I saw this billboard at the Diamondbacks game Saturday night and it caught my eye. Notice there is no phone number, no web address – just their twitter name. Simple. Easy to remember. And just a little bit mysterious…(Side note- check out DD&F’s Twitter profile – looks like they get it.)

As the game went on, I thought about the implications of that sign (what can I say, the game wasn’t very pretty, we lost 8-1, I needed a distraction) and came up with a few things:

1. A social media profile CAN be your only web presence. Jason Baer talked about this a while back and I think it’s an intriguing idea. There are definitely some business models where this would make a lot of sense. If your website would mainly just be a digital business card – trade it in for a social media profile that’s more interactive. At the recent Tempe Chamber meeting (where I spoke about the importance of blogging and social media) this topic came up with a few of the business owners. I’m going to dig into this a little more and research whether there have been any successful examples of this model yet but I think it would be especially relevant to small and/or local businesses.

2. If it’s not you’re ONLY web presence – it can be your calling card. After I went home and visited their Twitter I found out that DD&F does have a website. But they didn’t put that on the sign. They also have a phone number, address, the works – none of that is included in the advertising. They’ve identified a social network as the easiest way for their customers to get in contact with them and get a taste of their business. From there the customer can click through to their web page for more information.

3. It may not be truly mainstream yet – but it’s on its way. Looking around the stadium at the diverse crowd reminded me of some of the things Bret mentioned in his recent Gangplank presentation on connections. He said that the adoption rate of some social networks is still less than that of the snuggie blanket. For those of us who are in it, it’s sometimes hard to remember how many people are still not participating. However, even if they’re not participating, at this point they have heard of it because it’s being referenced in mainstream places, like on the news, and at baseball stadiums. So I think the mainstream adoption is coming and we, as early adopters and advocates of social media, need to be ready to help the public learn to use it. Whether that means technically (how to use it), or socially (developing norms on how we act in this space), we need to be cognizant of it.

I got a reality check on this at the Tempe Chamber meeting, when I was talking to some of the members, a lot of the questions were about the real basic how to mechanics of using sites like Twitter. This is the reason I created a very elementary guide on how-to use Twitter in my resource section. I realized a lot of the how-to resources out there assume you already know the mechanics, when many of the newer people joining still don’t. After that, most of the questions I got were on what types of things you can say and what is expected of you on specific networks or in certain spaces – so look for follow up guides on those things.

A lot of stuff for one little sign huh? But let’s talk about all this - I want to explore these ideas more fully in the future so leave a comment with your opinions and thoughts and let’s see where this all leads. 

P.S: Later that night I took the lightrail back to Tempe and went to one of my favorite bars on Mill Avenue – this sign was up in the restroom, almost as a little confirmation of everything I’d been thinking about earlier:

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