Big Brother is here and I am embracing him

How many of you out there when you first saw FACEBOOK said, "that's silly, why would kids do that"? Be honest. When FACEBOOK started it was for kids on college campuses only and that was my first reaction. Why communicate on the computer when you can just walk across the proverbial Quad? Well, like 350 million + people I am thrilled that FB 'opened' up to allow anyone in. It has allowed me to connect, reconnect and express myself in ways that were impossible just 3-4 years ago.

It seems like as each new technology is released in the Social Media spectrum there is an initial resistance and then a fairly quick acceptance and adoption. Clearly this is what happened to TWITTER. Basically a concept that was developed at SXSW (South By SouthWest Music Festival in Austin, TX) as a way to let people know what concerts and clubs were hot up and down 6th Street, is now being used as a bona fide business and marketing application. It truly can be THE great equalizer for small retailers when trying to battle the 'big guys'. If you are in business and aren't finding relevant applications for a TWITTER feed then you just aren't trying. Personal case study - lots of big companies are now using employees and technology to track twitter feeds when their name comes up. Good, bad or indifferent a smart company can react to positive or negative feedback in a timely way. In sales there is an old axiom that says when you make a mistake and take ownership for it, fix it and make it better you have actually done more good than had there never been a problem in the first place. Three weeks ago I was sitting on a MISERABLE flight from LaGuardia to Atlanta. The weather was getting dicey, the flight was packed and I was already ornery. I noticed the Flight Attendants basically had the same sentiment as I. I even heard them cursing under their breath about dumb passengers and them wishing the flight would get cancelled. I thought, let's see if DELTA is paying attention, so I tweeted that I was receiving horrible customer service on DELTA flight # XYZ. I thought, someone is monitoring this and will at least Direct Message me an apology. Nothing. I was PISSED. I am an Platinum member at Delta. I have my own # to call when I want something. I am freaking George Clooney (if only at 30,000 feet) but I got nothing! I know had it been JetBlue or Airtran or SouthWest someone would have been in touch with me. You wonder why the big airlines are getting their asses kicked?

The 'newest kid on this block' is GEO TAGGING. Geo tagging is using smart phone technologies like GPS and phone apps to allow you to tell anyone in your network where you are at any given time. Like the technologies above my first initial thought was "why the F would I want everyone know where I was all the time" and seriously I still feel that way, but what I know now is that sometimes it is to MY advantage for folks to know where I am and even more so, it is amazing what a savvy marketer/promoter can do with that information. So I started using FOUR SQUARE ( as my geo tagging site. I have not been 'great' at doing it very often but I have tried and there are certainly times I don't want everyone to know where I am but as I do it more often I see the possibilities. Two weeks ago I was at a Social Media event so I thought, what a better place than here to 'TAG' myself, so I did. Within 3 minutes I had two people, who had done the same thing, find me and 'friend' me and then we had a REAL conversation, face to face about business (WOW!) and then I got a text from the BAR asking me if I wanted a complimentary cocktail...you bet your ASS I did!! There in lies the power. Its as simple as the Jergens (I think that was it) shampoo commercial from the 80's, "if you tell two people, and they tell two people...". I could have gone on my FB page to my 655 friends and said, "come down to ABC Bar in the next 30 minutes and tag that you are here your first drink is on the house" how quickly would that have spread? The applications are limitless and I am really excited to bring these ideas to three of our clients in the next couple of weeks.

Like all the other early adopters I am taking some heat when I post where I am and for the most part I laugh about it, knowing that in 6 months these same people will probably me right there with me :-)