Jeff Cutler – columns, essays and opinions

Talk to a normal human and ask them how much of their day-to-day activity is controlled by Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools. They’ll likely back away from you slowly while offering you a nice tinfoil hat to wear.

This response isn’t because you’re crazy – or because anyone who leverages, relies on or works solely with social media is foolish or ill-informed. It’s because a lot of the world still doesn’t pay attention to or understand the ways in which social media tools can be used.

I usually tell a story during my SPJ trainings. It pertains to how everyone should approach Twitter…with no expectations. This is because you can never tell if anyone is listening before you foist a message upon them. The story goes like this…

One day in Boston, a couple friends and I decided to go get coffee after filming an episode of NomX3. We thought that Starbucks made good coffee and agreed to walk to the local ‘Bucks for a cuppa. While walking down the street, I Tweeted out “Going to Starbucks near Borders in Downtown Crossing – join us!” That message got one taker and the gentleman who saw it showed up and we all enjoyed marvelous conversation and beverages.

But the point of this man’s appearance was what he told us when he showed up.

“Guys,” he said. “I almost missed your message. I had Twitter open on my screen and had just gotten back to my desk after lunch when I saw your Tweet. A few seconds later and I would have never known you were here.”

To that point, a few seconds earlier and he wouldn’t have known either. And that proves my point. Which is….

Twitter and many other tools are haphazard in how they engage people. If you are not already having a direct conversation with them, Twitter often fails as an information-sharing tool. You can’t depend on it to share your message with all your followers because at no one time are all of your followers paying attention to your missives. Not everyone gets that.

Not even Leo Laporte. He of the mini media empire. He of the 24-hours-a-day podcast network simply didn’t understand that what he experienced this week was exactly how social media behaves all the time. And the fact that he didn’t know how social media works really scared me.

But then I turned the lens on myself. I have expectations that are also out of whack. I need new tires. I know a guy who runs the Twitter account for Sullivan Tire. I sent them a note either earlier today (August 23) or yesterday (August 22) announcing that I’d be going to their Nashua store on August 24 for new tires and other work. And I asked for their help. Take a look at this picture taken at 10:30PM on August 23.

If you can’t read the tiny type, their most recent tweet was on August 18 – FIVE DAYS AGO!

What that shows all of us is that even companies that believe in social media either fall down on the job or come to the realization that they can’t be online all the time. Sadly, all it takes is the one missed Tweet or the missed engagement to put a chink in the social media trust I had in that brand.

I’m still going to get my tires and my brakes and even my oil changed. But I’ll probably be more hesitant to share Sullivan Tire’s Twitter address now that I know they let days go by without any engagement.

Worse are the companies that get into social media and then back off. These are the firms that went whole hog into Facebook and Twitter and started offering specials and events and then decided that since it wasn’t working they were done conversing with customers. That’s idiocy.

Take Summer Shack for instance. I was excited to go there for dinner tonight (and we did go – and spent $70 by the way). But before we went I hopped over to their Facebook and Twitter pages to see if they could save us a seat at the bar and if they were offering specials.

Not since July 14 (Twitter) and May 21 (Facebook) had they conversed using these media.

So, what’s that mean for social media? What’s that mean for consumers? What’s that mean for businesses? A lot. With the proper education, there are companies and brands that are selling more products and making more money than ever because they are reaching out to consumers using these tools. There are also legions of consumers who have moved away from traditional information sources and now rely on the Web and social media to inform them of deals, events and happenings in their physical community. And these same folks are focused on only buying from companies that have a social media presence.

It’s a new kind of activism I suppose. Where you might have only bought milk from the guy who had the farm in your hometown, you know only buy groceries from the shopkeeper who shares coupons online. And you might only get your tires at the place that would give you 10% off when you Tweeted their name. And you might only eat at the sushi place that shares its specials on Facebook.

I’m not saying this revolution is full-fledged or that it will have a significant impact tomorrow or the next day. But we’re moving to a time when the business that ignores communication channels will get left behind because its competition will understand that online works, and works well.

Social media might be about timing, in fact it often is. But I believe the time for social media is now. I just hope the brands I liked before are listening.

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Tags: Boston, communication, consumers, content, Facebook, jeff, jeffrey cutler, Leo Laporte, social media trainer, sullivan tire, summer shack, twit, twitter

Gabe Norris is in charge of the Columbus Clippers’ Facebook page. To that end, he has to put up with loud, righteous and annoying folks like me.

I’m in Columbus Ohio to perform some social media training for the journalists at the Columbus Dispatch. While I was planning the trip, I got it in my head that I should have some local beer and see some local baseball. That’s where social media comes in.

Instead of going to my phone and calling the Clippers’ ticket office, I started shouting to the team in Twitter -they’re at @clbclippers if you want to follow. But I quickly got annoyed.

It turns out that the team only uses Twitter to broadcast their Facebook statuses. That immediately irked me because my mantra when I train businesses is to make it easy for anyone to contact you. The Clippers were forcing me to bend to their communication choice, not mine.

So I went off. I tweeted like mad – madly – to my 6000 followers about how I might as well go see a play or sit in my hotel room and pout.

Needless to say, the Tweeple were divided.

“Just call them,” said some.

“Boycott!” said others.

But the balance told me not to waste a great night in Columbus and try the Facebook Fan Page. It worked.

In merely an hour, Gabe Norris had been in touch and we came to an understanding. Facebook works for the team. They’ve got almost 7000 fans (now including me) and they’re running regular Facebook nights at Huntington Stadium.

So what’s the big reveal? Gabe told me he was leaving a ticket for me at will-call. So now I’m sitting in the park fostering a bromance for Gabe and being astonished at this amazing ballpark.

Did you know that Huntington Park beat out all new baseball stadiums in 2009 according to Baseball America?

I walked in the gate and I immediately got permagrin. And I’ve been to 30+ pro ball stadiums.

Now what? First pitch is 25 minutes away and I’m gonna get some food and keep on smiling.

Mostly because my fun night, just beginning, was made possible because one organization paid attention to the power of social media.

What’s your favorite social media success story?

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Tags: @jeffcutler, AAA, baseball, columbus clippers, Facebook, twitter

Have you ever had to edit a Word doc with a group of committee members? If so, you know that by the time you get the original document back, it’s every color under the rainbow and all shred of continuity has been extinguished.

That’s usually the power of collaborative tools. And that’s why there are so many jokes about large committees not being able to accomplish anything.

In fact, there’s a town north of Boston where the school committee chair allows everyone from the crossing guard to the custodian to give their thoughts on policy before making a decision. In that hamlet, the meetings regularly go for 90 minutes longer than scheduled and it’s taken them years to agree on topics as menial as school naming procedure.

But I digress. Technology now makes it possible – and has made it possible for years – for large groups to work together without being at the same table or even in the same hemisphere, and actually accomplish real work.

These tools, on display at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference at the Westin Waterfront Hotel this week, are proving to be the lifeblood of doing more work with fewer staffers.

For example, RollStream has a product that allows companies to build networks like Facebook for their clients. Essentially, the software creates a closed social network where teams can work together online, safely and easily.

Also at the show is a company called ThoughtFarmer. They’ve created a tool that’s used internally at companies for collaboration and information exchange. One interesting way people are using this software is to put up company alerts, HR info, and other internal forms and data – all inside the walls of the firm and presumably safe from prying external eyes.

Walking around the exhibit floor, I saw a dozen companies with similar products and that made me realize it might be the wave of the future. But why?

I think it’s got the promise of financial savings and ease of use. People are increasingly comfortable sharing their updates on Twitter and LinkedIn and Facebook, so why not leverage that familiarity to create tools that work the same way at the office?

Are we hearing the bell toll for shipping, hard media forms like CDs and DVDs, and for business travel?

Well, products will still have to be shipped and people will still want to look at larger documents in hard-copy (architectural drawings, etc.). But as these tools get more popular, we are going to see fewer people jetting around the world to sit in a room with a useless committee. We’ll see less spending on shipping if people can just click and see a product or contribute their thoughts. And we’ll continue to see companies tightening their belts on resources.

One can only wonder what’s going to happen to conferences like this one when everyone finally buys into distance learning and collaboration. Why would you ever need to go anywhere to be AT a conference if you could be there just by sitting down at your desk?

What’s your take on new media tools for business? Are you marketing, collaborating and interacting only on line these days?

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Tags: collaborative tools, distance learning, enterprise 2.0, Facebook, Jeff Cutler, technology

In a couple pieces I read in today’s Boston Globe, writers talked about social media tools in the same way in which reporters – me included – pontificate about other subjects.

A recent feature I wrote for Gatehouse Media allowed me to instruct readers on how to shop for their next television set and what they should know about the pending digital conversion in mid February. But the only reason I could act as an expert was because I had done my homework. In at least one of the two articles I read today, the author didn’t seem to have spent a lot of time with the technology he was explaining.

Specifically, Facebook. The piece – Perspective – in the Boston Globe Magazine, was written by staff writer Neil Swidey. His contention, based on his own experience and an interview with a Stanford lab director who has a book on Facebook coming out, is that once you’ve made contact with someone on the site, you’re forever linked.

Swidey also says “Facebook can also hamper our ability to manages social contacts.”

My problem with the column is that it is as superficial as the media tool it purports to explain.

Facebook, IMO, is a place where you can (but don’t have to) connect with people. It’s a place where you can (but don’t have to) pay attention to other people who have sought your friendship via this new media tool. And Facebook is a place where you can (but don’t have to) spend/waste a lot of time.

I’ll even say that Facebook can be valuable in maintaining connections on a social and even a professional level. That’s where it stops. Facebook is only a tool. Just as Instant Messaging is as intrusive or benign as you want it to be, you need to maintain and take control for your actions and interactions with the people who are listed as your friends.

Why isn’t there such angst about a very similar social media tool – LinkedIn? It’s because there are societal and professional norms in place. People have taken responsibility to police the people with whom they connect. You can do the same thing on Facebook, but many people choose not to.

When trying to explain the two sites/tools to a business colleague the other day, I said, “LinkedIn is for the people with whom you want to have a professional relationship with. Facebook is for bar talk, sharing gossip, personal news and arranging parties.”

If you don’t like someone, block or unfriend them. Don’t feel, as Swidey says, “That’s not the way it works here.”

That’s EXACTLY how it works here. Take some responsibility for your own destiny and follow and interact with the people you choose. If you don’t have time for someone, don’t pay attention to them. The beauty of Facebook is that you can do that without blatantly hurting anyone’s feelings.

Finally, to the Stanford lab director’s contention (his name is B.J. Fogg) that “If I say yes to someone I haven’t talked to in 20 years, it dilutes my ability to create tighter relationships with those who really matter to me” I say you’re out of your tree. The two are mutually exclusive. If I say hi to someone on the street, it doesn’t preclude my ability to say hi to and even have a long conversation with the next person I see on the street.

I hope Fogg’s book has a bit more insight than Swidey was able to glean for his column.

And like Swidey, I don’t think that my opinions of Facebook – or of Swidey’s one column and Fogg’s misperceptions – should hinder my relationships with people I see as friends. If you’re on my list, you already know how I roll.

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Find me on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Pownce, Utterli, Jaiku, Flickr, Qik and about 50 other social media sites as jeffcutler. Or just google my name. That would be the friendly thing to do.

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Tags: B.J. Fogg, boston globe, Facebook, Jeff Cutler, Neil Swidey, reporting, social media, Stanford