Last Thursday evening I was working late (ok it wasn’t THAT late) in my New York City office when my good friend (and business insurance agent) Seth Jonas (http://sjonasinsurance.com/) posted on Facebook that Squeeze was in Bryant Park. So I stroll over to my conference room window that overlooks Bryant Park and see a sea of people in Yoga clothing doing a down dog. I try calling Seth but it goes to voicemail. So I text him and he says its near the Southwest Airlines kiosk. His brother Barry got me onto the VIP list for a special intimate secret concert at the last second. So do I think social media and Facebook can work for business? Absolutely!

Who benefits from little “tweets” Facebook and LinkedIn updates? Well, that all depends on how you are using them. True, most social media today is certainly used by college kids telling their friends that they are going to get a slice of pizza off campus or that someone is at a concert or questions like “is anyone still in the dorm room than can bring me my wallet. Students and young adults, the majority of the 500 million Facebook users, probably use it the most. But now that businesses are starting to wake up to word of mouth media, big business is benefiting. If small and medium size businesses catch on, they will be able to compete with the big guns.

Southwest airlines has a bar and outdoor lounge area at the edge of Bryant Park on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Fortieth Street. They opened their doors this past spring and the place has been packed ever since. But I thought it was just a sandwich place and bar. Little did I realize that it actually has corporate sponsorship. Smart! An organization called “artists den” has been signing up big old popular bands to play venues all over and even get broadcast on national TV. So it all came together when my friend Seth updated his Facebook profile and I heard the message. And the message was loud and clear. I brought my FlipCam to the show and got some good footage before I was told that I couldn’t record anymore. Check out their opening number “black coffee in bed” here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5zxy5laHCQ. So far there are 10 views. I guarantee this will shoot up past the 100 mark and will become one of my biggest viral videos out of the 226 that I have put together. And just to make you a bit jealous, yes – they played all of their old hits; Tempted, Slap and Tickle, Annie Get Your Gun, Cool For Cats, Another Nail In My Heart, Is That Love, and I think they ended with Pulling Muscles From A Shell.

So who benefits from this situation? Squeeze promotes their old name and new album. The Artists Den, Southwest Airlines, Wichcraft (sandwich place), YouTube, my insurance agent, and me. But when I post my video to YouTube, so do the advertisers that tag on to my video. And when I blog and tweet about it, the advertisers benefit as well. So content is king in terms of being the driving force behind your advertising. But don’t be fooled. You need to create that content in order to benefit from it.

And speaking of YouTube content, Old Spice is back on millions of people’s radar due to their BRILLIANT campaign on YouTube over the last 2 weeks. http://www.youtube.com/user/oldspice?v=uLTIowBF0kE&feature=pyv&ad=5066079497&kw=old%20spice%20commercial&gclid=CLnn1ozl-aICFQR75QodaQf1_Q (Over 9.7 million views) Now granted I personally haven’t used Old Spice since receiving some around my Bar Mitzvah in 1983. (Maybe I got some for Hanukkah in 85 or 86). But if you watch TV, they have had some funny commercials throughout the years. But whoever thought of a campaign to have an actor (and a “ridiculously handsome” former NFL Football player) on call 24/7 responding to Twitter and YouTube comments absolutely wins the social media race of the month. And the writers on staff at the same time coming up with creative responses to famous celebrities and actors and pop culture icons will go down in history. Check out the Alyssa Milano Twitter and video responses (http://www.alyssa.com/news/here-is-what-to-do-next-mr-old-spice/), the hilarious Old Spice response bringing back Milano’s 11 year old adolescent Tony Danza Who’s The Boss TV days (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oElH6M_5i4) and the final video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFDqvKtPgZo (over 2.6 million views). And just as Old Spice is benefitting, so is Milano’s career and the charities that she supports. She was able to raise $90,000 on her birthday through her fans. Wow! Let’s see how much she can raise by tagging on to the Old Spice campaign.

Finally, for all of you Livestrong yellow rubber bracelet people out there who wish they could ride a bike like the wind, RadiosShack benefits from sponsoring Lance Armstrong and the people who ride with him. At the 16th stage of the 21 stage, 2200 mile, Tour De France, Lance is in the 31st position while the other Americans are Christopher Horner in position 21 and Levi Leipheimer is in 7th place http://www.letour.fr/2010/TDF/LIVE/us/1500/classement/index.html

Books of the week – Fiction – The Blind Side by Michael Lewis and Non-Fiction – On Selling, by Mark H. McCormack and Burn Rate by Michael Wolff. Movies – The Vagina Monologues and Y Tu Mamá También. (Yes a racy week for the 9 days huh?)

If you want to know more about Old Spice YouTube, Facebook, squeeze, books I have read, movies I have watched and/or social media for your business, call me at 212-993-5828 or email me at info@salemglobal.com to set up a conversation or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. Or even better, come to one of my events. My exclusive networking group is meeting this Thursday at 5WPR in midtown.