In today’s age of transparency and real-time communication, why do so many small businesses still shy away from social media?  Not only is it a viable communication channel, it is the de rigueur way that people communicate.  Most have migrated to consume information, exchange perspectives, discover companies, seek services, check out product reviews, and they use a broad spectrum of social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Digg, YouTube, etc.

SMBs are supposed to be lean, mean and nimble, so what gives? The irony here is that Fortune 500s have jumped in with both feet to harness social media, leaving their smaller counterparts to continue relying on traditional media channels. According to a report conducted by the Society for New Communications Research titled, “The Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America’s Largest Companies,” Twitter was the social media channel of choice last year.  The report found a 300% increase from 2008 to 2009 in the number of Fortune 500s linking their corporate blogs to corporate Twitter accounts.

In his recent post titled, “The Socialization of Small Business,” Brian Solis cites two major hurdles of social media for 31% of small businesses.  Many believe that their customers are not hanging out on social media channels, and that as business owners, they do not have the time or resources to throw at running a successful media campaign.  Ad-ology’s report titled, “Small Business Marketing Forecast” had some interesting findings, including approximately 50% of SMBs ranked generating leads, monitoring what is being said about their business, and improving customer service as — “not beneficial.”

Being on the PR side, we recommend and work with a lot of our startup clients around building efforts to integrate social media with traditional PR and communication channels.  In some cases, it is an ongoing struggle, because some clients are digging their heels in, believing otherwise.

One SMB client of Ignite’s believes that their customer base is not hanging out in Twitter, and therefore, this channel is irrelevant to their business. With a quick real-time search in Twitter, Ignite found on the first page of results that included two tweets from prospects revealing interest and seeking recommendations for the type of service our client offered, one blogger mentioning our client in a very positive manner, and one competitor trash-talking our client. None of these tweets were related to each other.  Despite this snapshot evidence, our client still isn’t convinced. Ignite even proactively secured the client’s Twitter handles so that they wouldn’t be taken. But by choosing to refrain from adopting social media channels, we can see how this apprehension has impacted our client vis-à-vis its competitors.  Our client’s biggest and smallest competitors have essentially left them in the dust with respect to actively participating with communities in social media channels and having a much stronger market presence.

The road to social media will be a slower route for the SMBs likely for a range of valid reasons: time, unfamiliarity, professional network not as tech savvy, trust, etc.  We’d recommend Twitter as a good first step. It’s free, easy to learn, and isn’t as taxing on entrepreneurs.  Any small business, mom and pop, or neighborhood shop could use Twitter to gain more customers at hyper-local level by offering tips, best practices, coupons, promos, etc. According to a Twitter Brand Survey done by Peter Sorgenfrei and Warren Sukernek, 60% of respondents said they would recommend a brand based on their presence on and usage of Twitter. What’s more, 78% of respondents said they’d be more willing to purchase products from a company that had a relationship with them on Twitter.

Edelman’s annual “Trust Barometer 2010” report says we are no longer living in a shareholders’ world but are instead in a world where all stakeholders are of equal importance.  Meaning, companies need to do more now than ever to actively employ a mixed bag of communication channels to stay on top of not just investors and prospects — but all stakeholders.

As they say, the power to define and control a brand has indeed shifted from corporations and institutions to individuals and communities.  So whether you like it or not, whether you’re prepared to engage with constituents who have migrated to social media channels, or whether you choose to stay on the sidelines, do know that people are defining and controlling companies’ brands and perceptions and that includes yours.

Steve Reubel recently podered whether Twitter may one day replace public relations professionals’ traditional method of pitching press via email.  It reminded us to earlier this year when we asked professionals in public relations to self-police how they interact with press and bloggers via Twitter.  We had our suspicions on whether press and bloggers might be receptive to this approach, so we decided to ask a handful and get their two cents on the matter.  What follows is an aggregation of their perspective, as well as that of ours here at Ignite PR. 
 

Twitter’s greatest value is that it is a place for conversations.  Where brevity rules, a pitch in 140 characters is just too limiting and cannot typically provide enough context. Clearly, there might be an exception here – perhaps with a breaking news announcement and the public relations rep reaching out to targeted press and bloggers that are visibly available on Twitter.  The norm, however, is more likely to be a simple tweet to a journalist that could potentially spur interest, but for the idea to become anything bigger, then the conversation would eventually have to transition over to email or phone. Additionally, most workflow productivity occurs around email, and Twitter is nowhere near supplanting email as the preferred communication tool to drive business.  Lastly, while conversations on Twitter can suggest sentiment around a topic, the signal to noise ratio on Twitter is so high it is difficult to sift through.  The odds are just much greater for a pitch to get lost in the heavy volume of tweet streams than via email.

There are, however, appropriate ways public relations people can use Twitter to interact with press and bloggers.  Here a few examples.  Follow key influencers who cover your clients’ industries (i.e.: mobile, cloud computing, online search, etc.).  Monitor their tweets and read the articles they link to.  Share links or participate in discussions they’re tweeting about from a market-centric standpoint and not a vendor-centric one.  If a bi-directional relationship is established, send the reporter that specifically covers your client’s space a heads up on a pending news announcement.  Show reciprocity and retweet (RT) a journalist’s article or blogger’s post that you found insightful or provocative.  

However, using Twitter to blindly spam journalists with off-target tweet pitches will kill PR people’s opportunity to engage with media and bloggers in a meaningful way.  Twitter’s novelty has opened up new opportunities for key influencers and public relations folks to connect.  If poor pitching practices carry over to Twitter, media will quickly find a way to disconnect PR from this channel.  We remain hopeful that Twitter doesn’t become a hotspot for unsolicited, endless public relations pitches polluting the micro-blogging channel.  Leave that dirty work to the spammers who push seedy content and get-rich overnight schemes.

A special shout-out and thank you to Kristen Nicole (@KristenNicole2), Nick Hoover (@iweeknick) and Anthony Ha (@anthonyha) for sharing their thoughts with us on this topic. If you’re not following these bloggers and reporters on Twitter, we highly recommend that you do.

New or improved social media and web-based services are starting to surface, reflecting a major shift unfolding that underscores how people and companies are choosing to share, listen, watch, respond, interact and engage with other individuals in real-time conversations, as they are happening, with zero latency or delays.  Take Facebook, for example; unable to acquire Twitter’s real-time, massive communication platform, it took a page from Twitter and overhauled its user status section, replacing it with a live newsfeed right down to mimicking Twitter’s 140 characters and status query.  Consumers, startups, large businesses, civil services and, yes, politicians and celebrities alike have tuned into the popular Twitter microblogging service that enables them to telegraph personal or corporate messages, breaking news, emergency broadcasts, service interruptions or promote new blog posts, perspectives, photos, videos, etc. — all in real-time.

The Twitter phenomenon is growing at breakneck speed, reaching nearly 10 million users in February 2009, up more than 700% from a year ago.  Twitter’s runaway growth points to people’s behavior and preference to proactively communicate with others in real-time. FriendFeed most recently rolled out a major new UI and service enhancement, overhauling their static users’ comments to emulate Twitter’s real-time updates.  Clearly, it’s just a matter of time for other sites (ie: MySpace, LinkedIn, Yelp) to recognize this shift and meet users’ preferences for real-time information — not static data. The arrival of the real-time web will impact a host of players in the businesses of information.  Net/net: the real-time web has arrived so strap in your seat belts for an interesting ride that is about to take off.

By now many have heard about Christian Bale and his very unprofessional melt down captured and shared among millions on YouTube, which spread like wildfire into a top 5 topic on Twitter. The following Twitter meltdown unfolded today. Thankfully, the exchange was not at all as brutal as Christian Bale’s outburst but, nevertheless this could have been avoided. To set the stage, the Twitter melt down involves a male and female, one a reporter and the other a Marketing/PR representative.

The following exchange captures the f-bombs and tweets going back and forth between the two parties. April, the PR rep, wasn’t naming the reporter directly when she posted a tweet, venting her frustration, just as many of us do on Twitter (yours truly included). The reporter clearly had a bad day, noticed the PR rep’s tweet and followed up in a highly abusive way with her. After the Twitter throw-down, it seemed like the reporter wanted to forget about the whole exchange and consequently tried to erase his tweets. Unfortunately, the public journo/PR fight got retweeted and suddenly it was all over. Lesson to be learned here. Before you go dropping any F-bombs via a tweet, digg post, IM, blog comment, facebook post, etc., do remember you can’t erase what is out there on the ether. A public record exists and there is no turning back.   

Cision, an online database provider of media contacts aimed at PR professionals, is planning to add journalists’ Twitter handles.  Many members of media have joined the ranks of bloggers who are actively leveraging Twitter for its ability to amplify their reach, so the move by this contacts vendor isn’t all that surprising.  In fact, analyst firms, with the exception of Jeremiah Owyang and Forrester, are just starting to awake to this new powerful and growing channel. At Ignite PR, we use Twitter to communicate internally and externally with peers, follow breaking news, discover interesting data, spot emerging trends and meet or follow interesting people. Twitter’s most important value is its inherent nature around organic participation and the meaning and connection behind one’s network.  On Twitter, one can engage with other interesting individuals who have similar interests, share great content, and are just interesting people in general. Twitter along with other social media channels, such as Facebook, Digg, YouTube, FriendFeed, etc., provide a simple and interactive way for people to engage in conversations with a wide array of individuals and expand or build a new network of interesting contacts.

Cision’s move raises a red flag however.  When other database vendors start selling off Twitter names/handles, they stand to benefit at the expense of others.  So far, PR folks actively using Twitter early on seem to be using it in a way that is not causing friction and we wholeheartedly applaud their practice-to-date.  Yet there is still cause for concern when PR folks are using Facebook to actively pitch reporters and bloggers. One can easily see novice PR people blasting press release links or pitches aimed at Twitter users, namely press and bloggers, because they aren’t investing the time in understanding the do’s and don’ts of using Twitter.  Thankfully Twitter’s management does a good job of shutting down spammers, but if database vendors are going to be selling lists of Twitter users to willing buyers such as PR agencies, then they both need to be responsible for understanding and underscoring acceptable practices for using this growing new channel.   It’s critical that PR people embark on a real effort of self-policing how they use new social media channels to reach members of media or the blogsphere.  Just as social media tools and channels are ushering in a new way to reach and communicate with one another, PR should seize the opportunity and turn a new page in how they use this new channel in an acceptable way. 

President Obama promises to usher in a new era of openness based around three priorities: communication, transparency and participation.  President Obama’s theme of open communication and transparency was carried out through Facebook, SMS and Twitter updates on his campaign trail; YouTube video addresses during his transition to the Whitehouse; and user engagement post-inauguration via the new makeover of the Whitehouse.gov website.  By continuing to apply a wide range of social media tools, President Obama is bypassing mainstream media channels and opting instead to reach out directly to his ardent supporters to continue engaging with them. 

There’s a big takeaway in all of this for big companies and startups alike looking to build their own communities and leverage social media tools: start incorporating a digital social media strategy to accompany traditional PR efforts. For a great example, take a look at how successful Zappos.com has been with their company-wide embracement and use of Twitter as a new communication channel with their customers.

Twitter, SMS, YouTube, Facebook, blogging, Digg, Delicious, Flickr, etc. are cost-effective communication channels that are quickly becoming mainstream, enabling companies and people to reach out to their constituents and network of friends faster and farther than ever before.  Social media initiatives enable companies to quickly communicate with existing customers or prospects, enhances a company’s transparency with customers, and encourages user feedback, ultimately building trust, loyalty, and goodwill. 

Twitter and the world of micro-blogging is in its early days and we believe will become an influential messaging tool that will gain broad user and business adoption. It’s power is in its ability to tap into and push short snippets of information into the public ether. As we mentioned in an early post, titled How to Get Your Twitter On, there are a bevy of new, useful Web 2.0 tools tailored around support the growing world of Twitterers, which is about 1 million.

Here are a few more uber cool tools that we wanted to highlight.
Summize: is a newly launched start-up that enables real-time Twitter searches that let you get a temperature check on what people are tweeting related to a particular topic. I was recently trying to find the latest information on the Florida brush fire that was rapidly moving toward my mom’s house in Malabar. I tried to manually find more information about the fire in Twitter, but trying Summize I pulled up a rich list of updates. Here’s more results we found on the big Santa Cruz County fire that broke out yesterday, which is just a stone’s throw away from Silicon Valley. For Marketing & PR folks out there monitoring perceptions about a technology, product or company, check out Summize Labs which is a nifty feature that gives you an interesting real-time Twitter sentiment ranging from great to wretched.

Here’s a cool new service for music called: Blip. Launched by San Francisco-based parent company Fuzz, the Blip service lets users search and hear song tracks and also share them with friends via Twitter. It’s nice to see other startups innovating to enable Twitter to become more able to share rich media. Blip has a simple UI. Trying out the service, I was finally able to find the song in the recent Kia commercial that I like (Can’t Get It Right Today – Joe Purdy).