made me want to research and see what adolescents were writing on their own pages right now. I have a lot of cousins and many of them are younger than me and I know that they are unaware that the things they are publishing on the internet could potential affect them in the future. So I started my research by simply looking at all the pictures, wall-to-wall posts, and status updates to see if I could find anything that I personally wouldn't want an employer to see and just as I suspected, my little cousins aren't afraid to put anything on their Facebook pages. It blows my mind at the things that I found and I'm sure that there are worst things that others have published. It makes me want to tell them to watch what you do or say on the internet because you never know who may see it.

Do you think that because they are so naive about their future employer that they are possibly doomed when they decide to enter the workforce? I believe they might actually be in a little bit of trouble because once something is on the internet, it is there forever. But you never know Facebook or other sites might not even be popular in 5+ years, so maybe they will have nothing to worry about with employers. This is just something that I began to wonder about and I wish someone would have warned me about when I first started using Facebook and other social networking sites.

Coffee Anyone?

I was watching Modern Family, ABC.com the other day and the commercial that was playing between sections was a Starbucks commercial. The commercial really caught my eye and I wondered to myself what else Starbucks does to promote itself. First I just started to YouTube other Starbucks commercials then I decided to log onto their web-site and that's when I found that they have a section on their homepage dedicated to their on-line community. Their on-line community is based on six different things: Twitter , Facebook , YouTube , My Starbucks Idea , Starbucks V2V , and Flickr .Everyone knows and can find them on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and that's why I want to talk about the other three on-line sites that Starbucks has to help promote and get their customers involved.

One of the communities is the My Starbucks Idea, and on the page you can submit any idea you have for Starbucks. You can also comment on others ideas and join a discussion. It also shows ideas that are in the works, under review, reviewed, and launched. Another feature I found cool is it sorts the ideas into different categories and you can see how many have been submitted. It's cool to think that people like you and me are responsible for some of the things that Starbucks is doing.

Another community is Starbucks V2V, and this is a database that can connect your actions that you display in the community to others and get them involved in them too. For example, I am a Chi Omega and our philanthropy is Make-A-Wish Foundation, so if I wanted to post something about what I was doing in the community for Make-A-Wish then others could see it and maybe join my action to get involved. This site is a great way to get the community linked together and involved. I also saw a commercial for Starbucks that says if you do 5 community service hours then you would get a free tall coffee. It shows that Starbucks really is community oriented and it shows that they care about the people.

The last community is Flickr, and flickr is a site where people can upload there favorite Starbucks photos. You can also discuss what the photo is showing and your experience you had while at Starbucks. This site is free advertisement for Starbucks because the customers are doing all the work.

I believe that Starbucks has gone above and behind to promote themselves and show that their customers are what matters to them the most. What do you think? Do you think they could do anything better or do you think they have done a wonderful job?

Do you think Twitter is a Social Networking Site?

The article "Twitter is Everything but a Social Network," written by Chelsi Nakano, http://www.cmswire.com/cms/social-media/twitter-is-everything-but-a-social-network--008614.php , has made me wonder what everyone else thinks about Twitter. Do you think it is a Social Networking site or do you think it is more of an information/news site?

In her article, Nakano gives several definitions of what Social Networking is and if you read the given definitions why wouldn't you think that it is anything but a Social Networking site? But the Vice President of Twitter claims that it shouldn't be put in the same category as Facebook and other similar sites because it is an information/ news site. Even though I agree with him, I believe it is still a Social Networking site because it links people together and also it's not primarily a site that just to get news out.

The article also discuses how people don't want there Social Networking sites to be associated with the term "Social Networking." I don't understand the problem with the term because that is simply what they are. The sites are all Social, meaning they connect individuals together and they are a part of Networking, because they are sharing information with others. I don't think the term should be frowned upon but should be accepted. What else would they rather be associated with? The article suggests that they could go with other terms such as: consumption environment, one giant mashup, an information shower, or a totally gorgeous platform. None of those would be appealing and Twitter should just accept that it is a Social Networking site.

I look at Twitter as a site that is a mixture between Facebook and a blog. What is your take on Twitter? Do you think it is a Social Networking site or do you think it should be placed in a different category?

Twitter usage at the 2010 VMAs

Last night, September 12, 2010, was MTV's VMA award show. During the preshow & the award show something I found very interesting, MTV decided to use Twitter as a source of entertainment and a way to get the at home views & audience members involved with the show. To get your tweet on the show you had to you had to type in your tweet #VMA (which means its a trending topic) and you tweeted using the celebrities name or names. Then MTV would tally up who got tweeted about the most during the show. Lady Gaga held the leading spot for most of the night, with Justin Bieber close behind. I personally didn't tweet about the VMA's but I thought it was cool how MTV got their Twitter so involved. It was a lot of free publicity for Twitter and it probably brought more people to Twitter so they could vote on MTV. I'm not sure if twitter approached MTV or vice versa, but it was a good move on both parts.
Also, during the show I would frequently check my Twitter too see what the other celebrities that were sitting in the audience were saying about the show. Being the celebrity junkie that I am, I found it so interesting to see what the celebrities were saying because they were seeing things live that sometimes we didn't get to see. Twitter in my eyes is quite possibly the best social networking site for things like the VMA's because celebrities can update there status and they can do it quite frequently. It is a great key to help draw spectators like myself into the show.