Phil Lauterjung

As some of you may have noticed, October was a very busy month for announcements in the realm of social media.  Of course, some are also still wondering how worthwhile is social media as a business tool?  That was a valid question, but not any longer.

In case you missed some of those announcements, and if you were busy with your business that is very possible, here is a brief summary.

Bing, which used to be MSN owned by Microsoft, made deals with both Twitter and Facebook.  Google also made a deal with Twitter, and announced something called Google Social Search – which is something different from the Twitter deal.  Google has also been rumored to be talking with Facebook about a deal, but there hasn’t been any official acknowledgment of that.  Twitter introduced Lists to help users better organize their Twitter stream – something very much needed.  Somewhat outside the realm of social media, but related nonetheless, Adobe bought the web analytics company Omniture.  Oh yes, Google is also launching a web based multimedia collaboration tool called Google Wave – currently in preview and only available by invitation.

What in the world does all this mean in terms of doing business on a day-to-day basis?  I would be a raving lunatic if I tried to predict exactly what will happen as a result of all this.

However, when you see companies like Google, Adobe, and Microsoft jumping into the social media pool in a big way; then we should all pay attention.  That’s not to say that they weren’t already involved in some way, but now they are committed!  They have now allocated significant money and resources to pursuing and refining social media as a part of their overall strategy.

I would submit that all of us should intensify our efforts to at least make use of social media to listen.  To listen to our customers, our potential customers and our competitors.  No matter what business you are in there is information being exchanged through social media channels.  At the bare minimum, about your industry; but, more often about the products and services that you and your competitors sell.

You may not think you have the time or expertise to fully engage in social media, but I would urge you to at least learn how to listen.  You can start with Facebook, Twitter, and Google.  Set up Google Alerts for your product and/or service brands, and for your competitors.  That will at least get you recent mentions in news, blogs, web, videos, and groups.

For information that doesn’t have the delay of a day or two that you get with Google Alerts, set up accounts with Twitter and/or Facebook.  It’s really not hard to do.

Let me know if you need some help.  Either leave a comment or go to my contact page and get in touch with me.

Photo Credit: © Tom Mc Nemar – Fotolia.com

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