Would they be sitting in the Coffee Shop talking about posts from friends on Facebook and Twitter vs. their life’s issues?  Would Samantha be a YouTube phenom with videos of her exploits? Would Carrie be a blogger who could write more than one column a week?

I found myself watching an episode of Sex and the City while at the gym one day on the treadmill and it amazed me how far we’ve come in such a short time and how Social Media and technology has affected how we interact with each other.

Only a few short years ago, we were talking face to face to each other, meeting for coffee, dinner and talking on the phone about our days and adventures.  We laughed together, conversed about something important or silly and usually ended the conversation on a good note feeling more relaxed that we had the time to interact with a friend.

Today, we post information via Facebook and Twitter and for most of us, this is our main source of communicating to our network of friends and family.  There’s even a car that will give you your Facebook status updates as you drive.  (Honestly, is this really necessary?)

How many times have you been out to lunch, dinner or shopping and have seen other people with their Smart Phones and iPads watching/checking for updates or sending status updates or texts?

Technology is great, wonderful and absolutely amazing.  I for one love, love, love my iPhone and iPad and admittedly, do take them with me with I go places.  But I focus on the people that I’m with and having conversations, enjoying our time together.  The technology is there should we decide to look something up or decide to change locations or directions but it isn’t the focus.

So, what would Carrie Bradshaw and the girls be doing with today’s technology?  I’d like to think that they’d still be meeting in the Coffee Shop to talk about their lives and share the days events with each other.  Posting status updates can wait until they are home.

What do you think?  How has Social Media affected how you used to interact with friends and family?

There are a few ways that involvement can be addressed that may fit into your company strategy and profile.

Should you become involved in Social Media – YES.  According to the Nielsen 2010 Media Fact Sheet, Time spent on social networking sites in the U.S. increased 277%; The average U.S. worker spends 5 hrs a month visiting social networks at the office; Facebook reaches 56% of the active U.S. Internet universe with an average usage of 6 hrs a month per user; Twitter grew 500% over a year; and 32% of all mobile web users visit social network sites.

Due to these statistics, it would definitely be in your best interest to become involved in social meeting as a company and marketing strategy.  Now, to what extent do you become involved?

This will really depend on your staff and time allotment.  Adding a blog to your site and providing content and resources to your viewing audience and member is a huge commitment but one that will pay off in the long one as establishing yourself as a knowledge leader in your field.  Blogs do take time and commitment to write, but is it possible to spend about 1 hour a week on your blog work?  Consider video blogging vs. writing a blog.  Make it a point throughout the day jotting/writing down blog topics and key points (approximately 5-10). Schedule an hour to sit in front of a video (does not have to be a professional production) and tape a 5 minute blog session on each topic that you’ve recorded. The video blogs can then be posted weekly to your site and based upon the number of video blogs that you recorded, you could have about a  months or a little more of video blogs to post that took you a few hours to complete.

Assign social media sites to various people in your organization. Arrange for these people to be in charge of each site and check/perform searches on the selected keywords for your organization, and interact with others. A schedule can be arranged where this occurs at least 3 times a day for approximately 1/2 hour each time. This provides some type of interaction with the social media main stream and enables your organizations name and content to be seen and discussed.

Becoming involved in Social Media does involve a commitment of time and resources. But if this is planned according to your companies goals and staffs schedule and abilities, can become a positive tasks to any ones day while increasing company awareness, site visitors and potential members.

With a few quick steps, you can keep everyone connected and the interest flying throughout the meeting.

1. Set up a twitter account – if your company or association doesn’t already have a Twitter account, go to http://www.twitter.com and set one up. It’s quick, easy and free.
2. Create a customized background – This only takes a few moments and if you don’t have an in-house staff that can  help, there are plenty of resources available for a quick/customized background.  You can find more information on Twitter backgrounds by visiting http://www.twitip.com/7-free-twitter-backgrounds-to-download-and-customize/
3. Establish a Hashtag for the meeting – Hashtags are a tool for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.  Anyone can add the hashtag to their twitter post and this then allows anyone to click on the hashtag or search by the hashtag to view what is being posted.  This is a great way to allow people who are at the meeting to communicate with each other, post important information about the meeting and events/schedule for attendees to see, and/or allow people who are not at the meeting to see what attendees are posting on Twitter from the meeting.
4. Advertise your Twitter Page and Hashtag on your Website and Meeting Materials. Get the word out via your Meeting Materials that you have established a Twitter page and hashtag for the meeting.  Include this information on your website, the attendees confirmation emails when they register, any notices that are posted about the meeting, etc.

Start Tweeting and get the buzz going about the meeting.

These are powerful results and only proves that networking is the key to any successful person or organization.

Networking does take time and effort and can be done using a few different mediums. These could include:

Social Media – Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.  Get your name and organization out there in the mainstream and interacting with clients, consumers or people with the same interests;

Blogging/Website – Keep your website content updated and have a blog where you provide your users with relevant and useful information;

Groups – Join Groups and interact. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn all provide Groups that you can view/join and meet and interact with people within the group;

Organizations – Join Organizations that are of interest to you or your organization. Take some time and attend the events that they offer and meet/mingle with the other members;

RSS Feeds and Blog Updates – Subscribe to your favorite websites or blogs RSS feeds so that you are kept up-to-date with the latest and greatest news.  Comment on the posts and interact with the other subscribers when able.

The key to networking is creating friends and fans that would recommend you to their fans and friends.  Meeting these friends/fans does require time, but worth the effort.  Take a minute and say hello.

On the other side of the fence however, the electronic/digital world is seeing an increase in the number of social media users and companies using social media for marketing purposes.  As reported as recently as last month, Social Media sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter continue to see an increase in new users, from approximately 10M to 20M unique users year over year respectively.  Check out the article found on Mashable.com related to Twitter and Social Media Growth.

Is electronic marketing the wave of the here, now and the future? Based upon recent polls taken earlier this year by www.toprankblog.com that includes the following findings, Social Media outlets are definitely the way that the masses are using to market and reach their audience.  Sources being used the most are indicated below:

* Blogging (34%)
* Microblogging (Twitter) (29%)
* Search engine optimization (28%)
* Social network participation (Facebook, LinkedIn) (26%)
* Email marketing (17%)
* Social media monitoring & outreach (17%)
* Pay per click (14%)
* Blogger relations (12%)
* Video marketing (10%)
* Social media advertising (7%)

In essence, do you have an electronic/digital marketing plan in place?  If not, this should be reviewed as a viable alternative to traditional printed marketing pieces and include a strategy and marketing goals in order to track and see your RIO.

If you’re not there yet, you need to be. The world is changing and evolving each and every day. To stay ahead you need to play ahead and have a plan/strategy that rivals your competitors and keeps you on top and in the forefront of your industry.

References: thanks to http://www.toprankblogs.com, http://www.mashable.com, and http://www.govexec.com/ for your wealth of insight and information on digial, electronic, and social media marketing.