OK- so here is a little story-

Through a relationship with Central Maine Medical Center, we have a client,  Patrick Dempsey. Yes THE Patrick Dempsey.  Dr. Mc Dreamy. He has a new ‘Event’ he is promoting in October-  see  the Dempsey Challenge website for details.

While looking on Twitter to see if there has been any tweets related to Patrick Dempsey- I ran across a reporter in Florida  (Christi  Knight at WPFB  @Twochix1) who was going to interview Patrick regarding his  Car Race in Florida.

She tweeted “Does anyone have a question that they would like to ask Patrick?”

Jumping on an opportunity and a little experiment- I suggested she ask about his “Other Race”, the Dempsey Challenge!

, and Mc Dreamy

And what do you think happened?
She asked the question – and here is the TV Clip so you can see it for yourself!

Now, that in itself is NO BIG DEAL- considering anyone can do it- the DEAL is that there wouldn’t have been the opportunity to get the Dempsey Challenge mentioned in this interview as well as Patrick to have a chance to plug it in the clip if it had not been for Twitter!

Thanks Christi!

Thank you, Patrick!

Twitter and Social Networking WORKS-  Real World Example!

Everybody is abuzz about social media these days.  For those whom are new to social media or don’t really know what it is, consider this post a bit of a primer.

What is social media?

It has because such a buzz word that gets injected into conversation, it is even a somewhat elusive term to define.  We are going to stick to the most simple definition we can.  Social media is the use of technology (mostly internet technology) to allow folks to publish content (text, images, or video mostly) that encourages interaction with others.

How is it different than traditional media?

In comparison to traditional media outlets (such as television, radio and print) there are numerous differences.

• Speed: traditional media can take hours, days, even months to republish, social media is near instant
• Permanence: once created traditional media can not change, social media can change at will
• Threshold to publish: it takes training and money to publish via traditional mediums, social media is usually free and simple
• Credibility: traditional media has much more credibility and accountability

In some respects they are similar, a blog post may not be read by anybody, it may be read by millions.  A TV show may never be watched by anybody, or by the millions.

What are some examples?

I think examples are some of the best ways to learn

• wordpress: a blogging platform
• flickr: a photo sharing site
• twitter: a micro blogging platform
• facebook: site to share content with your friends
• youtube: a video sharing site
• wikipedia: a community driven encyclopedia
• digg: voting for popular news
• delicious: link sharing and bookmarking

But how can I use it?

If you are thinking, this is cute and all, but my time is precious, how do I use this to benefit myself, then this section is for you.

Social media can save you time.  When you need to get the word out about something, a new product, service, or sale, it can be much faster to publish your information in one place and let everybody read that, instead of having to tell a bunch of people.  Imagine if you are having a sale, you could via word of month, tell 200 people about your sale.  That will take you a few hours and may span several days.  If you have 200 people following you on twitter, it takes about 1 minute and it’s instant.

Social media can help you educate your customers.  Lets say you offer three services, snow removal, landscaping, and trash removal.  Lets say that 1/3 of your business comes from each service and you don’t have very many overlapping customers that use more than one service.  By publishing various social media items, you can showcase your work to your customers that may only use one aspect of your business or didn’t even know you did more than one thing.

Social media can help you to find new business.  By publishing your insights, views and work examples for the world to see, potential customers will see your abilities and you can increase they likely hood to use you in the future.

Where can I read more?

• In tough times, businesses use social networking via wabi.tv
• Social Media on Wikipedia

This is the first in a many part series about social media.  Stay tuned for more.

I read in TIME Magazine that the future in Newspapers lies in the public accepting to pay for the news.

They call it Micro-payments cuz they will be real small and hopefully we won’t notice the hit in our wallets sin e it will be billed to a credit card like iTunes.  Infact, iTunes was the inspiration!

The author cited that the high costs of production including the journalists,and photogs costs are increasing so some one has to foot the bill.

Don’t TV stations have the same dilemma? Do we pay for the news in that format?

Micro-payments shmicro-babble. That’s what that is. Don’t fall for it and more importantly don’t pay for it!

Like Agent Mulder used to say “the truth is out there”. Well so is the news and you shouldn’t have to pay to get it. It is the Free press anyway. Right?

Now Paying for something that you want or need is still reality-

Ya can’t get somethin’ for nuttin’, as they say

and in this world of ‘economization’ and down-sizing, what is wrong with smaller payments-  As far as paying for what you use or as you go- then a Micro-Payment for a different kind of subscription or service may not be a bad idea-

I guess my only beef is paying for hearing or reading about something that is public knowledge and is readily available from other outlets.

Hey-  what about micro-payments at restaurants-  A Micro-Payment based on the size of the serving you get-  If wallets ruled the waist line- maybe our bottom lines would be fatter at the end of the month.