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You love Facebook and Twitter…because?

This is for all those businesses out there who find the current crop of business social networking sites, such as, LinkedIn, ecademy and a host of others just too damn difficult to use

At KMiDigital we like to make life simple, in fact so simple you don’t really have to think about what you are doing and when you are doing it. It becomes so routine it becomes part of your daily routine. It might be me but some of these social networking sites drive me up the wall, they are either to complicated to use and something that should be as simple as finding the business or area you want is either very difficult or not there, ring any bells?

So why is it we all love FaceBook and use it regularly, could it be that it is so simple to use and administer that you don’t need the attention span of a nuclear scientist to use it, it might well be.

Twitter is relatively new but has taken hold like a house on fire and everyone seems to be using it, are you, and if so why.

The purpose of this exercise is to find out what you think, as a business, about the social networking sites you use and which are you’re favourites and which are you’re least favourites and don’t forget to tell us why.

It could be that we are well on our way to helping you achieve if not all, then some of your business goals and ambitions.

Please add your comments below…and thank you for your time.

Posted: 22-07-2009 08:19 by Keith McMean with 5 comments

Comments

Matt Quinn

From a post I made on SBF....

For me, my brief 'foray' into Twitter has been nothing more than a random Spam generator... I've now blocked any email that even mentions 'twitter' from my system...

On a professional level there's nothing practical (or at least nothing worthwhile) I can achieve with twitter that I can't do with a mobile phone book and SMS. Or cheaper still an emailing list! I can see why it appeals to my pre-teen daughter. I can even see why it appeals to my students.

But I'll tell you this much....

I often hear from or run into former students and colleagues, and the ones that are busy and working on real paying jobs are the ones who are knocking on doors and pasting up flyers and handing out leaflets and demo disks and basically just getting out there using old fashioned techniques....

While the ones that are hunting for work (and failing) are twittering, blogging, Bebo'd up to the hilt and fanatical about facebook.. Maybe they should just knock some doors???

There are a lot of people making good money from social networking sites. And in saying that I don't necessarily mean that they're good places to find potential customers...

22-07-2009 10:14

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Ali Turnbull

Copied from my post to LinkedIn:
Well I met you in Twitter, Keith! I knew you existed but I hadn't got down to 'K' on my telephone hit list. So Benefit (1) better than cold calling, for me at least. I'll find an interesting peg - in your case Whitehaven fireworks - that breaks the ice when we meet in person. Other topics have included local ice-cream, mountain bike prangs and home-reared ducklings.

Benefit (2) Ideas bank. I'm a writer, editor and a champion of plain English and I follow lots of people like me from UK, Aus, Canada and USA. They tweet cuttings, links, jokes and inspiration that I would never have found by myself.

But I can see Twitter doesn't work for everyone in every working context, and take Matt's comments on board. I don't find it a chore to unblock the spammers in a single click so that I can focus on the great material.

On the others - On Linked In it's a little more serious but I like that you can put your CV up and see who your contacts know. My Ecademy profile is sadly dated, and needs to come up to the level of the rest. And I don't really do Facebook since my daughter came back from a year in NZ when it was a great photo album.

23-07-2009 09:06

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Jackie Harris

I use twitter to help me keep up to date with the latest developments and thinking in the world of digital marketing and online PR. 10 years ago, we had to hang out in fleet street or west end bars to keep 'in the groove'. Now I can keep up with my contemporaries in London PR consultancies and contacts from my IBM and HP days with Twitter and RSS feeds to influential blogs. I no longer have to subscribe to dozens of magazines - I've been very selective over the past 18 months or so on who I follow to make sure my Twitter reading is something I can quickly scan down and get the important information I need so I can provide a better service to my clients.

I also follow the top IT journalists I used to work with - people like Charles Arthur from the Guardian and Guy Clapperton who are always ahead of the game. For example 24 hours after Google launched Wave to the developer community, I was able to watch a video of the full presentation because one of my Twitter chums put the full video clip link onto Twitter.

23-07-2009 12:01

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Leo White

With regard to Twitter - I'd agree with the 'keeping up to date' comments above as it's far easier to have a network of people you respect filter what's new and interesting for you rather than have to do it all yourself, so I believe it does effectively save me time. I also see twitter as a great asset in personal brand building. What you choose to share on Twitter can be a great summary of online / offline personality, allowing those who've never met you to get a rapid overview of your recent life or how you are feeling today. - if only Twitter would let us put Google analytics on our twitter pages so we could track conversions in the same way as with other web pages.

Re Facebook - I don't use face book for work (or anything else really) it's visual interface was / is frustrating and plagued with apps that were more about wasting my time than adding any real benefit.

Re Linked in - I have had a profile for a while, but only recently started to use it I'd agree with Ali - it's more serious and work focussed so therefore seems a slightly more beneficial use of spare work time than other social networking tools - though I wish it could share the simplicity of Twitter in it's administration... it always feels a little cumbersome to use, but perhaps that's just the software interface designer in me talking!

27-07-2009 09:11

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Ali Turnbull

More on LinkedIn: I geared up my LinkedIn profile with more CV and recommendations after hearing Will Kintish speak
He's doing a freebie web Q+A on 11/8.
http://www.kintish.co.uk/page1074.html

Basically LinkedIn has given me confidence to approach people at 2 or 3 degrees of separation if I know people they know. It means that you can talk directly to decision-makers and you don't have to go through fierce or thick receptionists or speed dial.

27-07-2009 11:22

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