The Social Integration of Twitter
While technology keeps us moving forward with each new development, the creation of the Tweet-O-Meeter that can measure Twitter activity in major cities cites the Titanic as inspiration for its design. While the tool measures tweets-per-minute, it’s sleek design is on display in the British Library for free
until July 16 2011. The exhibit shows how social media has integrated itself into society; to measure tweets world wide puts Twitter and its use at the height of importance.
While the design pays homage to the Titanic, its real success is easily noticed: the acceptance of social media in daily life around the world. Social media’s place in society has grown ten-fold within the last few years, placing constant contact and connectivity at the fore front of our civilization.A quote from blogger Gil Pizano states,
“The social in social media also implies the tools, places and services that allow people to gather for social interaction. Social media allows individuals to gather and express themselves in a much more simple and immediate fashion. By giving people this capability, they not only have the ability to share ideas, opinions and other contents, but also (if they wish) gain notoriety, and expand their influence.”
We have progressed to the stage in our society’s fascination with social media that we are not only heralding it as communication at its finest, but rather the influence it has around the world. Pizano adds,
“Needless to say, social media has forever changed the way society works, whether it’s the sharing of an idea, the communication of news, or the availability of a product or service. Society today is on the verge of a new way of existing that it’s never experienced before. No longer will people from one side of the world be really able to say that they will never see a person or communicate with someone from the other side of the world ever in their life. “
We are beginning to take social media off its glorious pedestal of a new invention and showcase it as another venue for communication. The telephone’s spectacle eventually wore off as well, and when it did it became a house hold item. The Tweet-O-Meter throws away the mystique of Twitter and puts it on the back burner to the real success story: the connectivity of the world in under 140 characters.
It’s Not What You Know. It’s Who You Know.
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” I’ve heard it my whole life. The funny thing about that quote is that you can hear it everyday but if that day ends and you still don’t know anyone it hasn’t really gotten you far, and when you’re a young college student with a busy schedule it doesn’t feel like you can really go door to door and introduce yourself to business owners. The thing that seems most unrealistic? That any business owners will take a college student seriously.
Can you see me now? I’ve made an appointment with your secretary and I’m eager to meet with you, but to say what? You’re going to ask me about my accomplishments and I’m going to tell you the truth: I have none. Most college students can’t afford to be at the school they’re at so they’re working part-time jobs that rule out the possibility of networking and others like me are competing in athletics to help pay for school. Which let’s be honest, is only turning into a career for less that 1% of us. So here’s the scenario, I graduate and I hand out a carbon copied resume of things I think are important. Mine says something along the lines of “I’m an academic and athletic all-american. I have a high GPA. I worked at some summer jobs and my bosses liked me a lot. Oh and here were the classes I took, but I don’t know anybody important.” Now what? It’s start to feel for a lot of us like graduating is just the step before being unemployed. And it’s scary.
The best I feel like I can do is try to market myself. Social media is huge with my generation and if you’re anybody you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, FourSquare, etc. So I did what any kid in my situation should do. I created an online portfolio. If we don’t have time to go door to door maybe CEO’s surfing the web have time to come to us. Maybe our network that consists of mostly college students we’ll end up competing against can develop and transform into a professional atmosphere. Maybe if we get some help. So check it out and see what you think: jaclynjmk.wordpress.com
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Today’s post was written by Jaclyn Luscomb, a junior at the University of Indianapolis. She is majoring in communications with a double emphasis in journalism and human communications. She is pretty smart cookie according to her GPA. Current member of PRSSA [Public Relations Student Society of America]. I’m also a repeat NCAA all-american in swimming.
20 LinkedIn Case Studies and Examples for Professionals
1. Frank Coletta, CEO at Mobile Advanced Care in Brazil, uses LinkedIn to research professionals before meeting with them. He finds that he uncovers important insights that he would have otherwise not known.
2. James Filbird in China gets 75% of his business from LinkedIn. He has found that the quality of information, people and tools available on LinkedIn surpass all other social networking sites in terms of business. He is the owner of JMF International Trade Group in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
3. Evan stumbled upon his dream job on LinkedIn. For fun he did a random search for “Advertising Sales Director”. A position at TravelZoo was advertised and applying, interviewing and receiving the job, Evan was able to get back into an industry he loves mainly due to his LinkedIn profile.
4.After reading about an interesting company in a magazine, Liz Manning searched LinkedIn and found one of the company’s founders and sent him an InMail. At the time the company had no openings. About two months later, Liz saw an ad on Craigslist for an opening and the LinkedIn toolbar indicated that she was a 2nd degree link to the co-founder. She sent the con-founder another InMail, mentioning their common connection and within a day she had an interview and landed the job.
5. Steve Weinstein is the Manager of Marketing Communications at Cooper Power Systems. He landed this job because a recruiter from his current employer found him on LinkedIn. Steve interviewed and got the job due to LinkedIn. You never know who’s looking at your profile.
6. Chuck had recently relocated his family to North Carolina from California. In order to reach out to marketing professionals in his area he started using LinkedIn. He made a connection with the chief executive of iContact, an e-mail software company where Chuck is currently the corporate communications director.
7.Linked Group makes a difference for children in Bangalore, South India. An employee from Ernst & Young had visited a poverty stricken school in Bangalore and decided she wanted to do something to help. A LinkedIn group was created to foster a discussion on how to help. One member suggested creating a “Wish List” on Amazon. Members of the LinkedIn group then proceeded to buy books for the children.
8. David T. Stevens lost his job at a radio station and instead of wallowing he immediately went to LinkedIn. He changed his status to “I’m up for grabs, who wants me?” Awfully bold but it grabbed the attention of his connections. He was referred to the Chamber of Commerce Mountain View and within a week he had the job of chambers events and programs manager. His bio on LinkedIn also shows that he is a LinkedIn approved trainer so he not only offers a success story but you can learn upon visiting his profile.
9. Irish Software start up company Goshido used only LinkedIn to raise 230,000 dollars in eight days. They sent out 700 messages to potential investors, and garnered over 200 responses in a week. As found on LinkedIn Success Stories Frank Hannigan, Chairman for Goshido said, “Attracting investment is all about trust, LinkedIn is the largest collection of trust agents on the planet. We reduced the cost and time involved in fundraising 75% by using LinkedIn as our funding vehicle.” Did I mention it was all done on LinkedIn?
10. LinkedIn Polls help members gather information. Of course. Are they worth it? Yes. LinkedIn member, Linda Chell Rooney used to Polls application to gather ideas for a tele-seminar series on issues pertaining to home construction and real estate. In less than a month, she received 100 responses and was able to promote her seminars gaining nearly 60 participants.
11. Buddy Media
Jeff Ragovin, VP of Sales and Business Development at Buddy Media, uses LinkedIn to reach out to clients. He has found success with quality not quantity. Although his company net worth is in the millions, he uses LinkedIn to find the right people to offer company proposals to. He would request invitations based on common connections to ensure a personal connection versus a simple cold call.
12. Hans Notenboom
Hans Notenboom, Phillips’ Global Director of Online, uses LinkedIn as a platform to engage with their audience in the healthcare sector in innovative new ways. They use LinkedIn to bring thousands of conversations surrounding healthcare onto one platform. There are over five million healthcare professionals on Linkedin from all over the world can share insights and experiences in an environment where Phillips’ can facilitate without being obtrusive. This way the information stays focused and delivers to the desired audience. They wanted to create an environment on LinkedIn that would be useful for members. They are still in their early stages but have seen a great level of engagement. They created an “Innovations in Health” LinkedIn group, to move engagement off the website. Although it’s still early they have seen a great level of engagement among the group’s 11,000 plus members.
13. Mike Mcsharry
He is the Managing Director at Systems and Education Ltd and he found his best man on LinkedIn. He had lost touch with the best man in his wedding over 25 years ago. When planning a twenty-fifth anniversary for his wife he decided to join LinkedIn to aid in a web search. A few days after joining the network a mutual friend re-connected the two on LinkedIn.
Marc Rouseau, Web Communications and Social Media Consultant is located in Cambodia, where LinkedIn and other social networks are M.I.A. He’s using LinkedIn to created introductory training courses for entrepreneurs and businesses. They have brought them closer to realizing that social media creates more opportunities for international business. In addition, he teaches them how LinkedIn is pivotal in expanding networking opportunities. He also uses apps like ‘Box’ and blog integration, to share information and/or campaigns.
15. Ricky Potts
Ricky Potts is a busy man. He is an owner of Open Book Design, Content Specialist IMAVEx and is the special coordinator and staff writer at IndyConcerts.com. He has found success using LinkedIn by networking. He also tracks the book he has read and still wants to read. LinkedIn allows him to show his blog and put his entire “online” resume on one platform. With over 300 hundred connections Ricky has found success while using LinkedIn.
The Weather Channel recently closed a deal to acquire sites Lakerentals.com and Coastrentals.com. How?
They were contacted by the people behind Lake Rentals and Coast Rentals via Inmail on LinkedIn. The opportunity was made aware by having the profile visible on LinkedIn. The tag-line “LinkedIn makes professional connections visible” rings true. It makes companies visible thus creating unforeseen opportunities.
17.Daniel Tunkelang
Daniel Tunkelang, Chief Scientist at Endeca found success on LinkedIn with the search feature. He helped organize and call people who had a strong interest in the topics for the event. After conducting a search on LinkedIn he chose 100 people to send a personalized connection request. He found more than 50% of those people accepted the connection. In addition, he found that some of these connections submitted papers to the workshop, one volunteered to review the book he had been working on and others expressed their thankfulness in finding a connection based on their targeted interests.
18. Schawk!
Schawk is a company with thousands of employees located in Des Plaines, IL. It found success by using LinkedIn Recruiter to fill a variety of positions. Schawk decided to use LinkedIn to create a stronger online presence and built a Schawk Career Page. The page is used in conjunction with their LinkedIn group. It has helped build a talent pool so when an opening occurs they have qualified talent lined up. The combination of LinkedIn Recruiter, our Career Page and LinkedIn Group had a significant impact on their hiring efforts. They’ve saved $200K on searches, which were all done in a time-efficient way.
19.Stan Relihan
Stan interviewed on Cameron Reilly’s ‘G’Day World’ show on Podcast Network, on the subject of ‘Using LinkedIn as a Business Tool’. During the interview he was given a challenge: use the LinkedIn Netwrok to find the most impressive Celebrity Guest to appear on his show. As a result, he found Vint Cerf, (co-inventor of the Internet & Chief Internet Evangelist at Google) to appear as a guest. Due to making connections and others willingness to introduce connection Stan now has his own weekly Podcast show. Without LinkedIn, none of this would have happened.
Ismael has an interesting story on how he found success on LinkedIn. He was getting married with guest flying in from all around the world. Since he frequently used United he recommended his guests do the same. Unfortunately, the flight the guests needed had been over-booked. United had sent a piece of mail notifying them that their flight reservation had been moved. However, this change would make his guests miss the connecting flight and therefore miss the wedding. Instead of getting angry he went to LinkedIn. He typed in “United” in the search field, narrowed down the search to locate the general manager for United Air Lines France (where his guests were visiting from). He used an Introduction through a connection and got in touch with the manger to explain the situation in a cordial email exchange. What came from this email conversation was all reservations being moved back to the direct flight, offered free return tickets to Paris, a personal email to inform Ismael that the flight had a 15 minute delay and had Champagne waiting for the guests upon arrival. LinkedIn can do more than find you a job, it connects you to right people at the right time.
Of Risqué Products, Drugs, and Social Media
Many companies pop up in the social web trying to promote themselves and their products. However, when you take a closer look it’s usually companies that sell products that are “easy” to market. Easy, in this context is relative as marketing is always tricky but when you think about it, it’s easier to market fashion, cookies and jewelry as opposed to risqué products.
We all know these companies exist. They make big bucks selling those kind of products and yet, it’s something that our society chooses not to talk about. The use of such products is considered private which is perfectly fine. However, does that mean that marketing through the social web is not an option for online pharmacies or even companies that sell more controversial products?
I say it is indeed an option, though it requires some different thinking. None of us wants to receive Facebook updates or Tweets about weight loss products or any other product that we’d strictly be using in private. We’d feel offended. Rightfully so. At the end of the day, what does a random company know about our bodies or sex lives? NOTHING.
For that reason, companies trying to market controversial products through the social web, need to pay attention to one thing: SUBTLETY. I can’t stress enough that excessive self-promotion as well as direct sales messages is a NO NO for any company on the social web. It’s not what social media is about. Don’t forget, social media is all about the relationships. It’s the opposite to radio spots, TV and banner ads.
However, I have bought products from companies that approached me on Twitter after I tweeted about a certain need. And even though our society is steering towards being more open-minded, I doubt anyone would tweet about his or her need for a risqué product or certain medication.
So, how on earth, can such companies use social media and still be successful?
You are part of an industry! Make the most of it!
It doesn’t matter what kind of product you are trying to sell, you are part of an industry. i.e. medication = health industry. Use that to your advantage. Share information about current health issues. Start your own blog where you discuss controversial issues, give health tips etc. Get GPs to contribute. Get your audience involved. The possibilities are endless.
It seems like a lot of effort at first with little reward (sales!) but when you become a go to source for health information the sales will follow. The same goes for any risqué product. Make sure you realize that you are part of something bigger, an industry, and establish yourself as an expert in that industry.
Pushing sales Tweets or Facebook messages isn’t going to get you anywhere. They will be considered as Spam and the general population gets flooded with Spam on a daily basis and has learned to hate it.
Information comes first. Sales come second.
As I mentioned before, talking about the use of certain medication or sex toys, is not on our priority list. We don’t want our credit card receipts to show that we have invested in weight loss medication, so why would we want the entire Twitterverse to know that we are interested in purchasing?
However, there’s no shame in learning and broadening our horizons. That’s why the information part is so important. It’s less intrusive. We all want to live longer and happier lives and there’s no shame in informing ourselves.
This aspect is important to realize for any company, no matter the product. The social web is not about sales. Of course, every strategy and every investment needs to pay off eventually. But if you are a company with a controversial product, subtlety comes first. Sales come second. This is an important factor to consider because it also marks the point at which you need to make a decision. Are you going to rely on traditional marketing and advertising tools, such as banner ads, or are you going to jump in with both feet and give the social web a try.
The decision is yours, what will it be?
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Today’s guest post is by Antonia Harler. Antonia recently graduated and holds a degree in Management, Communications & IT. She’s performed extensive research on how to best use Twitter for Relationship Marketing. For more information about her visit her blog www.socialglitz.com, follow her on Twitter (@antwizzel) or join her on Facebook www.facebook.com/socialglitz.
3 Social Media Tips for Friday
Now days more often than not college students are applying for social media internships. As we all know internships are extremely valuable experiences during college. In this day and age obtaining a social media internship has naturally become a coveted position. When resumes come piling in how do you decide who to give the internship to? How do you know who’s the best fit? With some help from Mashable, this is how to find your perfect social media intern.
1.Passion
Don’t hire just to hire. If a student is studying biology then they most likely won’t be a good fit. Hire someone with passion for your company, for what you do. If they have passion then they have motivation, which means they will most likely do a good job. A little gumptoin, enthusiasm and a smile go along way. What isn’t known can be taught but social skills are taught on their own. The right attitude can make or break an opportunity.
2.Communication
An intern must have strong communication skills. After all, once on the Internet it’s there forever.Take note of how they communicate. If they can communicate with you in clear and articulate way than most likely this will translate when communicating online. Communication is key.
3. Writing Skills
You shouldn’t expect a Hemingway on your hands but strong writing skills are important.When writing it’s necessary to be able to get a message across, put together complete thoughts and be interesting. Also take note to look for some wit or charm to come through as a reflection of his/her personality. You don’t want to hire someone who can’t communicate through writing. It’s an important and crucial aspect to using social media. It’s a written. It’s all on black and white.
We all love our interns. They make our life easier. Hiring an intern creates a business relationship beneficial to both parties.See how active they are already with social media. Get a feel for who they are and what they can do or be taught to do. Hire someone trustworthy and who know will take initiative. Take the time and hire the best fit for your business needs. This really should be fun! What other tips can you offer?
3 Social Media Tips for Thursday
Social media has transformed the landscape for small business marketing. Businesses can utilize social media to drive sales, promote services and engage with customers. Here aret three tips on what NOT to do to keep in mind when using social media for a small business:
1. Do Not Scream
When marketing your small business do not scream via social media your sales pitch. People will ignore you completely. First, engage in conversations and build relationships. The more your customers do your selling the more credible your product/service becomes. So shy away from your tendency to scream, yell, and sell your company. Engage with users on social media and let me feel led to shout your awesomeness. Don’t you do it. That’s just being vain.
2. Do Not Forget about Customer Service on Social Media
Social networks are essentially word of mouth marketing.Therefore, it becomes imperative to spend the time answering questions and responding to customers reaching out to you. Social networks allow you to give better customer service because you can reach more customers at one time.Don’t forget that people are talking about you online whether or not your listening. You need to be giving as good of customer service you would in location as you would online. In this day and age it’s all the same anyways.
3. Do Not Think the Social World Revolves Around Your Brand
Do know when you talk about your brand too much to the point of annoyance. We don’t need to hear about every wonderful thing your company has done. Instead we want to see you caring and engaging with others. Social networks should rarely be about your business but about the customers who make your business possible.
Ultimately, remember why you started using social media for the first place. Hopefully some of you wanted to connect on a deeper level with customers or to give better service. Users want to know your successes. By putting less focus on yourself and more on others the customers will do that for you, don’t forget the power of word of mouth marketing.
How Social Media is Changing Journalism
Social Media has without a doubt revolutionized interactive communication and the journalistic approach to news. We all get our news from various resources with fewer of us looking to more traditional media for ours news consumption. In some extent or another all journalism will feature, if not already, a social component. The Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Internet and American Life Project collaborated to create a survey that explored the new participatory culture for news to gain a greater understanding of trends in media. For one content is changing to become more personal and therefore more social. Another aspect t that has caused a change in news in the increase in timely information. We are able to check at any given moment what the headlining news is. Therefore, people are turning to different platforms to get their news.
It’s interesting to note that the regular readers of The New York Times are 34% younger than 30, compared with 23% of the public, which suggest that a new generation of readers is discovering the virtues of the newspaper. Yet many still turn to the Internet to get their news putting a strain on how journalists in the past have conducted their work. Their entire industry is changing due to the rise of social media and the Internet.
While there are many options for the news consumer there aren’t many choices for a journalist. They either adapt of risk losing a job. We are seeing a rise of citizen journalists and bloggers are being seen as credible sources for news. How can a journalist make a living when their entire training has since then been changed? It’s time to start thinking about how journalism has changed due to social media. It’s a topic worth exploring. After all the journalist set the agenda for the news you consume.
6 Tips for Successful Cross-Promotion of Restaurants
Sometimes going the extra mile for an event in your restaurant can make all the difference. I work very closely with one of my restaurant clients who came to me with a patron of theirs who wanted to showcase their art in the restaurant for an evening. I was brought in to help market this one-night event. What was going to be a simple evening of tray pass h’orderves and art, started to get my wheels spinning. What could I do to get more people to come to this event without spending a lot of money? What would get me to come to an event at a restaurant? Quick brainstorming led me to connect the dots in cross-promoting this event with the actual guests themselves. Here are the key elements I used to make this first Art Mixer event so successful that it is now a monthly event that has increased in attendance each time.
1) Invite a Guest Chef - While it would have been easy enough for the restaurant to cook the h’orderves themselves inviting a guest chef adds an unexpected element and intices people to come out for something special. There are many foodie chef bloggers online who blog about their food and would love the opportunity to come share their food at another restaurant. After some quick research of top food bloggers in the area I was able to reach out via Twitter and line up 6 chefs who wanted to participate for free to help get their name, restaurant and blog noticed. Each of them shared the event on their site with their audience.
2) Invite a Local Acoustic Musician – While art shows are great on their own, adding some music can liven up the space without taking away from the show. This was actually the hardest piece to pull off, as musicians want to get paid and the restaurant was not allowed to have amplified music. The way around this was using acoustic musicians that are not well known. Finding musicians is easy but often times they are struggling to meet ends meet and want some compensation. Convincing them to play for free is not easy but what I did to convince them was explain that it is an event to support and promote local artists and that I would share their bio on our website and send out an email blast to our customers with a link to their music, which could in turn help them get more gigs. Done! To actually find these musicians I turned to our Facebook fans at the restaurant. By simply asking if anyone knew any local musician we turned up 2 immediate suggestions who were both willing to play for free. Those musicians in turn knew more musicians that wanted to play at the restaurant as well.
3) Invite a Guest Artist - Customers love to see art in a restaurant, especially art that comes from the local community. We were lucky to have out first artist volunteer. What I did to find more artist was contact a couple local art bloggers and ask them to help me spread the word about the event and that I was looking for talent. This was the easiest piece to complete, artists were contacting me left and right to have a free spot to showcase their work. Once patrons from the restaurant heard about the event they too were submitting their own art to be considered.
4) Wine Tasting - What is an art show without wine. By including wine in the mix we were able to charge patrons to attend the event and participate in a wine and food tasting. We asked one of the wine representatives to come in for the event and pour wine and educate the customers on what they are drinking which in turn also increased future sales of those wines. Once the other wine reps found out that one company was successful in doing that they all wanted a chance to share their wine. Setting up a wine station with the wine rep doing the work instead of a restaurant employee saved the restaurant in labor costs.
5) Throw in a Theme - While the talent in this event are changing every month, changing the theme can help keep the event fresh and fun. In October we did an Oktoberfest beer tasting instead of wine, made a german influenced menu and had the musician do his own renditions of classic Oktoberfest music. Another suggestion just came from one of the artists. His art is mixed media “street” art so he wants to have food that compliments his art. What we will do for this one is challenge local aspiring chefs via our Facebook and email blast to come up with a gourmet street food menu and who ever comes up with the best menu will be chosen to come cook their items at his art show.
6) Partner with a Local Farmer’s Market - If you are lucky enough to have a Farmer’s Market in your town this can be a great way to cross-promote your restaurant while supporting local farmers. I contacted the new local Farmer’s Market and they were thrilled when I offered to send them one chef every month and shoot video and photos of the shopping at the market for fresh produce for a local restaurant. This was a home run for everyone because the chef blogged about the experience, the market was able to brag about a local foodie chef making an appearance and share the chef’s blog with their Facebook fans and the restaurant got a free plug on each of their sites as well. The restaurant is now considering bringing seasonal recipes with produce from the farmer’s market to continue cross-promoting each other.
There are many moving parts to this type of event but the reason it is so successful is that each of the guest talent has their own local audience. They all come together to promote each other on a small scale which in turn draws a greater turn-out. Each artist has sold at least 5 of their pieces at each show (ranging from $200-$1000 each piece) and one was even sold to a person that was just walking by and happened to peek inside. By leveraging the restaurant customers via Facebook for suggestions we were able to find artists that the community already enjoyed and that didn’t cost us a single penny. Our new slogan: Bringing together local talent and fresh produce supporting small business and local artists!
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Daniela Bolzmann is the Social Media Community Manager for Symbaloo. She graduated from California State University, Fullerton, in 2009 with a B.A. in Business Administration with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. Daniela also freelances as a social media marketer, helping restaurants and retailers in her home town of Orange County. She writes about her lessons in being a community manager, freelancing and being Gen Y on her blog and can be reached via her many social networks.
Social Media and the Homecoming Queen
Homecoming week is upon us and the honor of being chosen to represent one’s sorority or fraternity on homecoming court comes with great fun and great responsibility (but seriously. It does.) As I received my homecoming packet on when and where I am allowed to promote , I forgot all about the poster stipulations and turned to the internet for my main campaign.
Promptly at 5 pm Eastern Standard Time on the Sunday before homecoming, queen and king facebook campaigns were in full swing. Profile pictures were changed to promotional images of contestants, Facebook groups and events were made (and all of the college network was invited, of course). TwitPics were uploaded and status updates included Facebook tags with sayings such as “______ pities the fool who does not vote him for Homecoming King” and other Chuck Norris-like sayings. While I must say it is a bit odd to see 80 of my Facebook friends with my face as their profile picture, it proves a vital point: visibility is key, and what is more visible to a college student then a social media post?
With over 85% of college students on Facebook and other popular social media sites, the need to reach mass quantities in little time is met through postings, events, tags and more. However, an open profile can do more damage then intended. Feelings are hurt when the “not attending” button is checked, friends are divided when an opposing status is “liked” and wall-to-wall conversations can be read and interpreted to a meaning far from their own. Does bringing a friendly competition into the social media world cause more harm then good? The pros and cons are questionable on both ends, however the fact is here: social media is so integral into today’s collegiate experience that it is impossible for this competition to remain off the internet. Facebook has become the ultimate procrastination tool, StumbleUpon is often seen pulled up on a classmate’s screen in class, and Gordon Hayward was a trending topic on Twitter feed after his #9 draft pick to the Utah Jazz. Jobs can be found via LinkedIn connections, students are checking into academic buildings with Foursquare or Facebook Places, the list continues on and on.
So as my fellow Homecoming court participants and I continue our viral campaigns, we may not even acknowledge the fact that we are reaching more students quicker and with more information than ever before. Yes, we’re living in a digital age and yes, we know that social media has changed our communication methods. The truth lies in a simple event feature that Facebook offers: the “Invite all of the _______ network” button. One click separates us from a fan following. I may not be completely savvy yet on my marketing skills, but reaching over 1000 people instantly sounds pretty good to me.
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Steph Gray is a Senior Theatre-Arts Administration major and Public Relations minor at Butler University. She is a performer with Butler Theatre and heavily involved in her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. Interests include social media, audience development, Shakespeare and her family.
Example of Twitter Success in Career Consulting
So…being in business is easy right? Wrong! It seems that the flash of inspiration that you had one day whilst doing the dishes has already been accomplished by superior visionaries and innovators. Five minutes browsing the web reveals thet there are so many companies and individuals already living your dream, how dare they??!! Not to be put off by some healthy competition (surely there’s enough work to go around and we all have our own unique selling point,) I went ahead with my business idea and realised that my research has proved accurate…there is plenty of competition and if you’re not on the first couple of pages of Google, chances are, you’re virtually invisible.
Of course, everyone knows about social media networking and how this can increase your web presence and in turn help you to develop new business contacts (especially in my job as a Career Consultant, my customers are individuals not businesses.) What is lesser known is how to unlock these mysteries and make it work for your own business. My web stats were somewhat below expectations which made the conversion rate less so. I have always been a fan of the “Dummies Guides” and they have proved helpful so I tapped into Kyle’s Twitter Marketing for Dummies, thinking it would be a good starting place. Wow! Look no further!
Now endowed with Nearby Tweets, Tweepsearch and Tweetscan, just some of the tools available to ensure that I was targeting and following a relevant audience (thus making my content of value to potential followers), my job of marketing suddenly entered realms of massive possibilities. After just one day of the implementation of just some of these ideas my daily web traffic record more than quadrupled. After one month my monthly stats record had tripled, this figure is forecast to double again this month.
Now, my follower / followee base is steadily increasing (without making me look like a spammer) and as a direct result, email enquiries are now coming in from around the UK, and as far as India!!
In summary, I know that I am good at my job but my marketing skills needed attention. Enter Twitter Marketing! Giving away valuable ideas and content in the form of blogs and articles didn’t seem entirely the right thing to do, but it works, people realise that you know what you’re talking about and they want to know more.
Not only have these ideas increased my visibility and presence in cyberspace, it’s been a lot of fun and made my job of reaching people with my message enjoyable. I have gleaned a boat-load of other excellent ideas from people I engage with on Twitter.
What’s not to love?
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Dave Smith is a Career Consultant in the UK – 17+ Years experience serving Jobseekers and Employers alike. Up-to-date knowldege of navigating the recruitment process and optimising the possibility of getting to an interview and getting onto the shortlist.
