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Is Voicemail Becoming Obsolete?

by Tom Williams on March 2, 2010

in Social Media, YouTube

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I admit it - I still leave voicemails.  However, I have found myself hanging up on voicemails more and more lately.  I don’t do this because what I have to say is unimportant…just the opposite usually.  I have information that is too urgent to drop it into someone’s voicemail box.

Voicemail Monster

Voicemail Monster

So, instead of trying to call again and again or simply giving up on the first try, I hang up on the automated voicemail and  immediately employ any number of OTHER communication vehicles to reach my target.  These could include cell phones or text messages; emails or twitter!

One more thing about voicemail… It’s been around for a LONG TIME folks.   You don’t need to be all polite and thank me for calling.  You definitely don’t need to tell me to leave my name and number after the freaking Beep, and I assume that you will call me back at “your earliest convenience” - so scrap that line too.  If you actually want me to leave you a message, just say “This is [insert name here]  please leave a message”.  Done.

I decided to do a little experiment on myself recently.  I counted how many different ways someone can get in touch with me.  Depending on how well you know me, there are a huge number of ways to reach me, should you get the dreaded voicemail.

  1. My physical office (you could stop by)
  2. Direct Office phone
  3. The InnoGage 1-800 number
  4. Home phone
  5. Cell phone
  6. Google Voice Number
  7. Fax
  8. Text message
  9. AOL IM
  10. Facebook IM
  11. Facebook message
  12. Twitter @me
  13. Twitter DM (which also sends me an SMS on my phone)
  14. InnoGage Email Account
  15. Gmail Account
  16. Yahoo Email Account (yes, I have one…had it since 1994…can’t give it up)
  17. GoogleTalk
  18. Foursquare
  19. LinkedIn
  20. Skype call
  21. Skype IM
  22. Comment on the InnoGage blog
  23. ‘Contact’ form on the InnoGage website
  24. Message via YouTube Channel
  25. Message via Vimeo Channel
  26. Message via Flickr Channel
  27. Message via SlideShare account
  28. Message via my Delicious account
  29. GoogleWave
  30. GoogleBuzz

So, drop me a voicemail if you must, but if you really need to reach me…you know how to find me!!

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Jeremiah Owyang Meetup and the Power of Twitter from TOM WILLIAMS on Vimeo.

You know the problem with social media?  It can take you down the rabbit hole.  So, why do we shuffle and re-shuffle our work and why do we keep an eye on the social media channels?

Because you never know when lightening may strike.

Tom Williams and Jeremiah Owyang

Jeremiah Owyang and Tom Williams

Lightening struck for me recently.  I happened to be checking my twitter stream…for the 1,000th time, and I saw a tweet from a colleague of mine, Nick Seguin, cofounder of DynamIt to Jeremiah Owyang, Partner at Altimeter Group about Jeremiah being in Columbus.  I immediately scanned Jeremiah’s latest tweets and saw he had indeed come to Columbus for about 24 hours for a client meeting.

Jeremiah Owyang and Nick Seguin

Jeremiah Owyang and Nick Seguin

Nick and I both reached out to Jeremiah via Twitter’s Direct Messaging and arranged to get together with Jeremiah in the Easton area.  Long story short, Nick, some of his colleagues, Jamie and Kevin and I got a few hours of casual conversation with a very smart guy and social media superstar.  Lightening struck and Nick and I were there to catch it.  Had it not been for the power of Twitter, we would have never had this opportunity.

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Suspended by Twitter PART 2 The Recap

July 7, 2009

For those of you who missed my earlier blog post, I discovered recently that my personal twitter account @tom8williams, had been suspended by Twitter without an explanation.  I am happy to say that I was back in the twitterverse after several hours, but the event caused me to take pause and ponder the event.  It [...]

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Social Media Marketing – how big is it and how to use it

June 18, 2009

By now most of us have heard the term “Social Media Marketing”. Some of us are probably even using it, hopefully a good amount effectively. But there are still some that say that it’s just not that important or not that big. But the sheer numbers may surprise you.
Twitter grew 3,000 percent in April [...]

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Social Media in today’s society – Obama proves it works

May 22, 2009

Social Media has become quite a buzz word lately. It seems that everyone has or wants to jump on the Social Media bandwagon and hopes their sales skyrocket. But there is a lot more to Social Media than just writing a few blog posts and holding your hands out to collect the money. There needs [...]

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Will Tweedeck save Twitter from Facebook?

April 9, 2009

I downloaded the new version of TweetDeck today and something immediately caught my eye…

Notice anything?  Like…..that little Facebook checkbox?
You’ve probably noticed that Facebook recently changed it’s main page to look just like a tweet stream.  This was their response to the massive following twitter is receiving.  Many people immediately declared the Death of Twitter! …But [...]

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Managing a Higher Ed. Twitter Fiasco

April 2, 2009

If you follow the Webster Universty Twitter account, you may have seen the following tweet come out on April Fools day:

When I saw this tweet I wondered briefly if it was an April Fools Joke.  Then, weighing the possible gravity of the situation I decided to RT it both under the InnoGage twitter account and [...]

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Clueless Company is now following you on twitter

January 20, 2009

If you are a twitterer, you have no doubt experienced this annoying problem.  You check your inbox and you see that “peoplegatherer” or “shoes-4-less” is now following you on twitter.  Clearly this company sought you out because they value your opinion and want to connect personally with you right?

Out of some kind of sick impulse, [...]

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Social Media Experiment: #NACAC08

October 21, 2008

Did you stop by the InnoGage booth at NACAC this year? NO??? That’s funny…me neither.

The InnoGage team decided to get a little nuts at NACAC this year. Instead of putting up a booth and waiting for people to walk by, we decided to be the eyes and ears of hundreds of people both at [...]

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