I am often asked this question, usually by people who have a natural scepticism about the subject, or who believe that “social media” is something their teenage children do in their bedroom.

I firmly believe that social media does work for business. However, like most things in life, it really depends on how you use it, and for what purpose.

There are many definitions of what Social Media is, one of my favourites is that it is “a fusion of sociology and technology; transforming monologues into dialogues, and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.”

I believe that Social Media works when the medium is used to reach out to individuals, and encourages them to engage with the message. Telling people what you had for lunch doesn’t usually do this, but passing on a link to some interesting and informative nugget of news or information probably will.

Using Social Media doesn’t have to take long – this blog has taken me about 15 minutes to write. Sharing your experience and information via Twitter or Facebook can take even less time. The possibilities of what might happen to your message, and how that might benefit your business is what makes Social Media so potentially powerful.

Social Media is rapidly replacing newspapers as a means of communication, and shares many of its characteristics. Some people read newspapers for the sport, some for the coffee break puzzles, some for the gossip; some cut coupons and look for adverts about local shop sales. Social Media does all this and more.

The question isn’t “Can Social Media be of any use to business”, but how.

I read an interesting statistic recently. In ACE’s recently published 2008/09 submissions from Regularly Funded Organisations, combined ‘Contributed Income’ (sponsorship, trusts, donations, and lottery revenue partnership funding) fell by over £12.6 million (11%). But this was more than made up for by combined ‘Earned Income’ (ticket sales, workshop fees, merchandising, sale of books and magazines, etc.) which rose by £52.8 million (12%).

If you have read my blogs over the last couple of years, you will know that I hold a particular view of the “recession”; it was patchy, not universal. Its impact ranged from the catastrophic (if you were in house building, car manufacturing, or banking), to the liberating (with interest rates at an all time low, many households were between £100 and £150 a month better off). Public money was drying up, but private/personal money was plentiful.

Reliance on public funding has become an increasingly high risk strategy. I speak from personal experience as the ex-treasurer of an excellent provider of arts education which closed due to withdrawal of its core funding. Other organisations I know well are also starting to think the unthinkable – what if we can’t rely on public funding anymore?

So what is Plan B?

Well, I think public funding will become increasingly scarce, and with the hoops to jump through and numerous forms to complete, it will become harder to maintain.

There has been an interesting debate on LinkedIn to do with factoring as a way of improving cashflow. What caught my eye was a comment that said “payment terms has, and never will, kill a good idea”. I see this as a clarion call to every organisation that has a good idea – if it’s that good, someone will pay for it.

I had a call today from someone I worked with a few months back. I hadn’t heard from them for ages. I knew it was them as their ID flashed up on my phone.

I answered the call by saying my name and saying “Good afternoon”.

They seemed a little put out that I hadn’t greeted them personally – had I perhaps even deleted them from my phone list? Fortunately we quickly glossed over this, and got down to catching up on our respective news, and discussing a potential business idea.

But it got me thinking, is there an accepted way to greet someone on the phone when you know it’s them? Do you say their name?  Would you still be as informal if you hadn’t spoken to them for several months? Do you regularly clear out your contacts list?

I guess there is no right or wrong, but I’d be really interested to know what you do…

I just received an email directing me to some new comments on a blog I read some time ago. Among the issues raised was the above question. I recall how the question stopped me in my tracks and made me really think.

Some lead, some follow – the world has always been this way. But what are the leaders trying to achieve? As a self employed person even I have to balance the “doing” with the “pioneering”.

But to what end. When I am no more, what will be left? What impact will I have made? Will the world be a better place?

The burden of responsibility rests on us all. Philosophers have always maintained that every one of us has the power to make a difference. It is not good enough to look around and expect someone else to make the difference for us. I agree with this.

I was recently introduced to a remarkable book called “The Tipping Point”. Its premise is that big things often happen as the result of the smallest of things. It is rarely possible to know what that small thing is until afterwards.

Standing still and waiting for everyone else to do something is not helping.

Is it your turn to be the tipping point?

As anticipated, my last blog about a simple web site related topic like the conversion rate between visitors to your web site and the number of potential customers engaging with you (for example by completing a contact form) created quite a bit of correspondence.

The vast majority of comments emphasised complex and (to be fair) quite interesting ideas about how to get the best out of your website. But I felt they missed the point. Most businesses are run by hard working individuals who have not got time to understand and implement subtle marketing ploys.

Which brings me to the question of how you eat an elephant. The answer is, of course, a mouthful at a time. To try and take too big a bite out of a problem leaves you with bad indigestion.

You need a website for two reasons, to increase your brand awareness, and to generate sales, and not necessarily both at the same time. Whatever tactics you use to achieve your goal need to be SMART (Google this if you can’t remember the acronym!).

I believe that life is complicated enough without making it harder than it needs to be.

The next time you want to make your business better, talk to someone who can talk to you about it in simple “plain English”.

Identify the problem, break it into manageable chunks, and deal with it! Life is hard enough, without it being taxing.

The climate is what we expect; weather is what we get.

I can’t remember where I heard this, but as regular readers will know, good phrases tend to stick in my head until they pop out here on my blog.

There are many people who will tell you what is going to happen, some will quite happily charge you for the advice. I have no idea where many get their insight from and, as with all predictions, they are often wrong, or were so woolly in the first instance that they try to argue that black is white.

I forget, are we heading for a new ice age, or global warming?

I am not discounting the value of forecasts, but their usefulness lies in the accuracy of the assumptions they are based on. There is not much difference between an uncertain stream of income, and a high pressure zone wandering aimlessly across the Atlantic Ocean towards Europe.

To you give yourself the best possible chance of coming out ahead of the rest, regularly test the assumptions you base your forecast on.

It’s never the weather that is wrong; it’s what you are wearing.

Twitter is a way of communicating with your audience. It has the same potential as any other medium, including advertising and networking, to reach large numbers of people.

It is free (no cost), but it does require an investment of time. On this basis it might be worth thinking of it as an “instead of”, not an “as well as” means of communication.

It relies on you being informative and interesting. If you fulfil these criteria your audience will find you, like you, and follow you (read what you say). If you are pushy, people won’t follow you.

Twitter communicates to everyone who wants to follow you – so one message reaches a far greater audience than a single telephone call or email can. If someone likes what they read, they can forward the message to everyone that is following them.

What particularly differentiates Twitter as a mean of communication is the way that serendipity plays a part. More so than any other medium, it works through referral, over which you have little or no control.

Twitter is used by everyone, from teenagers, to CEO’s of major blue chip corporations. Your next major client, or customer, may just be looking for you on Twitter…

At a breakfast meeting today, I listened to a presentation about Social Media. Given that I am blogging, and you are reading this, the chances are high that we both ought to know all this stuff, but it made good enough sense to me to want to repeat it on here:

• Your online network is not the same as your personal address book.
• Don’t add technology to the way you do things, change the way you do things when you know what the technology can do.
• Social Media is about sharing; it won’t work if you are selfish.
• Accept the fact that there are those who already know their way around Social Media (Digital Natives), if you are new on the scene you are a Digital Immigrant, and it is incumbent on you to learn the language and customs.
• That said, it is up to you whether you abide by the established language and customs.
• The 5 steps involved: Arrive, Listen, Ask, Provide, Advise. In that order!

Blogging as a way of communicating is being debated. Is it a good thing, is it just plain self-indulgent? Is it right to give the general public the ability to speak, well, so publically? http://journalismleadersforum.blogspot.com/2009/05/12th-forum-itv-news-chief-times-web.html

As with all forms of media, from the first printing press to twitter, there are those who just don’t get it, and those who do. There are those who use it well, and those who don’t.

Blogging is a relatively new medium that might yet have its place in history, but that place has to be fought for and proven. Twas ever thus.

I believe it can be a force for good, and Jo Geary’s eloquent support is key to its survival.
http://www.joannageary.com/2009/05/13/qit8-im-sick-and-tired-of-this-infernal-blog-debate/

I gave a presentation to a business-networking group this week on the subject of Social Media and Business.

Realising the audience was at best sceptical (with a couple of exceptions!), and at worst cynical, I used the following images.

• Plain website = shop window, hopefully directing you to the door in.
• Blogging on your website = shop front glass now removed, allowing you to talk to potential customers, and for them to talk back (for example by leaving comments).
• Social Media (such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) = you have left your shop and are walking about sharing your ideas, and encouraging others to talk about them as well (not always with you present).

It is a bit blunt, but seemed to get the key messages over:

1. Social Media is not something that only happens online – it’s a mesh of physical meetings and online activities.
2. Ideas that are spread through groups of people are far more powerful than ideas delivered to individuals.
3. Real engagement is when people do things for you that you didn’t ask them to.
4. Learn to lose some control – in return for greater reach.

With thanks to Steve Bridger (http://www.stevebridger.com/) for his insights…