Social Media: What's All The Hoopla?

My older brother often asks me "What's so great about Facebook?". My short and simple answer:"It helps me stay connected." In a nutshell, Facebook is designed to help you communicate with those in your network, whether it's family, friends, co-workers, or even strangers from halfway across the world. Contrary to the popular preconceived notion that Facebook is just a means of wasting time, it is actually so much more. Granted, the overwhelming majority of Facebook users do just waste their time by taking silly quizzes, perusing through their friends' pictures, or by just looking for attractive people (read: "stalking"). Although these can be fun and a way to kill time, that's not what I feel the social network's true purpose is.

One of my friends, who is one of the few people I know not on Facebook, told me that he felt it was a waste of time. Taking his comment almost as a personal insult, I gave him my quick 2 minute marketer's pitch about why I feel it's important and why I encourage people to be on it. I have lots of family in London and I get along with them pretty well and from time to time, like to know what they're up to. Before the advent of Facebook, I'd write them one-liner emails asking how they're doing and how they've been. They'd respond with their whereabouts and reciprocate the questions I asked them. BORING! Gone are those days where I'd be reluctant to reply to their emails as it would just get down-right redundant after a few back-and-forth emails. Now, it's much more dynamic and so much more interesting. How? Well, now I show them what I'm up to rather than them having to ask, either by status updates, Twitter messages, or pictures I post. So now they can see that I was in Rhode Island on some given weekend and they can actually see how beautiful the scenery is without me having to describe it or attach photos (which was also a chore!). That's just the bare bones concept; there's so much more I can dive into but that's beyond the scope of this post. I'll try to add to this one if I continue to hear people dismissing social networks.

I know there are some who like to be cryptic and keep to themselves and would rather prefer not to have their personal life out on display. OK, I respect your privacy and understand where you're coming from. However, those same people shouldn't be ignorant and feel as if they're being forced to provide information. After all, you choose what you want to post. Had a great vacation in Brazil? Show the pictures of the beautiful scenery, not of you taking body shots off of the local waitresses. Don't demonize social networks because you posted something potentially incriminating. When posting, keep in mind that the Internet is a massive medium and if there are some things that can get you in trouble, keep those to yourself. I give you that word of caution.

Let's step aside from Facebook and look at some of the other social networks. I won't pretend to be an expert on social networks but I do know a decent amount. In addition to Facebook, I'm also an active member on LinkedIn and Twitter. I'll just touch briefly on what each of these are and why I feel they're important. LinkedIn is what I like to refer to as "Facebook for Professionals". It works similar to Facebook but it doesn't concentrate so heavily on pictures, notes, etc. Rather, it takes a more professional approach and helps you link up with people you may know. It derives from the basic principles of "Seven Degrees of Separation". Here's an illustration to help clarify: I'm friends with Joe Shmoe. Joe is friends with John Smith. John's company is looking to explore Search marketing and sees that Joe knows someone in that field (me!). So John approaches me and tells me that he could use my services and would like some guidance on how to approach their Search campaigns. Voila! A connection has been made. To add even more, let's say Joe and I worked together and he wrote a raving review about me and how I'm great to work with, etc. This further encourages John to contact me because his buddy Joe is saying good things about me so I should be considered as a serious candidate. This is just one simple scenario; imagine more elaborate ones where you have the potential to get noticed by an employer/head hunter who feels you're a viable candidate for a more senior role (i.e., Director, VP, etc.). I use LinkedIn more as a utility to help me get noticed, much like I use this blog. I am a strong advocate of the old adage "It's not what you know, it's who you know." You can be the smartest person out there but if you don't know anyone or vice versa, your true potential will never be realized. This is why I encourage people to join LinkedIn so they can get noticed by the important people in their field.

Twitter, on the other hand, is different from both Facebook and LinkedIn. Well, at least I think so. I use Twitter to throw my thoughts out there, despite how random they may be at times. It helps me to just unwind and get my brain thinking. I remember free-writing in school where I would just write anything that came to mind; now, I do the same with Twitter. Surprisingly, it helps me get my thoughts in order and it helps me clear my mind. Aside from the random things I Twitter, I feel that Twitter has a greater purpose. First and foremost, Twitter is a great communication tool. Often, I see fellow Twitterers asking questions or asking for advice and within minutes, their followers (Twitter's term for friends) reply by the dozens and give their input. It's the way collaboration was meant to be: dynamic and in real-time. Second, Twitter can be used as a great market research tool. Working in Search, it's important to know about the trends and what consumers are thinking and how they are behaving. Let's say I have a client that is a travel agency (i.e., Cheaptickets, Orbitz, etc.) or an airline (Delta, US Airways, etc.) and there's an amazing new resort in San Diego and people are Twittering rave reviews about it. For simplicity's sake, let's refer to this amazing resort as The Grand Resort (lame name, I know. It's late so gimme a break!). So now imagine hundreds, if not thousands, of people writing tweets (Twitter's term for a message) "The Grand Resort was amazing. Definitely going back!" or to some variation of that. There would be a huge spike in traffic for terms like "San Diego resort" or even "The Grand Resort" and my job as a search marketer would be to capitalize in that small window. I could quickly take these terms and concatenate "cheap tickets" or "great deals" to them, i.e., "cheap tickets to San Diego", "great deals on the Grand Resort". If these tweets were coming in now, then there would be a great opportunity to capitalize on this as spring break is around the corner and this could very well be a popular destination. One of the key aspects of marketing is timing and if you're timing is right, the other variables will fall into place.

So there's my quick pitch on the importance of social networking. I hope I've convinced those who aren't on any of the above-mentioned social networks to at least join one.

Cheers.

P.S.: For those wondering why the blog is named "In SCearch", it's because the SC in SCearch are my initials and this blog consists of my views and experiences with Search.