25 Tools and Tips to Following Your Brand Online

There are plenty of ways to keep track of the conversations taking place on the Internet regarding your small business or your personal brand.

I wanted to create a list to help the beginners of social media marketing keep track of what is being said on the Internet.

1. Sign up for a business Twitter account. Start following and joining in the conversations!

2. Sign up for an account on HowSociable. Awesome tool.

3. Create a Facebook Fan Page. Invite your friends and clients to the page. It will help you keep track of your contacts as well as the conversations surrounding your brand.

4. Are you already on Twitter? Use Twitter Search to follow keywords across the millions using this awesome tool!

5. You want another Twitter Tool. Twilert allows you to sign up for email notification when something is mentioned regarding your brand.

6. Want to follow the conversation on Facebook? Try out the Facebook Lexicon.

7. Creat a folder (or a separate email address) to keep track of all the search happening online regarding your brand. This will help with organization.

8. Yahoo Pipes is an amazing tool that helps you organize content and alerts. Check it.

9. Did somebody say something about your brand? Make sure you respond. Respond as quickly as possible.

10. Search for any word on Twitter using Tweetscan.

11. Watch any personal branding video you can find by Gary Vaynerchuk.

12. Did you come across a negative comment? Respond in kindness but strategically. More often than not.. you will kill the negative comment just because you were listening.

13. Do you know how your industry is trending in the online environment? Check out Trendpedia.

14. Create a LinkedIN group for your business. This could be a great way to keep employees communicating. There is no reason you should be doing all the work!

15. Read the Quick N’ Dirty Social Media Monitoring Guide.

16. Do whatever Comcast is doing in the social media environment. Most of the time… they are doing it the right way.

17. Get over the fact that social media is not a black-magic… my college kid only uses it… tool. It is here to stay.

18. Would you rather pay for a complex monitoring service? Try Radian6. I know.. I have a small man crush on Radian6.

19. If you don’t have a blog… start one. It is important to be creating the content with the other content creators… why? Wouldn’t you rather someone be forwarded to your personal opinion rather than a landing page and brochure site?

20. Andy Beal thinks you should check out Backtype to monitor blog comments. I would agree.

21. Try 123People. That is far as I am going to go with that one. You just need to try it out.

22. Keep a watchful eye. Set aside a couple of minutes a day (once of twice) to check our online brand management. It is important to create the habit and stay on top of the conversation.

23.  According to Roger at ContentandMotion… you should be trying MonitorThis... “brand search on acid.”

24. For the more technically advanced… try Filtrbox.

25. Constantly read. read. read. We will never be ahead of the curve if we do not invest in ourselves. Subscribe to Wired. Whatever you do… make sure you stay on top of your game.

It is extremely important to at least implement one or two of the tools listed above. There are 1.5 Billion people with Internet on the planet. 81% of the entire global population is near a connection.

4.5 Billion mobile/internet devices will be on the market in 2010. The world is changing… are you going to change with it?

Defining Twitter Using Your Goals

Twitter is slowly starting to shift mainstream and (believe me) this does not mean anyone really knows how to use the tool. It is a chameleon of sorts, shifting definitions with every new user who joins the network.  There are a few necessary rules that have been developed post the creation of the site.

Overall it is a growing mass of people spouting links, ideas, quotes, conversations, and sometimes the Sleestacks (Copyright Michelle Riggen-Ransom via Twittip).

The question now stands… How do you define Twitter for yourself and how do you use Twitter the right way? Remember how you use the tool is completely based around your definition.

Defining Twitter

Why define Twitter? It is pretty simple. SO YOU DON’T WASTE TIME! Social media can be a huge time-suck if you do not define how you use each site. Believe me… even the most dedicated can drown in the social media pool.

Ask yourself why you decided to use the tool. Was it because you heard it was the THING to do? Do you want to keep up with old friend and colleages? Do you want to use it as a business networking tool? Maybe lead generation?

The questions you ask yourself are extremely important. Be honest with the way you want to use the tool. Write down your goals for using the Twitter network. I will give you the first couple goals on my Jan 2008 list.

1. Increase brand recognition for Brandswag and Kyle Lacy.

2. Learn from the professionals in the social media world.

3. Become obsessive in order to help others use Twitter for their benefit.

Twitter is whatever you define it (business and personal goals). Honestly, that is what makes the tool so attractive in the long run. Your experience is based on how you use the tool, who follows you and vice-versa.

How do you define Twitter?

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Use Your Highlight Reel to Build Your Story

I should just start a blog called, “Seth Godin Strikes Again!” because he is constantly reminding me of GREAT concepts in marketing. He has a post called, Which parts are you skipping? The concept of the post is to remind marketers that it is important to build a foundation to your story, make the good parts of the story easy to find and the beauty of the entire process… not just a piece.

This is an important concept, especially for the small business owner who is looking to establish a strategy in social media marketing. It is extremely important to build out a strategy (a foundation) before you begin using the hundreds of tools at your fingertips in the world of social media.

Every tool you use, whether it is Facebook, Vimeo, or your personal blog, is a highlight of the overall picture: You and Your Business. Social media marketing is a small piece of the overall puzzle but it does help you develop small highlight reels that build brand development.

Remember to focus on the overall strategy and use your highlight reel to pull people into the story.

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Huntington: A Bank That Cares in Indianapolis

I have always been a fan of rewarding companies or individuals who really take the extra step to help an individual. I experienced that today with a local bank in Indianapolis.

My company was switching banks and were investigating a couple of local institutions in the area. While investigating I remembered meeting with an individual named Scott Long who works at Huntington Bank.

We decided to meet with Huntington to discuss our options. Needless to say it was a great meeting but the beautiful part comes next…

I had some personal issues arise and Scott helped me over the wall. We were able to secure a checking account through Huntington and move towards a more secure and organized financial future (as a company).

I have had bad experiences in the past with banks because of things that happened 5-8 years ago. Scott went overboard and helped me out of my problems and put me on the straight path.

Do you want to know who is going to succeed in this world? The people like Scott who take care of people… individuals… business owners… and employees. I will be with Huntington for a long time because of the support they gave me as an individual and for my company.

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Social Media: If I Want It I’ll Buy It. Don’t Sell Me.

Image by websuccessdiva via Flickr

Truth be told.. I am getting immersed in Lisa Hoffman’s blog over at New Media Lisa. She has been KILLING it the past few weeks. She wrote a post recently called Social Media Isn’t About the Selling Cycle – It’s About the Buying Cycle. The post is about the concept of shifting the focus on an individual from a selling cycle to a buying cycle. From her post:

“More than ever before, people are expecting and demanding exactly what they want in every facet of their lives. What does this say about the typical hyper focus on the selling cycle? And what would happen if we turned the telescope around and considered the buying cycle instead?”

I don’t know about you but (as a sales generator) it is kind of nerve racking to shift from a selling cycle to a buying cycle. Does that mean I can’t actively sell? Good God… and no it doesn’t.

Don’t get me wrong…there is some romantic notion behind the thought of creating a meaningful relationship and allowing the buyer to find you in the process but how do you plan and measure for that? Don’t you need to balance between a selling and buying cycle when using social media marketing as part of your strategy?

There is only one problem between a relationship building sales approach when you are building a company: bringing sales in initially. There is a long and short tail approach to selling. Social media is the long tail.

It takes time to build up relationships and create the trust factor that allows people to come to you. That is the whole idea isn’t it? So work towards building the buying cycle to the point where you are the qualified destination for people searching for a solution. Work your butt off to create that special point where selling becomes secondary..

So the answer?

Building the Trust Factor: blogging, testimonials, social media, writing articles.. etc. etc. etc. communicating!

Building a Company: off-line networking, creating relationships in your community, traditional marketing

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Why Is It Important to Listen?

There have been many conversations surrounding the value of social media. How do we measure a return on investment using these tools? How do we guarantee that the tools are going to work in our favor?

There are a couple of things you should be using social media for in the near future. That will give you an intangible benefit to your company. The first thing is customer service. We will talk about the concept of using social media as a customer service tool in the future. I wanted to focus on the second reason which is reputation management.

Are you listening to what people are saying about you online? I can give you two bad examples and one good example of companies who are listening to what clients and potential clients are discussing.

The first bad example is that of Independent Federal Credit Union in Anderson, IN. I had a bad customer service experience at one of their branches in Anderson. You can read the entire post at An Example Of Terrible Customer Service: IFCU. The problem isn’t necessarily that they had bad customer service. The problem is that they had NO IDEA I had written a blog post about my experience.

When you are not listening to what people are saying about you… how can you change opinions?

The second example is from KSM Business Technology and Digitech in Indianapolis. You can read about the entire experience at the post about KSM Business Technologies Being Worst than Godaddy at customer service. The sad thing about this post is that they are a business technology and hosting company. They had no idea I had a bad experience with a couple of their reps and now it is blasted out over the masses on the Internet. They still have no idea.

This has nothing to do with the size of the company (the offending or the offended). This has everything to do with caring about the customer experience.

You want to know… You NEED to know… You SHOULD know…

If you can think of a reason why you should not be listening to clients and potential clients on the Internet. Please let me know.

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Controlling Word of Mouth Marketing Using Social Media

A good friend of mine, Hazel Walker over at the Networking Strategist has a great post called Word of Mouth is Always Working. If you read my blog pretty regularly you know that I am a huge fan of two things:

1. word of mouth marketing

2. social media marketing.

There is one point I wanted to take out of Hazel’s blog post and relate it to social media and using social media for brand development. From Hazel’s blog:

“WOM is the most dangerous form of marketing, in that you cannot control people. They may carry the wrong message or a negative message.”

As a social media marketing and design company we try to focus on building messages that can be carried or echoed across many different types of people (you know…something that sticks!). The beautiful thing about social media marketing and the Internet is that you CAN control word of mouth marketing to an extent. Let me step you through a scenario. For sake of argument I will use XYZ company as an example.

Let’s say XYZ decided to create a website for a group of people out of state. Let’s say the project didn’t go so well because of a lack of management on both sides of the issue. We all make mistakes right? They finished up the project and the client decides to spread a “virus” across the channels or the Internet and through their friends:

“XYZ company is the worst to work with! They didn’t even hold our hand and pat us on the head because we took time out of our day to deal with them!”

The truth of the matter? Even though XYZ did an excellent job in saving the project and pushing through to try and satisfy the client… they still spread the “virus.”

The beautiful thing? The client’s friends who are INFECTED will get online and search for XYZ… guess what will come up? Everything good. If you are spending time investing into activity on the Internet, you will find that your content, your best clients content, and your use of social media will hit the search engines first (at least that is what we have found).

Social media marketing is very much rooted in the development of BRAND. If you can figure out how to balance your social media use it will be worth it in the long run. Nothing dissapears on the Internet.

Have you searched for what people are saying about your company?

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