Below is an excerpt from blog post by the man behind @BPGlobalPR who does a much better job in pleading the case for humor as a powerful weapon in the social media arsenal. Please give it as well as the full post a read.

My name is Leroy Stick and I am the man behind @BPGlobalPR.  First, let me begin by explaining my name.

When I was growing up, there was a dog that lived on my block named Leroy.  Leroy was a big dog with a disdain for leashes and a thirst for blood.  He made a habit of running around our block attacking anything he saw, biting my dad and my dogs basically whenever he had the chance.  He chased me a few times, but I always escaped because I was/am an amazing tree climber.

Anyhoos, after Leroy’s second or third attack on my dogs, it became clear that the police and Leroy’s owner weren’t going to do anything to stop him, so my dad took matters into his own hands and came up with a brilliant invention: the Leroy stick.

The Leroy stick was, you guessed it, a stick.  My dad carried an axe handle and I carried a plunger handle.  My dad told me two things about carrying the Leroy stick.  First, if Leroy came near me or the dogs, I should hit him.  Second, if I hit Leroy with my stick, I would not get in trouble.  Was it legal?  Probably not.  Was it right?  It sure felt like it.  We set the example and soon a lot of our neighbors started carrying Leroy sticks as well.  Soon enough, Leroy and his owner saw everyone carrying sticks and Leroy didn’t run free anymore.

If you think the point of this story is to beat dogs with sticks, then I’m guessing you probably still think I work for BP as well.

The point of this story is that if someone is terrorizing your neighborhood, sometimes it’s alright to grab a stick and take a swing. Social media, and in this particular case Twitter, has given average people like me the ability to use and invent all sorts of brand new sticks. Read more…

To make a long story short – everyone’s Google results for a specific term, say the TV show “Lost” will be different when using real-time search. Everyone’s. This is because if you are selecting Latest Results, you’re jumping into the world of real-time which will include updates from Facebook and Twitter that are using those keywords. Check out this sample query for AT&T.

Notice anything? If you guessed that ‘sentiment is now reflected in Google results’ – you win. Who doesn’t win in this situation? AT&T. Regardless of what AT&T does with any of their PPC buys or SEO their search results page now is going to be trumped by sentiment in large part gathered from Social Media networks. And right now, sentiment towards AT&T is at almost an all-time low. If I were someone who was making a purchasing decision regarding a new cell phone, checking Google’s real-time search would certainly have an influence in that choice. And that’s big.

So where is this all going? Google is obviously looking to capitalize on the growth of social search. Will this make traditional search engine optimization less important in the world of real-time? As an advertiser, will I run into the possibility that a PPC Google Ad for my product will show up next to a Tweet that’s tearing it apart?

Check out this short video direct from Google.

This is one big example of why businesses NEED to be aware of what’s being said about them and engage with their customers on social networks. With Google now in the social search game (and with 70% of the search volume being done on Google), sentiment in real-time has the potential to make or break a brand.

Have you used real-time search yet? Will you? More importantly, what do you think this means for traditional SEO? Leave us a comment and let’s chat.

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.

Equitas, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Charlotte, North Carolina that exists to be the catalyst for grassroots movements focused on providing relief and advocacy in three primary areas: poverty, clean water, and HIV/AIDS. Currently Steven Cook, the founder of Equitas is in Malawi to oversee the construction of three new wells in three separate villages.

Over on the official Equitas blog, you can read about how Joe and Susan as well as Mike and Kelly Parsons got involved in the project starting with some interactions on Twitter and a simple cup of coffee. What a difference 10 minutes can make.

If you would like to get involved with Equitas or donate to one of their projects visit their website.