Twitter's Internal Google
The phenomenon called Social Media has taken the world by storm, primarily one social network called Twitter is getting the lion’s share of the press as of this writing. Are these social networks working for you? I suspect many of you use FaceBook for catching up with old school buddies but are you using it for business purposes? If you are a professional you are probably using LinkedIn to network, research projects and or your next career move. The most responsive of the networks in my opinion is Twitter and it is a primary business tool for many organizations. No matter which one you use each of us has a motive for using these networks for various purposes.
One of the best tools I have discovered is in Twitter’s search capabilities, it is far reaching and a very powerful tool for doing research within your Twitter following. I’m not referring to the Find People mechanism in your Account, I’m referring to search.twitter.com.
Play with it and decide how you might maximize this tool for your business, will it be market research, curiosity to see who is saying what about you in their updates. No matter the use it can be one of your secret weapons in your social media tool kit.
It may not replace Google anytime soon but you can see how it could be used as such in the future.
Until next time.
Virtual Reality & Nanobots – Are You Ready?
The New Technology is Nanotechnology but you only hear about the new advances being made and not how intrusive the technology really is or will be in our near future. There will be many who claim to cure Cancer through the new technology and thousands will clammer to be injected with nanobots regardless of the side-effects and or consequences. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for solving these serious illnesses but at what cost? I wrote on Twitter that we will spend millions of dollars on a vaccine but yet we still think it’s OK to have people in our communities unable to buy food or pay the rent. It’s as if we have been lulled into a trance when it comes to technology, we focus on how much money it can make us rather than how we can help our fellow man! Yes I’m generalizing but consider our past as a race and society. We want what we want regardless of who we hurt or step on on the way up the ladder.
In my eBook, “The New Technology – The End of Mankind? — The Beginning” I touch on Virtual Reality, it’s where we will spend most of our time. No not the Virtual Reality where you put on a headset or glasses and SHAZZAM! your transported to another world, the Virtual Reality I’m referring to is not unlike The Matrix. This Virtual Reality will be injected into your blood stream via blood cell sized nanobots and could trick your neurons into thinking your traveling somewhere without leaving the room. It’s the new drug of the future, back in the 60’s we had LSD and today it’s nanobots, interesting isn’t it?
There a thousand questions, how will these nanobots be distributed, will you know you’ve been injected, who will oversee and say what is acceptable and what is not, a governing body so to speak. I think we trust technology far too easily, it is possible that we will lose control of technology because we really haven’t got a clue what we are messing with, much like the earth we have all but destroyed. We just couldn’t see the impact our actions would have on our environment. So what does all this mean to you, how do we use this new technology for good rather than bad and how will it impact our day-to-day business and activities? Could it be used against us, you bet it could. Will we give our power over to the machines and they’ll be in charge? The questions are many, what do you think, leave your comments I’m very interested.
Ray Kurzweil, an Inventor, Author and Futurist shares some of what I touched on above, take the time to watch this video called:
Ray Kurzweil Explores the Next Phase of Virtual Reality
Whatever Happened To Face-To-Face?
Whatever happened to meeting face-to-face, is this no longer the best way to build relationships, to build trust and the best way to move products and services. I find myself spending more and more time online than I do out in the market place interacting and networking, is something broken here or is the world truly being driven more and more indoors? I have also found that it’s far too easy to misread typed words because there’s no body language or tone of voice, talk about being misunderstood! My world is getting smaller and smaller by the moment, and me being the highly relational type needs to interact with others. So how do we accept or fight this paradigm of living online to get anything done or to get what you want?
Now I’ve been a computer geek for a very long time and I embrace new technologies, even the ones that make me wonder if we should be developing them. Computers are getting smaller, TV’s are thinner, computers run so much of our electronics now we couldn’t go back to a time without them if we wanted to. You know how you can tell if you can’t live without your hand held devices or computer…do you lie in bed at night thinking about how to make so much money so you can tell your boss which bus to get back on? I know you do, because there are so many so called experts out there telling you how to do it, in your e-mail, on your phone it’s everywhere! We are bombarded by so much information now we can’t distinguish the difference between real life and fantasy, (I think daytime soaps started this) Virtual Reality is making huge strides and that’s when we’ll have a real dilemma. But I digress.
Social Media Networks have us, Ala Matrix, Twitter is as real time as you can get and you can make more friends in five minutes than you could face-to-face. Facebook gets you connected to high school buddies much like the old website called Classmates did back in the day. Like golf courses where more business is done in a day than the whole week, Social Media Networks are becoming just like those golf courses, will we want to make that shift or will we hang on to old ways?
So what’s my point, the reality is we are changing at a pace we can’t keep up with technologically, the gap between the haves and have not’s is becoming wider every minute of the day. The truth is we are becoming less connected physically, we are dependent on technology and in the very near future we will be giving control over to technology. We will come to trust the very thing we enjoy blaming for all the crashes and freezes that force us to reboot in the windows world. The shift to Linux is real, most hand held devices run it, not windows….zero’s and one’s are the base from which all things called technology are birthed. So if you think we will be able to go back to the horse and buggy days you are in for a big surprise, technology won’t let us.
Universities are using video conferencing methods and there are more learning management systems out there than ever before making it easier to acquire accreditation online. Newspapers WILL be a thing of the past, everyone is a news reporter now which means the controls for quality are no longer held by the big blues. Which increases the percentage of error but also means we will see and hear even more about events and happenings that are less important than our current global economic meltdown.
With Nanotechnology – The New Technology, we will see the likes of nanobots doing our work for us, they will learn from their environments and eventually think for themselves. Many a person far smarter than I will argue this point but I’m not convinced we will stay in control of these technologies.The question begs to be asked, who will oversee and say what is acceptable and what is not. In my eBook The New Technology – The End of Mankind? – The Beginning; I scratch the surface on why technology hasn’t saved us time and where the new technology is headed. In the future we will communicate in such a way where you & I will integrate with technology, we will become wireless devices and no longer have to meet face-to-face! If you are interested in getting my eBook please send me an e-mail: owen@owengreaves.com
I have to come to terms with the fact that I eventually will have to learn to live without, I mean human interaction. This electronic world is slowly killing human contact don’t you think? Technology killing human contact, that’s another story to be told.
I would like to hear from you on this, do you agree or disagree, do you think we are doomed and will be sentenced to our rooms to interact on the Internet. Or, will we mantain control?
What's Your Social Media Plan?
Like a Business Plan or an I.T. Strategic Plan you should know why you are using Social Media Networks. Most businesses are oblivious to this marketing phenomenon and really don’t understand it’s value. The challenge is that when someone asks what it is, they talk like it’s a bunch of friends getting together for coffee and chatting it up. It’s more than a water cooler. In my opinion, FaceBook has cornered the market on catching up with old school buddies but it really hasn’t figured out how to be more than a playground for old friends on recess. Just my point of view, you may feel different about it.
If you think you have to have a large business to enter into the Social Media arena, your dead wrong, all you need to do is build a plan, then you will experience it’s true value. Despite what you may think, it’s not about advertising, positioning and jockeying for the #1 spot on Twitter Grader, that isn’t the goal. Google does this already but doesn’t tell you their secrets on how they control who gets ranked the highest. If you don’t plan the use of this new marketing environment you will waste time and wonder what happened, you’ll wonder if it wasn’t a distraction from you current goals and objectives. You will eventually use those tools as one way to measure your standing but you will be planting a banyan tree so don’t expect an immediate return on your investment.
So what’s am I talking about?
Let’s assume you have a business plan and you actually sat down and built an I.T. Strategic Plan, which one does the Social Media Strategy fit into? Truthfully? It doesn’t fit into either, it should be in your Marketing Strategy, unless you’ve decided to build your own Social Network, build a team to run it and build the infrastructure to support it, only then should it go into your business plan as a way to promote and develop brand. I’ll also assume you have a good understanding of the fore mentioned plans, if not, go study them before you start down this trail.
Building a large following is not as hard as it may seem, it does requires time & effort, it also requires a carefully crafted message to ensure you obtain reach that will generate activity and eventually revenue. So, your vision should be more about how you will use it rather than making it an entity all it’s own, where will it fit in the marketing strategy and what resources will it require, how big will it be and who on your team knows anything about it? Do you need to hire a consultant to help you incorporate Social Media into your marketing efforts? The questions are many and there many of us that can guide you to a sound plan in using the likes of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the great many others.
First Steps:
1.) Review your Business Plan
2.) Review your I.T. Plan if you have one
3.) Build a team to work with a consultant
4.) Hire an outside consultant to walk you through the need for Social Media Marketing
Wading into the Social Media Environment doesn’t have to be difficult, get help and build your plan. Until next time, be good, if you can’t be good, be yourself 🙂
Twitter Simplified – The Complete Beginners Guide
I just finished reading a free eBook from Aaron Martirano called, “Twitter Simplified – The Complete Beginners Guide”. This eBook is written for the beginner but even a seasoned Twitter user will find it useful. There’s great links and tools to enhance your Twitter experience. Aaron keeps it simple and it’s easy to read, easy to follow and frankly a great resource for anyone using Twitter.
Aaron covers the basics with screen shots of step-by-step setup instructions, setting up your very first account to making your first post, how to find friends on Twitter, and he walks you through setting up your mobile devices along with the mobile commands you need to know.
This eBook has an extensive list of Twitter Apps, Tools, time saving tips and articles on how to develop your Social Network of Followers. Aaron shares a few tips as well for Twitter success:
1.) When you start to get lots of friends remember you don’t have to READ all posts, READ only what interests you, it’s your Twitter.
2.) To make Twitter fun and manageable get TWEETDECK!!! It will let you make groups of friends and follow their tweets more closely.
3.) You have thousands of followers but unless you’re social interacting with them you are just a number, start converstaions and build relationships.
4.) Be yourself and act naturally and have fun, it’s easier than trying be someone else.
Those are just the first 4 of Aaron’s Top Ten Twitter tips, no matter whether your a novice or seasoned vet of Twitter, get Aaron’s eBook, it’s free and will make your Twitter experience positive.
To get this eBook: Twitter-Trainer
To Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronmartirano
Good luck and I’ll see you on Twitter!