Is twitter a business tool or just a time waster?

Just had to say it...Twitter fan are you? Boss calling you a twit? I mean asking you to tweet about goings on in the company? I wanted to touch on a non technical persons way into the digital business world and when I saw a video put out by Advertising Ad, a site I go to for updates on marketing trends, I thought it be perfect example. The video is about how this woman, Carrie Bugbee, started playing a character Peggy Olson from a popular TV show MadMan on twitter and ended up with a new type of targeted marketing agency business! I don't watch the show or know about the other characters she plays, but the premise for using twitter to create out of the box opportunities for brand building is here to stay. As we look under the shell of the twitter tool, some call it social networking media, it's a business tool that will save companies money and is raising the bar for quick response to issues. Unprecedented times with real time feelings, thoughts and not all worthy of our time BUT we even have CNN giving us real time updates on the pulse on America.

So back to Peggy...Connie...Like using a hammer to bang a nail, this woman become the character and built an audience following so great she won a Shorty Award, showed AMC, the people who owned the copy writes to the material, that 12,000 people liked the show so much they followed it so it organically became a more popular show all because of the special pointed tweets consistently placed on twitter. It's a 9 minute video , but it reveals the legs of where all this social media can take us. A creative person who has now started her BigDealPR business around entertainment's boutique shows, basically she shows us how to hammer away at tweets and build a following!

So is twitter for business? Some still say no... Twitter - information is in scary real time and let me tell you big brother, twitter, Google,Yahoo, Digg this, and any online community has tremendous information going through their networks-who gets is out first and raps it pretty for corporate marketing wins! I should stop now to avoid going from 6 degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon to him sitting on my lap and drinking my latte. Post reactions comments and let me know how this has helped you optimized your digital world.

On my blog calendar ...I will review the legal side of data leakage, and yes, I will bring back twitter for another round of how it complicates yet it feels so good to use because it is another way to listen to the ocean of valued customer.

Blogging who really has the time with a business to run?

I don't know about you but it's all the rage to build a blog that gets noticed out there in the bloggersphere. But how to get started once you see the light is no small task because it takes time to be relevant. Sure creating feedbuner RSS feeds on your blog site for others to follow your blogs is easy, a widgetbox for videos -also easy, and making sure the twitter social networking group is notified when you post can contribute to ones livelihood for sure. But being old in technology and young to this maddening craze of having to "tweet" everything and anything like you are sitting, standing or chewing gum is considered a waste of time but not to the most marketing people today. This being my first post for spilt milk slip and tell, I wanted to fill the relevant bucket with real business reasons to blog and how take part in this tribal targeted phenomenon called blogging and mean business. My first writing covers the basic steps that Open Access Systems, Chris Johnson, who has mega years of solving network issues and making life easier for IT guy by using technologies like OPnet Mapper which maps your network automatically as you add applications etc. But like the shoe makers kids-getting Chris into the blogging/tweeting mood took a marketers push to get the digital update going. Once seeing the light, he tackled his new blog with great determination:

1. He set up his blog through Typepad, a pay service which has great features compared to some others that are free for business.
2. Got a feed from his Twitter account so every time he tweets the post goes to his blog (probably watch the movie video on how to).
3. Made sure he developed logical categories and achieves by the months for different areas of technical interest.
4. Added Permalink to keep the particular post booked marked by a fan.
5. Allowed comments with his the users email address and gives a chance to subscribe and always gives a final approval of posts (so nothing inappropriate gets posted-see below example)
6. Added Trackbacks to see who is linking to his information and more.
7. Tracking all of the activity using Technorati so you can improve the users experience.
8. Tags the post for search engine optimization(SEO) so search engines can find the information when asked by people searching specific subjects
9. Got a Digg This tab so the post can be judged by other as relevant.
Chris still has the challenge of creating constant relevant content but he is adding new blog posts about services he offers that are working for clients and even the recent tweet on additional training he is taking part in this week on ITIL counts. Working with Chris on improving his marketing footprint is like taking a technical bubble bath with Jacuzzi jets, relaxing and enjoyable. Once a clients has seen the digital light about keeping their relevance up dated through the use of economical digital tools like blogs, social media and websites, my job is easier and I am positive it keeps their customers happy and gets more customers which make my clients happy. It nice to have the technical know how to help get through building a company blog, but if you don't it can be done and next blog post will be on a non-technical person who discovered "why" their company would benefit by starting the corporate social media journey. Post your comments, build our knowledge base of mistakes to avoid now or just let me know you are on your way and share your journey, tips and ideasIt's social networking HE double tooth pick out there and the attempt to use these new (to some) social media sounding boards as business tools is a challenge but well worth the time. Yes, make the time and schedule your topics in your calendar as soon as you can like an appointment with your hair dresser or mechanic.