Are You Going Places? LinkedIN? What’s On Your Mind?

Today it’s Twitter.
“See You on the Face”
Where You Checking In?
How About A Handshake?

Each day I learn of something new with the changes online and uses of mobile technology through various means. I agree it’s very important to be out there communicating and connecting with people in more ways than one. This new social media phenomenon is causing some people to forget the balance between one’s personal life and professional.

I hate to think the number of followers you have on Twitter, the number of friends you have on Facebook, and the number of professionals you have on LinkedIN, qualifies you as any type of expert. Not everyone adopts many new technologies and decides to immediately incorporate it into his/her daily life. Some may not have the desire at all, prefer his/her privacy, or actually too busy at work to be bothered. For some it’s an escape from reality, an opportunity to learn, promote a story, or connect with someone on a similar topic. As Shiv Singh, social media expert at Razorfish and author of Social Media Marketing for Dummies states on Twitter, “Of all my friends on FB, only the ones who work in digital have used FB Places. Is that a sign for how well it will do? If so, not good.”-11:28 AM Aug 20th via web.

A good professional must understand how to reach people through various mediums to best connect with others using both traditional and new ways of communication. It’s more about quality and not quantity. People are calling themselves social media experts and they are being valued by prospective employers by the number of tweets on Twitter and number of friends. That’s crazy!

I wish to impact the world, make a profit, or help someone out there question the way we live and make a bigger difference. How many people can actually say they know each person they are connected with online, done business with them, grew companies that were sold, or it’s just others trying to increase their followers and connections in this new popularity contest.

How many of these people understand the adoption curve of companies, instituted real change to educate executives and engage audiences, understands how to be a leader and collaborate with others to build a real strategy that makes sense to the business and doesn’t just follow the crowd. I want to be influenced by true educators and make decisions by having quality people in my network whether online or creating deeper relations off-line.

We’re starting to see the public turned off by some of the tactics and new “Places” on Facebook as an invasion of one’s privacy. Soon people will follow suit looking for the next best place in technology to communicate.

It’s important to be out there as I do blog, contribute on occasion to social media sites, as well as I enjoy learning and experimenting with different mediums. Some days I’m more active than others. Yet, I’m selective who I link with and what I want to say. I’ve been on these sites longer than most. I see the value for certain companies and connecting with the audience, but I’m careful how much I really want to say in the online world that can remain permanent about my private lives.

I consider myself a very talented and a qualified professional who enjoys probing the right questions, as well as taking a step back to understand the concerns, interests and opportunities with many of these new advancements to make a business case, as well as building trust and listening to the audiences. I’m not just one to jump on the bandwagon of the next best location-based technology, or social media innovation to promote myself. I don’t need FourSquare in my private life to share my every action and tell the world I’m going “Places” on Facebook. In my opinion, employers are misguided if what they are looking for in a good marketing person, or value a candidate based on the number of followers, friends, or tweets he/she has online.

I prefer my privacy in my personal life and wish to connect with people in a genuine manner. As far as using the new social media tools for business, I understand the importance to rely on these resources to listen, learn and share feedback with others to make improvements to a product, or perhaps offer better customer service and create loyalty programs. I plan to continue to go places far and wide to finding a rewarding career and fulfilling life with wonderful friends and professionals that have personally come together.

How Many Webinars Are Still Worth Watching?

Are you being spammed each day to watch the next best webinar presentation?

I’ve signed up time and time again to watch some of these presentations to later realize it’s the same information repurposed or repackaged by another company. Or, it doesn’t truly engage my interests at the right time.

I’m not so sure anymore that this generates quality leads as it was once considered a good tactic to cut costs and do business with others.

Initially, I found this new format attractive to sharing best practices, new learning’s from others that one may never have the opportunity to come into contact professionally. Could the novelty of this new technology be wearing off as more and more companies adopt this technology in hopes to generate new business?

Do busy professionals really have the time to watch them? Perhaps a better format could be in the works. We may engage audiences further if we can make each educational experience more personal. It’s a shame there are numerous webinar formats that do a poor job to make it hard for others to stand out on.

It’s ironic that it took me a long time to influence others in the professional community to start creating webinars to reach customers. Today, people tend to hit delete in their email inbox with announcements without reading the content, forget to attend a webinar, or do not have the time to watch it at the scheduled time.

Webinars are becoming saturated as more and more markers use it as a tactic to attract leads for future sales pursuits. Numerous marketing executives can attest to generating many new leads for providing educational resources to their audiences. However, it’s becoming the web’s version of the infomerical. As with any technology that has a sales spin, it may create a backlash from audiences that seek to spend their valuable time elsewhere.

Audiences are more savvy with the web and recognize their personal information is being used for future business prospects. In retrospect, a good marketer should use data provided by the audience to influence how products are being developed, pitched, or conduct better research. It’s important to listen to what is being said by your customers through social mediums to identify new market opportunities.

As Ken Molay explains in his blog WebinarWire, “….those of you using webinars as a marketing and lead generation tool, think carefully about what you are promising in your invitation and what expectations you are building. Collecting names on registration forms doesn’t do you much good in building lead lists if the names represent a group of people who mistrust and loathe your company!”