Feb 23
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How to Seduce Others into Social Media

By Social Media

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we’ve been successful at moving the social media needle in business.

It’s what Jay Baer and Amber Naslund call The Now Revolution, that tipping point at which business realized that this social phenomenon that has over taken the Internet is not going away; that it affects business, for good or for bad and ignoring it is a not only a bad business practice, but can cause your business to fail.

While I’m trying to figure out how to afford to buy a copy of Jay and Amber’s brilliant book for all my clients, I asked my readers to share some of the ways they’ve been able to create excitement around social strategy. Some of the best answers are here:

20% of New Patient Base Comes from Social Media

I’ve shared with my colleagues that as a working mom with a little one, launching a biz in a down economy in a new location…all I could manage WAS growing my biz through social media and connecting online.

I’ve had at least 20% of my new patient base come in as referrals from social media, not to mention thousands of dollars of free media exposure on the news, magazines (including a national publication), newspapers, and numerous websites….all from consistently and sincerely getting engaged in social media.

It’s cost me time and sweat equity, but the pay-off has been tremendous. Seriously…who can’t afford to get involved today? — Dr. Dolly Garnecki, Spinal Health and Wellness, http://www.scoliosisdoc.com/

Show, Don’t Tell

When we had our first meeting to discuss the fact that we really needed to be engaging with our customers via social media I really didn’t need to actually SAY much at all. I just pulled up the very active Facebook pages of our top competitors in each of our geographic areas… they were there, they were active, and it was CLEAR they were talking to OUR customers! Point made!  – Andrea Heapes, High Peak Sportswear, http://www.hipeak.com/

Networking on Steriods

In 18 months on Twitter and Facebook I’ve met, connected with, and become friends with far more people here, than I had in the previous 10 years living here without it. Social media is networking on steroids. Trying to go without it is like leading a sedentary life and expecting to remain fit. — Steve Gaines, Monticello Media http://twitter.com/SteveGaines62

These are great stories to share with clients, businesses and organizations still dragging their feet into “now.”

If your business is already engaged in social media, what was the tipping point that made you begin?

Feb 21
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The 4 Must-Do Items for Social Media Startup

By Social Media

A friend of mine (and former colleague) is a public relations consultant in another market. She, like many of us in PR, is being asked for good counsel in social media for her PR client. She sent a note, asking me for quick basics to share with the client, and to give her a framework for what the client should be doing with social media.

Here are the four absolute musts for her client to be doing with social media, and the structure with which she should be building a plan to address her client’s needs:

  1. Listening — they should be reading local bloggers and have RSS feeds set up/alerts to tell them when people are posting online, looking for key words and phrases that indicate people searching for their services — you can use Ice Rocket, Social Mention and Google Alerts to create feeds for good monitoring of the social web.
  2. Connecting — whomever represents the company online needs to expand their social network as wide and deep as possible. That means ALL contacts uploaded to LinkedIn, a new list on Facebook for business connections, with all contacts uploaded there, a Facebook page for the business and exploring Tweepz to figure out who to follow in the community.
  3. Engaging — this is what takes a lot of effort; replying to others, responding to those you’re following, in short, interaction!
  4. Publishing — sharing the stories of the customers, the company, the vendors, etc. and news releases as well (and republishing content published by others, e.g., sharing links to news clips about the business.)

This is probably the quickest, simplest answer I can give for getting started with social media.

Feb 18
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Social Media Assignment #7: Find Your LinkedIn Contacts on Twitter

By Communications

If you’ve been following the social media assignments, congratulations! You’ve made a lot of progress if you’ve knocked off each of these simple tasks.

This assignment makes a couple of assumptions. If you’re reading this blog, you most likely have a LinkedIn account and, I’m assuming that your LinkedIn profile is complete and that you have all of your contacts entered in to your business social network.  The second assumption is that you have an established Twitter account. If not, you might want to backtrack and hit this social media assignment.

Today’s Social Media Assignment

You may be making an assumption of your own; you might think that your contacts in LinkedIn aren’t using Twitter. Depending on your network, your community, your profession and a number of other factors, a higher percentage than you think may be there. (Statistics estimate between 11% and 20% of Internet users are frequent Twitter users. ) The point is, if your business contacts are on LinkedIn, and you are on Twitter, you want to follow your business contacts on Twitter.

First, you will need to log in to LinkedIn and install the Tweets Application. You will be able to access the application by clicking on More in the top navigation menu.

The applications functions to integrate your Twitter account with your LinkedIn profile. I don’t recommend using Twitter solely through your LinkedIn account, however, it is useful to find and follow your connections.

As you can see from the screenshot above, I am following 1,076 people on Twitter. Let’s look at how many of those are my LinkedIn contacts and if I’m missing following any of them on Twitter.

There are not, in fact, many people I’m not following from the list of my business contacts using Twitter. This tool lets me review who they are and quickly and easily follow those I’m missing.

Feb 17
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The Independent Author and Social Media: A Marriage of Necessity

By Social Media
Editor’s note: I’m out gallivanting (actually, several speaking gigs and new clients to serve this week), so my friend and social media-savvy author, William Esmont has provided us with a guest post. Enjoy!

With the introduction of the Kindle platform, Amazon made it possible for independent authors and publishers to make their work available to the world with a click of the mouse.

Independent authors rejoiced. Then they set about the business of learning how to sell on the web, and in the process, discovered it’s a lot harder than it looks.

Following are some strategies I learned during my first year as an independent author. In isolation, they are interesting diversions. When combined however, they become a powerful machine capable of drawing global attention to your work and building a loyal fan base of repeat customers.

1. Independent author message boards

Web sites like kindleboards, nookboards, and mobileread are excellent places to meet other authors and hone your craft.

2. Twitter

Create an account dedicated to your writing identity and tweet about your experiences. All of them. Learn hash tags and use them to your advantage.

3. Goodreads

Goodreads is like Facebook for book aficionados. This is where hardcore readers congregate.

4. Book Bloggers

A good review from the right blogger can send your sales into the stratosphere. All they ask in return is a review copy.

5. Facebook

Create a Facebook page for your author activities and post in writing-related groups using the new ‘post as page’ functionality.

6. Personal Blog

This is your public face. Link it with Twitter and your blog posts are distributed to the world automatically.

And last, but not least, buy business cards. You never know when the person sitting next to you in Starbucks is a potential customer.

William Esmont lives and writes in Tucson, Arizona. You can learn more about him and his books at www.williamesmont.com.

Feb 14
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Giving Away The Now Revolution: The Social Media Seduction Contest

By Social Media

My friends Jay Baer and Amber Naslund have published a new book about the social web and how it has changed how we do business.

The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter & More Social

I’ve been excited about this book for a long time, since the first time Jay shared that it was in progress and the teaser previews he would “let slip” along the way. Jay’s excitement is always infectious.

I’m also excited because Jay and Amber happen to be two of the smartest social media strategists in the business. I learn from them all the time and enjoy their writing styles and personalities. I haven’t quite finished my copy of the book, but so far, I’m sold and I think you will be as well.

Oh yeah — and did you know that Jay and Amber met via Twitter?

I am lucky enough to be one of the 75 winners who were given a free copy of the book and a second copy to award to a reader.

That’s where you come in. I’m hosting a contest to provide that second copy to one of you, but you’re going to have to work for it.

Seduction Junction, What’s Your Function?

I’ve told you the story before, how Shel Israel once told me that to get people engaged in social media, you have to seduce them into it. (Since today is Valentine’s Day, it somehow seems appropriate to throw around the idea of seduction.)

Tell me, in the comments, what YOU have said, done or shown to other people in your office, clients or colleagues to get them excited about using social media for business. I will narrow down to the top three answers and then let you vote for the top response. All of the comments need to be on this blog to be eligible to win (if you learn about this contest on Facebook or via Twitter, your responses there will NOT count as contest entries.)

The deadline for this contest will be midnight (Eastern, USA), this Friday, Feb. 18, 2011.

I’ll narrow down the best comments over the weekend then host the poll to pick the favorite on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

GOOD LUCK!

CONTEST UPDATE: Comments have been closed. Winner will be announced Feb. 22.

WE HAVE A WINNER: CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. DOLLY GARNECKI!

Help choose the winner of The NOW Revolution  — enter the poll to choose your favorite comment below.