PORT TOWNSEND — Leif Hansen is conflicted.
On the one hand, he wants technology to be less intrusive.
On the other, he teaches people how best to use social media tools.
The owner of Spark Social Media, Hansen encourages business owners to market themselves on Facebook, Twitter and other social media providers.
He believes that social media can “bring back the heart and the authenticity” of interpersonal connections during the ongoing Internet evolution.
Rather than disconnect people because of the overwhelming amount of information available, Hansen sees sites like Facebook as a means for businesses to create lasting, personal relationships with customers.
“Be alive. Take risks. Break out of the box,” he said.
“Who is rocking social media? The weird wonderful things people are doing. They [businesses doing social media marketing] are really caring for their customers. You get to do the fun stuff which makes you feel alive.”
Hansen said the difference between business presence and personal presence are narrowing for those who use the interactive tools available to them through Google, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
The number of people actively using Facebook has increased exponentially in recent years.
Forty-two percent of American households were using Facebook as of last year while 66 percent used some form of social networking site.
If the 500 million netizens of Facebook were the subjects of a country, the republic of Mark Zuckerberg would be the third largest country in the world, Hansen said.
These numbers are likely to have grown by a third, just in the past year, Hansen said.
“Marketing doesn’t work like it used to,” Hansen said. “People aren’t looking at ads on the bus. They’re using their smartphones and iPads to shop.”
Hansen said the newly emerging paradigm of social media can be effective in creating closer relationships between customers and business owners, in empowering customers to advocate products and services and in improving the business through customer feedback.
An effective social media strategy would result in increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, nearly instantaneous market research and reduced customer issues.
Hansen, who received a communications Bachelor of Arts degree from Seattle Pacific University, has been actively engaged in the Internet experiment since about 1995.
He said he helped people set up their home networks and email accounts back then, but that evolved into more in-depth use and exploration of the Internet, such as operating a podcast in 2004 and 2005 from his former residence on the Key Peninsula “when no one knew what a podcast was.”
He has championed social media networking for the past two years, offering workshops and consultations, as owner of Spark Social Media in Port Townsend, where he spent his formative years before moving away in 1985.
“I got attracted to social media technology not for the marketing reason but to build a better community and share information and do collaborative learning,” he said.
“I want to help people discover their core and to empower them with tools to communicate their core.”
For more information about Hansen’s workshops, visit www.SparkSocialMedia.com or e-mail leif@sparksocialmedia.com.
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Philip L. Watness is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. He can be reached at whatnews@olypen.com.