Your 30 Day Social Media Plan – #30DSM – Day 30: 30 Days of Social Media

It’s Day 30 of 30 Days of Social Media. We’ve covered a lot of ground over the last month and yet it feels like it would be easy to go for another 30 days of tips and strategies on how to put social media to work for your business.

Today, however, let’s take a look at how we can start to implement some strategy into your social media activity.

Your 30 Day Social Media Plan

Execution and implementation is the key to being successful with any new body of knowledge. No point knowing new stuff and then not doing anything with it. (As a serial student of business I am guilty of learning, learning and more learning. The magic seems to happen when I actually use and share what I have learned.)

I believe that if we focus on ONE area for a whole month, we’ll do better than splitting our energies across the myriad of areas. (Ok, you can sneak two or three areas of focus into your plan, but I suggest you consider putting together a 30 day plan for one area to start.)

Over the last 30 days we’ve looked at:

• Wikis
• Twitter strategies
• Facebook Pages
• Online Networking
• RSS (Real Simple Syndication)
• Promoting events through social media
• Generating Leads
• Podcasting
• Using Video and YouTube
• Managing Your Online brand
• and a whole lot more…

So, what ONE area would you like to focus further on for the next month?

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YOUR 30 DAY SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN FOR [INSERT YOUR FOCUS AREA HERE]

Here are three steps to take to create a one-page plan for this area:

Step 1:

Choose an area of Social Media to focus on for the next month.

Step 2:

Set your goals and objectives for this area. (Hint: Stay big picture and set some measurable goals that we can look back at in 30 days and celebrate the achievement of.)

Step 3:

Determine what three actions can you take

• tomorrow
• next week
• over 30 days

to get closer to the achievement of your goals for this area of social media.

EXAMPLE

AREA: Facebook Page for My Business

GOALS:

1. Set up a Facebook page by (date)
2. Get a vanity URL
3. Add photos and a video
4. Post at least once a week to the page

2. Have 100 fans for the page by the end of the month

3. Integrate my Facebook Page strategy into my business strategy

ACTIONS

Week 1:

• Post twice to the Notes section:
  • post link to one relevant article
  • post link to one relevant event
• Advertise/promote the page on my email, on  my website, in a newsletter, through Twitter and other social networks

etc.

Take action. Do it now. Set you goals and schedule the activities that you’ll complete to get to these goals.

Thanks for taking part in 30 Days of Social Media.

Write and tell me what you plan to focus on. I’d love to hear from you and be a part of your journey.

Until then,

Suzi

(I owe thanks to many people for their support with this free program. I’ll write more on that tomorrow!)

How to promote your event through social media – a DIY Guide in three easy steps! #30DSM – Day 29: 30 Days of Social Media

Organising an event at the best of times can be a chore. However with the growing appeal of social networking sites this often arduous task can be made a little easier. Brooke Simmons of Pursuit Communications illustrates the steps to promote your event through social networking sites in today’s 30 Days of Social Media lesson.

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How to promote your event through social media – a DIY Guide in three easy steps!

by Brooke Simmons

Firstly, you will have to decide if it’s relevant to promote your event through social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. If it’s a “soft” product launch – there’s no point in telling the world about it – wait until all the “wrinkles” have been ironed out and then invite the masses. The same can be said for a VIP event: the last thing any organiser needs is a mass of people turning up at an event, which is intended for a select group of people.

Equally there’s no point in organising an event where members of the general public are invited to attend and there are very few people aware of the event in the first place!  If you don’t promote it properly, how will anyone be expected to know?

Cue the social networking site.

These sites offer a range of solutions to track, interact and ultimately control any event you wish to promote.

If you believe there’s an opportunity to promote your event via a social networking site you will firstly need to understand “your audience”.

1. DECIDE which mix of social media outlets will be suitable for your launch. To do this, think about the networks you keep in all of your social media outlets. LinkedIn is often associated with past-colleagues and current client contacts. Facebook is, for many people, a combination of friends and Twitter can often be a combination of these two. So use your best judgement on which outlet or outlets you’ll use and stick to them. (I recommend using no more than two outlets for promoting any activity – I’ll come to this in a moment.)

Once you have decided on which outlet(s) you’ll use for your event, make sure you use the social networking site sensibly.

2. REMEMBER it’s a social networking site not a place where you can bombard everyone with invitations, reminders and messages about the event. Just with fashion, less is more. What you believe to be a “friendly second, third or fourth reminder” can be interpreted by others as spam.

Once you offer the initial invitation allow people a chance to respond by the specified RSVP date, answer any questions that may be asked in the meantime and only follow up after the RSVP deadline, ensuring you leave enough time between the RSVP date and the event itself to allow for extra details to be added. These could include additional background material, late confirmation of special celebrity guests – that kind of thing. I suggest allowing an additional day for following up RSVPs from a social networking site; some people aren’t as vigilant checking their social networking accounts as they are with their e-mails.

3.  The most important tip I’ll offer is to use THE TOOLS that are available for each social networking site.  Some suggestions are:

• Link a post about the event to your Linkedin page from your blog – a majority of times you’ll be able to do this through a widget. A cross pollination such as this can often encourage people who may not have regularly visited your blog to do so and vice versa.  A blog entry also allows you to enter more details about your event and give potential attendees a chance to comment on the event.
• Create an event on Facebook: if you choose, this will allow your attendees to post their images, comments and topics about the event all on one tidy page.
• Create a “hashtag”  on Twitter for your event so those attending who are Twitter users can comment about the event, track back previous tweets and see what others are tweeting all by searching for a simple “hashtag”. For example for a client event that I have coming up I’ll be using the “hashtag” #ToniaTodmanRoses and #Bluminlaunch. If you’re still confused this site offers a great explanation.
• Consider looking at Eventbrite for use on social networking sites: it’s easy to use and the site walks you through the whole process.
• For those people who may not be able to attend due to geographic location, why not consider creating a webcast of the event or inviting people to attend via Skype.

Ultimately use common sense when it comes to organising an event and promoting through social networking site. Don’t create more work for yourself than is needed and use the power of social networking sites to your advantage.

Good luck!

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Brooke Simmons – Pursuit Communications

Brooke Simmons has over four years experience within the public relations arena and over ten years experience in the media, most recently she has worked on the following clients – Events by Olivia, Gosford City Council, Talk’N Tours, I Hate Cinderella, Wet Ones, Sassi Sam,  SBNG – Small Business Networking Group Central Coast NSW, Sam’s Beer, Blumin’ & Tonia Todman Roses, Brands on Sale Campbelltown, United Airlines, Lenovo Australian Olympic Torch Relay, Radisson Resort Fiji, Lufthansa Airlines, REED Constructions Australia, Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Autodesk – Australia, Glass Onion Website Design and OZtion Online Auction Site.

In addition to her public relations capabilities Brooke has held the title of Managing Editor for Manchester Unity’s member magazine U Magazine from December 2006 –April 2008.

Prior to her foray in the public relations arena, Brooke has held other roles within the media industry. Previously working at; Silverspan Marketing, Nova 969 FM and Regional Radio Bureau – now known as Regional Radio Works.  As a result Brooke is well versed on the many facets of the media and also holds a great number of media contacts.

She is contactable at the following email address and phone number;
E: brooke@pursuitcommunications.com.au, P: +61 (0) 407 780 710

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TODAY’S TASK

Got an event coming up? Post it on one of your social networks today.

Until tomorrow,

Suzi

Do you make these Top 11 mistakes with your social media? #30DSM – Day 28: 30 Days of Social Media

Social media can be seriously profitable for your business. “It’s the secret low cost marketing weapon used by the leading entrepreneurs. But, it can go horribly wrong if you make these mistakes…” explains today’s 30 Days of Social Media contributor, Meredith Collins. She identifies 11 mistakes that you don’t want to make.

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Mistake #1. Trying to sell something. Although it might seem counter intuitive, if you try to pitch something too soon you are bound for disaster. Social Media is like a big party. You wouldn’t walk into a party and start selling everyone your products. You would spend time to make friends and get to know people. You would share some things about yourself and have conversations with people who were on your wavelength.  Social Media is relationship and referral marketing amplified – so use this as a PR machine, not a straight sales tool.

Mistake #2. Lack of consistency. If you decide to use Social Media then commit consistent time to the process of using it.  Dependent upon your strategy, you may need to ”tweet” daily or ”blog”/”post” every few days or weekly.  Whatever the strategy, consistency is key and you must devise a plan and stick to it.  Your target market needs consistency and reliability – your commitment and visibility speaks volumes about your business.

Mistake #3. Wrong place wrong market. Choose your social media sites well.  Be strategic about which sites you use and where your target market is looking.  A local business may not be using the same social media as a specialised, niche or global business.  This is not about throwing balls in the air and hoping they will land correctly – it is a powerful relationship marketing tool.

Mistake #4. Joining too many Social Sites. I always say to clients ”don’t do four sites badly – you are better off doing one really well”.  Be strategic about which sites you use, add value and manage them well.  The big sites are LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Plaxo and Wordpress, and depending upon your business, article marketing might be very effective.

Mistake #5 Failing to ’add value’ for your market. Value for your target market is the rule in Social Media – and ”surprising value” is the way to go.  Social media is all about relationships and positioning yourself as an expert – so put more value in your posts, articles, audio (podcast) files, videos and recommendations and offer surprising value – enough value that your target market remembers you and wants to engage with you.

Mistake #6 Focusing on promotion over content. This ties in with Mistake #5 – if you don’t push out good content, there is no perceived value.  Promotion can come later and even disguised as content when you have a market who wants what you have got.  ”Do” Social Media well and the money will come.

Mistake #7 Making contentious or argumentative statements. Contentious statements may attract attention, but they may also lose your audience. Condescending or argumentative topics are unlikely to work in the long term.  Just think of that argumentative person in the office…. don’t go there.

Mistake #8 Taking instead of giving. Remember Social Media is about relationships first.  Give value, give suggestions, give value, give advice, give ideas, give news give possibilities, give gratitude and do not take relentlessly.  One of my biggest joint ventures came after some “giving”. GIVE = Give Influence Very Easily – give first and you will never be second.

Mistake #9 Not joining groups. The premise of Web2.0 and Social Media is community – sharing and expertise.  Be seen within groups that are of interest, add value to you and to which you can add value for others.  Position yourself and share your expertise.  No one ever made it to the top being a Lone Ranger and contribution and mixing is important if you want to make it in Social Media.

Mistake #10 Don’t shun face to face events. Face to face networking is still a significant way to connect and the connection can continue online.  Others are far more likely to recommend you, continue to network online and follow you in the Social Media spaces, once they have met you.  You will learn from others, expand your own circle and be able to offer significant value to those with whom you come in contact. This is where we add some value for you.

Mistake #11 Having incomplete Social Media profiles. You cannot maximise your work opportunities with an incomplete Resume.  Neither can you maximise your connections, potential client interest or business opportunities with incomplete profiles.  Ensure that your profiles are complete and get to the point and offer information your market wants.  Enlist the help of experts to get you set up correctly in the first instance.  Create the best impression you can.

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Meredith Collins is the founder of Video Social Marketing, an organisation which specialises in teaching business owners and entrepreneurs how to leverage the awesome power of video and social media for your business. For more great articles, resources, tips and training programs on Social Media for Business go to www.videosocialmarketing.net

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TODAY’S TASK

Are you making any of these mistakes? Which one(s)? How will you change your strategy as a result of identifying these mistakes?

Until tomorrow,

Suzi

The 4 Ps of Online Networking #30DSM – Day 27: 30 Days of Social Media

Maximise your online connections, build relationships with purpose and make the most of online networking with The 4 Ps of Online Networking from today’s 30 Days of Social Media guest contributor – Iggy Pintado, author of Connection Generation.

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The 4 Ps of Online Networking

by Iggy Pintado

A question I get asked quiet often is that with my variety of presences on online networks like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter and the large number of followers I have on these platforms, how do I find the time and energy to put into it. My answer invariably goes back to the basics of online networking, which I call the 4 P’s. These are: PURPOSE, PROFILE, PARTICIPATION and PERSISTENCE.

First, there’s PURPOSE. Before I even think about logging on each day I reflect on why I’m doing all this. For me, it’s about expanding my network by reconnecting with family, friends and former and current colleagues, introducing myself to people with interesting profiles around Australia and in other countries and identifying groups with shared interests. Once I’d establish my connections base, it was about sharing information, ideas and concepts.To achieve this, I decided early on to be an Open Networker. This meant accepting invitations from other people who I didn’t directly know but whose profiles were consistent with my shared interests. It’s been said that the internet is either a time saver or a time waster. Clearly understanding what you want to get out of it determines your focus and how much time you spend on online networking.

Then there’s PROFILE. Once you sign up to an online network, you’re well on the way to creating your own personal brand on the web. This is a unique opportunity to present yourself online by the one person who knows you best – you. By building and posting a compelling profile, you provide others with the ability to find you and attract other users who want to know you, potentially utilise your skills, sell you something you might value, just establish a connection or even offer you a job. So take the time to develop a profile that best represents you, including a photo, your key achievements and your competencies.

Thirdly, there’s PARTICIPATION. Online networking is social and is like attending a party or business function. You could choose to sit in a corner all night and then complain how bad it was. Once you’ve got your profile up, be a participant – not a wallflower. The same social principles as a party apply – introduce yourself to others, start a conversation, share your thoughts, join a group discussion, ask questions or play a silly game. Do something that shows that you’re actively involved in the network and that you want to be there.

Finally, there’s PERSISTENCE. If you want to achieve your purpose, you have to stick with it. The obvious analogy is getting fit. We all know that we need to exercise regularly to get fit. Same with online networking. Get into the discipline of setting time aside – some, not at so much that it consumes you but regularly enough to participate in network activities – and keep at it. There may be times when you don’t get a timely response to an invitation, posting or some other message. My advice is to persist.

To get the most out of online networking, you need to work on it. Make the time to clearly articulate your purpose and goals, get into the discipline of refining and  enhancing your profile, actively participate in network initiatives that support your goals and most of all – keep at it.

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Iggy Pintado is the CEO and Chief Networking Officer at ConnectGen, a business networking consulting firm. His first book, Connection Generation is a fascinating study of how connectedness affects our place in society and business and the challenges and opportunities this compelling development presents. Book site is www.connectiongeneration.com.

Listen to Iggy speak about the 4 P’s of Online Networking to BNET’s Phil Dobbie.

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TODAY’S TASK
How have you participated today in social networking?
Have you posted a Tweet? Tweeted a post? Updated your online profiles?
Take one action to keep your online activities current.

3 ways to generate leads through social media #30DSM – Day 26: 30 Days of Social Media

How can you use social media to attract prospects to your business?  Assuming you’re offering a sound product, a compelling offer, and are talking to the right customer, social media tools make generating leads inexpensive and time-efficient.

In today’s 30 Days of Social Media lesson Clare Lancaster gives you three ways to generate leads through social media.

Take a look.

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3 ways to generate leads through social media

by Clare Lancaster

Social media is an effective way to generate leads for your service-based business. You can build your reputation within your industry, connect with potential customers and strategic partners and use it to drive traffic to your website.

Here are three ways to use social media to generate leads.

Build your reputation

Participating in social media – through online networking, blogging and rich media – can help you build your reputation within your industry.

Building your reputation online has three great benefits – your credibility goes up, people perceive your business to be successful and a level of trust is established.

How do you start? Demonstrate your knowledge and expertise by providing useful content, helping people with questions and recommendations and commenting on blogs within your industry.

Build relationships

Social networking online allows you to build solid relationships that can result in lead generation for your business.

Start talking to people in complimentary industries, help them out by referring client enquiries and you could just find yourself in a strategic partnership.

Social networks like Twitter. have broken down traditional barriers to thought leaders – find out who they are, add them to your network and start a conversation. Building solid relationships with influencers and other authorities can result in a boost to your business.

Twitter also allows you to connect directly with media professionals – building relationships with individuals and proving them with information they need could return media opportunities to promote your business.

Always remember when building relationships – it’s all about giving, not taking.

Attract website visitors

There’s a variety of ways to use social networking to attract visitors to your website. Here are two techniques.

1. Use social networks to distribute your content by posting a link to your Twitter or Facebook profiles and adding content distribution buttons to your web page (e.g. Tweetmeme). The first step here is to create content worth distributing – if it’s not good, no one will want to pass it on to their network.
2. Create a landing page for your social media profiles. People will click on your website link in your profile to find out more information about you. Make the most of their interest with a dedicated landing page that explains what you do – how you can help that person and provide a call to action detailing what they should do next.

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Clare Lancaster – Dot Marketing

Clare Lancaster is the founder of Dot Marketing an online strategy and marketing consultancy and has been working on the Internet since 2001. She writes a business and online marketing blog for small business owners and has recently launched www.twitterguide.com.au.

Visit www.clarelancaster.com.au to find out more or follow her on Twitter.

TODAY’S TASK
Generating a new lead can be as simple as picking up some new followers on Twitter. The key (with leads of any type) is that they be relevant and possible clients. If there is a higher than 0% chance that they may be interested in your products or services, then they are a valuable lead.

What is your area of thought leadership? Post a Tweet today providing valuable content (a link to a newsletter, an article on your website, some information that tells people what you do) and offer people an opportunity to find out more about you.

Suzi’s Note: Leads are people too
Generating leads is only one part of the sales equation. Having umpteen followers and a database of thousands is only valuable if you can continue to build value into the relationships in order to, at some point, have some financial exchange with that lead (either directly or indirectly). Remember leads are people, not just names.

Ready for Your own radio show? Podcasting makes it easy. #30DSM – Day 25: 30 Days of Social Media

You may have heard that podcasting is one of the best ways to demonstrate expertise in a niche and reach broader audiences with your knowledge, with the goal of increasing customers and revenue. Since early 2009 the Australian Businesswomen’s Network has featured audio interviews with inspiring women as part of its monthly Women in Business eNewsletter. It’s another way for us to bring to you practical tips and strategies.

But what is podcasting, what are the benefits and how exactly how do you podcast?

Today’s guest blogger is Bianca Wirth of Wirth Consulting. In today’s 30 Days of Social Media lesson she explains how to get started in podcasting.

If you have “golden tonsils” and want to look closer at podcasting, we’ve included a link to a more detailed article that Bianca wrote for a recent Australian Businesswomen’s Network newsletter.

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Podcasting. Getting Started.

by Bianca Wirth

Let’s start with what podcasting is.

The concept of podcasting is that of an on-demand audio program that individuals or businesses record and post to their website and podcasting tools such as iTunes. You could essentially think of a podcast as a radio program you can listen to anytime.

For a business the benefits of podcasting includes:

• Gaining credibility as an expert in your field
• Low cost advertising of your products and services
• Building a broader customer and partner network
• Reaching audiences with different preferences for consuming knowledge

The last point is quite important – if you already have an eBook or you have articles on your website for your customers then why add another delivery method? Liken it to ice-cream: not everyone likes chocolate or strawberry or double-choc cappuccino. Likewise not everyone has the time or inclination to read an eBook or an article. By recording this material as a podcast you make it easier for your (potential) customers to hear what you have to say.

How exactly would you go about podcasting?

There are three key steps:

1. Define your goals - like every new undertaking in your business you need to define what you want to achieve from it. Do you want to charge customers for a regular series of podcasts to increase your revenue? Do you want to build a larger base of customers? Do you want to increase your perception as an expert? Or do you simply want to provide value-add to your existing customers? The answers to these questions will help you define which technologies, tools and delivery model you use.
2. Define how often you will podcast - for example determine whether you want to simply create a couple of podcasts of existing written material or whether you want to develop a series of podcasts focussing on a new topic each month.
3. Develop a list of podcast topics and set dates - once you have defined how often you will podcast develop a list of topics. Then assign them to your calendar, add the schedule to your website and send your customers an email letting them know what and when you will be podcasting.

Once you have defined your goals, topics and schedule it’s time to obtain the technology to record, edit and publish your podcasts.
Continues…

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So, now you know how to plan for podcasting. Now what?

For Bianca’s steps to

1. recording
2. editing
3. transcribing and
4. publishing

podcasts read the rest of her article on the Australian Businesswomen’s Network website.

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Bianca Wirth is a Business Technology Coach with over 12 years experience working for global technology companies.  Bianca has developed the “Triple A” methodology – Animate, Accelerate and Automate – to teach small businesses how to use technology to increase sales. Sign up for her free weekly “Short N Sweet Tech Tips”.

Phone: 0458 121 824
Email: info@wirthconsulting.com.au
Website: www.wirthconsulting.com.au

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TODAY’S TASK

• Like anything, Podcasting can be done badly, and it can be done well. If you feel that an audio medium is a good way for you to go and you’re willing to do the work, podcasting is a great way to syndicate your message far and wide (e.g. with submissions to itunes you reach a totally new audience). Step One though may be to read the rest of Bianca’s article – Podcasting: The What, Why and How.
• Do you have a podcast? Let us know the details so that we can check it out.

Resources:

Secrets of Podcasting – Audio blogging for the masses by Bart G. Farkas

Developing compelling products in the social context #30DSM – Day 24: 30 Days of Social Media

How can social media help you create your next product? In today’s post Denise Tung shows us how to research ideas, validate our concepts and launch our latest, greatest venture.

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Developing compelling products in the social context

by Denise Tung

We’ve learned at length about the benefits of Twitter as an information network for communities of interest (my personal RSS feed of choice!). Twitter continues to innovate in this arena with the trailing of Twitter Lists to improve the organisation of such information within communities.

The notion of communities and social networks however is a much bigger playing field than just Twitter. Entrepreneurs in this day and age have a limitless amount of free/low cost online tools that can potentially deliver value to businesses, big or small across a range of disciplines. This post will focus on these tools that support your Product Development activities.

By typical product development stages, you have:

1. Ideas generation: in this phase, product, process or service related concepts are created in an unstructured, at times macro level. On generating ideas, the social sphere is a wealth of information that can help seed your idea from the get go. The likes of Social Mention can help you search through the web for conversations and opinions on a certain topic (my previous post talks about its merits further).

In terms of keeping track of your ideas, there is ideas management software such as Spigot that enables ideas to be captured from internal folks as well as customers in the one spot. These same tools have also raised the bar in sophistication, allowing businesses to rank, assess and prioritise ideas in a collaborative manner with key stakeholders such as customers, partners and employees.

2. Concept validation:

Aside from formal approach of investing in ideas management software, existing communities in social networks such as Twitter, FriendFeed and identi.ca , is the easiest and quickest way of validating your concept (all done confidentially, of course!).

But before you start DM’ing your followers (followees!) with your latest idea, be sure that your community: 1. Represents your business’ target market or customer segment; and 2. Is happy to provide you with good feedback on your idea. (Ideally this group would be the same group of people who you can test the final product or service on during the test/market launch phase.)

3. Development phase:

Kicking off development requires some orchestration amongst various functions (even if it’s you doing all these on your own!). If you’re like me, you would want to be clear about whether you will hit your target launch date along the way. Project management tools such as Basecamp help you set and allocate tasks, track progress against milestones via a secure online environment.

4. Test and Launch:

Refining the final product is also important in the process of maximising appeal and ultimately sales and revenue. You can return to the same group of people from the validation phase and use traditional phone calls and emails to undertake this step.

Emerging beneath the cracks is potentially a complimentary approach to customer interaction: Google Wave holds a lot of promise in tapping into your customer base to refine and improve your product offering. I can confidently say this as Google is currently using it to refine Wave itself!

Which then leaves us at market launch, but that’s for another day!

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Denise works at Media Monitors as head of Product Development and has a new love for everything social media. Prior to this she worked in the telecommunications industry for over 8 years where she designed and launched 2 ‘Australia’ first’ services: Voice over IP for business at Singtel Optus and 3G mobile based Broadband product for residential customers at Virgin Mobile. She has also presented at mobile communications based conferences, including the 2007 IMS Asia and the 2007 Fixed Mobile Convergence Alliance funded by British Telecom.  She’s a self confessed workaholic who loves her 2 year old daughter (a lot), prefers to microblog than blog and occasionally teaches Cycle and BodyAttack at the gym.

Contact Denise here:

• Twitter:  twitter.com/schmediachick
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/denisetung
• Blog: schmediachick.wordpress.com

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TODAY’s TASK

Check out the links in this post. Denise has provided some great online resources. (I’m still discovering Google Wave, so if you’re having a good experience using it, let us know.)

QUALITY NOT QUANTITY – How to get targeted Twitter followers #30DSM – Day 23: 30 Days of Social Media

Success on Twitter is about more than getting lots of followers. Who is following you is more important that how many people are following you. How do you get targeted followers?

Today’s 30 Days of Social Media lesson is from Sarah Prout and explains just how to do that.

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Twitter is about the quality of followers and not the quantity. The truth is that a vast proportion of people that have thousands of followers have used automated systems that seek to get their numbers up quickly without regard for the type of followers they are attracting. It’s far more beneficial to have 2000 targeted followers than 20k filled with spammers, bots and random people from around the globe.

When I wrote The Twitter Success Blueprint (ebook) I had experimented with dozens of techniques; from following everyone in the hope they’d follow me back – to adding everyone that was following high-profile people on Twitter. This did not work. It was only when I discovered the power of key words to program into my automation software that I started to get better results.

I see this as a three-step process and an excellent habit to form early on to avoid having to clean up your tweet stream on a massive scale.

1. Block all spam/bots without question. Any time you see a spammy fraudster pop up in your tweet stream you should click the block button. It shows support that Twitter is a platform for authentic communication only.
2. Find and follow people within your niche. Use keywords and follow hashtags (#) that relate to your specific industry.
3. Engage with as many people as possible. This might seem a little impossible, but try and take an interest in what other people are doing.  Ask questions, compliment people and open the door to build a sense of community. The people that aren’t interested will naturally disappear.

I recently did some Twitter coaching for a small group of entrepreneurs.  They seemed amazed that I contradicted everything that they had been taught about social media so far. Sometimes I feel a slight sense of trepidation when I have to tell them that they’re going about things the wrong way and that hiding behind a company façade will not provide the results they desire.

I always manage to get them to see the importance of authentic connection on Twitter and how relationship building is the key.  There is no way you can achieve this without adding a personal touch and showing the humanized aspect to the marketing model of social media.

When coaching, I like to use amazing examples of vibrant people on Twitter that have achieved awesome results. People like Gary Vaynerchuck (@garyvee) have created so much attention with social media just for being present and active. He’s a prime example of how to maximize active engagement. His fun and outgoing personality on Twitter and Facebook has cemented his corporate brand directly from his excellent personal branding.

Too many people out there in the Twitterverse fantasize about tweeting out a link (sometimes repeatedly) and it converting into PayPal sales.  The truth is that if there is no personal connection then there is no sale, web traffic or buzz surrounding your brand and business.  Above all, Twitter is about engaging your followers and generating enough curiosity to build your reputation and drive traffic to your site.  This packs more of a punch if your followers are targeted and you’ve actively maintained a level of quality.

A friend of mine is about to release a service called Twit Cleaner. Twit Cleaner downloads your friends list, then analyses them all for sketchy behavior (spammers, bots, dead accounts..) And yes, the scan is completely free. Once they’ve found the dodgy users, @TheTwitCleaner will DM you a report so you can see who you’d like removed. For a small fee Twit Cleaner will automatically unfollow them, or you can do it manually. Of course, anyone you don’t want unfollowed, they’ll leave (shy friends, helpful bots etc).

I personally think this service is amazing and very innovative.  It supports and promotes authenticity and will be an invaluable resource to people that wish to clean up their tweet streams and generate genuine business connections once and for all.

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Sarah Prout is the founder of SPROUT PUBLISHING, award-winning entrepreneur, author, publisher, business coach, online socialite and mother of 2 little darlings.

The highly anticipated eCourse is soon to be released called SPROUT BUZZ. It’s a PUBLISHING BOOTCAMP with step-by-step tasks to flaunt your business, raise your profile and boost your brand in just 30 days!

www.sproutpublishing.com

Follow Sarah on Twitter

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TODAY’S TASK

Find and follow some people within your niche. Use keywords that relate to your  industry as well as #hashtags to see what conversations are going on right now.

Until tomorrrow,

Suzi

Keep up with the flood of useful information online #30DSM – Day 22: 30 Days of Social Media

Keeping up with news, latest trends, industry happenings and research is important for any business. But when there’s so much information available, how do you get to see what’s most relevant for you?

Firstly, if your email inbox is anything like mine you’ve now doubt thrown your arms up in frustration many a time thinking “there’s gotta be a better way to manager information”.

Traditional media e.g. emails, newsletters, mail – had information PUSHED at us. Social media (and a special tool called RSS whose familiar symbol you’ve no doubt seen on websites and blog) allow us to PULL the information we need, and thereby have more control over the messages that come our way each day.

Today’s contributor is Ken Burgin of Profitable Hospitality. In this post he takes a look at an easy way for us to aggregate the most useful information and make it easy to access.

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Keeping up with the flood of useful information online

by Ken Burgin

You may occasionally want to turn off the outside world, but there’s a huge amount of top quality business information available if you can keep up with it. A new system called RSS may be the answer.

You may find an informative website, a blog with regular and stimulating updates, or a government site with industry-critical news releases. It may be to do with food & beverage, but it could also be related to your private enthusiasm for tropical fish or motor bikes. These days, someone is writing passionately about every subject imaginable!

One way to keep track of online information is to ’subscribe’ to it using a system called RSS (Really Simple Syndication). This way, it comes to you.

RSS is like ‘automated web surfing’, gathering news efficiently and instantly on the subjects you are most interested in. If the web publishers offer their information with an RSS ‘feed’, it only takes one click to start gathering the current and future news it offers.

An RSS feed sets up a hidden page that normal websites don’t have. This page contains the contents (or the first few paragraphs) in a simple format and updates whenever a new post is written. This format allows the posts to be read by a program called an RSS Reader.

The advantage to using an RSS or News Reader instead of visiting the actual blog or web page is that it’s much faster, especially if you wish to read the new content of dozens of websites or blogs every day. You will know it’s offering an RSS feed when it displays one of the orange symbols like those above, or invites you to ‘Subscribe with RSS’. Check the example on the right of the Profitable Hospitality Hot & Cool Blog.

A good News Reader to start with is Google Reader and (it’s free).

When you see a blog or website that offers an RSS feed, you either click on the RSS icon on the page you are subscribing to or copy the Location (URL) of the service and paste it into the channel of the RSS Reader by following the instructions in that application. Obviously clicking the orange button is a lot easier.

Now whenever you check back to the Reader, it has gathered updates from all the feed channels you are interested in. Click through them one by one and if the first few sentences interest you, read the whole story. If not, move on to the next one.

It’s a bit like how we read a magazine — it covers your general interests, but leafing through the pages you will see some articles that you read all through and others that you don’t. But this time the magazine has been delivered to your desktop.

There’s a ton of very valuable information available online, so let’s hope your competitors haven’t heard of RSS yet.

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Ken Burgin gained his reputation as a successful restaurant and cafe operator in Sydney, Australia. After managing hundreds of thousands of customers and more than a thousand of staff over ten years, Ken sold his businesses and moved to working with restaurants, hotels, cafes and clubs in an advisory role.

He knows the pressures that face hospitality operators, and is committed to offering services and systems to make management easier and less stressful. Visit his website at Profitable Hospitality.

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TODAY’S TASK
Set up a Google Reader account and start to subscribe via RSS what used to come to you as an email.

Until tomorrow,

Suzi

Additional Resources – RSS Readers

Web: Bloglines
Mac OS X: NetNewsWire
Windows: NewsGator

Is your online presence sabotaging your business brand? #30DSM – Day 21: 30 Days of Social Media

It’s so easy to set up an online profile these days that it also becomes easy (especially if you’re using a lot of social media tools) to develop brand inconsistency as you populate multiple online spaces with your company information.

While this mistake may not ‘make or break’ your effectiveness online having a cohesive online presence can only help to advance your marketing and branding efforts across the web.

Australian Businesswomen’s Network member Cat Matson of Alito is today’s 30 Days of Social Media contributor. In this post she provides us with some easy ways to keep our brand consistent.

[At the bottom of this post you'll find additional ideas and ways to be proactive in securing your brand congruence.]

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How to Manage Your Online Brand – Consistency and Congruence

by Cat Matson

Do you have a Facebook profile? LinkedIn? Do you use Twitter, have a blog or a website or use other social networking platforms, like the ABN’s online communities? Do you use email stationery or signatures with tag-lines or links to various profiles?

If I looked at each of those profiles today, would they present a consistent, congruent message of who you are? Would they support the marketing message you broadcast when you’ve got your ‘Business Owner’ hat on? Or do they work against you?

The thing I find most exciting about online marketing is how effectively I can build relationships. In the ‘old’ days, I would attend networking functions, meet a handful of people and then, in order to build on the relationship, I would need to meet face-to-face or find other ways to ’stay in touch’. But with online marketing, particularly the new social networking platforms, I can engage in meaningful, everyday conversations with people I would otherwise not get the chance to.

However, just as with ‘traditional’ marketing, if you want it to be effective, your message needs to be consistent. It’s not about necessarily saying the same words in each context, rather you need to present a consistent ‘voice’.

Here are my fundamental ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’.

Do:

• Be yourself
• Be aware of how public the online space really is
• Use your real name in social networking platforms
• Clarify your purpose for using a particular online platform and learn the etiquette for that platform. From that foundation, engage appropriately for the context.
• Review your foundational marketing pieces – website, blog, paper-based collateral, business cards – do they present a united front?

Don’t:

• Use some abstract user name in social networking sites that could be misconstrued as a login for a porn site or alternate reality game
• Use a photo that doesn’t match your desired image
• Throw together a website or blog that doesn’t live up to your professional image – a site that detracts from your brand image does more damage than no site at all
• Use online tactics that don’t ’sit’ well with you

Online networking is really just ‘traditional’ networking in hyper-drive – but it’s still all about connections, engagement, relationships and trust. And to do that you need to be genuine and authentic.

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Cat works with dynamic, savvy, funky and entrepreneurial business women, helping them align their strategy and marketing with their actions and therefore results. She is particularly excited about using Web 2.0 strategies to accelerate marketing results.

Website: www.alito.com.au
Email: cat@alito.com.au
Twitter: twitter.com/catmatson

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ADDITIONAL TIPS FOR MANAGING YOUR ONLINE BRAND

GRAB YOUR SPACE. PROTECT YOUR NAME.

Identity theft of a different kind can occur online as people register usernames that are perhaps not their own, in order to make the most of search traffic.

Whether you’re using them yet or not, grab your brand URLS on all the key social media spaces. Position placeholders and even redirect spaces to your site if you’re not yet ready to use them, but best to grab your company names and brands while they are available. You can also grab names that contain keywords that are relevant to your industry.

For example the Australian Businesswomen’s Network has the Twitter  names MentoringWomen and also WomenNetworking. While we don’t tweet from these names, they are placeholders that direct visits back to our main account(s).

SOME PLACES TO RESERVE YOUR BRANDS

• Twitter (Grab your user name – usually your identity – as well as company brand names)
• Facebook (Grab your user name – usually your identity – as well as company brand names for Groups and Pages.)
• LinkedIn (Reserver your user name and group names.)
• YouTube (Reserve your own name and your Channel.)
• Ning (Reserve a name that you may use in the future.)

Have I missed some? Add them to Comments below.

TODAY’S TASK

• Do an online presence audit. Do you need to bring some of your online branding more into line with your corporate brand?
• Do you need to reserve your name on some of the more public online spaces that you may choose to play in in the future?

While you may choose to park these names for now, it means that you ‘own’ them and direct them to your active online spaces.

Until tomorrow,

Suzi

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