Early adopters flocked to it, blogged about it, tweeted it from their iPhones, updated, Buzzed and sung about it. Skeptics were not so convinced and wanted hard data and social media ‘experts’ recanted with fairy tales about saving businesses with absolutely no cost to your organization. Who do you believe? How do you participate, without wasting your valuable time?

What is social media hype?

Social media hype is the excitement when there is a new toy for social media lovers to play with. When something new comes out, they will blog about it and give you the story on why you NEED to be a part of this new online community, app or tool. It is easy to get wrapped up in social media hype but try to remember when the next social media tool comes out, they will recommend that as well and when another one comes out, they will recommend that too.

Do you have time to be on 40 social media sites and participate in 20 apps? I definitely don’t. There are major repercussions to spreading yourself too thin. It is better to be a part of 2 (or even 1) active community that respects your work and participates with your content than being a part of 20 networks that offer you no return.

Reality is when that excitement wears off and you find yourself using a tool to achieve your goals. A big part of figuring out what your social media reality will be is by determining what your actual goals are. Some social media goals could be more website traffic, increasing brand awareness, getting more qualified leads, assisting customer service, reputation management, increase attendance at live events, et al.

Social media is constantly changing. New tools and toys are always being created. Just because something is new doesn’t mean you need to be using it for your business. I recommend keeping a watchful eye on new tools and trends and test them but you should be choosing the right tools for the job, not the shiniest tool in the toolbox. What is going to help you achieve your goals that you can work into your already busy schedule?

What is driving you?

Are you driven by marketing your company, building relationships and being held accountable for what you are going to say? Or are you driven by being a social media star? Sounds like a silly question, but it isn’t. Many people seem more driven by the number of Twitter followers they have over the amount of qualified leads they are getting. If you are using social media as a business tool you should be tracking how your efforts are affecting your business and not how your social media efforts are affecting your social media profiles.

Will using social media help you achieve your marketing goals? Not your neighbor’s goals, your competitor’s goals or some national big brand’s goals but does it help with your businesses goals? Are you motivated by the same social media case studies we hear all the time – or are you driven by the results you are seeing for yourself?

Some suggestions for not drowning in social media hype

• If you feel like you are forcing it, you probably are. What were you doing before the dawn of social media and what made your company unique? Social media is just new tools to do the same things we were doing before. Learning new technology can be a bit tricky but the esscence of your social media landscape should be an extension on aspects of your business you were already doing.
• Listen to a few qualified business professionals. Instead of following all the social media mavens, choose a few that you trust and share common business goals with and let them guide you on trends that are worth trying out, like having an internet marketing travel agent.
• Forget the social media experts, find great businesses that know how to use social media. The world doesn’t need social media ‘experts’ as much as it needs real businesses using social media well. You will probably find more value in the practical use of social media over the suggestions from a social media expert who may just be regurgitating information they read in a book or blog. Just because someone declares themselves as a social media expert doesn’t mean they have any experience making actual successful business campaigns.
• Know what you are trying to achieve first. Have a business strategy for what you want to use social media for. Then decide the tools that will help you achieve those goals. The most basic elements of a strategy is figuring out where to play and how you are going to win. For business we rely heavily on LinkedIn for market research, keeping up with trends in our industry and building our online network. We use Twitter and Facebook to help get our content out and interact with our customers, experts and peers. Some smaller social media networks and new apps are being tested by individual staff members but we still haven’t integrated them into our company marketing because we don’t have a place for them yet and that is OK.

Social media is exciting. It does level the playing field for some small businesses. It can be a great lead generation and relationship building tool. How you use social media tools is up to you and your business. Try to spend more time using what works for your company and less time following the social media hype.

Using this space and using it well is tough to do. Twitter alone is raw and happening at rapid tweets per second. A major part of using Twitter well for your business is making sure you have a loyal, interested and active list of people you are following and who are following you. Remember, this is networking not broadcasting. It is usually better to have a small active Twitter following who reads, reacts and republishes your content versus having thousands of followers but none of them contribute to your effort.

Each morning as I drink my coffee, I check for any new followers on my Twitter accounts (@Hall_Web and @amanda_pants). I manually (that is by hand not a plugin or bot that follows back anyone who is following me) check each new follower.

I look at lots of things when determining whether or not to follow someone back and with a collection of all the information, I make my decision.

Here is what I look for before following back a new follower:

• Avatar or image – Does the person have a picture? Is that picture of them, their face, a logo?
• Location – Is the person from my geographic location? Are they from someplace I have lived, traveled to, am interested in, do business in?
• Recent Tweets – What kind of content do they publish? Are they conversational or are they simply broadcasting?
• Number of Followers and Following – Do they have tens of thousands of followers? Unless they are super important or famous, they probably used some type of bot of following scheme to garner so many followers.
• Twitter lists – How many are they listed on and what topics are they listed for?

Twitter Lists

Twitter lists are pretty new. When they were first rolled out, not many people knew what to do with them, some thought they would hurt already standing Twitter traditions and some just plain old didn’t like them. Since the dust has settled, I have found Twitter lists very useful in determining if I am going to follow someone on Twitter.

First – How many lists are they on? The act of creating a list and adding people you want to it takes time. Someone took enough time to create this list and categorize this person because they wanted to organize or bookmark this person’s information. Time = Value in my mind. A human being took the time to categorize my content. I think that is a big deal. I have looked around and if you can get 5-10% of your followers to add you to a list, I think that is pretty good.

Second – What lists in particular are they on? Consider what lists people are on. Is their expertise something you are hoping to learn more about? Are they in your industry, local market, attending an event you are attending? Or perhaps they could just clog your Twitter stream with information you are not looking for.

This is also a good way to monitor your own Twitter content. If you consider yourself a Social Media Expert and you are being listed as an SEO expert, you could be sending people the wrong message (or tweets). If you are an HR Blogger and people are listing you as social media expert, whiskey connoisseur, running blogger and the list goes on and on, you could be sending mixed messages. By talking about all of your interests you may have diluted your message.

This is just one way I try to keep my Twitter efforts organized and make sure I am following and being followed by good people. I want both parties to benefit from this relationship. What other precautions or tips do you have for streamlining your Twitter efforts?

Wait, what’s a box?

A box is an user developed application where you can display image galleries, twitter feeds, blog feeds, videos and many other useful marketing materials to better engage your fans or potential fans. These boxes require the use of FBML. FBML is a coding language that lets you custom build these Facebook Platform apps. An evolved version of HTML, Facebook Developers community has listed allowed FBML and HTML tags to use. So if you know HTML, FBML is not too far off.

1. Access your edit dashboard by clicking “Edit Page” below your profile photo.
2. Scroll all the way down and click on “Browse More” under “More applications”
3. This will take you to the Applications landing page, in the top left corner in the search bar type “Static FBML”
4. Click on the logo on the right and when you get to the “Static FBML” Fan page click “add to my page” below the logo
5. There will be a dialog box of all of your fan pages (maybe you have only one!) Click “Add To Page” for whatever page you would like to display

Here it is visually:

Editing your new Static FBML box

Now we actually have the “Boxes” tab added to your Fan page profile, we can see it in the tab navigation if you go back to it. Now we want to put actual content within the box! Go back to your Fan page dashboard under “Edit Page” and notice that there is a new box that says “FBML – FBML” This is your first Box.

There are 4 options for this box;

• Edit (This is where you can change the name of your box and develop inside of it using HTML and FBML)
• Application settings (You can remove the box, add a new tab to your navigation or create additional permissions to publish all of your recent activity to your wall feed)
• Link To This Tab (Clicking this will display the direct URL to your tab *Remember this for later in the blog series!*)
• Remove Application (not much to say here)

If you click the Edit link, It will take you to a page with inputs where you can implement application development. Displayed is a Box Title, the title that will be displayed on that particular box on the boxes page, as well as the input for “FBML” or the code of what will display in that particular box.

We are going to display a video within a box. Within your FBML input text box, input the following


<strong>"Fancy Title Goes Here" </strong><br><br><center><fb:swf swfbgcolor="ffffff" imgstyle="border-width:3px; border-color:white;" imgsrc="url of your image to display" swfsrc='url of your video' width='numeric value of what your width is' height='numeric value of what your height is' /><br />click image to start video</center>

This is going to display one video of your choice…notice the similarities between FBML and HTML!

When you are finished, you can click “Save Changes” at the bottom and return back to your fan page and go to the “Boxes” tab to view your new page application.

We have been talking about Social Media a lot here over the last few years. We have covered tips on your strategy, tools and measuring. There is something I am not sure we have covered in depth yet… succeeding in social media and getting truck loads of business from it takes a lot of work.

Kasi and I are training for a half marathon in April, neither of us consider ourselves runners but we made it a goal to achieve during these cold winter months. We are following a formal half marathon training program. Up until now, the training has been relatively easy – running 3 days a week 3-4 miles each time. We got that down! From this week forward it starts getting really hard, more running and longer distances.

Running 3-4 miles 3-4 times a week can be done with little effect on my daily life. You can do that time on a lunch break, before work, after work, you can miss a day and make it up the next etc. If our goal was to only be people who ran 3-4 miles at a time we could rest comfortably right here without making any additional effort that would never really cause us any discomfort but, that is not what our goal was/is. Our goal is to run a whole half marathon (13.1 miles).

To complete our goal we need to really schedule our runs, keep track of time and pace, plan meals accordingly, as these runs get worse longer – we need to schedule recovery time and in some cases full half days need to be blocked off. This is going to be hard work from here on in.

Really succeeding at social media is work

Like our 3-4 mile running program, if you just want to be seen on social media and dabble you can sign up for Twitter, make a Facebook fan page, join LinkedIn, etc. If the goal for your business is to really succeed in social media (the whole 13.1 miles), you can’t just join social networks and wait for something to happen.

To really succeed at Social Media you need to:

• Set concrete goals and milestones for your social media presence (make a million dollars with social media is not a good goal to have here). You need actual tangible goals and to set a time-line for tracking your progress to these goals.
• Schedule time each day you are going to participate in this space. Social Media cheerleaders will tell you how great social media is and it is free. Signing up for most social media sites is free but it takes time to use them effectively. If you are going to be available 3 days in a row and regularly striking up conversations with your network, what happens when you take the next four days off? You need to set expectation for what people will get from a relationship with your business online and you need to stick to those or you will leave a trail of confused and possibly frustrated people online trying to keep a conversation with you going.
• Be dedicated to seeing this through and making it work. You are not going to be an overnight success. This is going to take time. You need time to build trust with your network and make useful connections online.
• You may need to reallocate resources and cut what is standing in your way. As with our running example, if I have a 12 mile run on Saturday – it is going to affect what I do on Friday. I may not be able to attend social events Friday evenings because they will conflict with the milestone I have to meet the next day. You may need to reallocate resources, personnel and more to make sure your needs are being met in this online space.
• Track what is working and what is not. Keep track of what you are doing online and see what is working and what is not. If something is not working (a specific site is showing no inbound links to your website, no one is interacting with your content et. al), then stop wasting your time in that space.

Social media is great. It is a really neat space that I am happy to be a part of. It has helped many businesses with their online marketing. Social Media has helped people find jobs, experts, answers, relationships, business partners, vendors and more. The real true people who are finding success with social media are actually working really hard. This didn’t just happen by accident. So let’s set up the Twitter account, Facebook page, LinkedIn group and blog but then let’s really get down to business…

Perhaps you are just now getting to signing up for a Twitter account. More likely is that when you joined Twitter, you were not sure what you were going to do with this space so you chose a name you are less than excited about now. Many people choose a nickname or a confusing combination of numbers and letters, and find that it’s not appropriate to be using for marketing their business.

So what happens when you find a username you want and someone else is using it? Even worse, what happens when someone has your company name and they aren’t even using the account?

Name squatting is against the Twitter rules. Unfortunately there is little Twitter can do about the inconvenience unless you are covered under the terms of service or if someone is impersonating you. If you have your name trademarked you can email terms@twitter.com to let them know that you own the trademarked name. With any type of interaction like this you should provide all documentation you have and perhaps screen shots of the account you are discussing.

Before making your claim, it is important to understand what you are asking for. For more information about the difference between name squatting, impersonation or trademark infringement read this post from how-to-blog.tv, which also includes Twitter’s snail mail address and fax number.

Twitter is always working on releasing all usernames attached to accounts that have been inactive for more than 18 months. An account is considered a squatter if the account hasn’t been logged into or updated for 6 months. An account that has no activity, followers or people they are following can be immediately removed because they are considered squatting. Finding and ousting squatters is a manual process and can take weeks for Twitter to implement.

If you think you deserve a username that looks like it’s being squatted you can submit a request for someone to review the account.

Taking matters into your own hands

In some circumstances people feel it is best to take matters into their own hands. If you want you can contact the user and ask them to drop the name (politely of course). Send them an @ reply or DM (direct message) pleading your case. If you don’t hear from them on Twitter, try following the link to their website and see if there is a better way to talk to someone there.

If you think it would be easier to reach out to the account owner on your own you should also be aware that any attempt to buy, sell or solicit compensation for a Twitter username is also considered a violation of policy and could be grounds for your account being suspended.

Lastly, if you have the people skills to pull it off, here is a Twitter list of staff members at Twitter. With a little time and networking skills you may be able to make a personal connection with someone in-house that can help you resolve your name squatter issue.

Few other things to remember…

• Try to get there first – Twitter will do its best to do what is right but the easiest way to avoid any of this hassle is to make sure you secure your name first. If you are not ready to take on a full Twitter strategy for your business just set up the account with your information, website, upload a logo and put one post up to secure your name and make sure you aren’t deemed a squatter. For a first post just say ‘Thank you for visiting us on Twitter. We are not quite up and running but if you have any questions please email us at email@company.com’.
• Keep your username short – Usernames can only be 15 characters long. The longer the username, the harder to RT someones content due to lack of spaces in a standard tweet.
• Pay someone else to secure your company name – It is possible to secure your company name on social networks with services like Claim.io
• Check the copyright of a name you want – Before you make a stink, check to make sure someone else doesn’t have the name you want already copyrighted. You can go to the United States Patent and Trademark Office and search for existing trademarks.

One of the hardest (and most common) missteps I see are companies that want to treat social media as an event. People treat joining sites like Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook like it’s a quick fix. Deciding to participate in social media isn’t something you can try for a week or a month and then if you see no return you can just leave it. With every follower, friend or connection you are promising them you are going to provide some valuable information in this space.

An Audience of No One

When you start a social media campaign, you have an audience of ZERO! You need to earn them the old fashioned way – one at a time. So with an audience of zero how do you think you can effectively build a community, company buzz or site traffic?

Your online network will build slowly with your friends, coworkers, fans or other businesses but then it is up to you to provide content that makes people want to hear more from you. Hopefully they will then want to get to know about your business, products and services a little bit more.

Audience Comes After the Message

Unlike traditional media, your social media message comes BEFORE your audience.

In traditional media, you craft your perfect marketing message then you broadcast it out to an audience (billboard, print ad, television ad, radio spot, etc.).

In social media you have to create content, valuable content, to show people that your content is worth subscribing to.

You aren’t going to gain people’s trust in a week, you aren’t going to establish yourself as an expert in your industry in a month – all of this is going to take some leg work and some time.

My advice if you are thinking of abandoning your effiorts? Give it some time. Don’t give up too early. Scale back the amount of time spent working on social media sites but don’t abandon them. Schedule to send out one tweet or one post on your blog each week.

You can also scale back the sites you are using. Spreading yourself too thin with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? Which site is showing you the most value? Cut back to just one and leave a message on the other two that people can connect with you on the one site you will be spending the most time on.

Want another take on it? Read Seth Godin’s The Reason Social Media is so Difficult for Most Organizations.

1. Blog Often – Blogging allows you to demonstrate your knowledge on a specific subject. By providing your expertise, you will be considered a resource that many people will look to for advice.
2. Easy to Understand – The content on your site needs to be easy to understand. Use language that a majority of internet users can comprehend and steer away from using industry jargon.
3. Provide useful information – Your website depends on the usefulness of its content. Be a resource to people, direct them to industry specific white papers; have an events calendar; or offer training workshops or webinars. People that find your site useful are more likely to share it with others, thus enforcing your good reputation.
4. Be Consistent – When updating elements on your site, like news, events, and blog posts, try to be more consistent rather than sporadic. Your users will appreciate knowing that they can go to your site and find what they are looking for.
5. Search Engines & SEO Are Your Pals – If someone is doing a search online and your site comes up on the first page or even in the top five, chances are that search engines consider it to be relevant. Most users trust their search engine to show them the best options for what they typed in the search bar. You need to execute a strategy to keep your website optimized for search engines.
6. Get “Real” – Yes, your website’s reputation also depends on your personal online reputation. Connect with people online using social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn and build a community around you and your business. Discuss topics and share ideas that lead them back to your website for additional resources.



7. Usability and Navigation – Your site needs to be easy to use and to navigate through. Users should understand how to get to the information they are seeking without difficulty.
8. Privacy Policy – Reputation and trust go hand-in-hand and you must include an easy-to-read privacy policy on your website. Your users should know what information you collect on your site and how you intend to use it.
9. Clean design – A clean design is beneficial for your site’s usability, navigation, and readability. Your website’s design must clearly display its calls to action so users can immediately understand what is required of them through the process.
10. Easily Accessible – No one has time for a site that takes a long time to download and please don’t make anyone download anything just to view your site. Make sure you make your site accessible to a wide range of internet users.

These topics work together as a team, not independently, so it is important to think of all the pieces of your website as a whole. For example, if you have a blog on your site that is not consistently updated, your website will be regarded as unreliable. Additionally, if you are not offering useful information to communities on social networks, they will be less likely to use your website as a resource. Building a good reputation for your website takes time, but once it has a solid foundation, it becomes invaluable.

Web design & development

• Remove clutter from your office and make it comfortable for your guests. Use design elements like color and images that relay a welcoming feeling, so people want to visit your site, and hopefully stay a while.
• Do people have a hard time finding where they want to go? Display signs clearly so visitors can navigate their way seamlessly throughout your office. Ensure the traffic to your website can find information easily – if they can’t, they will leave your site to look elsewhere and you lose a lead.

Content

• When guests come into your office do you bore them with the history of your company or do you give them the information they want? If you have an idea of what guests want before they come, you can tailor the information to them – like using landing pages.
• When guests come back multiple times, don’t tell them the same thing each time they visit, give them new information and insight. For example, write a blog that is updated regularly.

Organic Search Marketing

• When people are looking for services or products you provide – make sure they find you! Putting signs up in front of your business, having a good reputation and word of mouth, and being able to be found in business listings are just like ensuring you have a good organic search plan in place.
• Respect expectations. If you sell oranges but you put up a sign that says you sell bananas just to get people to come to your fruit stand, people will be turned off and turn away. In terms of SEO, use keywords that pertain to what you offer and who you are offering to.

Paid Search Marketing

• This is just like paying to put an ad in the newspaper or a commercial on television. You want to make sure the content you put on the ad relates to what you are offering. The ads should direct people where you want them to go to receive the service – call a phone number, visit your office, go to a website, etc.
• Geographical targeting is important to think about too – if you sell snowmobiles, you are not going to put your ads on Hawaiian television. It’s better to have a smaller target to attract more quality leads than to have a large target and attract mediocre leads.

Connecting with people

• As a businessperson, you attend events and communicate with your clients on a regular basis. You can do the same thing online by becoming involved in social networking. Connect with others in your line of business to stay on top of industry news and be available to your customers to get their feedback and ensure their satisfaction.
• When you connect with people online, use your website as a resource for them to go to learn more about you. Similar to how you want your website to be your virtual office, you want your online personality to resemble your professional persona.

Evaluate and Assess (adjust if necessary)

• Can you tell how people feel when they come into your office? Are they buying your products? Are they telling their friends? Do they come back? These are all questions you want to ask about your website too. Check your analytics, set up goals and track them. Pay attention to make sure your calls to action are being completed and forms are being filled out.
• Don’t wait for negative feedback; be proactive about acquiring positive feedback. Try to be one step ahead by monitoring your traffic and trends occurring on your website. If something isn’t working, adjust and then reevaluate.

It can be helpful, when planning your web strategy, to think about your website as your virtual office. As much preparation and detail should go into your website as does choosing and designing your office space, deciding how to market yourself and who to conduct business with. Overall, you want to guarantee you give your visitors a good experience that makes them want to come back and do business with you.