I’d like to respond to Keith’s comment, up above.

Keith, Seth is right. Hanging out on Twitter, Facebook and the other Soc. Networking sites can be a huge waste of valuable business time. Sometimes, it does turn into a “I have more FB friends than you,” or, “I am getting close to 2,000 followers-WOW!” kind of stuff. And?

We all like to feel that we are doing something constructive as we sit in front of our computer monitors “interacting” with others online.

The real question is whether or not we can connect with enough people who we can start a mutually beneficial relationship with. Even though Chris Brogans philosophy of giving and you shall receive sounds warm and fuzzy, and quite frankly IS warm and fuzzy, at the end of our crazed online days, unless we have something to show for all of this Social Networking stuff we are doing, then it IS a huge waste of time.

Interacting just to interact is an exercise in futility.

Seth is right on the money. What are we doing with our connections?

Because of things like Twitter, there are several people that I could call, and tell them that I will be in town, and need a place to crash, and their answer would be, “no problem, Joel. c’mon over.” {I think!}

The Franchise King
Joel Libava
Cleveland

Since you mentioned it, I think I’ll add my name to the online petition. PLEASE think about embed codes for AMEX Open.

Go beyond simply friending when connecting with people on the Internet – great advice. How many people connect on LinkedIn and never speak to each other again?

Leadership – Hire people you can trust and emplower them to do their job. “Let them be their own boss.”

Decency – Personally, I’ve found clients to be very forgiving when mistakes are madee provided we own up to them, are honest, and want to do the right thing.

Nobody cares about you – great advice for marketers and managers. People come to work to get value for them. They buy products because they want those products to “benefit” them. Want to get people to visit your web site? Don’t write about how great you are. Instead, write about what you can do to benefit them.

John P. Kreiss
MorganSullivan, Inc.
http://www.morgansullivan.com

No? Yea, while he might produce a good message, I just cannot consume it anymore since he’s unreachable and not engaged with his audience.

Seth Godin is one of my heroes and I think these videos are great, too. But one of them made me stop and say “wait a minute, what did he just say?!”

It’s the one titled “Social Networking – good for business?”
http://www.openforum.com/marketing/video_socialgood.html

I’ve watched it several times and I keep coming to the same conclusion: Mr. Godin implies that, for business, real connections can’t be made online through social networking sites, only “fake” connections.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what he’s saying. Please tell me if I am.

We all know that Facebook, twitter, MySpace, et al. can be hugely annoying and, yes, fake.

But the question was about *social networking and business*. And that’s a different story, I think, than making “friends” and keeping score for personal reasons.

It all comes down to relevancy. Is twitter the right marketing tool for a brick mason? Probably not. A brick mason’s customers (general contractors) likely aren’t looking for him on twitter.

I could be wrong about that. I don’t know. Just a guess.

On the other hand, if I were a retailer of hip urban wear, you bet your butt I’d be on twitter, linking to items of interest and posting the occasional exclusive coupons for my hipster twitter followers. Much like Amazon and Apple do now.

Then there’s Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library fame. He built his family wine shop into a $50 million dollar monster through tireless and often brilliant use of social media. That’s about as real as it gets in my book.

While I agree that collecting social networking “friends” may not do much for your business, it’s what you do with those “friends”–or potential and current customers–that matters. Not all of them will convert into real-world sales, but many could with the right touch. Again, it’s not easy, but it’s possible.

Admittedly, most of it is fake, but there’s some “real” in there too, and you can find it if you’re willing to experiment like Apple, Amazon, and Gary Vayerchuk.

Maybe I’m the one who is wrong. I don’t know. I’m just a little guy in the marketing world. He’s a giant. But the whole thing blew me away.

I encourage you to watch that one again.
http://www.openforum.com/marketing/video_socialgood.html

Did I misinterpret what he said? Is Seth Godin wrong about social networking and business?

Help!