We have seen the rise and fall of social media personalities, the introduction of new platforms and myriad changes to the large and familiar networks like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Youtube and LinkedIn. We scramble to stay abreast of the advances and to understand how they will impact our clients’ efforts to build business. There are so many times when I sit back, frustrated, wondering why the world is moving so fast. And how we can ever keep up.

Social is everywhere.

Social media has played a huge part in the political uprisings across the globe and in our ability to observe and share the stories that resonate. Social tools enable businesses and organizations to market, promote, hire, learn and grow. Social media allows non-profits to communicate with supporters, raise funds and educate the public. Individuals are using social tools in just about every way imaginable and some in ways we might not have imagined.

In Northwest Ohio the use of social media continues to grow and to evolve. 2011 was the year we brought the first Exploring Social Media Business Summit to town, a high level social media and digital marketing training led by industry expert, Jason Falls. It was the year we had our first local TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference, with the very successful introduction of TEDxBGSU. The University of Toledo’s Third Annual Internet Marketing Conference included national speakers and experts Christopher Penn and Joe Pulizzi.

In Northwest Ohio, non-profit organizations like Unison Behavioral Health Group, United Way and Food for Thought have incorporated social tactics into their public awareness and volunteer organizing campaigns. Our traditional electronic and print media have embraced Twitter and Facebook in their daily communications. Small businesses across Northwest Ohio have begun to experiment with social networking. New blogs have been introduced and forums created. This is encouraging news for a region that still has many businesses and organizations who lack a basic internet presence.

I love it. I love the ever changing nature of our online social world. I love the excitement of trying to stay abreast of the newest sites, the updates, changes and additions. I am endlessly fascinated by the growth and evolution of the space and the incredible knowledge I gain from the people I connect with in social media. I am equally fascinated and troubled by the dark side of social media and watch it closely as it too evolves and grows.

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the number of social networks, blogs, monitoring tools and related technology. Learning to understand them, to use them effectively, to be able to explain them to clients and prospects feels like a full time job. Today, social media is just one aspect of our vibrant, growing and interconnected online world. Today’s marketing and PR professionals must be comfortable, if not proficient, in related specialties like search engine optimization, online ad placements in Google and Facebook, working within WordPress, editing video and so much more. New tools are introduced almost daily.

And yet. The world remains unchanged in its dependence on human relationships. On people connecting with other people and sharing the things that matter to them. Social media enhances this immutable fact. So, as we move through the last few hours of 2011, let’s celebrate the close of a turbulent year filled to overflowing with change and excitement. And, let’s look forward to growth we will all enjoy in 2012.

See you in the social space!

Earlier this week, in a discussion with a local businessman about the power and benefits of social networking, I did a search in Google for my name. My site and blog came up as did my profiles in LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Posterous. No sign of my Facebook fan page. My fan page is relatively new and I use it to share information about using social media for business. I share links to the posts others have written, I ask questions often and occasionally get responses from my 324 fans. I share the rare posts from my own blog. I started my fan page deliberately so that I would have personal experience with the positives and negatives of maintaining a Facebook page for my social media consulting business.

So I searched on a former client’s name. No Facebook fan page. Yet he has a carefully tended page with thousands of fans and his page used to come early in results from a search on his name. I then searched for Coca Cola; a well known brand with an extremely popular page. No fan page. I started to ask questions, first surreptitiously and then openly. I have tweeted, emailed and posted and no one seems to have an answer. Yet. Some of my friends offer the opinion that Google has, once again, changed its algorithms and that explains it. Or have posited that the inclusion of real-time search has changed how pages come up in search now. An SEO expert explained that I needed to write my posts differently using my page name within the post so that Google would read it and include it.

That may be the answer. We’ll see. Feels a bit awkward to include that language but it’s worth trying. However, that doesn’t explain why it used to come up and now doesn’t. My fan page, Allen Mireles Social Media Consulting or http://facebook.com/amsocialmediaconsulting, shows up in a search from within Facebook. As does my former client’s and Coca Cola’s. From outside of Facebook, however, not so much. My fan page shows up on page two of a Yahoo! search on my name (it didn’t yesterday) so that’s something. But what changed? And how much does it matter?

Oh wait! A Bing search on my name yields three references to my Facebook fan page on page one of the results. Has my fan page become a victim of dueling search engines?

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions? What am I missing here?

If you liked this post, please share it with your networks. Follow me on Twitter or find me on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Early morning thoughts about social media marketing, PR and strong coffee…

Tuesday, May 12, 2009. This morning I’m thinking about people’s reactions to Twitter. Last week I used LinkedIn to promote an upcoming event in our area and was surprised at some of the negative responses I received. On Thursday, May 14th, I will be speaking to the Association of Women in Communications about effective use of Twitter for business. I received several sarcastic and dismissive responses; messages filled with criticism of Twitter and denigrating its value.

Twitter, a micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read text based updates of 140 characters or less, seems to elicit passionate responses from people. It is alternately praised to the skies as the fastest growing and most powerful tool in social media or as a fad and the most over-hyped topic of conversation. My experience is been positive and I recommend Twitter as an effective tool for business.

I joined Twitter in December of 2007. I have been in business for myself and using the Internet to market and communicate since the early 1990’s. When I joined Twitter I had been involved in social networking and social bookmarking, fascinated by its potential for business use and interested in trying something new and different. However, I didn’t understand Twitter at all, found it really confusing and left almost the same day. It made me feel silly.

Several months later I returned to Twitter and began to follow people who were passionate about it. I read everything I could find including an advance copy of Twitter Revolution by Deborah Micek and Warren Whitlock. I experimented with tweeting and started developing relationships and having conversations with other Twitter users. It took several weeks for me to feel comfortable in the Twitterverse and several months to feel like I had a handle on how to use Twitter effectively.

So my voice is one in the chorus singing Twitter’s praises. I use Twitter for business as a tool for:

• Building my online presence
• Networking
• Communication
• Fundraising
• Customer service
• New business development
• Research
• Reputation management
• Monitoring industry trends

I also use Twitter for fun and have met people from all over the world who are morphing from Twittermates to close friends in real life. I have introduced it to clients, colleagues, friends and family; I have watched with amusement and pleasure as many of them have discovered the power and the magic for themselves. Just this morning I discovered one client’s tweet listed on Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop.com (a site that aggregates all the top stories from sites across the Internet). This client is someone who only started using Twitter about six weeks ago. Now she is gaining major attention for her brand through her use of Twitter.

Are you using Twitter? What’s your take on it?

Thanks to Randa Clay Design for the Twitter image. Visit her site for free downloads of Twitter graphics.

The Association of Women In Communication’s May luncheon will be held Thursday, May 14th, from 11:30-1PM at The Waterford at Levis Commons. Contact Melanie Allen today to RSVP.