Tips for Holiday Downtime

Many businesses shut down operations or have so few client obligations that the days can be pretty slow for those of us that find ourselves at work when everyone else is on vacation or closed for the holidays.

This year I’d like to offer a few tips on how to spend a few minutes a day getting more up to speed with the world of social media. When your co-workers or clients come back after the holiday, you can impress them with your now-working knowledge of the subject.

Tip #1 – Do a Google blog search (http://blogsearch.google.com) on your company, your competitors or your products. Read through some of what’s being said. Write down the name of the two blogs that have the most discussion about your search. Come back a day or two later and see how the conversation has progressed.

Tip #2 – Go to http://search.twitter.com. Search using the same criteria as Tip #1. You are now searching Twitter for what people are saying in real time. This should give you a glimpse of the conversations happening about your company, brand or competitor that you couldn’t have known about before.

Tip #3 – Visit Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org). Search for companies, brands, people, etc. Encyclopedia Britannica is 97% accurate. Wikipedia is 94%. If your company or major products aren’t listed, ask your PR department why. In 90% of Google searches, Wikipedia information shows up in the top five results.