Bernie and Ryan share 5 big ideas reinforced at the SXSW interactive conference.

This will be the first in a series of interviews we’ll be conducting this year with folks who are leveraging the power of social networks as a part of their overall marketing strategy. Enjoy the videos.

Part I – Connections to Contact

How is your business implementing social as part of its overall marketing or communications strategy? Leave us a comment.

image from Toothpaste for Dinner

Everyone keeps talking about Twitter. Love it or hate it, it’s a really powerful tool to connect to people around the world.  And like lots of new technologies it has its spammers, its haters, and a huge group of people who just don’t understand how it can connect them to the global conversation that’s happening in 140 character chunks.

I was reading an article from Leonard Pitts whose columns I usually really enjoy. Except for this one. Here’s a quick excerpt:

“In the ’90s, you often heard people complain of how memoir writers and afternoon talk shows had turned our public spaces into a communal confessional, intimate secrets once necessary for whispering now shouted into the ether like an order at a fast-food joint. Ten years later, we are not just sharing secrets; we are sharing lives. And not the good parts, either, but the banal, the mundane, the everyday. I’m darned if I can see the fascination.  I mean, I’m not surprised that technology allows this. But I am surprised that people — by the thousands — buy in to it.”

Originally, the headline on the front page of Twitter was ‘What are you doing?’ – and this is where I think Mr. Pitts as well as tons of other people get lost. While it’s true that some people tweet about what they had for breakfast, the weather, and AT&T (ouch) – most of the conversation out there has to do with sharing information from cool links, to business tips, to raising awareness and funds.

It’s a tool.  You can use a hammer to help someone build a house, build your own house, break windows, or wave it around like a crazy person. There’s no set of instructions that dictate the one way to use it.

We’ve been telling clients who have questions about Twitter that it’s like a cocktail party. Tons of people milling around that may be there to network, talk about their passions, news, or even pass a couple of business cards around. You can enter and exit many conversations over the course of an evening, exchanging contact info, insights, and come away with new friends or customers. Like a cocktail party, you decide which conversations to enter.  Same with Twitter.

I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with some really great people, businesses and brands sharing expertise, links, laughs and kind words.  Brands like JetBlue, Comcast, as well as clients of ours such as JAY-K and Saranac are also using it to connect with customers, solve problems and spread the word about promos and events. I should also mention that JETNET and Rejuvenate! Med Spa (both clients) have also recently joined the Twitterverse. If you’re on Twitter, please give them a follow too as we have some big ideas planned for them.

So, when someone like Leonard Pitts says “I am not that interesting. No one is,” – he’s dead wrong.

It can be overwhelming, we know.  Make no mistake, there are right ways and wrong ways to use Twitter.  If you want a starting point, follow our agency on Twitter. If you feel like you want a crash course or just some help in figuring out if Twitter could be a valuable tool for your business, drop us a line – everyone at the office has their own Twitter account -  or better yet, send us a tweet.

More info:

Official Ryan Montbleau Site

E-bay Auction Page

We’ve always prided ourselves on embracing the latest in communications tools and strategies, and finding ways to reach more people more effectively for our clients. We’ve been helping them market themselves for over 35 years, and online since 1996, back when the only profitable websites featured gambling or pornography. Fortunately things have changed, and we’re also reaching larger audiences by engaging them interactively through social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. Customers spend more time online (poker players notwithstanding) and put more of their trust in the information they find there, and we’re guiding our clients to control the conversation more effectively as active participants. As we continue to grow our clients’ and our own online business, we are proud to welcome Ryan Miller, an experienced social media specialist, to our team.

Ryan will be devoting himself full-time to providing our clients and agency with meaningful, targeted and effective online branding and promotions. An admitted web and social media addict, Ryan joins us at a point of critical shift in the global, and local, economy. Businesses are seeing a significant change in how their target audiences gather information on planned purchases and seek out products. They are starting and ending their searches online, seeking out the opinions of friends and fellow consumers along the way. As Ryan works every day within the social media landscape, he will be finding more and better ways for our clients to survive and thrive. He also plays a mean guitar, which is pretty handy after-hours. Welcome to the new frontier.