Social Media’s Virtual Water Cooler
On Twitter and beyond, #UsGuys, which allows #UsGals to join them, has attracted lots of attention. The five founding members, Cristian Gonzales (@galactic), Tom Moradpour (@TomMoradpour), Jason Mikula (@mikulaja), Patrick Prothe (pprothe) and Chase Adams (@RealChaseAdams), felt too constrained by Twitter’s 140 character boundaries, especially given several participants have long Twitter handles. This led them to create #UsGuys, a non-stop water cooler for the remotely connected, social media savvy working set. According to founding member, Chase Adams, #UsGuys, is “a proverbial social media garage, where we pop the hood on Social Media, marketing and customer care. ”
#UsGuys’ 3 Major Social Media Accomplishments
#UsGuys has evolved to serve three major roles for its participants:
- Keeps members current on the latest news, especially social media related information including new technologies and platforms. Just yesterday, Tom Moradpour tweeted that he read his Twitter stream with his morning coffee, not newspapers!
- Provides a social media tribe. To grow and take advantage of social media, it’s useful to have a group of likeminded individuals around you. #UsGuys offers members this social media family connectedness in a frictionless way.#UsGuys is like a social media party. As a by-product of their connections, interactions and social sharing, the #UsGuys members have achieved high Klout scores (although this may be partially attributable to certain limitations in the way these scores are calculated and the fact that these guys are very involved, active social media users).
- Enables members to connect, despite remote locations. While geographically dispersed, #UsGuys facilitates an office-like social environment. The difference is that everyone’s sitting with their cup of joe in front of a computer screen rather than in someone’s office. At our core, we’re all social beings and we want to engage with others. For remote workers, the lack of camaraderie can be a bigger hurdle than finding a quiet area to concentrate. To overcome their physical distances, members are planning to take this group offline to a January Meetup in Philadelphia.
Best described as a 24/7 Twitter Chat, #UsGuys has attracted lots of attention that’s extended even beyond Twitter. #UsGuys has leveraged a number of social media platforms to transform themselves into a real time communications and sharing network. As a result, the #UsGuys clan enables them make real life connections that translate to high-value relationships. Any marketer looking to understand what’s required to have a social media marketing strategy and engagement should spend a day lurking on #UsGuys’ tweet stream. Or better yet, jump into the conversation which is always inviting.
What do you think of #UsGuys? Would you use a social media water cooler like this? For members of #UsGuys and similar social media oriented groups, how has the group helped you? Please add your comments and insights to the comment section below?
Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen
Big tip of my hat to #UsGuys for leading the way into social media’s future and inviting me to be one of the gang!
For further reading, please check these sources.
- Current stream of #UsGuys Tweets via What the Hashtag?
- Who’s Who of #UsGuys’ Peer Index – Another influence measure. This post makes the interesting observation that the members of #UsGuys tend to be highly active users of social media platforms which also skews their influence scores significantly above average.
- #UsGuys Facebook Page
- Margie Clayman’s Description of #UsGuys
Photo credit: pupismyname via Flickr
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