"Organic Social Media"

While talking today in a meeting with Nate Riggs, the term "Organic Search" kept coming up with the subject being social media. This just kind of got my brain going....

Ask someone what the first thing that comes to mind of when they hear the word "organic" and most people would say something involving farming or food.

But in the context of the internet, organic takes on a whole new meaning.... just another great example of how social media and the internet have taken a word and made it into something altogether different!

Another example of the internets ability to change the context of a word: A few years ago this young kid named Mark Zuckerberg started a movement. He launched a project that started on a white board outside his dorm room in Harvard that we now know as Facebook. On February 4th, 2004 Zuckerberg turned the word "Friend" into a verb..... and I LOVE knowing that we each have the potential to make change happen like this.

Back on topic....

I couldn't help but start to doodle on my notepad in our meeting after hearing that term, "Organic Search" come up again and again. And that doodle turned into the picture featured on this post. I just couldn't get the image out of my mind of a little tree in the forest just off the Information Super Highway that had growing on it, all the magical fruits of the social media realm.

Who knows what we will change about our world next. But if anything is going to impact it.... It's Social Media!

The Birth Of A Movement - The "i Factor"

Last week I wrote a post in a hurry late one night about something I could only think of calling the "i Factor" and it turned into something altogether different!

(Back round) At work I am a member of a whole new type of team. We specialize in Social Media and are carving out a brand new methodology in the contact center world. Where we're taking our insane amount of skill, knowledge, creativity, and drive for success is still a bit of a secret! (I mean seriously, I can't just give away all of our secrets!) But one thing's for sure, we will not let anything stand in our way.

(Now moving forward again) Enter Tim..... Tim is what I would call a lead by example power player. He dives straight into a pile of work and doesn't let up until all expectations have been blown out of the water. Tim's become a good friend of mine and he FLIPPED when he read the post I put up about what I just started calling The "i Factor" and what I thought it meant for Incept.

In that one post I managed to turn the tables in a sense and just put out there that not only did we (the Incept Social Media Team) know that we were on the right track, but much more, we weren't afraid to let it show. We found a winning combination and with all the creativity in our team we are going to change the face of our industry.

Now all of that might seem a little bit, well..... arrogant? But that wasn't how I had meant for it to come across. An interesting result is that people latched onto the idea of the "i Factor" and it now has the capacity to become a movement.

That's a completely different purpose than what I had intended my blog post to create. But sometimes you have to know when to go with the flow and play the hands you're dealt when the good cards come up!

So make sure you're staying tuned into the following.....

the Incept Blog

@InceptSaves on Twitter
@InceptResults on Twitter

and the Incept Page on Facebook

"Ready, Steady, Go" get out of our way or pay the price of being left in our dust. The Millennials are here, and we only know two speeds, stop and FAST FREAKING FORWARD!!!!

The "i Factor" (What Incept Is Doing Right On Social Media)

I just created in my head an equation. It goes a little something like this:

The "i Factor" + (Company Facebook Page + Employees Engaging Company On Their Own Time) + Unique Company Culture = Recipe For Social Media Success

The "i Factor" is what I'm calling the "Incept Factor" which basically means to me the actions we take as social media specialists (or in Incept terms, an Online Conversational Marketing Expert) to make our social media interactions special.

I can't fully explain it, but there's just something about how we interact with our employees and the fans on our facebook page that build a strong relationship! This week alone we've seen a burst of activity on our page from people who literally just started working with us this week. New trainees who only know a dozen or so people in the company (most of them are in the new hire training class with them) are commenting on our facebook page.

It's amazing to see how people are taking their free time to engage in conversations online with us. And even more amazing how quickly people want to feel like they belong to our family.

Surreal Feeling Of Blogging On The Job

It's a really surreal feeling to get paid to do something you love, especially when that something really doesn't feel like work! The company I work for, Incept, recently launched a social media team that I'm one of the core members of. And we've taken off..... and quick! I've been blogging for them in combination with a whole team of our staff members. But it's really surreal reading my work on a blog that isn't my own. It's awesome!

But I have to admit.... it makes me feel kind of humbled... soooo much more exposure on the Incept blog then on mine. But hey, you take what you can get right?!

I love working in collaboration with the people on my team, Rebecca, Tim, Sam, Dave, Billie, & Julia. Everyone shares thoughts and the stuff we're cooking up at Incept is growing to pave the way for the Conversational Marketing industry.

And on the front lines of everything we do is our blog.... and there I am... being published and getting paid to do something I'm really passionate about! It's awesome!