Tag Archives: Facebook

Facebook, Featured, LinkedIn

Social Media Victories — and how to win them

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Bay Area Consultants hear SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS from popular speaker Patrick Schwerdtfeger

Back by popular request, Patrick presented more detailed online marketing tactics — building from his earlier talk on social media basics delivered last fall.

Author of Webify Your Business, Patrick spoke at 127 events around the globe in 2009. He shares social media success stories and practical strategies that inspire his audiences to go home and start creating plans of their own.

Below are 14 videos taken at the 90-minute presentation — from how to introduce yourself online to maximizing the professional opportunities on LinkedIn.

First, however, read the reactions from 10 of the more than 70 entrepreneurs in attendance.

I went into Patrick’s presentation knowing nothing about social media except that someone told me I was being reviewed on Yelp and joined LinkedIn because I was invited.

The one step I decided to implement was making a video for YouTube on how to do something specific in QuickBooks and start a blog to connect to my website.”  — Pamela Lyons

Pamela teaches companies to leverage technology with their accounting practices using training,  part time CFO, and bookkeepers onsite or remote.  She takes QuickBooks to the next level to get results on your financial information.

“I’m going to follow-up on Patrick’s suggestion that we choose one standard head-shot photo to use in all of our online media outlets, as these will become our brands.” — Steven Tulsky

Steven offers financial Expertise for the Nonprofit Sector: The Benemetrics Consulting Group partners with nonprofit executives, directors, and finance staff to develop, evaluate, and communicate meaningful financial information, enabling them to implement good decisions that assure the financial well being and mission effectiveness of their organizations.

“Patrick’s presentation showed me that “doing” social media could be easy and fun!  The big thing – get started!

The best tip for me was to create educational videos for You Tube, leverage them with similar related videos, match my current branding and then, get the word out there.  Patrick is a great speaker – he loves “this stuff” and enjoys sharing the information.” — Deborah Myers

An acupressurist and Health Educator, Deborah unravels the mysteries of the body, bringing health and wellness to your personal and business life.

” Patrick has a wealth of useful information on Social Media Marketing; he has a gift for simplifying and giving practical tips. I immediately put to use his tips on doing a YouTube video.” — Diane Parente

Diane’s company Image Development & Management, Inc (IDMI) is The Professional Image Resource based in San Francisco providing services and products to fit every aspect of your image from visual to verbal.

“Here is my One Tip that we will be implementing: Adding a Yelp profile for our company and asking clients to write reviews.” — Terry Gault

Terry’s organization, The Henderson Group, helps business professionals transition into high visibility roles where communication skills are critical for success.

“One powerful tip I got from Patrick’s presentation is the fact that there are 400 million users on Facebook and that I need to start utilizing that resource.  As a result of hearing him speak, I plan on creating a Fan Page on Facebook to help direct people to my website.” — Carrie Cheadle

Carrie has dedicated her career to helping athletes of all levels enhance their athletic experience by coaching them on how to approach their sport with more confidence, more enjoyment, and empowering them with the necessary support and skills to achieve their goals and perform to their potential.

“Social media can be so overwhelming – lots of choices with little understanding of real marketing value.  Patrick’s presentation made both sense and cents, as I feel I can better implement social media to my advantage.” — Bruce Burtch

Bruce, the Cause Marketing Catalyst, develops cause marketing campaigns, joining for-profit and nonprofit organizations, with the focus of building win-win partnerships for the greater good.

“Instead of getting overwhelmed by social media, I plan to commit to taking one step forward each week!  ” — Carol Seebach

Carol’s company Executive Gears provides support for executives and boards to bring order and efficiency to organizations.

“The main idea I took away from the presentation was to be redundant on the web: Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, YouTube, all are excellent platforms for getting the word out about your business. I feel more confident about moving forward with this branch of our marketing efforts after listening to Patrick.” — William Buchanan

Bill’s 51 years of federal law enforcement experience combined with an efficient business model assure our corporate and law firm clients the highest quality of investigative services.

“I suppose I have to put my business on Yelp, which I have resisted doing for years. It still doesn’t seem to me like the kind of place people look for my type of services. (After last time, I created a Facebook Fan Page for the Podcast Asylum, though I refuse to have a personal profile on Facebook.) Patrick is a convincing guy.” — Sallie Goetsch
Sallie’s service, The Podcast Asylum, helps you podcast without losing your mind — or driving
your listeners crazy.

SOCIAL MEDIA VICTORIES – and how to win them

  • More and more people are searching online every single day
  • Driving traffic to a website is a difficult challenge
  • Introducing yourself online will spread your influence

Outrun your competition

  • It’s not difficult to outshine your online competition
  • Do more than them
  • Example: 40% of Tweets are useless babble

Raging Rivers – post info for people to find

  • Understand how every action online can support your business objectives

Digital Divide — embrace the new media

  • Centerpiece is your blog
  • Your website meets your customers on a different level
  • Examples of how “age” shapes opinions:

“If an online transaction goes wrong, I have no recourse VS. If online transaction goes wrong, I can personally destroy their business”

United Breaks Guitars — online payback for customer neglect

  • YouTube gets real results
  • Lots of things may fail, but some things really work

Conversations are Markets

  • Is marketing dead? Of course not, but it is changing
  • Find the conversation and participate
  • Awareness leads to interest . . . and more

Facebook — and what to do with it

  • Your headshot online becomes your brand
  • Difference between Profiles, Groups & Fan Pages
  • Facebook ranks really HIGH on Google
  • Google Juice is the SEO value of what we are talking about

Building Facebook Pages

  • Do people read updates?
  • Posting on the Walls of friends
  • Increasing number of companies have Facebook rather than traditional website
  • You can create Groups & Fan Pages for your business on Facebook

Tagging People in Photos

  • Successful winery case study
  • “That looks like fun” – Fun events to share

Get to 300 Facebook Fans

  • Viral effect of people engaging will grow your page
  • Run campaigns and ask questions to grow exposure
  • Interactions lead to trust

Facebook URL & stunt that “worked”

  • Losing friends and gaining Whoppers

LinkedIn – searchability

  • Stats
  • Excellent Google visibility
  • Allows for precision email communication
  • Go to Google: search for LinkedIn success stories
  • Make sure technical keywords are included in profile

Maximizing your LinkedIn profile


LinkedIn Recommendations

  • Mixed views on recommendations, but get them

Having a LinkedIn Profile – is not marketing

  • You have to work
  • Ask and answer questions
  • Join and create groups
  • Post your blog URL in group news items


Members of BACN are independent consultants who are interested in expanding their professional practices through effective networking and professional development programs sponsored by BACN. Attend a BACN meeting to become a member.

Sharisax Is Out There

Can Social Media Predict the Academy Award Winners?

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Chicken or Egg: Which came first?

If I write this blog article about how Jeff Bridges should win the Best Actor Oscar for his authentic portrayal of a washed up, alcoholic country singing legend in the semi-romantic film Crazy Heart –

(1) Will my article get lots of new readers after he wins?

OR

(2) Will he win because I wrote about him?


If you join LinkedIn and completely fill out your profile, enter regular updates, answer questions, and participate in LinkedIn groups –

(1)Will someone find you and offer you the Job of a Lifetime?
OR
(2)Will you connect to some really bright, supportive people who help you create the life you always wanted?

If you spend an hour a day on Facebook –

(1)Will you be found by your long-lost high school buddies [or significant other]?
OR
(2) Will you participate in ways to deepen your current relationships?


If you keep your Tweetdeck desktop application open throughout the day and check it periodically –

(1) Will you accrue 15,000 followers
OR
(2) Will you discover amazing information AND people you could never have found any other way?


Which comes first?

Knowing how to do something OR learning what needs to be done in order to do what you want done?

Blogging, Interview

Just Starting Your Blog? — Meet Lyndit, Who Just Didit

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Lyndi Thompson is an M&M peanut-aholic and treehugger-wannabe, but she has also taken her nerdy HTML and CSS skills into the Blogosphere with her new blog lyndit.com.

I met Lyndit in Twitterville after she happened upon my article on 10 Mistakes Made by Social Media Newbies. Apparently Lyndit didn’t want to make any of them, and she even mentioned the article in her first post Listening — First Pillar of Social Media:

Whenever I am working with a new small business or even a larger company, my first advice to them is to listen. Listen to how people are currently talking about your business, products and competitors.

Listening is one of the core foundational skills that all people working within the marketing field must master. To effectively reach customers, we have to listen to them.

“Not listening enough at first to understand the workings and sentiments of a community” – 10 Mistakes Made by Social Media Newbies

I liked her personality right off and thought my readers might benefit from —

Lyndi Thompson’s Getting Started Blogging Story:

Q1: Lyndit [as she likes to be called], how did you get started in social media?

Lyndi: The precise moment that I went from a nerdy caterpillar into a social butterfly must have been when MySpace appeared on the scene. My geeky online coding skills had even the high school cheerleaders green-eyed with jealousy.

Seriously . . . over a MySpace page?

Soon after, I started helping small businesses create their own presence on MySpace.

Q2: Let’s talk about MySpace. I didn’t get techie until MySpace was on the way down . . . but, honestly, I think it’s a shame. I like the idea of being able to DESIGN your own space and not [like Facebook] have the same platform as all my “Friends.”

How do you feel about that?

Lyndit: MySpace was originally created for up&coming musicians to showcase their work. The flexibility of MySpace was appealing because you could customize your page to brand it exactly how you wanted.

But just think about it. Can you imagine that every time, you went to someone’s home, there was a different way to get in the door. Finding the bathroom might be like trying to make your way through a rowdy party.

Personal pages were littered with animated graphics, hundreds of quotes, videos, and tons of content. It became almost impossible to interact with the profile.

Facebook took the idea of interacting Front and Center with the Wall. Facebook appealed to me as a place for a different profile of a person. Gone were the spam-y friend requests and glittering distractions – just a place for me to interact with my friends and family.

Q3 Hmmm . . . I’m going to play with MySpace, but I’m happy to have the “back story.”

So Lyndit, why did you start your blog?

Lyndit: Developing a strong personal brand is definitely an asset that I wanted to invest in for the future.

What I was looking for was a place to serve as a sort of campfire – to share ideas and pass on stories that I’ve heard from marketing professionals. So my objective is to provide a place for me to share, listen, learn, engage, and be a true and genuine marketing professional.

Q4: How did you learn to start your blog, and what obstacles have you had to overcome?

Lyndit: For the past year, I had had the pleasure of getting my feet wet working with MazdasNW.com, a WordPress site on which I wrote blog posts and created banners for events. I really fell in love with the seemingly endless options that the WordPress community had created.

Initially, Blogger kept me satisfied with its simplistic editor, and I still recommend it for those who want an enjoyable, easy-to-use platform.
However, WordPress raises the bar, allowing more versatility.

On an almost daily basis, WordPress’s library of plug-ins and themes are increasing exponentially. If you can’t find a particular functionality, you just haven’t looked hard enough. By a simple installation of a plug-in, you cannot do a host of ecommerce functions including very complex accounts.

Q5: What do you think is the Number One struggle for new bloggers?

Lyndit: Creating space in our often jam-packed busy lives for writing, interviewing, finding photos, design and editing is a huge challenge. Stealing attention, focus, and energy away from the normal hustle and bustle of my life was essential to work on Lyndit.com.

I applaud all writers, artists, entrepreneurs and visionaries for following their passions, and I look to experts to find inspiration and encouragement — as well as comical ways to relate to the common mud puddles that bloggers sometimes seem to step in. Comedy is found in every corner of the creative world. We laugh together because we know it’s true.

Lyndit lives out “in the sticks” in Washington State. She is the proud owner of two border collies, a cat, a guinea pig, a dwarf rabbit, a horse, and a donkey. And even though she’s never lived outside the state, you’ll find her globally on Twitter @lyndit and lyndit.com
Sharisax Is Out There

Everyone Is Someone’s Customer: Use Social Media to Reach Them, Listen to Them, and Learn from Them

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Too often companies forget the second part of this scenario:

Firms are in business (1) to make profits by offering products and services

(2) to satisfy the unmet needs of their customers.

Too often they are so immersed in organization-centric thinking, that they don’t even realize their products or services may no longer be in sync with the marketplace, i.e., no one really likes their offerings/brand/support anymore.

This is where Social Media fits into Modern Business:

We are all customers. Everyone is a customer of someone else.

“Social media is important for business because the discussions between so many people bring information to us. We want people to talk and we want them to listen to us.” — [all quotes from Axel Schultze]

In the second meeting of the Social Media Academy Leadership class, Axel discussed how various social media “tools” [ i.e., sites/ platforms] enable businesses to grow their networks.

“If you have products or services, you can have conversations with people who use them. People may not be looking at your advertising, but if you ask someone what they think of your product, you will probably get an answer.”

WHERE DO YOU HAVE THESE DISCUSSIONS

or

Which sites do you use?

The common wisdom is that you go where your customers are. These days, the most popular hangouts are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Business people need profiles on each of these sites, and businesses can have them as well.

“The demarcation between personal selves and business selves doesn’t really make sense any more. We need to take down these walls.”

The key to online presence building is to be deliberate, thoughtful, and very careful about everything you post online – no matter what the site or platform.

Four Social Media Objectives:

1)    Extend reach with tools
2)    Intensify the depth of your relationships
3)    Broaden your knowledge
4)    Revitalize your influennce

“When you do a survey, you get certain types of people who choose to respond. When you make telephone calls, if you have 20 effective conversations in one day, that is a good day. But with social media, you could easily have 200 interactions in a day.”

LEARN FROM YOUR MARKET: Get your hands around the Concepts. The tools may change, but you will be able to navigate the waves of innovation and continue to build on your experience to get the most from each new communication opportunity.

Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Sharisax Is Out There, Twitter

How Many of These Social Media Questions Can You Answer?

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My Laney College students are participating in social media to build writing and reading skills. For many of them, however, this is a significantly new experience, i.e., creating blogs and signing up for Twitter.

What is Social Media and why is it important?

and . . . here are many of their other questions:

Where can and will SM take me?

How did Social Media get so big?

Is it possible to become famous on SM?

What percentage of SM is business?

How much time do/should people spend on SM?

Who started SM?

What makes SM important?

Why are people addicted to SM?

Can SM help better the world?

Is SM safe?

What are the most popular blogs?

Who can read my blog?

Are all SM sites free?

Why has SM become popular?

What is the average age of a person using SM?

What is the main reason for using SM?

How can you detect if someone is insincere?

Today I am conducting an introductory Social Media workshop for a Mass Media & Society course at Laney. I will begin asking them to tell me which of those questions they would most like answered.

Then I will chat and show the slideshow below.

And, finally, I will ask THEM to answer any of those questions . . . and I’ll be posting their responses.

Here is the slideshow on

Making Sense of Social Media

Making Sense Of Social Media 2010

View more presentations from sharisax.

NOW . . . FOR THOSE ANSWERS: from the students AND from any of you readers. Please do add your thoughts.

photo credit Howard Blum

Sharisax Is Out There

Laid Off and Bored? Use Your Brain and the Net to Become an Expert

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One of my Loved Ones was laid off recently, and now tells me he’s bored.

NO WAY!

NO HOW!

NO EXCUSE!

Not in Today’s World where so much is at our fingertips.

Just DO IT is the Common Mantra

Suggestion One: Do NOT just “fill empty spaces” — i.e., don’t DO, just to DO.

Suggestion Two: Give yourself a goal: Use your computer to become an Expert.

Suggestion Three: Research your industry to discover challenges/issues/problems that you can solve — or learn to solve.

Suggestion Three and a half: Join and build strong profiles on popular social media sites including, but not limited to, today’s Top Three: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (so that you can become a more effective researcher).

  • Ask questions about your industry and your interests on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.
  • Build relationships with people who answer your questions.
  • Look on LinkedIn and Ning for groups of people with similar backgrounds, and then join the conversation.
  • Build relationships and look for opportunities where you can help others.
  • Check out the websites of prospective employers; then look them up on LinkedIn to find more information that you won’t find on their websites — especially LinkedIn members who now work for the company and those who have left.

Suggestion Four: Think positive; use your brain and good intentions to become productive, happy, and valuable to yourself and others.

PS Check out these two previous posts: Updating your LinkedIn profile and Twitter 101 lessons

Your turn: What advice can you offer my bored Loved One?

Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

Use this Checklist for Managing Online Presence

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CHART YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRESS:

Want to manage your social media sites? Yesterday’s post reviewed Chris Brogan‘s 19 tips: Resolve to Manage your Online Presence.

Today you’ll find a handy spreadsheet to use for weekly check-offs. And there’s space to add other tasks . . .  like writing your blog post 🙂

Now you can Check-off when you Do-It

Click HERE for a JPG of the chart

Blogging, Facebook, Twitter

Resolve to Manage Your Online Presence — Lists only go so far . . .

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“Social Media: Step-by-step”

The End of The Year is made for reflection, clean up, and planning for the future.

Six months ago, social media luminary Chris Brogan published 19 tips to manage your SM online  presence.

And I most likely did what a lot of my friends might have done, i.e. LOOK at the List and THINK “What a great list” and then [most probably] moved on to something else to read.

What were we missing?

A lot!

An Actual Roadmap for DOING & LEARNING Social Media!!

So I thought I’d take a few of our moments here to actually study Chris’s list and chat about each item, i.e., more active reading and more opportunity to “internalize” some of his great advice.

Note: Chris’s 19 tips are in blue. [And he recommends you do them Daily. That, of course, is up to you.]

Twitter

1. Find seven things worth retweeting in your general feed and share.

  • When starting a new regimen, EASY is good. And finding valuable info on the Net to share will make you feel good as well. Of course, if you have really read the information and can add an insight of your own, that will help you as well as your audience.

2. Reply to at least five things with full responses (not just “thanks”).

  • Commenting on other people’s blogs is Not Easy, but it accomplishes so much: e.g., adding to the conversation, recognizing the writer’s hard work, and getting your name out there . . . for just three benefits.

3. Point out a few people that you admire. It shows your mindset, too.

  • Hmm. Have to do a bit of interpretation here. I’m assuming that Chris suggests we use the @name and pat them on the back in a Tweet. That’s very cool, but every day? It might be more realistic to find new person to applaud every day. If you keep praising the same people, that seems a bit spammy.

4. Follow back at least 10 folks. (I use an automated tool, but this is a personal preference. If you want such, I use SocialToo.)

  • Following people back is easy — but deciding WHOM to follow back is another story. I, personally, am not a fan of anything automated and that alone may slow my popularity growth online. Many people do follow you automatically, most often after you Tweet something with a keyword they are following. And, in most cases, I follow them back — but NOT if their last comment was spammy or missing. And I also look at the Avatar. If I feel it is “inappropriate” in any way, I don’t follow back.

5. 10 minutes of just polite two-way chit chat goes far.

  • Every time you or I go onto Twitter with some time specifically devoted to participating, I think this is fun to do. If your closest Twitter friends are not posting at the moment, you can engage in some conversation with anyone who posts something you like. The poster could be someone you are already following — or better yet [and a way to accomplish #4] — do a search for an area of interest and converse with someone who writes something interesting, whom you were not following before.
  • Because I use Tweetdeck and have a steady stream of real-time posts about my key search terms, I can always find new people to chat with.
  • BTW, I just Tweeted @chrisbrogan asking if I could use his photo, and he said ‘Sure” [only 9 more minutes of 2-way chat to go for today]
  • Thought I’d take this opportunity for a shameless plug for my own Twitter Cheat Sheet post: http://sharisax.com/2009/12/03/twitter-basics-workshop-cheat-sheet/

Twitter Button from twitbuttons.com

Facebook

1. Check in on birthdays on the home page. (Want a secret? Send the birthday wish via Twitter or email. Feels even more deliberate.)

  • Honestly, it was fun  back in October to have all the birthday greetings on my Wall. But I imagine Chris is right and that a Tweet or email would have been even more “personal” and warm.

2. Respond to any comments on your wall.

  • Actually this tip sounds like a No-Brainer, unless you have 5000 friends — which I don’t . . .
  • But from what I understand, if we want to use Facebook for Business purposes as well as Personal, then we all will need to connect with many, many people through Facebook. If you are reading this post, please Ask to be my Friend. Chris, you, too. 🙂

3. Post a status message daily, something engaging or interesting.

  • This advice gives me the opportunity to spout my own viewpoint on “Updates”: At this moment in my social media learning curve, my opinion is that updates to Facebook will Not always be appropriate to other platforms. I am really anxious, though, to hear/read other people’s opinions on this.
  • I know there are sites like Ping that make posting to all your sites simultaneously a breeze. I don’t do this [yet], do you?

4. Comment on at least seven people’s status messages or updates.

  • Now this is WORK, but the kind of “social capital” that pays off huge rewards. As a matter of fact, I’m going to stop writing right now to comment on my friends’ updates.

  • This reminds me of a related tip: Do things NOW. If you wait, they are forgotten.

5. Share at least 3 interesting updates that you find.

  • Honestly, this is ONE tip I’d never thought of, but I can see that ANY TIME you share someone else’s thoughts, you make them very, very happy . . . and spread the good words.

6. If you belong to groups or fan pages, leave a new comment or two

  • Again, something New for me. I’ve been joining a few Fan Pages, but I can’t remember even looking at them.
    🙁 Let alone, commenting. This will take some thought; however, that being said, I, too, have a FanPage that would love to see some “love,” i.e., comments: Performance Social Media. [Become a Fan . . . and comment 🙂 ]

LinkedIn

1. Accept any invitations that make sense for you to accept.

  • A “no-brainer” . . . except for deciding what “makes sense” for you. I’ve heard of people who are VERY discriminating in accepting LinkedIn invitations: their practice is to ONLY connect with people whom they know well and would write a recommendation for.
  • My own practice follows the advice of many LinkedIn gurus who suggest that the real power of LinkedIn is in your second and third degree connections, i.e., the people who are connected to your connections.
  • Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shariweisssf

2. Enter any recent business cards to invite them to LinkedIn (if you’re growing your network).

  • Great suggestion and a practice I do subscribe to. Of course, this means you need to keep up your F2F [Face to Face] networking as well as online. My friend and one of my personal social media gurus Dean Guadagni gave a great networking presentation to a networking group I belong to.

3. Drop into Q&A and see if you can volunteer 2-3 answers.

  • EXCELLENT ADVICE! LinkedIn is so much more robust and  powerful than most people know. Personally I’ve been on the “receiving” end of the Q & A function. I’ve met some great new contacts from all over the world — a few whom I’ll be collaborating with on future projects.

4. Provide 1 recommendation every few days for people you can honestly and fully recommend.

  • WOW! Wouldn’t this be sensational! I do see that Chris has modified this practice to “one every few days”: I bet that’s do-able. So much more auathentic when you give the recommendation without having been asked.

5. Add any relevant slide decks to the Slideshare app there, or books to the Amazon bookshelf.

  • Another item for my To-Do List. I know that creating and sharing Slideshows is a fantastic way to build your online authority . . . and I Resolve to do some.

Blogs

1. Visit your blog’s comments section and comment back on at least 5 replies.

  • WordPress makes this easy as I receive email notifications [and not enough comments . . . yet . . . let’s change that. I do promise to reply to EVERYONE who comments on this post! Chris?]

2. If you have a few extra minutes, click through to the blogs of the commenters, and read a post or two and comment back.

  • GREAT IDEA: You comment here and I’ll comment back — Be very happy to.

3. While on those sites, use a tool like StumbleUpon and promote their good work.

  • Absolutely, but I like Digg and Delicious . . .  hint, hint. [Check the end of the post for an easy click through to those sites.]

4. Write the occasional post promoting the good work of a blog in your community.

NEXT POST: Handy Checklist to manage all these tasks

Well “we’re” finished with the planning. Now it’s time for the doing. Please let “us” know what that “Doing” entails.

Facebook, Interview, Sharisax Is Out There

Do we need an Emily Post for social media etiquette?

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linkedin-facebook-twitter

“To be or not to be . . .”

“To DO, or NOT to do . . .”

I got a “dressing down” the other day when I asked a question on various social media platforms.

This was my message:

“ARE PRESS RELEASES DEAD?  I would like to publish an article on my blog,”

I received many relevant opinions and this surprising response:

“Don’t use my wall to promote your blog.”

Had I missed a rule?

Honestly, I was quite taken aback. What on earth had I done that was WRONG?

So I looked to the ‘wisdom of the crowd” and asked a few of my social media friends — many of whom had received and responded to my question: “What rules had I violated?”

Most said that they hadn’t been offended in any way, but one suggested that some people can get very “persnickety” about their Facebook profile — and that if I really wanted the Scoop on “Doing the Right Thing,” I should ask Etiquette Expert George Kao, a social media coach whose webinar I had attended and written about a month ago: The Circle of Reciprocity begins with Free.

George-Kao-

“People are forgiving of your social media mistakes — if you don’t keep repeating them. Someone will usually let you know if you’ve done anything wrong.” — George Kao

George suggested to me that people should not be afraid of making mistakes. “The social web is so new, that the rules for etiquette may not be obvious,” he said. If in doubt, take action, he suggested.

“Focus on adding value to people’s lives and business.”

If you want to do the Right Thing online, then think of the Golden Rule: “Do Not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you.” AND “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.”

Here are some of George’s suggestions:

  1. Give others the experience you would want.
  2. Be aware of actions that would be intrusive [like over promotion].
  3. Build “Social Capital” [i.e. authentic relationships] before you spend it.
  4. Duplicate the types of online actions that you like AND don’t do the ones you don’t like.
  5. Be “Open Hearted.” We tend to be open-hearted with those who are open-hearted with us.

Facebook Walls: What to post and what not to post

Many people seem to be confused about Facebook Walls, George agreed. “Think of the Wall as someone’s Front Porch or a public office space,” he said. “Your Wall is where you post messages for all visitors. Your updates go on your wall,” he explained.

When someone clicks through to another person’s Facebook profile and writes on that person’s wall, it should be about that person — like a birthday greeting or an endorsement. The only people who see that Wall message, however, will be the Facebook friend and any mutual friends, according to George.

When you comment on one of your friend’s updates, it’s visible by all the person’s Facebook friends as well, so be aware of that.

“Everyone has a responsibility to manage his or her own Wall. If someone writes something you don’t like, you can remove it — and you ought to.”

George’s final caution: “When you are communicating and updating on Facebook, make certain that you don’t post anything you wouldn’t want the world to see.”

Do you have any online pet peeves that you’d like to share — or resources for rules? We’d love to know them and help spread the word.

Facebook, Sharisax Is Out There

Facebook for Business, Blogging, Posterous and more:

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Twitter is like my personal bookstore, but so is most of Web 2.0

photos by Howard Blum
photos by Howard Blum

Sharing is one of the amazing benefits of Web 2.0, so it’s no wonder that Twitter is so important to me — both as a source and a repository. Here are some of the articles I read and Tweeted and Re-Tweeted this week:

  1. NYT article on Facebook for Business
  2. Blogs better Hubs than Twitter
  3. Social media will be your local marketing tool
  4. Future of Marketing – PR Squared
  5. Scoble’s video interview with Posterous

New York Times tips for Marketing on Facebook

Quick Tips worth repeating over and over [until people get them ingrained]: (a) Identify goals; (b) Share personality; (c) Engage, don’t shill; (d) Use Facebook data Here are some article highlights:

  • Be where your customers — and prospective customers — hang out.
  • Start small and add tools & apps slowly
  • Enliven page with photos and useful information
  • Buy-buy-buy messages do not work
  • Offer value and be patient

NYT article on Facebook for Business

HUBSBlogs are best HUBS for your content

Here are seven reasons why:

  1. With a blog, you control the agenda, whether you’re communicating on behalf of a company, or for personal reasons.
  2. Your blog can cater to a sub-group of your Twitter friends or a different audience altogether.
  3. A blog is less dominated by spam than Twitter.
  4. You can embed images, audio and video on your blog.
  5. Blog posts can be of unlimited length. You can express yourself in more than 140 characters.
  6. With some environments, you have almost unlimited control over the appearance, functionality and arrangement of your blog.
  7. Many blogs include the ability to offer contact forms, polls, chat and other functionality. You can even embed your Twitter stream into your blog.

Blogs better Hubs than Twitter

Local audience — where the money is

flowers Nope, even traditional media admits social media is NOT a fad. Local bloggers are being paid for page views. Viral nature of social media is fountain for success. Social media provides 2-way communication. Social media will be your local marketing tool

Facebook & Google win social network marketing race

“In the future, the Web you know will be based on the Web that knows you.”

“Social Media has simply become an unstoppable force.”

“Making special offers based on known behaviors and connections, will be automated.”

Future marketing outreach: “Maybe you’ll also reach out to one of the baker’s dozen’s worth of active baking-related groups on Facebook.”

Future of Marketing – PR Squared

Robert Scoble interview with POSTEROUS for the “GEEKY-ER” among you:

Top Geek-Thought-Leader Robert Scoble posted a video interview with the two creators of Posterous, a platform on which anyone can post content via email. Steve Rubel  stopped publishing his highly regarded marketing communication blog Micropersuasion in favor of a Posterous stream. Video is 17 minutes long and features Robert’s questions for Posterous founders: Sachin Agarwal and Garry Tan. Highlights:

  • Purpose is to provide a simple, clean platform for rich media and mobile application.
  • Only four full-time engineers do all the work.
  • To serve 1.8 billion people who don’t want the hassle of a traditional blog
  • Future business model to offer Premium features — far in the future.

Check out more of Howard’s Awesome photos on his website: http://faces-and-places.net/indexa.html

Blogging, Facebook, Twitter

Reading: Social Media tips, stats, and updates. What are people talking about?

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What are they all talking about
What are they all talking about

My friend and colleague Zahid Lilani recently posted links to eight articles he’d found interesting. So I thought I’d do the same — and get through some of my emails at the same time. If you read any of the suggested articles, please feel free to comment below — that “tip” is also recommended in a few of these articles.

SOCIAL NETWORKING: Social Media success depends on more than developing an online presence. Taylor Ellwood offers five tips on how to “Network” and Build Community using social media. Basically he suggests (1) Comment on peoples’ tweets and posts; (2) Pay attention to what people need; (3) Post personal info, but be careful that you talk about things that would promote interaction; (4) Try to connect people with one another; (5) Treat people as people, more than just prospective clients.

Friendfeed losing steam: Some SM influentials like Robert Scoble and Jeremiah Owyang, Louis Gray and Steve Rubel have lost faith in Friendfeed, especially since its acquisition by Facebook. [Also, if you check the Oct 14 post on Steve Rubel’s stream in the link above, you can access a great basic Handbook for Twitter.]

Deleting Duplicates: Are you bothered by seeing the same Tweet Twice? Twitter is doing something about that, but some people are upset because they schedule the same tweet to be broadcast 3 different times during the day. Sorry, but you’ll have to make a small change and that will be enough to “delete the delete.”

Technorati Update: The name “Technorati” was one I’d heard early on as The Blog Directory. Apparently the site has not updated its offerings until lately — and the changes will no doubt affect the Blogosphere. Read this article if you want to familiarize with what’s happening with this Big Name.

How-to Plan an Event on Facebook: Many of my friends and prospective clients want to know how to use Facebook Fanpages for their businesses. Here is a Step-by-Step guide to broadcasting news about an event on Facebook. Who doesn’t like Step-by-Step guides?

For Techies – Resources to build Apps: To be honest, this article is a bit over my head, but some readers may be thinking of building applications for FOUR of the most popular SM sites, i.e. Facebook, Flckr, Google Maps, and Twitter. Interesting reading [and stats] even for some of less tech-types.

Make money blogging?: Final reading selection of the day is a Roadmap to Turn Blogging into Your Business. Read Darren Rowse’s [Problogger] Roadmap after his wife told him “You have six months to make blogging full-time.”

Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

Social Media Victories: presentation by Patrick Schwerdtfeger for Bay Area Consultants — BACN

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As a Bay Area Consultant myself, I was thrilled to attend my first BACN breakfast meeting and hear Patrick Schwerdtfeger tell 80 of us all about his “Social Media Victories.”

Patrick’s one-hour talk featured case studies where organizations leveraged Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube to increase revenue and brand awareness . . . but what most enlivened the audience were Patrick’s own experiences and lessons along Social Media Revolutionary Road.

Below are my videos from the morning as well as reactions from some of the attendees.

Video 1

Social Media Sites are Raging Rivers

  • People are on the “raging rivers” of the Web, and they are looking for things.
  • Are you putting things out there that they can find?
  • If you do it right, people in New Zealand will find you.
  • Demonstrate your expertise.

Video 2

Driving traffic to a website is expensive

  • Use a blog as a Hub and social media platforms as spokes.
  • Twitter studies show lots of “babble.”
  • It’s not difficult to stand out as a valuable resource.

Video 3

Twitter is about getting out the right TITLES

  • Twitter allows consumers to “sample” the goods
  • 4 reasons to tweet: Community; Business; Expertise; Life
  • Corporate success stories: Whole Foods, Dell, Jet Blue

Video 4

Get the most out of Twitter & LinkedIn

  • Twitter tools: Tweetlater, Twellow, Tweetdeck
  • Kogi BBQ story
  • LinkedIn: people are 7 times more likely to open a LinkedIn email than a regular email
  • Join LinkedIn Groups to be able to email members “without” being connected.

Video 5

LinkedIn & Facebook: overcoming hurdles

  • Write recommendations for LinkedIn connections and they may reciprocate
  • Learn from the best; use model Linked profiles to design your own profile
  • Use Advanced Search in LinkedIn to send business proposals
  • Learn the different opportunities offered by Facebook Profiles, Groups, and Fanpages

Video 6

Create a Facebook Fanpage

  • Post and promote cool events
  • Take photos and tag people
  • Video events and post them

Video 7

Facebook and YouTube

  • Facebook all about Engaging your community.
  • YouTube: authentic videos are the ones that get watched.
  • Case study about The Best Job in the World

Video 8

Don’t have time for social media? Integrate Everything

What did the attendees “take away”?

BACN founder Harry Chapman
BACN founder Harry Chapman

“The session on social networking prompted me to look more deeply into using iTunes as another vehicle for providing though leadership about my practice. I am seriously looking into this and planning to FINALLY actively use at least iTunes to get more visibility to the Bay Area Consulting Group LLC and our deep expertise in IT management.” — Harry Chapman,  BACN founder


Follow Kerry Rego @kregobiz on Twitter
Follow Kerry Rego @kregobiz on Twitter

“I learned that I had underestimated the power of YouTube and its rightful place at the Big Kids table of social media. It is in fact now part of the Big Four: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn AND YouTube.” — Kerry Rego, Kerry Rego Consulting

Dr. Maynard Brusman, Consulting Psychologist
Dr. Maynard Brusman, Consulting Psychologist

“WOW! Patrick Schwerdtfeger presented a one-hour energy Social Media workshop packed with scores of tips and tricks to create social media success. He motivated me to take action and create Executive Coaching YouTube videos to attract more clients.” — Dr. Maynard Brusman

Sallie Goetsch - "If podcasting is driving you crazy, we can help."
Sallie Goetsch - "If podcasting is driving you crazy, we can help."

Patrick did a great job of presenting the core information about Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. The material was all familiar to me, but I appreciated his arrangement of these four social networks as spokes around the hub of your blog. What stuck with me most was the advantage of going where your prospects already are, rather than strugling to build up traffic on your own website.” — Sallie Goetsch, The Podcast Asylum

Susan Bercu, "Let's talk. I'm a good listerner."
Susan Bercu, "Let's talk. I'm a good listerner."

“My take-away from Patrick’s lively, easy-to-follow presentation was his emphasis on the integration of social with your marketing strategy. I especially liked the tips on using YouTube. Very smart.” — Susan Bercu, graphic design and illustration

David Weissman, Bay Area Paralegal Services
David Weissman, Bay Area Paralegal Services

“The content of the presentation was thought-provoking and useful. The speaker was very knowledgeable, and I definitely intend to use the information to positon and promote my business services in a more effective manner.” — David Weissman, Bay Area Paralegal Services

Alice Cochran, Fast Forward Facilitation
Alice Cochran, Fast Forward Facilitation

“Everything in the presentation seemed so practical that I wanted to learn it in a step-by-step process, so I bought Patrick’s book Webify your Business. I particularly liked his approach which came from being self-taught — and convinced me that I could learn from him.” — Alice Cochran, author of Roberta’s Rules

Neil Schaffer, Windmill Networking
Neil Schaffer, Windmill Networking

“The one take-away I had was the “raging water” symbolism. It really does give justice to how viral and quick the pace of things in social media — and how you  need to throw yourself into the water and go with the flow. I also liked his case studies, which really drove home his points.” — Neil Schaeffer, Windmill Networking

“Patrick’s enthusiasm and passion for social media tools are infectious. Many thanks to BACN for a wonderful presentation which has inspired me to ACT.” — Yael Schy,  Dramatic Strides Consulting

Marla Rosner @ManagementMavin on Twitter
Marla Rosner @ManagementMavin on Twitter

“I loved listening to Patrick. He’s a font of wisdom about social networking. I’m close to posting my first YouTube video and I got some great ideas about tagging.” — Marla Rosner, Helping teams listen, learn, and lead.

Steven Tulsky, Financial Experts for Nonprofit Sector
Steven Tulsky, Financial Experts for Nonprofit Sector

“What I liked about Patrick was that he comes to this stuff with the same scepticism as I do. He doesn’t preach, but rather shares his amazement that using Web 2.0 can actually be very helpful in establishing one’s personal visibility and respectability, and therefore ultimately one’s business. The credibility of his low-key, easy-going style made me want to look further into what he was telling us about–and buy his book!” — Steven Tulsky, The Benemetrics Consulting Group

BACN Mission: To improve business and professional development success through networking and programs for consultants.

Members of BACN are independent consultants who are interested in expanding their professional practices through effective networking and professional development programs sponsored by BACN. Attend a BACN meeting to become a member.