Tech Thursday -It's all in the way that you use it.

I was asked recently how much impact the use of social media can have on a business marketing plan. As much as I'd like to rave about my services, I have to be honest and say that mileage may vary. It really depends on the individual business, the goals of the networking and the application of the media.

There are so many great things available now that it would be easy – and for the geek, fun – to get caught up in them. This month I'm testing out:

http://browsershots.org/
http://hashtags.org/
http://hootsuite.com
http://tweetdeck.com/beta/
http://flock.com/
and Astra from http://www.trillian.im/

Ask me later, and I'll let you know how it goes. The point I'm making, though, is that great as these applications are, they're not going to have a positive impact on your business unless they are used appropriately. In some cases, that means not using them at all.

Browsershots is a great application, giving you a visual of how your website is going to look in any given browser. Since I'm working on my website -still- it's a handy gadget. However, once I'm done with the design phase I really can't say that it will be something I need. It's usefulness is heavily dependent on the project I'm working on.

The same goes for Flock. It's my new favorite sparkly, and I have a feeling it's going to make my work at Wordizm even more fun. Yes, I said fun. I'm strange like that. However, setting up multiple networks and managing them through Flock would be a big 'ol honking waste of time if I didn't have a purpose for it.

The end goal needs to be considered when any technology is concerned. Just because a widget or gizmo does something better and looks great doing it doesn't mean it's going to make sense to use it

Thanks for reading today,