The Impact of Social Media

If you need to explain the importance or impact of social media, this 4 minute YouTube video will do it for you with style.

2010: What's In Your Future?

Image via Wikipedia

On Wed Dec 23 at 8:00pm ET, I'm going to be one of the guests featured on 'The River, The Ranch & The Bay' (RRB) podcast!

Won't you join us? We'll cover a number of things to jump start your success in the coming year:

• Customer Service
• Getting Out of Your Own Head
• Behavior Patterns
• Goal Setting
• Holiday Networking
• Keywords
  
• and more!

Of course we'll also discuss social media for eCommerce and, for the Education Specialists in the audience, we'll talk about social media strategies to promote your classes.

There are going to be some exciting announcements on the show before I go on so be sure to tune in at the very beginning. RRB - 8:00pm ET. The Chat Room will be open so join us and participate in the discussion!

The 3 C's of Social Media Marketing

I'm often asked to explain social media and how it can work for a business.

I haven't yet figured out how to do it as concisely as a 30-second elevator speech, but here are 3 key elements (condensed) that convey the concepts. I call them the 3C's of Social Media Marketing.

The 3 C's are: Connect, Communicate and Convert.

Connect: The 1st step involves connecting with others and expanding your network of contacts. Whether they are other professionals in your field, your competitors, your customers or clients, it's important to expand your network. Depending on your business and your goals, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin offer excellent platforms on which to connect. Keep in mind they are not 'one size fits all.' First try to determine which site(s) your customers or clients are using. Each site has a different 'feel' and set of accepted practices so it's important to determine will one(s) serve you best.

Communicate: This is the 2nd step. Having a network of contacts doesn't accomplish anything if you don't communicate with the goal of developing relationships. Developing relationships is key since your contacts aren't going to be interested in hearing from you if your only interactions are about your product or service. Engage your contacts by consistently providing them with something they perceive to be of value. Consistency works to keep the relationship on-going and if you can involve your connections in a community, that will engage them even more.

Convert: This is the 3rd step. Connecting and Communicating pave the way for you to 'close the deal.' Each business has its own goals for social media marketing so they'll have their own way to measure conversion success.

If steps 1 & 2 don't lead to conversion, then it's time to re-examine the goals and the process - keeping in mind that building a network and relationships takes time and consistency.

Do you agree? disagree? Please share your thoughts.

Social Media Tool: PeopleBrowsr

Image via CrunchBase

Recently I've been trying out several tools that are meant to help social media users keep track of their social networking activities.

PeopleBrowsr was highly recommended so I decided to check it out. While it's very promising with an abundance of features, I found it a bit confusing and a less intuitive than I had hoped.

However, I had the good fortune to meet Joe Cascio, an independent software developer, at a local Tweet-up last month. He knows all about PeopleBrowsr and has contact with the developers.

Joe graciously agreed to discuss PeopleBrowsr and answer questions as today's guest on our 'Tips From the Top' podcast at 11:00am EST.

As I've tweeted about my PeopleBrowsr experiences over the past week, I received a number of helpful replies from people on Twitter who are associated with the company (@SHHHE & @PeopleBrowsr). A big 'Thank You' goes out to them for their offers of assistance & links to information.

Below are several screenshots of PeopleBrowsr. It may be helpful to refer to them during the podcast.

Please join us at 11:00am EST on our Tips From the Top podcast for a discussion of PeopleBrowsr features. The chat room will be open so join us and ask your questions!