Two fascinating social media stories from last week

So now that my job as the marketing guy here has almost completely shifted from being a print-based job to being an internet one I spend far more time than I used to studying trends, emerging concepts and plain old "cool stuff" that happens online. With that in mind, I want to share two stories with you from my world that hopefully will help you think about how you do your business in the future.

1) The Facebook "Color Mystery"

If you are on facebook and remembered to check in last week, chances are good you saw several of your female acquaintances creating status updates that were simply a color, or a color with a pattern. I know I did, and like most everyone else caught outside of the inside joke had no idea what I was seeing.

Thankfully I didn't just blindly jump in and post a color, because it turned out it was a campaign started to raise breast cancer awareness by asking women to post the color of their bra online. [Editor's note, if you're just finding out about this now, don't go do it...you'll look really silly coming this late to the party].

So millions upon millions of women, ranging from teenagers to 70 year olds, were posting colors and patterns online. But what made this campaign successful? First, it was totally free. Someone started the plan (probably not even the cancer societies) and it spread "virally" until everyone not only was doing it, but everyone who saw it learned what it meant.

Here is a quick video from ABC News that shows just how large this online phenomenon grew in a matter of days.

So what does this mean to you? First of all, don't take facebook lightly. I think that point has been hammered home pretty well at CBH already. If you can start something, even among your small network of friends, it can pay huge dividends down the road. Second, look for opportunities. It just so happens one of my friends owns a lingerie shop in Lahaska. I used this whole "color madness" as an opportunity to promote people to fan her page - just in case they were thinking their post of "white" or "tan" said something about their personality they didn't necessarily want it to say.

2) The Real Estate Zebra has a baby

This one has a bit of a different twist. I have been on twitter (@chrisbeadling) for some time now and over that time have developed relationships with people in the real estate profession that to this date have never met in the real world. That is one of the great things about social networking - it allows you to expand your list of friends, influencers, resources, etc.

Nevertheless, one of the people I follow on twitter is Daniel Rothamel - also known as "The Real Estate Zebra" because of his penchant for refereeing basketball games. Over the last nine months or so his twitter network has followed the stories as his wife (also on twitter and also an active user) carried their first child. Any of us who have been through that process know that it can be fun, can be frustrating, can be boring - but the Zebra did a good job keeping it lighthearted and fun through hundreds of posts, pics and quips.

The "big day" came Saturday just after a win by Zebra's beloved Jets. He kept us all in the loop minute by minute (even admitted when he passed out watching the epidural needle) until he was able to announce the birth. Trust me when I tell you, there were thousands of us checking our phones constantly waiting for the "magic moment" to arrive.

Again, this is a man I have never met. I have had online conversations with both he and his wife and I think they are fun people - at least in 140 characters. So why was I so fascinated by this whole thing? Heck, my cousin had twins two weeks before and I didn't know a thing until after someone had counted twenty fingers and twenty toes. It was because social networks are by their nature social...and we thrive on the interaction we have with other people.

So what in the world does this mean for all of you? No, I am not advocating you go get pregnant (or get someone else that way) just so you can share in the twitter love. I am advocating that you build your networks, on whatever platform you feel most comfortable, and get them to the point where they want to know everything that is happening at the biggest moments of your life. Those are the people who will want to share with you in their biggest moments...which we all know is when real estate happens.