Social media is like the telephone, according to consultant Chris Brogan.

"Businesses want ROI from social media," said Brogan, a consultant and blogger on the subject. He was in Louisville this week to help lead a business boot camp, and he stuck around to speak to ~120 people at the Social Media Club of Louisville.

His blog, chrisbrogan.com, is in the top 10 of the Advertising Age Power150, and in the top 100 on Technorati.

Businesses would do well to think of social media the same way they do their phone or other commodity product.

"The phone is not a business plan," he said. Social media is a tool to be lined up with a strategy for reaching who you want to reach.

Speaking on What's Next? Brogan touched on a variety of topics. Here's two:

• GPS-enabled data. The web initially won praise for providing borderless access to information. Now tools are providing more meaning to where you are.
  
  Brogan expressed interest in the growing number of iPhone apps and other tools that use GPS to network people and information. For example, rock band Nine Inch Nails has distributed an app that allows fans to open their iPhone and immediately find other NIN fans in their vicinity. Not a fan of Nine Inch Nails, you say? OK, take them out and put in your favorite band, hobby or passion, and the possibilities blossom.
  1. Say you're visiting a city on vacation. Imagine Food Network built a similar app. Suddenly you can Tweet/text other foodies within a quarter mile, seeking suggestions for the best local restaurants.
  2. Imagine a denomination or network of churches that helped people on vacation find affiliate churches.
  3. With GPS-enabled information, colleges could offer visitors self-guided walking tours based on their interests (prospective students, athletics, school history, etc.)
  
  
  
• "Velvet Rope" social networks. Everyone loves the feeling of being whisked to the front of the line and past the velvet rope. The web and social media now are allowing people network in exclusive ways.
  
  Looking for $100,000+ talent? Visit www.theladders.com. It'll cost, but you won't have to wade through all those starting positions at monster.
  
  Doctors can join www.sermo.com for free, but they must show their credentials to gain access. (The tagline lures those attracted to insider information: "Know more. Know earlier.") Organizers make money by charging journalists and medical product sellers for access to this special group.
  
  Ultimately, the tools are designed to network people and open communication, not push ideas or products to them, Brogan reminded the audience. "Standing on stage is way different from sitting together talking."

He urged social media specialists to re-imbed themselves to help their organizations use the tools to their maximum usefulness.

"Equip the people all around you to do something with it," he said "It's not cool to be in the cool kids club. It's cool to do something."

David Winfrey (dmmwinfrey@gmail.com / @dmmwinfrey) is a freelance writer, editor, communicator living in Louisville, Ky. He is a former president of Baptist Communicators Association and is the current chairman of the Communications and Technology Committee for Habitat for Humanity of Metro Louisville.