Thanks for the reply and you make a really excellent point. In fact, it’s a point that to few SM experts make today. Not enough people are advocating the strategic uses of the right tool, all too often it’s just “here’s what’s new & cool and you should use it.” To many of these consultants, they would be talking to Monistat about how to use Twitter or FB or foursquare because to them, discussion groups or blog posts are old school. The big message I try to drive is that we need to stop the “new vs old” battle and focus on what you said — “This isn’t jumping on any particular bandwagon, but realizing we need to be responsive to their needs in order to provide the best client service we know how to provide.”

When I started my career, nobody — and I mean NOBODY — had a microcomputer on his desk. At the publisher I was working for, I was first: an Apple II+

(If you like, you can read more about what I did here: http://misterthorne.org/?page_id=479)

When I saw possibilities, others saw nothing. Nothing, that is, until the IBM PC came along running VisiCalc. That was a real game changer.

Once PCs starting getting popular, it was no longer only hobbyists, enthusiast, devotees and such with an interest in the gizmos.

The suits showed up.

Then, 15 years later, the Mac and the LaserWriter hit the scene, and I jumped into the desktop publishing revolution.

(You can read what I did here if you like: http://misterthorne.org/?page_id=488)

Suits didn’t take so long to show up. Heck, they were in on it.

Now everyone (OK, some) are crazed with excitement over Twitter, and what strikes me about it as so different from those earlier revolutions is this: the money men are in the lead. By far, most of what I find on Twitter is some sort of an ad: read what I wrote; buy what I sell, etc.

And that makes Twitter much less of a social media tool, than a new form of billboard.

Hang on, Nancy. Just about everyone but the Ted Kaczynskis out there will get on board when it’s time. There’s really no rush. Phones still work; so does e-mail. For most of us, Twitter can wait.

As you said – “Many worlds exist in between the three I mentioned”

What is revolutionary is the speed & breadth of our ability to communicate. We’re no longer required to stand on the street corner handing out our pamphlets to get our messages across. And the most important thing to remember about communicating to your audience is that you should communicate in the language that they speak. You’ll be just as hard pressed to reach my Mom on SM as you might be to reach a college student with an ad in a national magazine.

And nothing against them, but there are just some brands that we don’t want to be social with? Would you follow a brand like Monistat? Would you friend them on FB? What would you think if they suddenly started following you or requested to be your FB friend?

And despite the “relationship” discussions around SM, I still think that most brands are using SM as a different way to broadcast. I can barely keep up with the 2200 or so people that I follow, how can a brand follow thousands? And I still question whether or not most brands really want to have a conversation with the consumers. I think that it’s really a lot of back & forth listening more then anything else.

Without a doubt, as has happened in the past, there will be some people that don’t see the new tools and don’t know what to do with them. People were against the Gutenberg Press. But I’m also concerned with the broad generalizations that people put on SM. The truth be told, it’s like any other tactic that people can bring to the table.

At the heart of it, brands need to create compelling, authentic and relevant brand experiences to engage their audience. Once they’ve done that, then it’s much easier to find the right way to engage their audience.