Scott Klososky's discussion of social networking trends during Travel Weekly’s Family Travel and Summer Deals Virtual Conference and Tradeshow could be summarized (almost) in the length of a "tweet."
Link to followers and friends; craft a "voice" to talk travel and take advantage of the social network; and carefully manage your "statusphere," said the technology consultant.
A "firehose" of technology options is changing the way professionals do business, Klososky said during his presentation on Tuesday. His talk centered on trends in social networking, where Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn are the dominant players.
Klososky noted that ways to communicate and keep up with colleagues has changed radically within the space of one generation. Where people had up until recently kept contacts in a Rolodex or address book, today people manage relationships across a spectrum of websites.
"It will never go back to the way it was," he said.
Still, he said, people are being left to their own devices to create an electronic network, deciding who is a Facebook or MySpace "friend" and whether friends and business contacts can mix on one Facebook page.
Klososky said it was interesting that organizations were not creating rules and standards for employee networks.
And there are powerful ways to harness those contacts and stay connected to them through different social mediums: blogging; "microblogging" such as on Twitter; RSS feeds; podcasting; and photo, video and PowerPoint uploads.
A benefit to social media, he said, is that people and organizations can craft a voice and then speak directly to customers using the social media network.
"There is a huge difference between the trust level of word-of-mouth and advertising," he said.
There’s another advantage, he said: "The underlying product is free. So for you to do marketing is virtually free, other than the labor."
Klososky was especially enthusiastic about Twitter. He suggested that audience members join Twitter and ask clients and customers to become "followers" and then keep in touch a few times a day with brief posts, or "tweets."
"If we wanted to connect to 150,000 people in the past, we had to do a mailer," he said. "Twitter lets us connect a few times a day. For free."
But the extra attention to the Internet also means that companies and individuals need to keep up with their online reputation. Klososky referred to this as managing a "statusphere," and he said some larger companies had begun hiring people to keep track of what was being said about the company and correcting it when possible.
In response to a question about how to correct misinformation online, Klososky suggested responding to blogs in the comments section or getting in touch with the blogger directly. Contacting Facebook or MySpace to remove an offending comment is sometimes successful. Some third-party firms can track and help change results.
He acknowledged it was "tough," but he also said: "If it’s business, you certainly want to have a voice."
One of the worst outcomes "is when someone says something negative, and you don’t respond to them in some way," Klososky said.
A replay of Klososky's presentation is available online. Just log in to the virtual conference and proceed to the auditorium.