Facing Facebook
Just checked Twitter, where @armano says: ”Clearly Facebook is pissed at Foursquare for grabbing all the headlines. That’s what I think all these changes are really about.”
Are we personally tight with our social media channels or what?
How many of us wrestle with our own childish whining when Facebook makes changes? How much blog ink and comment cyberspace is devoted to the sheer effrontery of Facebook mucking with our lives like that? Policy updates. Manipulating formats. Changing Fans into Connections.
We love and hate Facebook with unprecedented devotion. What channel for communications has ever commanded such slavish bonds with its users?
Make no mistake about it: Facebook’s method of interconnection is the ride we’re hitching into the future. The genius of it will shape tomorrow.
How? Take a look at what’s happening today.
Anyone with even a casual schedule of Facebook browsing knows how simply dear the experience can be.
Anyone who visits daily knows its power to strengthen compassion and connectivity.
Anyone who gives Facebook any attention will experience shocks of recognition. Oh! This is my Friend! This is my Life! Here’s my community!
That kind of positive return is not likely to be superseded any time soon.
Far, and also near
Are you selling locally? Is your market defined by a geographic area? If so, are you tuned into your LBSNs?
That’s what my amazing social media marketing teacher calls them. Sites that celebrate and offer opportunities for local businesses are location-based social networks, or LBSNs. Yelp.com; FourSquare; Open Table; Groupon; Loopt and the like.
It’s fun learning about these multiple channels that truly help bridge the communications gap for brick-and-mortar enterprises. It’s a thrill to examine the brass tacks of what social media is becoming for Main Street. I work with these people, the small businesses who are the lifeblood of all commerce.
It’s also a remarkable privilege to receive these teachings through Craig Cannings of VAclassroom.com. The guy is nothing short of brilliant, as an observer and even more as a teacher. The sheer volume of info he conveys digitally is awesome in itself; but the efficiency as well as sensitivity with which it’s delivered is especially rare.
I interviewed Craig for the Virtual Assistant Forums a while ago, if you’d like to read more about him.
Isn’t it divine? Through the guidance of a guru from across the continent, I’m brought closer to businesses in my own community.
