VIDEO: Is 'Social Media' Just a Fad?

How many times do you hit the send button on an email, only to realize you forgot to attach your file?
Ever been embarrassed after receiving an email from your client that says, "Forgot to attach" or "Nothing attached"? Well, as you can see from the graphic above, Gmail has a new tool to save you from your embarrassment. Apparently, if you have the words "attached files" (or, I assume, something similar) in the body of your email and don't actually attach any files, the above message will appear. I think it's pretty darn cool. What do you think?Comments [0]
From the feedback I've been receiving lately from small business owners, it's readily apparent that their challenges in starting strategic online media programs isn't lack of tools — it's too many tools.
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I am a big user of Google products. My business uses Google Apps for email, calendaring and Google Docs. For this we pay a fee — a relatively small fee...but a fee, nonetheless.
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I've been seeing the above ad a lot this week (all on the Google Ad network) for the Nissan Leaf. Notice the inclusion of social media icons. The "click thru" model has long been dead, and I'm a big fan of engagement instead of eyeballs. Would be very interested to see Nissan's stats on the engagement rates with these social media icons.
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Last week, I had the pleasure of presenting on "new communications tools" to a capacity crowd of business leaders at the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce Business Expo.
These weren't the CEO's of large corporations — they were the owners, operators and managers of small, local community businesses.
The size of the crowd took many by surprise, and numerous folks had to be turned away at the door due to fire code.
The crowd wasn't gathered there because I was the speaker — they were gathered because they are hungry for guidance on how to communicate online.
Many of the people in the room were those who, perhaps just a few weeks or months ago, were pooh-poohing "social media" as merely a fad, or a playground for college students and teens.
But now they realize that they can't afford not to be using these new communications tools.
Unfortunately, much of the information out there (social media guides, online publications) is geared toward tech geeks, social media insiders, or larger companies. That's why many small businesses owners feel left out.
There's a big learning curve here — and a large communications gap in providing the right, credible advice to this vital audience.
In the coming months, my firm is going to focus on helping demystify and explain social media tools to these folks — keeping in mind that they're not tech-heads or Web geeks ... but ordinary people just trying to keep their businesses afloat.
For the communications revolution to truly be, well ... revolutionary ... we need to make sure it doesn't pass by the small business owners who create two-thirds of the new jobs in our American economy.
They're hungry for guidance. Let's make sure to provide them the sustenance they require.
Oh, and by the way, here is the PowerPoint I presented to the Hilton Head Chamber Expo last week:
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In the Q&A portion of my presentation last week to the Hilton Head Chamber Business Expo, one small business owner (a local investment broker who ran a francise of a national brokerage) asked me for my recommendations on how to participate in a social networking effort given the restrictions placed on him by the Securities and Exchange Commission and his national employers.
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Here are some photos from my presentation to the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. The title of my presentation was "The Press Release is Dead: Using New Communications Tools to Build your Business, Non-Profit or Campaign." Please click here to download my PowerPoint from this presentation.
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