Big Sky Country and Social Media
I had the pleasure of visiting my motherland (aka “Montana” and/or “Big Sky Country”) last week. It was a family ski vacation in the Rocky Mountains where I figured the world of social media would be held at bay by the tactile pleasures of the trees, snow and rocks.
Wednesday night was my wife’s and my “date night” where we got a babysitter dined alone at one of our favorite Big Sky eateries, Bucks T-4. Long ago Bucks T-4 was a roadside bar that was known for its burgers, beers and raging parties. Today, it is a gourmet restaurant serving “Duck Two Ways” and “Pheasant – Hunter’s Style.” My how much Montana has changed in the last 30 years – but I digress.
At the end of this enjoyable meal of local Montana fare, I got the check and surveyed the damage. Right under the total, there was the following paragraph, “Did you enjoy your meal? Please review us at TripAdvisor.com or Yelp.com. Let others know about our great food and service.”
Wow.
I go all over the country prosthelytizing about how social media is permeating every element of local search – a category encompassing restaurants, lawyers and anything else you buy at a local level. But this simple restaurant receipt in the oxygen-depleted mountains of Montana says it all: Every – and I mean every – business is being touched by social media. You can ignore it at your peril, or you can learn to harness it like Bucks T-4 and many other web-savvy businesses. The reality is that client ratings and other user-generated content are in their infancy and to ignore them today is to cede your client base tomorrow. While it sounds dramatic, it is also reality.
The good news is that Avvo is here to help. This Thursday, I will be holding a seminar on social media marketing and blogging. You can register here. We already have 50+ people signed up and I would love to see you there. It’s a new world out there; but it can be your world.
Be Rated!
February 25th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Mark,
Thanks for all your hard work “reporting from the field” – here I am coming to read about your Montana trip (jealously) for little escape from work, and your post is actually about “work stuff.”
Kidding aside – this is a great anecdote about the absorption and permeation of social media into real life (or is it the other way around?) Thanks for sharing it.
Sorry to have missed the webinar this time, will try to make the next one.
Darren