Today, I announce the launch of New England Social Media, a new division of QuickWhatsUp.com.  It might be odd to have multiple divisions in a one-man company, but I wanted to use a different brand for my social media services than I do for my events.  Plus, much to my surprise, the domain name for New England Social Media was still available, and I just couldn’t pass it up!

So let’s talk about how I got here, because it was a long road.  I have over a decade of experience in broadcasting.  I’ve worked for legendary rock radio stations in Providence, St. Louis, Seattle, Boston and New York.  But I saw the writing on the wall and knew that industry was slowly failing - even before the economic downturn was a factor.  Technology was changing everything.

I was not a particularly early adopter of social media, though I was pretty internet savvy.  I wanted to start a website that listed events, but I couldn’t figure out how to monetize it.  (As far as I can tell, not that many people have successfully figured out how to monetize their website.)  So I decided to adopt a more traditional business model - I’d generate revenue by producing events.

In the course of producing events, I began using social media to promote them.  I’ll give you a few turning points:

In the fall of 2007, Corona contract QuickWhatsUp.com to put together a series of promotions for Gillary’s tavern in Bristol.  Mike Ferreia, the owner, had some local customers who wanted a country-western night, so we produced a whole package for him.  I offered my staffers (who were local Roger Williams students) a financial incentive to promote the event to their friends on Facebook.  Sure enough, the place was record-setting packed on the first night.  I have no doubt that it was because word spread online.  For me, it was an eye-opening experience.

So I began to spend more and more time online, figuring out the intricacies of social media to use for my events.  I watched closely as Facebook introduced Applications and ramped up the features on Pages.  I tested Twitter and played with text messaging.  To be honest, it was a LOT of trial and error.

Fast forward to October of 2008.  I helped the Twin River Casino produce the New England Nightclub and Bar Expo, which was a rousing success in its first year (Frank Martucci, Alain Bart and the rest of the crew over there deserve immense credit for this.)  Walking away from this event, I realized that I had the email addresses of dozens of liquor reps and bartenders from the area.  I wanted to do something with them, but I wasn’t sure what.  It was Opie, a local flair bartender and instructor at the New England School of Bartending, who suggested that somebody should put together a newsletter than focused on profiling people in the nightlife industry.  So I launched Behind Bars, an email newsletter specifically aimed at bartenders.  In the process, I learned a lot about email newsletters.

At this time, I also doubled-down on my social media strategies.  I decided to use Facebook aggressively, and start tweeting on a regular basis.  The results were both amazing and instant: suddenly, customers were coming to me.  A number of local liquor companies approached me about putting together events for them.  Once again, it was a lesson in the power of social media.

In early 2009, I started doing some side work for Allan Tear of Aptus Collaborative.  Allan is a business consultant who specializes in the social media realm.  He was producing a roundtable discussion on the future of social media for a client who was looking to figure out how they should adapt to the changing landscape.  Working with Allan really crystallized a lot of my thoughts about social media.  Allan’s got a great mind for the broader, more abstract implications of social media and I learned a lot by working with him - plus I credit him with the great line, “It’s a conversation - are you in it?”

Nonetheless, I’m a nuts and bolts guy.  I had spent the last several years working with small business owners, and I knew that they were going to be more concerned with the practical applications.  These guys often wear several hats in their businesses, and are working so hard they don’t have a lot of time to look years into the future.  They want to know what they need to do, how much it will cost, and when they will see results.  As an overworked small business owner, I could relate.  So much of my personal exploration into social media has been geared towards the practical.  How can I use social media without it consuming my entire day?

Of course, this is a tricky point.  To be effective, social media requires a significant investment of time.  What makes social media different - and I think, better - than the traditional media channels that I came from is that it allows you to engage in a real conversation with your customers.  It is about setting up a campaign to repeat the same message over and over and then letting it run on its own.  Social media is about engaging your customers by both talking to them and, more importantly, listening to them.  But talking to that many people takes a lot of time!  Some of us have businesses to run!

I began teaching a seminar at the RIEDC on Facebook, aimed at small business owners.  I was amazed at the turnout.  Clearly, there was a lot of interest in the topic.  And the breadth of businesses represented there was immense, everything from adult diaper manufacturers to iced tea brewers.  Clearly, lots of people were interested in using social media for their business.  I even picked up some social media consulting for a few clients, like the Newport Comedy Series and Inspiring Events.

A few weeks ago, I traveled to southern California.  In the course of my trip, I met with Larry Weintraub, the CEO of Fanscape.  Larry has been putting together social media campaigns for larger companies like MTV and M&Ms for years.  He told me that PR agencies are just now realizing that they need to add social media to the list of services they offer.  The distinction between online and offline public relations is disappearing.  My conversations with PR agencies confirmed this.  Although there was some debate over where social media duties should fall - inside an actual company or with its PR agency - it was clear that social media marketing was quickly being recognized as a legitimate field, much like Search Engine Optimization (the art of getting your business’ website to rank high in Google) in recent years.

It dawned on me that while social media is time-intensive, there are two parts of it that require lots of time.  One is investing the time in talking to your customers, but the other is learning about social media itself.  It takes a lot of time and effort to learn how to use Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Constant Contact and the hundreds of other social media tools available today.  But I had already done all this work.  I knew social media.  Moreover, I had hands-on experience putting social media marketing campaigns together for my own events.  I realized that I had the ability to put together a comprehensive social media campaign from beginning to end.

By the time I returned from California, I was convinced that this social media was the avenue I wanted to pursue.  Within a few days, I had other companies who provide business services, such as website development and media buying, coming to me to ask if I could develop some turn-key social media management packages for their clients.  With my knowledge, I knew I could provide something that was both low cost and effective.  At that point, the next step was obvious: behold, New England Social Media.

We specialize in the two most mainstream social media services: Facebook and the rapidly-growing Twitter.  We can do a whole host of other services, from email newsletters to viral videos to text messaging to blogging.  We can offer you a very simple, straightforward marketing package, or design something from the ground up that meets your marketing needs.  What’s most important, it’s very inexpensive and requires almost no work on your part.  If there’s any way I can help your business, please let me know!