In short, no. But we *are* having a sale, here. We’ve dropped our prices on our workshops about 20% for the next few months, and we’ve cut our email management prices something like 80% from what they were. That’s a crazy number, but what can a guy do? Check out the new pricing information at our services and pricing page.  Sorry for the (blatant) commercial message; we’ll resume our more traditional educational posts soon.

That’s quite a headline there.  Point is, I’ll be the guy with the mic, asking all the hard questions. I’ve prepared a list of them, and I’m posting them here for the panelists to review before the meeting so they’ll know what kinds of questions I think Bill Segal could benefit from hearing us answer.  If you want to follow the conversation online, we’ll be tweeting about it Friday from 2.30 under the hashtag #SegalChat.

To clarify: Bill Segal is not an Internet / digital technology master. He’s not supposed to be. He’s the guy running for office. However, he is pretty well tech savvy, from what I’ve gathered, and he’s asking us to tell him what we think he should know. So, panelists, here’s the list of questions that I’ll be asking you in the hopes that you’ll have good answers for Bill:

1. Recently, incubators such as the Varick Street business incubator in New York city have demonstrated that even in a down economy, a municipality can foster growth and attract venture capitalist dollars into an economy. Do you think that Orange County could set up a business incubator that grows digital businesses in a similar fashion to the Varick Street incubator? What do you think that incubator would need to do to encourage growth?
2. What do you think are the determining factors in the success or failure of a new digital business? How can a Orange County help influence these factors to encourage a new business’s survival?
3. Some cities have experimented with providing free wifi throughout the entire municipality, ranging in size from small towns in Iowa to cities like Philadelphia and Taipei. While the benefits and ROI for those programs are debatable for small business, can you think of a similar public technology initiative that would be beneficial to growing digital business?
4. Do you think that promoting ‘Net neutrality at a municipal or county level is possible? Is it necessary?
5. The major players in technology and digital growth–companies like Lockheed-Martin, Disney, UCF, and some of the downtown Orlando startups are scattered across Seminole County and Orange County, which can make collaboration difficult. How can Orange County help bridge some of these gaps and help these companies work together to set policy that will foster growth in their industries.
6. The quality of education is crucial for a business looking to recruit local help to get its fledgling startup off the ground. What do you think of the quality of graduates you are seeing in your interviews today? How can Orange County work to improve their ability to participate in a digital business?
7. You can argue that a good part of what got Silicon Valley started in the 90′s was the tax breaks that San Francisco offered to qualifying new startups. Florida doesn’t have a state income tax like California, but what can Orange County do to encourage digital innovators to come here to launch their dreams?
8. Small businesses, especially in a down economy, need reliable income to make a base from which to build their innovative technology. Do you feel that the Orlando and Orange County government offers opportunity for small business to work with it and receive much-needed funds by providing Orange County with applications or websites? How can the county make it easier for small businesses to learn about these opportunities?

Can you think of anything that I’ve omitted? Let me know and I’ll be sure to ask it.

I’ve had more than a few interested pings from people I’ve been meeting at networking events about how they should undertake implementing a social media plan for their company, especially if they have a conservative organization.  When I teach my coursework on social media, there’s a reason why it lies so close to the end of a session: it’s a relatively advanced tactic, and one that isn’t going to work for you before you already have everything prior to it performing properly first. So assuming that your website, analytics, landing pages, email marketing, and search marketing are all performing up to spec, let’s look at how you’d get your company to start using social media.

1. Social Media is a Tactic: Define a Goal to Guide You

Tell me what it is that you want social media to do. As they say, you need a goal before you can set tactics.  Social media is just another tactic in your company’s goal of “Make 5% more money in 2010″ or (more likely for many of us) “Earn as much in 2010 as you did in 2009.”  You need to come up with a compelling way to show that you can use social media to help you achieve that overall company goal, while not being such a difficult to execute tactic that no one in the company has time for it. So are you senior enough to define a goal at your organization? If so, great, if not, then you probably want to:

2. Social Media is a Tool: Get Buy-in From Someone Senior On Using It

Speaking to the VP of Whatsis (I speak here as someone who has been a VP of Whatsis in the past) can be intimidating for people who don’t usually rub elbows with decision makers. If you’re not the head of your department, then start with them and talk about how you think your company needs to work on some social media planning.  You won’t have the advantage that I do if you take this approach, since I’m a hired gun that companies–by the very nature that they’ve hired me–will take more seriously, but you can still get your boss, and your boss’s boss if necessary, to agree that something needs to be done about that social media thing.  So once you’ve made it to that point, you need to remember to:

3. Social Media Requires Work: Keep it Small

In a conservative business environment, people want numbers. They want tracking. They want to know every detail they can about whatever it is that you’re doing before they approve the next step. In that light, it only makes sense for you to limit what it is that you’re doing at once.  Don’t forget that you don’t have you social media like Facebook or Twitter for your company (although you certainly can!). Perhaps you can use a wiki as a project collaboration tool, or set up a password-protected WordPress blog as an internal company newsletter. With a little creativity it is very easy to demonstrate tons of savings using social media internally or externally as a communications tool.  Once you’ve defined the scope of what it is you’re doing, then you need to make sure you:

4. Social Media Really Requires Work: Get Buy-in From Someone Junior

“Someone junior” could be you, of course, if you’re relatively junior at your organization. The fact is, if you’re a VP of Whatsis, you likely don’t have time to manage a social media effort all by yourself. So find someone who’s savvy in the ways of whatever tool it is that you’re using in your company, and use them to help grow your social media usage. If you’re that junior person, then go out of your way to include people in the company in the social media tool that you’re using. If it’s an internal wordpress newsletter, then you can interview people (or better yet, get them to write their own articles!). If it’s a project management wiki, offer to have a little class for the department that’s using it in order to show them how awesome their new wiki is.  And finally, once you’ve done all that:

5. Social Media Requires Training, Too: Make Sure Your Team Knows How to Use It

Because there’s no faster way to make sure that your initiative will be irrelevant than if no one knows quite how to use it. Yes, of course, I could shill for CrowdTamers’ social media and Internet marketing education here, and point out that I can teach workshops for you on a wide variety of social media and Internet tools. Instead, I would suggest that you search the Internet for tutorials, both video and written, on how to make the most out of the thingie that your company is using to help achieve its goals.  Most of the time, you’ll be able to find good resources on how to do what you want to, and if you don’t feel free to ask me here. I’d be happy to help.  Above all else, remember to:

6. Social Media Takes Time: Be Patient

It takes time for social media to work its magic–especially in an organization that takes its time making changes. I saw someone write a blog post headline the other day (I do not jest) that said, “Businesses: Still think that the Internet is a fad? Well not anymore!” There are businesses that might still see the Internet as a whole as fine, but less the social media revolution. So be patient with your company as they explore what it is that they’re willing to use social media for, and recall that good things come to those who wait.

Have any questions? Leave a comment below!

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