Interesting dialogue showed up on my wall this morning.  A friend of mine had her furnace conk out on her the other day.

It also got me thinking: companies should have a social media strategy.  Why?  Because even if you’re not on it you’re on it.  At the very least you should be using tools to monitor what people are saying about you…good or bad it’s an opportunity for your business.

In the dialogue you see here do you think people will be asking my friend who gave the shoddy service? Yup.

Do you think my friend will call Superior Heating and Air Conditioning?  Probably.  Do you think others who see this message will call Superior the next time they’re in need?  There’s a good chance.

So how many people potentially could have seen this dialogue?  Based on the connections…over 5000 people!!!  Now granted, not everyone is going to care and read the message.  The point is…your business…GUARANTEED…is being talked about in the Social Media realm.

So what’s your Social Media strategy?

Over the past week a young lady named Maria Aragon hit the social media jackpot over 7 million YouTube views in under a week..  Did she intend for this to happen this way?  I’d be willing to guess…No.  When I think of this video, 2 things come to mind…Jerry Maguire and passion.

Jerry Maguire comes to mind because he stood up for something that was unconventional.  He was so passionate about it that he wrote a manifesto about relationship management.  He nearly got run out of the business but his success with building a relationship with one guy helped transform his business.  He stood for something and the result was he stood out…clients in the end flocked to him making him the winner. 

Our young Winnipegger Maria is now famous because she followed a passion.  She’s uploaded 72 Videos since march, 2006. And up until last week, she simply was a typical kid up loading her videos she made for fun.  A chance run in with Perez Hilton was the catalyst to her success.  Now she’s an up and coming star with a boat load of opportunity.

So do you want to give yourself a chance?  Stand for something.  Make a difference.  Put it out there.  Those that care will follow and will help spread the word for you.  Set Godin coins it the Purple Cow and being remarkable.

Have a look at Maria’s video below…at 10 years old to be able to sing and play piano like that is…REMARKABLE!

Great Infographic produced by the gang at onlineschools.org.  If you are still not on the Facebook bandwagon what are you waiting for?  The world is passing you by.

Great article posted at eMarketer today on which social media tools businesses are having the most success with.  It’s interesting to note that Facebook is by far the most widely used Social Media platform yet it lags behind in terms of success.  The survey comprised of companies in the Inc. 500 diversified across several different industries, size and location.  Thirty-four percent of the Inc. 500 participated in the study making it statistically valid.  The Inc. 500 is a compilation of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the US published by Inc. Magazine.  The article was based on a recently released study conducted at The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research.

Highlights of the Survey:

• Adoption rates of Social Media increasing with tremendous speed,
• Facebook the most familiar platform to the Inc. 500 with 87% of respondents claiming to be very familiar with it,
• But in terms of what platforms respondents had the most success Facebook lagged behind in 4th place with blogging, Message/Bulletin Boards and Online Video leading the way,
• 50% of the Inc. 500 have a corporate blog with clear evidence of proper usage – customer engagement.  Of the companies that do not have blogs 40-40% intend to have one in the near future.
• 56% (a 13% year over year increase) of the Inc. 500 report that social media is “very important” to their social media strategy,
• 57% of the Inc. 500 report using search engines and social media to recruit and evaluate potential employees,
• 70% of the companies reported that they actively monitor what’s being said about them on social media venues,
• The survey also reveals an increasing trend on adopting social media for B2B communications.  The most notable is blogging with 22% of the Inc. 500 using it as a tool for communicating with vendors, suppliers and partners.
• 83% of responding companies use at least one social media platform clearly indicating it’s importance in how successful companies operate.

With many of the fastest growing companies in the US adopting social media as part of their marketing strategy it is equally important for small to medium size enterprise to do the same.  At the very least, small to medium sized enterprise should be adopting social media to gauge their brand in the marketplace.  Most small to medium size businesses are reluctant to enter the social media world fearing the negative aspects of bad PR.  What most don’t realize is that even if they don’t have a profile in social media they are still being discussed in social media.  Good or bad it’s an opportunity to connect.

The Power of Social Media has changed the way we do business.  I’ve often heard it’s not how much you know it’s who you know.  And to a certain extent this seems to be true.  Here’s how my career path progressed from high school.

My first job was working as “joe everything” at my Family’s Restaurant – The Oriental Pearl.  I was a shoe in for the job…my main connection was the owner of the company.

At age 18 I decided to get experience outside of the Family business.

Sold Webster’s Dictionaries door-to-door…I got this job by applying to and ad…I did have any connections.  This company would have hired anyone with a pulse.

Sold Kirby Vacuums, again I had a pulse…a key trait required for getting the job.

Bicycle Courier, great job, got fit and got paid well to hustle.  A family friend worked at this company and I got the job no questions asked.

Civil Engineering – Summer Help with the Manitoba Department of Highways and Transportation.  A couple of my friends worked there and put in a word for me.  But do university students pull any weight in the hiring decision?  In this case – NO.  My sheer determination to land this job got me in the seat.

Summer Student at Richardson Greenshields – this was a job posting at the Summer Student Job Board.  I didn’t have any connections for this one…got hired with my charm.  Although, I think that the fact the job was partly subsidized by the government had something to do with me getting hired.

TD Bank, this was my first job out of University and I landed this job based on their campus interview process.  The TD Bank turned out to be a 10 year career with various job postings and career advancements.  I believe most of my moves in the bank were based on a combination of reputation and who you knew.  Most movers and shakers in the bank wanted to move up as well so they tended to be the ones that “got it”.  Meaning…surround yourself with good high performing people that make you look good.  If you performed and maintained good relationships with these upwardly mobile people – opportunity would come your way.  In a sense, my career path was like surfing a wave…at almost 10 years it was a nice one at that.

My job at CJOB/POWER97 came as a result of a friend introducing me to the General Sales Manager of the station.  My friend Blair put in a good word for me I’m sure…but I believe I got the job based on skills and talent.

My role at Pizza Hotline, came about as a result of being a client centric Account Executive at the radio station.  If you focus on the client good things happen…and in this case I got a tremendous opportunity to hone my skills working with a market leader.

My current role as Sales & Marketing Strategist at Naida Communications came as a result of rekindled university friendship.  His company worked on a marketing piece for Pizza Hotline…I got to know Jeff and his company better and made the decision to join him.

As you can see, my career progression has been largely shaped by hard work,good reputation and enhanced by people I know.

Your hard work and reputation can be further leveraged with the efficiency of Social Media.  How? think more job opportunities, more joint venture opportunities, more sales opportunities.  Having said this, you can’t just sign up for a LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter account and expect things to happen.  Things happen when you engage, get connected and offer value.  Improve your odds twofold by getting a warm lead in…it’s worked for me and I’m sure it would work for you too.

Check out my LinkedIn Map Network…it’s a cool feature that LinkedIn offers to help you see how your world is interconnected.  First you need to be LinkedIn, then you need to get connected by reaching out to people, then you can get your MAP done by going here.  What you see below is my ZOOMED out version but when you ZOOMIN…you see all the names beside the dots.