The 24/7/365 Social Media World

by Scott Howard | Aug 31, 2013 | ScLoHo's Web World

1st off, I’m actually writing this on the same day it is going to appear online, which for me is not the norm.

It’s Saturday and the 3 day Labor Day weekend has begun.  Since I work for a company that keeps regular business hours, we get Monday off as a paid holiday.  But due to the nature of my job as their Social Media Magician, I’m never completely off unless I schedule time off and have someone cover for me.

I am also going to do more than one update today.  I was reminded by a friend that this is national bacon day, so I’ll write and post about that this afternoon.

But let’s concentrate on Social Media for a moment.

Since I began working for a national internet retailer this year my own person social media habits have changed.  And Thursday evening I was having dinner with a small group of friends and we mentioned how their habits have changed too.

For me, I spend less time on my Twitter account and more on my Facebook account than ever before.  However my total social media time is huge each week when you count the time I spend working for my employer.

I am in the office between 7:30 and 5:30 most days.  I log 48 to 50 hours each week. Then in the evenings and weekends I use my laptop to check in and monitor our Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts.  I spend at least 10 hours weekly outside of the office working on our companies social media accounts.

But that is the nature of the Social Media World.  If your company is going to participate, you need to be actively involved and monitoring your social media channels.

I monitor our Twitter accounts a few times a day, in order to respond back to people who have reached out to us.  I am in the process of creating a more active Twitter engagement, but it’s taking time to build.  We have over 22,000 followers, but the engagement rate was nearly invisible until I started a new process and tactics recently.

I get notifications in my email when comments appear on our Facebook fan page, and unless I am sleeping I can respond if necessary within an hour or less.  Often within minutes is the norm.

Most of our customers are based in the United States, but we have social media fans and followers worldwide.  When a customer has a question, often they will go to Facebook or Twitter to get an answer.  I have spent a Friday evening or two helping a customer by walking them through our website via Facebook.

Before I worked fulltime in the social media world, I would do the same thing as a consumer.  A couple years ago I was having problems with Comcast and I tried 3 methods of restoring service simultaneously. I called their 800 service number, did an online chat on their web page and talked to @ComcastBonnie on Twitter.  Twitter won at getting our service fixed.

That’s the same service I want to provide for our customers and potential customers too.  Are you willing to invest the time and energy in your social media for your business?

One last comment.  I still maintain my personal connections on social media.  With Twitter I learned a long time ago to use lists, if you were following more than a couple hundred Tweeps.  I am reorganizing my lists this weekend, since I have nearly 4,000 followers and follow over 2,000.  I’ll write more about how I use lists one day.

Your Social Media Power

by Scott Howard | Aug 30, 2013 | ScLoHo's Web World

For every hundred companies that are trying to figure out how to make money using Social Media, there are a thousand who are not trying.

Some are playing around with it, but have no clue as to what to do with it.

Others are looking at social media as something they should do.

And there are still a bunch who just wish it would go away.

But in the meantime, there’s you and me and our friends/followers and our collective voices.

Go ahead and use it.

Spread some love.

Complain when you need to.

(By the way, try and include the company in your praise or complaint, so they can respond and perhaps fix the problem or pass on the love to the folks who need to see it.)

We live in an age that was leveled the communication playing field in many ways.  It’s up to each of us to decide if we will use this social media power.

Is T.M.I. Hurting You?

by Scott Howard | Aug 9, 2013 | ScLoHo's Web World

I spoke to a class full of students at Huntington University a few years ago about Social Media and gave them some insight into how easy it was for me to uncover tidbits of information about them.

These days the expectation of privacy seems to have vanished, but what we post online lives forever.

And a healthy number of folks are living a life of regret of posting Too Much Information, (T.M.I.):

29% of users of Facebook, between the ages of 18 and 34, have posted a photo, comment or other personal information that they fear could someday either cause a prospective employer to turn them down for a job, or a current employer to fire them if they were to see it.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/206047/think-twice-or-more-before-social-posting.html#ixzz2bBvplkBJ

This is serious stuff my friend.  If a 14 year old can gather info then anyone can.  It doesn’t matter how savvy you are, what matters is that there are plenty of folks who can “stalk you”, not in a malicious or criminal way, just out of curiosity.

Even though there are laws prohibiting employers from snooping, we know it’s going on.

My advice: Live a life of integrity, offline and online.

The Fort Wayne Social Media Breakfast Saga

by Scott Howard | Jul 26, 2013 | ScLoHo's Web World

Okay,  the word saga provokes the feel of drama and that’s not really what this is about.

Instead I want to encourage you to make plans to attend a monthly meeting in Northeast Indiana that occurs 11 months out of the year, consistently on the last last Tuesday of the month from 7:30 to 9am.

The Social Media Breakfast Fort Wayne is mostly made up of people who use Twitter, but we also have some non-tweeps who are only on Facebook.  The monthly gathering is worth putting on your must-attend calender just to pick up a few bits of wisdom, or see how others are using social media both on a professional and personal level.

The ring lead of this event is my friend Kevin Mullett, whom I worked with for about a year.  I first met Kevin via Twitter, we became friends, ending up working together, and still remain friends a couple years after I left the firm he works for.

Here’s the down & dirty details.  The event is free and open to the public.  There is some breakfast food, usually bagels and bacon along with coffee, paid for by a sponsor.  From 7:30 to 8, folks are arriving and getting settled. Please show up before 8.   If you are one of those folks who are always late, just tell yourself that it starts at 7:15, and you’ll not regret it.

Tickets and details:

Eventbrite is where you go to register at: http://www.eventbrite.com/org/935900765

(Note: The July 30th event was not live yet when I wrote this, but will be soon, Kevin tells me)

You can also find them on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/smbftw

Follow them on Twitter at https://twitter.com/smbfw and use the hashtag #SMBFW Tuesday.

The Saga part of this story is that this will be the 27th nearly monthly event that Kevin has MC’d.  I have been to other social media events that were supposed to be meeting every month including our neighbors to the south (Indianapolis) and they haven’t had the staying power that our group has managed to sustain. Attendance ranges from 50 to over 70 with many newcomers each month.

Will we see you next week?

Is Your Website Development Company Up To Snuff?

by Scott Howard | Jul 6, 2013 | ScLoHo's Web World

Just a quick one on this subject.

If the firm you are considering hiring uses AOL as their email… No.

Worse yet, they don’t have their own domain, their main website is an old MySpace page…Hell No.