You still use a Commodore 64 and find it revolutionary.
The Web moves quickly. Heck, we’re already hearing Web 3.0 being bantered around. Innovative communications tools are gaining ground and changing the way we do business. Combine this with the ever-increasing number of applications for mobile devices and you can be assured that your desk is no longer going to be your primary place of work.

The Web is not your audience’s primary source of information.
It may seem like everyone is on Facebook and Twitter these days and while that may be very true for consumer and enterprise audiences, there are groups that still prefer to get information through newsletters, courseware, seminars and print magazines. Before you engage in a social media strategy, be sure that who you are targeting has an online presence and that you can measure ROI. *You may find however that a bridging strategy such as the one suggested by ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick can work for you.

You are not prepared for positive and/or negative conversation.
Self-explanatory. You must consider how these conversations are going to impact you and your business. If a customer has a query, can you respond quickly? Can you set your feelings aside and enter into a friendly discussion with a competitor? If discussions increase awareness for your company and orders start flooding in, are you prepared to handle the calls? Do those in your online network uphold the same standard of online ethics/behaviour that you do? If you can’t answer “yes” then you may not be ready for all that social media can bring.

You don’t have anything to say.
Whether it’s creating a corporate blog or participating in an online community, you must build a presence and regular following to be truly effective. Don’t wing it. Instead, identify the key themes you’d like to address and topics of discussions you’d like to contribute to. While your conversations should remain candid, it’s also important that you don’t launch a blog and then go silent two weeks later because you’ve run out of relevant things to say.

If the standing-room only warning didn’t tip you off on how hot the social media scene is in Vancouver, perhaps the 20 person waiting list did. Last week as part of Third Tuesday Vancouver, High Road was invited to take part in a talk about the social media scene, clearly something of interest here on the West side.

Third Tuesday Vancouver is a casual monthly meet-up where local marketing and communications professionals share their experiences using social media in society, organizations, business and government. At this month’s event, Steve Palmer of 76Design, Phil Evans of Crave FM and our own Carrie Baker discussed their experiences integrating social media in marketing and PR campaigns.

Not surprisingly, online social networking is strong in Vancouver and this was apparent as Phil Evans discussed how his radio station recently re-branded using only social media. Using Facebook to connect directly with their target audience of women ages 27 to 37, the social media approach allowed them to generate open and honest conversations with listeners on the process.

We also heard from Steve Palmer about how his agency helped create a cool social networking site for a public library that used the best elements of Facebook and Myspace to engage children aged six to 15. Designed to encourage reading through user-generated book reviews and opportunities to write alternative chapters, the site also engages younger children with fun games and drawing applications, creating a stronger connection with the library.

Carrie Baker talked about the importance of helping online communities connect to a company’s brand and to each other by incorporating offline opportunities for interaction. She discussed how blending social media activities with traditional PR strategies can amplify results.

All in all, there was a great showing of Vancouver’s social media minds, healthy conversation and of course, a few good laughs. Thanks to Third Tuesday for having us out to be a part of their event and for the opportunity to share ideas, questions and experiences.

Thank you to Tod Maffin for the organization of this event, and to CNW for the sponsorship!

– Angela St. Amour

I just read through a great article that appears in the current issue of New York Magazine (http://nymag.com/news/features/27341), which contends that emergence of social media is creating the most significant generation gap since rock and roll music burst onto the scene.

It is a worthwhile read for people on the north side of the generation gap (let’s say aged 30+) who are looking for a better understanding of how the south side of the generation gap defines personal information and privacy. Let’s face(book) it, part of the attraction for marketers to the web is just how personal the information online has become. And part of the mystery for people in understanding social media + youth is “Why would anyone put it all out there like that?” Young people on the other hand, are responding by getting more and more active. For them, public life is fun, it’s creative and it’s where their friends are.

In the online world, everyone has an audience where they can belong and connect with friends. The desire to belong and connect with others makes social media sound exactly like every other revolution embraced by young people in every generation. Yet, at the same, it is like nothing else that has come before. (Via Clive Thompson http://www.collisiondetection.net/)