In our last get together I talked about Firehosing - taking your message and spraying it out with the hopes of getting positive results. This week we’re going to go over another point of social media - interacting with your audience. 
Remember my vision of social media that it’s the modern version of the water cooler. People go to relax and catch up on what the people they care about are doing. It also lets us keep in touch with people who we do care about but don’t see very often which is a huge appeal for some people.

I’ve spoken with a lot of people who tell me that social media is nothing but a waste of time from a marketing standpoint. Usually I then go look at their efforts and find that they’re firehosing. What is firehosing? To start, it’s a great way to get out of the minds of the people whom you’re trying to reach.

I just made a decision about a business before even looking at on-line reviews or asking around about the quality of their service. That decision is that they weren't worth doing business with. So what caused this? 

The contact form on my business's website doesn't just divulge our email address, that's dumb. Instead it has required fields that they individual has to fill out including their name, e-mail and a few other things. If your business's website doesn't have a contact us form you might consider doing this - it protects your email address and also gets the information from those wishing to contact you that you want. 

This past weekend I went to a steam engine festival. I love this festival because of all the cacophony of machinery, smells and people. It's terrific. Unfortunately, I don't think many people agree with me based on this year's attendance. But maybe it's not the festival itself.