Twitter has become one of the most widely used tools for social networking and, increasingly, for business. Users of the Macintosh OS will find that they have a new feature that they may find very useful if they rely upon the service a great deal. Twitter, through this feature, allows you to send an update to all of your followers from anywhere without having to log into the service itself. It works as a simple alt menu function.

The Function

Using this service, you can send a tweet from anywhere within the OS environment. For example, if you happen to be working on the Safari browser and find something interesting that you would like to tweet to your followers, you can simply highlight it, click on it and select the option to tweet. This can vastly cut down on the amount of time it takes to send information to your followers and encourages more use of the system.

This functionality will be expanded so that it can be used on any Apple device. This means that users of these systems will be able to very easily send whatever information they want to their followers and makes it much easier for them to share information on the fly. Of course, if you happen to be a business user, you can easily send anything you want to the people that follow your business when you are offering a special deal on goods or services or when you just want to make sure that your business is in their minds.

Other Features

Twitter also introduced a follow button that allows users to instantly sign up to be a follower of a webpage. If you happen to be a business user, this is a very easy way for you to encourage your visitors to follow you without requiring them to take the extra step of finding and following your profile on Twitter. These buttons are added in the same way that any other social networking icons added to your site and make it very easy to expand the possibilities for communication with the people with whom you do business.

Twitter has also introduced an application for mobile browsers that makes it easier to use the service on the go. Much like other applications, it reformats the service in a way that is much easier to read on the smaller screens of mobile devices and which doesn’t require users to try to click tiny links on a small screen.

With all of these new features, the Twitter service is enabling users to employ it in more flexible ways and to ensure that they get the most out of the service if they’re using it for business. Adding the social networking icons styled button to your website is a great way to pick up new followers and using the mobile application is an excellent way to keep in touch with them when you are on the go and when you want to send them a quick tweet to keep them apprised of new offerings.

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Let’s face it. Facebook has become a vital part of our everyday lives no matter how much we try to quit ourselves of the habit. It has brought the world together within a social system the likes of which can easily dwarf even a small nation! This was all the incentive the corporate world needed to take full advantage of this pseudo global village though.

Create a PROFESSIONAL Profile

First thing’s first-you have to create a profile that defines everything that is uniquely YOU. This includes entering your PROPER name, email address, fax number, postal code and cell number (if you want to) so that interested users can know who to contact. Try not to apply a nickname if you can help it. Few people have the patience and humor to tolerate funny guys when it comes to spending their hard earned money.

Build a Network

Facebook is all about networking after all. Your job is to add friends and relatives so that your own grows substantially. Why? That’s because your Facebook marketing success depends on how big your social network is and how well you are able to maintain it. The next step will be to start some events on your account and post it on your news feed. If they’re successful enough you can get more friend requests than you know what to do with!

Another good way to do that is to post every update you make in your marketing website as well as the links to any affiliate products. Try not to post advertisements on your Facebook page. Remember, this is a social gathering, not a pure marketing tactic. This will aid you in gaining your customer’s trust in a more amicable environment which can make them comfortable enough to give your business a try.

Connect With Like-Minded Individuals

Another good way to gain popularity is to connect with users that share your interests. This will definitely help you get the referrals you need to make yourself known to others in their own networks. People will be more willing to communicate if they know that you have their best interests at heart after all.

Use the Facebook Advertising Program

This is a pay per click program where you can invest your money in advertising your products/services effectively. However, the only drawback is the strict policies this social networking site pushes regarding the content you decide to put up on their site. Typically affiliate programs are not allowed to be put up in their advertising program so you may have very limited options. To avoid being ousted from the site, make sure that you go through the terms of service and policies regarding their advertising models.

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Building a business on any type of social media service takes a light touch and an experienced mindset. Unfortunately not everyone can boast having both of these attributes. If a small time businessman includes himself/herself in the equation than that usually turns out to be a recipe for disaster. No one can think of managing a social media business presence without the aid of relevant management skills. You can opt to hire a social media manager to do the job for you which helps lesson the learning curve and saves you tons of hours.

One thing you must understand is that hiring a social media manager is not the be all and end all of online business management. You can’t just pay one off, sit back and dream of the oodles of cash just waiting to be tipped into your bank account. Before even thinking of hiring one, it’s always best to learn the ropes of social media management yourself. So, how should you go about it?

Get to know the lay of the land

The first thing you must do is to map out the online terrain and get to know the lay of the land. In layman’s terms that means you have to familiarize yourself with the best social networking and bookmarking sites and direct a large portion of your activities there.

Choose your tools wisely

Keep tabs on your most frequently visited sites and choose the most suitable tools to make your social management easier to manage. You can do that by regularly posting your progress online. Take Twitter for instance. If you have an account on that social media network along with a large following you can automate your tweeting with tools which will aid you in updating regularly.

Strategy is Key

Every website needs regular maintenance to keep it afloat. The same applies to business sites which need more than usual tune ups. The key to doing this is through website traffic analyzers like Google analytics which will provide you with detailed reports regarding where your traffic is coming from as well as the most used or popular keyword searches to your site.

The geographical diversity and density of your users can also be found out through the use of these analyzers making. This continuous update will allow you to strategize your business website accordingly.

Importance of Market potential

Be sure to check out the popularity of any good websites and blogs. When you find them try and have your advertisement campaign displayed on it especially if it is related to your products or services.

Don’t be the Needle in the virtual Haystack

The World Wide Web has been perceived as a potential business venture by billions of users around the world. Making your presence known in this dense corporate jungle can prove to be the key to many successful business ventures world wide. It’s therefore essential that you make yourself as visible as you can amidst the immense cluster of other business websites.  You can do that by ensuring that you get listed in the top search results to help your enterprise.

LinkedIn is a social networking site that is meant for businesses.  This professional networking giant
was founded in December 2002 and was officially launched for public use in May 2003.  LinkedIn is open for worldwide use and as of August 2010 LinkedIn reported over seventy five million users. This site is multilingual which enhances its international appeal.  The site caters to English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and French speaking users.

LinkedIn is comparable to the other social marketing networks in that you make connections to other people.  These connections may be classmates, coworkers, colleagues or other friends in business.  This is a great place for not only larger corporations but also smaller businesses as well as self employed individuals and freelance workers.

Let’s face it, the employment market has become pretty brutal in the recent years and many job-seekers have lamented that they wished that they knew somebody that knew that certain somebody that could help them get a job.  LinkedIn makes that possible.  It is a great resource for both the job seeker and the employer.

For the job seeker, there are several companies that advertise openings right on the network.  You are able to follow companies that you are interested in working for.  This allows you can do some research on the company, read reviews and feedback about the company, and follow that company’s growth, including employment opportunities.  So as a job seeker, make sure that your profile is accurate and free of any errors.  This may be your first introduction to your perspective employer.

For employers LinkedIn provides a place to find new employees.  You can view the previous employment of prospects and you can also see some feedback and recommendations of people who are interested in your company.  Social media tells a lot about a person and you can learn how technically savvy they are and what level of netiquette they practice.  Employing those that are tech savvy is very important to today’s businesses.

LinkedIn also allows you to connect with former classmates and colleagues and see where they are in business.  You never know when you might have a friend in a business that you need.  You may need a lawyer and of course a lawyer needs clients.  This is an incredible networking tool.  It’s definitely better than rummaging through thousands of business cards or having your business card end up at the bottom of someone’s pile.

photo credit: mkorcuska

Being a social media manager isn’t just like any other job. They deal with different types of people on different kinds of issues about their social networking promotions. This job requires dedication, patience, and passion. So they need to be more thoughtful and empathetic to people’s concerns, and a social media manager needs to be able to sharing with their clients their own knowledge and strategies in order to give excellent service to them. So to elaborate on this, here are some of the qualities that a social media manager should possess:

Empathy – An empathetic social media manager is able to put himself/herself into his/her clients’ shoes. There is no better way in understanding the concerns of the clients than by being thoughtful or feeling what they feel. An Indian proverb says, “Walk a mile in somebody else’s moccasins.” A social media manager who put’s the customer’s feelings first can provide them the best knowledge and advice he /she can give.

Of course you need to be familiar with the company’s information so you can share details about the services and products they offer.  In addition a social media manager may need to assist and resolve issues that may come up from clients or prospects. But your main strength in being a social media manager is having the ability to look at things in another individual’s perspective. A great social media manger has excellent customer service skills.

Loves People – A social media manager should love people first and foremost. If you are not good in communicating and interacting with people, then you will not be able to satisfy the clients’ wants and needs. You need to have an outgoing personality so you can easily persuade them into trusting your tips and advice.

Knowledgeable in Online Marketing – A social media manager has to be knowledgeable in all many forms of online marketing. You will encounter different issues not just with Facebook and twitter accounts, but also other related concerns such as email marketing, spam, and increasing traffic for their blogs.

Delivering the Strategy -A good social media manager knows a business’s social media objectives so they can help create a win for their clients. The manager needs to be able to express, deliver and communicate the techniques to his/her clients.

Being an Adviser and not a Saviour – There are some social media consultants who have too much pride in what they do. They often end up being disliked by some clients due to their superiority. Some engage in arguments especially with their Twitter followers they are often missing the real picture on what they are there for. Being able to consider himself/herself as an excellent adviser and not a savior can make customers feel that their issues are more important than a social media manager’s personal opinion. Giving credits to colleagues for successes and admitting mistakes for failures can really make an excellent social media manager.

Practices What He/She Preaches - Applying what a social media manager is teaching can build confidence to clients into trusting your advice. A successful website of a social media manager, for instance, can make clients realize their dedication on their job. Also, by having your successful social media accounts and blogs or sites accessible to them can inspire them to get going with the solutions that you have shared.

What other qualities do you think a Social Media Manager should have? Share your comments below.

Warm Regards,

Karriann

About Karriann

Karriann Graf is a Social Media Manager/Strategist for small businesses and real estate professionals. Her focus is to help you learn about the best Social Media methods to connect with your clients and customers and increase your revenue.

Setting goals for your Twitter journey is like getting ready for a trip. In order for your trip to be a success you have to plan in advance. You have to decide where you’re going to go and how you’re going to get there, before you leave. Likewise, with Twitter, you need to sit down and set a few goals and determine how you’re going to achieve them before you start the journey. Here are just a few goals that you may want to achieve:

•    Connecting with your customers
•    Networking with people in your Niche and becoming the Expert
•    Driving traffic to your blog/website

Before we go further, let’s take a minute to look at that last goal: Driving traffic to your blog/website.

This should not be your primary goal on Twitter. Driving traffic maybe great for SEO, but it’s not for a social networking site such as Twitter. You’re primary goals should be networking, connecting and providing great value. If you are successful with the first two goals then the traffic will follow.

Now, let’s take a look at these goals more in depth:

1.    Connecting with Customers

Think back to when you first started your small business you did a ton of market research. This research was done to assist you in determining your target market. At this point, you should know who your target market is, what their needs are related to what you offer and how you can meet those needs.

For example, if you are a business coach, your research may indicate that currently small businesses are struggling and maybe you have a solution to their problem.

When you’re on Twitter, you want to search for people that own a small business who are struggling. Once you find them, you’ll want to offer advice that might help with their situation or maybe even make recommendations. Notice, I didn’t say “send them a link to your website” provide value to them first.

Twitter is not the place for a hard sell. Once your potential customer sees that you care about their problem, their going to want to know who you are and what you can do for them.

2.    Networking with Industry Leaders and Become the Expert

Twitter is a unique place where you can follow, and be followed by, people who are leaders in your industry around the globe. You can keep up with what they’re tweeting about and interact with them. For example, if you own your own business and you just awarded one of your employees for being the Employee of the Month. You can publicly congratulate her by using @herTwitterName in your tweet. She’ll see this and you get noticed too.

If you offer advice, sharing great content and discuss current issues within your industry, you will soon be seen as someone who is an expert in your Niche. In some cases, this may lead potential clients to hire you over others without the social proof, or it may lead to your colleagues outsourcing work to you. In some situations, this could lead to you getting hired as a subcontractor for a project, because of your Twitter connection.

3.    Driving Traffic to Your Website

Now, as I mentioned before, this should not be your primary goal for using Twitter. If you tweet nothing but links to your website you will appear as a spammer. So, put this goal in the backseat and focus your efforts on your first two goals, as we discussed above. Once you’ve taken care of those two goals and are consistently providing value to your customers and colleagues, the traffic will take care of itself.  Just be conversational have fun and people will automatically gravitate towards you.

Now that you have your road map and you know where you’re going. Getting there will be much easier, more fun and cost effective. What other ideas do you have leave them in the comments area below.

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About Karriann

Karriann Graf is a Social Media Manager/Strategist for small businesses and real estate professionals. Her focus is to help you learn about the best Social Media methods to connect with your clients and customers and increase your revenue.

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In the last lesson, I talked about why it’s important for a small business entity to establish some sort of socialization strategy online. Now I’m going to provide you with ten tips that can help you brand your company name, increase sales and build a loyal fan base.

1.) Find out what people most want to know.

Consumers go online to ask questions about products and services. Check out Yahoo answers, forums, and other Q&A hot spots to spy on your target audience and see what concerns or questions they have so that you can provide the answers.

2.) Blog frequently using strategic keyword text for maximum “find-ability.”

Use a keyword tool to download a list of phrases your prospects are using to find products or services in your niche. Use these in your blog titles, web content, and elsewhere to ensure that when they type the phrase into Google or Bing, your site or blog has an increased chance of coming up as one of the top 10 results. Blogging frequently helps Googlebots identify you as an authority figure, and it makes customers want to check back frequently to make sure they don’t miss anything.

3.) Tweet throughout the day – and reply to your followers.

It only takes a few seconds to put together 140 characters and hit the Tweet button and it allows you to generate new interest in your business to millions of potential customers each time you do it.

4.) Initiate and participate in discussions on your Facebook Fan Page.

Some entrepreneurs launch a Facebook Fan Page, post their site link information, maybe their telephone number, and abandon the page from that point on. Your fans or followers want interaction! Visit the discussion page often to make sure conversations aren’t awaiting your participation and if there aren’t any, start some!

5.) Showcase real stories from the company or from customers.

Personalization is important when it comes to using social networking sites online. People like to hear real stories – so tell them yours from the company perspective, or ask customers if you can share their stories. Why do you think so many weight loss products include “real life success stories?” Because people want to relate to the person using the product before they buy it themselves.

6.) Use a multi-pronged approach to your media.

Don’t just type on your keyboard. Text socialization is fine, but there’s so much more you can do to really develop an online personality for your business. Ask customers to submit questions and then create an audio file they can listen to on your site or download where you’re talking. Or, interview an expert in your line of business and record it for an audio lesson they can download.

7.) If bad press gets out there, don’t hide from it.

Whenever you start socializing online (and maybe even before), there will be some people you just can’t please and who will talk negatively about you. Don’t engage in a flame war. Instead, reach out to the customer to see how you can make it right – and do this publicly wherever the bad press was so that it shows you’re not hiding from a problem.

8.) Give more than you plan to take.

This is a good rule of thumb to remember. Don’t sell, sell sell. Instead, give away freebies, poll your customers for their opinions, provide advice consistently. This is all fostering good will with people who may later buy what you have to offer.

9.) Ensure that your audience sees you as a cutting edge company.

Watch the news. Create a Google alert for your niche so that whenever groundbreaking news occurs, you can blog about it and capitalize on it with your customers who will come to perceive you as a company that stays on top of things.

10.) Make viral opportunities available in ample amounts to your customers.

Whenever you’re using social media, you want to encourage a viral response. For a blog, for example, make sure you have a widget that has all sorts of social networking site buttons so that your reader can share your blog post with one click of a button.

Don’t wait until you have everything perfect for your website. You can start socializing immediately with a free Twitter account, free Facebook Fan page, free blog, and more. It won’t cost you anything but time, and the rewards that your company will reap will have an everlasting effect on your business.

Image via Wikipedia

Many small business entrepreneurs are very excited to have an online presence, but they’re missing the mark when it comes to taking advantage of social networking sites to help brand their name and increase awareness for their products and services.

In an offline store, it’s easier to cultivate a relationship with your customer – as soon as they walk in the door. Assuming you’ve hired amicable sales staff, they’ll be there to put a face to the company name, to extend a handshake and friendly smile, and offer to meet the needs of the customer personally.

The problem with online sales is that it’s set up in a very impersonal way. Even with advanced media technology like audio files, a picture of you as the business owner, or a whole video spiel, the visitor knows the presentation isn’t just for him or her – it’s for anyone and everyone who visits your sales page. And if they have questions, they have to reach out to a help desk or contact form.

You have to branch out from your website and venture into social networking sites. Take advantage of all of the social media available to you. Become a peer to your target audience, and not just some company who’s looking to make a sale off of them.

Even top brand names with an establish fortune in sales and the best team of marketing executives in their pockets are utilizing social networking sites to foster a relationship with consumers.

IBM and Sun MicroSystems have blogs where they build a fan following. Starbucks polls its customers to find out what works and what doesn’t. Burger King made Facebook users sacrifice (delete) 10 friends in exchange for a free whopper – it was a huge hit!

Zappos dominates Twitter by posting neat facts and entering into microblogging 140-character conversations with their customers. Comcast uses Twitter as their customer service help desk of sorts – letting everyone in the timeline see just how responsive and concerned they are to cultivate a good customer service reputation.

Graco invites its customers to submit pictures on the social networking photo site Flickr, which it integrates with their company blog. And Dell? Well Dell does it all – from Facebook to Twitter to blogging.

As a small business owner, you want to look at what methods larger companies are using and employ the same tactics – especially when you can do it without having to shell out a single penny for the same amazing return on your investment of time.

In part two of, “Are You Making the Most of Your Socialization Strategy,” I’m going to give you ten tips that can help you interact with your online audience in a way that sends your news viral, helps you develop an interpersonal relationship with your prospects and customers, and increase your conversion rates dramatically.

Clichés should be avoided in writing at all costs. But some aptly apply to social networking. So I thought I’d take a minute to link some of these pearls of wisdom (pardon the cliché) to show you how you can apply them to social media.

• It is better to give than to receive. Whatever you post or Tweet should have value for your readers, and/or educate them about your business.

• Do onto others as you would have them do onto you. Most of us don’t like getting that telemarketing call during the dinner hour. Same thing applies to that post about the latest and greatest thing you’ve got to sell during someone else’s very busy day.

• A friend in need is a friend indeed. Do you belong to a LinkedIn group and someone has posted a question you can answer? The more questions you answer the more your profile goes up as an expert on LinkedIn. Does a Facebook friend or fan need assistance that you can provide? Post the information or offer a helping hand to show that you’re someone to be counted on, particularly if it’s advice regarding your area of business expertise.

• Put it on the back burner. Take note of any postings, links or information that may not be timely but you feel will be of value later on. File it away for the right time to use it or share it with others.

• Success begets success. If you are successful with what you do in social networking it will create more success for you. As well, the more successful you are, the more successful others will be who follow your advice.

• Hit the ground running. Get involved with social networking. Open that LinkedIn or Twitter, or whatever account, and start posting those pearls of wisdom.

In my previous Video, Twitter 101: Setting up a Twitter Account, I showed you the basics of how to set up your Twitter Account. The next step is becoming part of the Twitter community. This means following other people (known as Peeps in Twitter lingo) on Twitter.

Why follow? Because, like any other social networking tool, the goal is to link with other people to get information, and to post your own information for others to read, and ultimately for you to connect with them. In order to do this you need to start following other Peeps and create a following. Creating a following starts to happen as you follow others – most will follow you in return – and start Tweeting.

When you link with other Peeps you get a direct feed into your Twitter account that shows you the real-time Twitter postings for your Peeps. Sometimes you may want to “unfollow” people. Some do this if people they follow aren’t following them, or for other reasons.

Given the importance of following and followers on Twitter I created a video to step you through this. I hope you find this helpful.