Take your smartphone into the bathroom

During an interview I conducted yesterday on the topic of companies using social media to promote branding, a local freelance social media coordinator who will remain nameless told me she takes her smartphone into the bathroom.

"Everybody knows it already," she said, adding that she didn't mind if that information found its way into the article. (It won't.)

What I'm learning is that social media are a lot like a yappy little dog that will literally follow you onto the shitter if you let it, and a lot of people do. It doesn't make for a good Tweet to observe that one's having a particularly satisfying bowel movement, but anymore, information is instantaneous, and passing information and insight along can take seconds. My nameless SM coordinator calls this being "plugged in."

I don't have a smartphone. I have a dumbphone that's mostly good for making phone calls and sending text messages. Doing the journalism thing, I realize that not only does everyone around me have a smartphone––everyone around me is using smartphones to tremendous effect, sending Tweets, updating Facebook, etc. I'm a little jealous, but I think I can hold out a little longer.

That isn't to say that I'm unconnected to SM. If you're reading this, you likely found a link to it on my Facebook page or on Twitter. What amazes me is that so many companies aren't plugged in. One friend called a company's failure to engage Facebook "amateur hour," and since speaking with him, I've been trying to tease out of my interviewees the notion that there's something lazy about not taking advantage of free advertising.

My SM coordinator tells me that's not necessarily the case, that you should engage SM iff you have the time and inclination. She also told me that any business can find some way to make being plugged in a valuable business strategy. For some, that strategy can be public communication, as it is with the Idaho vodka distillery 44 North; other companies use it to advertise, like The Bench Commission. Goody's candy shop "buys" its Facebook fans with the promise of a scoop of ice cream.

Social Media's wide applicability, low cost, and relatively low time investment have made them virtually inescapable. Writing my story, I realize the hard part is going to be finding someone who will argue against them.