Justice has taken a holiday when the Miley Cyrus crowd is light years ahead of most business executives in the increasingly critical realm of social media.
“I don”™t remember specifically what pushed me over the edge, but a couple of months ago I opened a Twitter account,” said Chris Cornell, owner of Pleasantville-based Cornell Gallery, a custom framing and art gallery business. “I”™ve become accustomed to explaining it to people. Basically, you make a post, or an update of 140 characters or less, add a picture or include a link, and send it out.”
For example, if Cornell completes an impressive framing job, he takes a picture, uploads it on his computer and posts the photo along with a link to his Web site and adds in key words “because someone searching for those words will see it.”
“If I post a picture, I end up getting maybe 30 to 60 views in a relatively short period of time,” Cornell, who has more than 500 followers on Twitter, said. “You don’t control who follows you, but you do have an option to block people.”
Soon after opening the Twitter account for his gallery, Cornell opened an account for the Pleasantville community.
“I was lying in bed one night and it just hit me: I have got to check and see if anyone”™s registered the name Pleasantville,” Cornell said. “I was so convinced that that name wouldn’t be available, and it was. I thought, wow, this is going to be great.”
Cornell posts links to news stories, upcoming community events, Google alerts about the area and interesting tidbits that can be re-tweeted (re-posted), such as if the Jacob Burns Film Center (which also has a Twitter account) makes an announcement about programming.
So far, Cornell has more than 100 followers on the Pleasantville account. His Web site, twitterprofessor.com, includes information on how to effectively use Twitter. The other aspect of the site is specific to the “At-Pleasantville” project, which is documenting the process of building up the Pleasantville community on Twitter.
“I”™m getting myself set up on Facebook and Linked In, but right now I’m really focusing on Twitter,” Cornell said. “If you have good content, people are going to want to see it and pass it on.”
One of Cornell”™s Twitter followers is Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner, who uses social media in professional capacities every day.
Last year, he began posting YouTube videos showcasing town services and employees. In the past month, he”™s expanded the “think global, act local” mindset of YouTube by featuring small businesses.
In addition, Feiner posts job openings on Facebook and links to job postings on Twitter. He also created a Greenburgh jobs group on Linked In.
Feiner uses all three sites to “publicize programs the town is sponsoring or issues being highlighted.”
“A number of people have gotten jobs through my posts,” Feiner said. “I feel that with the Internet people are getting their information differently than they used to, and this is just another way of reaching out to people who you normally wouldn”™t connect with.”
New Rochelle public relations practitioner Rob Seitz recently taught a graduate-level course in public relations where online social networking was a hot topic.
“People are reading fewer newspapers and getting their news online,” Seitz said. “For a publicist, it can be that much more challenging to get coverage, so I wanted to instruct my students on why it behooves them to learn more about Twitter and Facebook beyond social networking with their friends and how to use all these new media options as a way of getting the word out on their client and also reach very specific audiences.”
Although Seitz has long been a fan of YouTube, which has been an “extremely effective” tool, he”™s unsure of Twitter”™s staying power.?“I think the jury is still out on Twitter,” Seitz said. “Twitter has an extraordinarily high rate of people doing it, but the drop off rate is high as well. Sometimes people don”™t get it or see the relevance of it. I think people still have to figure out an application for it and how it”™s going to work.”
Seitz set up a Twitter account for the graduate class, but admits that neither he nor the students were diligent about posting messages. However, he plans to try it again – this time at Monroe College, Seitz”™s client, during the college”™s summer law program.
Seitz also has a Twitter account himself.
“The other thing about Twitter is that it really teaches you to write efficiently and concisely,” Seitz said. “More and more companies or individuals are hiring people to be their Twitter person or to write their blog. I think you”™re going to see more of that.”
Lisa Kaslyn, principal and creative strategist at Kashen Communications in Carmel, teaches business bootcamps ”“ and the topic du jour is how business people can use social media.
The first step, Kaslyn said, is figuring out how much you want to participate.
“If you just want to get listed online and come up in a Google search, or have presence or basic information on a site like Zoominfo, that”™s a good place to start,” Kaslyn said. “Then start Linked In and formally make good business connections. For the next level Facebook comes to mind, where you’ve got a wide open, multi-level sharing of your life and up-to-the-minute status updates. It allows for a freer level of expression.
Then there are the wide-open options of the blogosphere and Twitter, where you don”™t have that much control of who is seeing your message. It”™s a tradeoff in terms of privacy, but on the upside you”™re really opening up access to a vast opportunity of connections.”
Traditional marketing is really being pushed aside in favor of these new inbound marketing strategies, Kaslyn said.
“Companies aren”™t pushing information onto folks anymore; it”™s all about being more findable,” Kaslyn said. “The higher you come up on the search engine results pages, the better chance of being selected by a consumer. It”™s all about search optimization, social media and the blogosphere.”
Having presence on social media sites drives traffic to a company”™s Web site, Kaslyn said.
“I think that everybody knows intuitively that they need a Web site, and most companies do from the smallest entity on up,” Kaslyn said. “Where the rub comes in is they get the Web site and they can”™t figure out how to get anybody to the Web site.”
That”™s where social media comes in.
”˜Maybe they”™re a landscaping company and they have just posted tips on how to get rid of weeds in the garden,” Kaslyn said. “Why not tweet about that and not only put out useful information, but create search optimization by including a link leading back to their Web site. Ultimately, sharing good information hopefully will position the business as a trusted advisor and somebody consumers will ultimately want to purchase from.”
However, online social networking is not intuitive for everyone.
“For people who are 40ish and above, it is not an environment that they”™re used to working in, so it takes a little bit of time,” Kaslyn said. “I think Linked In is probably one of the more comfortable environments for professionals, particularly those who are over 35, although the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is the over-35 set.”
Not only is using social media fun, it”™s addictive and, best of all, free.
“I think for many smaller businesses it”™s still in the mason stages, but I think they understand that there is a huge potential opportunity associated with these tools to leverage new relationships that may have otherwise not been available to them through traditional means.”
