Bye Bye Social Media Networking!

[Adam Moore]

Absolutely right. There are so many advantages for businesses for marketing, networking, sourcing, learning, research, market research etc.

Sometimes it's just plain old fashioned, not for profit fun as well. And I like that.

 

[IT-Manager]

Any grown man or women who uses any type of Social Networking site needs to grow up and utilise the time wasted ..... I'm sure there are a number of household chores need doing.

Leave it to the kids hey!

90% of the users use it to chat / contact "OLD FRIENDs" and nothing good comes from that.

 

[Adam Moore]

Any grown man or women who uses any type of Social Networking site needs to grow up and utilise the time wasted ..... I'm sure there are a number of household chores need doing.

Leave it to the kids hey!

90% of the users use it to chat / contact "OLD FRIENDs" and nothing good comes from that.

Somebody had to lighten the tone. Thanks dad.

Now where did I put that telex machine... it's around here somewhere! There it is under that pile of Dail Mails!

 

[ceebdub]

Anyone dissing social networking as a waste of time, are wasting their time reading and contributing to this thread!

 

[Mr Ben]

I'd say it's definetly good for picking up old school friends and past contacts. Good for business? just depends on the type of business really. One of my friends works in recruitment, I messaged her as she was on facebook during the day "hey get back to work" kindly replied back, I am, I talk to candidates on here!! Also A lot of events seem to be organised in this way, from what I ve seen nightclub events, biking events, charity events etc.

It is a difficult one when trying to use the site for generting business as you are kind of mixing business with pleasure if that makes sense. Good to have your web address on it for the link and I suppose friends Colleauges could forward your details across if they here that your product or service is needed and this could be anyone in the world, someone you met traveling, someone you went to school with, a friend of a friend who knows...

Just have to be careful not to add to many photo's been drunk swinging from lamp posts naked as it may create a bad impression, but saying that life is also about having fun.

 

[Deleted member 43153]

Hello
at the risk of having things thrown at me, I'm amazed at the negativity here about Facebook, Twitter & Linked-In. We have a retail shop and an online business, with online accounting for the vast majority of our sales. By definition therefore, most of our customers are web-savvy and like the internet.

We have a Facebook Business Page (sorry insufficient postings here for real URLs apparently) our web address/facebook, a Twitter profile twitter dot com/littlesunflower or at littlesunflower and I am on Linked-In too. Through these three sites we have found new suppliers and contacts within our industry as well as new customers - some have bought from our site as a direct result of 'talking' with us on Twitter. The response has been amazing, customers have even posted pictures of their children wearing our clothes on our Facebook page and they love being offered 'deals' that no-one else gets.

It's like anything, you can choose whether to spend half your life on these things (not recommended) or whether you spend a few hours a month. Something akin to the time spent at face-to-face networking events, and probably better results per hour spent were we to spend the time working it out.

Once upon a time Blogging was considered a new fad that wouldn't catch on, ditto online forums and emails. And you could be sure it was the same for telephones, certainly mobile ones. My advice would be don't knock it until you've tried it, you might just be pleasantly surprised.

Bev

 

[Adam Moore]

Hello
at the risk of having things thrown at me, I'm amazed at the negativity here about Facebook, Twitter & Linked-In. We have a retail shop and an online business, with online accounting for the vast majority of our sales. By definition therefore, most of our customers are web-savvy and like the internet.

We have a Facebook Business Page (sorry insufficient postings here for real URLs apparently) our web address/facebook, a Twitter profile twitter dot com/littlesunflower or at littlesunflower and I am on Linked-In too. Through these three sites we have found new suppliers and contacts within our industry as well as new customers - some have bought from our site as a direct result of 'talking' with us on Twitter. The response has been amazing, customers have even posted pictures of their children wearing our clothes on our Facebook page and they love being offered 'deals' that no-one else gets.

It's like anything, you can choose whether to spend half your life on these things (not recommended) or whether you spend a few hours a month. Something akin to the time spent at face-to-face networking events, and probably better results per hour spent were we to spend the time working it out.

Once upon a time Blogging was considered a new fad that wouldn't catch on, ditto online forums and emails. And you could be sure it was the same for telephones, certainly mobile ones. My advice would be don't knock it until you've tried it, you might just be pleasantly surprised.

Bev

See I'm right!

 

[Coffeemate]

FACEBOOK IS ONLY USED BY IDIOTS

In January 2009, Facebook was visited by about 68 million different visitors who logged into the site an average of 17 times during the month. That's a mighty lot of idiots!

FACEBOOK ISN'T RELEVANT IN THE UK

In February 2009, Facebook was used by 22,500 different UK visitors - a 75% increase in the last 12 months.

FACEBOOK IS ONLY USED BY MINDLESS KIDS

Facebook users are 35% in the age range 18-25, 37% in the range 26-40 and 13% in the range 41-60.

FACEBOOK IS JUST A BUNCH OF USELESS TIME-WASTING APPLICATIONS

The problem here is the same as someone buying a car having never learnt anything about cars: They might be able to open the door and sit in the drivers seat - but where do they go from there?

They don't know how to start it, turn the lights on or operate the wipers. They don't know what gears are for or how to use them. They don't know how to adjust the mirrors or how to steer the vehicle. And they certainly don't know about hazard lights, fog lamps and indicators. They might know about non-vehicular radios but what about tuning in the one in the car and the traffic news system. Driving without knowing the highway code could be pretty interesting too, as could not knowing any of the necessary maintenance needs of the car. How useful would such a person consider their car?

Joining a social network and just sitting there is being like my hypothetical car buyer: You need to invest time in knowing how to use it if you want it to bring returns. Even more strongly, online networking is like face to face networking - you have to be proactive, to give, build relationships, build credibility and build respect before trying to sell anything.

As for the butcher. Not all of his customers may use the web but some of them will and so will lots of local people who aren't his customers yet. Becoming recognised online for being an expert on cuts of meat, ways to cook meat for tenderness / best flavour and maybe the source of some good recipes could bring in more business and tweets of special offers could too. I suggest that he puts out some signage out with his blog address and his twitter account. And an optimise Google maps entry with his blog and twitter account flagged could do wonders.

Coffeemate
Increasing clients' profits through better use of the internet
living-streams.co.uk

 

[Matov]

I must confess to sharing many of the anti-feelings that have been expressed on here but I do sometimes worry if the problem is more me being stuck in the past and having a problem adapting to the 'new times'. I have often heard the expression 'Information revolution' to describe what has happened over the last 10 years or so and I think its quite an apt one but I do sometimes worry that I have a Luddite tendancy that can perhaps be more of a negative quality that I initially thought.

My wife uses Facebook as a very valuable way of keeping in touch with her friends from her national dispora (she is not British) who are all over the globe and it seems to work well for her but in business I am still not convinced that its a positive tool.

And as for that whole 'Twitter' thing, well it totally escapes me and nobody seems yet to have answered the very simple question 'why' ?

 

[FireFleur]

I think social networks are effective, it does allow you to reach a large audience, and of course its a form of communication which most humans enjoy.

Would I buy shares in Facebook probably not, because the really good stuff is yet to come, and it will be a lot cooler and a lot more effective for the people using it.

Facebook like friends reunited are just stepping stones to better communication systems, and a presence in cyber space.

IPv6 and higher band width will bring most of this local again, and it will be more fun, peer to peer will improve as well, concurrency is getting better understood.

 

[Adam Moore]

I use it to connect, converse and learn. There's a good Business Week article about it here.

 

[wecandobiz]

I must confess to sharing many of the anti-feelings that have been expressed on here but I do sometimes worry if the problem is more me being stuck in the past and having a problem adapting to the 'new times'. I have often heard the expression 'Information revolution' to describe what has happened over the last 10 years or so and I think its quite an apt one but I do sometimes worry that I have a Luddite tendancy that can perhaps be more of a negative quality that I initially thought.

My wife uses Facebook as a very valuable way of keeping in touch with her friends from her national dispora (she is not British) who are all over the globe and it seems to work well for her but in business I am still not convinced that its a positive tool.

And as for that whole 'Twitter' thing, well it totally escapes me and nobody seems yet to have answered the very simple question 'why' ?

Because Twitter is a great way to get found by people interested in what you have to say and a great way to quickly and cheaply get information to those followers.

I admit Twitter is hard to master. First thing is to ignore the prompt "What are youn doing?" as no one cares. Share tweets on customers you have, what their needs were and how you helped them; information and news on youindustry as a whole rather than just you and you company; pass on news articles you're market will find interesting. The more interesting you are, the more you will get ReTweeted, the more followers you will get, the more you will get ReTweeted and on it goes.

Become identified as someone worth following if they are interested in your topic and you'll not only build a network but find them approaching you and following your links and recommendations.

Be clear though on whether you are using Twitter to get new customers or service existing ones. For example, you don't want prospects hearing about customer service issues; nor do you want to tweet money off details and offers to people who have already bought. If you want to use it for both then have two separate Twitter streams.

I have 25...

IH

 

[DanMartin]

If you want to use it for both then have two separate Twitter streams.

I have 25...

And I thought I was a Twaddict!

 

[Lucky Ed]

At the request of friends I joined a number of social networking sites e.g. plaxo, facebook, myspace etc. but the only one I've ever really found to be helpful in any real sense is linkedin I guess because it's more business orientated. In the past I've used it to help find work and to look at how the markets I'm interested in are doing.

 

[An Oasis]

Anyone dissing social networking as a waste of time, are wasting their time reading and contributing to this thread!

But then you would be missing the point!

The idea of threads like this is to encourage debate. There have been many points made, most of them good. However, I stand by my original thought process (read them)...it works for some markets and not others.

Many threads on this forum have the blind leading the blind. Hopefully, this thread helps others (especially those new to SMN) to make an informed decision, surely that's the whole idea of being on a forum.

I started the thread and I am dissing SMN - so you see comments like yours are just a bit silly.

 

[wecandobiz]

Please forgive the shameless plug, but some of you may not know that I run a UK-based social network for small businesses. We welcome UKBF members and even have a UKBF Network with a feed of the latest threads and news items from the sister BusinessZone website.

I am allowed that one Dan?

IH

 

[An Oasis]

...As for the butcher. Not all of his customers may use the web but some of them will and so will lots of local people who aren't his customers yet. Becoming recognised online for being an expert on cuts of meat, ways to cook meat for tenderness / best flavour and maybe the source of some good recipes could bring in more business and tweets of special offers could too. I suggest that he puts out some signage out with his blog address and his twitter account. And an optimise Google maps entry with his blog and twitter account flagged could do wonders.

Great post!

Our butcher is a master butcher, recognised throughout Europe as one of the leading butchers in Europe. The shop takes cheques and cash but no credit cards. It does not have a website, a blog…probably does not know what Twitter et al are.

Why? He does not need to, the quality of his product is all that is needed and that…is the flip side of the coin.

No one solution is right for any one business, a business should pursue the best path for that business, through making informed decisions.

 

[silklink]

I can't believe that so many people can slam social networking on this, well, social networking site.

Facebook, Twiiter, et al are simply new mediums that businesses can exploit. Think about a new shop or service opening up. Of course you will pay hundreds, even thousands, in advertising fees, and this might just get some customers in. But, if you can learn to communicate using the same medium as potentially hundreds, maybe thousands, of customers, then this surely deserves being exploited.

 

[Fuzzbutt]

I have reconnected with lots of old schoolfriends using Facebook and I find it handy in keepin in touch with friends in general, instead of typing out repetitive emails keeping them up to date. However I do find that I rarely phone people now as it's all done on Facebook.

I run a small business and have two Facebook "Fan" pages - one for my business and one for the little Fuzzy toy mice that model my products! They are achieving near cult status and my customers love them to death, they love the barmy image of these little mice having their own fan page, and it all helps to create the right image that I'm lookingo to project for my customers (who are all mad as a tree full of badgers).

Twitter I'm less excited about, I find it very impersonal but it has brought me 3 or 4 new customers. The TweetDeck application is also very handy for saved searches, for example I do a saved search for "Chinchilla" or "rat" (my core customer base) and each time someone Tweets those words, I see them and I can add those peopel and potentially snare a new customer. However Twitter has a lot of spammers "following" you but as long as you don't follow them back, they can't spam your page.

I have a MySpace too but hardly use it tbh.

So I would say overall, it's worth it - but Facebook is a big time thief for me sometimes!!

I can't post a URL yet so just go to Fuzzbutt dot co dot uk and click on the Facebook link on the left hand side

 

[gillclark]

However I have noticed you get everybody and mean everybody who lives in a 2mile radius of you adding you as a friend and sending stupid requests. The simple main function of facebook is a good and useful one but the added extra's appeal to teenagers and are pretty annoying, its full of spam now aswell.

Im a student and find it quite useful to keep up to date with things but im increasingly getting annoyed with what people put as there 'status' and the continous spam alerts I am getting.

I know what you mean about everyone local trying to add you as a friend - I found that too - probably worse when you are young though, as all your school friends want to add you!

I agree with what you say about keeping in touch with old friends though - just got contacted by an old school friend I had lost touch with, which was nice.

I regard to receiving emails about all your friends posts, etc., a good tip is to go into your profile and turn off all notifications, except the ones about friend requests, then you can just find out what your friends are doing when you want to (ie, when you sign in!). I also immediately made my email private, so people can send me a personal message without seeing my email address, and I can reply via FB if I want to keep it private.

 

[gillclark]

I stand by my original thought process (read them)...it works for some markets and not others.

There is the crux of the matter! It depends why you're on FaceBook and what market you are in (if using solely for business purposes) - I'm just starting a new business venture (B2C) and can see it might be very useful...

Up till now I have used it only for social purposes (and to see what my teenage daughters are up to! Until one of them blocked me so I couldn't add her friends I thought it was just harmless fun, but of course I know that because I am her parent and she is 16 - I am, of course, a total idiot , and vastly embarrassing to boot!)

 

[team-europe]

Its like anything in Business. Promote woolie coats where its cold.

With the number of social networks out there i reckon there is a niche SNS for pretty much everything.

 

[Phild1973]

Logged into Facebook for the first time this week and what a bunch of stupid drivel.



You’re either a leader or sheep following the drivel inputted by the leaders…I’ve met some interesting people as part of the experiment but it’s not for me, I’d rather be productive. So bye bye SMN, it’s been interesting but a time soak that I can’t be arsed with.

3 years after this quote, it still lives but I for one agree.. I have got to the end of my facebook journey it's the most boring load of drivel in my life and serves no further purpose.. to quote the author.. I just cant be arsed anymore.

 

If I get one more 'mafia wars' thingy sent to me, I'm gonna perform a real-life drive-by on someone

I don't see that any of the mainstream Social Networking sites (facebook, twatter, etc) are really offering anything to my business. I use facebook mainly to keep in touch with some contacts/friends & only nip onto it when I'm having a break etc.

I think some people live on these bloomin' things, and generally are wasting their time there. No doubt someone somewhere is helping their business with it all, but I certainly am not.

 

[Cornish Steve]

For breakfast yesterday, I met with an entrepreneur who knows this space reasonably well. He's already started, built, and sold one company and is thinking of starting an Internet technology company. His view, like that of others here, is that social networking sites are largely hype when it comes to business benefits. Other than the owners of the sites (who presumably make a fortune), why would anyone make money from posting or reading irrelevant information? We were both racking our brains to understand why so many people rave about Twitter and the rest and, honestly, we could think of no good reason why businesses should waste even a second of their time there.

Maybe he's not typical, but he does have a proven track record in business.

 

[team-europe]

How about looking at it a different way...

"What product would be best marketed to a social networking group...?"

Traffic exchanges, for example, work if the product you are promoting is another free marketing tool.

I often look at ads displaying on different sites and consider how they relate to the sites content. Especially from ads that DO NOT pull on the sites content (adwords etc).

I knew a lady on facebook once who made "Party Plan" bookings within her local area just from people she knew on facebook. I reckon this worked for her because of the "Online social networking" compared with "Face to face networking". The "product" in this case didn't (doesn't) matter because she was focusing on people who like to meet and "socialise" both online and off.

 

[driansmith]

How about looking at it a different way...

"What product would be best marketed to a social networking group...?

I agree. There will be certain products/services that can be marketed in such a way. But I would also suggest that it is a complete waste of time for most products - and business owners should not spend their very limited time and budgets playing with these systems.

 

[Business Advice Centre]

Facebook is cool, I am not a one dimensional individual without a private life. I like to have a giggle. I love to meet old friends. I've got a holiday cottage in Cornwall... old friends might use it! It's great for updating people on my life and there's. If I don't want someone as a friend, I ignore their request, simple.

 

[mattcm]

Social networking, whether for business or personal use, only works if you actually have something interesting to say. In a business context social media sites give you access to groups and communities of people that you can help or learn from - and that's how new relationships can develop. They are purely a tool for communication, so if you don't have anything to say then you'll likely find them time-consuming and frustrating. If you do have something to say, or if you are looking for help in a new subject area, you have some great new tools at your disposal.

Keep it simple to start with - find out who's talking about what you're talking about by searching Twitter (search.twitter.com) or join a relevant group on LinkedIn - and start sharing...

 

[fisicx]

Facebook is cool, I am not a one dimensional individual without a private life. I like to have a giggle. I love to meet old friends. I've got a holiday cottage in Cornwall... old friends might use it! It's great for updating people on my life and there's. If I don't want someone as a friend, I ignore their request, simple.

The original concept of social networking was to keep in touch and share experiences much like blogs began life as an online diary. But like most things they have now been so exploited that instead of just a fun place to be people now run them as a business extension.

 

[ImproveSearchListings]

Totally OT but:

Wow, where's your butcher?

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I merged the new thread, as starting a new thread in reply to an existing thread is obviously wrong. The correct thing to do is to reply in the thread

 

[Michelle Carvill]

Hi there
Interesting reading the views.
Personally, I have never really gotten by head around Facebook. I don't like the 'openess' and 'awkwardness' of Facebook - but from a commercial perspective, as part of the social media platforms - it still seems to have a significant part to play. (Top 4 being, Twitter, Blogging, Facebook, Linked In).

I recently read a 'white paper' about 'How marketers were using Social Media' (US of course, and put together in March 09 based on over a sample of 900 marketers) - and the overall factor is that it's all still very much 'fertile territory'. And that's key - it's all still too new and emerging. Whilst Facebook and MySpace (and indeed others) have been around for a while - businesses using them to leverage their brand in a 'strategic' way - appears to only have been really happening over the past few months - which has correlated with the epic explosion of Twitter. At this stage - I'm not sure where Social Media is heading - is it the next marketing gold rush - or is it a load of nonsense? My involvement so far (and it has only been for the past 6 months!) tells me that whilst I'm not sure where it's heading - I've seen enough to see the merits in being involved. I recently tried to pin down a Social Media Strategy for a client - and I blogged about it - Social Media Strategy - too fast to pin down... It's fast, it's fertile, and no doubt the landscape will continue to change. I suspect that 'commercially' - we have just about passed the 'Influencers' phase - and are now coming into the 'Early adopters phase' - yet it's still going to be a while before we 'cross the chasm' into mass acceptance.

 

[fisicx]

I recently read a 'white paper' about 'How marketers were using Social Media' (US of course, and put together in March 09 based on over a sample of 900 marketers) - and the overall factor is that it's all still very much 'fertile territory'.

Aaaaaarrrgh! That's the whole negative point. It's taking social networking away from the social concepts and turned it into a marketing tool. I can understand how marketeers look for new markets but the problem is they attempt a takeover. Look at blogging, once the home of the crofter in Scotland or the housewife in Hounslow, now all you see are attempts by nearly everyone to monetise their blog or just use it as a feed to their ecommerce store. The more the marketeers use social networking to push their products the more people will look for alternative means to socialise.

 

[Michelle Carvill]

Spot on, but also make sure you build your followers on Twitter.

Some ideas for this:

1) Fill out your Twitter bio including as many key words as you can fit in

2) Use Twitter Search to find people who are asking questions or posting about what you do and follow them -- they may follow you back

3) Use Twollo to automatically follow people who tweet on your areas of interest -- you can set it to connect you with up to 100 Twitters on each topic you name and a large proportion will follow you back (I doubled my number of followers in a week)

4) Join Mr Tweet for suggestions on who you should be following. Not only will this connect you with people you may find interesting, but it will also recommend you on to people who may find YOU interesting

If anyone wants to follow me for more of this sort of stuff I am @wecandobiz.

IH

Don't forget Twitter search - www.search.twitter.com - this is an excellent starting point for finding relevant keywords. Also - there's a great resource called TweetBeep - so you can set alerts to be notified when a 'keyword' is mentioned - you can investigate and either participate in the conversation if relevant - or you may choose to follow.

 

[Michelle Carvill]

The more the marketeers use social networking to push their products the more people will look for alternative means to socialise.[/QUOTE]

I don't use these platforms to 'socialise' - I use them to share my views, news, ideas and tips and to learn from others. I don't advise my clients to 'socialise' via them either - but instead to listen, join the conversation and where relevant facilitate relevant and targeted information. It's not a direct sell - it's a conversation.

 

[GlobalBusinessCentres]

This is something interesting on social website...

Facebook could soon be helping bridge the divide between humans and robots.

Researchers are giving a robot its own Facebook profile page to help foster meaningful relationships with people.

The page will be populated with interactions the robot has with people as well as photos of the time it spends in human company.

Its creators hope that embedding it in a social web will demonstrate that a sustainable friendship can grow up between man and machine.

Source: BBC

 

[Clare]

As with any form of marketing, you need to decide how you're going to use it and what you hope to get from it. Yes, there's plenty of 'social' aspect to Facebook and it doesn't suit everyone or all businesses. I've noticed many people are switching back to using Facebook purely for friends and family and less for business. Too many people are happy to jump on the numbers bandwagon and invite or connect with everyone and anyone.

I've started two groups on Facebook - specifically for business. However, I find I'm already connected with the majority of people on other networking sites and it takes time to keep discussions going or to engage people. Regular postings and updates are needed but not so much that you end up spamming people. I've disconnected and left groups where I get constant messages to their network.

The majority of my marketing is done online, as I can reach a wider audience and I'm not limited to a particular area or country. If it's part of your marketing mix then it's certainly worth looking at social networking for your business and there plenty of people around who can show you how to get the most from it.

Clare

 

[ninnythomas]

Hi dear ...


Y bye bye from SMN...Its not like that if u didnt like Facebook just for stupid drivel all SMN site are like that. nopes there are many SMN sites through which u can do great Information sharing.

Logged into Facebook for the first time this week and what a bunch of stupid drivel.



You’re either a leader or sheep following the drivel inputted by the leaders…I’ve met some interesting people as part of the experiment but it’s not for me, I’d rather be productive. So bye bye SMN, it’s been interesting but a time soak that I can’t be arsed with.

 

[An Oasis]

Sounds interesting, care to expand, for us thickies?

...IPv6 and higher band width will bring most of this local again, and it will be more fun, peer to peer will improve as well, concurrency is getting better understood.

Lots of good points no matter which side of the fence you sit on. Keep them coming.

So far it looks like the pattern is that as a new SNs emerges people jump on the bandwagon and then as the next thing happens they jump off and on to that wagon. But that is a bit like building sand castles on a beech, cool until the tide comes in then you've got to start over.