Meeting a Company's Goals With Social Media

Jeremiah Owyang in his post "Usage and Experience Doesn’t Equate to Social Expertise" makes an excellent point that just because you know all the latest whiz bang tools and you have a zillion Twitter followers doesn't mean you necessarily know squat about how to define a social media strategy that will meet your company's needs.

We all had a good laugh at Ian Lurie's 10 Questions to Evaluate a Social Media 'Expert' but this only helps to reinforce Jeremiah's point as most of the questions are experienced based.

With "social media experts" multiplying like rabbits the skill they need to demonstrate is how their strategies and tactics have contributed to meeting their company's goals.

How about just one question: "Tell me how you used social media to help your company achieve its goals?"

New San Jose Airport

After bad mouthing San Jose airport for years, the new terminal is pretty nice.

Richard

Posted via email from Richard Treadway's Live Stream

Wine Technology Symposium Focuses on Social Media

I was disappointed that I couldn't attend the most recent Wine Industry Technology Symposium in Napa last week. With all the emphasis on social media I'm sure I would have learned a lot.

One thing that came out loud and clear is that the new social media technologies are ideally suited to helping the wine industry build successful brands. A good social media strategy starts with good fundamentals. If you're not having a successful conversation with your customers using traditional channels then social media will make things worse not better.

Jane Firstenfeld & Jim Gordon of Wines and Vines give a detailed review of the sessions here

Pete Blackshaw gives a great summary of the key discussions below.

Who's Recommendation Do You Trust?

Here is some interesting data from Neilson that clearly supports the power of social media.

"Ninety percent of consumers surveyed noted that they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70 percent trusted consumer opinions posted online."

As you contemplate where you spend your marketing dollars this clearly supports taking some (large) portion of your spend on traditional media and putting it towards building your brand in on-line communities.

When will Internet Access be like Electricity?

My recent stay at the Westin Kierland reminded me we are still a long way from Internet access being treated like a service utility. The Internet service at the Westin was particularly expensive and very SLOOW. Additionally the business center charged for use of their computers by the minute requiring you to submit a credit card to a reader that held it for the duration of your session. It cost me $5 to login and print my boarding pass.



Additionally there was no free WIFI access in the lobby. When I complained to the concierge I was told the reason... to discourage Internet use. Well it worked, I barely used it. But that attitude is bucking what is surely the trend to a more readily accessible Internet. Think of it; Charging for Internet access in a hotel is like charging for use of the electricity. Think how many complaints there would if a hotel required you to swipe your credit card to turn on the lights? Why should Internet access be any different?

Coming Soon: Access Your Data and Applications Anywhere

I’ve often thought the time will come when you will carry all your data and applications in your pocket to be accessed whenever you need on what every computer and connection is available. This makes sense when you think about it. You don’t carry a TV around with you; you expect one to be in your hotel room. So why should you carry a heavy laptop around when you only need the power and the screen real estate on occasion. On my recent trip to Italy I lugged my lap top along and ended up never using it. My iPhone was all I needed. But I didn’t need to create any graphic designs or write any code.

I look to Steve Rubel as being on the forefront of the traveling user’s work paradigm. He correctly points out we’ll be using more devices not fewer. There won’t be a single device to meet all your needs. Certain applications require large screens and faster, larger computers others don’t. But what ever your computing needs you shouldn’t have to have your data distributed all over the multitude of devices that run the applications.

As Steve points out:

” With PCs and desktops everywhere we'll be soon booting more off USB drives. Linux, Google Chrome OS, Mac OS X and Windows, etc. will all run off portable USB drives that we'll tote from PC to PC (or in Apple's case, Macs to Macs). The OS and its entire suite of applications will run off the devices which ensures your data stays yours.”

Steve uses a PC desktop at work, at home a Mac, on the road a netbook, and everywhere else an iPhone. With all his data is in the cloud the majority of the time all he needs is a browser.

The day is coming where all you’ll need is a smart phone and a secure USB drive that will have every OS and application you use available for use on the device they run on.

I’m looking forward to it.