I find it both amusing and rather sad that I still get emails from local businesses which do not seem to have moved in their thinking beyond somewhere in the latter end of the last century, at least as far as marketing is concerned.

You get the sense that they think email is hi-tech.

And some can’t even get that right. One local real estate agent, part of a nationwide group with fancy offices and distinctive uniforms, keeps sending me emails addressed:

Dear ,

That’s right, can’t even figure out how to do a mailmerge.

And that’s not all. At the foot of the message – which is pretty meager anyway, a plea to click on a link to go to a website, without telling me what it is about – is the following message:

If your e-mail program does not allow you to click directly on the above address (such as AOL), you will need to copy and paste the address into your World Wide Web browser (eg Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer).

Netscape Navigator?

I would unsubscribe but – in clear breach of the Australian Spam Act – there is no option provided to do so.

What was I saying about last century?

The New, Connected Consumer

Businesses like that real estate franchise don’t seem to realize that there is a new consumer abroad in the land today, what author Brian Solis in his book The End of Business As Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution
calls the social/connected consumer.

Unlike the traditional consumer – a member of an increasingly rare species – who studied print catalogs and maybe even read emails, and unlike the merely online consumer who takes to search engines and finds sites with relevant products or services, the new, connected consumer goes first to her social streams – her network on Facebook, on Twitter or on some other social platform.

Here’s where the home based business owner comes into her own. She has not spent all that dosh on fancy uniforms. She has not rented out expensive office space on Main Street. She can use her marketing budget on what counts – smart strategies and tactics to connect with her customers where they are.

And that is increasingly, overwhelmingly, on the social web.

That’s where the rubber hits the road these days.

Not on Netscape.

Or email.

(And yes, email still works – for some. Just not a great strategy for most of us to rely solely or mainly on that particular channel.)

He always makes good business sense.

He is also very funny.

Just now, I took what I intended to be a quick, preliminary look at a video of a presentation he gave to a real estate conference this year. The presentation was so absorbing (and with no slides!) that I could not stop till the hour-long video was up.

He explains very clearly why now is a terrific time to be in – or getting into – social media for business.

I recommend it.

If you want to get, in one place and in friendly, stimulating company, a practical understanding of the state of not just the blogosphere but new/social media generally, then I recommend you check out the program.

It hardly seems like four years ago this month, but on October 14, 2007  I posted here about my then impending trip to the USA and specifically to the inaugural BlogWorld and New Media Expo , held in Las Vegas, Nov 7-9 that year.

I knew that some of the bloggerati had been skeptical, but I had been optimistic – even a tad boosterish – about the event ever since founder Rick Calvert had announced it.

Happily for Rick, his great team and everyone else who shared his vision, the event has not only grown since then, but this year has replicated itself, with an East Coast event earlier this year and now the West Coast event coming up.

In that blog post back in 2007, I wrote that it was not just the array of speakers and topics that I was looking forward to, but that

…a big attraction for me is that for three days in November I am going to have the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of bloggers across a wide spectrum of interests, from the business bloggers like myself, to military bloggers and political bloggers and maybe knitting bloggers.

Not only was I not disappointed, I was more than delighted with the event, and especially with new friendships forged and existing virtual friendships taking on the extra dimension of being able to hang out with people in real life.  I don’t think I did get to meet any of those military bloggers or knitting bloggers, but I met lots of other people across the new media spectrum.

Several of the friends I made then, or had previously known virtually and was able to connect with for the first time face to face, are speaking this year.

And regarding speakers, one of the great things about BlogWorld is that you do actually get opportunities to chat with many of the speakers, not just in the post session lineup, but in the coffee or lunch areas, at parties and so on. The event from the outset has been one where everyone mingles, seasoned pros with blogging and social media newbies. It is fun, educational and great for stimulating conversation and real networking.  Admittedly it is a couple of years since I’ve been, but going on reports I’ve had of more recent events that spirit and style has continued.

Of course, as with any biggish group of people, you may find a few “superior” types. I did, but they were notable for being the exception (and I was happy to leave them bathing in contemplation of their own superiority). Those few were more than made up for by the plethora of bright, knowledgeable and very friendly speakers who seemed quite happy to mix with, listen to and chat with all comers.

And then there were:

• the diversity and richness of content in the many presentations, enhanced by the fact that pitching from the podium is not permitted
• the array of products and services on display and being explained in the Expo part of the event

Just reading back through what I’ve written here, I have to say I am now even more wistful about not being able to make it to for BlogWorld & New Media Expo next month, and thinking I had better get my act together to be there in 2012.

If you have a question about BlogWorld and New Media Expo, please ask: if I don’t know the answer I will do my best to point you in the direction for getting the information you want.

Also, if you have your own story or perception of BlogWorlds past, please share!

But do you need to join anyway?

Are you maybe one of those people saying right now “Oh no! Not another social networking platform?! What with Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and blogging and the rest of it, I can’t keep up!”

Which would be a perfectly understandable reaction.

Or are you on the other hand a bit of an early adopter, already there and wondering what time and energy – if any – you should dedicate to this new social platform, from a business viewpoint?

After all, given that Google+ is not yet open to businesses to establish their presence there, why would you want to give your time and attention to this latest new, new thing when you no doubt have plenty of other things to focus on?

I don’t have simple answers to these questions and having spent a large slab of time in recent days experimenting with the platform and reading the thoughts and opinions of various pundits, I don’t believe anyone has truly bankable answers either.

But I believe the development is very significant for business and I believe business owners and freelancers would be well advised to get in now and learn the practicalities of how the platform works, against the day when the doors are opened for business accounts.

Chris Brogan, a very knowledgeable and considered man, has no doubt it’s time to get aboard, open a personal account and learn how the platform works. In his post Why Google Plus Will be the Next Big Thing for Your Business he writes:

Simply put, it’s important to take action on Google+ right now. I saw the benefits of this when I joined Twitter in October 2006. If you get in, get familiar, start growing connections and learn how to curate and share, you’ll be ahead of the game. It’s not usually my thing to make predictions, but I’m sticking with this one.

Webinar tomorrow

So in short, while Google+ is not yet fully open for business, it is open for learning, practising and getting ourselves set for when the doors are open for businesses to establish their own presence there.

I’m focusing on Google+ in my webinar tomorrow in the ninth of my current 12 month series of free webinars on social media strategy.

How to sign up for Google+

By the way, I know that for people new to the world of online social networking  even the process of signing up for a new platform can be off-putting, so I put together a brief slideshow to demonstrate how to sign up, including how to get a gmail.com account – a pre-requisite for opening a Google+ account.

Something to share?

If you are already on Google+, it would be great to hear your early impressions, whether positive or negative.

In the short video above I explain that I found over a quarter of a million connections (including first, second and third degrees) within a 120 km (75m) radius. That represents almost 10% of the total population of the region – South East Queensland (actually may be a bit higher than that as the region is bigger than would be covered by a 120 km radius). That looks to me like a happy hunting ground for new business!

I have blogged about this at slightly greater length on my Des Walsh dot Com site.

Have you done a search on LinkedIn for local connections? Any interesting results?