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‘Tis the season to be tweeting…

By Carl Foster, PepperDigital

In the UK, Monday was not just the start of any other week, it was ‘Mega Monday’, the busiest day of the year for online shopping. Apparently, the onset of December coupled with the prospect of sharp elbowed crowds on the high street means we fire up the laptop, get out the credit card and load up the shopping cart (or trolley, as we say over here). Mega Monday has grown year-on-year as more people feel comfortable shopping online. This year, £400 million was predicted to be spent, 25 per cent up on last year.

 What’s new this year though is Twitter. Some big high street retailers, including Marks and Spencer, Debenhams and Waterstone’s are using Twitter to extend their personal customer service online. What is encouraging is that these outlets are not using Twitter as just another broadcast channel for new products and special offers; they really are using it to engage with their customers. Check out the Waterstone’s Twitter page (twitter.com/waterstones 6944 followers). It has the special offers in there but it is full of back and forth with customers, both chatty and personal, but also on issues such as delivery problems and other customer service issues. Debenhams (twitter.com/DebenhamsRetail 2007 followers) is an even better example of Twitter being used to engage with customers. Apparently Debenhams issued blackberries to some staff at its Oxford Street branch, which even led to people tweeting requests from the changing room for clothes in different sizes.

A survey by Immediate Future on how 140 UK and global organisations are using Twitter found that majority of organisations are using the platform to broadcast content from other sources - usually their own websites. The example set by the high street retailers shows that maybe this is starting to change and companies recognise the value of engaging with consumers through Twitter. Let’s hope the trend continues in 2010.

Social Media Sweeps Word of the Year

By Lauren Begley, PepperDigital

Every November, The Oxford American Dictionary announces its selection for the Word of the Year (WOTY). This selection is made by a panel of lexicographers who nominate terms based on popularity in everyday discussion and cultural influence. Historically, these words have stemmed from widespread topical issues like high gas prices, locally grown foods and global warming. For example:

• WOTY 2008 – Hypermiling - To attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques.

• WOTY 2007 – Locavore – One who consumes food from farmers’ markets or home-grown gardens with the belief that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better than the alternative.

• WOTY 2006 – Carbon-neutral - achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset.

However, this year, the selection took a different direction, solidifying credibility for a widely accepted, though more unique issue facing millions of people today: unfriending.

Just this morning, The Oxford American Dictionary announced “unfriend” as the 2009 Word of the Year. This verb refers to the removal of someone from your friend list on a social network such as Facebook or MySpace.

Not only did a social media term take the gold medal, but other contenders included “hashtag,” “netbook.” “paywall,” and “sexting.”

The fact that past WOTYs have reflected such serious and legitimate issues proves the point of my post: social networking is serious and legitimate.

While digital communication may have seemed like a fad that appealed to computer geeks 20 years ago, the simple example of the term “unfriend” making its way into the official lexicon demonstrates the fact that social networking is the way of the future and will continue to become entrenched in our daily lives even more so than it is now. 

Language is one of the most fundamental elements of civilized society. The fact that these social media trends have taken root in our vocabulary and we are now mandating acceptance by placing this simple term in the dictionary demonstrates the staying power of these platforms.

Why Not Use Twitter to Prevent Surgery Miscues?

By Mike Blankenship, PepperDigital

Rhode Island Hospital, in Providence, was fined $150,000 by the state's Department of Health after a surgeon operated on the wrong finger of a patient in October. Ever more astonishing is that the same hospital has conducted five "wrong-side surgeries" since 2007. My first reaction is why is this hospital still open? Why hasn't the administrator been fired?

The fine levied by the Department of Health will pale in comparison to the subsequent medical malpractice suit. In addition to the fine, the hospital is going to be required to install video cameras in all operating rooms, and all surgeries will be monitored by a clinical professional--not on the surgical team--trained in surgical safety measures. Why wasn't this done after the first botched surgery?

An even simpler solution, and perhaps an added protective measure, would be to Tweet the surgical procedures. There are examples of successful surgeries that have been broadcast via Twitter, including one we wrote about here. 

Anyone who has had surgery knows that during pre-op, a nurse uses a marker to annotate which side of the body or body part is going to be cut open. Once inside the OR and on the table, the entire team, including the surgeon, discuss the procedure and everyone verbally agrees to what is going to happen and to which body part.  All of this is done prior to the administration of anesthesia.

With a Twitter protocol in place, each step can be Tweeted in detail. The OR Tweeter would provide a detailed account of the procedure, including microblogging the pre-op confirmation discussion:

@RhodeIslandHospital: Dr. Jones has just asked Jim the Patient which knee has been marked for the surgery.

@RhodeIslandHospital: Jim the Patient has confirmed that his left knee has been marked and has confirmed that his left knee is undergoing the procedure.

@RhodeIslandHospital: Dr. Jones has verbally confirmed that he will operate on the left knee. The rest of the team has verbally agreed to the left knee.

@RhodeIslandHospital: Jim the Patient is now under anesthesia. Dr. Jones is making the first incision on the left knee.

This simple Twitter feed provides an additional layer of checks and balances for an obviously screwed up surgery department at Rhode Island Hospital. What is gained by Tweeting the surgery is an additional level of oversight.  A patient's family can also follow each step of the procedure and interject with a direct reply to the OR if anything is Tweeted that is wrong. For example, in the above scenario, if any Tweet had contained "right knee" instead of "left knee," the family could have immediately sent a reply notifying the OR staff.

The other benefit of using Twitter in the OR is that it's free. Of course this requires an extra body in the room but using somebody already on your payroll is a lot cheaper than fines and malpractice lawsuits. Use a med student who is completing their surgery rotation. It could be used as a teaching tool or part of a "scared straight" initiative to demonstrate the need for situational awareness during surgery.

Happy Birthday To Me!

By Brooke Winebrenner, Pepperdigital

Last week, I celebrated my 24th birthday. Now I realize this year does not mark a special milestone in life, but nonetheless it was my day. Overall, I would say it was much like many other birthdays in the past, or was it? 

As the day came to an end, I was caught off guard at the realization that I had only received 2 phone calls from loved ones wishing me a Happy Birthday. The dozens of other birthday greetings were sent to me via emails, texts, tweets and Facebook wall posts and direct messages from extended family, as well as close and long lost friends. Now I don’t know about you, but 5 years ago this would have never happened. My phone would have been ringing off the hook and I would have received a handful of birthday cards.

While experts have repeatedly stated that social media is changing the way we communicate with one another, on a personal level, it really hit home. Is it that hard to pick up the phone and give someone a call? Maybe for some, but no, I don’t think that is the case. I believe this is a result of the level of comfort we have all begun to develop through social media. Communicating through these outlets has become the norm, day in and day out. So, silly me, why would I ever think that my special day would be an exception to these communication platforms? 

Maybe if I would have read Mashable.com’s: Top 5 Ways Social Media is Changing Our Daily Lives before my birthday, then I wouldn’t have been caught off guard. I think it is important for everyone to take the time to reflect on how our lives are continually changing overtime in result of social media. Below, please find an excerpt from Mashable’s Top 5 Ways Social Media is Changing Our Lives:

1. Where We Get Our News

News has become more social than ever. While many people still use RSS feeds to stay up up-to-date on publications of interest and blogs, our list of sources for what is worthy of our attention has expanded substantially. Many of us have begun to look to our friends and the people we recognize on social networks like Facebook and Twitter for recommended news. This makes it easy to communicate with one another about this information.

2. How We Start and Do Business

It is easier than ever to start and launch a business today, in great part thanks to social media. Social media, including everything from blogging to posting videos on YouTube to tweeting, has brought about unlimited opportunities for both consumers and clients. Who we do business with and how we promote that business has moved increasingly online, and for small business especially, social media has proved valuable. A recent article in the New York Times concluded, “For many mom-and-pop shops with no ad budget, Twitter has become their sole means of marketing.”

3. How We Meet and Stay in Touch with People

Studies show that our time on social networks has nearly tripled in the last year, and while Facebook has always primarily centered around connecting with people and staying in touch with friends, according to a study on eMarketer, “41.6% percent of Internet users who used Twitter did so to keep in touch with their friends.” People certainly still meet others at social venues like clubs and parties, but it is easier than ever to discover people who share our interests through social media, whether that means via groups on Facebook or following people on Twitter. Of course, there is only so much communication that can happen through a social network, but via Tweetups and other in-person events, people are expanding these online interactions to face-to-face meetings. 

4. What We Reveal

We now have queens acknowledging that they get nervous at times when speaking, CEOs being more honest and at times using blogs to express reservations over past decisions, and people openly sharing personal views on social issues. Of course, what we decide to reveal and when to reveal it can be delicate, and there will always likely be items we wish to keep private. However, rather than working to hide our thoughts and feelings, social media is helping to create greater personal transparency. The paradigm is now no longer to try to appear perfect, but to be more transparent with your thoughts and feelings, to reveal your humanness.

5. What We Can Influence

So-called mainstream media is no longer always the driving influencer of public opinion. On Twitter, some individuals now have a million or more followers, Facebook Pages can also have hundreds of thousands of fans, and YouTube videos can get millions of views when they go viral. Most of this content is coming from regular people, rather than big, corporate-owned media organizations.  As the networks for sharing and amplifying information strengthen, the ability of each person to influence public opinion and policies increases. As a result, we feel much less like passive bystanders and much more like participants who have a voice in the events in our world.

Twitter: Friend or Foe

By Dawn Lauer, PepperDigital

In my most recent blog, I extolled the praises of Netflix and its ability to leverage digital technology to further its business. More and more corporations are experiencing for themselves how a strategic, well thought out digital plan can help strengthen relationships with customers and ultimately even impact the bottom line. The latest example?  TweetPhoto Inc., a new Twitter photo-sharing company, has actually used Twitter to build a base of customers, before the company’s brand  was even launched.   In fact, it built the company and its officers through some very smart Tweets.  

The brains behind the operation, company founder Sean Callahan, used Twitter wisely and it worked to his advantage.  He used the millions of Twitter followers to form a community of photo-sharers to provide to share best practices and ideas as he perfected the inner workings of his own company.  He capitalized on the mistakes of the competition and targeted their victims, offering a free trial of his company. Using Twitter, Callahan was able to essentially build a fan base before even “officially” going to the market. 

While this example may open doors for other start-ups in today’s economy, users must remind themselves of the consequences if they get it wrong.  Like other social media tools, Twitter can be a corporation’s best friend or worst enemy. The Internet age has brought new meaning to the term “public knowledge,” and careless mistakes can and will be used against you.  Three key things companies need to remember:

• You can run, but you can’t hide: Once a statement is made, consider the Internet a key to the eternal.  Just about anyone can track down something a company said, promised or refuted on any site.  It may take years to build a strong brand and reputation, but it can be very easy to destroy it.
  
• Split personalities can confuse your following: Your corporate personality should match your online one.  Don’t try to portray one image on a social site and another one in your business life.  Consistency is important and will let your followers know what to expect.
  
• Know your audience: Give bloggers and other online personalities more credit . . . they know a commercial when they see one!  Don’t rush to infiltrate their world until you’ve shown an interest in theirs.  Slowly becoming an active part of a conversation will earn you credibility.