I came across this Internet infograph on the http://www.makeuseof.com/ page and had a couple of thoughts just burst out of my head.

The US ranks 22nd overall in the world in average Internet connection speed. With the highest number of Internet Service Providers, the greatest number of data centers, servers and Web sites hosted, how do we rank so low in average connection speed?

I think that the size of the country has one thing to do with it. We’re a large country compared to the top 10 countries in the average connection speed list. But I don’t think size has everything to do with it. I think when it comes down to it, as much as we want competition to be allowed in business, there’s actually not very much competition taking place. I think we’re seeing a little more of the “set a trend and then follow it” standard by Internet Service Providers. Otherwise I think we’d see offers higher Internet connection speeds. The speeds are there, you can get it for businesses, but for residential Internet connections, the offered packages are subpar.

It’s the same with cell phone providers. I got my first cell phone back in 2000 (yes, I was a late adopter), and my plan back then was 200 minutes a month, free nights and weekends for about $40 per month. Flash forward to 2010 and my cell phone plan it a little bit better but nothing spectacular.  I used to think that by now we’d see unlimited minute plans for $30-40 per month but it’s still not here. I know that there are some providers that have a version of that plan, but it’s not mainstream yet. You’d think that competition would have created these great service packages but the competition hasn’t been as fierce as we’d like it to be.

I had a buddy of mine call me up today saying that he’s had this Unidentified Network error in Vista which made it so he couldn’t access the Internet on his laptop when he connected to his wireless router. If he used his Ethernet connection, the connection worked just fine. Since I don’t use Windows Vista, I wasn’t really familiar with the problem, but with a simple Google search I found out that it’s a huge issue and countless numbers of people are swearing off of Vista or just letting their computers gather dust as it does a great impersonation of a giant paper weight.

If you see this error, here’s a simple fix:

Open the Control Panel and click on Network Connections

1) Right-click on your connection that is having problems (this will be local area connection or the wireless connection) and select properties.

2) Under the Networking tab, uncheck the option for Internet Protocol Version 6, then click ok.

Right-click on your network connection again and select disable, then right click on it once more and enable it.

Or your can open the command prompt (start > type: CMD [hit enter]), then run: ipconfig /renew

Wait a couple of minutes and you should be set.

I think that the big brands have certainly been utilizing Twitter to help promote their business message. I wonder, however, if small businesses realize the power of that social media has in pushing forward their local marketing efforts. I believe that any small business that wants to really develop that foothold in the community like local businesses used to have must turn to social media to create outreach in their local community and get people to interact with your business and employees on a regular basis.

When I think of small businesses that have been doing this well, I think of the trendy coffee shops and hip small restaurants. I know a few here in the the Utah Valley area that are really making a place for themselves using social media.

For those looking to get started, it doesn’t take much. If your place of business is dominated by the non-tech people and you may feel a little apprehensive about going about this process, the answer is simple. Go to you local college and contact the business school and say that you need an intern or a part-time marketing student to help your business. The position can have a hip title like Social Media Director or Customer Relations Specialist. It would be preferable to include something about social media in the title. You don’t have to pay a lot, most college jobs are not well paying jobs, so you should be able to match that or give them a little bit more, but even if you can just match the going rate in the area, just the fact that the individuals job will be to simple interact with others and develop an identity online for your business, it already makes the job better than anything else. Trust me, there’re plenty of people who would love a job where they just work on online presence and identity with social media.

The next steps are the basics to getting started. Chris Brogran recently wrote an article that outlines 50 ideas on using twitter for business, I’ve pulled out 26 steps that would help any small business get started in social media marketing. Some of these items will be quick, others may take a bit of work, but it’s well worth it and it’s important to remember that the purpose here is to develop that relationship with the local scene that businesses used to have back in the day.

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. (@Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.
3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
5. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
6. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)
7. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)
8. Throw in a few humans other than your social media person, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.
9. Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga.
10. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
11. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
12. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
13. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
14. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
15. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
16. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
17. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections.
18. You don’t have to read every tweet.
19. You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
20. Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation ( got this from @pistachio).
21. Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
22. 3rd party clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier to manage Twitter.
23. If you tweet all day while your coworkers are busy, you’re going to hear about it.
24. If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting all the time, you might hear about it.
25. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
26. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.

These 26 steps will get any organization started in the social media community and will get you started to developing that presence that every business wants with its local scene. The principles can also be applied to individuals who want to develop their online presence and connect with individuals in their line of work or with similar interests.

• REMEMBER: Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
• REMEMBER: Twitter breaks news faster than other sources.
• REMEMBER: Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s
• REMEMBER: Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn.
• REMEMBER: Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
• REMEMBER: Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (mine are).

1. REMEMBER: Twitter can augment customer service.