I’ve had a Twitter account for over a year now but have truly only been active for about four months. 

Here are some things I’ve discovered:

1)      There are ways to lengthen the conversation.  It’s hard to carry on in-depth conversations with only 140 characters per tweet.  Many Twitterers overcome this by posting their messages over multiple tweets.

2)      Some people tweet about really stupid things.  People who don’t use Twitter scratch up their faces and say, “why on earth would I want to know that my friend is standing in line at the checkout counter or that their dog just pee’d on the carpet?” …  And they’re right.  Those are inane conversations

3)       Some people Tweet about really interesting things.  Think of the Twitter-sphere as a worldwide bar or bistro, if you’d like, where the noise level is high, and many people are posturing to make a “score.”   Imagine what you might find:  two college kids are blathering on at the bar about nothing.  But you may also find that there’s a couple in the back booth who are engaged in a fascinating debate about one of your passions.  For all the stupid dialogue there are so many other intelligent conversations going on. 

Discerning the Inane from the Interesting

The trick is to find the compelling conversations.  That’s where search.twitter.com comes in so handy.  This simple tool allows you to search for the conversations that matter to you and find the kindred spirits who have your passion who share your passion. 

So I heard that people are giving up Facebook for Lent.  I’m not Catholic, so it isn’t something that I would ever have to contemplate doing myself, but I am in awe about the implications associated with this fact.  Any marketer worth his salt should take note.  This statement puts Facebook right up there with chocolate, TV, gambling, and gossip.  It reveals Facebook as a beloved activity that, to give up is truly a sacrifice.  Anyone who thinks that this is a fad or a fluke should reconsider that opinion immediately.

So what should marketers learn from this:

1.  Social Media is on its way to becoming mainstream.
2. If you serve a general target market, your consumers are there….therefore, you should be there.
3.  If you serve a very niche target market, your consumers might be there…therefore, you should consider being there.
4.  Other marketers are figuring out how to leverage all that traffic.  Shouldn’t you be a part of that?

 If you have a great social media story, we’d love to hear it. Leave your comments here! If you’d like to know more about how companies are interacting with Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or any of the other social media sites, please contact me.  New stories are being created every day!

Contributed by Rahna Barthelmess, Chief Marketing Strategist, Beacon Marketing

Anyone who has ever participated in a brainstorming event or worked on the high school dance committee knows this very simple truth, that two heads are always better than one.   The contributors to this blog have started this discussion because they believe that collaboration is one of the Top Ten Secrets of Digital Branding.  Each of us feels that 1+1+1+1 really does equal so much more than four.  Collaboration is a cornerstone to the digital world, underpinning such mastermind concepts as Wikipedia, that captures the world’s collective definition of all things and Amazon’s “ratings and recommendations” for music, movies, books and more.

As a Marketing Strategist, it’s my job to guide my clients in the development of the best, most business-building strategies available.  Collaboration is one strategy we always employ when developing massively successful marketing plans.  The tactics we use to execute those strategies are multitudinous.  Blogs, wikis, forums, message boards, rating systems all work to foster that collaboration.  And the beautiful thing about the digital world is that these many tools automate the collaboration process, which means that the collaboration process can go on…even when you are not there.

This blog is an example of one such automated tool.  Blogs are a place where you can start a conversation and have anyone jump in at any time of the day or night.  It provides a forum for listening to your consumers, an avenue for inspiration, and a way to connect with others who have similar interests, ideas, and investigations that they are undertaking.

We hope you will participate in our discussions here at this blog.  Our aim is to provide inspiration and practical advice on a variety of web-related topics.  All of the contributors of this blog have been involved with the web since its inception and have gained a great deal of expertise about how to market something on-line.  So what is your question?  Tell us what you want to know.  In the meantime, we’ll share some of our wisdom and pose questions about contemporary marketing issues.  Share your thoughts with us!  We’re eager to engage in conversation with you!

So here’s a question for today: While you’re reading this, ask yourself, “What am I doing to engage with my customers?  Who can I collaborate with to supercharge my customer’s business and my own business?”  Here are some idea starters:

• Ajacent categories: What else does my customer need that relates to my product or service, but does not directly compete with me?

• “Add-ons:” Are there other services or product enhancements that could provide partnership opportunities?

• Distribution Opportunities: Perhaps there are retailers or distributors that deliver your product or service to the end user that you could collaborate with.

• Passionate Consumers: There may be concentrated enthusiast groups that you could work with to deliver even more powerful consumer experiences.

• Employees: Are there some highly customer-oriented employees that you could tap into for even greater delivery of customer engagement and satisfaction?
  

These are just a few of the examples of collaboration that may inspire a new delivery mechanism for you, a new section of your website, or a new product opportunity.  Let us know what has worked for you (and what hasn’t!).  We want to know.