With Tribal Knowledge Social Media Has No Borders – Jim Says

This week for our She Said, He Said posts we tackle the topic of social media having no borders as long as you have the relevant tribal knowledge. I lead off today with my take and Shelby will follow up tomorrow. Also, #shehechat is back at the normal time of 8 p.m. CST tomorrow (Thursday) and both Shelby and I will be back in the saddle.

Recently, I visited Nora B’s restaurant near my home for the first time. My wife and I became aware of Nora B’s through interaction with them on Twitter. That, in and of itself, is not unique because we’ve found many fine restaurants thanks to Twitter. The unique aspect of the @NoraBsSpecials Twitter account is that much of the engagement is handled by Erin Rose Bigalke in Jacksonville, Florida. Did I mention Nora B’s is in Elm Grove, Wisconsin?

Tribal knowledge and social media

The piece of the story I left out in the previous paragraph is that Erin is Nora Barton’s daughter. As a matter of fact, Erin’s Twitter bio contains the following: “Check out my mom’s restaurant in Elm Grove WI @NoraBsSpecials – I wish I could eat there daily!” So it’s fair to say that Erin has some solid tribal knowledge of Nora B’s and its owner; going back I’m guessing a few decades.

How to cross timezones with social media

Indulge me for a few minutes while I return to the story of our first visit to Nora B’s. Early one Saturday morning, I had just picked up my wife at the airport and she reminded me that we’d be saying for months we needed to try Nora B’s for breakfast. She tweeted ahead that we’d be there in about half an hour. Within a few minutes, @NoraBsSpecials responded that they’d be waiting for us.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were greeted by Maggie who started out by asking if we were the “Twitter Couple.” I’m thinking the Blackberry in my wife’s hand and the Android phone in mine may have given us away. It might have also been our avatars. Who knows? After letting Maggie know that we were the “Twitter Couple,” she responded by saying that her sister had texted to let her know we’d be coming. As cool as all the tweets and SMS text messages in this story may be, they are just tools and technology.

What made this story worthy of being told is that on this Saturday morning, Erin and Maggie worked together to bring two new customers into their mother’s restaurant. On top of that, they made us feel like old friends or regulars who’d been coming forever. Now if Erin’s title was “social media consultant” and not “daughter of the owner,” would this story work as well or be as compelling? In my opinion, it wouldn’t.

It’s about organizational culture

While use of social media tools has no borders, it is critical that you understand the culture of the organizations and the people you are representing. The Nora B’s example works because Erin knows how the Nora B’s operation runs on a day-to-day basis. She knows the people involved and how to communicate with them effectively. Geography is not an issue for them; unless you count the fact that Erin would like to eat at her mom’s restaurant every day. That’s a sentiment I now share after having visited twice.