Social Networking

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Sunday, December 18th, 2011

Did Your Social Media Marketing Join in the Holiday Fun?

holiday social networkingIf you are an online retailer, there is no doubt that come the holidays, you barely have time to twitter and post between packing, shipping and hopefully, updating out of stock notices on your website.  However, it isn’t just online retailers that get a traffic boast come the holiday season and every website owner should check to be sure they add a little Holiday spirit to their image, especially their online social networking profiles.

If you haven’t already, you have at least one week left to seasonally brand your logo or online profile image.  That’s right people, break out the elf hats and fire up the menorah and get a holiday image out on the web that still allows your branding to shine, but keeps a hint of holiday cheer behind your imagery.   It is not just about your profile image either.  On Facebook, you can update your photo strip with pictures from the office holiday party or the decorations found in your neighborhood and you can change your twitter background to be one that adds just a bit more festivity to your visitor’s day.

One major gaffe of the holiday social media marketing season is the overly self-promotional posts.  This is a big problem with ecommerce stores.  You have to keep the good content rolling even during the holidays.  If all you are tweeting and posting are reminders and links to your sales and promotions people are going to get the feeling you are as greedy as Mr. Scrooge.  If you can’t think of something good to write, ponder some of the biggest challenges of the holiday season and how you can help your readers, fans and friends overcome them.  Tips on shopping on a budget and when a gift card is the best possible gift for the hard to gift person are great ways to show your loyal customers that you care more about them than about your bottom line.  It is the holiday season after all.

One really funny thing to note about the winter holidays is the weather.  Talking about the weather can be seem so cliché, but asking people to send your Florida business pictures of snow is a great way to branch out your social networking circles and getting to enjoy the wonders of a winter wonderland as well.  Or the opposite could be true, if you are trapped in snowy North Dakota for the winter season, perhaps you’d like to see some sandy beaches on first day of winter.  Either way, talking about the weather at a time when the weather everywhere is different, is a great way to expand your circles and reach out to your fan base and demonstrate that you care about what life is like in their world.

Whatever you celebrate and however you celebrate is as important as celebrating the season itself.  This doesn’t mean you have to promote your brand and jump on the corporate band wagon that ruins Charlie Brown’s Christmas more than once.  It just means that you have another opportunity to add a new layer of transparency to your business and share what’s important to your clients during the holiday season.

When it comes to connecting your holiday spirit with those of your fans, people need to know where to find you.  With the free SocialFollow button you can link to all your holiday online networks in one convenient button and visitors can find you on the network they like to share.  Happy Holidays-Eat, Drink and Be Social!

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Friday, November 25th, 2011

Giving Thanks Every Day in Your Social Circles

Yesterday, at least here in the U.S., most households were busy cooking and preparing Thanksgiving meals to come together with family and friends and give Thanks for the amazing lives we have all been blessed with.  About one week prior to that, businesses and bloggers across the land began planning their own ways of showing thanks to all their loyal customers, readers and fans.  While Thanksgiving is a great time for saying that elusive Thank You that often gets lost in our online conversations, perhaps it is a good time to reflect on why you should be giving thanks everyday to the people in your social media circles.

Let’s take examples from our Thanksgiving traditions and apply them to our everyday interactions with our online audience.  For starters, try putting your differences aside and remind yourself to be thankful for the ability to tap into the mind of those who may not always agree with you.  Social networking and social media has given everyone a voice.  It has given power back to the spoken and written word and it is the voice of the people that governs in the social world.  Be thankful each day for those that keep us in balance and challenge us to be more transparent, more engaged and more human. 

When gathering with close family and friends for a Thanksgiving celebration, we let down our masks and we are real.  This should carry forward in your everyday interactions in social networks.  Be authentic.  Be who you are at the family dinner table every time your fingers hit the keypad to type a message.  I should picture you in your fluffy bunny slippers if that is what you like to wear when you are writing your blog or compiling your tweet.  Show who you really are and your audience will show you many thanks.

As kids return home from college and daughters wandering the globe find their way back to the smell of turkey and stuffing (or lobster and corn-whatever scent draws you home), parents and relatives shower them in words of praise and interest in what has been happening in the last months or years.  You can use this same approach with your online family by telling them just how awesome they are and how much they have done for you, their community and themselves.  Highlight each follower’s strengths.  Share those stories that inspire you.  Be thankful and praise each day the great worthy and inspiring activities that your online community achieve. 

One final way to bring Thanksgiving Day thanks into your every day social media marketing is to give of yourself without looking for thanks.  That’s right.  Give selflessly to your online community.  Whether you want to give away a service or product or offer an outstanding, unbelievable discount to your faithful followers with a special note that says clearly says Thanks.  Without your social following, you likely wouldn’t have as much to be thankful for yourself. 

Everyone at SocialFollow and Studio98 would like to say Happy Thanksgiving and Thank You to all of our readers, followers and especially our button subscribers who have helped us spread the word about our free Social Follow button and make it a huge success.  Wondering how to stay connected to everyone that visits your website or blog? Add the Social Follow button from Studio98.  With the FollowUs button you can maintain your brand without all the bling.  Your website should be a place for your business, not a banner for social networking circles, the SocialFollow button keeps all your social networks in one pretty little holiday package!

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Monday, September 19th, 2011

Social Media Marketing-Gotta Love the Numbers!

Nielsen Social Media Report 3Q 2011Really, social media is a total numbers game; isn’t it?  When you think about the measuring system of social media marketing success, it is all numbers.  The number of followers you have.  The number of tweets you’ve made.  The number of retweets you have.  The number of people you are following.   The number of friends you have.  The number of Likes you have received.  How many circles you’ve got going? It is all numbers.

When you look at the analytics side to social media marketing what do you find? NUMBERS! DIGITS! INTEGERS! Number of impressions.  Number of clicks through visits.  Number of conversions.  Sadly, the number of exits.  When it comes to social media marketing, the numbers matter which is why we love numbers and why we love groups like Nielsen who are always giving us more ways to strengthen our sweet love for the digits and the data they provide about the potential success and failure of our marketing endeavors. 

Just last week Nielsen published its Social Media Report for Q3 2011 and the numbers for social media are looking great for marketing success with social networking resting nicely as the number two way we (number lovers and non-number lovers alike) spend time online.  That’s right folks; social networking is the fun, fascinating past time of 4 out of 5 active Internet users in the United States.  What do these numbers mean to you? Well, you shouldn’t need to bust out the calculator to figure this one out, but just in case, we’ll give you the answer: 

You should probably decide if there is a place for your business identity in social media circles and take advantage of this opportunity to reach 80% of the country’s Internet Users.

If you are not sure that social media marketing is right for you, we posted some tips in a previous blog, Social Media Peer Pressure, about deciding if social media is really the right approach for your business.  Now, back to some more numbers.  The recent Nielsen Social Media Report also noted that 53% of active adult social networking users follow a brand (or several brands) as part of their social experience.  Also of note is that the over 55 generation have doubled their intake of social media content and 70% of adult social network users also shop online.  Oh the numbers couldn’t be better!

The numbers never lie! Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but the truth is that more people are finding mobile ways to stay connected with their social networks, which means more people are being social all the time and if you like to watch your numbers change, you should consider a social media marketing campaign and be where the people are…being.  Or perhaps it is time to crunch the numbers on your existing campaign to make improvements. 

A great step for going social is to get your free Follow Us button from SocialFollow.  Even better for the number lovers, the SocialFollow button comes with its own numbers and analytics allowing you to watch your button impressions as they happen.  Take a moment to look at your numbers and then take a moment to read over Nielsen’s report and start looking for better customer centric ways to build your numbers today!

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Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

Come On! Everybody’s Doing It? Social Media Marketing Peer Pressure

Social Media Marketing BandwagonSocial media marketing is the new sexy when it comes to taking your business off the sidewalk and down the virtual main street. In every town across the nation a new social media marketing expert has popped up and knocked on doors to tell you why you should join the masses and get your social networking profiles generating bucks for the biz. But the question every good business owner still asks, or should be asking, is if going social is the right business decision for their company.

Is social media marketing right for every business? Should all companies jump on the social networking bandwagon and air all their company ways with the millions of people online? The answers to these questions are mixed and the truth for some businesses may be that the well beaten path isn’t the right path for delivering their message, while others will find exactly the outlet they’ve been looking for to expand their business and their connections in online social communities.

There is definitely no denying that social networking is fun and might we even call it hip. Everybody is online and a huge percentage of that everybody can be found on one social network or another giving credit of course to the big 4 (notice no longer a big 3) Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Literally, everybody IS doing it from old desktops, new laptops and mobile devices, getting too numerous to mention; people are online. So how can it not be beneficial for a business to get out there and gain a bit more exposure?

Well, if you are uncertain about giving into social marketing peer pressure the best first step for you would be to Google yourself. See what is showing up where and why. The next step would be to offer some kind of opt in to existing customers whether it is a piece of notebook paper on the wall of your shop or if it is an option available online. You need to see if your audience is spending time online. You need to figure out if your target audience, meaning your customer base, is using social networking platforms themselves and if your presence in the same arena would be of benefit to them and you.

While it may be hard to believe, largely because most social media marketing is free (all be it time consuming), there may also be the chance that your business has a great system in place already that offers a high return on investment and really takes priority over a new marketing avenue. If you feel this is the case, it would still be worth your while to get at least a Facebook fan page started as it is rather simple to maintain and can build as slowly or quickly as see fit with little interference in an existing system.

You have to be honest with yourself and ask if social media marketing will really help you achieve your business goals. Part of the sure to fail scenario in social networking is a lack of time investment. While it may be largely free to go social, you have to spend a lot of time making connections and establishing a good reputation. Social media marketing is like skinny jeans and if you have to do a major workout and eat like a bird to look good in your skinny jeans…well, then, skinny jeans may not be for you. If you don’t have the time and effort to invest in social networking, then stay out of the game until you do. There are lots of web2.0 listings ((Manta, YellowPages and more) you can use to your search marketing advantage without going into the social circles.

When it comes to keeping social media marketing sexy, the free SocialFollow button from Studio98 has got your look covered. If you should decide to give into peer pressure and hop on the very powerful social media marketing train, make sure you have the FollowMe button from SocialFollow on your website, blog and social profiles so your visitors can find you on in the social circle that they frequent most.

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Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Is Your Tweet Prime Advertising? Google May Think So!

Quality not Quantity in Social NetworkingIf you get re-tweets, it just might be! This was the buzz on the web just a few short months ago that has had traditional SEO companies scrambling to be sure that they have social media marketing solidly placed in their optimization game plan. These recent changes in Google’s algorithm have left many, including small and large businesses as well as search marketers, a bit confused on what direction to take their social networking and we hope to give some sound advice on the subject.

For those that aren’t completely clear on the announcements from Google, we’ll try our best to put it in the easiest to understand terminology we can. Basically the search giant announced that they will be adding author authority to their organic search algorithm. This means that content that is shared on social networks and then re-circulated by others within the network will get a higher ranking than content that is let’s say only on your blog and not hitting the social scene at all. More specifically this is content re-tweeted on Twitter and shared by friends on Facebook and other networks.

All of this sounds great right? Well, a lot of people mistook author authority for the number of people you have in your network. Don’t get me wrong, the larger networks do have a better pool for circulating their content, but the basic rule of social networking hasn’t changed; quality of followers beats out quantity any day. Oh and contrary to popular belief, content is still king.

It doesn’t matter if you have 3000 followers if only 3 of them are actually reading your tweets and sharing your content. Meanwhile your competition, who has probably taken the time to build quality relationships on their social networks but may only be connected to 300 people, those 300 connections are liking and sharing content on a daily basis. Get the connection? This too is where quality content comes into play as well. If what you are sharing in your social circles isn’t worth the read, then it usually isn’t worth a Like or a Re-Tweet.

Another twist in the Google algorithm is that who you follow and connect with as well as what you share on social networks has a direct effect on the search results you are served when you perform a search while signed into your Google account. This is a grey area still, but seems to indicate that the more people you network with and share content with, the more likely you are to show up in their organic search results. Mind you this is only when they perform a search while signed into their Google account. However as Google has introduced more social networking options themselves, more people have reason to leave their Google accounts open while doing other work online. This puts a whole new perspective on SEO and social media marketing which to date have been somewhat separate of each other.

So, our advice. Be socially accountable by building your social networks to be full of quality connections with as many quality connections you can without cheesing out and send out quality content that your connections will be willing to share with their connections too. Of course, the best way to build a quality network is to feature the FollowUs button on your website so that your website visitors know where to find you on their favorite social network.

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Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Multiple Personalities-A Social Networking Disorder

When social networking first became big and our best option was still MySpace for connecting with friends and colleagues, the world was simple and our minds were at peace.  But now the world of social networking has evolved and become involved and some lines have become clouded.  All of this change has sparked a new wave of multiple personalities across the web where social networkers try desperately to create a perforated line between friends and business. 

When social first went social most of us endeavored to connect with friends, but the inevitable business marketing and internet marketing boom came into play and most people soon realized that they could do more with their social personalities to gain exposure for their business.  At the same time the question of how to keep business and pleasure separate delivered more stress than traffic for many businesses.  As followers, fans and friends increased so did the difficulty of keeping personal posts from trickling down the business pipeline. 

The truth is you can never predict what a friend may post on your social networking profile.  Forget friends even, what about cousins sharing family drama or jealous exes sharing dirty little secrets?  Is this really the kind of information you want an employer or client to read about? Probably not.  And this is where most people get the idea to create multiple personalities in social networks to serve both the business and pleasure side of being social, but maintaining those personalities takes a toll on their real self. 

Where the social multiple personality disorder really takes its toll is in maintaining multiple identities and keeping things sincere and transparent.  How much to hide here and how much to tell there can put your head in a bit of a spin.  There is nothing wrong with being personal on your business profile.  Quite the opposite is true.  In many cases, being transparent and showing personality are the best ways to actually build stronger business ties.  However posting pictures of a drunken mishap would obviously not be a good brand builder (unless your brand is associated with drunken behavior of course). 

There are different networks for maintaining different identities which can help to an extent.  LinkedIn and Plaxo remain notoriously professional while Facebook provides a place for both business and pleasure.  What smart users are now realizing is that Facebook also allows users to be segment their lists to separate family from friends and business from pleasure and there are of course the notorious Facebook Fan Pages for creating a separate business identity on the social giant.  Even Twitter allows you to segment your followers bringing greater relief to ongoing multiple personality social disorders and Google’s new networking circles require you to put all your connections into circles. 

Our suggestions for help with multiple social personality disorders are pretty simple.  The first is to get organized.  Segment your friends and followers on the various social networks so you can post the right stuff to the right people.  The next would be to make sure that the social networking buttons on your website are delivering people to the right online personality for a connection.  Your Follow Me button on your business website or blog should lead to your business’s social identity while your personal blog should connect to your personal online profiles. 

Social networking doesn’t have to be chaotic, separated and challenging to be effective.  Simplify your plan and update your social follow buttons to streamline your online identities.

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Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Adding Sizzle to Your Summer Social Media Marketing Plan

In January and even late December we were bugging you to start evaluating your social media marketing plan for the New Year.  In spring we were reminding you to clean up your site and re-evaluate your social media marketing goals, but now the weather has turned to warm and the summer season calls for adding a bit more sizzle to your social media marketing plan.

Summer is that time of year where events and parties abound and things in life kind of pick up a bit.  The same is often true for brick and mortar businesses, except those specializing in snow shoes and shovels of course, but summer still brings this natural increase in activity both online and off.  Unfortunately though, even for the most well thought out social media marketing plans, engagement and conversions often hit a plateau and there is no better time to add new sizzle to your social scene than during the long days of summer.

The ways to sizzle and shine on the social platform will vary depending on the business you are in and the product or service you are promoting.  Introducing a new product or service is a great way to get the conversation moving as you ask your faithful followers what features they would like to see.  Don’t have any new products on the drawing board, how about offering a free eBook or adding a new helpful tool that followers old and new will find useful? Running a special promotion or big event is another sure way to attract a crowd.  How about hosting an online party in honor of customer appreciation with drawings for food and appetizers or offering gift cards to nationwide stores?

Even with all these great sizzling summer social ideas, the basics of social media marketing remain true; it shouldn’t be about marketing at all.  It should be about engagement.  The best marketing you can get is what you’ll find through stellar customer service and quality of products.  Social media marketing during any season is about building relationships, being transparent and being relevant.  Feed the people information, not sales pitches.  Don’t exist on giveaways and bribes alone; give content that is useful, necessary and free.  It’s not about building lists; it’s about making connections and respecting those connections.

Add some new sizzle to your summer social media marketing plan with a solid dose of simple summer honesty.  While you’re making things summery and simple, don’t forget to switch to the button that keeps your website about you and not about your social connections; the Follow Me Button from Social Follow, streamlining all your social networks into one simple button.

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Monday, May 16th, 2011

Stressing out over Your Business’ Social Inadequacies?

stressed about social networkingMany businesses have been avoiding entering the social platform.  The idea of putting business matters in the public eye is more scary than exciting and the concept of getting linked in with other companies, including the competition, seems like a hook destined to sink.  If you are one of the many businesses still ignoring the power of social media or just can’t handle the stress of going social and the possibility of being socially inadequate, then it’s time to overcome your fears and step up to the social networking business plate.

There are a variety of reasons to go social with your business.  Social media has opened the door for influencing opinions about your business, generating new targeted sales leads and strengthening your search position in the World Wide Web.  One troubling factor for many business owners not yet worrying about search engines, twits and fans is the stress that can come with not properly maintaining, engaging and entertaining your social audience.  Once you hit the panic button on social media marketing, you are likely going to make poor decisions about your social networking time investment and come out with unfavorable results.

Part of the stress associated with social inadequacy comes because of the huge social pool one must wade through.  Everyday there is a new application, a new social network and a new tool for managing your social identity.  How can you ever be sure where you should hang your social hat and how often do you make conversations?

Businesses should always go where their customers are already at home and comfortable.  There are dozens and dozens of social networking and professional networking platforms, but only some of them are going to be appropriate to your business.  You can use Social Mention and Google Alerts to help to pinpoint which platforms are going to help you connect with the right followers, fans and friends.  However the three main players, Facebook, Linked In and Twitter are the best platforms to start building your social business identity.   While this isn’t the stressful part, knowing when and how to interact with your audience can and does spark feelings of social inadequacy.

Once you know where to be you have to be mindful of when to be.  Just because you find people talking about your brand, doesn’t mean you have an open invitation to join the conversation.  The best way to butt in on sensitive brand related matters is to offer information and links to information that would be of benefit to the conversation.  Monitor the interaction without getting involved and if necessary, private messaging one of the participants with contact information to talk to a company representative may be an appropriate course of action.

You only want to subtly encourage your brand.  Social networking is about building relationships more than it is about building leads, but in the end, those two elements walk nicely hand in hand to more sales.  Handling your social self with finesse doesn’t need to be stressful.  Make sure you invest time wisely and invest time properly by giving personal attention to your followers and fans to avoid the stress of feeling socially inadequate.  Also take the time to make it easy for your website visitors to find your social profiles by including the Follow Us button from Social Follow that allows you to include links to all your networking profiles without losing your own brand identity.

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Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

The Social Networking Squeeze Job

It’s a classic case of the old bait and switch, but with a new web 2.0 twist.  Where once you got a flyer in the mailbox directing you to a store for the BIG deal of the day only to find that the deal wasn’t what you were expecting, today’s misdirected social networking tactics are rivaling those of the snail mail days.

There is definitely a place for building your brand with social media, but there is also a fine line that you can cross with your online presence.  None of your friends, fans or peeps wants to be the victim of yet another social squeeze job. So, what is the social squeeze job you may ask? It is publishing posts and tweets with great headlines that lead your friends and followers to your email list squeeze page and requiring them to cough up personal information to get to the link you originally posted; or worse yet, sending the unsuspecting fans of your brand to a completely unrelated page begging for a sale.

Nobody enjoys getting squeezed and the social squeeze is among the most annoying squeeze jobs in the book.  It is highly advisable to avoid misleading posts in an effort to build your email marketing list, unless of course you want your social networking pals to feel irritated, frustrated and even a little trapped by your brand.  It is unlikely they will be your friends for long though.  It is also worth your time to avoid generating posts that misdirect people to your sales lead page without ever revisiting your original link topic.

This isn’t to say that squeeze pages are bad.  Well, not all of them are bad.  A well constructed squeeze page that includes information that your visitors will find beneficial and answers a need is definitely a useful marketing tool.    The trick is to not be tricky about getting people to your page.  Make it worthwhile for people to click on your link and make them want to join your list.  A good opt-in page includes lots of details, answers to every question and it shouldn’t leave visitors feeling like their privacy is about to be violated.  Offering a coupon to all new newsletter subscribers or even the never tiring free eBook promise is better than offering a completely unrelated video clip at the cost of one’s email address.

Social media marketing is about building your brand and strengthening your customer loyalty.  It is about the open exchange of information and when you aren’t open or you play games with people’s trust it is going to have a negative effect on your business.  Avoid being part of the social squeeze job and share information with your followers freely, without requiring them to be on your email list or forcing them to your sales page.  They have already done you the favor of liking, fanning or tweeting with you, don’t scare them away with poor posting choices.

There are some things that you just shouldn’t do in the online social circle and using shocking headlines to drive traffic to your squeeze page is one of them, but getting found in different social networks is not.  The best way to let your customers and site visitors find you in their social circles is to add a social media button to your website and online profiles like the free FollowUs button from SocialFollow.  But the very best way to keep your followers is to avoid the social squeeze.

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