Social Media 101 - A Pocket Guide of Tips and Tricks
The Internet Itself
Fire up your browser and head on over to these two places...
http://alerts.google.com - The FREE and amazingly functional destination for keeping tabs on your brand, company, competition and the world. Set up a couple alerts and then watch your inbox for information.
http://addictomatic.com - The search engine of search engines. Plug in any topic and get back more results than you can imagine. Great for research or prepping for discussions at conferences or staff meetings.
The sometimes inane ramblings of an entire nation - in 140 characters at a time. Twitter has its use for business professionals.
1. People like to interact with people. If you have a corporate Twitter account, temper your exchanges by signing your Tweets with a person's name.
2. When sharing links and information with your followers, only use 110 characters. That leaves room for people to retweet your message as the inclusion of their name takes up to an additional 20 characters.
Twitter link to know - http://search.twitter.com/advanced
It's an entire country full of people online sharing their meals, photos, cat stories and drunken photos. But it's also useful for reaching customers and building brand recognition.
1. Explore Facebook Ads. These can be targeted much more tightly than Google Ads, allowing you to focus on demographics precisely.
2. Make sure to create and label your company Facebook page with descriptive keywords and also to interact regularly with your fans/followers. Offering specials only available to your Facebook readers is a great way to ensure affinity and loyalty.
Facebook link to know - https://www.facebook.com/adsmarketing/
Leveraged correctly, LinkedIn is a ready supply of prospects and resources with whom to conduct business.
1. Answer some questions and get yourself recognized as an expert. This allows you to attract more visibility than just being listed as a certain type of company.
2. Build your company page correctly so it's accurate, interesting and valuable to anyone who might want to come work for you or do business with you. Look at other business pages to see how they come across and then make your page better.
LinkedIn link to know - http://www.linkedin.com/subscriptionv2?displayProducts=&trk=home_level
YouTube
Just because videos seem stupid doesn't mean that your customers aren't watching.
1. Embed competitor's videos or valuable content on YOUR site. You don't have to be the video creator to share videos that will bring eyeballs to your Website. You just have to know how to copy and paste an embed code. More eyeballs mean you have a greater chance to impact your audience.
2. The most important thing about video production is actually the audio. We're a multi-tasking society where people listen to our entertainment more closely than we watch it. So ensure you have great sound on all your videos.
YouTube link to know - http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube?hl=en
For more social media tips and tricks, or news on the social media community, you can find Jeff Cutler at http://jeffcutler.com or follow him on Twitter.
