Some exciting news for those of you who like tracking and stats (who doesn’t?): Twitter is launching their official Tweet button this week — possibly by tomorrow. The button, meant for keeping track of retweets and sharing articles from websites, is slated to be the most efficient and comprehensive tool of its kind (so far Tweetmeme has reigned supreme).

Not the technical type? Don’t worry — the Tweet button will be a single line of code that you’ll be able to easily add to any website (or CMS, or blog post). It’ll be available in three options: 110×20, 55×20, 55×63 — and have various customization settings.

Here’s an idea of how it’ll work:

For weeks, there have been rumors about Google looking to get into the social networking game, and it’s not surprising. (The search giant already has the social networking portal Orkut, but that is only really used in India and Brazil). That fact that Google is such a huge player when it comes to just about everything else on the Internet (Google Search, Gmail, Google Docs, Places, Google Checkout, Buzz, Google TV, Blogger, YouTube, Chrome, Android — the list is seemingly endless) makes it somewhat shocking that they haven’t taken the high-dive into the deep end of social networks yet.

Of course, there’s the Facebook issue. With more than 500 million users (and growing, growing, growing…), the social behemoth seems completely unstoppable. Then again, it probably seemed that way about MySpace “back in the day,” as well and we all know how that has ended up. However, if any one would be able to beat (or even come close to competing with) Facebook — it’s Google.

But the real question is, should we be excited about that? While we don’t know anything definite about how Google Me will look or work, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said the company is not trying to imitate Facebook. Of course not. Surely, they want to be better, different, bigger, faster — further adding to the company’s importance, wealth — and ultimately, our overall dependence on them as Internet users.

Should one company be such a huge player in everything Internet-related, creating online monopolies in just about everything? Will we one day stop “surfing the Internet” and instead just “Google” — Google networking, Google marketing, Google dating? I’m sure they’ll try.

As a social media specialist, I’ve emphasised the importance of using the platform for online reputation management and customer engagement to clients for years, but have never before been on the other end. Until last week.

To make a long, frustrating story short, I had dealt with some pretty awful customer service from two separate Comcast reps, where I felt I was being upsold to a more expensive package, and the package that was available online suddenly was not available. After what seemed like an afternoon wasted on dealing with the issue, I cancelled my order and did what any Internet-obsessed person would do these days: I Tweeted.

Though I did technically direct the Tweet to the cable company, I didn’t really think anyone would pay attention, let alone respond. It is really just more of a habit of including someone’s Twitter name, if it’s available. But, lo and behold, TWO minutes later, a Comcast staffer Tweeted me back.

TWO MINUTES! I wouldn’t have been able to reach an actual human on the phone had I called the 800 number trying to reach someone high up enough to complain to. And that hold music is not something anyone should have to listen to for longer than one minute. ComcastBonnie and I went back and forth a few times (it’s tough to explain everything when you only get 140 characters at a crack), and it ended with her giving me an e-mail address to explain the situation further, to try to get things resolved.

I e-mailed, as instructed, and couldn’t believe someone e-mailed back right away to say they’d look into the situation further. I assumed that was the end of it, that despite ComcastBonnie’s quick response and genuine concern, my case would be lost. However, I was called this morning (that’s right — someone called ME) and I can now say the issue is totally resolved and I will not be canceling my Internet (smart considering I sort of need it, you know, for work, for fun, for life …) and will be able to watch True Blood (aka @TrueBloodHBO) by next Sunday. Thank you, ComcastBonnie. Thank you, Twitter for making actual people who can make actual things happen accessible.

Let this be a lesson for all, no matter which side you’re on. Social media is becoming increasingly instrumental in reaching customers and companies. It’s easy to reach out and provide great customer service, thus maintaining a good online reputation. Don’t sit back and let people Tweet about being unhappy when you can make a difference.

Twitter announced some major — and much needed — upgrades last night on their engineering blog. While the microblog is not promising the end of the dreaded “fail whale” just yet (much of their plan involves more long-term improvements) we can only hope this effort gets us a step closer to avoiding any more major outages, such as the one that occurred earlier this week when many users were unable to login, update or sign up for an account.

According to their blog, “Keeping pace with record growth in Twitter’s user base and activity presents some unique and complex engineering challenges. We frequently compare the tasks of scaling, maintaining, and tweaking Twitter to building a rocket in mid-flight.”

The company has more than 50 upgrades and optimizations planned to help do such mid-flight rocket building, including:

• Doubling the capacity of our internal network;
• Improving the monitoring of our internal network;
• Rebalancing the traffic on our internal network to redistribute the load;
• Doubling the throughput to the database that stores tweets;
• Making a number of improvements to the way we use memcache, improving the speed of Twitter while reducing internal network traffic; and,
• Improving page caching of the front and profile pages, reducing page load time by 80 percent for some of our most popular pages.

If that sounds too technical, just cross your fingers and hope to kiss that whale goodbye … someday!

Many companies are scrambling to jump on the social media bandwagon. And that’s OK. These days, it’s unusual to not be connected to fans,customers,clients,colleagues, and even competitors. Everything has gone social, and people will talk about you, your brand or your services whether you’re involved in the conversation or not. So, you might as well make yourself available, right?

The problem is, though, that many people think of using social media networks like Facebook and Twitter simply as lead-generation tools. This has to stop. There’s an interesting post on this phenemenom on the American Express Open Forum, which asks, “Is Social Media Failing to Produce Business Leads?”

Sure, generating leads is of course a goal. But if that’s the only hope or focus, a company will surely be disappointed. Besides, there is so much more you can get from participating in social media, like:

• Engaging your community. Becoming part of a bigger conversation, which offers a more long-term impact.
• Improving brand awareness.
• Online reputation management. Is someone talking negatively about you or your brand? Help solve their problems and answer their questions. Being accessible and attentive to peoples’ concerns goes a long way!
• Be an industry expert. Say, for example, you have a small roofing company. If you’re available on social networks, post blogs, answer questions, people will see you as an expert in roofing. They’ll want to see your updates and get information from you, because you put it out there.
• Opportunity for re-engagement. If people are connected with you, sure, one blog post or status update may not result in a lead. But, maybe they’ll share, or re-tweet, or bookmark what you put out there. And once they’re connected with you, they’ll get other things you share, as well.
• Say goodbye to focus groups. Really. Why wait months and months for research data when you can find out almost immediately what customers like/don’t like? Social media is power!

Are you ready to move beyond thinking just in terms of leads?

Still think social media is “just a fad?” Tell that to Victoria, British Columbia. The Canadian city’s Mayor just signed a proclamation making Wednesday an official social “holiday.” So far, according to Mashable, Victoria is the only city to make Social Media Day official. No word yet on whether that means workers will get the day off. Most likely they will just be updating Facebook statuses and Tweeting more often.

So what about the rest of us who don’t live in BC? Well, we can participate online, of course. Mashable.com/smday has plenty of ways to get into the social spirit this week, from meet-ups in your area to Flickr uploads, following SM Day on Twitter and so on. Ideally, it’d be great to attend a meet-up in a city near you, check into Foursquare, share your check-in on Twitter, which is linked to your Facebook, viewable on the smart phones of all your contacts — who are likely standing in the same venue, updating their LinkedIn status, or sharing a photo of you checking into Foursquare on Twitpic.

Who said we social types don’t know how to celebrate?

What will you do for Social Media Day?

Shopping online, in the scheme of things, it is a pretty new experience.   Most people prefer to go to the store, walk the aisles and find what they are looking for. They want to be able to touch, feel and play with what they are about to buy. Not me, I am happy to just go to my computer and find what I am looking for using my web browser.

This week my family needed a new dishwasher and my wife and I could not find time to make it out to get one.  So, we decided to do the whole thing online with Sears. I have to say, Sears could not have made it any easier. They seem to have the perfect mix of traditional and online interactions.  Let me share with you some of the “High Points & Low Points” of dealing with Sears. I will do it in list form, as people like lists!

- When placing the order online with Sears I was able to pay a percent with Paypal, Gift Cards, a coupon and debit card. Yes I paid in one transaction with 4 different payments combined!

- I had a question, I clicked on the “Live Chat” and had someone answer a question about the item.

- There was a rebate available for the dishwasher. Their systems flagged it for me. Then after the purchase they sent me an email that had a hyperlink to it. I was able to complete the form, print and mail it all within minutes.

-I never got a confirmation call about when the dishwasher was going to be delivered. I decided to stay home to wait. Being the calm cool person I am I tweeted:

Sears quickly replied:

Then I posted:

I must say.. I was impressed. They responded to my tweet within 10 minutes and I got a calls in the same amount of time! Amazing, great save! They did great!

- The dishwasher was installed last night and it does not fit. Story of my life.  I called Sears this morning and alerted them to the issue.  An employee named Chris stayed on the phone with my wife and I for about 20 minutes and helped us find one that fit. He was great. After placing the order I got another call from Edwin. He stated his goal was to make sure everything is handled properly. He will be the single point of contact for the removal of the first dishwasher and the replacement of second dishwasher! He gave me his direct line, his hours, etc.

-Then I go a direct message via Twitter from @MySears…it said:

..hmmmm an automated DM.. not good.

As of this post, I am waiting for the second  dishwasher, Ill let you know how the rest of it goes.

Overall, I have to say my experience with Sears has been really good.  I really like the fact they have found a good mix of using tools like Paypal, Twitter, emails and  traditional live person customer service.

Dear CNN,

I have a good friend, who for some reason about 10 years ago decided to leave lovely California and move to, Nashville.  Yes, he did it for a woman. No, they are no longer together. Today, he is happily married with kids, and owns a Smoothie King.

He has been updating his Facebook status with info on the flooding in his area.  I had heard in passing about the flooding but did not really pay attention. That was until he started updating his Facebook status with links to videos and websites.

I thought, I should go check what was happening and get more info. I went to CNN.com and saw this:

Where were the amazing links that my friend had? Where was info on the flooding? I could find info on:

-Porn Director Seeks Office

-3-D Gaming

-Photographer Captures Arctic

..and then yes  I saw it  small references to the flooding in Nashville. With boring articles.

Here is my point, wouldn’t the page have more impact, more information and be more informative if they used things like YouTube and Twitter? Things my friend had been posting?

Here let me list some of them for you, people like lists:

Amazing right? Wouldn’t these videos grab you more and heck, be more informative? More “WOW” factor! More “POP”

Then you have Twitter, where there are real time updates and comments by people. Why is there no feed up? Here is a sample..

Again, comments from real people being shared by real people. I know you have that Ireport thing and your trying, but well.. try a little harder. Okay?

Seems to me your  missing the mark here.

Gee,   I cant imagine why traditional media is having problems…

What are your thoughts?
Sincerely,

Dave Peck

I’m a bad blogger

There I said it, I will say it again. I am a bad blogger.

It has been several weeks since I have posted a new update.  Excuses? Sure I have lots. I have been working on several projects like:

-Touching Home

This amazing movie based on the true story of Logan & Noah Miller, staring Ed Harris opens this Friday!

Yes, I just did a plug. I am allowed to do that once in a while.

Im going to get back on track and post weekly. I can do it.. right? What should I be blogging about?

All kinds of things. Lets see there is..hold on. Better yet, let me share it with you in a list. People like lists.

1. How to engage your community

2.Using Geolocation in your business

3. Do you need a blog anymore?

4. My favorite non-social media blogs

5. How to covert your online community into brand advocates

6. Do you need a Facebook Fanpage?

7. Why schools should use school media

8. Online communities: Your probably part of  one and don’t even know it

9. How MySpace went wrong

10. Is Podcasting over?

11. Do you really need to be on Twitter?

Okay the list can go on and on.. what would you like to see a blog post on?

Is there something in particular?

Help a guy out.

Okay..okay.. that is a bad title for a blog. It was way to easy to come up with, but I had to go for it.

Today, right now, check your watch, if you still wear one,  March 30, 2010..  there is nothing hotter then geolocation.   You know its hot when Facebook & Twitter step  into the game.

What is Geolocation? Well, thanks to a  GPS-enabled smartphone such as the Apple iPhone, Google Nexus One, or RIM BlackBerry, you can use it to let your friends know where you are, or to find places recommended by people you know, or to check in remotely at clubs, bars, and restaurants. Regardless of privacy concerns, it looks like it is here to stay. There are apps like:

-FourSquare

-Gowalla

-BrightKite

-Loopt

-Whrrl

Enough to make your head spin right? Good thing  Brightkite came out with Check.in. It updates all of the geolocation sites, sort of like a Ping.fm
So, why should businesses care? Big or small there is a wealth of information for a business to get. Think about it:

-You will know who your best customers are

-How often people are coming to your business location

-You can offer them instant discounts via their handheld

-Know where your clients are coming from and where they are going

Is your business using geolocation?