My move to a new frontier

My foray into social media over the past - oh, what has it been now? - month and half, has been quite the adventure. I'm not going to stand here and claim to have grasped it completely. In fact, I don't think its breadth can be grasped. Since being introduced to social networking sites like twitter.com and the buckets of blogs that have been plopped onto my plate, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed. It's unlike anything else and the more I look into it, the more I begin to realize that this where aspiring student entrepreneurs need to be.

The Network, on and offline

It's daunting to initially get into "The Network" as it were, so I best advise you bring a friend or quickly find a friend who knows what it is they're doing. When I first joined Twitter a while ago, I remember thinking dang the concept is sweet - but it would be so much better if there was someone to interact with in all of this (which is, in essence, the objective of social media - interaction). Before I knew it though, I began to follow people who have the same entrepreneurial, interactive bent as me.

What I find most fascinating about Twitter and the social media frenzy that I've been opened up to is this seemingly intertwined network that extends beyond the internet into the real world. Go to any Democamp, Startupcamp or Third Tuesday (all of which take place all over North America and the world) and you'll see a third of those in attendance tweeting from their Blackberries. For a month and-a-half I talked to Malcolm Bastien on Twitter, and the other night I ran into him in person at Third Tuesday in Toronto (which I'll go into later).

Information, on and offline

Man, if I had a buck for every tidbit of learning I've consumed since getting into all of this I'd have at least a thousand bone by now. Whether its through random blogs of interest that you catch through a Tweet or events happening right now or in the future (yea, Twitter's earning a rep as being a first on the scene news force). But again, it doesn't end online - I was at Third Tuesday, which I found out about through Twitter, the other night and got to take in a really great speaker.

So to recap the learning cycle, I'm there on twitter, being fed information a mile a minute. Great. I hear about an event happening in Toronto for PR professionals, tech aficionados and entrepreneurs. Sweet. I check it out and hear a really great discussion and audience engagement. After its over, I get to hang around with all of these cool like minded people. Its a win-win for me.

You need it

I read an article in Profit the other day that heralded social media as the new critical success factor to starting up your business. Its beyond early adoption now and IDC says social media ought to grow 815% by 2009. That would make sense looking at this. But social media is fickle and not just anyone and any company can just jump onboard and say they get it; this is, in every sense, face time with the customers. Social Media Group from Dundas, ONT. says that if you're new to social media, take it easy and just blog.

Joe Thornley at Thornley Fallis (a PR firm in Ottawa) is all about setting up a blog for corporations and has worked with the likes of Visa and Dell. This guy knows what he's doing and I think he's borderline guru. But blogs seem to be the tip of the ice berg.

You'd be one of a few

I noticed this the minute I walked into Third Tuesday a few days ago: everyone is old. Scratch that, most people are older. There were very few students kicking around there, which tells me there's a huge opportunity for students to become versed in and excel in this. Malcolm discussed the role of students and digital media in one of his blog posts.

While there's plenty of students engaging in the online conversation, it seems to me that few are going beyond and taking part in critical thought about the potential that exists for social media as an integral part of growing a business. I recommend checking it out and really considering where your customers are, or will be, and how

On thing I'm learning for sure though, social media takes time, persistence and commitment. Fortunately, sites like Twitter are not time intensive (its a micro blog) and since its open source API, there's a ton of apps you can download in order to make your tweeting easier. I highly recommend checking it out. Now.