Many, especially in the business realm, are still struggling to come to terms with Twitter so Foursquare may still be that leap too far, having said that a number of enterprising NZ businesses are already taking advantage of it.

You may have noticed the way we communicate and engage with each other has changed. In no small part it is because of technology, though it’s less of a technology revolution and more of a communications evolution.

It’s often the little things that we say that mean the most. Words can be extremely motivational and incredibly destructive. Ironically the less words we use the greater the impact and resonance.

As we start to integrate Social Media into our business we need to consider ways to calculate and measure the return on investment it represents.

“Thought Leader” is the new cool set in the online business fraternity pushing aside the passé entrepreneur for a trendier tagline. I cringe a little every time someone introduces themselves as an entrepreneur …

One of the fundamental rules of blogging is to keep on subject. My subject would be best described as “Communications Technology for Business”.

Yesterday, Sunday the 21st March was Twitters 4th Birthday. Last month Twitter hit 50 million tweets a day and Twitter as a word is to be accepted into the Collins English Dictionary. When was it you first heard about Twitter? I suspect for most it was within the last year.

Before you actually start to engage in using Social Media some serious consideration should be made to who within your organisation or company has the mandate to manage the portfolio.

Twitter can be as frustrating as it is powerful and engaging. Because there is so much opinion and commentary most of the content is either not relevant to you, pointless or space filling nonsense. To get the most out of Twitter you have to decide what it is you want from it.

Few would claim last year was an easy one for business. Taking an optimistic point of view, it has forced us to look long and hard at our business models and come up with ways to improve on the bottom line.

I have approached this series first looking at “Why bother with Social Media”, now we move to “What it is”. Social Media is not a single product nor is it a one size fits all process. Social Media is less of a thing and more of a “way” of engaging with your stakeholders.

You want to make more money don’t you? No matter what business you are in or what industry you represent the majority of us have one goal …

It’s not surprising business people are confused by Social Media. It’s been thrust upon us and heralded by some as the only way to communicate and the demise of traditional media.

We’ve all had an “Ah-ha!” experience at some stage, you know the “when the penny drops” moment. Today’s Web2.0 business environment is still such an unknown quantity to many it’s little wonder the penny hasn’t dropped there for a large majority.

No-one goes into business planning to fail – do they? I was reading some quotations yesterday and one from Michael Gerber really got me thinking,

The concept of six degrees of separation, sometimes referred to as “the human web” has applied to human social engagement for many years.

From a business perspective Blogs can be a goldmine if aligned correctly with your other communications and marketing initiatives.