Strategic Online Networking’s Free TampaBay Football Schedule Magnet Give Away!

If you would like one of these free schedules

click here and fill out this quick form! Thanks!

If you would like one of these free schedules

click here and fill out this quick form! Thanks!

Who should or should not use Social Media?

As a Social Media Consultant, I am “blown away” by how many people contact me to argue about whether they, their company or organization should be online using Social Media.  The reason this is perplexing to me is that I assume by the time people call me they have decided that they would like to move forward with Social Media.  I am prepared to assist clients in developing a strategy and time frame of acting on that conclusion.

But no!  I have people call that feel pressure from friends, family, co-workers or “keep up with the Jones” mentality that in truth are leery about the whole thing.  So here is my list of “everyone that should not and should” be online using Social Media!

EVERYONE THAT SHOULD NOT:

If you do not want to do it, don’t!

If you have a bad attitude about Social Media and have thought and meditated on every reason you should NOT be on the internet (including a fear of internet addiction and having lost money to Nigerian swindlers back in 1995).   Do not do it.   Do not succumb to pressure from others!

If you are convinced you do not have enough money to get online, don’t!

If you think using a free site like FaceBook or Twitter is too expensive then don’t.  You are too smart for the system   Of course, the fees for getting educated on how to use the system may be what you mean.  This does not have to be a big issue.  Look around there are a number of Social Media people and resources that have reasonable fees (some do not). But if you ask, people can refer you!  Trust me!

If you think you should automatically get a check from FaceBook or Twitter for using their sites, then no don’t do it!

Many business people’s first question is how to monetize social media (I think a better-worded question would be – how will using Social Media affect my bottom line?).  Well you will not automatically get cash in the mail for being involved!   However, a number of businesses have said that they have gained brand exposure through Social Media and built relationships that have lead to deals being closed (see Illustration below).  That is how you monetize.  It is another form of networking.  And it is cheaper than playing golf:)!

If you do not care, what people are saying about you, your company or your business interest online then it is definitely not for you.

Listening is one of the great aspects about Social Media.  Being plugged in to listen to what is being said about your brand, your business niche is imperative!  This allows you to address those issues readily.  But if you don’t want to hear what people are thinking about the business or organizational issues you are involved with stay your current course!

You do not want to be Social on Social Media!

I get this and yet I do not.  You do not want to “chitchat”, build relationships with or talk to people online that you do not know.  Well business people talk to people they do not know all the time!    Of course, this scenario is online, but we all have played the game of small talk, on the golf course, over coffee, at lunch, online all the same!  But, if you do not want to, don’t!

 If you want to tell me repeatedly that you spent $10,000 on a website and you are beyond convinced that everyone in the universe is going to visit it because it is so spectacular!

Websites are great!  However, they are often destinations not places of interactions.  Plus, they must be sought out and found to be enjoyed.  Social Media sites are where people actually already are everyday! It would be a place to promote traffic to your very expensive website as well as a place you can interact with potential clients.

Honorable Mentions:

• You sell product that cost over $1million to less than 100 people a year!  Okay perhaps you do not need to expand your brand.
• You work for the CIA, but then you would be online in a very different capacity.
• You have evil employees that would use it as a vehicle to ruin your reputation.  Umm…why are they still employees?
• You are completely void of ideas as to what your goals would be if you did use Social Media.  Goals are good.  Doing something just to do it is not good.

Also, check out this article that expounds on my honorable mentions of not using Social Media.

EVERYONE THAT SHOULD: 

Everyone that does not fall in the above Should Not or Honorable Mention categories.

Just try it, if only personally for yourself.  Once you discover if you enjoy it, bring your organization online! 

 If you liked this article, share it!

Super Simple Social Media Solutions #3

FaceBook Hints:

How do I get Fans for my Favorite Fan Page (Even it if it is yours)?

Start under the Avatar (picture) on your FaceBook Fan Page where it says “edit page” if you are the administrator of the Fan Page, or click on “more” if you are just a Fan.  More options will appear (see illustration above).   One option is “Suggest to Friends”.   Click on that and a window with all your friends will open. Click on the “All” option to send to every friend or on individuals to invite them to “fan” the page.  Friends that are already Fans of the page you will not be able to invite again (sweet feature!).  These invites go to two places email and in the request area on your friend’s home page. This will help you gain fans quicker.

People that use their mobiles often can text “fan Whatever the name of the Fan Page” to 32665 (FBOOK) from their mobile phones (with out the quotations), and they will be added as fans instantly. Standard charges may apply.

Watch my FaceBook Fan Page for more tips!  If you have any other questions, let me know!  Leave a comment here or message me on my FaceBook Profile Page.

Super Simple Social Media Solutions #2

How do I keep up with it all?

Consolidate Your Online Presence!

If you have been on the internet for a couple of months, you probably have “accumulated” a few sites for yourself and/or your business.  Perhaps you have a FaceBook, Twitter, FaceBook Fan Page and/or a Blog site.  How do you keep up with it and most importantly let others know about all your sites.

Google to the Rescue

There are a number of these nameplates or consolidated sites.  I have experience with two.  The first is Google Profile .  Google has it all; a profile page where you can share links to all your accounts, as well as email, a Reader, documents, and the list goes on.  Now with Google Voice they have even more covered.  Visit my partially completed Google profile.

But UnHub “does it” for me

Another site that offers a great nameplate is UnHub.  It gives you a single URL that says “Here is all my stuff”.  The service allows you to create a very simple home page with a persistent profile bar that links to every site that defines you on the Web. No matter which of your pages is visited, your UnHub profile bar stays on top.  Using the bar all your Social Media or Web sites can be easily visited.  Changes are also easy to make.  See my UnHub site here.

More Great Features from UnHub

It also keeps track of simple analytics such as how often each site on the UnHub profile bar is visited that day, that week, for all time.

Another very sweet feature is that UnHub.com offers short URLs (you use these shortened web addresses to save space in a number of places especially on Twitter) that have a bar with your identification attached to the site you share.  In addition, no matter how often it is shared by others, your name will be identified with that URL.  Analytics are kept for these shared sites also.  Here is a link I shared a few days ago.  See my name at the top left corner.  If you click on my name, you will go to my company’s main website. I think this is a very nice feature.  But even better, it offers you three ways to shorten your URLs including a Browser Button!  And to keep this post short I won’t go into their Movie Profile feature.

My Two Thumbs Up!

So whether you have 3 sites or 30 http://UnHub.com or http://www.google.com/profiles can be of benefit to you in sharing your accounts in a consolidated fashion.  In addition, the other great features that both of these services offer make them truly worth exploring.  Let me know what you think.

Super Simple Social Media Solutions #1

FaceBook Hints-The Hide “Button”

Okay you are new to FaceBook (FB) and you have a few friends that are updating so much that your Home Page News Feed looks like it is wall papered in their information.  There is a way to stop this.

The reason I said you are  new is that folks that do not have many friends yet (or by choice), their news feeds move slower, less volume of updates.  They are more likely to see  every post that FB friends make.  If you have many friends, your home News Feed moves quickly with a larger volume of use, you probably miss many updates.  Either way some of our best online buddies can post so much and so often it is irritating.

The following are the questions I often get from users with this issue:

So how do I stop these people (or Fan Pages) with too many updates? Instead of un-friending the person just use the Hide Button.  In your News Feed on your Home Page run the cursor down the right side of the comments or updates (whatever you want to call them) and the Hide Button will appear.  If you click on it, it will ask you what you want to hide.

What can I do about people that use those annoying applications all night and post every result? Some people are only annoying because of their use of applications and games.  You may not mind viewing their status updates or links.   Once again just run the cursor down the side of the update of the application or game you do not enjoy and click.  You can even get the option of hiding all of the person’s updates or just updates from that application.

Where does the hidden information go? If you go to the bottom of your Home Page, it will show you how many hidden post you have.  If you click there,  all the hidden updates will be added to your News Feed in sequence of the time they were posted.

If I change my mind about hiding certain people’s information, what can I do? Of course, you can undo the “Hide”.  Again, at the bottom of the Home Page, there is an Edit Options “button”.  Clicking there will give you the ability to add a Friend’s updates back to your News Feed.

Can people find out I hid their updates? At this moment, I do not believe so.  However, by tomorrow this time someone may have an application that will tell people who is hiding their comments.  I would not worry about it.  Most people that post a lot or use many applications do not have time to check out what others are doing online (just jokes folks:))

What are the benefits of the Hide button; shouldn’t I just get rid of the person from my friend list? The benefit is that you are still FB friends with the person, giving you both access to each other’s profiles and the ability to message one another.  You can still keep a relationship with the person (the whole premise of Social Media) without the viewing the person, realtives or fan pages’ annoying updates, opinions or application use as often.

If this post has been helpful to you share it with others:)

The Top Two Reasons You Need a Social Media Consultant

• The first reason is that your teenage son, daughter, cousin, neighbor, or young college intern, though he/she may use many social media sites for fun may not know how to use those sites to market your brand or business!  I have come to realize that many young people who may spend hours on social media sites and have thousands of connections often do not understand how to share or post information and often not  in a professional manner.  Some may understand, but realize that just because a person uses a site for socializing does not mean he/she will know how to use it to benefit your organization professionally.

 

• Secondly, you can take a few weeks to fumble through getting online in your limited spare time, attempting to learn Social Media and perhaps getting frustrated and forgo it.  However, it would be a better use of your time to focus on your business while allowing someone to help you develop a total Social Media Plan. One that encompasses your entire marketing objectives, branding aims, Online Reputation Management concerns, Return on Investment analytics and team implementations.  Yes, I said “team”!  As I have said before Social Media though free is not cheap, it takes an orchestrated effort to make it an effective and useful tool for your organization.   

I could have made this “The Top 20 reasons you need a Social Media Consultant”, but the two I have mentioned above are the ones that often end up wrecking many companies’ Social Media efforts  from the onset.  If only they had just connected with a consultant and spent, at times, as little as $50 they could have spared themselves weeks of wasted time and brand embarrassment with unkept half-built sites posted all over the internet.  Do not let this be you and your company – ask somebody that knows Social Media Strategy well!

What do I have to do to be successful in Social Media for my business?

That is a good question because most people do not want to spend time, effort or dollars on any activity that is going to not work or pay off in the right results.

Once a business, organization or event organizer decides on the goals, they want to accomplish with their Social Media Program the three things that facilitate success are: content, conversation and consistency.

Content is the message, tweets, information that you are going to share. Moreover, it is king! The rule of thumb for mature people is do not tweet, message out about anything you would not be interested in hearing. People want to know that “friend-ing, following, subscribing to” your online sites are adding some type of value to their lives (not spam or silliness). This is especially true for people that only socialize with you online. The people that actually know you love you for you, but online friends need to have a reason to love you. And good content can be that reason!

Conversation is the Social part of Social Media! I am sorry to inform you that you do need to be social with people online. This is vital for people in business to understand. In the marketing mindset, all conversations have to be about business or closing the deal. This will lead you nowhere online. People enjoy doing business with people they like. Building relationships online is a true networking skill. Interacting like you are at a cocktail party with small talk, finding things in common, and exchanging business information without expectations is the beginning of conversing on the internet. We can give you even more ideas.

Consistency is key to keeping online subscribers engaged and loyal. Consistency does not mean your Social Media interactions have to be a burden, but it does mean you need to have a discipline and rhythmic approach to updating your sites.

None of this is laborious, but you may need assistance in deciding on your goals, type of content, conversation style and methods to be consistent for marketing with Social Media. With proper planning and use of applications, success with Social Media can be easily accomplished!

Contact us for more information! Do not wait any longer to give your business, organization or event a worldwide online presence!

Can Social Media Really Work for My Business?

I get this question often. Most people have a sense of doubt that being involved in Social Media is worth their investment in time or money. In addition, there are critics out there that bash Social Media regularly.

However, when a number of business leaders where asked this year about whether or not Social Media helped their business, they gave an overwhelming “ yes”  that it did.  They noted many positive outcomes for their business’ use of  Social Media (see image above).   From the 81% that felt they were getting exposure for their business to 35% that felt it helped the “close business”, being involved with Social Media was constructive for bettering business!

What is stopping you? Do you feel you have no time for Social Media or do you not know how to go about it. Perhaps you even tried it once and “nothing” really happened. With the affordable prices of Strategic Online Networking, we can assist you to have the same positive outcome so many other organizations are experiencing with Social Media. Contact us today!

There is No Reason to Wait Any Longer to Discover How Social Media Can Help Your Business, Organization or Event

You have heard all about it, Social Media, which includes but is not limited  to FaceBook, Twitter, Flickr, Skype, Posterous, Tumblr, .Ning.  You can ignore it but it is not going away.  Don’t miss out on an opportunity to add Social Media to your “tool box” of strategies to get the word out about your business, organization or event to not only recurring associates but also to new people – world-wide!  This is the time when budgets are lacking to try something that if done strategically can be effective and cost little  money.

Though Social Media is free it is not cheap!  The effort of finding out how to use it to benefit your organization can cost in time and failed accomplishment.  That is where Chandra M. Lee and Strategic Online Networking can come in to assist you.  With our reasonable rates and rapid results there is no reason to not be online extending your reach worldwide soon!  Contact us today!