What is going on with social media?

Published in the Culpeper Star Exponent 

Monday, March 19, 2012

What is going on in Social Media today? Who can keep up with the subject? Keeping up with Facebook timelines, Google +, and Twitter are the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Despite the daunting sight of the security questions and options, the lure can be too much to bear. The idea of connecting with associates, companies, and special deals produce an irresistible gravity.

The underlying implications bring a shift towards the need for fast internet. However, the need for fast internet is really becoming a need for fast mobile internet. This may require that a signal needs to have a boost in reception with a “Hot Spot” device. There are fundamental requirements for these to work properly, and yet they can produce a significant increase in the data capacity for phones nearby.

The convergence of social media and fast mobile internet are like chocolate and peanut butter. The combination is too good to be true. We live in the greatest time in history. Our opportunity to connect to information is unprecedented. Our ability to produce information is exponential. We are only limited by our human ability to filter the information for our best use.

As “Digital Immigrants”, those over 35 did not grow up in the digital revolution of cell phones. We remember the rotary phones and the need to stop at a pay phone to make a phone call. Our “Digital Natives” – those who think of an I-Pod as an extension of their ears, have had to discern how to decipher the pace of information intuitively. The pace of information, access to information, and need to filter information is here to stay, much like CD’s replaced the cassette, and I-pods replaced CD’s, and now, smart phones have replaced them all.

As business, it is essential to recognize the new environment. It is also, critical that we adapt our plans to include some of the basics of the new ecosystem. We need to adapt our websites to be first “Mobile Friendly”, “Ipad Friendly”, and finally desk top friendly. The number of mobile users will increase not only domestically, but globally. Business cannot ignore social media as “an option”. Credibility, validity, and visibility will depend on business savvy in mobile environment.

There are no guarantees that this is risk free. In addition, as with anything new or unfamiliar, good business practice demands a risk mitigation strategy. The new world of mobile, social and internet are no exception. Nonetheless, there is reward to those that address the risk with prudent judgment.

The exciting part of this fast paced shift is that opportunity is about learning, adapting, and profiting. This is what business is good at. The digital language can be learned and demystified for those digital immigrants. The digital natives need guidance and maturity.

Placed in this context, nothing has really changed. We are simply encountering change, a constant in business. Learn, adapt, and profit.

Jim Charapich, CEO/President

Culpeper County Chamber of Commerce