All posts by Marty Vanags

I know what you are thinking. “This idea that social media is meaningful to my business is preposterous. I don’t have to know anything about it, because by the time I retire or sell my company I won’t have to deal with it.” Or maybe, you are you thinking that someone younger in the company is dealing with it and again, by the time it is meaningful, they will figure it out. Or maybe, if I ignore it enough, it will go away.

Here is the bad news. You can’t ignore social media. The tools and activities it has spurred are prevalent in the marketplace, and you must and will have to do something about it. Ignoring social media is like ignoring an impending natural disaster. You see bad weather coming, or you see a flood on its way and fail to take cover or get out of harm’s way. You stand there and you let it hit you, unprepared. Who would do that?

Social media and tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter may have become mainstream and are part of communications strategies for companies worldwide. One does not have to look far to see the use of social media in major ad campaigns or company brochures. The largest most prestigious companies in our own community have social media strategies.

So when will you get with it? The EDC, the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, Heartland Community College and others have pulled together what may very well be the best social media conference in the Midwest this year. Appropriately we decided to call it “@Midwest.” This conference will feature many guest speakers and some prominent keynote speakers from our own State Farm Insurance. Three tracks will give you everything you need, whether you are a social media neophyte or consider yourself an expert.

Are you the business owner or executive that keeps “kicking the social media can down the road?” If so, this is the perfect one-day opportunity to find out how this communication strategy can work for you. Join us at “@Midwest” and find out how to get practical. You can register by going to www.atmidwest.com. Also check out our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages by searching for “atMidwest.”

People always ask me why I bother with Social Media, particularly those who are in my profession or are in my age group, a certain older age group. My answer is simple; I usually tell them it is an effective away to communicate to a wide variety of people. It may not always be simple, but it is certainly effective. But I also like to add that along with communicating, it is also a great way to listen, yes listen. Social media isn’t about adding a Twitter or Facebook badge to your website. It is much more. One needs to learn how one can use these tools to reach audiences in different ways and listening is one of the things social media lets you do.

Social Media can be a “time-waster”. Yes one can waste a lot of time, productive work-day time goofing around on Twitter and Facebook as well as other tools similar to these. But I like to use it to leverage my ability to communicate my organization’s message. Years ago, about 17 to be exact, I worked at an organization that needed to send a lot of information out to a lot of people quickly and efficiently. We gathered their fax numbers and gave them to a service that would send out mass-faxes to our clients and stakeholders. Think of it as early spamming. Sounds wasteful and silly, doesn’t it? It may have been, but back in 1993 we were cutting-edge communicators.

Today one can call social media a “time-waster” or you can embrace it, learn about it, and see how it can make your job of communicating richer and deeper than ever before.  Social Media is simply an evolution in the way we communicate. Some may even say it is a revolution. It doesn’t have to be time waster. On top of that you might have some fun along the way.

AtMidwest is a great way to learn the basics, improve on some ideas you already have, or become a star in the social media world. I hope you join and embrace change. Then you can tell the boss you are not wasting time, you are listening to the customer.