Early in the morning on March 6, 2012, the news poured into the online world from MSNBC.com’s Red Tape section. Government agencies and colleges demand applicants’ Facebook passwords, the headline reads. It seems that SOPA and PIPA aren’t enough; it seems the social arena is one area the government, colleges and employers just can’t leave alone.

Is Your Privacy At Risk?

For years, we’ve warned individuals to guard their social accounts closely. “Employers are including social networks as part of the employer screening process,” we’ve cautioned. “Be very careful what you put on there. Be very careful what you allow your children to put on there. Explain to your kids the necessity of managing their social networks for the future job market.”

We’ve also given wider warnings that add up to, “If you don’t want something exposed to a broad online audience, don’t put it online. Online privacy is ethereal; it doesn’t really exist.”

Of course, our advice has always been based on the idea that employers could only see what you allowed to be seen by the world (unless your friends shared it with a wider audience). In other words, a locked down account won’t tell potential employers much. They could search until the sun goes down, and still only find what you allow public.

According to the MSNBC article, active social monitoring by government employers, college officials and businesses in the public sector has stepped up a huge notch. It’s no longer enough to be able to view your public conversations. They want to be in on your private conversations, too.

Privacy, Please.

MSNBC reports that job seekers for Maryland Department of Corrections have been required to log in and let an employer watch over their shoulders as they clicked through what had previously been considered private. Oh sure, it’s voluntary (hint, hint, nudge, nudge).

As shocking as this seems, the flagrant violation of privacy has been worse. As early as 2008, 22% of 31,000 surveyed employers said they used social networks for candidate evaluation, while 9% planned to use them.

Privacy

In 2009, the Wall Street Journal blogged about the city of Bozeman, Montana, which, for three years, had required municipal job applicants to turn over their social account login details. According to the WSJ blog, the city’s job applicant release form asked for “any and all current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, etc.”

It wasn’t until a local news station reported on the requirement and outrage ensued that Bozeman put the policy on hold. However, the city stated that, while they may no longer require login information, they may still require individuals to “friend” a city official, so what was posted could still be seen.

In a California case around the same time, a college student wrote an ode about her home town and posted in on MySpace. The California Appellate Court ruled that, because the ode was posted on MySpace, the subsequent reposting of the ode to the local newspaper by a high school teacher wasn’t an invasion of privacy.

In 2010, Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services began the same practice of asking for the voluntary divulging of social media log in information. Again, the practice was voluntary. According to the department, whether the applicant agreed or not wasn’t taken into account at all.

Uh huh. Can you see it? “We want you to hand over your log in information so we can dig through your personal information, but, you know, we won’t hold it against you if you say no.” Sure.

When the ACLU found out, they sent the Maryland DOC a nicely worded letter, which stated, among other things, that the DOC’s “demand for login information is equivalent to demands that they produce all of their private correspondence and photographs for review, or permit the government to listen in on their personal telephone calls, as a condition of employment.” It was only then that the DOC suspended the practice, pending administrative review.

What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander? Colleges Snag Control.

Goose or Gander?

This might be understandable for a government job – maybe. After all, the higher up the food chain you go in government positions, the more problems can arise if you’re secretly a gang member, spy, or have a past as a terrorist. When applying for government jobs, there’s somewhat of an understanding that you’re exposing your lives to the agency you’re to which you’re applying.

However, while government jobs may be one thing, what about colleges? According to a February 2011 article on Time.com, a survey reported that 82% of admissions officers used Facebook to recruit. Not a big deal, right? It’s just recruiting.

However, a more recent survey, as reported by SFGate.com, points to a bigger issue. About a quarter of scholarship providers who responded to the survey said they use online sources, including Facebook, to screen college scholarship finalists.

This takes us all back to the MSNBC.com article, which shares a tidbit of the University of North Carolina’s recently updated handbook:

“‘Each team must identify at least one coach or administrator who is responsible for having access to and regularly monitoring the content of team members’ social networking sites and postings,’ it reads. ‘The athletics department also reserves the right to have other staff members monitor athletes’ posts.’”

Isn’t this going a bit far? Isn’t this, just like a request for passwords, an invasion of privacy? Believe it or not, it can reasonably be argued that it isn’t.

No Real Right to Privacy

No Real Right To Privacy

That’s right. The invasion of privacy is seldom actually addressed in the U.S. Constitution. The First, Third, Fourth, Fifth , Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments, most often cited as “right of privacy“, only account for certain privates rights. They aren’t, as many people assume, a blanket set:

• 1^st Amendment (Privacy of Beliefs): The right to privacy of beliefs, including religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom to petition the government
• 3^rd Amendment (Privacy of Home): No soldier can force a home owner to allow them to live there, whether in peace or in war, unless it’s done in a manner prescribed by law
• 4^th Amendment (Privacy of Person and Possessions): The right to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures
• 5^th Amendment (Privilege Against Self Incrimination): The right to remain silent and not incriminate yourself
• 9^th Amendment (Broad statement of rights): The enumeration of certain rights shouldn’t be construed as denying or disparaging other rights
• 14^th Amendment (Liberty Clause): No state can deprive a person of life, liberty or property without due process

The closest amendment to deal with the Facebook issue is the 4^th Amendment, but it still has a fair amount of maneuvering room. For example, are your Facebook posts considered papers or effects? Can requiring a college student to “friend” a college counselor be construed as unreasonable search and seizure? –And, while your Facebook posts may very well keep you from a scholarship or employment, can they be considered incriminating evidence?

Social Media on the Horizon

All of this raises serious questions, the number one being: “Should a serious college or job applicant drop out of the social arena all together?” As well, the news hit the wires less than six months after Jobvite released a November 2011 survey and infograph (The State of Social Recruiting in 2011). The survey states that 89% of U.S. companies will use social recruiting, while 82% of job seekers use social networks.

The real answer may be, “yes” and “no”. In other words:

• Yes – use social networks and build an online reputation
• No – if you wouldn’t want your grandma or mother to see what you’re posting, don’t post it

Quite simply, the recent developments in social media monitoring by the government, employers and colleges demands you start taking your social account use seriously. If you thought Google pulling all their privacy policies together into one was bad step in the wrong direction, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Have you noticed how social networks are becoming more about building memories? You make friends, share events, get congratulated for happy events and condolences for sad ones. You can share pictures, videos… in fact, social accounts are like the digital scrapbooks of our lives (for individual accounts) and businesses (for corporate accounts).

Now, I’m immersed in social, SEO, marketing and branding. Rarely do I have time to enjoy and experience social media like the average user does. When a social site makes changes, I automatically look at those changes to see if they can be used for business purposes.

Because of the above, I didn’t really think about it much when Facebook turned on their Timeline in September of last year. It was just par for the course – just another way of displaying what you share. I did what I always do – how can I use it for business, what to do with the new layout and space, etc.

-And then, my personal connections started actually using Timeline. As these things often do, their use rolled into my view. I got curious and started delving into my own timeline. What I found was positive and negative, painful and wonderful.

My Facebook Timeline

If you’ve followed our social accounts and read this blog, you’re probably aware that I didn’t grow up as a U.S. citizen. I’m an Italian citizen, with Italian parents. The ironic part is that I wasn’t raised in Italy; I was raised in the Middle East. While this may seem out of the way to people in the U.S., but if you look, at Europe in proximity to the Middle East, it’s almost like driving from Iowa to New York – maybe even shorter, now that I think about it.

Can you find me?

My mother was a budding starlet back in the 60’s. She was promised fame and fortune if she moved to Lebanon. Needless to say, she did move, and ended up marrying one of the most prominent political figures of that country’s history (my mother’s life would be a book in and of itself).

To dramatically shorten a really long story, our way of life had an adverse affect on my sense of stability, safety and family. As an only child, I learned how to play by myself and with my imaginary friends. –Yet, before the war in Lebanon, there were so many kids from various nationalities, you couldn’t help but be immersed in a plethora of cultures. Smart wonderful people from every walk of life, culture, and nationality.

I fell in love there, kissed my first boy and smoked my first cigarette. I didn’t move to this country until later. Our lives weren’t tons better once we moved here, but there was a sense of strength, of pride… and, of course, the streets weren’t paved with gold compared to where I’d grown up. Opportunity was all around this great, big land, but the memories and connections I made in Beirut will live in my heart forever.

Post War Lebanon

All these memories came flooding back by looking at the Facebook timeline. It made me wonder how much of my past I could build with this one network. Maybe I’m lucky, or maybe not. Not all the memories are pleasant, but I have major red flags with historical facts and whatnot, so I can actually draw a pretty accurate timeline if I chose to.

During my youth, Lebanon was riddled with civil unrest. Yet, I hold treasures and moments when I look through pictures. During the 16-year-war that started in the mid-70s, more than 100,000 were killed, and the same handicapped by injuries. About 900,000 were displaced from their homes. In the meantime, I lost track of so many of those I’d known…

Looking through the timeline on a Sunday afternoon, my mind wandered. How many of you can look at a certain picture, food or smell something, and you’re back in a particular moment? That minute, what I felt of upon seeing the year 1972 was fear mixed with joy.

Once I looked over things, considering whether to fill in moments with images and so on, I had time to really think about Facebook’s timeline. Was it a good thing? A bad thing? Just a thing?

Pros and Cons – Is Facebook’s Timeline Such a Good Thing?

How will you share your story?

For me, not everything in my past is something I want to broadcast to the public – and I don’t think I’m alone in that. I realized, while writing this, that most of the cons are personal based, while most of the pros are business based.

For example, one of the first cons that popped in my mind is that someone can share a picture of you to their network, tag you in it, and have it show up on your timeline. In other words, that photo of you tying more than a few on at the last company Christmas party could end up very public.

When you post something now, you have to be extra careful and decide with everything how public you want it to be. Because anything you share with your network has the possibility of being shared by them to their network and so on. While this is great for business, it’s not so great for personal.

Another con that comes to mind ties in with your communications on other sites. By clicking that innocent-looking “Add to Timeline” button on a site, you’re agreeing to let your network know everything you’re doing on that site. In a world where privacy is a huge factor, is this something you really want to do?

Another: the ease of use for the Timeline really calls to you. It’s inviting, and it pulls you to want to fill in the timeline. Before you answer the call, think long and hard about what you want to fill in – others will be able to see, comment, share and so on. As with anything you put online, a good rule of thumb is to never share anything, no matter how privately, that you would have a problem with having plastered across the Net.

On a business level, there really doesn’t seem to be many cons for the new Facebook layout. The timeline allows you to build an in depth “about us” wall, and the picture panel is a definite plus for branding your business.

In fact, the only real con I can see is that none of this new functionality is available to brand pages – only user accounts. Darned if that doesn’t make us brand users green with envy. So, if you have a personal account, but you’re using it to talk about your business, you get the best of both worlds.

As a business user, filling in the timeline could be a great addition; again, I would caution you to choose carefully what you do and don’t share. The wide picture panel can be used to make an outstanding impression on your followers. In short, the changes have been very good for those who use their personal Facebook accounts as business additions.

Stories At Work

You Have a Story to Tell

I wouldn’t be surprised to see some brands creating some type of personal account, or, at the very least, developing some apps, to get a timeline-type look. Facebook Timeline is an excellent way to share your brand/business story.

-And isn’t that really what social is all about?

Every business – every brand – has a story to tell. Of course, you decide how transparent your story will be, and you do that by being very careful what goes out on your timeline. Every connection from your past can come back to either boost your reputation or haunt you forever.

No one knows how much of this will matter in a few years, technology changing as quickly as it does. No one knows how many of your connections you’ll still have later, because the Internet is such a fluid medium. What we do know is that we live in exciting times; you, your business and your brand are parts of those times.

As you delve into Facebook’s Timeline, remember that we all have a story to tell, including me – including you. Tell it well!

Ignorance Is Bliss?

There’s a notable difference between the outlook of those in the internet marketing industry and those who aren’t. This difference became very noticeable to us when Google Plus came out. It seemed that everyone was talking about Google’s new social platform. G+ news, opinions and how-to’s were everywhere.

Yet, while doing some research, we found out something interesting – at least to us. Google Plus wasn’t everywhere. In the first week, only 6 million results came up for the term. A month later, there approximate search volume is only 2.7 million.

If you think that’s a lot, compare that to:

• Facebook: 3 billion searches per month
• Google: 618 million per month
• Twitter: 124 million per month

In fact, what we realized is that G+ was just everywhere we were looking. Most people weren’t talking about it – just the many, many people we follow, engage with and read… who happen to be in our industry. This knowledge was somewhat of a surprise, and somewhat of a wake up call.

The Circle of “I”

It’s easy to get caught up in the circle of “I” and personal perception. You’re inundated with your chosen industry, which becomes your entire day. When you “know” something, you begin to assume that everyone else knows it, too. You throw out names, talking about people you know – “So-and-so said…” -, not realizing that the individual you’re talking to may have absolutely no idea who “so-and-so” is.

Realizing, once again, that we’d fallen into our own circle of “I”, is what brought about this post. It’s an important distinction to understand – how marketers vs. non-marketers look at the world of Google, the Internet and so on…

How much do you and your company depend on Google?  

Living In A Bubble

Marketer:

Google is only as dependable as I can make it. Sure, I use it as a search engine – who doesn’t anymore? Oh, right, those strange people still on Bing and Yahoo for whatever reason…

The point is Google is a product. This product allows me to offer a service. As long as I can continue offering that service, Google is a viable business product. I use Google because it behooves me to know and understand what I’m giving my clients; I need to know how it works – to the best of my ability – so I can give my clients what they need most: results.

Non-marketer:

The answer, for most, is the same – I live, breathe, eat, and sleep Google. Not a day goes by when I don’t pull up the Google search engine and demand that the little man hiding behind the logo answer each and every question.

I want results and I expect to get them. If I’m asking how the moon was made of green cheese, Google’s going to tell me – or at least point where to go to find out.

So, because we as a modern culture have come to swear by Google, do we automatically love all the other applications that are associated with it?

The newest cousin to America’s favorite search engine is Google+, a Facebook-like website that’s meant to be used for one thing, and one thing only – socialization. After all, Myspace was eventually made obsolete by Facebook, so, a company as big as Google should be able to turn around and accomplish the same thing, right? Maybe, but maybe not…only time will tell.

Marketer

Absolutely not – you can’t automagically love everything Google does. What you can do is cautiously embrace it. Google + is one of those things that we cautiously embrace; it has the potential of being a fantastic opportunity for networking and marketing. Not only will we not ignore it, we can’t ignore it.

Simply put, if we don’t keep abreast of the newest, brightest, shiniest object out there, we could quickly be left behind in the dust of those who did.

Cool New Club

Non-marketer

Google Plus is much like the season premiere of an up and coming reality television show. We all want to know what it’s about, so we tune in, but not all of us are going to keep watching after the first episode. So far, this seems to be the case with Google’s latest networking creation.

When it was first introduced, like Gmail, in order to join you needed a super-secret clubhouse invite that only the cool kids could provide you with – an automatic selling point for the nerdier folk. After awhile, though, it was kind of like, hmm, okay, well, back to Facebook it is!

What does Google+ have that Facebook doesn’t?

Marketer

That’s still up in the air. There seems to be stronger interaction of G+, for one. Two, there are a lot of people unhappy with Facebook that have just been waiting for some place else to move to. The last FB privacy scandal really did them in as a network for many individuals.

However, at the core of it all, what does Google + have that Facebook doesn’t? The fact that it’s not Facebook.

Non-marketer

Why should we spend all this time and energy creating ourselves a new profile, and locating all of our friends and clients on a website that’s, in theory, exactly the same as the one we’re already on? Seems like a waste of time, if you ask me.

Google Plus From the Non-Marketer’s Point of View

“I’m not sure if G+ is all that. It really is a lot like Facebook, and I don’t know if it’s worth the trouble of switching.

The Circle of Trust...

However, if you look a little closer, you’ll see some varying degrees of separation between Google Plus and the already-existing and ever so popular social networking sites. For instance, Google+ has what are called “Circles,” where you can separate your social life from your business life altogether.

Don’t want your boss or clients to know what kind of company you kept last Saturday night? Then split ‘em up! It’s much easier than making an entirely different profile for both business and for pleasure, and having to maintain multiple web pages on one site. After all, you’re just one person!

Also, you can video chat with others in what’s called a “Hangout.” If you’re typing skills aren’t up to speed with the wheels that are frantically turning in your head, then offer your clients the option for a videoconference instead of a typed-out instant message.

Another perk to Google Plus that also assists with communication is the option for group chats, where you and your clients, or you and your friends and family can all message one another at the same time, instead of having to relay he-said/she-saids to one another via separate screens. We all know how that tends to work out!

So, all in all, Google Plus is much like Facebook, but a wee bit techier. So far, I’ve yet to meet many people who use this site as their main place to conduct both business and social relations, but as it was with Myspace and Facebook, all good things come with time. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Google+ was the next big Brad Pitt for social media and networking gurus, once everyone hops on board. ”

The Future of Google’s “Facebook”

None of this means that social networking fans are going to live, breathe, eat, and sleep Google+ the way they have the Google search engine, Gmail, and Facebook. Using the search engine doesn’t mean whole-hearted embracing of other Google products. Not being able to see the future of the network (if you read a lot of marketer’s blogs, you’ll see the industry rides the fence) makes it hard to prepare from a business sense.

Can We All Just Get Along?

The main take away from this article isn’t how people view Google Plus, or Google itself, for that matter. The take away is that people think differently about internet marketing, networking and so on, depending on their personal lives. This is a valuable lesson to keep in mind the next time you’re working on copy for your site, or considering a new campaign. It’s just not the same – and if you can pinpoint the major differences, you’ll be a head of the game.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I don’t know about you, but I’m busy, very busy. While I was away, as we all know, Google decided to throw their hat into the social circle with Google +. Don’t worry; I promise this isn’t about G Plus, but about your social.

I don’t care if it’s a Facebook killer or if it will wipe Twitter out of the game; I don’t have any stock invested in any of these companies. What I’m invested in is the future of my clients and my business, no matter which corporate entity ends up on top.

Yet, many people are wrapped up in what’s going on with other things like Google Plus. The economy is another thing; quite simply, it’s tanking. Do I think there’ll be a revolution? No. I doubt the U.S. will shut down. Many dwell on these things and they lose focus…

You Can’t Lose Focus

Don't loose Focus

Today, however, you can’t afford to lose focus. You have to focus on your needs, your influence and your clients. You have to discover how to make things better in an ever-changing online world. Even you can make a difference, and that’s true whether you’re in SEO, branding or other area of online business.

Are You One of the Sheeple?

One of the things I want you to do today is to think about online influence. Who are your go-to people? Whom can you count on? Are you running after people you don’t know, or working to strengthen your current associations?

More importantly, are you one of the sheeple? Do you follow or use this platform or that because someone told you to? Or, instead, do you investigate before jumping into the game?

For example, if I listened to the majority on G Plus, I’d be jumping in with both feet and never looking back. My question is why do I have to choose one or the other? Why not both? Why can’t you just use the platforms you’re most comfortable on, or the ones you see the most action on, rather than follow what others say? Remember, you’re the only one that truly knows what you need.

What Makes a Brand?

What Makes a Brand

With social and most other things, it’s all about building a brand. – And what makes a brand is someone(s) who is willing to stick his or her neck out because it’s best for the success of the business and for their client.

For that business to grow, it has to be strong – more resilient. It has to endure the ups, downs and growing pains. All of this requires a high amount of commitment and consistency. For the clients it’s about building a long lasting partnership. I can guarantee if you treat your clients like partners they will be back when they have a bigger project, they will treat you with respect and they will send new clients your way.

May You Live In Interesting Times

Often, we – as online marketers – get caught up in social and marketing data. Our viewpoint is skewed, however. It’s hard to remember that not everyone knows about social platform this or social platform that. Not everyone is up-to-date on how to search the Internet and SEO practices. For that matter, not everyone uses a computer on a daily basis (shocking!).

What we do know, however, is that we are living in interesting times. There are tons of options and tons of opportunities; online marketers have to step away from the business side of things and view social from the eye of the consumer.

The consumer sees social as an important business strategy, but things like Google Plus can add to the feeling of networking burn out. Yes, everything is interesting and things are moving at break neck speed, but if all you do is run the rat race – react rather than act with a plan – you’ll end up one of the burnouts.

Be the One With the Plan

Connect the dots

It is essential to have a plan, and once you have that plan, it’s essential you have the steps written down that you need to take to achieve your goals. Almost like connecting the dots. For example, my formula for social networking goes something like this:

I have Google Alerts, Google Reader, Twitter and several RSS feeds of people I respect and follow. I don’t always use these posts, nor do I RT every post I see. God forbid I take the time to read each one; the day would be gone.

What I do is look at the title and quickly scan the post. Or I look at my mentions and see who gave me some love for the day. I will then take a look at their time line and find something that may be of interest to my readers. If it’s on topic or in the vein of what I’m discussing this week then BAM, it gets a RT. It’s a win win. You have some great posts to RT and share, and you’re establishing a nice network of like-minded people.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying start a RT circle, but you will eventually know when to hold them and when to fold them. Don’t be over eager and don’t be aloof. Almost like a Tango. You come in for a bit then you push out…flirting with content. Okay, maybe not, but you get the point right?

The trick is not to RT right away. Give yourself a few hours; post it for the afternoon. If it’s good, you can post it several times a day at different hours, with a different comment. By the time I’m done feeding and scheduling my Twitter account, I can get some real work done.

After a week, I will take what I RT’d the past week and post them on our FB page, re-opening the conversation. Then, I’ll place them on Tumblr, scheduled on the days we don’t have posts going out. As you can see I’m filling each day of the week with something from Level343. Spreading them out so I don’t bombard our readers with triple posts.

DO NOT post the same post during the same hour or on different networks. People don’t like it and feel violated.  lol Okay, maybe that’s over the top, but I know I personally want to contact the person and say STOP IT. All I’m saying is keep things fresh.

If you post it on Facebook don’t repost it on Twitter, at least not the same day. I figure with over 7K followers on one Twitter account and an additional 1400 + on our business account, I can afford to post something more than once on any given day. The chance of my readers seeing it twice in one day is rare, but it can happen.

Now, I know social networks take time, and I notice how our traffic suffers when I’m not around inputting this formula. Not everyone can create one, but I can assure you – if you want to save yourself hours of gazing at your monitor, start small. I don’t need to tell you that using Hootsuite has saved and cut my social networking time in half.

Create Your Business Future with the Help of Others

Create your network of people

Customer influence – the cheerleaders, the advocates, the unpaid marketers; embracing customer engagement through social is a fantastic way to shape your brand, business and products for the future.

This isn’t to say you embrace everyone. This doesn’t mean you follow everyone or answer every question that comes your way. You have to know what’s important. People are important, and how those people feel about what you’re promoting. Again, G+ is an excellent example; I don’t exactly have tons of trust in Google, which makes me less likely to jump on the G+ bandwagon. They need to work hard on their image and the trust wrapped up in their brand.

“Hanging out” on social isn’t enough. “Chatting” isn’t enough. Social media isn’t a cure-all for business issues; if it’s not done right, it’s just a Band-Aid.

In fact, social media and networking is just like the real world; you have to embrace the customer experience as a whole. You have to embody great service. You have to be able to empathize with the consumer, showing a high level of performance and value. In short, you have to be consistent with your delivery, and give them the best bang for their buck… even if that “buck” is just the time they spend following you.

Can you feel it?

After all the Google Plus hoopla (and a few posts of our own), it seemed only right, fair and equal to spend a little time on Facebook. Of course, it helps that we had a specific request for this article.  A  pro pos to this post, the request came from a Facebook fan – can’t beat that for on topic!

Before getting deep into lead generation facts here, I’d like to mention a fantastic Facebook page to inspire you and show you what’s possible. Facebook isn’t just about posting status updates; you can do that anywhere. In fact, some businesses use FB as their only place of online business.

The business page I’d like to direct your attention to is Livescribe’s. The Livescribe FB page is of particular interest here, because it shows exactly how much can be done in terms of lead generation. Go ahead, click around.

What Livescribe did right on Facebook…

Now, it helps the Livescribe is an interesting product. What could be more interesting than being able to write on a notebook and have it turned into a document? However, they did a lot of things right to turn their FB page into a lead generating machine.

1. Make it interesting.

I couldn't resist... :)

When you first come to the Livescribe page, you don’t see the Wall. You see, instead, three carefully targeted ads – yet, they don’t exactly look like ads. They look like information sections: perfect for the informavore. What they do is act like a “snack sized” bite of information. As well, each one has a specific call to action, and that CTA tells them what they’re going to do if they click.

2. Pre-qualify leads.

You might expect that clicking on one of these will send you to the website. It doesn’t. Each of the three links take you to another page – still on Facebook – to help you narrow down what you’re looking for. It isn’t until the third click that you’re taken to the site. In this way, the company begins lead pre-qualification; most visitors to the website who click through from Facebook will be truly interested in the product.

3. Give more.

Fanning on Facebook, which basically bookmarks the page for you, gives you access to features not available on the website. For example, Livescribe has a FB support group. As well, you have access to their YouTube channel from within their pages, rather than having to take that extra step. Actively moderated, you have access to a live person, responding to questions and comments.

Give More

4. A place to leave feedback.

One of the most positive things about G+ reactions has been the fact that they opened their product up to user feedback. Livescribe also does this, through the FB support forum, allowing individuals to submit ideas based on their experience, needs or wants. Due to the native FB features, other people can add that they’ve thought of it too, indicating one particular feature request is more wanted than another.

What you might be doing wrong on Facebook…

A while back, a blog came out on Outspoken Media entitled The #1 Reason Your Customers Hate You On Facebook. True to the name of the company, the article is straight up, nay, bluntly forward, about what the author considers the #1 reason FB isn’t working. To put it simply, the reason is lack of follow through or, in reality, lack of thought all together.

Facebook is a tool. That’s all it is. What you use that tool for, and how you use it, is what decides whether it’s a successful tool. For example, banging a hammer against something isn’t going to do much beside leave dents – but you put a nail under that hammer, a piece of wood and some plans, you might be in business.

Fixing your Facebook page for lead generation…

Now you’ve seen a company using Facebook like the tool it is, and you’ve read about what might be lacking… get to it!

Just kidding. Don’t hate me.

Here are a few tips (with example links) that can help you improve your fan page:

Make it harder to access – This completely goes against the grain of “ease of use” that we normally say, but stick with me here.

Lets' get picky

When people first started contacting us to guest blog, we turned them down. Not because they were bad writers, but because it wasn’t a direction we were looking at then. Having been closed off to guest writers for four years, when we opened up the blog to guest posters, we started receiving a lot of requests for guest spots.

The moral here is, when something seems inaccessible, the human condition is to want it more. The Creative Marketing and Acclaim page capitalizes on this concept, by starting with a game. Find the real “like” button to be taken to the official fan page.

Create a welcome page – Most business pages can be accessed at their walls. Quite simply, a wall can be bland, boring.. meh. Having your FB go to a specially created page, however, spices your FB area up. Where do you want them to go? What can they do after they click the Like button?

The Big Click Studios page, for example, does an excellent job of redirecting the user after the “Like”. Most people won’t be visiting your FB page every day. Big Click Studios prepares for that with links to the blog, a hint of what you’ll see by following them on Twitter, and – most importantly – that beautiful “Subscribe to our newsletter” section with a bit of random fact next to it. Finally, the FB page is it’s own shiny example of the quality of service they offer.

Give them the chance to share their contact details – Like Big Click Studios, the fan page of Tristan Richards (Internet Marketing Reggae Star, love that title) does just that.

Now, you don’t have to have a blatant sales page. You can do something as simple as Brand Sprout’s understated example, as immediate as Big Click’s, or as in your face as Tristan’s. You can even try something like Blue Sky Factory’s example. However, if you have a newsletter or other offers that require an email address, don’t leave this part out!

Offer something extra – Give them a worthwhile reason to become a fan. If you offer special sales, offer a few exclusively to FB fans. Maybe you have videos, pics or demos; you can offer them an early preview. In short, consider what you can give them that they won’t get elsewhere?

Lead them – Finally, don’t leave them dangling at Facebook with nothing to do. Lead them – guide them to do something interesting, whether it’s on FB with an app or on your site with a link. You have to show them some way to get to the buy/signup/conversion, whether it’s a tab, a link, an offer, or a product. – And, that offer has to be enticing enough that they are caught up in the process.

As a perfect example, I was surprised to find myself on Livescribe’s site. If I’d had the time, I’d have browsed it, and maybe bought something. Instead, I bookmarked it for later – a certified FB lead.

Further reading…

A little extra for you!

I know, you’re thinking that all this might take some serious programming and design skills. However, if you’re really interested in sprucing up your fan page, these links will get you started:

• Facebook Cheat Sheets, Sizes and Dimensions
• 4 Free Facebook Landing Page Creation Tools
• 20 Examples of Great Facebook Pages (HubSpot) 
• 25 Brilliant Examples of Facebook Brand Pages (eConsultancy)

Finally, read How Facebook Factors Into Lead Generation. Yes, you have to fill out a nosy “who are you” form to get it, but there’s a lot of good information in this PDF. For example, businesses with over 1,000 FB fans generate 12 times more leads.

Conclusion

Facebook is one of the highest lead generation and revenue generating platforms on the Internet. If you’re using it for business, it only makes sense that you use it right. No matter what you do, or what changes you make, just remember that it’s a tool. And a tool is only as good as the use it’s put to!

Sneeky Google Plus

So, Google comes up with this fancy “Plus” thing. Everybody rushed to take a look-see, only to be locked out as the big G slammed the doors on the masses to slow the flood to a trickle.

The first week was like a Black Friday rush on sales. For the first time, iPhone users frowned at their fancy gadgets and longed for an Android just so they could use the brand spankin’ new Google + app (Apple, by the way, allowed the iGoogle app to go through Tuesday). G+ invites were being sold on eBay for a paltry $25 – $100 (depending on the seller), guaranteed immediate delivery*.

*Most sales have dropped to a starting low, low price of $0.99.

In the First 24 Hours, Speculations, Facts and Fallacies Run Amuck

Psst.. Google Plus is a Facebook killer - Pass it on!

Over 18,000 pages showed up on the Internet in the first 24 hours that specifically spoke about Google’s new baby. Topics were varied:

The Wall Street Journal wrote a short piece about Google’s Facebook copycat, saying the company “appears to like crushing the dreams of soon-to-be-public tech companies.”

ReadWriteWeb offered up a piece after scoping out Google’s new social digs, calling Plus “really cool” and a “super ambitious effort”. The well-written initial Google Plus review by Marshall Kirkpatrick is a basic once-over. Interesting to this reader was the fact that he ended it with, “Can you imagine hundreds of millions of people leaving Facebook for this and sticking with it? That’s a very tall order.”

-And who wouldn’t expect Mashable to throw in their two cents? They did, with a piece called, “Google’s Latest Social Network – Google Launches Google + To Battle Facebook”. Again, it’s a great “once over”, with comments interspersed throughout from Vic Gundotra (G’s senior vice pres). Again, the most interesting thing is the mention of G+ as Google’s answer to Facebook.

In the Conclusion, author Ben Parr writes,

“No matter what Google says, Google+ is the company’s response to the rise of Facebook. The two companies are in heated competition for talent, page views and consumers. While Google controls the search market and has a strong presence on mobile with Android, it hasn’t been able to crack the social nut.“ [emphasis ours]

The Washington Post talks about it taking aim at Facebook. Gawker.com says G+ swears it’s more trustworthy (than FB, of course!), while Business Insider says it’s just like everything else and no big deal.

Google Plus Facebook, via Baby Banter

Now That Everyone Has Weighed In…

Everyone seems sure that Facebook’s death is Google’s goal in launching G +… or maybe it’s Twitter… or maybe Skype. It makes sense in a way, right? After all, social seems to be one of the few corporate pies Google consistently missed and had yet to get its proverbial fingers in, doesn’t it?

Well, now that everyone has weighed in with the “Facebook killer” theory, let me ask a question:

If G+ is only to kill Facebook, why make Google employees bonuses dependant on the success of this venture? Is it just about ad revenue percentages? eMarketer.com predicts FB ad revenues to reach 21.6%, while Google’s is expected to be at a paltry 12.6%. – But is this the only reason for Google Plus?

Google Plus One…

Google Plus One button

In an article discussing the ad revenue forecasts as well as the introduction of Google’s +1 button, Mashable’s Jolie O’Dell begins to open up a slightly different point of view. “Google’s +1 may pit the search giant against the social network in four key areas,” she writes. The top key area is “New User Acquisition”. Keep in mind – this is a full three months before Google Plus was announced:

“Making a Google Profile a requirement for those addictive little +1 buttons is a smart move on Google’s part. It may not match Facebook’s 500 million-strong membership when the feature rolls out to all users, but it has a good shot at vastly increasing levels of profile adoption.”

+1 rolls out and people (somewhat) just shrug and go on. Too similar to Facebook’s “Like” button, with nothing really attached to it. Oh – right, except that Google profile you have to have if you want to use the +1 button…

In a one-two punch, Google then lays out G+, which, incidentally, connects +1 buttons and Google profiles. Don’t forget that there are now more Google profiles than there had been, due to the +1 implementation. –And, for those that didn’t care enough about +1 to get a profile, there’s now G+, which also needs a profile to use.

…and a Slightly Different Point of View

At this point, more people have Google profiles, and more people are using their previously dusty profile, in order to participate on G+. Plus gathered 10 million users in 2 weeks, by the way, and is currently serving up more than 1 billion items per day.

Although this is a “never seen before” statistic, it isn’t the true success of Google Plus. So, what is? Feast your eyes on the following three comments plucked from the SERPs (on Google):

+Tom Anderson: “In the past, I’ve used Google Docs mainly because I wanted web access to files. I’ve never collaborated on it, and now I’m hooked on doing that. Google+ is making me use Google products that I formally only had a slight interest in. In the past week, I’ve started to toy with Blogger & Picasa. Why switch to Gmail, I used to think? Yahoo will do just fine. I’ve been using Gmail more and more.”

+Dominique Johnson: “This is pretty cool! I must say I have found myself using Google more & more since I got on my G+ platform.”

@orli : “Also I must say that Google Plus excites me because of the extensive options and its future connection to other Google services (Gmail, Calendar, Places, etc).”

Finally, let’s read a little of AllFacebook.com’s post, “The One Google Plus Feature Facebook Should Fear”. Author Nick O’Neil opens the post with, “I’ve found the one feature that could take away from Facebook where it’s most dominant: Time on the site.”

However, here’s the really important “take away” from Nick’s post:

“To be honest, my gut reaction after using Google Plus was initially, ‘Why on earth would anybody switch to this from Facebook?’

However, when I loaded up Google Finance as I do every morning, I suddenly realized that I was asking the wrong question. The reality is that users won’t have the option of not using Google Plus.

Google already has more users than Facebook, over one billion. They aren’t going to suddenly leave Facebook in droves, they’re just going to spend more time on all the sites in Google’s network. That big notifications box in the top right of all Google sites is the reason why.”

So What Is Google Really Aiming For?

Jus squeeeeze yer eyes

Humans are intrinsically lazy – as in, most of us will willing adapt if that adaptation is easy. With Google + and “ease of use” in mind, please follow this last thought trail:

From within G+ Hangouts, you can:

• have a private “face-to-face” business meeting
• watch videos together on YouTube (Google property)
• give a presentation and discuss
• co-produce a spreadsheet or document live (with Google Docs)

From within G+ Circles you can:

• Share sensitive documents to a private corporate “room”, or circle and lock down resharing (document control)

From within the G+ Mobile App, you can:

• Conduct meetings or continue private sharing (currently still only available on Android, a Google produced phone. It’s earmarked for Apple as well, which means snagging some of Apple’s market for Google’s products).

From within G+ Photos, you can:

• Create and share a presentation (using Picasa, a Google product)

In short, Google is swiftly integrating a large amount of its products into its new social networking productivity platform. It isn’t Facebook that needs to be watching its coat tails. It’s Microsoft. It’s Apple. It’s every productivity suite you’ve ever come across.

For those that need visual convincing (i.e. pictures), we came across this great presentation on, you guessed it, G+. By +Vincent Wong, It’s also a fantastic example of how a presentation can be created and shared.

The little black bar at the top of the screen takes you to your:

• Calendar
• News Reader
• Documents
• Spreadsheets
• Presentations
• PDFs
• Online photo albums
• YouTube
• Search

You can use it for shopping and quick checkout, for finding recipes, for finding sales and researching scholarly write ups. It’s a single click from your Blogger blog, or photo editing on Picnik. With Fusion Tables, you can create data maps and charts. In short, there’s a lot you can do with Google, and it’s all connected to G+.

Conclusion

Google Plus isn’t a Facebook, Twitter or other social network killer. Yes, they want to get into social, but as a means to bigger and better things. Google wants the cloud, and it wants to take you (and your friends, and your friends friends friends) with it.

– And you know what? By the time they’re done tinkering with G+ after all the feedback, you might not find that such a bad offer.

Hootsuite Internal Server Failure: by LaughingSquid

Many people spend time talking about what you say when you’re using social media. This isn’t one of those posts. This is a post about what you use for your social media.

Most of the ways to talk with people are right in front of you, in this little electronic box; we’ve all embraced social networks in one way or another. I’ve been chatting away with virtual strangers for years, whether in chat rooms, through instant messages and even with AOL. In fact, people have been communicating virtually with others now for more than two decades.

To be honest, I started writing this post as a rant about HootSuite. However, as a marketer, blogger and writer, it also gave me something to ponder – something I can really sink my teeth into and, hopefully, something useful to share with our readers.

The HootSuite Saga

You see, I’ve been promoting HootSuite’s services to everyone I meet. I’ve been a constant cheerleader; you can ask any of our clients, writers, designers, etc. I’d have tattooed “I heart HootSuite” on my arm if I could have.

Their cute logo had me from the start, but I’ve also been using it for over a year. I’m very comfortable with the dashboard and ease of use.

But, alas, one day I was scheduling some posts for my weekly to do list and decided to look up one of their features. It’s called Insight. To my surprise, it was fuzzy. I couldn’t see what I could see just a week ago – unless I paid for the feature.

What? Pay? Why am I paying for information they’ve been gathering from tweets and personal information I’ve voluntarily given them?

This is like Facebook. It’s worse than Facebook. I expect this sort of thing from the big FB; it’s become part of their brand. After all, they had the online, social world up in arms about privacy and showing your personal information for the entire world to see. It was as if Facebook took pictures of everyone’s underwear drawer and waved them about.

My goodness. There was a frenzy of articles flying around cyberspace. A large, mass exodus was planned… but I’m not writing about Facebook. Sorry, I digress.

What really burns me about the “Insight” feature is this is something I’ve been asking them about for about 6 months now. “Why is my Insight messed up?” or “Why isn’t it functioning like it’s supposed to?” Their response was always, “We’re working on this feature. We’ll let you know more real soon like.”

They let me know more, alright…

They let me know more by telling me to pay for it. That’s a huge #fail, Hootsuite. You could have said, “It’s a paid feature, but we’re working on it.” Be honest about it.

Now, just like anything else in life, you’re not going to be liked by everyone. For example, personally, I’m a little bit pissed at Hootsuite for yanking me around for six months. However, I’m the first one to say (after years of therapy) that if you don’t like something or have no control over it, stop bitching and find something else.

Voila. I left this nice, clean interface with it’s oh, so cool statistics options, multiple users in your dashboard, etc to find the best way to communicate with everyone.

Moving On to TweetDeck

As the next platform to try, I’ve settled on TweetDeck. So far, I’m not sure I like it. However, all the services work; that’s a plus. Now, if the services break and then they hit me up with an “upgrade to pro” button once they fix it… bye bye TweetDeck.

Cons

You can’t use ♥ ▸ ✔  ♫ ✈  with TweetDeck, and that sucks. Sometimes, these cute symbols just get a feeling across better than any text can. Granted, some may not be able to see them. I get that, but it’s part of who I am and part of my conversation. Yeah, sometimes I want to ♥ someone. It saves on writing it out, and with only 140 characters, you have to be smart.

The live feed is way too fast. I’ve been told you can slow it down, but I couldn’t find it. I went to the settings and removed the Twitter updates; it didn’t help. I was also told that I may be following too many people.

Ummm… Excuse me? I’m afraid I don’t understand what you’re saying. What kind of option is that? “Hey, if Tweetdeck is running too fast, stop following people!” Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?

Oh, right – because I’m using Twitter to connect, engage and list. Yes, I scan through my feed, but I’ve gained some fantastic knowledge from the people I follow and I don’t want to give them up… and, apparently, that’s the problem.

Every time I saw something I wanted to read or click on, the feed was going so fast, I’d accidentally RT someone other than the intended person. Frustrating doesn’t even come close. I finally gave up and stopped trying to RT people. I’m sure my Klout score suffered in the process.

Pros

I do like being able to use Tweetdeck without needing your browser. Okay – that’s cool, especially considering that sometimes people have way too many things going on. I also like that you can see when someone RT’s your content or post on your mention feed.

The User Interface is nice and centrally located under each column. You can specify your follow feed into lists, which may or may not be a bad idea if you’re focusing on different target markets each week.

Is Tweetdeck better than HootSuite? Well, I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know if I have to move to another platform in a few weeks or months.

I’ll tell you what I’d really like, though. I’m on more social networks than I can count and legitimately participating (there’s a blog coming up about them, too). I’d like:

• A platform that can pull in my Twitter, Facebook, Amplify, Quora, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, Yahoo IM, Skype, LinkedIn, etc. accounts into one place.
• A cool interface that allows me to set the update rate for each network so it doesn’t move too fast or slow.
• A notification list that lets me know when someone talks to me (no matter the network), with an icon and link that takes me to a place where I can reply.
• A cute icon I’d be happy to tattoo on my arm.
• Transparency – if it’s going to be a paid feature, don’t say “we’re working on it”.

Is that too much to ask?

Joan Crawford responded to 3 million emails by hand. We just have to figure out how to speak to our mere thousands. Today’s technology gives you plenty of options, of course; HootSuite and TweetDeck are just two of them. However, if you’re going to automate rather than go to each network, make sure you grab the right platform for you.

I’ve been asked by several companies to speak to their PR/marketing department about their respective social media presences. As much as I’d love to take them up on the offers, though, I thought I’d at least take the time to figure out the tangible problems they’re having.

After talking to a few clients, and asking around social media circles I was certain about some of the fears CEO’s face when dealing with employees and social media. Of course, the next step after that is finding out how to address those problems.

Now, we already know the benefits of using social media in the work place, especially if you want to brand your company with “progressive thinking”. Social media is part of the wonderful evolution happening online, and you either get it or get left behind. Transparency is king and content development, relationship building and user engagement can happen in 140 characters or less.

The benefits of social media are pretty obvious: you have another channel to expand on market research. You can brand yourself; here’s a way to add the human touch factor, the human element, the personable finish. Let’s not forget the reputation you garner by writing excellent posts, responding to questions and having intelligent conversations.

Serious Thoughts by Serious CEOs on Social Media

So yeah, yeah, it all sounds good. 140 character conversations turn into 500 new customers, company advocates and so on… fantastic ROI. Yet, the CEOs have to think about other things as well. Questions come to mind like:

• What about employee productivity?
• What about issues with account hacking?
• What about security?
• What about unhappy ex-employees?

Of course, we’ve all heard of the havoc on intern can cause your reputation, legal liability and other customer relation nightmares…I get it, I really do.

Many businesses are faced with a gigantic dilemma. CEOs and other top-level bigwigs yearn to jump on the social media bandwagon for the good of their company. Yet, the concern over possible negative repercussions is legitimate. For instance, whether a company infrastructure is based on a Mac, PC or Linux system, every online minute is a possible exposure to security threats.

Whether you decide to ban social media is up to you. However, if you ban social networking due to security risks, you might as well ban the Internet as well. You can set limits and use restrictions – some companies have chosen this route – or allow unmonitored access.

Tips for Social Networking Sites and CEOs

Rather than block the Internet, information and intelligence are the best protection against security leaks and more. This is not to say your employees would give out sensitive information on purpose, but social networks push people to share everything about themselves. They may unwittingly give important information away.

#1: Give Set Times for Social Networking

Before your employees start work, after they’re finished with work, on breaks or during lunch, allow them access to social networking sites. With web filtering software, you can set time-based access to specific sites.

#2: Educate your Employees

Don’t let your employees stay in the dark; knowledge is too important. Let them know what can cause security issues. If need be, have a security systems expert come in. Make sure they know clicking on a link can cause malware to download on their machine. Some popups automatically download a virus – even if you click on the “x” to close it down. Keep your staff educated!

#3: Set Policies

What can your employees do during office hours? Can they talk about their personal life on Twitter? Do you expect them to stay focused on business even during lunch on social sites? Lay out your policies for online security and usage. Make sure your employees sign these policies and know what the disciplinary action will be if the policies aren’t followed.

While thousands, maybe millions, of business owners struggle to decide whether they should implement social media or not, millions of others have already done so. Why?

Take it from me Mr. CEO social media isn’t just a fad, as some seem to think. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are some of the fastest growing sites – ever. In fact, once you set your mind to finally joining the world of social media, you’ll find out just how much business growth is possible… in 140 characters or less.

Seldom do we talk about other search engines at the Article Archive, because Google is the Big Daddy of them all. However, Bing made a huge announcement a few days ago that makes many people look at Google’s Instant like yesterday’s old news.

Google and Twitter

Over the past, oh… year, maybe, Google has really started pulling Twitter into the limelight. Those who didn’t know Twitter was a place to go for business do now, especially with the rollout of Google’s RealTime Search feature.

For those that haven’t been paying attention, GRT allows people to search topics on social feeds. Generally, these feeds are from Twitter or Friendfeed with the occasionally aside from other accounts. Social media aficionados just shrugged and said, “Told you so”, while businesses that didn’t use Twitter scrambled to grab a branded account.

Since many other business individuals already knew the benefit of Twitter for business, some of those people also parked branded accounts for the competition. So, for example (and completely hypothetical), this is like @lowes registering @homedepot, @home_depot and any other variation, and holding on to it. So much for social media and branding.

Bing and Facebook

Now it’s happening again for those businesses without a Facebook account. You may just be left holding an empty bag on Christmas. October 13, 2010, Bing announced that Facebook will officially be a part of their search results. You can read more about the specific changes at Website Magazine.

This is huge, people:

• Facebook has over 100 million mobile users alone.
• Worldwide, the megaton social media platform has over 500 million active users.
• Over 700 billion minutes are spent per month on Facebook.

Now, Facebook won’t appear in the results unless you search using “Liked Results”, so some people may shrug and say, “So what?” However, if you consider a “like” as a positive result and you consider how much 100 positive votes might affect your choice of search result, you might begin to see the business potential here.

Facebook Is Dying… Isn’t It?

A slew of articles and news bits have come out over the past year, discussing how the higher-ups of the company have no business ethics. Many have shared outrage with Facebook’s seeming break with their own privacy statements. A few security leaks here, a few security leaks there, and people slowly get the idea that maybe good ‘ole FB ain’t quite the place it used to be.

One of the newest articles, Social Media Privacy Leaks Creates More Detractors Than Promoters for Facebook by Ron Callari, nicely covers how (and why) the social media giant may end up biting the bullet. Namely, all the problems of late have brought up the serious question of trust. This lack of trust, Ron calculates, may be pushing many of the 500 + million users into a passive or detracting attitude. So, good thoughts and feelings are going down the drain for Facebook.

However, let me also quote one of the last things Ron states in his article. “Presently Facebook is the only game in town. Other contenders like MySpace have fallen off the radar, and young upstarts like Diaspora haven’t really taken hold just yet.”

So, while you’re waiting for over 500 million people to quit using Facebook, think about how long that might take – 3 years? 5? 10? Then ask yourself, are you willing to wait that long before you do something that can potentially boost your business to unprecedented levels? I think not.

If you’ve been hemming and hawing over whether to use Facebook as a platform for your business, stop. Yes, it works. Yes, it can help your business grow. And with the Facebook/Bing integration, if you don’t use FB, you could be missing out on one of the few things that would put you ahead of the competition.

Does Your Brand Matter

I was driving into New Orleans the other day, thinking about brands. How can a small business compete with the bigger brands? You’re probably thinking your brand sucks or is awesome… Traffic was steady as I watched various billboards pass me by driving down I10 to a meeting. That’s when it hit me, what if your brand is nowhere close to what you want?

If you are like me you probably always wanted to do an independent study on all these famous brands. Some brands are so old and so well known that their importance is passed down from one generation to the other – almost like genes. Since the ideas ingrained during formative years are indelible, many people stick to using the information passed on to them when thinking of business brands without even being conscious of it. However, the increasing social networks phenomenon and new techniques of social branding have made it possible for smaller brands and newer brands to capture an effective market share.

The first step to social branding is effectively done by merging yourself into the various social networks. Remember, a brand is not just a logo; a brand is so much more than a picture. It can be emotional, it can be an experience – however you want to describe it or define it, you must find yours. One of my favorite authors said, “Brands are defined by the customer. They exist as a feeling that extends beyond the product itself.”(T. Scott Gross – Microbranding)

With social networks like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc. being the rage of the times, creating a strong online presence will get an organization – or even a person – lots of friends and visitors to whom they can communicate and spread their information. Be it the latest new tool or a new service, to make a satisfactory online presence, the brand promoter should ideally stick to a few rules.

The content that is offered on the Internet for branding should not be of a soliciting nature, especially in the beginning. The first stage here is connecting and establishing relationships. For example, if you have a good video that could attract people you can upload it on YouTube, even if it is not directly connected with your brand. Contacting, connecting and engaging are all part of the first level of the social media “job”; all types of wholesome and entertaining content can be the first step to get started.

As our technologies get more advanced, I have noticed we are using advanced tools for communications, information sharing in order to reshape the very fabric of our marketplace concepts and relations. So how does a little business or a one-man show position themselves with the “established” brands? If you consider, positioning really has little to do with quality or price and everything to do with perception.

Emotional triggers are what sell - things that can emotionally connect you with the buyer. The entertaining aspect of connecting can then graduate into informing and advising to set the ball rolling in the path of branding. Instead of jumping into the fray of all social networks, you can start with just a few. Find out where your niche market is.

There really is no way around that. Not everyone wants your product and not everyone will like your brand. However, once you have established your groundwork in the social arena, you can steadily increase your presence to make sure that you’re being noted. As you establish a solid base in these social networks, it is important that you are absolutely transparent. Your name, profession, arenas of interest and things that you have to offer should become clear to the others.

Everything you are is branding. When many entrepreneurs start out, they might spend months trying to separate business from family or “work” from “life”. They then spend the rest of their life understanding that, as an entrepreneur or small business owner, you are your business, from the way you behave to the words you use, down to the business card you hand out. Whether you like it or not, it’s the culmination of all you are that makes the brand.

Consistency is important. Everything you do, show or promote becomes part of your “brand”. For instance, a business cannot afford to change their profile every month or so, so that there are two incarnations of the same business at different stages. For effective social branding, the profile projected should be the same across all the social networks you frequent. When someone has seen or used your product, they should be able to recognize you instantly.

Social branding is a low budget scenario. It may not be an easy process, and you will have to spend some time on it, but you will not need advertising staff that you may have to pay through the nose. Nor will you need airtime or newspaper space for which too you need to pay. Many social networks are free.

For example, at a site like Ning, users can create a personalized network that can be shared with any number of users with a common interest. It is free (if you can grin and bear it when ads pop up), but you’ll have to pay if you prefer to operate in ad-free, sanctified ambiance.

When doing social branding, it is important to live up to the promises and not try to survive on hype. Of course, this is a golden rule in the world of advertising, and not one that is a must only for branding through social networks. Nevertheless, it is one that people often tend to forget. In fact, living up to promises is one way in which smaller entrepreneurs can outwit business brands that sport glossy ads and prime time commercials.

Social branding is very helpful in promoting unknown brands in the case of niche marketing. In niche marketing, the marketer essentially concentrates on smaller pockets as the target market. These pockets will be places dominated by people of certain physical characteristics, race, age, language, nationality, or profession where most people will be in need of a certain product. Spreading brand information through social networks and thereby creating new business brands works well in such setups.

When we say social networks, we understand only online networks today. These are surely far more vibrant than local word of mouth networks, but in creating business brands, even face-to-face networks have their role to play. Remember Social media is not going away anytime soon, but it is evolving… what are you doing to make your brand matter?

Everyday around the world, more and more people are joining social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Technorati etc… My question is why?

It has been said that if you continue to do what you have always done, you are going to get what you’ve always been getting. In other words, you need to change business strategies and marketing campaigns to adapt with the times. Darwin once said that it is not the fittest of the species that survive but the ones that are most adaptive to change. Let’s take a tip from him and apply it to marketing through social media networks. Remember, change is sometimes good.

Here are ten reasons why companies should join social media and how they can make their campaigns a success

1. Change Your Networking Technique
The first thing companies should understand is their market. For example, what makes your customers loyal? Is it your service, your product, both? Second is to find out where your customers are. That can be achieved by a simple study placed on your website. Ask them to link to you on the various social networking sites by placing a Twitter, Facebook, Sphinn and/or Digg button or just asking them. This will give you a basis in better understanding who your current customers are and which ones are missing. This is a great starting point for making positive change happen.

Making the changes needed to your existing social networking techniques and adapting to your market will give you a better reach to a new market audience each and every month. Make it a point to set up one of the social networking links on your company site or if not, at least include a blog that is updated monthly with news and fresh content. Solicit questions from your repeat customers. And please remember, testing and re-testing various techniques is part of the process.

What's your business outreach?

2. Use Facebook For Your Business Out Reach
Use Facebook’s networking system to build a page that carries news of your company. Apart from this, you should also engage in various ‘Events’ and add them to your network. Spend a couple of hours a week understanding what works and what your customers want to know. Invite as many like-minded people to join your group as you can. Start locally… then move your reach as your customers become more global.

3. Utilizing Twitter To The Fullest
Twitter is the fastest growing business tool on the Internet. Look at the Mobile applications available through Twitter. It’s mind-boggling. You can use various tools to establish direct links with your potential customers and provide existing ones with instant updates on company products and policies. It’s no secret that, in time, using Twitter will generate traffic in droves to your web site.

4. Use LinkedIn For Maximum Marketing Advantage
LinkedIn is currently the hub of marketing and affiliate activity on the Internet. Everyone who is anyone will be there. To some it may seem intimidating, but it is very easy to use. You can create a large following that can be channeled into business contacts and a potential customer base.

One suggestion I would like to make is, don’t use LinkedIn to discuss only business activities. Make it a habit to expand your network by discussing things that are of interest to you. It could be green thinking, business conferences, new software or anything else, and don’t be shy to get involved in the Q&A section. Update your activity at least once a month.

Use Only A Few

5. Make The Most Of Applications And Widgets
Almost all social networking sites offer applications and widgets that can be incorporated into your blogs and web sites. These plugins can help promote a business, when used properly. Twitterfeed is one such application that can be used to channel new blog posts into your twitter account so you never have to log in to post to Twitter.

6. Use Only A Few Networks
Once you are comfortable working and using at least three different networks, then you can test out and try others. But don’t take on too many; it will become overwhelming. Personally, I think that if you spread yourself to thin, you won’t master any of them. Remember that change is key here, and with change comes the responsibility of figuring out your strategies. This will help focus and keep up with regular posting.

Seriously people...

7. Be Careful What You Post And What You Don’t
This is really a no brainer… Or is it? How many times have we heard some stupid stunt by an employee or employer? Keep your personal life out of social media. No one really cares but your close circle of friends; remember that the world is not as forgiving as you are, or as your family members might be.

Understand that you are using social media as a networking tool for your business promotions. The effectiveness will always reflect back on your participation. Never waste time posting personal deals on your social networking accounts. You should concentrate on exposing your business and build your brand recognition online. The best way to go about achieving this is to be yourself while staying professional.

8. Make The Most Of Forums
If you have a unique selling point, you should use some forums to highlight them. Comment on blog posts. If your comments are relevant and useful, this is a great way to build recognition and respect for what you have to say and for your company. Posting links to your blog on these forums is another great way to show your commitment to the topic or service you offer. Keep your links relevant to the topic at hand, and don’t be too opinionated. It shows bad form.

9. Keep An Eye Out For The Experts
Look out for seasoned professionals in your niche field. I am a huge believer that it’s not the “gurus”, or so called “gurus”, that should be followed but the ones that make sense. My tip: just because they have a huge following does not, necessarily, mean they know what they are talking about. NO, it just means they know how to market themselves. Watch them; see how they attract readers and followers in all the social networks. I can assure you: it’s all about confidence, knowledge and the will to make things happen.

Privacy Is Your Responsibility

10. Privacy
This is an important factor that most seem to forget. Make the best use of the privacy settings on your social network account. Set up your email filters, decide whom you want in your network (and whom you want to keep out) and make sure to block out people you do not want to connect to. Keep in mind that you should filter your invitations very carefully- carelessness can lead to a loss of a potential client or customer.

In conclusion, you must ensure that you have a set number of forums and networking sites that you are comfortable interacting with. You should also make it a habit to stay on top of the latest breaking news. Use Google Trends if you have to, or Google Alert, but know your market. Set aside an hour or so every day for your networking, blogging and forum posting. This will lead to a better future for you and your business.

Do you want to learn how social media can help your business? What if you could learn how to put it into action? Consider downloading our latest Ebook. Social Media for Today’s Business Model is the manual for business owners and entrepreneurs interested in this unique, viral form of marketing. Find out how social media can work for your business and how to put it into action. From Twitter to Facebook, Social Media covers five of the top social media platforms.

The first rule of any good marketing campaign is “go where the people gather!”  Although this marketing strategy is certainly not an epiphany, the onset of the new frontier of marketing encompassing social media and networking has added confusing complexity to the old game of marketing.  With new social media networks virtually popping up on every street corner, every business owner realizes that time equals money in the game of social media marketing.

For now, these are the top social media gathering spots for marketing and networking to bring traffic banging at the door:

• Facebook :  Long considered a great spot to meet-and-greet with the friends and family, connecting through Facebook can give instant updates on the happenings of everyone in your group.  Through reaching out to others in the circle of your circle, joining fan sites, and publicizing facebook links to promote fans, Facebook is an easy way to personalize interaction between members.
• Twitter :  If you are ready to enter the tweet-iverse, then Twitter is waiting for you!  Although there is a learning curve in the language of Twitter that takes some extra investment in time, once you know how to promote using 140 characters or less, the niceties of Twitter will fall into place.
• LinkedIn :  For the more professional crowd, LinkedIn provides a robust social media and network platform to connect people with like interests based on the concept of 3 degrees of separation.  By connecting to all of your connections and everyone you know, your networking reach explodes with the power to share your message, find potential partners, and gain valuable marketing insight.
• Biznik :  As a powerful business networking resource, the potential in Biznik is the modern version of shaking hands with people at a local networking event.  Regionally divided by large cities, Biznik allows you to connect with people who can help grow your business and gain customer exposure all within your local area.
• Blogger / WordPress / :  If you are especially interested in promoting your business online to a global market or audience, then blogging is an excellent source of exposure and SEO recognition.  When the content changes over a short duration of time, search engines are drawn to the postings via categories, tags, and keyword optimized titles with content.

Admittedly, the goal is to gain as much exposure as possible to your target audience while decreasing cost.  In marketing, the cost per lead produced by each marketing effort is measured in the ROI or return on investment.  With social media marketing and networking, ROI must be measured in time against the leads recouped for the time invested to be sure cost expenditures are analyzed correctly; therefore, finding the hotspots of social media marketing that will both deliver interested leads as well as gain exposure for your products is vital.

In my experience, the most important thing to remember about social media marketing and networking is two-fold.  First, don’t seem too anxious.  Be yourself.  Second, be prepared to invest time in creating and maintaining your social media activities.  These should not be too hard.  After all, these are the same rules as any other social environment…you are just reaching out to millions of people instead of hundreds!

“Stick with what you are good at.”

That should be the theme of platforms that are created for a specific function – but inevitably they get swept away by the times and try to be something they aren’t.

Attempts to change to meet a popular trend usually fail, as Facebook is discovering.
Facebook is leading the pack of mighty morphers who are trying to ride the massive success of Twitter—(unsuccessfully, I might add).

Once the golden child of the Internet, Facebook has come under fire lately for a slew of trouble including an attempt to usurp their user’s information by claiming the copyrights on both print and media material posted by individual members.

That is just the beginning of the troubles the once formidable Facebook has, however. Twitter, the baby of the Internet, who challenges its loyal following to create microblogs of meaning in 140 characters or less is giving Facebook a run for its money, and they don’t like it.

The result of their clinging to the upper echelons of success is a changing face on their platform to copy the Twitter atmosphere, their nudging of followers to tout their Facebook links on Twitter and all other social network platforms and a general disintegration of what made Facebook so popular in the first place.

In fact, originally Facebook was a sort of guarded society, a membership club that only other college and University students could apply to.  It was a platform much like MySpace with regular blogging capabilities but in a more secure atmosphere that combated spamming and viruses.

And then they tried… more than just an attempt to emulate Twitter’s success. Facebook wanted to BE Twitter. They made a play to buy out the growing cyber child, but Twitter baulked, much to the glee of their admirers.

Facebook needs to do what Facebook used to do best, be a social connection for students and faculty of universities, even the expansion to the mainstream business world is fine, but leave microblogging and Twitter alone.

Facebook, our message to you is this: Be true to your followers.  Leave us to tweet away on Twitter.  We promise there is room in our hearts for you too – if you stay true to who you were.  A place for us to create groups, play games and find long lost schoolmates.

Wanted to thank my Co-writer Jenn Horowitz