Essential Twitter Tips For Reaching Local Customers

Vince Robisch writes premium web content for businesses that believe their site is an extension of their brand. He believes keyword stuffing looks ridiculous and that Twitter can be used effectively by local businesses. You can find him at his personal blog Help Me Reinvent or on Twitter @vincerobisch as he feverishly prepares for the launch of his new site.

With over 100 million people estimated to be using Twitter, its worldwide reach is without question. Companies with an online presence like @DellOutlet and companies with physical locations around the world like @Starbucks have over two million followers collectively who can all be served via their computer or a short drive from wherever they are located. But how does a local business use Twitter? What if you need local customers and can’t do business with people outside of your limited geographical territory?

The answer is that Twitter can still be an extremely effective social media tool for a locally-based business. Regardless of your geographic reach, there are many techniques you will want to understand in using Twitter to grow your business. For a complete understanding of those techniques, you should just buy Kyle’s book, Twitter Marketing For Dummies and save yourself a significant amount of time trying to figure Twitter out on your own.

The goal of this post is to get you startedon a targeted local use of Twitter. This list will take you from creating your Twitter profile to actually converting a sale. Here are the essential Twitter building blocks for a business seeking local customers:

• Be A Person – People generally like to know who the person is on the other side of the Twitter account. At the very least, use your logo in your profile and have employees of your business be some of your followers. Many businesses have had success by an actual person (president/CEO) being the face of their Twitter account. You can still link your profile to your company website.
• Have A Conversation – Don’t just spam people with offers and tell them to come to your restaurant or store.
• Search For Your Company Name – Find out what people are saying (if anything) about your company and respond. Answering questions and responding to complaints can build serious goodwill in the Twitter community.
• Retweet – People really appreciate it if you retweet something interesting. It not only gives you more to tweet about, it builds a connection with the person you retweeted.
• Search For People To Follow Using Your Email Contact List - This will tell you who out of your actual customer base is using Twitter.
• Research Who Your Local Followers Are Interested In And Follow Them - If this is done in conjunction with the previous step, it’s almost like getting a free list of potential referrals.
• Use Search Tools To Find People In Your Geographical Area You can use the “Find People/Find on Twitter” tool with your Twitter account and search by city or state. You can also use tools like WeFollow, Twellowhood, and Tweepz, among others, to identify local accounts.
• Follow Local Businesses – Think of the local businesses that you frequent and follow them. They are likely to have a similar customer base.
• Don’t Follow Every Local Media Outlet – Many local radio and television stations have a HUGE following. The problem is that they also often don’t engage in a conversation. They simply tweet and don’t listen or respond. If you would like to possibly gain some media attention, follow specific individuals associated with the outlet that actually interact on Twitter.
• Follow National People That You Genuinely Like – It’s not a bad idea to show you have some interests outside of your neighborhood. One thing you might want to consider though is whether following certain people might alienate potential customers. For instance, do you really want to label your business with a certain political viewpoint based on who you are following?
• Let Twitter Do The Work For You – Twitter’s new “Suggestions for You” tool might make finding followers easier.
• Use TwitPics – Show some in-store and behind the scenes photos of your business. It gives people in the community a certain comfort level before they ever enter your physical location.
• Post Events – You might even offer a discount to your followers and tweet a specific promotional code.
• Promote Your Current Customers To Build Loyalty – Retweet their content or simply tweet something nice about @currentcustomer.
• Create An Event – Based on your research up to this point, determine the local influencers and invite them in for an event or give them a special offer.
• Wait Patiently For The Twitter Business Center To Launch.
• Send Out Instant Coupons – Gauge the responsiveness of your followers and encourage business on slow days.

The possibilities are endless. By now though, you should have enough information to take steps in utilizing Twitter to grow your local customer base. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and tweet your business to another level!

10 Amazing LinkedIn Status Updates

Guest post by Anthony Juliano

Stay top-of-mind, start conversations in 140 characters or less

Wouldn’t you love to have the opportunity to get in front of customers and prospects every day to share your expertise, passion, and ideas? Well thanks to LinkedIn, you do—if you take the time to update your status. Just like your updates on Facebook help you stay in touch with friends, LinkedIn status updates can help you stay connected to your professional contacts in ways that can have a dramatic impact on how you’re perceived—or whether you’re thought of at all.

While it may seem difficult to come up with something to say, there’s actually quite a bit worth talking about. Here are ten ways you can update your status so that your name not only stays in the mind of your audience, but starts conversations with them as well.

• Mention what you’re working on. One of the best status updates is a simple mention of the most interesting thing you’ll be working on each day. Over time, mentioning different aspects of your work will have a bigger impact on what people know about you than even the most carefully written profile.

• Share what you’ve read. Building a social media audience isn’t about self-promotion—it’s more a matter of being seen as a resource. That includes being seen as a go-to person when it comes to the latest thinking in your industry. If you’ve read something that’s worth your audience’s attention, tell ‘em about it (and link to it, if possible).

• Share advice/opinion. You have expertise to share—why not summarize it and share it? Even if you think it’s simplistic, there’s probably someone out there who would benefit from your knowledge. And if your status is more opinion than fact, just be aware of how your audience might react. There’s nothing wrong with encouraging a little debate—as long as you can respond.

• Share memorable quotations. A great quotation can inspire, educate, and amuse. Share others’ thoughts when they reflect your beliefs, and you’ll help the audience understand not only what you know, but what you value.

• Ask questions. A question mark is the only punctuation mark that demands feedback. Phrasing your status in the form of a question is a great way to engage your audience, tap into their expertise, and show them you care about their opinion.

• Mention events you’re part of. Location-based social networks like Foursquare and Gowalla aren’t the only way to tell people where they can find you. Tell your audience what events you’re part of—before, during, and after they occur—and you’ll be better positioned to connect with them not just online, but also face-to-face.

• Share content from other sites. The 140-character maximum length of a LinkedIn status update is deceiving: it seems limiting, but only if you think of it as the whole conversation. Instead, think of it as a way to generate interest in a longer conversation–content you’ve created elsewhere, that is, like blog posts, photos, and videos.

• Cross-post tweets. LinkedIn’s 140-character limit on statuses is no coincidence: it’s a direct result of its integration with Twitter. Now, just add “#in” to a tweet, and it can do double-duty as your LinkedIn status (and it’s just as easy to make your LinkedIn status a tweet—just click on the Twitter check box). It’s important to remember, however, that many tweets are not appropriate status updates—especially at-replies that depend upon context to be understood. Make sure that the tweet can stand on its own and is aligned with your goals for being on LinkedIn. Many users have set up automatic integration between LinkedIn and Twitter, and it’s causing confusion and negative impressions among their audiences.

• Share job opportunities. Is your company hiring? Why not inform those you trust first? And don’t just limit this to jobs with your employer: help your contacts find talent, and help job seekers, by promoting others’ job postings. It’s a great way to be a resource to those in your network.

• Directly promote your product or service—but only infrequently. Many of us are on LinkedIn because we ultimately want to be thought of first for a certain product or service. With that in mind, it’s okay to use your status update for direct promotion, but only sparingly and with the knowledge that too much promotion will cause you to be seen as an interruption to the conversations others are hoping to participate in via social networking.

As you can see, there’s no shortage of opportunities to use LinkedIn to connect with your audience. Instead of waiting for people to come to your profile, get in front of them by updating your status every day—or at least a few times a week. It may just be the missing link in your networking efforts.

Now it’s time for your ideas: what types of LinkedIn status updates do you use? How have these helped you connect with others?

Why Are You On Twitter?

Erik lives in Marion Indiana where he recruits for Indiana Wesleyan University,and works with their Social Media Initiatives. He also cohosts a weekly podcast “Social Media Serenity” at http://socialmediaserenity.com Find him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/erikjfisher

Why are you on Twitter?

The most common answers fall somewhere in the realm of the following:

• Mini blogging

• Macro Texting

• Chatting

• Self-Promoting

• Marketing

• News Aggregating

• Spamming

Whatever your reason or motives, it’s a waste of time if no one reads what you write, right?

If your going to share, it makes sense to do it right. Sometimes the original writer gets it perfect and a Retweet, official or manual, will be just fine. Let’s move past the discussion of what method of Retweet is best, and on to an altogether new discussion.

What if the best way to share is to actually write your own tweet? Actually pull us in to the tweet by writing it well, and sharing it to your unique audience. The original tweet writer or blogger may not have packaged their ideas in a way that would draw in your followers, but if it’s something your interested in, perhaps your followers would appreciate seeing it, through your eyes.

Before you cry foul, let’s clarify something. I don’t count this as stealing or repurposing the content. It’s being a content curator. If the content you are pointing to is good, then it will maintain it’s own stickiness. Remember, something drew you to that content originally, and it was compelling enough to persuade you to share it.

If you write a tweet well, or Retweet a well-written tweet, it’s passing on a referral. You’re driving traffic to the originators site, how can they complain? I’ve found many blogs or websites that I’ve subscribed to as well as people to follow and interact with on Twitter due to others Retweets.

The best way to share is to use a URL shortener, and send a compelling tweet. You know your followers, and the reason they follow you, or at least you should. I polled my followers and those I follow that people follow me to hear about Tech or Social Media news, productivity tips, humor, and authenticity. Their words, not mine.

Facebook at 500 Million: Why it Matters for Your Business

On July 21, Facebook announced a milestone, noting that they have now surpassed half a billion users. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO, stated in his blog post and in interviews that the mission of Facebook remains what it started out focused on: “to make the world a more open and connected place.”   For businesses and organizations everywhere, this is a:

“be aware, be very aware”

moment of significance because Facebook has carved out it’s own solar system within the Internet universe! It is no longer just a popular website.  It is now a destination all to itself!

This blog post will go over the significance of what this massive Facebook user base means and how businesses and organizations need to evaluate and have a plan for their Facebook presence.

With a user base that is second to only 2 nations in terms of overall population, Facebook has now become it’s own, unique destination.  You can do so many things within Facebook, some people may not need to go anywhere else!

Think of Facebook as the “sun” with a growing system of planets around it.  These planets are “tools” within Facebook and services provided within the Facebook platform; and the pull of Facebook is strong, as it is building, growing, and pulling more and more industries and markets into it’s unique system…all of which are finding ways to thrive (think ‘grow & expand’ business).

As noted, Facebook has become it’s own, nearly full-service web portal for people to use, it’s own “super power” within the Internet.  Increasingly, people will “search Facebook” instead of “search the web”.  People find friends, connect with friends, get news, find businesses, research businesses, program new apps, showcase new products, interact with customers, solicit input and feedback, share videos, photos, and more, all within Facebook.   This doesn’t discount the need for a great web presence outside of Facebook, but notes the need for a specific plan for within Facebook!

If you aren’t well represented here, you may be losing out on a significant brand awareness and customer building platform.  Here are some recent stats on Facebook use:

• Nielsen Online’s US June 2010 report showed that Facebook was 1st out of the top 10 web brands when it comes to time spent online.
• During the month of June, Facebook US users spent an average of four hours and 39 minutes on the site, far surpassing time spent on any other site!
• Globally, average Facebook user spends 6 hours on Facebook per month.  Who is second? MSN/WindowsLive/Bing at a mere 2 hrs., 41 minutes.

So what should a business do?

1. Set Your Page Apart

Note that Facebook’s free “Page” tools give you some functionality, but they give EVERYONE the same functionality, so the first agenda of the day is to set yourself apart!  Create a Landing Page rather than having new visitors to your Facebook Page come to your wall. If you enjoy FBML coding, you can use Static FBML. If programming is not your thing, then use a tool like TabSite that allows you to customize a Tab and have sub-tabs, all while using a simple WYSIWYG Content Editor.

Explore Media Video Company has a Custom TabSite with Flashthat scrolls thumbnails
across the Fan Page and then display information on hover over and then
displays the video upon clicking.  Clean, Crisp, Unique!

2.Engage Your Audience

There are at least three ways to do this, and usually a combination of two will work best:

• Use offers, giveaways or competitions to drive traffic to your page or group.
• Invest in targeted FB ads to recruit fans.
• Find and manually add existing fans/employees etc to build an initial audience.

None of these is a magic bullet but all can help build up your base!

3. Be Social!

Answer questions, respond to input, share a bit about your company and what makes you unique (i.e. let your hair down!).  Nothing works better than prompt, thoughtful responses!

See Mari Smith’s Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/MariSmith for an example of reaching out with timely responses and cheery helpfulness!

4. Reinforce your Brand

Customizing your Fan Page gives you the opportunity to extend your branding.  In the example above, Explore Media’s Fan Page includes their logo and looks strikingly similar to their website, see here www.Explore-Media.com.  This can give visitors a sense of comfort and recognition when they see your branding and they more readily will “Like” your page and engage with you.

5. Keep Them Coming Back!

Be creative with your Facebook page marketing so that it rewards visitors for increased interaction. Provide some entertainment or added value such as a “Facebook Only Coupon Code” and they’ll keep returning and promoting you across their network.

6. Connect Your Other Social Feeds

There is no shortage of Fan Page Apps that allow you to share your information right on your Fan Page.  With Slideshare’s App you can share your papers and presentations, and there’s no excuse not to share your Blog posts, your Twitter feed, and your YouTube Channel!  This is IMPORTANT because visitors may not go elsewhere to look you up, so give’em all you can while they are with you!  See the Eco-Friendly EverGreen RV Travel Trailer Fan Page below which use the TabSite App to showcase their product, News (via RSS), YouTube Videos, and more right within their Fan Page!

So, to close, remember:

• Facebook is not just a website, it is now a destination!
• To not adequately consider your business presence on Facebook would be a big mistake!
• Times are changing, are you?  Develop a Facebook presence, use the tools they give, but expand beyond that with Apps and customizations to give your presence some “bang”!

Hope to see you in the Facebook Solar System!

Since 2005, Mike has played an integral role in designing, deploying, and tracking robust web design and Internet Marketing strategies for over 200 clients, and is an accomplished Internet Marketing Consultant.  He holds a M.S. in Organizational Development & Leadership from Shippensburg University of PA, and a B.A. from Bethel College in Mishawaka, IN.  Mike is a Web Design and Internet Marketing Consultant at Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., an innovative web design and internet marketing company based in the Midwest.  Digital Hill is the maker of Facebook TabSite, a leading Facebook Fan Page customization tool. Connect with Mike on Facebook at www.MikeGingerich.me.

13 Steps to Rally the Troops and Build a Loyal Army of Fans on Facebook

Since 2002, Chad H. Pollitt has played an integral role in designing, developing, deploying, executing and tracking robust web marketing strategies for over 100 client companies and organizations and is an internet marketing expert. †He holds a BS in Entrepreneurship from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and an Internet Marketing Masters Certification from the University of San Franciscoís prestigious School of Business and Management.

Isn’t building a loyal Army of fans the goal of every Social Media Campaign?† Yes and no. . .† Ultimately, the goal is to grow sales, lead generation, solicit donations, etc., but social media conversion is still in its infancy.† It’s not like an ecommerce site or a company’s website that uses calls-to-action (CTAs) and unique value propositions (UVPs) to generate leads or convert visitors. †New Facebook apps like Digital Hill’s TabSite is leading the way in social media conversion technology by allowing fan pages to use CTAs and UVPs to funnel visitors to a desired action.

Since †direct customer acquisition and lead generation is still in its infancy in social media, one very simple and important metric to consider is number of fans.† Whether you’re a brand, offering a product or service, non-profit, political campaign, etc., if you use social media as one of your marketing channels you’re attempting to build the biggest fan base possible while encouraging, creating and controlling the virtual conversation through engagement on the social media platform.† Facebook, in most cases, is the best way to create an online community for your fans to socialize and communicate about your product, service, etc.† Nothing brings people together faster than uniting them around a cause or a new product or service that will add value to their life.

Below are 13 ways you can rally the troops and build a loyal Army of Facebook Fans:

1.† Focus On What Matters

People only go to the internet for two reasons.† To solve a problem or be entertained.† Most businesses are in the business of solving problem.† If people “Like” your brand they are doing it to align their personal brand with yours, vouch for your product or service, solve their problems or potential problems, or be entertained.† Regardless of why they’re your fan make sure you focus on what matters to them.

2. Create Networks

Lobby Facebook for your own company or brand network that your employees can join. As far as I can tell, Facebook only requires an email address to associate with that network. The more employees a company has in the network, the more influence and reach that network will have.

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=add_work

3.† Building Rituals

It is very important to establish routines in order to develop your fan’s expectations for future engagement.† Rituals should help build a sense of online community by offering regular give-a-ways, coupons, blog posts, etc.

4. Connect Your Blog

If “Content is King” and “Backlinks are Queen” then Blogs are Gods. I recommend to all of my clients to let their Blog power their Social Media campaigns. Through the use of the TabSite or NetworkedBlogs’ Facebook app it’s never been easier to connect your blog to your Facebook Business Page.

http://www.tabsite.com

http://www.facebook.com/networkedblogs

5. Offer Unique Value

Why should someone “Like” your Facebook Business page? If you offer your prospective fans something of perceived value they’re much more likely to become a fan. Through numerous Facebook apps you can give away coupons, whitepapers, ebooks, etc. Here’s one of my favorites:

http://apps.facebook.com/slideshare

6.† Define the conversation

Since you control the platform, you control the conversation.† Not only can you make the initial engagement, but you can jump in your community members conversations as well.† If a post can be construed as negative you’ll have the ability to delete it.† You can show wall posts only after you’ve approved them.† Keep in mind though, not all negative conversations are bad.† When the iPod first came out it received horrible reviews for being easily scratched.† Apple turned that around by selling millions of cases!

7. Promote Your Brand and Company Through Engagement

Organizations can engage their fans or prospective fans through quizzes, contests, virtual gifts, games and many more. Large brands such as Honda and Outback Steakhouse are two good examples of deployment success. Engagement can be done utilizing dozens of free Facebook apps or through custom development (shameless plug, call me). Below is one of the more popular free apps:

http://www.facebook.com/wildfireinteractive

8.† Develop Loyal Lieutenants

Why not reward some of your most vocal fans and supporters with a bigger role in your fan page content creation?† Offer to post their blog article or video to Facebook.† They will not only appreciate the engagement and new status as a fan, but will become a bigger cheerleader of your brand.† †

9. Create Custom Tabs

Every organization is unique in their own way and not all “ready-made apps” can effectively communicate this message. Restaurants may want to lay out their menu, Real Estate Agencies may want to present pictures and contact information for all of their Realtors and manufacturers may want a custom “About Us” page. The above can easily be achieved through the development of a custom tab utilizing Facebook TabSite. This should help get you started:

http://www.tabsite.com

10. Leverage the Wall Feed: Go Viral!

Wall feeds are the first thing your fans see when they log in. If you compel them to “Like” or engage with your post, all of their friends will be notified and may follow suite (hence, going viral). Compelling content should only require a little extra effort when planning out your post or maybe even some humor.

11. Get Your Vanity URL

Once your Facebook Business page acquires 25 fans you can create a unique Facebook URL (ex. http://www.facebook.com/YourBusinessNameHere). This will allow you to market your Facebook Business page offline. For the last six weeks Honda has been running television ads sending people to their branded Facebook page via a vanity URL.

Creating a vanity URL that is keyword heavy is worth considering too. If you’re a Chicago plumber you may want to consider http://www.facebook.com/ChicagoPlumber. Google may find your content relevant enough to put your Facebook Business page on the first page for the search “Chicago Plumber.” Even if your company website is on the first page of Google, having your Facebook Business page on the first page of Google will increase the likelihood of your company getting a click-through while simultaneously taking away a link from one of your competitors.

http://www.facebook.com/username

12. Facebook Advertising (PPC or PPV)

Facebook allows you to advertise a website, business page, group or event. I always recommend the Pay Per Click option over the Pay Per View. Facebook advertising also allows you to market to a specific geography, gender, age, keywords, education level and more. Compared to Google Adwords, Facebook Advertising is much more targeted.

http://www.facebook.com/advertising

13. Track Analytics Using Facebook Insights

With Facebook Insights you can get detailed data on your fan page visitors.  You’ll know what demographics are visiting your page.  If you couple this with Google Analytics on your website you will have two very powerful tools that enable you to monitor your campaigns.

http://www.facebook.com/insights

Technology in Third World Countries is Changing

Nilufer Hajra is a young writer who believes in the power of words and loves to read. She’s innovative and creative when it comes to writing. Like the others, she aims to be different and wants to reach the top but she will only do so with honesty and hard work. Being a bilingual of English and French, Nilufer has traveled to many countries and is currently based somewhere in Asia with her family, cats and a rooster.She can be contacted at niluferauladin@yahoo.com

Technology has been growing fast over the years and some of us may find it hard to believe that there are still places in the world that have been left untouched or unaffected by technology. Most of these places form part of the ‘Third World’ countries, a term used to describe non-developing countries since the Cold War. Though the term, ‘Third World’ countries, is not used anymore, technology in these countries is not as appealing as to the rest of the world where it plays a big part in people’s lives from morning to evening.

Even though, people living in undeveloped countries don’t really know what modern technology or gadgets mean, they do know however that medicine forms a big part of their technology. People living in the ‘Third World’ countries desperately need technology not for social networking but to be and stay healthy.

‘Third World’, undeveloped and developing countries struggle to provide the best healthcare to their respective people. While Africa and Afghanistan would come to mind when speaking of undeveloped and poor countries, there are several developing countries such as India, China and Malaysia that are still struggling to provide the best medical facility to their people.

Check-Ups
In countries such as Malaysia and India where there are abundant of doctors and medical specialists, medical check-ups don’t come cheap. Moreover, there are still many places in these particular countries that are deprived of medical services. Nevertheless, there are organizations that are ready to take this step and make everyone receive the medical services that they need.

In India, technology has deeply helped both doctors and the patients. Renowned news channel, CNN, recently showcased a documentary on India’s medical facilities to show how technology has immensely helped reach the underprivileged patients there. On top of the list; a doctor is able to consult his patient via satellite, a facility not widely practiced over the world. Telemedicine, as it is called, is practical, safe and not expensive. With telemedicine, the patients and their doctors don’t have to be in the same room for the treatment, monitoring and examination to happen. This is basically to facilitate the patient who at times, cannot be treated by his local doctor and instead of being sent to a city doctor, telemedicine makes the patient’s life easier.

The less fortunate countries such as Afghanistan & Africa will have difficulties implementing the telemedicine in their system as technology is very slowly evolving in these countries.

Medical Treatments
While Americans are struggling to come to terms with the new healthcare policy set by President Obama, majority of people in the ‘Third World’ countries would give their right hands for a good medical treatment. Awareness of the underprivileged has been constantly brought to light by celebrities but these under-developed nations are still in the lurch due to insufficient medical expertise.

Meanwhile in developing countries, technology has been used in good ways to make medical facilities available to many. In South-East Asia, several nations work together to provide the best medical care for their people. Malaysia & Singapore work together to provide the best healthcare for their people. In Malaysia, there are several hospitals with advance equipments that cater to critical-state patients. Patients from Singapore are at times referred back to Malaysian hospitals for treatment and Singapore itself serves as an advanced technology lab for several Malaysian hospitals.

Affordable Treatments
The high-class treatment and advanced technology in Asian hospitals has made several Asian countries as the perfect choice for tourists when it comes to medical facilities. Patients from the ‘First & Second World’ nations opt to undergo their medical treatment in developed countries such as India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines due to the cheaper medical costs in these countries.

In ‘First & Second World’ countries, there should be no lack of advanced technology equipments in their hospitals but the costs of treatment there are, without a doubt, higher and more expensive than in developing countries.

Technology in Third World Countries
Technology in medicine is slowly evolving in these countries. In the future, advanced equipments will be available in a lot more hospitals in developing countries to enable more and more people to be treated easily and at a cheaper cost. For underdeveloped nations, doctors and several organizations are working hard to make medical facilities and treatments easily reachable to the underprivileged people. The wait for advanced medical equipments to reach the underdeveloped countries is even longer due to the fact that some of these nations are badly damaged with no government to lead these nations and its people.

The Value of a Social Media Conversion Funnel

Kristina Allen is the online marketing manager for @ioninteractive where she handles social media and PR initiatives. Kristina is also a graduate student currently working towards a master’s in communication with an emphasis on classical rhetoric. You can read her daily blog posts at The Post-Click Marketing blog, or connect with her @allenkristina on Twitter.

————

Setting up a social media presence is easy. Engaging with targeted followers and fans is pretty easy too. Tying social media back to business objectives shouldn’t be hard. Connecting social media to ROI via social conversions…yikes!

A few weeks ago Jay Baer participated in a podcast with the Executive VP of ion interactive (my employer) on why a social conversion funnel is so important to a mature social media strategy.

Jay says we have to move past using the number of fans, followers, and subscribers as key metrics, and start deciding which user actions or set of actions leads to an actual conversion. Once these actions are defined, we can then use them as key metrics that are easily tied back to ROI.

For instance, if you’re an online marketer looking to generate leads by having a visitor fill out a form on your website, the hard conversion will still be having the form filled out. However, the social media conversion would be tracking how many of the people who fill out the form came in from one of your social channels.

An example might be:

It should be easy to see how tying these actions back to social media ROI is clearer than going the murky route of trying to tie the number of followers you have to ROI.

Jay says, “What I think a lot of people are referring to when they say ‘social conversion’ is converting people to fans or followers,” but “what’s the point in having a Facebook fan page if you don’t really have a plan for what to do with those people once they get there. So I would certainly hope that we can get to the point where social conversion is really a funnel, and not just a single action.”

Of course a sale isn’t the only type of conversion that matters, and in fact if the main objective for your social strategy is driving awareness or loyalty, tracking a hard conversion like a sale wouldn’t be of complete interest to you. In that case it would be good to look at the number of social engagements taking place in your universe (RTs, comments, social bookmarking), bounce rates and time on site.

It would also be a good idea to track which pages your visitors from social sites click through beyond the entry page. Do they look at your About page (probably), do they look at your services page?

Which pages are they looking at, and how can you optimize those pages for your social traffic to benefit your ultimate objective?

If awareness is your goal, what can you do to get RSS subscribers to “like” you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter and then share your content?

If loyalty is your goal, what can you do to get visitors that enter via a blog post to stay on your site? How can you get them to read multiple blog posts or subscribe to your RSS feed or newsletter?

Figure our which user action or set of actions determines your social media ROI, and then track those metrics. Having a social conversion funnel will help you watch your program grow and succeed, and will also show you which initiatives are failing, so you can move on to something else.

If you’re interested in learning more about social conversions, you can read the Jay Baer podcast episode transcript here, or download the episode from iTunes (search: ion interactive or “conversations on conversion”)

Which social conversion metrics are you currently tracking, or which ones do you plan to start measuring to improve your strategy?

Top 10 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is Exploding

Kait is a recent college graduate, newfound entrepreneur and working on her IMBA on her spare time.  She is avidly unique and confronts life with precocity attributable to her coffee addiction.  Her passions include running, writing, the mountains and social media marketing.   Visit: KaitVinson.com or @TheRealKait

Top 10 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is Exploding:

There has been a lot of buzz recently about the future of marketing and social media.  The emergence of social media networks and social media managers has been in astounding numbers.  I did a little research as to why this was happening at such as rapid rate and this is what I found.

5 Steps to Making Monetary Gains With Your Content

Today’s guest post is written by Corry Cummings. Corry is the owner of Content Customs, a content creation company that specializes in high quality web content writing services. He also runs a blog over at Content Customs, which is managed and written by one of the head writers of the company.

One of the most important considerations for web site owners and web developers is content. Nothing has the potential to offer more visibility and better returns on investment than content. Unlike other marketing techniques, content works when you are not. This means that it is one of the major ways to secure the new American dream – passive income. However, it is not as simple as choosing a web site template and throwing some content up. There are generally 5 steps to making monetary gains with your content.

1. Perform Some Keyword Research
One of the first things that you should do (arguably before you even pick a web site topic) is perform some simple keyword research. Try to find keywords that web site surfers typically search for yet have limited competition. This may be difficult at first. Keyword research can take anywhere from a few hours to several weeks. Be patient and find the markets in which you can compete. Your ample research will pay off in the end.

2. Observe the Basics of Search Engine Optimization in Your Content
When you first start developing content to make money on a web site, you must simply follow the basics of search engine optimization. Extensive search engine optimization can greatly slow down your initial efforts. It is much better to initially get some well written content on your web site that makes it a valuable resource than to spend weeks getting each page finalized before publication. At first, simply remember that your keyword phrases should be at least 2% of your total word count for each page

3. Establish a Target Audience
Recognize the traffic that you want to get and make sure your content addresses that audience directly. If you are catering to professionals, your web site will need to have a professional, non-conversational tone and include plenty of facts and statistics. However, if you are targeting a much younger or casual audience, your content must be casual and conversational. All of the traffic in the world is worthless unless you create a service that your visitors want and consider to be a valuable addition to their lives.

4. Secure Affiliate Offers and Products
This should be a rather obvious step. If you have nothing to sell or promote, you cannot make any money. Choose products that you can promote indirectly through content. It is absolutely crucial that you choose affiliates that relate to your content. You cannot expect to secure memberships or make sales if you attempt to sell dog collars on a web site that promotes video games. If you can gear your content to identify a problem that your visitors may have, you can easily solve that problem with one of your promoted products.

5. Launch Your Ongoing Content Marketing Campaign
Once you have your web site developed to the point that it can attract visitors and sell services or products, it is time to begin advertising. You can choose to target social media, blogs and other related web sites. Your main consideration is to exchange or build logical and valuable links back to your original content. Yes, this means that you might need to write some content for free. However, this is one of the only sure fire ways to build visibility and ongoing traffic to your web site.

You want your content to work for you. If the content is written properly, then there is no reason why the content does not make you money for years. It is also important however, that you market your content and build links to each page. Even if you decide to use a writing service of some sort, you still need to spend a lot of time putting together a content plan. You should thoroughly plan out each and every piece of content. This will insure that your not wasting any time, and that each page will work for you.

Using Social Media Tools in Background Checking

During the ten years that Will Barada has served as Vice President of Barada Associates, he’s shown tireless dedication wearing every hat from chief operating officer to director of business development. Through these efforts he’s helped grow the family business into an industry leading background screening company. His accomplishments were culminated in 2008 when he negotiated for the purchase of full ownership of the business from the original founding partners.

Prior to joining the family business, Will served in Community Outreach for WFYI Indianapolis, the local PBS affiliate.

Will earned his BA in English Education from Indiana University and is a member of National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) and the Indianapolis chapter of the Society of Human resource Professionals (SHRM).

Increasingly employers are going to places like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn to check out candidates.

If you’re spending a lot of money on a hire, you want every available piece of info. So social media seems a natural place to search, right? Be careful. You need practices and processes in place to protect yourself from retribution by the candidate if you chose not to hire them based on information you find on their sites. With routine background screens, the hiring manager is able to consider multiple factors based on criteria and job requirements not just skills and work ethic but also personality and so forth. Having access to a cross-section of data prevents a hiring manager from depending too much on one single piece of information. The problem from a CRA perspective with using data gained from social media sites is that there is no way to resolve a dispute if a candidate should claim misinformation.

For instance, if a court check comes back with a criminal activity and the candidate argues wrong identification, we can help facilitate the correction of that information at the court level and have the event removed from candidate’s record (if it was wrong). Drug testing results are verifiable because of the chain of custody required to complete the test. But if a candidate complains about not getting a job because of pictures on their Facebook page, there is no way to confirm or deny their identity (despite what some of you may have seen on TV). Facebook isn’t a verifiable source of information and that is where the problem lies.

Further, this presents a serious EEOC issue as Facebook postings don’t tell you anything about their ability to perform the job as described in the requisition.
Somewhere, somebody is going to make a no hire decision because of a picture of a candidate drinking beer on Facebook. Thus far there is no precedent yet but something will happen. Do you want to be the example case in the future when a company gets sued for this?
Protect yourself by putting a process in place and if you chose to use these tools, be aware of the risks and check with your attorney.