I have to say that I am not a Twitter user. I don't get it and - call me a Luddite - I don't want to get it. I have too much media in my life already! And my social life exists in a real not a virtual world. So it was nice that Deborah Eastman, Global Head of Consulting at Satmetrix, started by raising the issue of inane tweets:

"Can I move from the sofa to the more comfortable bed without getting up?"...Well, no.

"I'm in the line at the deli."...Do I care?

"I've eaten dinner and now I'm full."...Well, heck - thanks for sharing. You made my day - not.

What was interesting was that among these ridiculous tweets received by Deb, she also received some interesting tweets from Bruce Temkin, Rob Markey - to name just a couple. And that's what excites her about the medium. Notifications of something relevant and important to her.

facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube - this is the social media world. For example, LinkedIn has over 90 million active users. Multiply this over the other social media sites and channels - it's a whole world out there. That means that - outside of your company's influence - there are billions of "conversations" going on about company brands - including yours.

Social Media marketing - it's a new channel. Or is it? Marketers are finding that 96% of social media advertising doesn't work. That's because users don't want to hear from you and your company. They want to connect with other peers, friends, family and colleagues. They want information from each other - not advertising and marketing from brands, whose interest is in driving revenue.

Conversations are happening whether you want to participate or not. Now - companies might have feedback surveys that provide solicited feedback. But what about all those other conversations? The unsolicited feedback? How can you use this feedback to connect with your customers in a way that works for them and for you?

Social Experience - at this point Deb introduced audience participation. "Get out your tweeting devices!" Think about airline experiences, and the positive or negative experience you had on your journey. Live in the room, she had people tweeting. A real time display of how feedback on Twitter is suddenly hitting a whole audience of twits...sorry, I mean tweeters! (There's that Luddite in me again!)

But let's stop joking. This is a serious business. Think about the exponential rate of growth that this type of WOM actually has. Perhaps those live tweets just now hit about 2,000 people from just 10 people tweeting. Imagine if all 500 conference attendees had tweeted. 100,000 people (if my math is correct) are suddenly hearing all about the good and bad and the downright ugly experiences that attendees have had with airlines on the way to the Miami Net Promoter conference.

If you are truly influential, like Stephen Fry - a comedian from the UK - you have over 2 million Followers. Recently, his Virgin Media broadband went down. He tweeted, and Virgin had things up and running again in just a couple of hours. Stephen Fry then tweets about how awesome Virgin Media had been.

Virgin Media have a "Tweam" who specifically look after Twitter social media... And they recognise the impact of influential tweeters. (Of course, if you had just 50 followers and your broadband went down, you'll be waiting for the standard 12-24 hours for it to be back up and running again.)

It's a great presentation as Deb continues to show more examples on facebook, linking to Twitter, videos on YouTube etc etc. It's a strong message to the audience.

You need to understand the social media world and the best way to utilise this - both as a private individual and as an organisation.

By the way, I just want to say one last thing about Virgin Media. I am a customer, I get cable, landline and 50 - yes FIFTY - meg broadband from them and I love them. They are great.

Finally - maybe as well as being a Luddite, I'm a bit of an ostrich - but that's really only with Twitter. I have an FB page, I use LinkedIn for professional relationships - and to provide a channel to all of the Net Promoter Associate Certification attendees that I teach. So maybe not that much of a Luddite or ostrich - and I love my Apple TV!

Hey, I've just realised...this blog? Welcome to the social media world.

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