If you’re doing social media for your business, there’s nothing better than to do it right. Many companies partake in this “shiny toy syndrome” and do it all without a plan or strategy in place. Worse, many don’t really understand what to do once they start. They hear about tools, put forth a miserable effort, and are either too busy or just lazy.

With social media, an abundance of resources are at your fingertips. However, without a successful plan and any adequate preparation, your social media efforts will fail. Here are three dos and don’ts you should think about before you move forward.

Don’t self promote.

Okay, so this should be obvious, but there are so many businesses that don’t get it. On a particular forum I am active on (yes, I still use them!), I noticed someone asking for advice. A response came from a business owner who had the perfect answer on her website and directed the original poster to the website for a detailed reply. Sadly, this person’s post was pulled by the strict moderators on that forum; the post was purely self-promotional and nothing but. When I reviewed the poster’s account, I understood why. I noticed that she had done the same thing on other discussions on the same forum over a period of several months and all of them were pulled!

Want to self promote? You can! Just do it while giving back to the community as well. Engage in dialogue. Participate and offer genuine feedback. If you’re only on the forum to tell other people to visit your website or to use your product, you won’t go far. Maybe the moderators of the forum you visit won’t care, but the incessant messages eventually annoy your followers and they’ll unfollow you, report/bury your submissions, or find another place to congregate that doesn’t include your spam.

Do engage during business hours, especially if that’s your job!

Many of you who have hired me know that some of my best work may not come between 9 AM and 6 PM. I reply to emails around the clock like a robot. If I’m managing your Twitter account, you might find a response from me at 11 PM on a Saturday night or 2 AM on a Tuesday. But that doesn’t mean I go silent during business hours, and neither should you. While I respect that most of the world isn’t on the same schedule as I am and that most of the world is tweeting when they’re on the clock and won’t go the extra mile because it’s “just a job,” I do have the expectation that you should respond to your customers during business hours, and preferably within a reasonable amount of time (1-2 business days, but closer to one when using a social media channel). Don’t make your social media efforts half-assed. Don’t check in on Twitter and Facebook once or twice a week and only for 10 minutes.

I understand that some people may have other responsibilities on top of social media. That’s why this is more of a message for large and not necessarily small brands. Not long ago, I tweeted praise to a business and followed up with them about something else via email. Neither the tweet or the follow up direct message was responded to in a timely fashion. This is a well known brand, but yet they’re not building up their social media presence despite prominently advertising it on their website. Their Twitter account has less than 500 followers but they’re not engaging enough. The Facebook page could be totally overrun by bandits and they’d never know because they aren’t paying that much attention.

If you’re going to engage in social media, do it! Just do it head first, not with one foot.

Do study your influencers

Want to reach out to influencers? Yeah, most of us do. We want to get the people of a certain level of authority to talk about us. It can be potentially huge for everyone involved.

Thing is, some people don’t really reach out correctly to influencers. They don’t read 20 blog posts and comments. They don’t follow guidelines on contact form policies on what will be covered and what won’t be. Influencer outreach may possibly be the most powerful outreach tactic that PR practitioners or marketers are laziest about. This turns bloggers sour, thinking that everyone in public relations or blogger outreach is just a spammer.

I can tell a zillion stories about off topic pitches, but other posts have already told some of those tales. But before you gloss over this bullet point and say “it won’t happen to me,” guess what — it probably already did. In a recent campaign, I was reached by a social media agency about a topic that was totally irrelevant to my audience and would never be something I’d blog about. Some people get that. Meanwhile, this agency contracted one of the biggest social media rockstars in the space, a guy who has a stellar social media record. Yet he’s also the reason why I was on this agency’s distribution list using an email address I don’t publicize. If this rockstar knew better, he’d have used my contact form and read my coverage policy (short answer: I won’t cover anything you send to me). He’d also have done the outreach personally since I’ve met the guy at social media events. Instead, he passed on my email address without regard for it being a private email, and the agency sent me a clear newsletter blast with fancy fonts and the whole nine yards — with no regard for who I am and what I write about.

It’s time consuming to look at which bloggers to target, read posts, and then write a personal message to the blogger along with the actual pitch. However, if you want really good coverage, you’ll do it. Study your influencers out; don’t take the lazy path because you can. Nobody passes a difficult exam with little to no preparation (unless they’re really smart!)

This may be nothing more than a refresher course in the Captain Obvious department but even the savviest of companies is still missing the boat. When it comes to social media, social should always be carefully weighted before the marketing is put forth. In social media, it may be more important to market slowly and the right way or not at all. It’s not always about numbers and it’s not about sporadic participation. It’s about building relationships, spending time on the networks, and having regular conversations with the people you want to connect with who you will value for more than just helping move the needle and getting to the bottom line. All of that will come — but it comes more effectively once you put forth true effort into connecting with the people who matter.

Photos by Shutterstock.

[ 3 Golden Business Rules for Social Media Engagement is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

Last year, Chris Brogan coined the phrase “the audacity of free” to refer to the entitlement his “friends” feel they have about getting free entry into conferences that he and his team spend months to organize. Somehow, individuals forget along the way that costs accrue when considering the venue, food, exhibit hall, and the staff required on hand to run the event smoothly. At the end of the day, contrary to seemingly popular belief, the hosts aren’t the only ones pocketing the money.

Yet with social media, there’s a perception that it’s easy to score freebies. After all, we become easily connected and six degrees of separation is slowly becoming three degrees.

Social media has introduced incentives to the online space, encouraging others to connect with your business. It shouldn’t be that way, but that’s the way it is. You want something from someone, so you need to compel them to engage or they’d have no reason to. In fact, in a test a colleague of mine ran with sponsored advertisements, the incentive-based campaign was much more successful than the original information-only campaign. But many individuals take this concept too far, expecting a freebie at every turn. And unfortunately, social media is at fault for breeding this mentality and causing it to spread.

Let Me Pick Your Brain for a Bit

Those of us who eat, sleep, breathe, and even bleed social media often get asked out to “free lunches” so that a “friend” can pick our brains and ultimately use this free advice to get some material gain out of it. And Chris is right: while seen as a kind gesture by the giver, it’s exploitative. After all, hourly consulting fees are typically much more costly than a “free lunch” plus the travel time it took to meet up.

It’s shocking, almost appalling, to see the reactions of individuals who are asked respectfully to pay consulting rates for these “free” brainstorming sessions, whether over a meal or on the phone. I’m not sure where we’ve gone wrong here, but something needs to change. Time is money, and inquiries are usually made to those possessing a certain level of expertise that only is available to those who have had years of training, which is also time and money (and even debt for some!). That lunch and the information provided therein will often benefit your bottom line. Making a payment for that should really not be so difficult. However, while haggling is expected in the economy of today, trying to get everything for free is downright unethical, nor is it fair to the person who poured their heart and soul into the advice that you’ll merely milk from them without any reservation.

There’s a Lot of Value Here Already

I won’t deny it: I want Techipedia to be packed with value, to show you what I know and how I can help you. A few high profile folks have even called my readers lucky for getting great content without any up front monetary commitment. (If you want great beginner social media content behind a pay wall, check out Exploring Social Media, a project I am working on with Jason Falls and some other great minds.) This comes despite people asking for more under the assumption that I “must” be making money on this site and therefore owe my readers more. (Do you see any banner ads anywhere?)

I’ve spent seventeen years in the social space. That’s a long time and before most of you probably even owned a computer that was connected to the Internet. I’ve been working in consulting for a little less, but it’s my job. It’s what I do (among other projects). And my fees pay the rent, keeps me connected to the Internet so that I can serve my clients, and covers other expenses such as staff and business expenses. All of this doesn’t come for free for me either.

Books Take Time to Write

Last week, a Twitter user asked a really blunt but surprising question about how to download my book (legally) for free. It was nice to request a legal copy, but there isn’t any. My book is less than $20 on Amazon, which makes for a great deal and covers years of practice and training. The investment could benefit your business by a lot more than $20 in financial gain.

Books aren’t a breeze to write and anyone who is an author might tell you that book writing is some of the hardest and busiest work they’ll ever do. It took me nearly 1000 hours that could have been spent on other clients. Did anyone know that authors make perhaps a dollar off the sale of every book? As much as I’ve wanted to be an author since the age of 5, I understood why my mother tried dissuading me at that tender and impressionable age: most authors simply don’t make enough money. Surprisingly, some individuals who have yet to build any type of relationship with an author still expect to get a break. Whether or not it’s my choice — and in book publishing, there are other parties involved beyond just the writer — it’s just the wrong question to ask.

Last week, when the Twitter user asked the question about the free downloadable copy, I gave her a straightforward unemotional-and-without-thought “there is none” answer, which is typical of the types of responses I provide on Twitter (I’m only wordy in blog posts ). Consequently, I got chewed out both on Twitter and following that on her own blog, telling me that I should have responded nicely and recommended the library. Somehow, people think it’s okay to ask an inappropriate question and get a more-than-grateful response.

Life won’t always hand you breaks. Those of us who are successful in our space usually have worked really hard to get here. Social media should not continue to give off the mindset that it’s easier to get things for free. Sadly, it absolutely has.

I’ll Respect My Time. Will You?

Lisa Barone made a really good point last month when she said that her productivity went up as a result of respecting her time. While her specific circumstances were different, the premise is the same. Most of us are busy, and lately, the extent of the “busy”-ness for me is about helping a business’s bottom line. I’d like to help others but feel the need to repeat my stance against giving people who do not know me and who do not even really warm up to me the benefit of a free ride while still charging customers who have been with me for years. And time is too finite to give everyone free advice. I wish the world worked that way, because I love to help businesses. After all, that’s why Techipedia continues to provide really great informational content almost weekly. It’s why I respond to every comment on my posts. It’s why I reply to every email often within minutes. At the end of the day, though, we ALL have families to feed.

Expertise Comes at a Price

I’m sure I’m speaking for all social media consultants (and other Internet Marketing strategists) out there when I say that social media advice has come at the cost of learning through trial and error for us, and the more and more times we’re asked to give out freebies, the more numb we get to the request. I really hope this post drives the point home that freebies, even a $50 lunch, don’t really benefit anyone but the receiver. (Most of us would be eating lunch anyway!)

Not Everything is Free

I always am fascinated myself by looking at people doing dirty jobs — that guy cleaning the bathroom in Madison Square Garden definitely isn’t a happy camper — and realizing that the only thing that governs people toward these tasks is financial benefit. Almost everything everyone does in the business world, be it a regular transaction, tourism, or travel, has some financial element to it. Money makes the world go round. Chris puts it really nicely when he says, “But free is a choice, and it’s not your buyers who decide this, no matter what we like to think in social media kumbaya-ville. Free is beautiful, and costs are part of life.”

There are exceptions to the rule, of course, and there always will be. But setting up the expectation and making demands for freebies puts unnecessary stress on the giver, and that’s just not the correct way to build a real relationship.

Now it’s Your Turn

How have you handled the requests for freebies? Do you have any system that has worked? Failed? Sound off in the comments.

Photos provided by Shutterstock.

[ The Audacity of Free: The Products and Services Edition is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

This is a guest post by Frank Lee.

These days, many people have started a blog for hobby or business. The trouble is, with so much competition out there, your blog really has to stand out from the crowd. In fact, not only does your blog need to stand out from the average ones that are popping up every day, but you also need to compete with established blogs, with their loyal fan bases, that have been around for years. In short, in order to have any impact whatsoever, good is just not good enough. Your blog has to be excellent.

Your Blog Is Not Getting Traffic?

Maybe you’ve set up a blog to advertise your business. Maybe you’ve set up a blog to run AdSense and earn money from the search engines. Maybe you just have a message you want to share. Whatever your motivation, your blog needs traffic to achieve those goals, and to do that, you need great content.

Today I will share with you some blog writing tips from my own experience that are pure gold, and will have you building traffic, and repeat visitors, in no time!

Get Your Blog Read and Followed

When it comes to the internet, there’s one golden rule that stands head and shoulders above the others: content is king. Although there are other types of content out there that you could post on your blog, that usually means you need to write great blog posts. Here are those sins, and how you can avoid them:

Using Jargon or Technical Terms

If you think writing blog posts that require a degree or a post grad in nuclear physics to understand, you’re not going to get a big following. No one cares how smart you are, or how smart you think you are. What they want is concise, interesting, and most importantly, intelligible content. Always write in layman’s terms (unless you are really writing for nuclear physicists – in that case, you’re on your own!)

Using Complex, High Brow English

You might be interested to find that the average internet user reads at high school level. That means that that entire high brow English you think is impressive is actually a giant yawn fest. When it comes to the level of language, I follow the K.I.S.S. principle: Keep It Simple Stupid! That way, everyone can read and understand your posts.

Writing As If You’re Authoring a Textbook

Blogs are not designed to be highly technical pieces of literature. They’re designed to be chatty – as if you were having a conversation with a friend. Write your blog posts to be funny, interesting and most importantly, as if you were talking to an actual human.

Not Using Keywords

Okay, so your blog posts need to be people friendly. That doesn’t mean they can’t be search engine friendly too. A peppering of keywords here and there will help your blog be more visible to search engines. This is especially useful when your blog links to a site, or when you are using AdSense or another service to earn off your blog.

Keyword Stuffing

All right, so it seems contradictory, but if you’re going to use keywords as I mentioned before, you can’t just stuff them in everywhere! Slow down! Remember, your posts still have to make sense to actual humans, so save the keywords for places where they actually make sense, and where using them won’t confuse your reader.

Long, Unbroken Chunks of Text

People read blogs and other web content to get information. However, when faced with a screen dominated by a solid block of text, it’s very hard for them to follow your train of thought. Use headings, subheadings, bullets and lists to break up the monotony, and make your text easier to scan through. You’ll have far more chance that visitors will actually finish reading your posts!

Not Including Images

Okay, so I know I said that content is king, and it’s true that the text content of your blog is what people are visiting for. That having been said, well chosen images can add interest, and help to put what you are writing in context. Think of it as eye candy for your readers! Just make sure that the images are relevant and copyright free!

Avoid doing the above when doing your next blog post. Blogging is fun to do once you got the building blocks right. As you develop the habits to write great blog posts, you will see your readership increase. And it is such a reward to see when your blog post helping people to make breakthrough or to learn a new idea. Those comments on your blog are great way to hear the feedback and to improve your blog constantly.

It is vital to master writing great content on your blog. Next step you need to market your blog to reach your target audience. Social media marketing, SEO, and forum marketing are the great ways to expand your market coverage.

Develop a systematic way to achieve your goal by doing content creation and traffic generation regularly rather than a shotgun approach. Schedule those important activities in your weekly calendar.
Keep building more valuable content and engage in marketing this content. Your consistent effort will payoff quickly.

Frank Lee shares a Free Gift to guide you step-by-step to “Breakthrough Article Marketing” – simply visit his site today and discover how you too can generate loads of free buying traffic using a simple 5 step unique article writing method in his Internet Marketing Systems. Frank also runs a list building program that will easily help you build your email subscribers.

Photos by Shutterstock.

[ 7 Deadly Blog Writing Sins is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

Over the past two years or so, social media’s increased popularity has really done something for those assuming that it’s all a “get rich quick” opportunity. The widespread adoption of social media has caused for hordes of “experts” to suddenly come into town assuming that they can totally own this niche. These new “Internet Marketers” take Twitter by storm, using automated Twitter tools in abundance that give them the true appearance of expertise. They are no-name people who all of the sudden have 22,000 followers while following 23,000, but that doesn’t matter because a newbie trying to market his business sees this 5 digit number and gets excited about the opportunities to reach so many people so quickly.

It’s a Utopian mindset but one that clueless business owners step into after following an “expert” and hiring him for services. Many unsuspecting business owners blindly spot the riches of social media based on the appearance of numbers (even though those are usually deceiving). They think, “This guy must be great; he has 30,000 Twitter followers! What’s better than that?”

It’s unfortunately a situation I’ve been picking up more and more on as I see users building their entire social media marketing empire on the basis of automation.

A few months ago, a big named blogger called out another “expert” for writing an eBook that included a blog post from this blogger without attribution and completely verbatim. The thought process likely was that he wouldn’t get caught. Someone, though, recognized the content and reported it to the original blogger who rallied his audience and successfully had this original blogger amend his document. Where was the eBook author during all of this? I wanted to know since I never heard of the guy. Who was he, I wondered, and was he credible? So I hopped on Twitter for a sneak into his daily activities. Despite the fact that he had over 50,000 Twitter followers, his entire feed was a broadcast. There was no engagement and his ratio of followers to following was close to one-to-one. It’s kind of hard to have a relationship with 50,000 people, is it not? A 1:1 ratio at that level brings up a few red flags, but most notably, automation, especially with regards to automatic reciprocation of every single incoming follower.

But that was a few months ago, and I’m naive enough to think that others won’t be so silly in their online engagement activities. Meanwhile, I’ve been working on building out a social media strategic plan for a really interesting company. Their social media efforts were spearheaded by a guy who looks like a nice dude, but after studying his personal Twitter feed, it was almost the same kind of thing: the process was almost wholly automated. Effort was placed into collecting articles and scheduling them over time to give off the appearance of a “fresh” and “relevant” Twitter feed, but engagement was kept at a true minimum. Essentially, the actual user’s Twitter account became a broadcast medium but not a conversational one.

Sadly, that same strategy was passed onto the client’s Twitter feed as well; with the exception of a single @ in a full month (that was a response to a question), the entire Twitter account was fully automated. He must have spent an hour or two collecting posts to schedule throughout the month, adding no real value to the client’s stream, thereby capturing no leads and empowering customers. Plus, one of his automated tweets even advocated auto-following users, which some very keen customers noted and caused him to remove that tweet and apologize for endorsing the tactic!

So when I finally got access to the client’s Twitter account to begin promoting their services, I didn’t know what I’d find but expected the process to be a tad easier. However, following their home Twitter feed was really difficult. I was reading tweets from a sea of twitterfeeds, which if you’re unaware, are totally automated posts that come from processing RSS feeds. It seemed that none of the accounts this Twitter account was following were actually manned by people — and there were hundreds! Twitterfeeds are hardly the kind of thing a real human would ever want to read, especially one that wants to embark in social media marketing. It’s a great tool, but it’s not one you’d exclusively want to dedicate your Twitter efforts to. And it doesn’t help for marketing — at least not the social kind. If I wanted to shout it out, I’d buy a billboard over the Strip in Las Vegas. Preferably one that was visible from the top floors of the Mirage, Treasure Island, the Palazzo, and heck, while I’m at it, the Bellagio. Why not?

We should hang a banner ad in the middle of the sky

A similar tactic was mirrored on the client’s Facebook account; there was no user interaction, just a bunch of messages that were cross-posted from Twitter to Facebook that were scheduled in advance. There were fans on the Facebook page, but what is keeping them there? A great product — nothing more, nothing less.

Yet there’s so much more that can be done online, and it doesn’t involve only using tools. Tools make your life easier, they’re really a small fraction of the process of social media marketing. Having a solid social media strategy and realizing that social media marketing involves dealing with people is critically important. Here are some rules of thumb to consider when considering a social media marketing strategy:

Engagement is Everything

I can’t stress it enough: social media marketing is a social activity! People are flocking to sites like Twitter and Facebook and other communities because they are online communities where they can learn from and hang out with their peers. The success of a social media marketing campaign strongly revolves around engagement. Broadcasting works better as a billboard.

What kind of engagement can you do? That’s not as difficult as it seems: find people talking about you and respond to them. Find people talking about your competitors and tell them about your own opportunities (use your best judgment though). Find people talking about your industry and chime in! Add value by finding blog posts or articles of interest to your followers and make sure to credit the author of the article, especially if he’s on Twitter! (e.g. “Just found this great post on green and orange widgets by @tamar”).

Numbers Do Not Dictate Influence

There are some people who will automatically follow everyone who follows them on Twitter. As a result, they have incredibly huge following numbers even though their followers may have also used automatic methods to get new followers. It’s actually more common than you think. I’ve been autofollowed by many people simply because I’ve tweeted about Internet Marketing and Social Media Marketing, and I’ve seen my peers accumulate followers for doing the same thing. The funny thing is that some of my peers will auto-follow these folks back, making the entire process automatic.

When I first signed onto Twitter in 2006, I used to manually review every single incoming email notifying me of new Twitter followers just to see if there was a synergy between our accounts. Am I interested in what the other person has to add? If so, I followed them. With the number of followers that come and go, and due to Twitter’s widespread adoption, it’s now a bit difficult to manually review the dozens of followers I get on a daily basis. I now employ lists as a way to follow people in my own defined categories (though it still has a shortcoming; the process is still manual!). This method may or may not work for you; my point of illustration is simply to explain that the process of following (both on Twitter and on lists) for me is a completely manual one, and it may be advisable for your own account integrity to avoid following everyone just because they’ve elected to follow you. Are you genuinely interested in everything the 15,000 people you’re following have to say? Will you even pay attention to your home feed? These are questions you need to seriously consider before you automate.

Tools like Klout can really help you find the influencers among those who are merely twitterfeeding it up the wazoo. If their number is low (I’d say a Klout of 35 or less counts for low/no influence among social media experts, though this can be debatable), even if they have 302,402 followers, they’re not influential. If you’re hiring a social media marketing practitioner for your business, look at their Klout. If it’s low, they aren’t exerting enough influence on their own accounts to be influential enough on your account. Even though some of us are busy helping clients, we should still find time to nurture our own account and grow it organically.

Automation is Okay… in Limited Quantities

Sometimes it’s okay to share content you love. I have close friends and colleagues who share sponsored posts from major blogs among the other posts they share from these large online publications. They do it because they generally love ALL the articles — and so what if there’s an infrequent article that thanks the blogs’ supporters?

Running through automated tools is fine, but it’s not something you should be doing regularly. There’s only so much genuity that comes out of automating your Twitter account. And it also proves that there are thousands (millions?) of blind Twitter users who think it’s a numbers game.

Remember, engagement is key. Respond to the people who are around you. If you want to stand on a podium and start shouting through a megaphone, by all means, do it. Just don’t do it on Twitter if you want a return on your investment. Twitter is a community and you’re a member of the congregation. You need to respect your peers and treat them as they deserve to be treated.

Thanks to social media’s widespread adoption and thanks to a really open API for platforms such as Twitter, it’s inevitable that people will take advantage of the latest and greatest of Twitter tools — and then some — to eliminate the need for manual labor while still charging an arm and a leg for services. Don’t fall victim to this trap, and make sure to evaluate the people you’d be hiring to ensure that they are real people and not set-it-and-forget-it bots. By taking a more automatic route, you’re missing an opportunity to capture the attention of some people who really can matter for your business, so don’t forget to be human too. It’s that easy.

Photos by Shutterstock.

[ No, You Can’t Automate Social Media! is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

This is a guest post by Kwame Boame. Follow him on Twitter.

If you look around the social web a lot like me, you will agree that most social media campaigns suck. Some people think social media is just fun. Some however see it as an opportunity. What do you think about using social media for business? I hope you are still not confused by the whole concept.

If your business is already on the social web, you will need something to help you improve on your campaigns. You will need an audit.

When you audit your social presence, you will be able to make better business decisions when it comes to social media. You will be able to gather enough data from your own campaigns to help you improve your online marketing.

We are going to go through a series of questions that will help you in your audit. The audit has been divided into parts so that it will be easy for you to take notes.

Grab a pen and paper or open your word editor and let’s begin.

Branding

• Are my profiles complete? Make sure all your social media profiles are complete with the most relevant information. Fill out your bio by saying something about what people do with your brand. It’s all about your target audience; not just about you.
• Do I have exclusive profiles for my brand? If you have your brand name as your Twitter handle and a portrait photo of you on your profile, you are getting it all wrong. People want to be able to identify your brand. They don’t want to get to know the CEO. You can introduce yourself another way, another day. Get rid of your photo and put your logo there.
• Do I have custom profile landing pages? Custom landing pages can increase your social media efforts. You may want to create a custom Twitter background, custom Facebook fan page landing tab (with FBML) and custom YouTube channel backgrounds.
• Are my profiles well branded? Don’t give your brand another image by mixing things up. I have seen people mix up colors on their YouTube Channels, Twitter profiles, and Facebook fan pages. For example, they use a green background on Twitter, black background on their YouTube channels and maybe red on their Facebook fan page landing tabs. They completely ignore their brand colors of green and white (or blue or white maybe). A situation like this confuses people and makes it difficult to identify your brand. If your colors are green and white, use those colors all over your social profiles.

(And that was the UK. In 2008.)

Integration Audit

• Am I integrating my social media profiles? Can you please share your Twitter feeds on LinkedIn? (Just not like this.) How about telling your Twitter followers what is up on your Facebook fan page? When you integrate your profiles, you help build the relationships you have already started on each social site. It helps build loyalty, generate conversations, and it also gets you more followers if you do it right.
• Do I have social media integration on my business blog? If you have a business blog, you have to integrate your social media profiles on it. Ask your blog’s readers to follow you on Twitter, subscribe to your YouTube channel, add you on LinkedIn, or “Like” you on Facebook. There are plugins that can help you do that. Also, you should consider sharing your Twitter feeds and Facebook updates on your blog’s sidebar.
• Am I integrating offline marketing with my social profiles? You can promote your social media profiles by integrating offline media. You could have a T-shirt for Twitter, one for Facebook and one for YouTube. Your Twitter T-shirt could have your handle printed on it. For example, I’ll put “I tweet. Follow me @Sociatic” on my Twitter shirt. Make your handle big and bold so people can see it. Think of places you could wear your T-shirts to. You could also add your social media profile URLs on your business cards, in your catalogues, on your flyers, etc.

(Get this shirt style here).

• Am I integrating on other networks? When you write guest posts, do you include that people should check you out on the Twitter or Facebook in your byline? Do you do any guest posting at all? Consider integrating your social profiles on blogs.  Another way you can integrate is using your social profile URLs as your website when leaving comments.

Content Audit

• What types of updates do I share? Do you share other updates relevant to your followers? Do your updates request for conversations? I have seen people share their family holiday plan on their business Twitter profile. That’s not the way to go. Your updates can make or break your business. Be careful what you share.
• How many times do I update in a day? It is not necessary to update 50 times a day. When you have nothing to say, don’t update. When you do, they are not genuine because you had to actually think about something to write when you had nothing to say. When you have something to say though, you can think about how to put deliver it; maybe you will want to add some emotional angles.
• Do I hard sell with my updates? Do you always tell people to “buy now”, “buy before midnight”, “For the first 300 people”, etc? What you should do is to be insightful, insightful, insightful… and then “New price reduction on our favorite product, “X”. Visit http://shorturl.com to take advantage.”
• What feedback do I get from my followers concerning my updates? People are definitely saying something about what your business is saying or doing on the web. What are they saying about it? What do they complain about? What do they praise you for? I hope you still have that pen and paper in your hand.
• Do I have bait? Do you have something you can give out for free? Give it out to the people who take the action you want them to take. Examples of baits are: graphics, eBooks, whitepapers, scripts, website themes, coupon codes, etc.

Measurement Audit

• What part of my social activities do I measure? If you haven’t already, get measurement tools to measure all your social activities. The data will let you know where you are effective and where you suck. Some tools you can use are Social Mention, Trackur, and PostRank. You can also get Google Analytics installed on your Facebook Fan page. Facebook Analytics for domains was recently announced as well.
• Do I have alerts set up to notify me of brand mentions? If you don’t have alerts set up to notify you of conversations involving your brand, do it now. You can use Google Alerts or Social Mention’s alert feature. I prefer Social Mention because they are more thorough than Google.
• What social media site gives me the most traffic? According to your web analytics, what social media site gets you more traffic? Why do you think you keep getting traffic from that site?
• What social media site gives me the most leads? What social media site gives you the most leads? You should track this too. Don’t assume the site that brings you more traffic gives you the most leads. This is wrong. Sometimes the site that gives you less traffic gives you the most leads.

Overall Campaign

• How much time do I put into social media? You need to know the average time you put into social media every week or every month. This is going to help you realize how much time you are utilizing or wasting on social media depending on your results.
• What results am I getting from it? Are you reaping great benefits from your social efforts? Are you getting ROI on your investments on the social web? Don’t give up if the results are not good. Social Media marketing is about building relationships and conversations. Building relationships takes time so you have to give it enough time before you will see good ROI.
• What is working for me? What activities bring you more positive results? What works for you in terms of generating leads? What social media site works for you best? What types of bait brings you more leads? Analyze every part of your social media efforts and write down what’s working.
• What is not working for me? Now list all the things that are not working for you in your campaign. What bait is not working? What social media sites are not working? Write all of them down. No, don’t quit them yet. Make some changes to them and measure it another day. If it still doesn’t work, quit it.
• How effective is my overall campaign? From your results, determine whether your campaign has been successful. After you decide that, decide what’s next for you and your campaign.
• Should I get help? Did you get great results all by yourself? If you did, I bet you will love to do it again. If your campaign wasn’t successful, would you outsource it or rather learn more about social media on your own so that you can do it yourself? Put some thought into it and decide.

Conclusion

Did you finish up all the ink in your pen? Yeah, that’s good. It means you got a lot of ideas from the audit. It will be best to re-plan your social media campaigns. Divide your plans into days. You can make a 30 day plan or 45 day plan to improve your social media campaigns. Your plan should be based on your audit; both the good sides and bad sides.

What other questions will you ask yourself in a social media audit?

Kwame Boame is a marketing consultant who blogs about brand communication on his blog, Sociatic.

First photo by Shutterstock. All other photos are linked to their respective pages on Flickr.

[ How to Audit Your Social Media Efforts: 20+ Questions to Ask Yourself is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

Just last year, I became a mother for the first time. My son just turned one (time flies, doesn’t it?) and after being a full time mom and performing various social media marketing tasks throughout, I’ve learned that there are many parallels that can be taken from parenthood that also apply to social media marketing. Let’s take a look at the similarities.

You Need to Do it All the Time

True social media marketing — that is, connecting with your customers and prospects — is a consistent and regular task. One-off campaigns can help drive viral success, but social media is not a “set it and forget it” type of initiative. You need to consistently work at building relationships and not let them be. And you need to be consistently monitoring the space. Silence can hurt you. If you’re not following the conversation regularly, your customers might just flock to your competitors instead.

Similarly, as much as it might feel compelling to neglect your child to perhaps play in the virtual space or to do anything else for that matter, you can’t take lengthy breaks from your kid. Parenthood is a full time job for either the parent or a caretaker. You can’t just give birth to a baby and forget her either. She needs your attention just like your audience does.

You Don’t Get a Vacation

In the online space, there will always be some sort of mention online that is applicable to you in some way. Maybe it’s on Twitter. Maybe it’s on a forum. Maybe it’s on Tip’d. The Internet never sleeps and neither should your online initiatives. As someone who is required to monitor your brand, there will never be a day when all is quiet. It’s kind of why I don’t really take vacations.

Once you’re a parent, there’s no going turning back. As Tony Hung once told me, you can’t put your kid back where he came from. You don’t exactly get a vacation from your kid. Once you’re a parent, you can’t distance yourself from that role. And if you do go on a real vacation, when you get back from that trip, you’ll need to tend to your child yet again and most likely address issues that arose when you were gone.

It’s Going to Be Difficult at First

When you first give birth to a child, you’re in for a challenge. I must have heard the standard “so, are you getting sleep yet?” question a hundred times. (Thankfully, now I am.) For the first few months, a new parent has to worry about the constant waking and sleeping that interrupts your day, regular feedings (and what to do when the baby doesn’t eat), buying new clothes every 2 weeks, doing laundry 3 times more often than you’re used to, the frequent crying, the regular diaper changes — and that’s just about your child. Think about the dynamics that will change with your work environment (maternity/paternity leave, perhaps) and even with your existing partners or family members. Things are changing and they’re changing permanently.

If this is your first time diving in the social media waters, it’s going to be difficult to make a splash. You’ll be creating that Twitter account for the first time, and you’ll have to grow followers. Your Facebook Fan page will have 0 fans. That’s not really convincing social proof. Then, when you’re joining a community for the first time, you’ll need to study the users and slowly build relationships with them. They won’t be easily trusting — after all, you’re probably there to market — so it may be especially difficult getting people on board with your marketing initiatives.

But as you establish yourself, and as your child grows up, it gets easier. No doubt, it will be hard at first. Just keep on trudging and you’ll start seeing breakthroughs.

The Relationship Grows Stronger Each Day

When you meet your customers and prospects online, you’re usually doing so because of some connection with them. There’s some common ground. That’s only the beginning. As you consistently interact with them, offering value and reason to continue following you, that relationship — and even the brand awareness — grows stronger. This is especially true of other social networks, especially ones where you were originally untrusted. MrBabyMan, Digg’s top user, was an unknown once. Through hard work and dedication, Andy has proven himself and people look up to him. Today, he has an incredibly huge following.

Some mothers give birth and don’t immediately form a bond with their child. Others do. I was one of those parents who was in denial during my pregnancy but fell in love immediately following his birth. Yet, it’s incredible to see how that bond grows stronger each and every day as he begins to understand his surroundings and as I realize how lucky I am.

You Need to Nurture It

A newborn is unable to care for itself. It can’t be fed, it can’t clean up after itself, and it definitely won’t like you if you don’t burp it. A regular daily regimen often entails the caretaker role of feeding the child, changing the diapers, burping the baby, changing the clothes, bathing the baby, teaching the baby new things, taking the baby to the doctor or outdoors, putting him down for a nap — the list goes on and on. It’s hard work. And you, as the parent, are responsible for these tasks.

Many companies that have not embraced social media marketing often do so because of the fear of an uncontrolled message. That’s why social media marketers reassure these companies that they may not be able to change what’s being said (nor may they necessarily like it), but they can nurture the perception that people have of companies (see letter N). Yes, you’ll have to work at it, but you can do it.

Sometimes There Will Be Bumps

Sometimes there will be parts of the job that just aren’t fun. Your child may get sick, he doesn’t like his green beans, he might be very unhappy when he’s teething, or he might have a rough patch and revert to a previous sleeping pattern that isn’t ideal. As a parent, your job is just to stick with it. It’s not the best scenario, but hopefully, it’s only temporary.

Similarly, your social media marketing initiatives might sound great until someone goes out and ruins it for you. Perhaps you’ve prepared really well for what you thought would be a great viral video campaign, only to find out that the audience does not care in the slightest. As a social media marketer, you might be ill-prepared for these unpleasant experiences. Still, though, you trudge through it. It isn’t going to be a walk in the park; everything is a learning experience. Life gets better.

Conclusion

Parenthood for me has been an incredible journey, one that I realize now I appreciate wholeheartedly. On the other hand, I’ve been doing the online thing for more than fifteen years. Sometimes it’s tough and requires more attention of me, but it is also incredibly rewarding. The daily gains are substantial.

None of this is easy, but social media marketing isn’t supposed to be. Neither is parenthood. Working at it, though, is extremely powerful, both for the relationships you build online and the ones you grow offline.

Update 6/8/10: Natalie Bourre posted the toddler version of this post with more great parallels!

Photos (with the exception of the first one) provided by Shutterstock.

[ 6 Things Parenthood Taught Me About Social Media Marketing is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

Social media might be old. It might even be a dead buzzword. That’s why you need to paint a picture that’s more meaningful and encompasses what “social media” as a label really is.

Some of us have been thrust into social media simply because the online landscape showed potential for online conversations. Others have been there for over a decade. Regardless of the many years of experience you have in the online space, the ideas behind social media and social media marketing are applicable to everyone. Let’s take a look at some lessons, takeaways, and tips.

Always be Listening. Social media rocks because it’s one of the most amazing tools for “free” market research. Your investment is merely that of time. Take the time to hear what people are saying about your business. If you’re the frugal type, take advantage of the free alerts from Google, YackTrack, Social Mention, BackType (which gives you alerts from blog/article comments, which other services do not include), and Trackur.

Blogging. Who said that blogging was dead? Perhaps 140 character streams have replaced regular blogging, but I’ve been blogging more than ever lately. Blogging helps you build community (especially via comments), establish thought leadership, bring links to your website (both internally, perhaps to products or to other articles on your blog, and externally, when people like what you say and opt to link to you), and get you some nice traffic. If you can blog, you should. And read these tips on how to become a great blogger.

Customer Service. The letter “C” could be a lot of things, like “content,” “consistency,” and “community,” but customer service is a big part of the evolution of social media. This shift is becoming increasingly more obvious. The role of customer service online is becoming equivalent to social media marketing. If you use the online space to offer customer service, you are essentially marketing yourself. Showing a public interest in your customers and genuinely offering help helps nurture a positive perception of your brand.

Drive Leads through LinkedIn. Lead generation and client acquisition can be had on LinkedIn, especially in the B2B space, just as long as you’re active and engaging. Linkedin lead generation requires commitment to answering and asking questions on Groups/Answers, taking advantage of the deep searches, and connecting directly with those around you in your network. Effective use means more business.

Engagement. It’s not enough to broadcast. “Look at this! Twitter! Let me port my RSS feed to it and be done with it!” Nope, that’s the wrong approach. Engagement requires regular interaction between you and others. These are conversations, not broadcasts. You may not want to do it super frequently, but you should do it everyday. Be responsive. Offer value. Give to your community.

Friendships. Thought I was going to say “Facebook?” Sorry. The best types of social media marketing arise from genuine concern as if your customers are true friends. How many of you have made true friends from merely engaging in this space? Exactly. There’s so much to gain from being networked, and you’ll find that there’s a real reward in finding out that these relationships turn into something much more.

Goals. You shouldn’t jump into social media just because “everyone else is doing it.” There’s a lot of potential, of course, and it looks mighty appealing, but setting goals is advisable as well. You might want to consider the SMART formula for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely goals. Whatever goal methodology you adopt, don’t jump into social media without having something you want to gain from it.

Human Business. Social media marketing is what you might call “human business.” I often use explain it as follows: “social media marketing is all about ‘leveraging’ the social through its media to market to your constituents.” “Leverage” may sound a tad too exploitative, because the idea is to build genuine relationships that put the customers first before promoting your own agenda. As such, it’s important never to lose sight of the “human” in the business. Social media marketing recognizes the fact that this online space allows millions of people to congregate and to communicate with one another, and it’s not much different than sitting in a real room talking to real people. Never lose sight that the online space is a human medium.

Influence. Social media gives you an opportunity to exert influence onto customers and prospects. If you’re active in any particular medium, you become influential. That influence often translates to interest; people want to hear what you have to say. Here are tips on becoming an influential blogger.

Join the Community. It’s not enough just to sit back and relax and hope that people notice you. Joining the community, and more importantly, participating, is crucial. Everyone needs to do work — real work — to reap the benefits of social media marketing. You can’t hope that someone remembers you when you’re not aggressively and actively doing that which makes you remembered. You need to court new customers. You need to keep your current customers happy. By joining various communities, you have the opportunity to meet with prospects and build relationships with current customers.

Kirtsy and Other Niche Social Networks. Did you know there’s a social news website catered to women called Kirtsy? There is. For any interest in the world, there’s an online community for it. You just need to look. Kirtsy is a social news network; there are also forums and even Yahoo! Groups. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with these communities and not to focus merely on the big players. Your target market might be hiding in a niche forum somewhere out there. Start digging and maybe you’ll reap some serious rewards.

Location. People always ask me what the “future” of social media is. I think that where we are will continue to evolve, but we’re seeing that face-to-face connections have a role in social media marketing as well. FourSquare, Gowalla, Loopt, and other location-aware services are social networks, unifying real connections. Beyond that, though, there’s the potential for businesses to run with special promotions, bringing more people to a business location and maybe even cultivating new friendships as well.

Marketing Beyond the Social. This is a blog post intended to address social media strategy, but social media marketing is not a panacea. It alone is not the only marketing solution. There’s display advertising, print/TV ads, SEO, PPC, email marketing, snail mail, etc etc. Focusing solely on social media might be nice, but your marketing reach should be a little more extensive than focusing on Twitter and Facebook. That said, marketing beyond the standard mediums (see letter K) should also be a given. I’m going to bet that 99% of you have not tapped into some the most powerful online communities that can serve you or your own clients.

Nurture Perception. Sure, people don’t want to lose control of the conversation. That’s one of the biggest reasons for companies not to engage in social media at all. They like dictating and broadcasting, and they’re afraid of a two-way conversation and the potential negative impacts of engaging. They’re especially worried when people are already saying negative things about them. That’s where you as a business, one that genuinely cares about building true relationships, can shine. You may not be able to change perceptions overnight, but you can certainly nurture those perceptions and give customers reasons to give you a chance in the future.

Opt-in, not out. Using social media is a privilege, but someone friending you on a social network doesn’t mean they agree to receive unsolicited messaging. This explicitly references the LinkedIn or Facebook connections that give you access to a person’s precious “commodity,” his email address. Just because you have access to it doesn’t mean he wants your newsletter. A relationship is not a newsletter opt-in, and quite frankly, it’s spammy. If I give you my phone number at a dinner party, it’s probably because I want to know about you, but I’m not inviting you to start hounding me with sales calls. Don’t opt someone into communications just because they’re your newest LinkedIn contact. Do it because they want to be a subscriber and explicitly opted in first.

Participation is Marketing. This term was coined by Chris Heuer five years ago and still rings true. The idea is that when businesses participate in social media (and do so because they want to actually be members, not marketers), their sheer presence and activity on the service translates to marketing. What does that mean for you? By engaging, being yourself, being altruistic (and coming bearing gifts, looking to offer value and not to receive), you’ll gain some followers and fans, and maybe even customers.

Queen. That’s what marketing is, according to Gary Vaynerchuk. Content is king, but marketing is the queen, he said. (I even have the shirt.) Content alone is not enough. Blogging is wonderful, but if you’re not going to market those blog posts, you might as well not be blogging at all. With billions of pages of content and yottabytes of data, marketing is how you’ll get people to see what you have to offer to the world.

Reputation Management. If you’ve seen a negative search result for your business name, social media marketing might be able to help. By creating social media profiles, updating content regularly, and actively participating on social media networks, you may be able to successfully push down those negative mentions of your business name.

Simplifying with Tools. One of my favorite things about social media marketing is simply the many tools that make your life so much easier. Tools that especially help consolidate the actions across social networks in one single location are quite helpful. Social media doesn’t have to be a challenge thanks to tools that help you track measurement, assess the reach of campaigns, give you updates when someone talks about you, and more. I’ll go into some tools in future posts (and we’ve seen some great listening tools under the letter A), but it becomes obvious that those of us involved in the social media space are quite fortunate; our jobs are made much easier thanks to so many software applications out there. Of course, never forget that this is human business, and the tools aren’t supposed to replace relationships.

Time. Want to be an “overnight success?” Sorry, that’s not something you can do in social media marketing. Sure, you can have viral campaigns that truly rock, but at the end of the day, it’s all a substantial time investment. I’ve said it before; social media is not a silver bullet. While some campaigns are formulated to broadcast and promote on social channels quickly, true social media marketing relates to building relationships with customers and constituents. That takes time. It won’t happen overnight and you shouldn’t expect it to happen in one month’s time either. If you’re in it to win it, you better be doing it for the long haul.

Understanding Your Community. Three years ago, I wrote that owning your community requires understanding of who they are. People love the prospect of submitting to Digg, for example, and some immediately submit the spammiest articles to the service. I’ve seen press releases, non-English releases, and everything else in between. Before you jump in, you need to actually observe and understand the culture on these services. Learn the rules, the language, and the things that make them tick. You can’t succeed in social media without understanding the community.

Value. Your success as a blogger and promoter really comes from offering value to your audience. It’s not about regurgitating content through twitterfeed, and it’s not about summarizing a post from Mashable without giving additional insights. Value-add comes from injecting your own thoughts, opinions, and feelings. It’s about giving someone else an education and/or leaving them with something to think about.

Word of mouth marketing. Social media is a big part of word of mouth marketing. After all, you’re using social media to talk, but hopefully you’re also working harder to get people to talk about you. People listen to their friends’ recommendations. In fact, are you surprised that Google now takes advantage of this in the form of social search?

Xperiment. Okay, that’s not a word. But experimenting is critical for success. You won’t know until you try. You can always run with some tests, get some feedback, and see if you can run with it full scale. Use the feedback others give you to improve or to go ahead with it. And don’t be afraid if you fail. Just consider that an opportunity to grow and do better the next time around. If you as a newcomer to the space see social media marketing as an experimental pilot program and use any feedback you receive as input for tweaks, you’ll consistently see improvements.

YouTube. YouTube now has 2 billion views per day. It’d be silly to ignore YouTube as a potential medium for marketing your business. It would also be silly to limit distribution of video by preventing them from being embedded onto other websites. That’s how the message spreads. If you’re considering video, do something creative; look for the traits of the most successful videos and do it better. And of course, don’t only focus on YouTube; there are other video syndication sites that you can spread your message to.

Zealous. Let’s put it this way: the most successful social media marketers are both passionate about what they represent and the act of marketing. They don’t shy away from putting their best foot forward — they know that the fact that your favorite search engine does not forget means you need to be on your best behavior always. This doesn’t get to them; they’re still offering service with a smile.

Sure, this only scratches the surface of social media marketing, and there are only 26 takeaways, but hopefully these tips, tricks, and tools will be able to get you thinking. What other social media ideas would you add to the list?

Photos by Shutterstock.

[ Social Media Strategy from A to Z is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

This is a guest post by Beth Hrusch.

Why do businesses need social media? It’s a good question, and one that everyone should ask before they get started. After all, spending time, money, and other precious resources on social media marketing before you have an understanding of what it can do for you is kind of like putting the cart before the horse (not advisable).

What are your goals? Just because you’ve heard that other companies are doing it doesn’t mean that social media will magically work for you. Like any marketing strategy, it takes maintenance and a clear vision of the bigger picture. Your tweets, posts and comments should all be coordinated to meet the ultimate goal, which is to establish trust, build your brand, and increase sales.

Which is why, of course, your business needs a killer social media strategy. In order to tap the potential of this fabulous marketing tool, you’ll want to first determine if social media can meet your goals and objectives. If you’re still figuring out your marketing plan for 2010, consider the following 10 reasons why a social media strategy may be well worth the effort.

It finds your customers

Companies using traditional marketing methods (e.g. surveys, focus groups, test marketing) often spend millions to locate their target markets. Where are the people most likely to buy your products and services? Establishing a social media strategy will help you see where potential customers are hanging out. You can search for related groups and Fan Pages through Facebook, start accounts on social bookmarking sites such as Digg or StumbleUpon, and check on who is linking to your site to find out who’s interested.

It tells you what they like

…and what they don’t like. Social media gives businesses on small budgets the ability to find out what people are saying about them (and others) in their industry, without paying large sums on market research. With your ear to the ground on social media, you’ll be the first to know if your product is working or if changes need to be made. Does your brand need a makeover? You’ll find out here first.

It reveals their interests

Regardless of what people are saying about you, it’s important to know what they’re talking about in general. What motivates them? What are their issues? In every industry, there are existing conversations going on. A social media strategy will allow you to get in on these conversations so that you can offer solutions, push buttons, and get people talking.

It introduces your brand

Is your company new? Or has it been around awhile but hasn’t been using social media? Starting a fan page on Facebook and a business account with Twitter is sort of like moving into a new neighborhood. You can introduce yourself, hold get-togethers and talk about topics of interest. Friends and followers will soon start inviting their friends over to see what’s going on. This is an effective way to make the connections that lead to sales.

It expands your reach

Even an established brand may be missing out on potential customers. Through social media, you can find out what online communities your existing customers belong to. These places can become portals to a larger audience for your products and services. And don’t forget that your customers can spread the word for you to these communities. Interest them with compelling and useful content, contests and giveaways, etc. They’ll soon be telling their friends and colleagues to check you out.

It gives you feedback

A big advantage to using social media is the “give and take” built into it. While large corporations are paying people to give them feedback, you can invite comments and opinions through your blog posts and fan pages for free. Then, channel them into improving your products, your brand image, etc. When you listen and respond to your customers’ opinions, suggestions and even criticisms, they start to feel invested in you.

It provides a test audience

No company wants to throw a new product or concept out there without first testing it out. You can tap into your pool of social media groupies to find those willing to test out your ideas and give you valuable feedback before you launch. Your social media pages offer places where people interested in your ideas are already gathered, so you don’t have to take a “hit or miss” approach to beta testing.

It showcases your company’s personality

Engaging through social media lends itself to more personal contact with customers. You can avoid being a faceless, impersonal storefront by letting people know who you are. Commenting, posting blogs and inviting conversation allow customers to connect with you and your brand. This builds stronger relationships over time.

It makes you accessible

Fans, friends, and followers have direct access to you. Unlike the pre-social media days, when consumers often had to deal with companies that they perceived as unreachable, you can quickly respond to your customers’ problems and frustrations before they balloon into a big mess. Likewise, being able to personally respond to positive feedback strengthens bonds by making people feel that their opinions matter.

It lets you share

Through social media, you can create all kinds of content and post it in one place. Make videos, write articles, and post blogs and podcasts to your pages, where everyone can access them. You can communicate in fun and inventive ways because there are no rules for how to best reach your audience, so you can mix it up and appeal to everyone. Sharing also gets people to share back, and gives you access to resources and links that could become invaluable to you.

There are many things that social media can do for your business. Developing a strategy for using it means that you need to think about what you want to accomplish this year and determine how social media fits into the plan. One of the benefits of a social media strategy is the fact that you can customize the available tools for your particular needs. You can choose to concentrate your efforts on the sites that seem to offer the best return on investment, while taking a “wait and see” stand on the others.

The bottom line is this: your customers are out there having conversations on social media with or without you. You can choose to join in or not. But when you think about the potential that social media marketing offers, it may be well worth your time to at least start exploring the possibilities it offers.

Beth Hrusch is Senior Editor at Interact Media, a business blog writing service that teaches writing tips and best practices.

Photos (except for the Twistori screenshot have been provided by Shutterstock.

[ 10 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Killer Social Media Strategy is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

This is a guest post by Hugo Guzman.

So here’s the scenario:

A potential client reaches out to your agency. They are interested in this new “social media” thing but haven’t actually dipped their proverbial toes in the social waters yet. However, the CEO read an article in Adage, and as a result, he wants to hit social ground running.

They want a blog, an iPhone app, viral videos, a Twitter handle, a Facebook fan page complete with custom applications, blogger and influencer engagement initiatives, an ad.ly account, and a full, multi-channel viral contest supported by both offline and online media assets, to drive awareness and potential consumers to a fully socialized micro site. It’s going to be their big coming out party on the social media front!

And then we take a look at their primary website.

The design and UI looks like it’s circa 1997. The site does not resolve on smart-phone browsers, and if they sell products online, their e-commerce platform has no social functionality (no review functionality, no commenting functionality, etc). In general, there are no visible calls to action to engage with social channels and little if any interactive assets. Also, after signing up for email alerts, it’s clear that consumer emails also fail to call attention to social channels in any meaningful way.

And worst of all, when recommendation is made, suggesting that these shortfalls on the primary site should be corrected first and foremost, it’s quickly brushed aside as too expensive, cumbersome, or simply not exciting enough when compared to the oncoming, external social media blitz.

Granted, this is an extreme example, but it’s based on the cumulative scenarios I’ve faced when dealing with agency clients in recent years, I think that it’s based on some sort of deep-rooted psychological misgiving. Even seasoned marketers somehow convince themselves that “social media” is an external effort that is separate from the existing marketing agenda, and therefore separate from the existing website and communication stream.

So here’s a simple rule of thumb to live by: if you’re going to launch an external social media initiative – even something as simple as an official Twitter handle – make sure it’s properly supported on your primary website and via your email communications.

And the more intricate your external efforts become, the more social, mobile, and interactive your website must become.

Still not sure how to take action on this rule of thumb? Here are three examples of brands that appear to be taking this message to heart:

Fandango.com

Best-known as a portal for buying movie tickets online, the site is actually quite diverse in terms of its content offerings. You can check show times, read mainstream media reviews, watch official trailers, and get data on individual movies as well as the movie industry in general. That’s good stuff, but what makes the website truly great is the inordinate amount of social and mobile integration.

• Calling attention to social profiles? Check.
• Calling attention to mobile apps? Check.
• Fan ratings & reviews? Check.
• Blog? Check

BestBuy.com

Best Buy is one of the largest and most well-known brick-and-mortar outlets for buying consumer electronics and other tech goodies. They have built their empire on a fairly strong track record of customer service and interaction.

Their website, however, takes this consumer interactive to another level.

• User reviews for products? Check.
• “Share to social” capability? Check.
• Social and mobile profile calls to action? Check.

Payless Shoes

Payless is another well-known brick-and-mortar brand that’s best known for their ability to offer quality shoes for a low price. Most people would consider Payless to be an old-school type of brand, and so one might expect that their marketing techniques and website would mirror that old-school mentality.

However, they’re actually quite ahead of curve, particularly in terms of the way they leverage their email communications to facilitate social media interaction.

• Leveraging email communications to encourage social engagement and following? Check.

Now that I’ve shared some concrete examples, let’s take a moment to talk about the benefits of “fixing your house” first, before engaging in social.

Calls to Action Have Benefits

For starters, leveraging your primary site and email communications is by far the easiest way to reach your existing consumer base, since they are the ones that typically spend the most time visiting your site and reading the emails you send them. For large, Fortune 1000 brands, this is typically a very large group, ranging from a few thousand to a few million individuals. And since many of these folks are implicitly showing affinity for your brand (since they are typically paying customers) they are usually the most likely to follow you on Twitter, “like” you on Facebook, leave product reviews, download your iPhone app or comment on your corporate blog. They are also the most likely to pass the word along to their circle of friends, family, and acquaintances (a prerequisite to “going viral” within social channels).

However, if your website and email messages don’t call attention to these features you’ve lost out on the opportunity to reach these folks and make these things happen. And since the cost of adding calls to action on a website and/or sending email messages is relatively low (email sends are arguably the least expensive weapons in your marketing arsenal), failing to do so is an almost unforgivable sin for any enterprising social marketer.

Perception of the Brand Benefits

A second key reason to “fix your house” in terms of social functionality has to do with the way consumers perceive brands based on their experience with the brand’s primary website. Roy DeYoung, a well-respected colleague and the VP of Creative Services at my interactive agency, often talks about the disconnect that occurs between the experience a consumer has with a brand in “real life” (i.e. using their product, visiting their storefront, engaging with their service offering, etc.) and the online version of that same brand, and about how the website is often the one and only touchpoint a potential customer will ever have with a particular brand, essentially serving as the sales agent that will help the customer decide whether to further engage with the brand or look elsewhere.

So for example, one of our clients, a very high-end spa brand, had a site experience that completely failed to communicate the truly sublime experience that one has when actually visiting one of the brick-and-mortar spas. That resulted in a lot of potential customers leaving the site and never getting around to taking a tour of the spa facilities. This is an example of how look, feel, and user interface can impact a consumer’s perception of a brand, but I would argue (as would my colleague) that social media functionality has an equally influential impact on a consumer’s perception.

Not having social and mobile functionality baked into the core of a primary website sends a subtle queue about the nature of the brand and its products or services. It says, “we are not hip, we’re still living in the old days.” Now some might argue that this is a good message to send to certain demographics, but the truth is that even the more old-fashioned consumer segments are becoming socially aware, so failing to offer that functionality could lead to a form of cognitive dissonance that can make consumers weary of your brand and what it has to offer in the “real” world.

Search Engine Optimization Benefits

A third, more subtle, reason to “fix your house” is the impact that social functionality can have on search engine optimization. While not all social functionality will make noticeable impact on your SEO efforts, certain ones like blogging can literally become the centerpiece of a successful SEO strategy. Moreover, if you follow the latest search engine algorithm trends, you know that Google and others are apparently beginning to factor any and all social mentions into their ranking methodologies, and it’s likely that these social signals will become even more influential over time. And as more and more users begin to use their mobile devices as their primary tools for performing searches, implementing mobile user interfaces for a primary website becomes crucial. After all, what’s the point of ranking well in Google if the user that finds you in the search results can’t fully engage with your site from his/her smart phone?

So if you’re guilty of neglecting your primary website and email messaging in favor of sexier, external initiatives, you now know what you have to do to rectify the situation. And if your agency was responsible for guiding you in this misguided direction, it might be time to re-evaluate and find a new, more capable provider.

Hugo Guzman is the Vice President of Social Media & SEO at Zeta Interactive, a full-service interactive agency based in New York City. He can be found blogging regularly at www.hugoguzman.com and tweeting @hugoguzman.

Non-screenshot photos were provided by Shutterstock.

[ Why You Should Fix Your House Before Inviting People Over is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

As much as Facebook may not be kind to businesses, it’s still a tremendously valuable business tool. After all, Facebook could eat the web. In fact, you’re likely spotting the shift; instead of companies posting their URLs on television commercials, they’re asking their followers to join them on Facebook. Therefore, it’s a force to be reckoned with. Let’s just take a look at the potential of Facebook for business for a moment here and review the various options business owners have in order to be effective with Facebook business marketing.

Profile Page versus Fan Page

The average Facebook user uses Facebook not for business but for personal communications. I am one of those users. In fact, I explain my Facebook usage by stating that if you want to follow me in a professional capacity, you can use one of my two fan pages. Simply stated, for a business, you should create a Fan Page. Want one? Go here. If you are officially representing your company, you’d want to create an Official Page.

Don’t use a Facebook Group. They are outdated (from Facebook’s early days) and do not support Facebook Markup Language (FBML) or Facebook Apps, so they are not as interactive and thus do not make as strong of an impact. Additionally, don’t create a personal account (a regular Facebook profile page) for your business. You’re supposed to use your real name and you’re also only supposed to have one account. Your Facebook Page should be created under your primary Facebook login. If you elect not to have one, you can still create a Facebook page by following the steps after you fill out the relevant data for your business Facebook Page.

Identification

For your page, consider using a title that’s memorable here because you won’t be able to change it later. It’s preferable to reflect your business and use a business name, not a funny character or other business persona that nobody can relate to. People will be looking for your business on Facebook, so make it easy for them to find you.

Once you get 25 fans, you can set up a username which makes accessing your profile a lot easier. Make sure you apply the username to your Facebook Page, not your personal profile, and be sure to use something memorable that people can find by plugging in the URL. I have a hard time believing that Facebook will address errors like these without an intellectual property complaint.

Customizing Your Profile Page

Great! Now that you have opted to create a Fan Page, you need to customize it. Simply stated, you can upload a profile picture (200 by 600 pixels maximum, though there are some reports that 180 by 540 pixels might work instead) and start filling out the relevant details about your business. Tell people how to find you and give them a history. They’re there because they want to learn! Depending on what type of page you are creating (for a business, publication, celebrity, etc.) the text fields differ, but utilize what’s available to you to your advantage. Don’t shy away from giving your community the information needed to find you elsewhere both online and offline.

If you want to be more creative, start thinking about building upon your profile with the aforementioned Facebook Markup Language (FBML). Here’s how to create a memorable Facebook Fan Page via FBML. In short, you’ll need to install the Static FBML app, add a custom tab, and learn the language, which is very similar to HTML, to create content that is appealing to your customers and prospects. Need some inspiration? Check out the screenshots for some current implementations below.

Reese’s uses its Facebook page to welcome users and compels them to join. It also reminds you that Facebook is one of their social destinations on the web, but that you might be interested in their YouTube page. (Their YouTube page, ironically, only features a playlist of videos that they love but does not show any videos made by themselves, such as the process of making a Peanut Butter Cup. Wouldn’t you love to see how they’re made? I know I would.)

Promotional products company rushIMPRINT features on its Facebook page a tab of products for sale. These tabs take the visitor back to their website where they can complete the purchase. This method is smart because it helps build interest on another platform and drives conversions directly on their home base. (Disclosure: I helped plant the social media seeds for rushIMPRINT.)

Offer Deals

Lisa Barone calls this specialized content, and that’s exactly how you should see it. Give people a reason for telling the entire world that they like you.

The big question of return on investment comes up often. How do I know if there’s ROI in Facebook? One way is to see is by giving exclusive deals to Facebook fans. You can elect to do this one of two ways. You can offer deals exclusively to Facebook followers only. Don’t cross promote to Twitter (offer a different incentive on Twitter). Don’t post it on your blog. Don’t share it on your email newsletter. This is a good way of checking specifically if your Facebook efforts are working when you see that the Facebook coupon codes have been redeemed.

On the other hand, you can also share the same discount code across all social platforms. What if you want to offer 10% off? Share the 10OFF discount code for everyone, for example. Let it be posted on every social platform of choice and then watch as it seeds through other communities (which is likely to happen and shows that your marketing is viral).

Of course, you can also just use a Facebook application for that.

Buy something, get something. That’s how Baskin Robbins is doing it besides making an interactive page that visitors might be interested in exploring further.

People interact with brands online because they want deals. Try to offer some every so often.

And while you may not be able to easily run contests within its rules, you have some flexibility with the Wildfire App platform, so consider that as well if you’d like to offer incentives of some kind.

Encourage Community Interaction

In the simplest form, have a Facebook wall and ask your fans questions or share cool company or even personal insights with them. Give them a reason to want to communicate. Better yet, to show that the page is active, give the users control by letting their Fan posts show up on the front page. (Not all companies will be comfortable with this option as it will require frequent moderation.)

Instead of using your updates as the default view, let your fans take over. In the screenshot above, control is shifted to everyone and empowers your community members. As a result, engagement goes up as the page appears very active.

There’s a cost to this, though. The page should appear active but it should also appear like you’re not neglecting your community. Therefore, beyond letting them have control, grab the mic regularly (a few times per week and daily if possible) and engage your community.

The more you engage your community, which could be as simple as asking your followers how they are going to be spending Mother’s Day or sharing a link of interest to your followers, the more visible your page is to your Fan’s friends. After all, every interaction shows up on the Fan’s news feed. And that translates to more visits, which you’ll start seeing when you receive a weekly email from Facebook entitled “Your Weekly Facebook Page Update” that features fun statistics like these:

+41 Fans this week (3,284 total Fans)
31 Wall Posts, Comments, and Likes this week (68 last week)
1,477 visits to your page this week(1,869 visits last week)

You might also be interested in learning more about EdgeRank, Facebook’s own algorithm to determine visibility on a user’s home page. This algorithm takes hold from three main components: (1) the affinity score between two users: how often do they interact?, (2) the type of interaction (is it a like? a comment?, etc.), and (3) the length of time since the action was done. Based on this information, fresh content with actively engaged brand adopters are is key. Give them a reason to be actively engaged. This is basic News Feed Optimization.

Engagement is not limited to wall posts. Post photos of your service and product offerings and invite your fans to do the same. A tremendously wonderful execution of this is on Graco’s photos tab. You’ll learn about their products but you’ll also see a plethora of user-submitted images — complete with cute babies.

And that’s not the only thing you can do to encourage online interaction. Why not solicit reviews from your community to see what they think about you? If you offer great value and have firm believers amongst your midst, you have nothing to fear. Online retailer Newegg isn’t afraid and proudly displays its Facebook reviews for all to see.

Another great way to do this is to host polls where you can get customer feedback. That’s how Ben & Jerry’s is doing it.

Of course, there’s also the potential to encourage community interaction within Facebook using the Facebook page as that home base. The EA Mobile Human Tetris project takes you to a Facebook application where everyone participates in a game of Tetris.

Such games require expertise of a Facebook Application developer but could have lots of potential as long as your Facebook Apps resonate with your audience and compel users to install them.

Aggregate Your Other Social Streams

If you’re only on Facebook, this step isn’t for you. Hopefully, though, you’re considering other social networks to broaden your social media reach. If so, you should show your Facebook fans what you’re up to elsewhere! Hootsuite, for example, has multiple tabs that highlight their social involvement elsewhere on the web.

There are takeaways from this. Offer different content to your different audiences. Don’t just broadcast the same messages to your Twitter and Facebook followers.

Be Creative

Facebook confines you to its site and its feature set, but clearly we can see that they do have a pretty rich feature offering. You can do many things to market your business, add value, and empower your customers. It might be a good opportunity to build upon that to further your mark in the online space.

You’ll find that as your page grows, you’ll likely be tasked with handling customer service issues. People don’t care who is running the social media presence online; if it’s the marketing department, they’ll still demand technical support. Help them where you can or redirect them to the phone number, email address, or contact link that gives them direct contact with your support representatives. Be on your best behavior — after all, good customer service is good social media marketing.

Growth can be a good thing. You may find opportunities to host real life events, be them at conferences or whatever else. This is especially true of businesses who have a brick and mortar location and even better for businesses. Why not invite your Facebook fans to a special event at your venue? Let them connect with each other and build bonds.

There are a lot of different opportunities here, and with such a tremendous penetration, it’s silly to ignore Facebook altogether.

Your Facebook page might be a great opportunity to market your business, but it’s earned media, so keep in mind that it’s a community too. Give your Fans a reason to want to come back.

Evaluate Your Needs and Tread Carefully

Ask yourself what you want to use Facebook for. Is it to communicate with friends and family or is it to drive prospects? Are you joining Facebook’s social network with the intention of spamming your friends with marketing messaging? If so, don’t. Brent Csutoras ruffled my feathers when he said that he doesn’t use Facebook for marketing and “maybe that is why I still have so many friends.” The truth of the matter is that to an extent, he’s right. Of over 1500 friends that I have, I’m constantly being pitched to join groups I have no interest in. What I didn’t like about Brent’s statement is that most savvy marketers do understand the fragile nature of online (and even offline) relationships and that smart ones do not abuse those relationships at all.

If you’re a business, ask your customers to follow you — don’t force it out of those people you are already connected with for other reasons.

Facebook is One Piece of the Pie

With more than 400 million members, if you want to go where your customers are, you’ll probably find most of them on Facebook. That said, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. You should still consider your blog or website as a viable way to build community and/or to drive sales and conversions. If nothing else, that’s the official channel to communicate your business objectives, and you have total control over the process there without risks or usability concerns.

Use Facebook, but use it wisely. It should be considered a subset of your overall online marketing efforts.

What other tips would you add to this list? Share your thoughts in the comments.

[ How to Use Facebook for Business and Marketing is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.