- George Mc Quade talks about Social Media at Century City Rotary.
“Now that I have your attention, I want to talk about the importance of Social Media, and why you can’t ignore it as a small or large business,” he said.
“We are experiencing a consumer reavolution and media evolution,” Mc Quade said. “People are choosing what they want to read and see, when they want see it, from where they want to get it from and when they want it.
There is good, bad and ugly to Social Media. The good is the fact that when there is an emergency, people tweet right away on Twitter, and during the Haiti and most recent Chile earthquakes people were finding missing people and victims in hotels before emergency rescue crews were on the scene on Facebook.”
Mc Quade noted that in 2003 Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his bid for California Governor on the Jay Leno Tonight Show. “Two term Governor and Attorney General Jerry Brown announced his bid for the Democratic ticket for governor yesterday on Youtube. Why, because he’s smart and he knows there’s a bigger audience on the Internet than the evening news,” said McQuade.
- Gina Longo and Madison Slate, The Slate Foundation will be using social media for fundraising soon.
"Before coming today I asked Host Frank Mottek, KNX Business Hour, which social site was the best for business Online?," Mc Quade noted. "He said, 'that he told a Bioscience meeting, the there's nothing like personal contact, and the best social site is right here in this room.'"
- Frank Mottel,KNX Business Hour introducing panelists at event downtown.
traditional media and the traditional ways to network and communicate, and use social media to compliment what you have been doing to become successful. "'There's nothing like face-to-face meetings,' he told me."
About half have at least one Facebook fan page, 50 percent have at least one YouTube channel, and one third has at least one corporate blog. 20 percent of the companies use all four social media platforms.
“Even if you have never used social media, you do not have to spend $350 to $900 per media workshop to learn it,” explained Mc Quade. “But do not ignore the biggies, because Facebook has more than 400 million users and Twitter is not too far behind.”
Mc Quade recommended starting out slow like riding a bike. “85 percent of people Online search Google, so why not use Google Products, they’re free, and safe,” he said.
“Go to Google type in ‘free gmail,’ signup using an easy username like your first initial and last name, and pick a good password with numbers and letters like Google2011 or something like that. Then type in free Google blog and use your gmail username and account. After you become familiar with gmail, then try Google Buzz, where you can put all of our new media and blog accounts on later.”
Mc Quade also said be careful what you wish for in posting everything on new media sites. “Best advice anyone can use is to separate your personal stuff from professional,” Mc Quade said. “Keep your family photos on private accounts, and every once in a while Google your name and your company to see what people and users are saying about you.”
Google your name and your company to see what people and users are saying about you. You might be surprise to see how many people have your name or brand Online somewhere.”
Mc Quade is a national media relations expert and the West Coast Bureau chief for www.odwyepr.com writing monthly columns on new media trends for O’Dwyer Publications, New York. He is also founder and vice president of MAYO Communications (www.MayoCommunications.com).
