29 | September | 2008 | I Crashed The Web

I’m so tired of people doubting social media. I’m tired of people judging whether or not it works or not wanting to use it “because it’s scary/uncontrollable/etc.” I mean really, if we stopped doing everything that was “scary” or only did things we could control, how boring would life be?

Cone, my old stomping ground (I interned there for a while), recently released a study that finally puts it all out there: Your clients WANT social media!

According to the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, 93% of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, and 85% believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media.

The time has come people. These conversations are already happening. We can’t just ignore social media and hope it will go away. We can’t ignore YouTube, because of some of the questionable content on there, or ignore twitter because we find it “self-indulgent.” We need to be out there, listening and interacting with our clients and customers. The time is now.

More information on the findings of the study can be found here.

Last weekend I made my first trip down to southern Ohio for a German-filled weekend. Let me first state that I have never been to Germany and I am not at all German. Not even close. What is the opposite of German? That’s probably me.

B, B’s brother and I made the trip down Friday night and met up with B’s brother’s girlfriend (who is in school in Cincy) and B’s friend (who studied in Germany with B nonetheless). The first night we ventured over the border to Kentucky to check out the Hofbrauhaus. Many masses of beer was consumed and I even saw a man propose to his girlfriend on the stage where a German music band was playing! (Cute, but not for me).

Mass # 1 or 2

The next day we went to Oktoberfest! I had no idea but Cincinnati has US’s largest “most authentic” Oktoberfest. I spent the morning (10 am was too early for beer especially after the late night at Hofbrauhaus) drinking some yummy cider, switching to traditional German beer in the afternoon.

Super Brat!

I even sampled a “Super Brat” a bratwurst that was twice the normal size (it didn’t fit in the bun they gave). Just so you know, I’m not the only one who “pigged out” (haha a pun!) at Oktoberfest…according to their website, an insane amount of food is consumed each year:

87,542 metts
80,500 bratwurst
64,000 sauerkraut balls
56,250 sausages
24,640 potato pancakes
23,004 soft pretzels
20,000 cream puffs
16,002 strudel
6,000 jumbo pickles
3,600 lbs. sauerkraut
1,875 lbs. German potato salad
702 lbs. Limburger cheese
700 pigtails
400 pickled pigs feet

The highlight of my day was when the Bier Band serenaded us to various traditional German and then American pop songs. Their lead singer even came up right next to me during “My best friend’s girl friend.” I took some great video (and photo below!) but it doesn’t do them justice. I mean, seriously, imagine a bunch of guys singing and playing instruments (including horn and accordion) AND wearing liederhosen. Hilarious.