Are You Going to the YouToo Social Media Conference?

I wanted to let you all know about the YouToo Conference in Akron, Ohio on April 16th. I am going to be opening for Phil Gomes of Edelman Digital (Chicago).  theI can’t wait for this because it is going to be a fun time and AWESOME!

Check out the information and be sure to check out the YouToo Social Conference website.

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It’s not just Web sites and e-mail anymore. The use of social media in marketing and business communications exploded during 2009. In 2010, social media are being used in all phases of operations for companies and non-profits.

Business and non-profit communicators and students can learn how to tap into this vital network at the Third Annual You Too Social Media Conference to be held Friday, April 16, at Kent State University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Franklin Hall, itself a national model for communications education.

The all-day conference, co-sponsored by the Akron Area Public Relations Society of America Chapter and the PRSSA Kent State Chapter, will include hands-on sessions with expert presenters in such branding tools as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. There will also a dessert reception for professionals and students to network.

Who: Akron Area PRSA and PRSSA Kent

What: Third Annual YouToo Social Media Conference

When: Friday, April 16, 2010 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Franklin Hall
Kent State University
Kent, OH 44242
(Directions)

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5 Ways to Increase Donations through Social Media

We finished up our Increasing Donations through Social Media seminar yesterday and it was great to meet individuals from the not-for-profit world in Indianapolis. We had some awesome conversations surrounding the idea of telling YOUR story to the world… the story that drives emotion through each and every donor. I wanted to upload the Powerpoint presentation I used yesterday and give a couple of pointers on increasing donations through social media.

5 Ways to Increase Donations through Social Media

1. Message Boards. Create a message board or central location for your supporters and their friends to communicate with each other and your organization. For a great example check out the Lupus Foundation of America’s message boards. It is so important to create a comfortable place for your supporters to chat. It is up to your supporters to decide where they want to host the conversation. If it ends up on Facebook then… it ends up on Facebook.

2. Start a Blog and Communicate. This really should be number one on your priority list. You should be writing your story… every second of every day. You do not need to be sitting down and typing out each story but (at the very least) you should be thinking about how to form the story of your organization. People buy into stories… period. For a great example of story telling check out the organization > Charity + Water.

3. Start an Affiliate Group on Facebook and LinkedIn. Create groups of Facebook and LinkedIn that connect your supporters to each other in activities outside of your organization. An example of an affiliate group would be a Facebook Fan Page for your local youth soccer league or a LinkedIn group for your local Kiwanis club. Why does this matter? You are creating touch points with an audience that is not expecting you (the organization) to be at that place…. at that moment.

4. Start a Facebook Cause and Encourage Supporters to Join and Share!

5. Use Your Email List to Drive Growth on Social Networks. Every supporter who has given you permission to market to them through email… could still be utilized to support your cause on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Search for your email subscribers in the social networking world… the chance is… they are using the same email to support their social networks. The more times you can connect with a prospect or supporter… the better.

25 Twitter Tips for Small Business

With the launch of my book, Twitter Marketing for Dummies, I have been getting a ton of questions about Twitter and the use of Twitter for business. I wanted to update and republish this blog post from the beginning of last year… to better inform you on some tips for using Twitter.

Use them. Learn them. Love them.

1. Use your personal picture in your Twitter profile. There is only one situation where you can use your logo… if you have two profiles. Your personal profile and your company profile.

2. Don’t setup an Auto-DM to send when users follow you. Why you ask?

Here are two posts talking about why you should not:
Tweeter Blog: How to STOP These Freakin Auto DMs
Social Media Club: To Auto DM or Not to Auto-Dm

3. Use Twitter Search to find subject matters that interest you. This can cater to your business interests, as well as your personal interests. This will help you find people that share intriguing content.

4. Add in some of your personal life while you are using Twitter. What is important to remember is that you are using Twitter for your business communication as well. The people following you want to know that you are REAL and want to interact with you. This is especially important if you are a small business owner.

5. Use it. It is important to use Twitter but do not waste valuable time when at work. Tweet about what you are reading online.. Maybe a new insight you found while reading the night before. Try to use Twitter a couple of times a day.

6. Reply. Reply. Reply. Whenever you get a response (@yourname) make sure that you respond to the reply. This is extremely important because your most valuable followers are the people that respond and communicate with you.

7. (via John Janstch) Use strawpoll to create a survey to feed into your Twitter stream. This will be an awesome way to get information regarding service offerings and products.

8. Follow some awesome business Twitter people (@problogger, @chrisbrogan, @gacconsultants, @jaybaer, @roundpeg, @Ribeezie)

9. Use a business Twitter account (example: @brandswag) to create a great place for customer relationship management. Teach your clients to use Twitter to keep with the happenings of your company. Also, it can help you share the news and information regarding the success of your clients.

10. Use Twitter as a discussion forum. Ask your clients and prospective clients what they would like to see, hear, taste, and experience.

11. Help. (via Twitip) Always help before asking for money. Twitter is not a place for you to hard sell individuals on services. We are here for discussions and not sales.

12. I started out with a personal profile that allowed me to create relationships before starting my company profile. (also via Twitip) I was able to cleaning transition between two accounts because people trusted me. If you start two accounts at the same time you will be overwhelmed and underwhelm your followers.

13. Use Hootsuite for productivity. Hootsuite allows you to pre-post Tweets to be sent out throughout the day. The important thing to remember is that you need to be involved in the conversation. If you are not there to interact with your followers there really is not a point for using the tool. However, it does help for those random tweets to stay in front of your followers.

14. Take pictures and share on Twitter. Add pictures on Twitter using Twitpic using your iPhone or mobile phone.

15. Use Google Analytics to measure the traffic directed from Twitter to your blog or website. If you can measure the traffic related to sales or aquisitions it help you understand an ROI from the tool. You can also use PostRank to measure engagement or your followers and your blog.

16. Encourage your employees to join Twitter and become part of the conversation.

17. Twitter connets thought leaders. Talk about a great brain trust!

18. Fill out your profile. Make sure you put information regarding your personal life as well as your business life. This is important because.. everyone reads it.

19. We add our Twitter URLs to our business cards. I also like to add my LinkedIN account and blog URL. This will encourage more of your networking friends to follow you and communicate more effectively.

20. Follow @Zappos. A perfect example of corporate twittering.

21. Download TweetDeck. Tweetdeck is a powerful tool to help you be productive while using Twitter.

22. Are you using a Blackberry or iPhone? You should definitly be looking at downloading an application to help you manage your twitter account while you are out of the office. Tweetdeck will sync your entire system together on one platform (fyi).

23. Thank you. When someone shares your post or tweet make sure you send a DM or Tweet thanking them for their support. Just as you should be emailing people to thank them for comments… same goes with Twitter.

24. Create a column or search feed on your Twitter productivity tool (Hootsuite or Tweetdeck) and start following potential clients, competition, and industry leaders…. Be very sure to organize them out to keep the messages separate.

25. Don’t add hundreds of people when you first join Twitter. Let the entire conversation happen naturally… your follower base will grow naturally

If you have anymore tips. Please add them below! Get on it!

Twitter Marketing : Basics Strategies and Tactics

I had the pleasure of presenting in South Bend, Indiana yesterday to the Indiana Small Business Development Center. My presentation was part of a 3 month Twitter Marketing tour sponsored by the ISBDC in support of my Twitter Marketing for Dummies book.

I wanted to post the slideshare that consists of my presentation in order to make sure the attendees of the event are able to remember the 4 hours of material presented. It was a blast.

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Break All the Rules or Don’t Waste My Time!

Last night, I was talking to Jeremy Derringer, owner and absolute SEO genius over at Slingshot SEO… we were discussing the idea of taking the “leap” and taking the chance when running your own business. Going @$#@ to the wall and dominating! Shouldn’t that be the way of thinking for every business owner?

When did rules ever apply to the art of running a business?

Let me preface this post by saying that I do not mean moral, ethical, or legal rules. There are rules that each person has set aside for themselves whether spiritual or from the laws of the land. I am talking about business rules.

They are the rules predestined and applied by business owners, scholars, and business minds throughout the centuries. Rules on innovation and marketing that if applied correctly will help you run a business but…

Times are trying/changing and individuals/companies are scraping to stay ahead of the competition and make a little bit of cash on the side. I am reading the book First, Break All the Rules byMarcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman and it had me thinking about the rules we apply to business marketing and thought-leadership.

I am sure you are thinking of typical rules that you apply on a daily basis in your business. What are they? Where did they come from? Why don’t you just break them?

My favorite example is from the minds that brought us Quicken and Quickbooks: Intuit. In the early days the founders were struggling to produce demand for their product. Distributors would not pick them up because, frankly, they were the 47th or so product on the market. They decided to take every cent of their budget in the bank and invest it in marketing directly to the consumer and not the distributor.

We are not talking about 10% of their budget or a small portion of the revenue… they bet everything on this ONE idea. The rest is history. They broke the rules and changed the mold of how sass products were sold and distributed.

What is keeping you from breaking the rules? What is keeping you from adopting a social media strategy that could revolutionize the way you communicate? What is keeping you from starting a blog or starting a Facebook group?

Is it fear? Is it understanding? Is it resources?

To this I say, break all the rules. Live out your business and revolutionize the way you reach your customers. Empower your company to defeat fear and rise above the rest. If you would rather lay in the trenches… don’t waste my time.

ISBDC to Sponsor 3-Month Twitter Tour

The wonderful people over at the ISBDC (Indiana Small Business Development Center) are sponsoring a 12 part seminar series over Twitter through the state of Indiana. I am blessed to be presenting for the serminar series to support my book (Twitter Marketing for Dummies)! If you can make it out to any of the events that would be awesome! Here is the basics of what we will be talking about:

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Increasing Sales and Revenue through Twitter

WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?

Building an online presence is a great first step, but how do we use that presence and use social media to make money? Using Twitter you (and your sales team) will have the ability to increase close rates and sales by building new connections and strengthening existing connections with your prospects! It doesn’t matter if you market to farmers, stay-at-home mothers, or C-Level employees, Twitter gives you the tools necessary  to connect on a deeper level with potential clients.

YOU WILL LEARN:

• The best way to design a Twitter marketing plan
• How to search and find information that will help with your sales process
• Connect with your prospects before you meet them!
• How to take online interaction to the offline environment and SELL!
• Tracking your close rates and measuring your success through social media
• 5  marketing points you can implement today!

FREE ADVICE ABOUT YOUR INTERNET WOES:

The 3-hour seminar will be followed by a 1 hour Q&A session with Internet experts designed to answer questions and address issues with regards to online initiatives.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Sales and marketing executives, small business owners and entrepreneurs

If you are interested in attending please send me an email or the associated ISBDC office! Thanks!

140 Bite Sized Ideas to Help Your Business

I have been searching for books that contain leadership information and content that I can use on Twitter when it comes to sharing information about leading companies. Kevin Eikenberry, renowned author and speaker, recently sent me a Twitter book that fulfilled all my desires. The book is called #LeadershipTweet and is filled to the brim with noteworthy leadership quotes to get me through the day. (I’m not kidding… I did love the book). I thought I would write a brief review of the book while listing some of the leadership tweets he has documented over the past couple of years.

The book breaks down into 4 sections plus a short foreword by the one and only, Chris Brogan. The sections include leadership actions, thoughts, inspiration, and how we can learn from one another to become better leaders.

I wanted to list 15 of my favorite leadership tweets from the book.

1. Remarkable leaders translate vision into reality

2. People don’t resist change; they resist being changed

3. Want better ideas? Create MORE ideas

4. Strive to be a leader who learns and a learner who leads

5. Remarkable leaders have formed a habit of doing things that average leaders don’t like to do

6. Remarkable leaders are willing to make bold decisions

7. Make a choice to make a different. Make a choice to lead

8. Great listening starts with an open heart and a curious mind

9. Your belief in someone’s potential is the first step towards helping them develop it

10. Be authentic–you will be a more successful leader (and person)

11. Remarkable leaders are network builders

12. Remarkable leaders are accountable for their actions

13. Remarkable leaders communicate with others in a way that is best for the other person

14. Remarkable learders communicate powerfully through stories.

15. Resistance is energy that leaders use to move change forward.

As you can already tell… the book is packed full of great ideas for leadership for 2010! You should definitely go check out the book. Follow this link to read thoughts, ideas, and inspiration from Kevin Eikenberry and the world of Twitter!

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Twitter Announces Enhanced Business Applications

We have been waiting… and by we I mean every social media consultant on the face of the planet… for Twitter to announce business friendly applications and developments. It finally came on Monday with the announcement of the development of what is called Contributors (and other applications).

From the Twitter Blog:

“The feature we are beta testing is called ‘Contributors’ – it enables users to engage in more authentic conversations with businesses by allowing those organizations to manage multiple contributors to their account. The feature appends the contributor’s username to the tweet byline, making the business to consumer communication more personal; e.g. if @Twitter invites @Biz to tweet on its behalf, then a tweet from @Twitter would include @Biz in the byline so that users know more about the real people behind organizations.”

I like the concept but it still is not as revolutionary as it should be (in my humble opinion). I trust that Twitter has some other ideas up their sleeves in regards to businesses truly maximizing the tool. Until then we will stumble… make mistakes… add to many followers… send out the wrong message and get spammed to death by MLM’s and idiots.

Until the beta is released to bigger subset of users the opinions… will be varied.

Want more information about the Twitter beta?

• Twitter signals commercial accounts (robbiz1978.blogspot.com)
• Twitter Runs “Feature Test” For Businesses (centernetworks.com)
• Twitter Highlights Coming Contributer API (thenextweb.com)
• BREAKING: Twitter Starts Testing Features for Businesses (mashable.com)

Twitter Should Listen to Warren Buffett. He Was Right in 1999.

I am in the process of reading Alice Schroeder’s book entitled The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. The book is a massive source of information about the life of Warren Buffett. Needless to say the book is unbelievable! I love to read about the life of people who, in my opinion, have lived a valuable and influential life.

At the beginning of the book Alice recounts an event from the Sun Valley Conference in Hailey, Idaho. Allen & Company, a boutique investment firm in Hollywood handles the event inviting such notables as Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and Rupert Murdoch.

In 1999 Warren Buffett was asked to be the keynote speaker to end the conference. This was a special year because the conference was filled with Internet tycoons ready to embark on billion dollar ventures in the new year. They were invited and were making the most of rubbing shoulders with the richest individuals around the world.

The Internet tycoons walked into the conference room that day hoping for a glowing reception and the blessings from one of the greatest investors of our time. What they received was quite the opposite.

Warren Buffett practically dismantled the belief in the new Internet startup companies. He likens the Internet Boom to that of the airline industry:

“…So I submit to you: I really like to think that if I had been down there at Kitty Hawk, I would have been farsighted enough and public-spirited enough to have shot Orville down, I owed it to future capitalists.”

“It’s wonderful to promote new industries, because they are very promotable. It’s very hard to promote investment in a mundane product. It’s much easier to promote an esoteric product, even particularly one with loses, because there’s no quantitative guideline.”

Warren Buffett, pg 19.

Most of the venture capitalists and entrepreneurs left the meeting slightly chuckling at “old Warren’s mistake.” They found out later that he was exactly right.

Web 2.0 companies should listen to Warren Buffett. He has always cautioned the vamping of over-promoted companies and increasing investment in techonolgy companies with no substance.

“You can get in way more trouble with a good idea than a bad idea, because you forget that the good idea has limits.” -Warren Buffett, page 21

I have always been a skeptic of increasing investment in social media and web 2.0. I do love the sites and I love the fact that they are free. I have a problem with the valuation of multiple billions of dollars for the site like Twitter.

This is a dangerous game we are playing when it comes to the multitude of millions of dollars invested in Internet startups. I am afraid we never learned to begin with.

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Why Should I Care About Twitter Lists?

I have been waiting to write this post. I don’t know if it is because I wanted to hear what other social media users thought… or I just didn’t care enough about another feature on Twitter. Needless to say… I have been researching Twitter lists and the inherent value of the lists. Because of that research I have come to three simple conclusions:

1. If you create Twitter lists be very sure you keep them updated and fresh.

2. It is not imperative to create lists. If you need organization… use a trusted source’s list or organize through an application like TweetDeck or Hootsuite.

3. Monitoring lists without following individuals is important to business research on Twitter.

For those of you who have not discovered Twitter lists… it is pretty simple. Twitter users have the ability to organize people they are following in topical lists. The organization of users based on lists is not new to the social media world. Facebook also allows you to organize your friends based on lists. To get a better understanding of Twitter lists view this video from BitRebels:

Twitter lists can be a powerful business tool as mentioned in point 3 of the “simple conclusions.” You have the ability to follow the updates of a group of people (or brands) without publicly acknowledging that you are following them. This is important for lead generation and competitive analysis. I have setup a Twitter list called Business Leads which help me keep track of individuals or companies I am interested in selling in the near future. If you decide to use a list for business leads… make sure you make them private. We wouldn’t want competition taking advantage of this new tool.. Would we?

I haven’t come to a conclusion on what I think about Twitter lists. Honestly, the feature is a little green… to make any rash decisions. Try it out. Make some lists for yourself and try to find some value. If you can’t find any value… move on with your life. There will be a new feature in a month to capture your attention.

For more Twitter List Resources:

John Jantsch: 5 Reasons to Use Twitter Lists

Red Eye: Twitter Lists Making Tweeting Better, Easier

Word Sell Inc: How To Use Twitter Lists

Social Media Today: The Ugly Side of Twitter Lists