Is Twitter the New Canary in the Coal Mine?

Overused analogy aside, it is a fair question: Is Twitter the latest version of an early warning system that can tip a business that trouble – monumentally big trouble – is right around the bend?

While legions of businesses are finding ways to use social media in their communications and marketing and top advertisers are rapidly moving to Facebook, the number of executive skeptics reveals too large a number of leaders stuck at the starting line.

According to a new survey by Minnesota-based Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law, 80 percent of executives surveyed agreed that SMM has the potential to help improve customer relationships and corporate reputations. However, half said they fear social media could be detrimental to employee productivity, and 49 percent believe that using SMM could damage company reputation.

Those companies surveyed who are not using social media say they are not using SMM primarily because of concerns about confidentiality or security issues (40%), employee productivity (37%) or simply not knowing enough about it (51%).

Those are not insurmountable issues and should not be a barrier to bring the benefits of social media to your organization.

If you’re among the businesses still afraid to take the plunge, here’s a suggestion of how to stick your toe in the water (and how I’ll weave in the Canary – Coal Mine theme): Use Twitter, Facebook and Technorati to search for your company. You might be surprised what you read and you could find the next business or reputation crisis brewing without your knowledge.

Need a case study of how to use SMM as a reputation tool, look no further than the US Air Force. Public Affairs officers tracked public opinion - real time - on Twitter after an Air Force One photo-op over lower Manhattan sent people running into the streets fearing another 9/11 style attack was underway.

In short order, military officials quickly and correctly assessed the situation to have moved from a public relations coup to a PR disaster based on the comments of New Yorkers posted on Twitter and other social network sites. If the Air Force had only used traditional tools, they would have been far behind the public opinion curve and ill-equipped to deal with the heat the fly-over generated.

Once you discover there’s a whole conversation about you going on without you, chances are you’ll leap into SMM, too.

Come on in, the water – and coal mine - is fine, even if the metaphors are mixed.

Need to know more about how you can and should use social media, send me an email at james.lee@c2m2a.com or visit my Web site for more information.

Why Can't Old (Media) Dogs Learn New (Media) Tricks?

Time Warner is casting AOL out onto the street by the end of the year. News Corp’s MySpace has seen traffic and revenue decline so fast the site has gone from “Who’s Who” to “What’s That?”

Why is it that traditional media companies have such a difficult time with new media properties?
Ten years ago Ted Turner said the merger of AOL and Time Warner was “better than sex.” Rupert Murdoch, upon buying MySpace in 2005 said “young people don't want to rely on a God-like figure from above to tell them what's important.”

There were both right and both wrong.

Both companies hyped the value of new media, then promptly tried to run them like their other media properties, where change is predicable and innovation glacial.

Time Warner milked the AOL dial-up service cow for all it’s worth, finally hitting on a money making strategy to own separately branded, ad supported destinations like MapQuest, Moviephone and Engadget.

MySpace, once the highest flying of the social network sites (and still the highest revenue producer) is seeing traffic and ad revenue decline and shift to rivals Facebook and Twitter almost as fast as users can type 140 characters.

MySpace is still the destination of choice for the young and the restless, but not so much for adults who have discovered the power of social networks. MySpace traffic fell 2% in April 2009 compared to 2008. Facebook traffic grew 89% over the same period. Ad revenue you ask? MySpace is projected to drop 15% and Facebook to climb 10% this year.

Why the rapid reversal of fortunes for MySpace? Web users, especially social networkers, are not like newspaper readers and television viewers. They are more demanding, and with an infinite supply of sites that will cater to their needs (and whims), very fickle.

Let this be a lesson to all owners of new media properties. Listen to your users. If you’ve been running a newspaper or television empire, they know more about what needs to be done than you do.