Scott Eggert comment-25371 2010-04-22T05:18:19Z 2010-04-22T05:18:19Z Thank you Lesley. Not always when you get to meet people for these events are they as charming as Kristy. She has a wonderful story and it was a pleasure to get to meet her and share it with the Sacramento Press readers. Scott Eggert 2010-04-22T05:18:19Z Lesley Miller comment-25366 2010-04-22T00:27:22Z 2010-04-22T00:27:22Z Great article, Scott. I have enjoyed getting to know Kristy, but this is the first time I've really read her full story. I'm sure she'll impress everyone at the Celebrity Chef event. Good luck to you, Kristy! Lesley Miller 2010-04-22T00:27:22Z Scott Eggert comment-19326 2009-12-15T18:28:46Z 2009-12-15T18:28:46Z Mark, you are correct that user / subscriber counts can be extremely mis-leading. Utilizing statistics from Pew and Nielsen as well as monthly traffic figures can help to paint a more accurate picture of a site's popularity / relevance. I would be interested in whether there are any businesses which you enjoy interacting with through social media, and how that affects your buying habits with those businesses. This is the heart of the article, how do we convert virtual interactions into in-person transactions for local small businesses? Any ideas? Scott Eggert 2009-12-15T18:28:46Z Mark Urquhart comment-19298 2009-12-15T15:51:12Z 2009-12-15T15:51:12Z Numbers in online services are very difficult to quantify accurately. Most are 'free'. This means that people have no financial stake and are 'free' to use them or not. In nearly all cases, the accounts will never timeout so if you create a Facebook account in January 2007 and never visit the site again, you'll be surprised to see it's still there in January 2010. The reason for this is simple; the more 'members' a SN site has, the more 'important' it looks. It alsoo helps with little things like IPOs to blag 'I have 30 million gazilion users'. They're not going to remove your 'inactive' account, ever! Mark Urquhart 2009-12-15T15:51:12Z Scott Eggert comment-19297 2009-12-15T15:15:41Z 2009-12-15T15:15:41Z Lesley, I would be interested in any anecdotal stories about how social media has been of help to some of your customers. I enjoyed your participation in the recent Social Media Club panel on social media for non-profit organizations. Your organizations contribution to a few of the participating non-profits was clear. Scott Eggert 2009-12-15T15:15:41Z Scott Eggert comment-19296 2009-12-15T15:08:45Z 2009-12-15T15:08:45Z Ben, correct that the Survey was on the use of status updates. These statistics represented the more avid users of these services, rather than the inflated number of people who have a profile but rarely log in or utilize the service. Scott Eggert 2009-12-15T15:08:45Z Scott Eggert comment-19295 2009-12-15T15:07:45Z 2009-12-15T15:07:45Z Thanks Colleen. I will have to check out the Cakegrrl. I always like to see who is doing well and how they do it. Scott Eggert 2009-12-15T15:07:45Z Ben Ilfeld comment-19293 2009-12-15T14:38:28Z 2009-12-15T14:38:28Z Thank you for linking to the survey, it is a good read. The focus of the survey was on the use of status updates. Ben Ilfeld 2009-12-15T14:38:28Z HonestAbe comment-19282 2009-12-15T02:26:37Z 2009-12-15T02:26:37Z The utterances of the masses resemble nothing but the clucking of a gaggle of hens; their fruits may be a bounty of eggs, but -- egad! -- what damage is wrought to our hearts by this seemingly innocent oval. HonestAbe 2009-12-15T02:26:37Z Colleen Belcher comment-19274 2009-12-15T00:39:14Z 2009-12-15T00:39:14Z Cakegrrl does a great job posting both on Twitter and Facebook. I love seeing her updates with photos - everything looks so delicious. It's great to show visuals of food to sell your business which is a catering company. Colleen Belcher 2009-12-15T00:39:14Z Lesley Miller comment-19087 2009-12-10T17:29:55Z 2009-12-10T17:29:55Z I work for 3Fold Communications, a small business in Midtown. We're a creative agency, so it was important for us to not only understand, but starting using social media. We dove in over a year ago and have found huge opportunities for engaging our clients, and getting to know vendors and competitors in the area. I follow many other small businesses in the area including several marketing agencies. They provide great insight that challenges my thinking and keeps me on top of my game. I hope I am doing the same for them. While many of us are competing for the same business, I think we've all seen that there is plenty of room to collaborate and help one another out. To me, this is what social networking is all about. Lesley Miller 2009-12-10T17:29:55Z Michele Zumwalt comment-18536 2009-12-02T00:49:58Z 2009-12-02T00:49:58Z Awesome article! Michele Zumwalt 2009-12-02T00:49:58Z Scott Eggert comment-18207 2009-11-24T15:58:36Z 2009-11-24T15:58:36Z savemidtown, I like your thinking. Especially in those areas you have cited where an ever increasing percentage of the patrons are from the neighborhood, it is advisable even more so that the owners engage the community. That is in fact why we locate businesses in these areas is it not? Owners that neglect the community in which they live not only miss out on a great opportunity, but actually do great harm to their bottom line. As you have pointed out, people notice. Scott Eggert 2009-11-24T15:58:36Z savemidtown comment-18111 2009-11-22T17:54:06Z 2009-11-22T17:54:06Z Another winning strategy for any businessis to contribute time or $ or at least a space for a community bulletin board and advocate for causes they beleive in that complement the neighborhoods in which they do business. For example, In the central city, almost 2/3 of patrons are also neighbors so getting involved in neighborhood liveability issues is a huge bonus and doing really simple things like keeping the outside of your business free of litter and graffiti and keeping a few exterior lights on overnight make a huge difference. I am much more likely to patronize a business if I know they are also a good neighbor. As an example, I no longer patronize any businesses owned by a particular popular restauranteur because they are very disrespectful to the surrounding neighbors, and many of my neighbors feel the same way. Wheras I go out of my way to patronize a particular boutique on 19th because the owners are excellent neighbors. Being a good neighbor goes a long way. savemidtown 2009-11-22T17:54:06Z