Tag: Social media

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgi0t2ap-us&feature=player_embedded

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Image representing Danny Brown as depicted in ...
Image via CrunchBase

A lot of social media purists will tell you that you’re the spawn of the devil if you use automation.

To truly use social media properly, you have to “be there” constantly, otherwise you’re just fooling yourself and your connections.

Bullshit.

Maybe to the purists that are on Twitter and Facebook non-stop, and love to tweet just for the sake of getting influence scores up, automation is evil. After all, they’re on there doing their “thing” all the time, so why shouldn’t you be?

Simple.

The people that aren’t on Twitter and Facebook all the time are generally doing other things. You know… like client work. Yes, they’ll jump on and interact, but usually that’s when the other important stuff is done.

So forgive me if I see folks tell me automation is bad. If I’m going to share a blog post anyway by someone that I truly trust to deliver the goods, why do I need to physically be on Twitter to do this when I can send the same post out with something like Triberr or Twitterfeed?

What’s that? Because I’m not being true to social media and its values? Give me a break, please.

via dannybrown.me

Gee, Danny, how do you really feel? Seriously, I agree with Danny Brown when he says “Social media is just another toolset, or platform, or information base, or whatever tag you want to give it, to help you manage your needs better, whether they be personally or professionally.” I use dlvr.it to parse out my blog posts and social bookmarks throughout the day while I’m doing REAL work. That get’s the conversation started. On the backend, I use HootSuite and Gist to keep the ball rolling. Personally, I think that if you’re not using some form of automation, you’re working too hard and social media is costing you too much…

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Luxrealty

…but when your client is ‘Luxemburg Linda’ who loves the color, you make an exception! Linda just launched luxemburgrealty.com this week and after attending one of executive briefings on business blogging, she decided to add a simple Posterous blog to her site to drive search engine optimization and social media. Click the image above to visit the Luxemburg Realty blog…

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via visualoop.tumblr.com

Here’s one for my new bff Linda McGuire, the ‘Queen of Luxemburg’…

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…on the Top 10 Tactics and Tools for Social Media. Here’s my mindmap. What’s missing? You can grab the map and move it around or make it full screen if that helps by using the menu bar at the bottom of the map…

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Image representing IBM as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

Back in the day, if you wanted support from a business, you had to go to where the business’s reps were. Be it via an 800 number, support forums, e-mail or chat, the business would set the rules about how quickly your inquiry was addressed.

But with social media growing as a real-time support channel, the picture looks quite different these days. Customers are taking back control, and businesses increasingly have to assist on consumers’ terms.

I chatted with a colleague of mine, Brian House of IBM, about the different types of people searching for social support, and we discovered that most can be put in one of two categories. The first is the “social media native.” These are people who use social media, specifically Twitter (Twitter), as their main point of contact with companies and brands. These types are social media-savvy and reach for Twitter to share their everyday thoughts and opinions, which often overlap with their use of products and sentiment about brands.

The second type is the “last resort social media user.” This type of customer is more dangerous to a business because she is likely frustrated with the brand’s traditional support channels and has resorted to the public forum of social media to voice negative sentiment. She is not happy and won’t hesitate to share her opinion with friends.

Social support is no longer a luxury, but a necessity in today’s business climate. It’s an opportunity to maintain engagement with the savvy users in category one and stay on top of potentially damaging chatter from those in category two. To ensure that you are successful, here are five tips and considerations that you need to think through before engaging in social support.

via mashable.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the 5 tips…

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Groupon logo.
Image via Wikipedia

In order to stimulate interest, businesses are told they have to discount goods and services by at least 50 percent. Even deeper discounts of up to 80 percent are encouraged. On top of that, the group buying site keeps as much as 50 percent (more perhaps?) of the amount the merchant brings in.

You do the math. If you offer a deal of $20 for $40 worth of goods or services, then the group site keeps as much as 50 percent of the amount sold, does that make sense?

Oh, but it’s advertising. Right, I get that. And if you’re advertising budget is big enough, or the margins on your products are high enough, it makes sense. You don’t lose your shirt with every sale. But, not every small business is the Gap. Quite to the contrary, most of us work on minimal ad budgets and thin margins.

One small business, Poises Cafe, lost so much money the owners had to dip into their personal savings to cover what they claim was an $8,000 loss! The owner called it a “terrible decision,” one that was made at the objection of her husband. Consider not only the strain this placed on their business, but their personal lives as well.

via thesocialmediahandyman.com

Paul Chaney has done a good job addressing the Groupon dilemma here. Personally, as a consumer I love Groupon, but as a small business owner I have a lot of other options that are free or much cheaper. You can follow the ‘via’ link above to read the rest of Paul’s article — comment below or ‘connect’ above to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

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via socialmediaexplorer.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source if you’d like to read author Jason Fall’s thoughts on the topic…

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Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

“Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that can be accessed through your account on their website, on your desktop, by instant messaging and mobile phones. Hundreds of thousands of people and companies, including several presidential candidates, reportedly, are users, although the firm won’t release that information.

What is known about Twitter is that its traffic is increasing rapidly, although it’s still considered a niche site. According to data from Web analytics firm Hitwise, visits to Twitter have more than doubled in the past 3 months and were up 60% in April. Twitter ranked #439 among Social Networks and Forums in late April, but its size is difficult to measure because it has so many ways for access, primarily cell phones.” Click here to read more…

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Aliza Sherman has a great post over at Web Worker Daily…

“How many times are you hearing the question, “Why should I engage in social media?” during your work week? I’m hearing it often, and it’s reminding me of 1995 and 1996, when clients — and colleagues — were asking “Why should I have a web site?” And who remembers when the question was “Why should I have email/a cellphone/a computer/a typewriter/a telephone?” OK, maybe none of you remember the old telephone question, but I heard that when the telephone was first introduced as a consumer product, most families were appalled with the concept of putting a phone into their homes and saw it as an invasion of their privacy. Yes, the telephone.

Here is how I try to explain to people who may not be convinced that they — or their company — should be using social media for business. Hopefully, this proves helpful to those of you in the position of reaching the decision makers who are ignoring social media outright and consider it a fad.” Source: Why Should I Engage in Social Media?

The diagram she refers to is a useful, thought provoking tool…

Personally, I’ve benefited a great deal from applying social media to my internet marketing strategy and I’m happy to share my ‘home bases and outposts’ strategy with my clients. When a customer’s needs are greater than what I can handle myself, I include my virtual team members Dana VanDen Heuvel, the thought leadership guru at MarketingSavant.com and the brilliant folks at Envano led by David Sauter. Whether your needs are great our small, one of us can help you figure it out…

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Alexandra Samuel
Image by Will Pate via Flickr

Part of a series. Original version at AlexandraSamuel.com.

In my recent blog post about how to sustain your social media presence in just 3 hours a week, I advise drafting 3 blog posts in under one hour. That may sound unimaginable if (like me) you’ve fallen into the habit of turning each blog post you write into a mini-manual or philosophical essay.

But back in the day — you know, before Twitter — a lot of blog posts consisted of simply sharing a link and saying, hey, here’s something useful you should read. Now that we’ve got Facebook and Twitter, people tend to share links in 140 characters or less, and the blog-post-as-link-share has largely disappeared.

I’m all for sharing links in an efficient way, through Twitter or Facebook or even delicious. But we’ve lost something in this rapid-fire micro-sharing: we’ve lost the conversation about why something is worth sharing (or reading). We’ve lost the reflections on what we learned by reading the post we’re about to share.

And we’ve lost a great, valuable route to sustaining a blog. My 3-hour social media method relies on bringing back the “I read this and so should you” blog post. But in the era of Twitter et al., just sharing the link is not enough. You’ve got to provide some additional value….something that makes the reader glad to read your blog post, and not just annoyed you didn’t point them towards the original.

Here are seven ways to add value to a blog post you are sharing:

  1. Summarize the main argument of the post (but in a way that still encourages the reader to read the full post)
  2. Share a (brief) excerpt or two from the original post that you think was exceptionally interesting or useful
  3. Explain why you think it’s worth reading, or what you enjoyed about it
  4. Suggest another way to apply the original post’s advice or insight
  5. Raise a concern, criticism or missing piece of information
  6. Ask a question prompted by the blog post
  7. Point to another related or complementary resource, or draw a thematic connection between multiple blog posts

If you can add value to the post you are sharing in one (or more) of these ways, you can draft a useful, legitimate blog post in 10 minutes or less. Don’t believe me? Then watch this video, which records the process of writing yesterday’s blog post about digital fasts.

via feedproxy.google.com

The excerpt above is longer than most of my curation posts, but Alexandra Samuel’s perspective is a good one that summarizes from another perspective what I was discussing with clients in a executive briefing on Friday and I wanted to accomplish three objectives here. First, show them how I first post things to my own site before sharing them with anyone. Second, how you can effectively curate content from other sources to prove your own point and third, ask people to interact with you based on the information you’ve shared. Comment below or ‘connect’ above so we can talk about how this applies to your business…

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Image representing Alexa as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

Here are the top 5 websites [ranked by reach according to Alexa] of brands headquartered in Kewaunee County…

  1. e1evation.com
  2. e1evation net
  3. jagdidit.com
  4. business.toddlohenry.com
  5. wspackaging.com

Could it be that we know something about how to use business blogging to drive traffic to a website? Comment below or ‘connect’ above to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

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John Jantsch
Image via Wikipedia

“These days I can’t get through a presentation on the use of social media in marketing without someone inquiring whether they should use Facebook as the primary web presence for their business.

“I mean, it’s free and look at all these cools tools you can add to your Fan Page.”

Let me be very clear on my thinking on this: Facebook is not the house, Twitter is not the house, your social profiles spread far and wide are not the house.

Your hub, your blog, your website—that’s the house. Build the house, fix the house, decorate the house and invite the party to the house, because it’s the one thing you can own and control. It’s an asset you can grow rather than space you simply rent.

Your activity in social media is all about building a persona and brand that draws people to the house, whether you’re a plumbing contractor, consultant, or someone that wants to create a path to a better career. Build rich and engaging hubs on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or wherever your prospects hang out, but remember you’re always going home.

Focusing too much attention on your Facebook play is like spending a bunch of time decorating and fixing up a neighbor’s house while they are traveling Europe for a year or two. It may be a nice place to throw a party or entertain, but you don’t really own it.” Source: Facebook Is Not the House :: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Of all the social media luminaries, John Jantsch may be the one I most closely identify with. Why? His style is so practical and tactical and he communicates in a way that inspires me.

John nails it again with this post. Building your internet presence solely on Facebook is like building your home on rented land. Not recommended. At the same time, Facebook is a force too powerful to ignore. My advice? ‘Hold on Loosely’ as the great philosophers .38 Special advised…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJtf7R_oVaw

I strongly encourage you to go to the source and get the rest of John’s perspective. Comment below or ‘connect’ above to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

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Image via CrunchBase

I’m talking social media with a barrista named John in the Starbucks in York, NE. Yes, there is one thank God — it’s one of the few redeeming features of this intersection called York where I have been sleeping while attending Husker Harvest Days. John noticed my Wisconsin license plate and asked where I was from. Turns out we’re from opposite ends of Kewaunee County and we’re chatting at a Starbucks in York. Small world…

Starbucks has the only reliable wireless internet connection for me to upload my content for AGCO so I have been a better customer than usual as yesterday I had over 2.5GB of content from the show to upload for the Envano team back in Green Bay. The social media campaign we have been doing for AGCO has been wildly successful. There are over 2,000 fans in Facebook now and we just added a beautiful YouTube channel for Husker Harvest Days.

I’m looking forward to heading back to Algoma with stops in Des Moines, IA and Galena, IL along the way. Soon I’ll be sharing some thoughts on the technology behind the AGCO social media success — including my huge disappointment with the iPhone and the way it performed on the trip! Be sure to fan AGCO in Facebook and follow the new YouTube channel in the meantime. If you’re curious about how all this works, give me a call @ (920) 486-4798. I’ll be happy to talk with you — I have 12 hours of driving time to kill on the way home… ;-)

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Just in case you missed Dan Zarella’s awesome webinar yesterday, you can hear the recorded content here…

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My “old post promoter” picked a doozy this time! A year ago, I was quite unhappy with my smartphone choices, but don’t worry — there’s a happy ending that I’ll write later this week after you’ve read parts 1 and 2…

“Wow! What does THIS say about us?

“Smartphones tied with sex as the number one thing that business professionals can not live without in a study from cloud-based business phone system provider, RingCentral. In a survey among RingCentral’s small to medium-sized business customers in the U.S., the importance of the smartphone in daily and business life was reiterated over and over again.

The study, which surveyed nearly 400 customers, showed that smartphones are taking on the defacto role in business communication.

Here are some highlights:

  • Smartphones and intimate relationships tied at 40% for the number one thing respondents can’t live without.
  • 79% of respondents use their smartphones to conduct most business calls, versus an office phone or home phone.
  • 34% use a smartphone more than a computer for business. 7% even said they don’t take their laptops with them when they travel for business if they have a smartphone.
  • 48% of respondents said that at least two-thirds of their phone communication is via smartphone.

None of this data is particularly surprising, except for the shift to using a smartphone as a primary business device. Thanks to platforms like Android (Android) and the iPhone, you really can do a lot of work from your mobile device.” Source: Business Professionals Can’t Live Without Sex or Smartphones [STATS]

Interesting…

Speaking of sex and smartphones or maybe sexy smartphones, I’m going to take this opportunity to rant about the iPhone AND Android phones for a moment. Excuse my language, but they both suck! That’s right — they suck! Why the iPhone? Because #1 it’s a closed system — yeah, there’s an app for that but they must all be approved by Big Brother at Apple — and #2 because AT&T is the worst cellular network in the world!

Android phones, however, are a different issue and I’ll take them up tomorrow…”

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