Is Social Media Too Fast?

Your "early bird gets the tweet" or blog post comment rings true with conversation at the last #evfn. There has to be a "commenting sweet spot", where you are just late enough that a few people have commented such that you are (hopefully) introduced to both new perspectives and people, yet also early enough that you have the opportunity for your comment is both unique in content/perspective and that those who come after you are not too overwhelmed by the 50 or 500 other comments that they skip past yours to the end.

<abbr>Ms. Herr’s last blog post..will work for food</abbr>

great post jason...yeah this is true. i can feel the results in it as i have used this as well

great post jason...yeah this is true. i can feel the results in it as i have used this as well

Is #Social #Media Too Fast? http://bit.ly/XjRH9 good read

Liked: Is Social Media Too Fast? | Social Media Marketing | Social Media ... http://bit.ly/UEsBr

I agree. Sometimes we need to just SLOW down! http://bit.ly/XjRH9

Good points and this great line: "(replies to messages) like a Russian dancing bear on crack" @jaybaer http://tinyurl.com/czx2kf

Sorry last link failed - http://tinyurl.com/czx2kf (via @lisamloeffler)

Instead of strategy, we "jump from task to message to task to message like a Russian dancing bear on crack." http://ow.ly/40ja

http://bit.ly/wkBIn - Is Social Media Too Fast? | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Consulting - Convince & Convert

Is Social Media Too Fast?: One of the greatest challenges of effective social media outreach is the need to be a.. http://bit.ly/9elJx

RT @jenniferbunker: Is Social Media Too Fast? | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Consultin... http://bit.ly/A8xe3

Even though I'm comment 37, I have to say I love the phrase "Russian dancing bear on crack!" Mostly because it's true.

When I hear, "But, I don't have time for social networking" I respond with, "Then don't whine when you don't get your message out before your customers do."

It's all about the early bird catching the worm. Thanks Jason!

P.S. I don't believe you're turning 40.

Your Message
I agree social media is fast, maybe too fast.

We're in the middle of elections in our province (British Columbia, Canada) and traditional media is tracking the politicians through their twitter accounts. Information on what ARE these politicians doing; what are they having for dinner, who are they seeing today, etc. really don't interest me. They really don't get what twitter is all about.

So I'd say that if you use social media for business (including politics) remember that you're trying to engage - hard to do in 140 characters - and trying to build a conversation (2 way).

Fast is good; if fast also gives you relevance.

Kris Bovay’s last blog post..Apr 23, Managing: Conflict Resolution Tips

Love the topic. I just tweeted about the fact that Twitter is not helping my ADD get any better. I think the challenge regarding being the fastest to react is that your reaction may not be the right one. If you don't spend some time from planning thru execution, you could find yourself running an ever tireless race on the gerbil wheel. The trick is finding the right balance for your organization and putting enough infrastructure in place to facilitate a thorough, thoughtful, and quick reaction. There will clearly be times when immediate reaction is essential, but it may require you have a critical path that gives you the guardrails to make the right decision.

ctrofexcellence’s last blog post..Refining Marketing Accountability

Good Points. Clearly the "strategic thinking" does and will come. I see it happening in two ways. first by taking yourself out of the stream periodically to see the forest adn to plan. Second, like any video game - the more you do it the quicker your reaction times so strategy can be done at some level on the fly.

One way to address the speed issue is to question whose job it is to respond to comments on social media. If the CEO insists on doing it, it's very worthy, but doomed from a quick-response point of view. And can you really pay someone to sit there all day, poised to tweet? Small businesses certainly can't. Here's my solution - hope you agree. http://bit.ly/18RTAF

Sorry - accidentally added two comments. Also note that Ajax Comment Editor allows you to edit (hence this additional note) but not delete. Guess you can do that for me!

One way to address the speed issue is to question whose job it is to respond to comments on social media. If the CEO insists on doing it, it's very worthy, but doomed from a quick-response point of view. And can you really pay someone to sit there all day, poised to tweet? Small businesses certainly can't. Here's my solution - hope you agree. http://bit.ly/18RTAF

John Bottom’s last blog post..Who is the social media voice for your business?

Twitter is going to be a flash in the pan. It's come on the scene in light-speed, and has taken hold with spammers and Internet marketers who don't have true 'relationships' with their followers. As a result their is no depth to most of the communication, and hence, no reason to continue to 'follow' other than people trying to ride the tidal wave of 'social media 2.0' Well, I'm here to say, that Twitter, which started good in concept, is rapidly, and I mean light speed, getting transformed into a spamfest. The controls that the Social Media 2.0 Gold Standard, FaceBook, has put in place has ensured the experience stays positive for the user. Granted, there have been growing pains with FB, Twitter is not going to have growing pains because it's soon to plateau, and soon to die... or shall we say twit it's last tweet... or meaningful tweet... look at how many services are leveraging 'followers' or 'improving your follower numbers' sorry... but that's not social media... that's SPAM... even a pig with lipstick on still a pig... people have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon because it's reached a meteoric high in the media coverage... but as far as true, authentic useability? I'm saying farewell to Twitter... my FB is much more meaningful to me. I'd rather have 600 people that value what I say on FB 'follow' me, than have 2,000 people regard me as 'spam' on Twitter. Twitter is a bottle rocket that has left the bottle... it's soon to go bang, and fall back to earth. Besides, did you have that same 'Ah ha' moment that you had the first time you logged into FB? I joined FB on a fluke, and all the true authentic connections that I made, created REAL value in my eyes before I'd even heard the term 'social media 2.0' I joined Twitter, and I was like, what does this mean? Why is this important to me? Why does anyone that doesn't truly know me care? And that, my friends, is why Twitter will be a glimmer in the eyes of grandfather time looking back on 2009... Twitter will be irrelevant before August of this year. You heard it here first. Cheers and Aloha- Hal Wilkerson, Waikiki, HI

Even though I'm comment 37, I have to say I love the phrase "Russian dancing bear on crack!" Mostly because it's true.

When I hear, "But, I don't have time for social networking" I respond with, "Then don't whine when you don't get your message out before your customers do."

It's all about the early bird catching the worm. Thanks Jason!

P.S. I don't believe you're turning 40.

Your Message
I agree social media is fast, maybe too fast.

We're in the middle of elections in our province (British Columbia, Canada) and traditional media is tracking the politicians through their twitter accounts. Information on what ARE these politicians doing; what are they having for dinner, who are they seeing today, etc. really don't interest me. They really don't get what twitter is all about.

So I'd say that if you use social media for business (including politics) remember that you're trying to engage - hard to do in 140 characters - and trying to build a conversation (2 way).

Fast is good; if fast also gives you relevance.

Kris Bovay’s last blog post..Apr 23, Managing: Conflict Resolution Tips

Love the topic. I just tweeted about the fact that Twitter is not helping my ADD get any better. I think the challenge regarding being the fastest to react is that your reaction may not be the right one. If you don't spend some time from planning thru execution, you could find yourself running an ever tireless race on the gerbil wheel. The trick is finding the right balance for your organization and putting enough infrastructure in place to facilitate a thorough, thoughtful, and quick reaction. There will clearly be times when immediate reaction is essential, but it may require you have a critical path that gives you the guardrails to make the right decision.

ctrofexcellence’s last blog post..Refining Marketing Accountability

Good Points. Clearly the "strategic thinking" does and will come. I see it happening in two ways. first by taking yourself out of the stream periodically to see the forest adn to plan. Second, like any video game - the more you do it the quicker your reaction times so strategy can be done at some level on the fly.

Doesn't Radian6 cost money? I don't remember it having a free option.

Jacinta’s last blog post..Twitter Retweet button for Wordpress

One way to address the speed issue is to question whose job it is to respond to comments on social media. If the CEO insists on doing it, it's very worthy, but doomed from a quick-response point of view. And can you really pay someone to sit there all day, poised to tweet? Small businesses certainly can't. Here's my solution - hope you agree. http://bit.ly/18RTAF

Sorry - accidentally added two comments. Also note that Ajax Comment Editor allows you to edit (hence this additional note) but not delete. Guess you can do that for me!

One way to address the speed issue is to question whose job it is to respond to comments on social media. If the CEO insists on doing it, it's very worthy, but doomed from a quick-response point of view. And can you really pay someone to sit there all day, poised to tweet? Small businesses certainly can't. Here's my solution - hope you agree. http://bit.ly/18RTAF

John Bottom’s last blog post..Who is the social media voice for your business?

Twitter is going to be a flash in the pan. It's come on the scene in light-speed, and has taken hold with spammers and Internet marketers who don't have true 'relationships' with their followers. As a result their is no depth to most of the communication, and hence, no reason to continue to 'follow' other than people trying to ride the tidal wave of 'social media 2.0' Well, I'm here to say, that Twitter, which started good in concept, is rapidly, and I mean light speed, getting transformed into a spamfest. The controls that the Social Media 2.0 Gold Standard, FaceBook, has put in place has ensured the experience stays positive for the user. Granted, there have been growing pains with FB, Twitter is not going to have growing pains because it's soon to plateau, and soon to die... or shall we say twit it's last tweet... or meaningful tweet... look at how many services are leveraging 'followers' or 'improving your follower numbers' sorry... but that's not social media... that's SPAM... even a pig with lipstick on still a pig... people have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon because it's reached a meteoric high in the media coverage... but as far as true, authentic useability? I'm saying farewell to Twitter... my FB is much more meaningful to me. I'd rather have 600 people that value what I say on FB 'follow' me, than have 2,000 people regard me as 'spam' on Twitter. Twitter is a bottle rocket that has left the bottle... it's soon to go bang, and fall back to earth. Besides, did you have that same 'Ah ha' moment that you had the first time you logged into FB? I joined FB on a fluke, and all the true authentic connections that I made, created REAL value in my eyes before I'd even heard the term 'social media 2.0' I joined Twitter, and I was like, what does this mean? Why is this important to me? Why does anyone that doesn't truly know me care? And that, my friends, is why Twitter will be a glimmer in the eyes of grandfather time looking back on 2009... Twitter will be irrelevant before August of this year. You heard it here first. Cheers and Aloha- Hal Wilkerson, Waikiki, HI

@Daria - I love the Twitter truce. I'm game if you are!

@Meg - I'm glad to see you thinking through re-architecting the entire business model. I believe that's really what it's going to take to make this happen in a sensible, scalable way. 24x7x365 monitoring and reaction.

@Gina - I agree it's just the way the world has evolved. That doesn't mean this climate produces the best work, the best thinking. And it doesn't mean I have to like it (although I generally do).

@Connie - Thanks for stopping by. I absolutely support the Community Manager concept, and am serving that role on a part-time basis for a couple of clients. Fun, although difficult to be always-on.

@David - Yes, I remember setting type by hand for brochures too. (seriously, I do). Thankfully, technology like yours and Connie's make it easier, but somebody still has to be at the controls. The biggest issue I see is being able to drop everything and respond. It's much more viable (I find) in a corporate setting where you have a community manager, than in an agency setting where you're juggling tons of clients.

@Amber - You're the poster child for this, well, post. I don't find the issue to be so much the number of hours it requires so much as having the ability to react when you're already working on several other items. To me, that's the challenge. The herky jerky, stop and start. As Connie says, however, setting a schedule is a good plan. Wish I could stick to it. Damn airplanes keep interfering.

@Bob - You said it, brother. The speed of social media very much creates tactics-first thinking. That causes poor results and inconsistent messaging. Strategy first. Strategy first. Strategy first. Then tactics

@Ron - Yep. 40 in September. I'll be registering at Tweetdeck. ;)

@MsHerr - Indeed. I'd love to see a number cruncher like @danzarrella figure out the ideal commenting position. I'm sure it would make for interesting findings.

@DJ - I think everyone has to address scale in their own way, but however you do it, it requires behavior change on your part. I used to read tons of blogs every morning, and then write whatever I felt was interesting du jour. I can't do that any longer. Too much going on daily. So, I write posts in batches, and release them 3x/week. That changes the nature of what I publish here on C&C. Less timely. Hopefully, more thoughtful. Same is true with Twitter, LI, FB, et al. I can't spend the kind of time I used to, so hopefully the time I do spend is higher quality. Brian Solis, for example, will not respond/reply on Twitter at all now. He just posts links. It's basically StumbleUpon for him. Interesting. In any event, whatever you decide, you'll do it well. You're the genuine article, and that's why people follow you, not because of your response time. Incidentally, thanks for lumping me in with Amber, but I'm not in her league in any respect.

@Stuart - Cut back to 6 diet Cokes per day, and then post another comment. We all want to see this science experiment in action!

@Scott - Great research. Really interesting stuff. Folks, read this if you get a chance.

@KK - You gotta pick an application!

@Hunter - You nailed it. That's my problem with the whole thing. No time for context. No time to absorb. No time to think. It's just react, react, react. Fortunately, I've been in online marketing for 15 years, so I'm conditioned to it. But many of my clients are freaking out. The game has changed. It's like going from anaerobic to aerobic exercise.

@Kent - Indeed, you were channeling a bit there. Good stuff. I would agree that sometimes first beats best right now. But I also very much believe that quality eventually triumphs. If I didn't think that to be true, I wouldn't take the time to do this. Thanks for comment. Come on back!

Great post Jason!

The speed of SM seems to highlight the need for planning and creating a verbal (and visual for that matter) brand identity strategy and system of elements (brand positioning and messaging especially) so all brand communications are consistent. Before diving into SM a company needs to define what they are trying to accomplish and how they are going to facilitate that.

Thanks for the great info!

Bob

@rjdcreative@bobdiercksmeier

And the irony is that I'm later to comment than usual because I've been in meetings today!

Speed isn't going to change I'm afraid. No reverse gear here. I think managing expectations is a big part of it, but business needs to adapt because the ecosystem of communication has changed for good.

The better and more precise our monitoring, too, the more efficiently we'll be able to contribute.

The world isn't just flat now. It's swift too. I know my job will never be 8 hours long. But my passion for the potential of this new era far outweighs my worry about being connected. Scale will be sacrificed over time, but my relationships will run long and deep.

Thanks to DJ for the kind words, and to you, Jay, for the great conversation.

Cheers,@ambercadabra
Amber

Hey there Jason,

Ah yes, those days of yesteryear. I remember them as well. Standing by the giant printer waiting for my green and blue paper memos to print so I could put them in a interoffice memo envelope and send them out to members of my team on truck going in the afternoon. Ah, those heady days.

What's interesting is that if you look at the trend, 140 characters and 5 minute response is now becoming the norm from an expectation perspective. I suspect we will soon have a new service called 8words and it will be 1 minute responses. :)

As someone once told me "it is what it is" so if the norm is always faster than the day before, and it seems like it always will be, then those companies that embrace it first will certainly always have an advantage. The key to helping to not go insane through all of this is to find ways to distribute the load and prioritize the responses. Again, all need to be done asap but some perhaps in 5 minutes, some in an hour, some in a day. Having the ability to route based on parameters on the social media front lines allows a company to aggressively move into "fast mode" without blowing their brains out. All one has to do is look at the progress in the call center biz over the past 20 years to see how companies can scale up. Unfortunately there is a lot of abuse of this technology to cut costs rather than grow relationships. With the right focus on the important part of social media - connecting and communicating - I think companies will be able to hit the gas pedal and catch up to all their customers currently zipping by.

Great post Jason.

Cheers.@davidalston@radian6
David

David Alston’s last blog post..zig: Harnessing the Fast-Moving Social Web

... as I race over here to make a comment! Haste does make waste sometimes.

I try to have a routine. It's a matter of what's in control? Is your email & Twitter in control or are you? The joy of listening tools like our Techrigy SM2 (yes I work for them) is that it brings the highlights to us of what we need to respond to. Thanks for the mention!
I've even shifted to monitoring industry terms & used it as my new 'feed reader'. My usual reads are pulled in as well as new authors which is helpful!

And I believe that it is important to have a 'person' doing this. A community manager is imperative in this day & age. They can teach the team at the company & it's a group effort.

Connie@cbensen
Chief Community Officer, Techrigy

.... as I race over here to make a comment! Haste does make waste sometimes.

I try to have a routine. It's a matter of what's in control? Is your email & Twitter in control or are you? The joy of listening tools like our Techrigy SM2 (yes I work for them) is that it brings the highlights to us of what we need to respond to. Thanks for the mention!
I've even shifted to monitoring industry terms & used it as my new 'feed reader'. My usual reads are pulled in as well as new authors which is helpful!

And I believe that it is important to have a 'person' doing this. A community manager is imperative in this day & age. They can teach the team at the company & it's a group effort.

Connie@cbensen
Chief Community Officer, Techrigy

Nope, it's not too fast. It's just the way things are - kind of like a real-time chatroom where comments fly fast and hard, and it's difficult for some to keep up. Those who do keep up will be ahead of the game and will, I hope, teach those who do not.

ADHD..love it! This gets me thinking that social media in marketing.....OOOH A SQUIRREL! Sorry, where was I? Oh right...... wait, am I on Twitter or Facebook?

Meg Ferguson’s last blog post..Pay-per-click ROI

Doesn't Radian6 cost money? I don't remember it having a free option.

Jacinta’s last blog post..Twitter Retweet button for Wordpress

Great food for thought! For a while I was amazed how many brand controversies seem to blow up on Twitter over a weekend -- and then I realized it's because we're all so much better at monitoring and responding rapidly when we're not supposed to be enjoying some downtime. (What happened to the weekend anyway?)

I think right now we're caught between our own expectations, those of our clients/bosses/companies, and the expectations of anyone in the broader world who may be trying to talk with us. Somehow we're going to have to come up with a new balance, so that we can once again opt whether--the technological ability aside-- we really have to be focused on business 24/7.

Maybe we need a Twitter truce that declares that we can tweet nothing but mindless blather during the hours b/w 9:00 p.m. EST Friday and 8:00 a.m. EST on Monday. :)

Daria Steigman’s last blog post..Decoding the Twitterstream

And still, I'm left wondering if the need for speed, the desire/craving/addiction to be the first, the last, the fastest has replaced exceptional content as what drives this world. Has the medium indeed become the message? Has crack-yack become the goal of the day? (Realizing I'm starting to write like Carrie Bradshaw, I'm signing off).

My answer to the headline question: Yes.

There are some hyper-productive folks out there cranking out lots of valuable, insightful information almost nonstop. Problem is, there's also a time to step back, digest, absorb, apply, etc. -- and that often gets lost in trying to keep pace with the constant stream.

As social media filtering tools become more effective, this situation should improve for those of us who are trying to stave off ADHD. My question is still whether the benefits of increasing connections exponentially in the long run outweighs giving up much of that time for contemplation that you mentioned. I guess we'll see ...

Hunter Boyle’s last blog post..Optimization training, online and coming to a city near you …

Great post. I definitely feel the affects of social media ADHD. At the moment I have 3 different twitter apps open - Tweetdeck, Tweetie and HootSuite - and I can't shut them down! Somebody please help me!

(loved your analogy of the Russian dancing bear on crack..you have a gift with words my friend :)

Great Post, and yes this isn't theory...Rapid Response is key. We just published a case study on a big brand peanut butter company that wanted to declare itself safe during the Salmonella outbreak earlier this year. The data that we gathered supported the theory that you suggest, measured by brand perceptions. The whole paper can be accessed here Successfully using Social Media for Crisis Management PR
Scott Hoffman’s last blog post..Steve Polsky, CEO of Flixster is tomorrow’s Special Guest on Radio Show

@Daria - I love the Twitter truce. I'm game if you are!

@Meg - I'm glad to see you thinking through re-architecting the entire business model. I believe that's really what it's going to take to make this happen in a sensible, scalable way. 24x7x365 monitoring and reaction.

@Gina - I agree it's just the way the world has evolved. That doesn't mean this climate produces the best work, the best thinking. And it doesn't mean I have to like it (although I generally do).

@Connie - Thanks for stopping by. I absolutely support the Community Manager concept, and am serving that role on a part-time basis for a couple of clients. Fun, although difficult to be always-on.

@David - Yes, I remember setting type by hand for brochures too. (seriously, I do). Thankfully, technology like yours and Connie's make it easier, but somebody still has to be at the controls. The biggest issue I see is being able to drop everything and respond. It's much more viable (I find) in a corporate setting where you have a community manager, than in an agency setting where you're juggling tons of clients.

@Amber - You're the poster child for this, well, post. I don't find the issue to be so much the number of hours it requires so much as having the ability to react when you're already working on several other items. To me, that's the challenge. The herky jerky, stop and start. As Connie says, however, setting a schedule is a good plan. Wish I could stick to it. Damn airplanes keep interfering.

@Bob - You said it, brother. The speed of social media very much creates tactics-first thinking. That causes poor results and inconsistent messaging. Strategy first. Strategy first. Strategy first. Then tactics

@Ron - Yep. 40 in September. I'll be registering at Tweetdeck. ;)

@MsHerr - Indeed. I'd love to see a number cruncher like @danzarrella figure out the ideal commenting position. I'm sure it would make for interesting findings.

@DJ - I think everyone has to address scale in their own way, but however you do it, it requires behavior change on your part. I used to read tons of blogs every morning, and then write whatever I felt was interesting du jour. I can't do that any longer. Too much going on daily. So, I write posts in batches, and release them 3x/week. That changes the nature of what I publish here on C&C. Less timely. Hopefully, more thoughtful. Same is true with Twitter, LI, FB, et al. I can't spend the kind of time I used to, so hopefully the time I do spend is higher quality. Brian Solis, for example, will not respond/reply on Twitter at all now. He just posts links. It's basically StumbleUpon for him. Interesting. In any event, whatever you decide, you'll do it well. You're the genuine article, and that's why people follow you, not because of your response time. Incidentally, thanks for lumping me in with Amber, but I'm not in her league in any respect.

@Stuart - Cut back to 6 diet Cokes per day, and then post another comment. We all want to see this science experiment in action!

@Scott - Great research. Really interesting stuff. Folks, read this if you get a chance.

@KK - You gotta pick an application!

@Hunter - You nailed it. That's my problem with the whole thing. No time for context. No time to absorb. No time to think. It's just react, react, react. Fortunately, I've been in online marketing for 15 years, so I'm conditioned to it. But many of my clients are freaking out. The game has changed. It's like going from anaerobic to aerobic exercise.

@Kent - Indeed, you were channeling a bit there. Good stuff. I would agree that sometimes first beats best right now. But I also very much believe that quality eventually triumphs. If I didn't think that to be true, I wouldn't take the time to do this. Thanks for comment. Come on back!

Great post Jason!

The speed of SM seems to highlight the need for planning and creating a verbal (and visual for that matter) brand identity strategy and system of elements (brand positioning and messaging especially) so all brand communications are consistent. Before diving into SM a company needs to define what they are trying to accomplish and how they are going to facilitate that.

Thanks for the great info!

Bob

@rjdcreative@bobdiercksmeier

You have to have A.D.H.D. on some level to be successful in marketing and social media. The news cycle is just to fast not too. I try and not act like a Russian Bear on crack...but I drink 12+ diet cokes a day and try and respond asap to everyone that I encounter. I'm trying to just make this a part of my life (so I can not even notice how ridiculous I am occasionally).

Stuart Foster’s last blog post..SocialPharmer Unconference

Jay:

Wow. Already 3 comments (as I type this reply). I guess that is better than 65th, right? I love this post. I get asked (and ask) the same question often...

Wow. You are everywhere? How do you do it?

As you said, the answer is to always be online, always be available. However, what I still struggle with is scale. In other words, as just a one-man show, how do you keep up? I think about @AmberCadabra. She replies almost in real-time. I can do that now but my "following" is peanuts relative to Amber's or yours. Also, I'm managing both my personal brand as well as my company brand.

So, back to my original question. How to scale?

dj@djwaldow

DJ Waldow’s last blog post..djwaldow: Thanks for the RT's on http://idek.net/8Fw @Dunkndisorderly @scottcohen13 @jacaldwell and others...

And the irony is that I'm later to comment than usual because I've been in meetings today!

Speed isn't going to change I'm afraid. No reverse gear here. I think managing expectations is a big part of it, but business needs to adapt because the ecosystem of communication has changed for good.

The better and more precise our monitoring, too, the more efficiently we'll be able to contribute.

The world isn't just flat now. It's swift too. I know my job will never be 8 hours long. But my passion for the potential of this new era far outweighs my worry about being connected. Scale will be sacrificed over time, but my relationships will run long and deep.

Thanks to DJ for the kind words, and to you, Jay, for the great conversation.

Cheers,@ambercadabra
Amber

Hey there Jason,

Ah yes, those days of yesteryear. I remember them as well. Standing by the giant printer waiting for my green and blue paper memos to print so I could put them in a interoffice memo envelope and send them out to members of my team on truck going in the afternoon. Ah, those heady days.

What's interesting is that if you look at the trend, 140 characters and 5 minute response is now becoming the norm from an expectation perspective. I suspect we will soon have a new service called 8words and it will be 1 minute responses. :)

As someone once told me "it is what it is" so if the norm is always faster than the day before, and it seems like it always will be, then those companies that embrace it first will certainly always have an advantage. The key to helping to not go insane through all of this is to find ways to distribute the load and prioritize the responses. Again, all need to be done asap but some perhaps in 5 minutes, some in an hour, some in a day. Having the ability to route based on parameters on the social media front lines allows a company to aggressively move into "fast mode" without blowing their brains out. All one has to do is look at the progress in the call center biz over the past 20 years to see how companies can scale up. Unfortunately there is a lot of abuse of this technology to cut costs rather than grow relationships. With the right focus on the important part of social media - connecting and communicating - I think companies will be able to hit the gas pedal and catch up to all their customers currently zipping by.

Great post Jason.

Cheers.@davidalston@radian6
David

David Alston’s last blog post..zig: Harnessing the Fast-Moving Social Web

Great post, Mr. J!

40? You're kiddin'

Thanks for sharing!

Keep the faith and keep being YOU!

~Ronald
TrueBeliever & HopeDealer

... as I race over here to make a comment! Haste does make waste sometimes.

I try to have a routine. It's a matter of what's in control? Is your email & Twitter in control or are you? The joy of listening tools like our Techrigy SM2 (yes I work for them) is that it brings the highlights to us of what we need to respond to. Thanks for the mention!
I've even shifted to monitoring industry terms & used it as my new 'feed reader'. My usual reads are pulled in as well as new authors which is helpful!

And I believe that it is important to have a 'person' doing this. A community manager is imperative in this day & age. They can teach the team at the company & it's a group effort.

Connie@cbensen
Chief Community Officer, Techrigy