It’s the time of the year when we all get reflective about the things we’re grateful for, and as such, I thought I’d highlight four (4) of the social media-related items we should all be thankful for:

1. Social Media Itself:  For those of us that remember it, “social media” used to be a handwritten note sent across a classroom, or a letter mailed to a loved one who was many miles away.  In both those cases, we learned what the phrase “waiting with anticipation” meant, but in today’s rapidly moving high-tech environment, both activities are now a thing of the past.  We now have the capabilities to talk to and view people through video chatting on Skype, keeping up with friends and loved ones through Facebook, and for those brave few early adopters and innovators: Use the social media space to grow and promote our companies.  Families are able to stay connected during the holidays in a way that was unheard of 20 years ago.  Old friends and misplaced loved ones are able to find each other after years of searching, and savvy entrepreneurs are continually looking for new and exciting ways to engage our stakeholders by taking advantage of the widespread popularity of social interaction on the Web.  Look at how far we’ve come in the past 10 years: AMAZING!
2. Social Media Tools:  Applications like Tweetdeck and HootSuite make using social media more manageable.  In fact, having the ability to manage multiple profiles, bulk schedule messages, and track and monitor my social media efforts has made me LOVE my HootSuite Pro account to the point where I can’t imagine what my social media management life was like before it!
3. Social Media Studies:  The Center for Marketing Research at UMass Dartmouth unveiled in its latest study “2011 Fortune 500 and Social Media Adoption: Have America's Largest Companies Reached a Social Media Plateau?” that there appears to be a leveling off of social media use among the most powerful companies in the U.S., thus implying that this may have indications for smaller businesses who take their cues from them.  The Center being in the rare position of conducting multi-year longitudinal and statistically significant insights into the growth of these exciting new technologies has an excellent viewpoint based on their past benchmarking surveys of corporate social media usage.  As more time passes, we’ll all be thankful for studies like these, because as business owners, they’ll work to highlight the almighty “ROI” (Return On Investment) that a lot of late adopters need to see before jumping on the “social media bandwagon”.  Read more about this study here: http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesandresearch/2011fortune500/
4. Your Own Personal Social Media Specialist (Kindra Cotton): It is a joy for me to be able to provide helpful information and advice to people that need it.  I appreciate being able to utilize my social networking and technical skills to help make Technology & Social Media less threatening and easier to understand.  It is my pleasure to serve you, thus feel free to get in touch with me and let me know how I can help you get your Social Media Covered!

Rejoice and Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!

What are you grateful for this year?

 

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

4 Social Media-Related Things to Be Happy About This Thanksgiving!