There are several factors you should consider when selecting a social media channel. Target audience, product/service characteristics, amount of internal staffing/resources, time and technology savvy are just a few. Another one to consider is simply the volume of traffic and use of a social media channel.

Good place to get solid data is Hitwise. The latest data tracks everything from top 20 Websites (ranked by visits), top search engines by volume/visits to top 20 social networking websites. No suprise on the results, Facebook (for the week of 9/26/09) was the number one most visited social networking site at 41%. MySpace, YouTube, Tagged and Twitter round out the top five.

If you want to know where to focus your Internet marketing efforts this data can help! Enjoy!

Today I am teaching a lunch-and-learn for the Law Offices of Hoyt and Bryan, LLC on the Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media. With the sudden onslaught of social media in the workplace, some folks are left overwhelmed with what to do and what not to do when it comes to marketing your business online. Feel free to download the powerpoint and enjoy!

There are many do’s and dont’s and lots of experts are writing on this topic. Some of the best articles/blogs I’ve read are:

• Mind Your Facebook Manners
• Annoying Habits in Social Media
• Six Annoying Habits of Social Media Promoters

My list of Seven Deadly Sins are:

1. Over posting your status
2. Mixing business with pleasure
3. All sales pitch no value
4. Tweeting, Digging and Facebooking the same post
5. Mirror, mirror on the wall
6. Peek a boo posting
7. Doing nothing

I’m going to record portions of the seminar today with my handy Flip and will upload for your viewing pleasure later today. Stay tuned. I’ll also explain more on each one right here on the blog. But for now gotta go! Don’t want to be late!

Are you a small business owner and wondering how you could use social media to build your business?

I asked the dynamic duo, Leah Turner and Jennifer Lee of Creating Your Masterpiece, just that and turned on the camera for their answers!

What I got was a fantastic brainstorm on how they use social media to build their professional speaking, coaching and training business.

Incredibly generous with their insights, you can learn a lot by hearing how they market on a shoestring budget using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog, Podcasts and Email Newsletters.

Read more »

The Flip Video Camera

Hello there, it’s Kristen Weaver, your Roving Reporter back on duty!

School is back in session, and I was fired up for this morning’s Social Media seminar “Flip over the Flip and YouTube”, presented by Meredith and sponsored by WOAMTEC.

We started off the morning just getting everyone logged in and fed (because what’s a good day at school without a hearty breakfast?). I grabbed a blueberry bagel, banana and Orange Joice. Breakfast of champions, no?

Meredith begins our session talking about all the ways that using YouTube will help with your organic search optimization. So fascinating to me. I’ve used YouTube before, but only for videos of my cat (who wobbles). I was very excited to get it started for my photography business and open a new “channel” – but I had no idea how much it can help your ranking! Basically, Google owns YouTube, which means that when you tag your videos, Google will start to search and rank them as part of your business. We also got to hear a great testimonial of how this worked for a local company! I’m sooo on this!

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By Roving Social Media Reporter: Kristen Weaver

I can’t tell you the last time I was actually awake at 6am…. but this morning I woke up bright and early to get ready for Meredith Oliver’s new seminar as part of the WOAMTEC Social Media Bootcamp! Today’s session is on LinkedIn, and I’m looking forward to learning more about this powerful business networking tool.

My drive across town was an eclectic mix of old school Janet Jackson (Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty), The Ting Tings and Iron Maiden. Fashionably arriving about 40 minutes early (in true Kristen Weaver style), grabbed a blueberry bagel (from Via Panera), a banana and some orange juice – I’m set up, logged in and ready to learn about LinkedIn!

Meredith’s boot camps are really great because she does so much hands-on training. We all were able to bring our personal laptops to plug in and follow along. Because honestly, hands-on is one of the best ways to learn and become familiar with these new tools.

Ahh, Allen has arrived and decided to harass me about my upcoming housewarming party. If you don’t know Allen, he’s Meredith’s husband (aka Partner in Crime) and super-dad to Brady and Molly Oliver (Molly is the fabulous facebooking dog and infamous, in her own right).

8:30 am – Meredith just kicked off the lesson! Everyone is so attentive! She’s opening by asking everyone what new ideas they took with them following last week’s Facebook session and how they’ve used them. Lots of great accomplishments! Everyone’s been working on their Fan pages, linking and “being wild” – ok, well some of them got the message Read more »

In my seminars and workshops, I frequently talk about the dramatic plunge in consumer confidence and how that impacts their willinging to buy your goods and services. I cite a study conducted by PR firm Edelman which studied “informed publics” between the ages of 25 to 64 and explored this group’s level of trust in four institutions: business, government, media and NGOs. Results reveal the lowest across-the-board levels of trust since the survey began ten years ago. What does this mean to you? Your consumers don’t trust you!

The solution I am proposing is to use social media to reestablish trust by allowing your raving fans to do the selling for you! Who do consumers trust? Each other! We naturally trust our neighbor’s referral over any type of formal advertising. Traditionally this has been called “word-of -mouth” marketing.

Here is the GREAT news. Social media is word-of-mouth networking on steriods. And, this is no longer just my supposition. Today eMarketer.com published a study that confirms online advertising trust is on the rise worldwide. “According to the “Global Online Consumer Survey” by Nielsen, 41% of worldwide Internet users trusted online advertising.” In fact, the study reveals the number one advertising tactic trusted by consumers is “recommendations from people I know”. You should definitely check out this fantastic article by eMarketer.com.

This strategy will require risk on your part. What if the reverse happens? What if someone says something negative? Can negative comments destroy all the trust you’ve worked to build up? Yes, if you don’t have a service recovery plan in place. You need a step by step plan in place to handle any negative posts. The plan should answer the following questions:

• How fast will you respond?
• What will your message be?
• How will reassure your other online followers?

With a plan a place you can effectively handle negative posts. AND, get this….you can actually earn MORE trust by allowing an honest dialogue to take place, showing that you have a plan in place and that you take your customer’s concerns seriously. This is the mark of a trustworthy company.

But, let me quell your concerns about negative posts. I monitor a lot of “business” social media sites. I don’t see a lot of negative posts EXCEPT for the big “corporation” type companies. Why? No one wants to fire the first shot across the bow. I believe we are all thinking “If I start the negative avalanche it will eventually catch up to me!” We are afraid to say something negative about another business in fear someone else will do it to our business. Make sense? In fact, I mostly find social media pages for small businesses to be a sickening love fest of unrealistic proportions!

Start allowing your past, current and future customers to talk to each. They can sell you better than you ever will. Open up the dialogue and reap the rewards.

We practice what we preach! Please post a comment below and we invite you to disagree! And, we invite you to become a fan of the Internet Marketing Hotline on Facebook!

Need help with social media? Sign-up for Meredith’s Social Media Boot Camp, Aug. 11, 18 & 25 at the HBA of Metro Orlando.

LinkedIn is the best un-new social networking site for business professionals in today’s market.

Why?

First of all, let’s get the basics of LinkedIn and why it’s a site you should be on. LinkedIn was actually launched back in 2003, but had a slow following until the recent popularity of social media sites for business. Prior to that, using LinkedIn was a bit taboo because no professional business person would ever resort to social media to advertise themselves! Oh, how things have changed.

The main idea of the site is to connect business professionals with other business pros that they trust, have worked with or know personally. These connections are carefully maintained by the site to avoid spammers and friend gatherers by asking questions before making a connection with another person. It also helps connect your “6 degrees of separation” by joining groups of other like-minded professionals that you can network with.

Here are the best ways to optimize your experience on LinkedIn:

Write Recommendations
Recommendations are critical in the LinkedIn business experience. Knowing your connections and sharing kudos of their diligent work ethic, creative chutzpah and reliable lunch-dates shares not only help them look good, but you, too! I still believe  that the kindest compliment one can give is a recommendation or referral of their services to others. Proper LinkedIn etiquette states that you should always return the favor of a recommendation.

Join Groups
Joining, and actively participating, in groups will not only establish yourself as an expert in your field, but also connect you to other like-minded business gurus. Participating in the groups helps you to share interesting news articles, questions you may have relating to your business, or just asking thought-provoking questions. There are groups out there for nearly anything you can imagine, and if you can’t find one that suits you – make your own! Becoming a group administrator is super easy, so long as you have the time to keep up with it!

Meet new connections
Your connections connect you with their connections (wow, that’s a mouthful!) and gives you the opportunity to meet and share your experiences with other people in your industry or neighboring industries.If you see people in a “people search” with a “2″ or “3″ by their name, they are connected to you through one or 2 other connections. Bridge the gap! You may also see people with “group” next to their name, showing you that this person shares a common group with you. These are all great people to connect with on a more personal level!

Look for new opportunities
LinkedIn’s job search is one of the highlights of this social site, branching the gap between social and business. Since your profile is much like a resume, full of job experience, personal statements and recommendations – their job search is a great place to look for local (or non-local) employment opportunties. In an economy with high unemployment, if you’re recently laid off or just looking for the next best thing, LinkedIn’s job boards weed out the junk, don’t spam you with offers for community tech-colleges, and keep your job search simple. It’s also a great place for employers to find qualified candidates for their company, by noting when candidates with multiple recommendations are preferred; as well as other important criteria for their business.

Advertise your blog
Who doesn’t have a blog these days? Whether it’s a personal blog of your child’s first year, about your latest hobbies, or business related – you can use the WordPress plugin to showcase your most recent blog posts on your profile. This helps to drive traffic and interest to your blog.

Use the apps
Whether you’re using an iPhone, Palm Pre, or Motorola Startac (ha, remember those? I used to have one!) you can access the LinkedIn app or mobile site for easy, on-the-go, access to LinkedIn! All you need is a web browser and data plan and you can keep up with all things LinkedIn!

So what’s the end result here? LinkedIn can offer a slew of new opportunities if you just know how to get the most out of the site and optimize your Professional-Social Media experience!

Today I had the pleasure to speak for the Altamonte Springs Woamtec Chapter and what lovely ladies! Their energy and enthusiam was contagious. Thank you for having me!

I shared with them my ”fab five”…my five favorite FREE online tools. As a busy power mom, I use these tools on a daily basis. I believe technology should make our lives easier not harder! If a technology tool doesn’t save me time and/or money it is off the list! Enjoy my list and I hope they make your life easier as well!

Read more »

Social Media: What do you offline, you do online!

Social media is the next generation “rat race”, and in this world where thousands try to stand out, what will make you different?

What things can you offer that others won’t? Contrary to some beliefs, social media is far more than just a popularity contest (where your success is measured by the number of Twitter followers or Facebook Fans).

So here are some important ways that you can set yourself apart from every other social media cool-kid, and gain a true following.

Be an expert. People will listen if you have something important to say. By showing that you’re an expert in a specific field or on a specific topic, they will appreciate and follow your insight. This will also keep them coming back for more.

Interact. Don’t just wait for fans or followers and then let them sit there. Use these people to interact, comment, question and chit-chat. This will also give you access to their list of contacts, who will see you interacting and want to know who you are and what you can offer them. If time is a problem for you, just send some quick one or 2 word comments every once in awhile so they know you haven’t forgotten about them.

Don’t be self-centered. This is all about your status updates. Everything can be updated these days – from Twitter and Facebook, to your LinkedIn and Loopt  statuses. But if you’re only talking about you, people will get bored. It’s great to offer insight in to your day and gain a personal connection with your followers, but remember that there needs to be something in it for them. So try status updates that ask a question, or provoke a response. Like this one I saw the other day:

Is happiness a choice? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Discussion board!

Mind your manners. No one likes a Negative Nancy, so remember that making friends (and keeping friends) in social media is a lot like making (and keeping) friends in real life. If your comments and updates are always negative, or calling out other businesses or friends – you’re liable to scare people off. If you’re going the route of joining business and personal lives together – remember you have to act professionally at all times. If you’re not willing to do this, don’t combine them. It’s a fine line to cross, and sometimes we all need a little reminding.

Take a step back once in awhile. Keeping up in social media can be an exhausting job, especially if you’re doing it right. But remember to take a step back once in awhile. When you get burnt out, your quality of information can suffer. Take a couple days off, your blog readers will understand When you come back, you’ll be fresh and full of great ideas!

If you’re in business for yourself, I want you to stop everything you’re currently doing and follow these simple instructions.

1. Enter www.google.com (or try Bing, Yahoo, Ask…) in your address bar. Click Go.

2. In the search bar, type in some key words in your industry. How would people find you?

3. Where do you rank?

If you’re not on the first page of results, it’s time to re-evaluate your web content for keywords, metatags and possibly invest in a serious SEO program.  I don’t want to get in to anything too technical for the purpose of this blog – but I did want to cover some of the basics and why these things are critical to the success of your company. Read more »