I’m typically skeptical of new whiz-bang Web sites, tools, and features that set out to “change the way we work” until I’ve actually seen the benefit. Google Wave seeks to do just that. Rather than piling on one more piece of technology or layer of abstraction, they cleared the slate by asking, “How should all of this work?” rather than, “How could what exists be better?”

I’m intrigued because I’ve been having a lot of the same thoughts and discussions lately. Email has existed more or less the same way for well over a decade. People have built new interfaces, ways to tie conversation threads together, and new free services, but fundamentally the idea of sending messages with attachments back and forth in a time-shifted manner is the same.

Google Wave seeks to reinvent real-time interaction and collaboration by treating these interactions in a centralized, consistent manner. This makes sense to me. The more applications we layer on and rave about being “the new thing” (Twitter comes to mind), the more fragmented our communication becomes.

Google Wave may or may not be the answer, or it may just be a step in the right direction. At a glance it seems to be trying to solve something that’s been nagging me for awhile. We are so focused on the tools, we often lose sight of what we are trying to communicate and the value contained therein. At the end of the day, what matters is that we want to share ideas and messages with people who will find them relevant in the most efficient manner possible, no matter when or where they happen. If we’re developing a global hive mentality through our communication technology, it will depend on messages seamlessly interacting across mediums, languages, locations, and context. This is a lofty goal, but it’s one worth shooting for.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Social Media, Technology, Web

Andy and Katie presented on using Social Media and Social Networking Web sites to promote your self and your business at CoreNet Global Chicago Chapter’s Challenging Economy, Digital World learning workshops, May 5 & 19, 2009.

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Katie Hawkey Categories: General

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Katie Hawkey Categories: General

Wondering what the deal is with these “apps” on Facebook or LinkedIn?  Or perhaps like me up until recently, Facebook apps are old hat while LinkedIn’s offerings are more unknown.  Well, firstly, app is short for application.  An application in the social networking context is an extra, optional element to include in your profile.  It adds functionality beyond the core information displayed about you and your activity on a particular site.  Apps often bring external information into your profile, and this is where they are arguably most useful.  For instance, if you or your company has a blog, you can display its feed on your Facebook or LinkedIn profile.

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Andrew Crowe Categories: Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Web, ePiphany Featured Story

Bisnow Real Estate Chicago caught Andy Swindler at the CoreNet Chicago event last night along with clients Renata Pasmanik of The Alter Group and Larry Barkley of Barkley Advisory Group and GoHuman.

(Click the photo to see the humorous commentary from the event on Bisnow.com – scroll down to “Social Media Social”)

We’ll be posting video and audio podcasts from the event here and on the CoreNet Chicago website shortly! Andy was a presenter on the panel during Part I of the two-part series Challenging Economy, Digital World. I taught a breakout session on LinkedIn and Facebook both nights.

We generated some great material we’ll be sharing in our next ePiphany eNewsletter.

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Katie Hawkey Categories: Social Media, Web

I recently got a message on Facebook from a friend letting her friends know she was leaving Facebook:

Subject: Goodbye Facebook

Hello Friends,
It is time to say goodbye to Facebook. (I have the song from “Spelling Bee” going through my head.) I gave it a try but it is not my cup of tea. Please stay in touch. I am including my contact information below. If you could be so kind as to send me your info, I will put it in my address book. Until then…

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye,

——

I’m not 100% of her reasons, but my guess is that it just consumes too much time compared with the value she gets. Call it personal return on investment, if you will.

What’s alarming is that it wasn’t enough just to stop using the service or ignore it. She had to shut it out of her life completely and provide friends with alternate (traditional) contact info. Is Facebook really so insidious and distracting that we are going to start seeing people tipping off the other way now? Wait and see.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Social Media, Web

For those of you investigating Facebook as a way to directly market your product, company or organization, you’ve probably already discovered that Facebook does not allow companies to create Profiles. They instead encourage companies to create Pages and/or Groups to gather fans/members.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions from clients and friends regarding Facebook’s rather confusing distinction between Groups and Pages. I’ve given a side by side comparison below.

In my opinion, Pages comes out ahead with:

1) statistics,

2) the ability to target your messages to fans by age, gender, geography, etc.,

3) Status Updates that show up in your fans’ News Feeds and

3) the ability for Google to find you.

However, with Groups you are able to send a message directly to the member’s Facebook inbox, which is a huge advantage that makes it a tough decision for marketers.

Facebook changes the rules on these often and without notice (for instance, they only recently offered Groups the ability to promote through ads). I’ll do my best to update the chart as they alter their feature offerings.

UPDATE – 5/23/09: Facebook used to allow a company to transfer members of a Group to be fans on a Page. This service is no longer available. Please choose carefully before investing time in recruitment!

UPDATE – 11/19/09: Group pages are now laid out almost identically to Fan pages, but have many less features.

	Groups	Pages
Layouts
Status Updates	No	Yes – Show up on members’ News Feed
Basic Info	Yes – Much more prevalent	Yes – Left side bar
Profile Picture	Yes (right side)	Yes (Left Side)
News Feed	No	Yes
Discussion Board	Yes	Yes – As application
Applications	No	Yes
Officers	Yes	No
Related Events - (Events can send messages directly to members’ Inboxes)	Yes	Yes
Wall	Yes – But further down on page	Yes – Primary view
Photos	Yes – In separate area, down the page	Yes – As part of posting to wall
Links	Yes – In separate area, down the page	Yes – As part of posting to wall
Video	Yes – In separate area, down the page	Yes – As part of posting to wall
Ads	Yes	Yes
Stats	No	Yes – This is Way cool! See below.
Communication	Message to all members goes to members’ Inbox By default, members will get an alert in their personal email	Goes to Update Folder in Inbox – Also appears in side bar on homepage: Target your communications by country, state, city, sex and age By default, members will not get an alert via email
Bulk Invite	Yes	No
Google Return	No	Yes
Import Blog Automatically	No	Yes
Multiple Admin	No	Yes
Update 11/19/09: Customize Wall Post Audience	No	Yes

Example of a Statistics Page:

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Katie Hawkey Categories: Marketing, Social Media, Web

Hey there! Been a while since I posted anything. I’m back with another tech tip I hope will help somebody out. I’ve encountered a situation a few times now where I can’t rename any folders anywhere in the Finder. First time around I rebooted and the problem went away. This time I googled a bit and got the recommendation to restart the Finder, which worked. I couldn’t get an explanation for what’s actually going wrong, but this is an easy enough fix to make me not care, especially since it doesn’t seem to happen very often. FYI you restart the Finder in the Force Quit screen:

I also discovered something in my googling that most Mac people probably already know. You can quickly rename a folder by clicking it, then hitting enter. Previously I only knew how to do that by clicking, waiting a second, and then clicking again. Which is annoying. But I was used to the rename option being in the context menu a la Windows.

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Andrew Crowe Categories: Technology

We get this question regularly enough that I wanted to share a few quick talking points you can use to convince your boss that engaging with social media is not optional. The longer you wait, the more you’ll miss. A common reaction to social media is that companies don’t want to use another marketing channel, or they don’t have time to join yet another social networking site. Well, it’s time to make time. The good news is you can control how much you get involved — just be sure to get involved.

1. Low cost of entry

The key thing to realize with social media is that it costs very little to get started. Free tools like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are available to connect directly to people and get your message out. Free services like Google Alerts give you a glimpse into what people are saying about your company. Free blog hosting makes getting started easier, though we usually recommend spending a nominal amount on some custom branding and consulting so that your blog stands out and is found on search engines.

Rather than money, what social media requires most from you is time: time to participate, time to contribute, time to engage. If you are fighting an uphill battle in the office, then you may have to consider investing your own time off the clock to get the ball rolling and produce some tangible results. Try one or two services at a time until you become comfortable with the medium. You are better off fully engaging with one or two social media tools than signing up for all of them at once.

2. The conversation is happening. All you can do is join.

Social media is less about delivering a one-way message and more about engaging with your clients. The fact is that people are out there having public conversations about your company or products. Social media is your opportunity to meet them on their own turf to talk about their experiences, complements, and complaints. Think of it as an opportunity to gain insight into the mind of your clients rather than a burden.

It’s important to listen before you join a conversation, as you would at a party. Make sure you understand the conversation and represent yourself honestly and transparently. Be sure to disclose your relationship with the company and express your genuine opinion, update, or concern. People will often tell other people about the interaction just because you bothered to reach out. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing.

3. Demonstrate credibility

You are good at what you do. Your boss is even better. Your clients know that, but bringing in new business requires convincing new people that you have what they need. Starting a company blog and/or podcast, commenting on other sites such as forums and wikis, contributing to the body of social expertise that is being constantly updating and expanded are all ways to show people who you are and how you think. And chances are you offer services with which even long-standing clients aren’t familiar, which could lead to more business when they see what you publish.

What results can you expect?

People respond positively to increased customer service with responses to comments wherever they are, access to real representatives from a company not hiding behind phone banks, and direct timely expertise in the form of blogs and commentary. These are all tools that work together to deliver leads and expanded trusted networks.

As long as you consistently represent your brand and exercise full disclosure, people will remember where the information came from. It won’t happen overnight, but over time you will see benefits as people become more deeply aware of what you offer, whether or not you’ve done business yet. If you combine social media with traditional relationship building, you’ll increase the chances of earning their business.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Web