Social Media Club Event in Philly: 3 Highlights

First of all, thanks @cecilyk and @gloriabell for putting on such a great event. Super informative and interactive and I love that it was an all-star babe panel. And check out a great recap of the event by @krisis at his website: Crushing Krisis.

Anywho, here's some stuff I learned.

1 - Thanks @BethHarte for this one: It's more than Return on Investment. It's sometimes immeasurable to see Returns on Engagement, Information, and Influence.

2 - Probably the #1 Reason why a client should invest in Social Media: Your competitors are already doing it or are about to. It's like back in the day when a client was perhaps weary of the new-fangled e-mail. 10 years ago, "Why do I need e-mail? Paper mail is just fine, thank you very much." Yikes.

3 - This comes from @oliviarabe: There's 3 things you should be doing when participating in a Social Media Network: Entertaining, Educating, and providing a Utility. It reminded me of the notion of "sharability" (not to be confused with Budweiser's "Drinkability.") I advise any company that is providing Social Content to ask themselves during the content creation process: "Would I want to share this with my friends?"

So, thanks Philly SMC for a great panel. Check out SMC's site here.

Social Media's Most Obvious Necessity

I've read a lot about Social Media. There are basic features mentioned in each and every article about SM's fundamentals: honest, short, informative, and fun.

One, however, is so obvious we fail to mention it: consistency.

You could have the greatest, most honest, most funny posts, but if you only do them once a year you're virtually invisible. Now, do not sacrifice quality for quantity, but if you have one post on your blog then you are virtually invisible.

The other downfall of inconsistency is that you're unable to work out your SM muscle. Web 2.0 is an ever-evolving beast that takes quite a bit of effort, patience, and sharpness to keep up with. If you're not on top of your game, you simply won't be able to keep up with the pace. Many people don't know that MySpace is all but cooked for any one other than musicians. Anyone staying on top of trends knows this.

Think about it like this. In the real world, you wouldn't disappear for a week without telling any one. You wouldn't stop communicating with your friends and family. Hopefully anyway. You can't build worthwhile relationships without consistency both online and off.

A great example of consistency that I've seen is she-conomy.com. This writer posts often on her blog and Tweets about her great posts. They are fun, informative, and consistent. Keeps me coming back.

5 Reasons Why Every Writer Needs To Be On Twitter

I went to a PR function for young PR professionals. PR pros have to be good writers/communicators of information. One of the panel speakers mentioned Twitter and out of a couple hundred young and hip professionals, none of them seemed to have any idea about it. They have five hundred friends on Facebook, but no Twitter account. This is a mistake.

What has happened for me:

1) Increased access to other like-minded copywriters and marketers across America.

2) A step ahead of most of my fellow writers who could care less about the innovations happening in their industry.

3) Practicing sharing knowledge, rather than hoarding it and being cutthroat. So many people are paranoid about this economy that they're forgetting about that whole relationship-building thing.

4) It is just so cool to have people follow you, give you feedback, and pass along your little posts.

5) Blog promotion and blog discovery! I have found some incredible and informative blogs from Tweets.

Oh, Twitter, When Will People Stop Being Too Good For You?

So I go to this advertising event and a guy - an “expert on internet marketing” - from a major media consulting firm does not Twitter.

I asked him a few questions about Twitter. Again, he is supposed to be an expert on how to make companies money by using methods such as Twitter. He answered the questions intelligently and in a friendly manner. Great! Then I asked, "So, are you on Twitter?" I assumed the answer would be yes and was going to follow up with a follow on Twitter. Instead he said no and, caught off guard, I said, "Why not!?"

"Oh, I'm just not that exciting a person to follow."

Huh? This statement said two things and neither of them what he literally said. It said to me: a) I am too cool to be on Twitter and b) I am going to make fun of you for being on Twitter.

You may be thinking, "Philly Wordsmith, you're being a little sensitive, dontcha think?"

No.

If you're an expert in social media, get the hell involved in social media. If you're so excited about these innovations and your job, then start experimenting and stop judging.