As a business owner you should encourage all your staff to engage in promoting your products and services on Social Media.

This activity should be daily and performed religiously. These activities should be separated on the type of platform they are using, thusly:

COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS

Blogging (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday):

The company promoters will have to report at the end of each day on all the activities performed and closely monitor spikes in traffic within Google Webmaster Tools. These activities will include making comments on all the blogging websites and/or include your company’s website. Here’s a list of such websites:

• Blogger.com
• Livejournal.com
• OpenDiary.com
• TypePad.com
• ExpressionEngine.com
• Technorati.com
• Blogged.com
• BlogCatalog.com
• Blogarama.com
• PitchEngine.com
• BlogSearchEngine.com
• DMoz.org
• IdeeaMarketers.com
• Ezinearticles.com
• GoArticles.com
• OneMinuteU.com
• ArticlesBase.com
• Authorsden.com

Micro-blogging (every 30 minutes):

Company promoters and professional staff will have access to TweetDeck and continue on promoting the company throughout the day. The following will be used:

• Twitter.com
• Plurk.com
• Tumlbr.com
• Jaiku.com

Social-Networking (every 2 hours):

Every employee will be encouraged to make as many friends possible without affecting the overall performance during the day. The following platforms will be visited every day, after lunch for no more than 30 minutes daily. The marketing promoters will continue to engage others on these platforms throughout the day.

• Bebo.com
• Facebook.com
• LinkedIn.com
• MySpace.com
• Skyrock.com
• Hi5.com
• Ning.com

Social network Aggregation

The company staff will have HootSuite installed on each computer and perform these small marketing tasks on a daily basis.

• FrindFeed.com
• HootSuite.com
• Twitterbadges.com
• Twitterfeed.com

COLLABORATION PLATFORMS

Wikis (update 1 per month):The company marketing staff will be in charge of composing these wikis only after gaining approval.

• Wikipedia.org
• PBWorks.com
• WetPaint.com

Social tagging (Daily):

• Delicious.com
• StumbleUpon.com
• Stumpmedia.com
• CiteUlike.com

Social News (Daily):

• Digg.com
• Reddit.com
• Mixx.com

Opinion Sites(1 per week):

• Epinions.com
• Yelp.com
• MouthShut.com

MULTIMEDIA PLATFORMS

PhotoSharing (1 per week):

Company promoters will have access to a company digital camera and will take pictures that will later be uploaded on the following platforms:

• Flickr.com
• Photobucket.com
• SmugMug.com
• Picasa.com

Video (1 per month):

Company promoters will have access to 1 digital video camera and editing software to uopload professional made videos and create buzz on the following platforms.

• YouTube.com
• TubeMogul.com

Livecasting (1 every 3 months):

Podcasting will include interviews with bloggers and industry experts and will be distributed on the company website as well as the following platforms:

• Ustream.tv
• Justin.tv

Social Media icons

Everyone is using social media now and not simply for social reasons, in fact it now accounts for almost 10 percent of Internet time.  Social media is gaining more acceptance in both the business world — both as a tool to connect with customers and for co-workers to connect with each other. Social Media is got all the Buzz – but is it necessary? First of all let’s see what defines “Social Media”.

Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, rating and bookmarking. Trying to cover so many areas and being active promoting with social media takes time. Expecting overnight results from any marketing campaign is not realistic. 

Marketing

Your website is a great place to measure the effectiveness of your social media campaign and your in-bound marketing plan.  Sep 30, 2009 Event report says – “Twitter – The best marketing tool since Google, or is it a faddish distraction for lazy marketers?”

Social media gives companies actionable strategies by bringing consumer insight to social media marketing, allowing marketers to engage, communicate and track the effectiveness of social campaigns, Social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and others, are here to stay and PR and marketing firms need to recognize that fact.

Advertising

Advertising, as we know it, will remain an important way to build brand and drive sales.  Because the top social media sites can deliver high reach and frequency against target segments at a low cost, it appears that some advertisers are eager to use social networking sites as a new advertising delivery vehicle. Social media marketing techniques work, and can position your information in front of your customers at a fraction of what conventional advertising costs.

Part of that is a function of social media’s communication’s role — advertising has typically performed poorly in chat and e-mail. Finally, a new marketing study confirms exactly what I’ve been saying about social media all along: if you want to conduct a successful public relations and advertising campaign, then you had better understand and use online social media.  Based on that thought, agencies are now rushing onto Social Media ignoring the fact that, most of the time, people don’t want their advertising in whatever form.

Community

In terms of social media, the prospects that draw toward you but have not yet become your customers are called your community.  If your website visitor is part of your community, however, you have a much better chance of getting them to return. Flavor your web site with demo videos and you will have followers ready to watch the next big thing you came up with.

Take YouTube for instance – this is a community hub with a set of tools allowing all three legs of social media (contribution, participation, information generation). You probably noticed that more and more videos are popping up much faster in Google searches. Can you ignore YouTube? I think not.

Facebook is another one – 86% of the brands and merchants who responded to the “Community and Social Media Study” poll said they now use a Facebook fan page.  While 2/3 of the global online population already accesses member community sites, their vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing. 

Value

While social media are complex and often misunderstood, they have a value beyond traditional marketing campaigns.  According to a recent survey conducted by MarketingProfs of over 200 Twitter users, Twitter ranks behind only blogs as the social media tool that delivers the most value. 

As we look to economic recovery, it’s critical to continue to retain customers and maximize their lifetime value.  Remember that the true value of social media lies in the ability to really listen to your customers versus telling your story.

Tapping into all the ways an effective social media agency can deliver value to marketers, will set apart this new breed of agency.  For example, I don’t think you can successfully define social media without at least some reference to the underlying values of authenticity, transparency, and openness. 

Before you ask about what is the ROI, ask yourself how have you measured the value of communications before Social Media existed.  The difference today is now you can measure the efficiency and effectiveness of communications down to whom, what, when and its value moment by moment.

Conclusion

Because social media is so interactive, it constantly shifts and changes; therefore, a savvy marketer needs to be extremely familiar with the community and know how each social media website audience is different from the next in order to bring real value. 

As long as you contribute meaningfully to the community and gain the level of trust they need to allow you to seed your own messages or pitch your own products or services, and you don’t violate their trust, you’re marketing via social media successfully.

Visibility On FaceBook

That is a very large number. Are you on Facebook? How about your company? If not, you are missing a huge opportunity.

Here are 15 must do things to create front-row visibility in Facebook:

1. Create a profile (obviously) and update your status often.
2. Upload pictures & videos (try to keep it G rated) and add tags, comments and share if possible
3. Use the share button every so often
4. Write notes and or comment on your own or your friend’s Notes
5. Tag the people mentioned in those Notes
6. Comment on Notes as often as you can
7. Import your blog (if you have one) into Notes
8. Share links with posted items
9. Join Groups and Create Your Own Group
10. Upload pictures, videos and links to Groups
11. Write on “Discussion Boards” for Groups
12. Write on the Walls of Groups
13. Become fan of Facebook pages
14. Write on the wall of a Facebook fan
15. Install Facebook applications and Write Reviews about them

YouTube Star

If not – read on!

According to eMarketer, by 2012 almost 88% of web users will be watching videos on major sites like YouTube & Hulu. This March alone over 14.5 billion people did it on the net and almost half of them (6 billion) were using YouTube for this.

The statistics are staggering. More and more people (especially the young population) will detach from the TV screens and get themselves glued on computer monitors instead.

The advertising segment is getting worried losing viewers and the ones who understand this trend are already launching viral programs designed for the web.

Are you doing anything to sit at the viral video table and take a bite of this new marketing pie?

There is still plenty of room and small companies, armed with creativity and market penetration conscience are already “broadcasting themselves” using this new and revolutionary tool in order to get in front of their potential leads.

YouTube is a powerful tool for marketing and if you get it right, this action alone will bring millions of viewers, from which a large number will become loyal customers. You can take that to the bank and…even make a video of it too.

But what does it mean to do it right? Here’s my take on this:

Get Yourself Ready aka “Ready to Rumble”

In other words start shopping around for equipment, editing software, books and publications to educate yourself for this new and exciting movie producer part-time career.

Videomaker
Check out this site with plenty of information to get you started.

Keep it Short aka “Get Shorty”

Unless you are making Saw XXIX, remember that, more or less, we all have ADD. So – Fellini – don’t bore us to death with miles of footage about you, your product or services. Nobody will sit through that.

If you make this mistake, people will cut you off with a mouse click and all your hard work, fading in and out music, laborious intros and all that jazz – will be a big waste of time.

Keep it between 3 to 5 minutes. Closer to 3 – if possible. Work your scenario over and over again until you do it right.

Nowadays people got the memo about advertising on YouTube and are inundating the site with less than mediocre footage.

Keep it mind this:

• Be funny yet informative
• Professional with a hint of sassy
• Educate and entertain

Once you displayed your newly created video, copy the code YouTube is providing for you and slap it in your blog too.

Prediction:

Soon, the new thing will be video-blogs and hardly anyone will read on the web anymore, so get ready for a new revolution and hone those movie producer skills now.

Note: Let me know if you have uploaded a new video on the web. I’ll be happy to view and write a review if I like it. Only if I like it…well – you know what I mean.

Get your Social Media Presence on Steroids

Summary of Social Media Boost

Need instant traffic to your site or blog? Social media is here to help you accomplish just that.

Save time and instantly update your image on several sites. The secret to save time by focusing on just 1 site and instantly update 5 others or more.

Follow these 5 easy steps and secure a strong presence on the internet. The key, of course is consistency and perseverance.

Happy Media Socializing!

1. Write About You

Call it Bios, call it anything you want; just write it. Create a document in Word/WordPad or Notepad about yourself. This doesn’t mean that you need to copy and paste your resume. In a nut-shell here are some guidelines:

• Keep it short and sweet – somewhere between 600-700 words.
• Be concise but personal.
• Stay away from political, religious, gender or any other group affiliation beliefs. That will pigeon-hole you faster than you can spell “blog”.
• DO NOT TRY TO SELL ANYTHING – just be yourself
• Write from the heart and write well.
• Check punctuation and grammar.
• Have somebody else read the blurb and ask what don’t they like about it. You’ll get more constructive criticism than asking why or what they like.
• Rework your piece if necessary but make it solid and to the point.

2. Decide on Your Image

Find a good picture of yourself and crop it to size. Save it on your hard drive in different sizes so you can easily upload it on a variety of social media applications (i.e. FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.). Do not rely on their cropping features because you might end up with slightly blurry versions of the picture for your profile.

• The picture should be of you and not a group picture of you and your friends.
• Be professional and make sure your pic reflects that. No crazy avatar, “Superman” symbol or any of the childish stuff you find on teen sites.
• Remember – if you want to be taken seriously – put your best professional face forward.

Tips for getting the right picture:

• No complicated background
• No Hawaiian shirts or “eye-hurting” pieces of clothing
• If possible use a light blue background – any decent photographer will tell you that’s best to emphasize your features
• Use close-ups

3. Open 5 Social Media Accounts

Here’s a short list in order of power and impact upon your web presence:

• Twitter (www.twitter.com)
• FaceBook (www.facebook.com)
• YouTube (www.youtube.com)
• Digg (www.digg.com)
• LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Note: Please do save your login and password information in a secure place. If possible do not use the same password for each application. This will come handy when you forget your password or your login name.

4. One Account that Controls Them All

Open an account with Ping (ping.fm) and control all your messages from there. Did you write a new article for your blog? Let everyone know by updating your ping.fm account. Made some changes to your site that could benefit everyone in your network? Let ping do all the updating for you.

Conclusion:

These are 4 easy steps where you can take your web presence and social media mastering to a new level. Be active and update your presence often and with meaningful stuff. Allow some time and you will see astonishing results.

People love positive things so B+!