Ryan Doom

Ryan Doom is the president of Web Ascender which he founded with Kevin Southworth three years ago.  Ryan Doom and Web Ascender specialize in the design, development, and marketing of websites and their content. 

Ryan is a computer science graduate from Michigan State University, has been involved with programming and web development for 13 years, and is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD).  He is on the board of the Capital Area IT Council, LINC, and was a founding board member of the Greater Lansing User Group for Microsoft .NET (GLUGnet).

Contact Information
Ryan Doom
517-455-7837
www.webascender.com
rd@webascender.com

Monday

August 4, 2008

Social Media – What is this Twitter thing?

MySpace, Facebook, YouTube; everyone has heard of them, and companies are trying to figure out how they can leverage these platforms to help their business and causes.  The social aspect of the internet and these services is what all the hype is about, it’s not just about a place kids go to watch videos on the internet or a new fancier way of doing email.  It’s different, very different.

It’s not about me watching a video, or me writing a blog, or me uploading photos so I can view them anywhere.  It is all about what others can do with it—it is time to share.

These online social services build communities.  They build communities around friends, around co-works, around causes for a greater good; it is real, and the communities work.  I was not an early adopter of Facebook, it actually took me far longer than I would like to admit to see its value and take advantage of the service.  Now, leveraging these services is a major part of my business.

Twitter is the new kid on the block, not even two years old.  However, it is starting to catch fire.  It gained popularity in the IT world, now it’s infiltrating the college crowd and it is gaining momentum every day.

Here is the premise of Twitter: 
“What are you doing?”
Friends and co-workers may ask you that many times a day.  The tribe of devote Twitter users out there don’t need to ask their friends that question.  They can see it at any time.  I can pull up my Twitter feed and see at a glance what people are up to right now, or plan on doing later.  Don’t worry; most people won’t post every excruciating detail:  “Getting coffee”, “Sitting down at my desk,” “responding to an email.”  Most of the time users will post, also known as a Tweet, about something that others may actually care about.  Such as: “Heading to the Lugnuts game in 10 minutes” or “Eating at Troppo downtown Lansing.”  People that actively follow you on Twitter can see when you updated your status and how long ago.  It’s not uncommon for other co-workers and friends to then post, “Meeting up with @ryandoom at Troppo” (the @ryandoom being my ‘twitter identity’) and in no time you can have a group of friends together sharing a ‘real’ good time.

Were you going to ask, “Why not just call them?” 
Many of today’s active youth are building larger and larger contact spheres, some of people they love and see daily, others they may have never met in real life.  You cannot call everyone, everyday.  You cannot call even your 5 best of friends ever day.  But this is any easy way to see what is currently going on this second or this evening without calling everyone—essentially keeping in touch.  You can have a good time this evening if you don’t already have one planned.

How can your business, cause, or community take advantage of Twitter?  Stay tuned.