Before and After using Social Media

Everybody is looking for measurable results in social media.

Here's a sample of my company's experience - before engaging in social media the daily web traffic looked like your basic bell curve without too much action happening overnight (our time).

After engaging in social media and using the tools to communicate around the clock, we've seen a noticeable increase in traffic from other time zones (and an increase in orders from Asia, Australia, and Europe):

um, we broke the radio

So, Rick Jensen over at WDEL just invited me to come on the air to talk with him about this social media wedding idea and the Delaware Tweet Up.

I just posted a quick message on Twitter with a link to the radio station.

Apparently, we overloaded the system and "clogged" the access to the web site.

Imagine what social media can do for your business, non-profit, or arts organization - just saying.

Just Watch!

This is what we're talking about - take five minutes to view this - then do what it says:

A great story from @lawyrchiky

Here's another example of the serendipitus nature of Social Media from @lawyrchiky:

So I was at dinner with friends (who also are on twitter)

at Union City Grille. I'm checking my twitter account on my

mobile phone (as we all so rudely do these days) and I see

a post from @VickiMazik saying she's at dinner at UCG.

There was no one else in the restaurant but one other

table, so I was able to narrow it down.

I asked the waiter to find out if the woman's name was

Vicki. He goes over and asks her, and then points to our

table. I held up my phone and walked over to introduce

myself. It was pretty funny! Bound to happen at some point,

in this small town, right?

What about you? Please share your Social Media Success Stories!

How Twitter Covered the News in 2009

We've all heard it - "Why would I want to get on Twitter, I don't care what someone had for breakfast" - As anyone who has engaged in Twitter can tell you, you get much more news and information from this tool than any other media (please note that I wholeheartedly support traditional media, subscribe to a daily newspaper, listen to NPR and local news radio stations constantly, etc.).


Our friends at the BBC have just put together a great rundown of how news has been broken and covered on Twitter throughout 2009 - Click Here for 2009: the year on Twitter.

You never know when the Governor is reading your posts...

On June 5, 2009, the state of Delaware held The Governor's Entrepreneurial Business Conference at the Chase Center on the Riverfront.

After the great Chicago experience, I figured I'd cover this event with as much social media as possible - that meant Twittering while recording as many of the speakers as I could on the Flip Video.

This is probably where some others (yes, I'm talking about you @rfaber) and I started almost competitive tweeting at public events (that could be an Olympic Sport in a few years, "...and now, representing the United States in the Competitive Tweeting event..." - just an idea). Throughout the morning, we were posting messages on every aspect of the conference - who was there, what the speakers were saying, the mood of the room, everything.

Lunchtime comes around, and about 500 of us make our way in to the ballroom - I was running late, so I sat way over on the far end of the room and recorded some of the address from the Governor. After he spoke, the Governor shook a lot of hands and spoke with everyone who mobbed him. Then, he went to the back of the room, spoke with his staff, and starts walking towards my end of the room. I looked around to see who he might be going to see when the Governor walked up to me and said, "I've been reading your tweets this morning." He then went on to quote some of them.

That's the great thing about Social Media - you really never know who is reading what you're posting.

Chicago!

It was March, 2009 - and Pittcon was taking place in Chicago - and I had been using twitter for less than two months.

I decided to try a little experiment - I would twitter about everything on the trip - from the ride to BWI airport, the flight on SouthWest Airlines, the hotel check-in, the trade show, everything.

A couple of cool things happened.

First, I was contacted by a corporate job service representative (aka Head Hunter) who said she was impressed with what she was seeing and wanted to know if I was happy with my current employment (I am), and that if I ever wanted to consider changing positions to contact her.

Second, I woke up one morning and picked up the Chicago Sun Times to see an article about how Chicago was the #3 city in the world for Twitter use - and encouraging people to follow them on twitter. I happily did so and they quickly followed me back. That evening after dinner I found myself having a great conversation with a group of people when the talk finally got to the "what do you do for a living" part - and I found out one of my new friends was a writer for the Chicago Sun Times. I asked if it was OK to mention his name on Twitter - he agreed and said his editors were trying to talk him into using the social media tool. A few minutes after posting:

"Just met ______ from the Chicago Sun Times"

I received a message from the Chicago Sun Times:

"Tell him to get on twitter"

These are just a couple of experiences - there was also a great "tweet up" in Chicago and quite a few serendipitous meetings.

Using social media while travelling is a great thing!