That's why I think this post may be important. It's for the semi-early adopter who is a little behind the bleeding edge of technology. If you've got an iPod, but not an iPhone (man I want one of those) then this will probably be good for you. If you fear you are missing out on something take solace in the fact that we're probably missing it together. There's nothing really new here. If you have teenage kids they'll probably tell you all this stuff is already "old school." So lets have some fun.
I can't remember exactly when I actually started using Facebook, but it was probably in the last six months or so. It's hard to describe it unless you've been there. I tell people it's like MySpace for grownups. You basically setup a profile and then you invite people to be your friend. You can type in what you're doing at any given moment in a little text box and all your friends can see what you're up to. You can add pictures that your friends can see. You can raz your friends by writing stuff on their "wall" which lets everybody else see what you've written.
What does Facebook do for my business? It makes it more personal. Several of my clients are "friends" on Facebook and that's pretty cool because we get to see what's going on in each other's lives. My employees who are on Facebook have "friended" me so that's pretty cool too. Facebook is about relationships, so if you think good relationships make for better business, go for it. We also have an Axiom "fan page" on Facebook where anyone can view pictures, videos and comments whether they're a member of Facebook or not.
Twitter lets you post very short (140 character) status updates about yourself or anything else you want to say. People who "follow" you receive these updates. When you "follow" other people they can see your updates. Some people have a ridiculous amount of followers (Guy Kawasaki has over 50,000) and they often follow a ridiculous amount of people. I'm not sure how you can meaningfully keep track of all those updates. I have about two dozen people that follow me and I follow about three dozen.
Twitter is a great way to pass along information like cool web sites. It's also a great way to stay connected to people because you can literally follow them throughout their day. In terms of business, I think it can be a great resource especially if leaders in your industry use it. Twitter is a long way behind Facebook but it's growing. If you want to find me on Twitter look for Joey_b.
Google ReaderBlogs are a tremendous source of information. It doesn't matter what industry you are in, your colleagues, customers and competitors are out there writing every day and you need to be reading what they have to say, at least every once in a while. Making the rounds to all those web sites isn't feasible unless you use an RSS reader. Google's product is my favorite because I can get to it from anywhere, it's simple to use, and the interface works a lot like gmail. You can keep up with a tremendous amount of information very easily.
GoToMeeting is a web application that allows you to conference call using either a phone or the internet while at the same time sharing a desktop in real time. The way this works is I might start out sharing an excel spreadsheet with a client and his attorney. The attorney can ask for control of my desktop and change some figures on the spreadsheet or highlight items with the mouse using it like a pointer while he talks about different sections. When we're done with the spreadsheet the client can take control and switch the focus to his desktop where we might review a drawing he has for a new product. It works pretty well. If you can't get everyone in the same room at the same time it's a pretty good substitute. It's $50 a month, but it pays for itself pretty quick.
Skype is a program I use for video conferencing. For many of my overseas clients it has become the de-facto standard for avoiding expensive long distance charges. Skype is easy to use, the call quality is decent and it works cross platform (one user can be on Windows and the other can be on OS X). One nice feature is the ability to buy credits that allow you to call land lines. If you travel internationally these fees can be much less than prepaid calling cards or other options. But the no-brainer is to just call PC-to-PC. It's free and there's no substitute for being able to see who you're talking to. My Skype username is joeybrannon.
Sightspeed is another video conferencing application. In many ways I like it better than Skype, but not as many people know about it in my circle of friends and clients. Sightspeed does two things that Skype does not, it allows you to send video emails and it allows multi-party conferencing for up to four attendees. In order to send video emails longer than 30 seconds and to get access to multiparty conferencing you must pay a $10 per month subscription fee. It's worth it. My Sightspeed ID is joey.brannon.
Constant Contact is an email newsletter service. I was really excited about it two years ago, but since I first started using it EVERYONE has jumped on the bandwagon. I'll keep using it for a while because it provides a very easy way to distribute professional looking content to the 500+ people on our newsletter list. But I think Constant Contact is less effective than 100% opt-in mediums such as Facebook or RSS readers for blogs. The bottom line is that people get so much stuff in their email inbox another email newsletter doesn't stand out enough to get their attention. For the time being it's more efficient than sending the old fashioned paper newsletter but more effective? Not so sure.
There are dozens of other gadgets, widgets and apps that are more cutting edge and more tech saavy than these. But this is what I use virtually everyday to help set my business apart from everyone else.