empty seats

There is no such thing as “business as usual” in business today. Most businesses are planning on implementing a social media strategy this year, if they have not already done so. What I notice most in this article is that the Inc 500 respondents use social media in a fluid way.

I was reading an older (read: mid ’90s) book about marketing and while the ideas behind the book were really relevant, the vehicles were not. Friendster was noted as being one of the go-to places for being noticed in marketing.  Fifty years ago, fifteen years would not be enough to cause a really large shift in location.

Today, Friendster is a distant something-or-other to Facebook, twitter and MySpace, as far as the online Malt Shops go. And there are niche hangouts popping up every day. These niches are where the real action or interaction will be, I think. As of April 2009, Ning had 1,000,000 user-created networks. Our TwitterQueens is one of these, and while the growth was slow at the beginning (I remember being excited when we had 20 members), today we have 466 men and women. This is the face of the future. People will interact with the twitter followers in their favorites column, mostly, because the rest of it is just too darn big. That, mainly, is why I don’t understand people wanting a million twitter followers- because unless you are only broadcasting information, you can’t deal with a number like that.

But fluidity- change- is going to be the hallmark of a complete social media package. You have to keep looking around to see what is new, to see where people are going, and to build from there. You can’t say, “OK, I have built my twitter stream and have a great FB page. Phew! Glad that’s over with.” In five years it is very likely that someone will have come out with a better twitter and only the nostalgic will be playing there.