His first Tweet: “Warren is in the house;” was followed – later that afternoon – with “Read my new essay on why women are key to America’s prosperity: http://t.co/sGCZoC3Lbm”.

Very quickly Buffet passed 425,000 followers. He was immediately on his way to numbers that are usually only attainable by those with some sort of celebrity status.  I doubt he realizes (or cares) just how impressive his following has already become.  Why do I think that?

“The Wizard of Wall Street” hasn’t tweeted anything else in more than two weeks.

Bill Gates has tweeted more than 25 times to his more than 11 million followers since Buffet signed off of Twitter.

Does Billionaire Warren Buffet really need a Social Media fan base to remain a popular and influential figure in America?  Probably, about as much as Bill Gates needs one.  In Gate’s case, though, he works in the world of computers and the Internet; creating web browsers and operating systems and applications software that tie in to the web.  Buffet is not usually associated with Internet related business.  At least, not to the extent that Bill Gates is.

So, what is the take away here for the average business person, who is much less popular and influential than these two modern day giants?

Well – for one thing – Bill Gates seems to “get it,” while Buffet may be missing the point.  Gates is obviously honoring his active covenant with Twitter, other Social Media platforms and his followers.  Buffet very likely has made no such dedicated commitment to begin with.

Social Media participation and its ensuing engagement require a dedicated effort and long term commitment.  When it comes to this arena, it is often better to be totally invisible than regularly absent; especially for those in business.  If you can’t commit to regularly sharing with and responding to your fans, followers, connections and whomever, the disappointment  you create and the negative perceptions of disrespect and inattentiveness you earn can be harmful to your personal reputation and business prospects.

Get in or stay out.  Those are the only two choices you have when it comes to participating in Social Media.  There really isn’t a middle ground, because placeholders don’t work online.

Who actually declares these sites dead; administers the last rights; issues their death certificates; and publishes their obituaries?

As marketers, we need to know which of the platforms and tools we can still count among the living and which ones need to be memorialized?

Is there even a graveyard or monument we can visit for sites we should no longer consider viable and those that have completely gone away?  And, where can we find the postmortems and learn from them the “cause of death;” so that we may learn more about what doesn’t work with consumer audiences?

It seems to me that the latest FAD and GIMICKY Social Media platforms and tools arrive with great hype and fanfare; each getting their turn as the new “flavor of the month;” and – for a time – may be considered the newest “It” site to be embraced by all.

Funny, though.  There is so much less noise when a Social Media platform or tool begins to pass out of favor.  Take for example, a few one-time “it” sites that few people even mention much anymore. Consider the histories of sites like Groupon, FourSquare and StumbleUpon and what may eventually come of them.  We’re not even going to talk about MySpace, here…you know the story about that one.

According to breaking news reports, a leaked document tells us to expect that Foursquare soon will introduce the first of two new ad types for advertisers hungry to capitalize on data the company has collected from 30 million users who have checked in at restaurants, bars, and other venues more than 3.5 billion times.  Sounds like good news on the surface, but I caution you to read on.

“Oddly, the document just happened to surface on the same day Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley tried to quiet critics who claim his company isn’t making money,” astutely shares the reporter sharing the leaked document’s contents.  “Coincidence?  Foursquare did not respond to a request for comment,” he goes on to question and report.

On the topic of “doing well or not,” another reporter shares the following about the same platform: “ Foursquare has been one of New York’s hottest startups, but the company has faced growing pains of late. For years now, Foursquare has been growing fast, but it has reportedly faced trouble monetizing its operation, posing a challenge for investors to put a true dollar mark on its overall value. Earlier this month, the company raised $41 million in cash and debt to help fund its operations.”

And, what does Foursquare CEO, Dennis Crowley actually admit to?  “We’re not the shiny new thing anymore,” Crowley said Monday. “People are understanding what we’re trying to do, become the location layer. We’re in that interesting hazing period where people are skeptical on whether we can be successful or not. Facebook went through it. Now we’re going through it,” states Crowley in a recent interview.

“Shiny new thing.”  Interesting phraseology.  Is that what Social Media has become?  A playground for “shiny new things” that the public quickly grows tired of and moves away from?

Marketers really need to know, because there are costs to embracing “shiny new things”.  We study them carefully; experiment with them fully; create content for them originally; and we monitor and measure them accurately for ROI. It’s a lot of investment in dollars and man hours and can potentially divert our attention away from other things we could be doing to produce greater revenues.

When they are at the top of their game, the “it” Social Networks, micro-blogs and other similar sites seem to work fine for us.  In fact, we often see Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as givens and stalwarts.  Do we realize that their positions are always tenuous and their fortunes can turn on a dime, after a major snafu or when the next big thing comes along that does what they do, differently or better?

We just have to become better at triaging them – periodically – and being able to tell when they may be nearing their productive ends as viable engagement and marketing tools, – as far as maintaining their former ROI value to us.

Dennis Crowley goes on to interject even more concern for marketers using Foursquare with his implicit words of concern. “We’ve got to win back consumers,” he says. “We need to show that Foursquare is something that can fit into their daily life. We’re not just points and badges,” he says.  Win back consumers?  To me, this sounds as if the site has more than just struggles with monetization.  Sounds more like a consumer popularity issues to me. If you need to win back consumers, it means that you’ve already lost them.  Pleading to consumers that your site is more than just “points and badges”, seems to explain that users have become bored and are looking elsewhere for something different and better than what you have to offer them.

Nothing to do with any “leaked documents,” StumbleUpon announced that it is going with a new content delivery network – NetDNA’s MaxCDN. This, according to the two parties involved, will help increase web page download speed.

It is said that StumbleUpon refers more traffic to other websites than any other platform on the web.  That is still good news. Still, in the beginning of the year the company was forced to lay-off 30% of their employees to restructure and become profitable. The company has been hurt by not moving quickly enough to address the rapidly growing use of mobile devices to visit its site.

The company had been doing relatively well during the past few years,  but has “stumbled” a bit this past year or so as newcomers in the content discovery and sharing space such as Pinterest took off with amazing success.  After a big redesign in December 2011 fell flat with users, Garrett Camp stepped down from the CEO role in May 2012 to focus on other projects.

Another major Pinterest-like redesign in September once again drew mixed reviews for StumbeUpon — and according to some metrics, its traffic was feeling negative effects. Triage time?  Absolutely.

StumbleUpon looks like it has life left in it, so there is no reason for panic yet.  But, whether or not marketers should continue to consider it a top-tier site for them down the road – we’ll just have to see.

Groupon’s stock fell more than 75 percent during 2012. It closed at $6.26 Monday (April 29, 2013), down nearly 2 percent. Need I say more about the present situation of that company?

In a recent article, Fortune Magazine summed up the short and volatile history of Groupon in the following way: “Groupon is a cautionary tale of a hyped-up Internet darling that expanded too quickly atop an opaque business model with low-to-nonexistent profit margins — not to mention unhappy partners who complained there was little upside for them.  Just as bad were the countless competitors like LivingSocial, which popped up, seemingly overnight, offering similar deals at similarly cutthroat prices. (Indeed, as early as 2011, Forrester Research deemed Groupon an unqualified disaster, “a shill that’s going to be exposed pretty soon.”)

Groupon has a new CEO on board.  We’ll see if they can bounce back and be a key player for marketers, down the road. Right now the best advice is to go with LivingSocial in their segment of the business.

There are newer platforms and tools currently atop the heap that need to be watched carefully and appropriately valued by marketers. We are all looking for good ROI from the right mix of online enterprises and can’t afford to waste time on the declining and failing sites.

The “It” sites on the web for 2013 are Pinterest, Instagram and Google+.  As marketers we need to quickly figure out – of the old and the new – which sites are just making a lot of noise and which ones are really having the most impact among consumers.  We all do much better leveraging the living and vibrant platforms and tools, than we can ever hope to with those already on life support.

According to Crain’s: “Companies looking to hire (today) are overwhelmingly startups with fewer than 200 employees. These booming small businesses can selectively hire their employees, and increasingly use internal referrals to ensure both a level of expertise and to retain their corporate culture.”

This goes back to a phrase I learned as a trade school placement director years ago and regularly shared with my students: “Employers never hire strangers.”  What was meant by this?  Employers want to know a lot about a job applicant, before they decide to hire them. The best head start they can get is through a personal referral.

In fact, there is another common expression that fits well with the “never hire strangers” one, above.  That is, “good people generally recommend other good people for hire.”  It makes perfect sense, since we place our own reputations on the line whenever we recommend people we know for jobs. If things don’t work out, we may be looking at two or more angry, disappointed and or embarrassed people rather than just one unsatisfied employer.

Most people that recommend someone for a job also usually need to be somewhat familiar with what the referred individual does as well as what kind of job they would be a good fit for.

Accountants?  We all know one or more and what they do – especially on or before April 15^th.  Programmers? Well, we know they write some kind of funny looking language that makes computers do what we want them to.  Home health aides?  You get the picture. Jobs that have been around for awhile are a little more familiar to most people than those in emerging career fields.

So, you tell Uncle Fred you are looking for a job in Social Media.  He stops, stares and wonders what exactly that means.  Chances are, if he is older than 45, he doesn’t have much of a clue what one does for a business with something may “play” with in his spare time.  He may “get” the “media” part of what you are asking him.  Doubtful he will understand how the “social” piece ties up with that and creates a livelihood for someone.  And, it is further unlikely that he knows anyone who “plays” for a living.

Enter the 30 year old.  Sure, he or she is very well informed about Social Media use in business.  They may have even taken a communications course or two dealing with interactive and social media in college.  Problem is, it may not have been their major and they aren’t sure where the jobs are located and at 30, they may not have developed too much of a business network to recommend you to employers.

That’s the bad, but honest.  The good news is that there are things one can do to “de-stranger” himself/herself.  Networking is still – very much – the answer.  However, there is a lot of work that needs to be done on the part of the jobseeker.

Here are 5 easy things you can do:

1.  Educate those not knowing what Social Media is in an easy way.  All you need to remember are following three terms: Evolution, revolution, contribution.

The Evolution (of communications) has taken us from horseback riders to printing press, telegraph, mail, telephone, television, Internet, email, cell phone and – NOW – the social web.

The Revolution (in communications) takes us from the above-mentioned ways we once communicated with each other to what is – today – profound in that we are now capable of free, global, real-time communication via Social Media over the Internet.

The Contribution (in communications from Social Media) is that – today – we can all publish whatever we want for the world to see.  The people that publish opinions, ideas, commentary, criticisms, video, entertainment and sales pitches include employees, customers, competitors, partners, suppliers, people who love you, and people who hate you.

2. Craft a thoughtful and well constructed resume that will answer questions about your education, experience and interests when you are not around.  Carefully take some time to review your resume with those less likely to understand what you do and try and tie it to Evolution, revolution and contribution in a way that relates to someone their age.  For example: “You used to cold call people to pitch your products.  Today, we can talk to them in Social Media and even use pictures, videos and presentations to show them what we want them to see. They can even place their orders by completing a form on their computers. I market and sell to many of them this way, rather than always in person.”

3. Expand your networking both online and offline.  Think about what you do and where people like you hang out in Social Media.  For example, are their LinkedIn and Facebook groups for your career field?  Are their virtual and in-person associations and groups you can join and take part in that have regular monthly meetings or casual meetups announced online or in the newspapers?

4. Review job listings on Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com, MediaBistro and other websites that hire people like you?  Of course, apply where you can.  But, also use these posts to gain industry intelligence– company names and addresses, contact names and addresses, job description terminology, etc.  You can build quite a database with this useful information and be able to reach out to industry people for networking, relationship building and potential mentorships.  All of this can also lead to a job with them or with someone they may know that is currently hiring.

5. No matter how long you have been out of college or trade school, know that you can always go back and work with alumni relations.  They usually have an alumni job placement services with great contacts in the kind of companies you want to work for.

So, just because your family and friends may be a little out of touch with todays careers and job requirements it is no excuse to give up on them, yourself or your career choice.  When the world give you lemons, make yourself a tall, cold glass of lemonade, bring it to work and tell everyone on Facebook how much you are enjoying it.

You can get a degree in Social Media

A report issued by the popular job board, Simply Hired shows us that the number of Social Media job posts (U.S.) have increased by 38% since October of 2011. That is pretty impressive growth considering that during the same timeframe U.S. unemployment was the highest it had been in nearly twenty years.

According to Simply Hired’s Trend Data report, there were a total of 2,778 Social Media-related jobs available in the United States in the month of December 2012.  This number comes from the aggregated total of job openings from the four top online job boards: Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed and Simply Hired.

Based on projections, Simply Hire predicts there to be 42,924 New Social Media-Related Jobs in 2013 when all is said and done.

According to the results of a survey conducted by The Creative Group, Marketing roles in account services (13%) are expected to be in greatest demand during the first part of 2013, followed by jobs in social media (9%), media services (9%), brand/product management (8%), and public relations (7%).

Among the most common job titles currently being sought in the field are: Social Media Specialist, Social Media Manager, Community Manager, Social Media Coordinator and Social Media Strategist.  Obviously, the common thread among all of these positions is basic knowledge of Social Media.

Within the above job titles are usually requirements for subsets if specialized knowledge that include:  Strategic Planning, Government and Compliance Issues, Marketing, Project and Campaign Management, Community Management and Research and Analysis.

According to a recent study by the Altimeter Group, more than 70% of social media programs are housed under marketing and communication. This percentage, though, be more of a reflection of short term prospects as opposed to longer term staying power.  The $64,000 question is whether or not Social Media Marketing will remain a full time career field of its own and for how much longer?

Be Prepared to Accept Career Integration

Down the road, it is expected that many organizations may integrate Social Media into other jobs within the organization; basically “de-careering” it and – instead – making it just another required skill set for various other types of professionals dealing with consumers and stakeholders.  The following quote from a respected marketing expert sums up a common concern for Social Media career contemplators:

“I think it could be a relatively short lived career path. Social media is a tool that can and should be used (in different ways) by virtually all job disciplines/careers. As people become more comfortable with using social media (figuring out what does and doesn’t work), they won’t need the hand holding anymore… What AOL was for the Internet, social media strategists are for social media…” — Jack Benoff, director of marketing strategy, Zugara

“Social media strategy will be absorbed by marketing, PR, advertising and media strategist roles. That doesn’t mean that a social media strategist who has chops won’t prosper. It means that a one-trick-pony might not have a long and prosperous future.” — Stuart Tracte, freelance digital and social strategist

If some prognosticators are right and Social Media is absorbed into other existing jobs, what might become of those currently intent on choosing it as a long term career path?

Obviously, as in all other business pursuits, the crème de la crème of today’s social strategists will find themselves at the executive level in the next few years. They will have proved themselves to be “multi-functional, cross-disciplinary, and customer-centric” as one prominent industry leader believes. As their Social Media strategy role evaporates, they will be ready to step up to higher level management roles focused on customer experience — spanning awareness, purchase, support and innovation of new products.  It is all a natural evolution that takes place when careers and the people in them mature and become more valuable to the bigger picture of things.

Universities & College “Believe”

So, is a future career in Social Media ill advised?  Some American colleges and Universities think not and are gearing up to grant degrees in it. Newberry College in Newberry, South Carolina has made an entire undergraduate major for social media.

Offered through the Department of Arts and Communications, Newberry College’s Social Media major is a serious and original interdisciplinary program designed to capitalize on the strengths of existing courses in Graphic Design, Communications, Business Administration, Psychology and Statistics. Four innovative courses, created specifically for the Social Media major are also included in the curriculum.

Prestigious DePaul University also has a degree program called “Interactive and Social Media.” Rutgers University offers a Mini-MBA in it.   Watch the video at: Rutgers University Mini MBA in Social Media

So, it is not just the “little schools” trying to make a name for themselves by being first to offer this new discipline.

In fact, several other two and four year institutions are also betting their money that a degree in Social Media will have marketable worth.  In addition to them, there are shorter, alternate routes for interested persons to take to giving them the ability to call themselves Social Media professionals.

Those individuals already on the career road to Social Media success can validate their knowledge by contacting the National Institute for Social Media (NISM) regarding the possibility of becoming a NISM-certified Social Media Strategist (CSMS). The certification preparation and examination are one way someone interested in breaking into Social Media or simply broadening and certifying their current experience in this field.  By the way, Hootsuite, the tweet and posting automation people, also offers a social media certification program through their Hootsuite University program.

So, what is the verdict?  Should someone – at this point in time – go forward with a degree, certification and career in Social Media?

What Does Your Gut Tell You?

Like most rapidly changing career fields, today, it is a gamble.  Hey, if the Federal government decides to issue a flat tax, the accounting field just might contract a bit.  Who knows what might happen down the road.

Ask yourself - first and foremost - do you love the idea of doing Social Media-related work for the next ten years or so?  Is it a real passion for you?  Chances are that small and midsize businesses will have plenty of available work for you for at least that long.  Larger organizations?  Not so much.

But remember – people today are looking at four, five or six diverse careers before they are done.  Social Media offers opportunities to take its skills and move them into related career fields like marketing, public relations, customer service and others.  It is likely that these other careers will be sticking around for awhile.  So, if you are a bit of a risk taker, Social Media is a good career risk to take.  Let your passion guide you.

By Marc LeVine, President, ICA Social Media

Just having a business presence on Social Media means very little. You will find that it is difficult to attract people to your page if all that is shared talks about you and what you are selling. Remember, this is SOCIAL media and people come to it to escape the world of commercialism and in-your-face sales pitches. They will tune out and shut down any attempts to hard sell them on any SOCIAL network, because THEY –NOT YOU own the message.

The message is very simply  this – “if I like you, I may be interested in what you do for a living.  If I trust you, I may look into being your customer.  And, if I am satisfied that you have done right by me in every respect, I’ll recommend you to others.”

You must be thoughtful and patient. Relationships and trust do not build overnight. If you try and force them, online, you will surely do irreparable damage to your business and yourself. Like it or not, you have to cross all your “T’s” and dot all your “I’s” in trying to engage people on sites like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Here are seven things you might consider building into your online strategy that have been shown to work best:

Encourage People to Talk About themselves (and talk about yourself, too)

Asking your LIKES “harmless trivia” about their personal lives (be careful, though). “Why did you choose your career?” or “Seen any good films lately?”  This sort of thing brings out the “people in people,” and builds a human connection among your audience.

Pose Questions to Your Audience

One of the better ways to engage your audience on Facebook is to ask questions. Try to post multiple choice and open ended (not YES or NO questions) questions as often as possible. Draw the folks into a conversation. Ask questions related to your market as it may relate to them and/or about current events (avoid touchy subjects like politics and religion).

Your questions can be of a personal nature (again, be careful) or they can just be off the top of your head (but always think before your post, first).

Experiment with variety of questions. See what brings the most engagement.

Do Some Polling and Have Fun with Quizzes

There are lots of great (and often FREE) online tools you can use to create interesting polls and quizzes – take a look at Survey Monkey, as an example.

Polls and quizzes are a quick and lighthearted way to get people to interact with you and others. Your quiz’ should be short and non-frustrating; figure about 10 to 15 questions at most. Make this fun and entertaining, as opposed to what your survey is like.

Try Running Contests and Quizzes Offering Prizes

People LOVE to win things. Try running a contest with a worthwhile prize. Fun contests excite people and make them somewhat passionate about your brand. Be sure to post the winners on your Facebook page – as soon as possible – so they can brag about winning to their friends, who will visit your page to see what winning and your products are all about.

Show Value to Others by Sharing ONLY Interesting, Relevant and Helpful Content

Look for and share target audience- related content such as interesting articles, case studies, slide presentations, videos, etc. If you can create your own content, so much the better. This then allows you to show you are an expert and are really interested in what interests your audience.

Make your Fan Page a Clearinghouse of News About and by your Fans

Encourage your Fans to post what is important to them and their organizations such as announcements, awards, and events and such Link to other people’s stuff, but be sure what you are sharing makes sense and won’t turn people off. Lead your audience to information of value and avoid wasting their time on junk – especially promos and sales come-ons from other businesses. Too much of that and they will stop reading everything you post. READ THE ITEM BEFORE YOU SHARE THE LINK.

People find value in news items of the day. Comment on Hot Topics; sharing your own thoughts and opinions (be careful, though). Then, ask your audience for their take on it. Avoid the forbidden topics, discussed above. I am sure each of you can think of something to add to my list and I encourage you to share what has worked and what hasn’t with your fellow readers under comments. Good Networking!

Researchers uncovered a direct association between heavier Social Media engagement and lower test scores and other cognitive deficits in pre-college age students. By contrast, college students using their mobile devices to listen to music or read newspapers actually tended to demonstrate a higher level academic performance.

Without getting into the “whys” and a variety of potential causative factors gleaned from the study, it might be better advised to take such indicators of poor performance in younger children and teenagers as a wakeup call for instructional intervention in our schools.

Social Media has already become ingrained in our daily lives; each one of us to some degree. Wikipedia has replaced the encyclopedia; the whitepages.com has replaced the phone book; and – sadly enough – Facebook time has (to a large degree) replaced “Face time”.

We start a job and sign off on a Social Media policy that threatens termination for anyone disobeying the rules of online engagement.  We come home and understand that what we say and do online is public record and searchable by anyone including: family, friends, rivals, bill collectors, insurers, educators, reporters, burglars, sex offenders, employers and even government agencies.

Among these groups are those that can like you, hate you, help you, harm you and even throw you in jail or murder you.  Social Media is many things, but NEVER is it child’s play.

The path to Disney.com and Sesamestreet.com can easily take you past deviant sites of all kinds and filled with those that would prey on innocent victims, including children. It is bad enough that these folks often wander away from smut.com to lay in wait – within the virtual Magic Kingdom or the online Sesame Place – for unsuspecting targets to come along.  So many of our young children and teenagers fall victim to these predators, because they are young, trusting and inexperienced dealing with con artists and other disreputable crawling out from the underside of our society.

We need to do much more to prepare our children for entry into the Wild West frontier awaiting them online, every day. We need to prepare them better in our schools for Social Media engagement.  Such education would go much farther than simply protecting them from bodily harm.  They must be taught how to establish an admirable “digital footprint” to create and preserve a CONSISTENT reputation of competence, judgment, likeability, honesty and integrity for all to see.  What they do and say – online – as children, may effectively harm their futures in many ways.

So, what should be taught in grade school about Social Media?  Here are a few thoughts:

1. Personal Safety FIRST and FOREMOST (aka: how to protect your identity and physical self online)

2. Overview of major platforms and tools of Social Media and the Web (aka: proper and effective use; giving explanation regarding the advantages/disadvantages of each)

3. Online Etiquette (aka: showing proper respect for others and for yourself, online)

4. Establishing a positive and consistent “Digital Footprint”. (aka: avoidance in making and leaving a bad impression of yourself, online)

5. Basic laws and protections governing the Internet (aka: your legal responsibilities and rights while online [and how to get in touch with enforcement and advocates, if necessary])

More and more job descriptions and help wanted ads are calling for some level of experience and proficiency using Social Media.  In fact, such a requirement has become as routinely called for as demonstrating strong written and oral communication abilities.  It is expected that our schools prepare their students well in those areas of societal intercourse.  Why not look to prepare our children better for safe and effective online engagement?  After all, the latter serves as an environment in which these skills are demonstrated.

If you really want to start a war on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or on any other social networking site that welcomes people from every walk of life, just post something praising or criticizing a group’s religious practices and beliefs, political orientation, racial or ethnic heritage, sexual orientation and for that matter just about anything a democratic government considers the intellectual property of a protected group.  Do this just once and I assure you that you will be the first casualty of such a war.

It is for good reason our government created protected groups.  It was not a result of pro-activity, on their part. They were responding to the evil side of human relations that has often reared its ugly head in our society.  Mere words have often led to human actions so horrible and grievous that they include the destruction of private property, abject humiliation, bodily harm to and death of the innocent.

It is the evil or (at least, call it the) inconsiderate/insensitive side of many of us that may lack tolerance for “the other guy’s” place in society and/or his or her point of view.  That’s also the side that often lets loose and allows us to post something online before we have taken a moment to think about the diverse audience reading our words. Some may agree with us; others may disagree with us; and some –will surely be offended by us.

Do you really need an example of what fires people up, online and causes emotional strife among people?  Here is one post that certainly declared war on the Catholic Church and its followers:

Need an example of a political post gone awry?  This one trashes conservative and moderate Republicans and Democrats, praising all liberals, instead:

And this racially charged post created quite a bit of fallout online and in print.

Denise Helms, a 22-year-old woman from Turlock, Calif., used Facebook to express her own miffedness with the re-election of the president.  It cost her dearly.

As Fox 40 in Sacramento records it, she wrote: “Another 4 years of this n*****. Maybe he will get assassinated this term.”

This young lady did more than just insult the President and all African Americans.  She “said” enough in that post to lose her job.

How do these online slips of the fingers happen?

There are some, who post controversial things online full well knowing and even expecting what the fallout may be. They may not care.  There is always such a group of dogmatists, zealots, bigots and racists, flamers and trolls and people just preferring to drink their own Kool Aide or that of someone else they may be enamored with. These role models often include the infamous ones – Hitler, Manson, Dukes and other notorious haters.

The rest of us – the victims of occasional poor judgment and mental lapses – are often lulled to sleep by Social Media.  We generally post from a warm and cozy place like our homes or offices.  Or, we post with our mobile devices to pass the time while away from home base and in need of virtual camaraderie.

Generally, we are alone and experience a false sense of comfort and confidence while conversing in Social Media.  It is almost as if –all of a sudden – we forget just how many people are actually viewing our timelines. It is common to falsely believe we are chatting with one or two close friends or relatives or possibly among some group of like-minded folks we regularly associate with. We sometimes lose of inhibitions regarding Social Media and that is when trouble may set in.

Come on folks, we are all guilty of “letting one go” from time to time. To err is human – or at least, it once was.  If you haven’t posted something controversial, yet, it is very likely you will at some point. Fact is, you may not even realize it until you hear about it from others. Let us all pray that whatever your past or inevitable future snafus are – they will pass gently away into the night and will not sting you too badly.

Just to be very clear about Social Media.  It has a very long memory, so even a very human and honest mistake can have tremendous implications with your friendships, career and standing in the community. Be very careful.  As they sometimes say about the universe; “We are not alone.”  The same goes for the “Universe” we call the World Wide Web.

Every business needs to do a little preparation research prior to making a decision as to which Social Media platform(s) may be best suited to reaching their particular target audience(s) and getting them to take the appropriate call to action leading to greater revenue generation in the end.

Making such determinations are much more challenging when it comes to entrepreneurs, start-up owners and midsize companies without marketing departments, who are largely inexperienced using Social Media Marketing for business. Strategists and decision-makers need to know best how to approach the very different demographics found among consumer customer and business client groupings. Their needs and wants vary significantly as end users and potential “middle-men” are inclined to.

Assuming you know who your target audience is, the most critical question of them all is where are your prospects likely to “hang out” on the web?  You won’t sell very much – if anything at all – to the wrong audience in the wrong place. But, you will spend a lot of time and money trying to.  This is for certain.

According to a study by Crossroads Public Relations, only 41% of B2B companies using Facebook to win new client contracts have received new business through the network. On the flip side, 82% of consumers who “like” brands say Facebook is a good place to interact with them. So, it would seem that B2C companies are much more likely to gain a better ROI on Facebook than B2B companies.

B2B companies seem to do much better building relationships- the chief requirement in longer sales cycle selling – on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and some now are saying, Google Plus.

Why? The audiences on these services are much more focused on communicating with each other than just following each other.  This is especially true on LinkedIn. Almost everyone on LinkedIn is there for business, professional and career-related engagements.  LinkedIn groups serve as terrific “clubs” for those involved in B2B, but DO beware that many of these groups are populated with more vendors, influencers and proxies than CEOs and other direct decision-makers. Fortunately, LinkedIn offers a breakdown on the demographics for each group on its site.  It is well advised to start there, before spending a lot of time joining prestigious sounding “wanna be” groups and interacting – quite possibly – with your very own competitors and others you need not be sharing your business with.

In addition to Facebook, B2C companies might also consider focusing more marketing attention on such highly visual platforms as Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram; especially when they have visually stimulating things and places to “show off” to every day consumers like you and me. These types of platforms are specifically built for delivering engaging visual media.

It’s much harder to excite a purchasing or logistics manager using pretty pictures showing off exactly how you plan to contract with them and make timely deliveries on Pinterest.  B2C organizations have a much easier time interesting a future bride in a lovely wedding dress or a retired couple in scenes from fun-filled cruise or the natural wonders of some tropical travel destination.

B2C retail organizations will also do much better offering consumers limited time offers and bonus rewards on sites like Living Social and Foursquare than most B2B organizations can ever hope to with their manufacturing and distribution warehousing clients.

There are certainly exceptions to every rule, of course, and there may be B2B companies out there claiming success on those platforms largely the domain of B2C customers.

If you are a B2B company with a factory outlet that is open to the public year round or if you have special seasonal sales to reduce your inventory, as many fragrance, clothing and gift manufacturers and distributors often do, Facebook and Living Social might be somewhat relevant to your unique business purposes. Pallet and drum manufacturers (of the 55 gallon variety) and distributors, not so much.

Everyone must take this into account, though. This is the point that will set everyone straight and on the road to sound, practical thinking about Social Media Marketing. If your strategy and tactics only allow time for a limited number of social networks to engage in, it is best to focus more on platforms that build relationships for B2B and sales for B2C.

Roger Ebert’s Social Media “voice”.

Hooray for the late Roger Ebert for something many of you may not have thought about.

At 70 years of age and cancer stricken, popular film critic Roger Ebert successfully used the Internet to forge a relationship with his many fans. His Twitter account had 600,000 followers. “My blog became my voice, my outlet, my “Social Media” in a way I couldn’t have dreamed of.  Most people choose to write a blog, I needed to.”

Roger tweeted and blogged quite often.  And, only some of what he wrote about was about movies.  The Internet gave him back some of what Cancer had taken away – his voice.

Ebert dispelled the notion that Social Media is only a career for the young.

Roger…maybe we won’t JUST “See ya at the movies,” after all.  Rest In Peace.

Sadly, in the game of business there are players and losers. There have always been and there will always be.  The “players” are the ones that everyone wants to be associated with, especially job seekers.  Why?  Because, they seem to have it all together and it’s working for them.

When you work for a player, you have a much greater chance of succeeding. There is obvious leadership from top to bottom; the resources you need are readily available; and the business and its leadership may already have earned the admiration of influencers.  In fact, the company may be considered an employer of choice.

On the other hand, there are the “losers”. I don’t necessarily want anyone to think that they are bad people; just unfortunate ones when it comes to garnering business success. Within the ranks of most entrepreneurial and start-up companies, the losers vastly outnumber the players – and eventual winners.

Many Business Dreams are Nightmares in Disguise

Everybody has at least one dream for success. Most dreams never get brought to life – as good as they may seem.  Some dreams that have made it past the drawing board stage probably should never have.  Others that have been put to work were well-conceived by people with great imagination and guts; though lacking in business acumen and leadership.

Let’s get this straight. Social Media Marketing is and will always remain a very inexact science.  You simply can’t predict the unpredictable behaviors of consumers. What worked well last week among one group, can fail miserably the next week when attempted with another.  This does not imply that metrics should be thrown completely out the window. They should, however, be weighed somewhat less heavily against the many valuable yet intangible benefits gained from enhanced awareness and fruitful engagement Social Media brings to the table.  It is not so very different from what is liberally expected from public relations.

Keeping all of this in mind, the one thing that everyone can agree on is that Social Media Marketing takes a great deal time and effort.  Employers must understand that the first six months to a year of a new Social Media “coming out party” may yield them very little or nothing for them in terms of measurable ROI.  Consumers probably do not know you yet and will not trust you until you prove yourself to them in some way; offering to them more than you expect to receive in return, early on.  If you force sales relationships on them, you will surely do more damage to your reputation than good.

Players in business understand this to be true and are much more willing to build Social Media Marketing alongside of their traditional marketing efforts over time. They are usually better financed to invest in both types of marketing concurrently and are willing and able to be patient as the Social Media “coming out party” gains traction.  This is a highly desirable situation for a Social Media Marketing professional to be in.  While there are expectations and accountabilities in their jobs, there are also the proper resources, professional understanding and plenty of patience for desired results to occur over a reasonable period of time.

Are You a Company Savior or a Marketing Goat?

Losers often seek Social Media Marketers as a last resort to try and save a floundering business venture. They are very likely not to understand how Social Media Marketing is designed to work and think it is a cheap (or free) way to accomplish sales goals that they can no longer afford to go after at the much higher costs of traditional marketing.  After all, which is less expensive a few tweets and posts or a full page advertisement in a trade publication?

The bad news is that many aspiring as well as established Social Media Marketing professionals end up with the losers and are believed to be magicians and saviors.  They are not, because consumers really don’t care who is appealing to them, only that they are in control of the process of appealing to them.

Most loser jobs don’t end well for their incumbents, because the expectations and odds are too high with few resources to back them up.  It is often frustrating and futile to be in such a position.

The best advice to those seeking a new position in Social Media Marketing is to interview the prospective employer as well as possible to determine his/her understanding of Social Media Marketing; what kind of budget and resources will be made available for marketing; what are the short and slightly longer-term expectations and goals for the position; and most importantly, what kind of shape is the company in as you prepare to accept a possible offer.

Even the best from among us have no business taking a job re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. That ship will sink every time, despite our attempts to bail water with coffee cup.  All you will gain from this is a resume full of short-term failures punctuated with periods of unemployment and the stress that goes with it.  Not every job is worth having.