Are you having trouble getting any activity going with your social media accounts? Not finding them to be particularly productive? Here are some pointers as to how to break through the noise and get some value out of your social media time.

Build Relationships

Your first priority should be building relationships. If you are posting and no one is responding, then you aren’t building relationships now are you? Just think about how you behave at a cocktail party. OK, well that might not work for everyone, but some of you will get that the conversation should be 2-way. You should be talking about 50% of the time and listening 50% of the time.

But how do you get that conversation started online?

Broaden your network

I found that social media really came alive for me when I became an open networker. That means that I will connect, friend or follow anyone who requests it. Okay so I did once decline someone whose entire stream was porn. But in general, if you aren’t a spammer, I’ll connect.

How has that helped? Well, I have thousands of people in my network rather than a few hundred. Now I have people that I haven’t personally met, but they understand the principles of networking which are “I help you and eventually you will help me”. Many of these open networkers are more active in social networks and more productive connections than the people I know in the offline world that aren’t active & open online networkers. Also, as an open networker, people can connect to me without fear of rejection. All are welcome.

It was a bit scary making the transition to open networker at first. I was afraid of spammers and yes, I do get unsolicited communications. Some are valuable, some are not. I sort through and trash the bad ones and act on the good ones.

I’ve had to refrain from sharing information about my family and children that I used to post and share more openly. Not knowing every person who connects to me requires me to be a little more protected of personal information. Other than that, I have found it to be a positive experience and have enjoyed the new friends, colleagues and partners I have made.

So how do I broaden my network?

Join groups and forums with people of similar interests or potential customers. If you are on LinkedIn, join the Open Networkers group and you will get a list weekly of open networkers you can connect with. On Facebook you can ask to connect with anyone you went to high school or college with, anyone in your address book, etc. You can connect to friends of friends. With Twitter there are lots of directories and tools to help you find connections that have similar interests as you or follow people you want to follow or who tweet from a location you want to target.

Be patient

Building relationships takes time. It takes more time online than it does in person. I believe that online is more leveraged and will help you scale your business, but it doesn’t replace the face-to-face contact. When you are first getting started in your business, face-to-face will get you more valuable feedback quickly so you can adjust your messages and style.

When you take your networking online remember it can take 6 months or more to develop a productive network, depending on how much time you attribute to it. Yes, you can get followers quickly, but you will not have a relationship with most of them so they will not immediately buy from you or refer you. They will trust someone a friend referred them to first, or someone they met in person, because it is easier to trust and communicate when you can also assess the non-verbal cues. But, you can only meet so many people in person. It’s easier to get your message spread more widely and to build a bigger list online. Online is where you build leverage and scale.

Provide Content

The best way to get people to connect with you is to provide great content. Content ideas include:

• Tips
• Information
• Blog posts
• Quotes and inspirations
• Promos
• Other people’s content, quotes and inspirations, blog posts, etc.

Engage your audience

The most important piece to energizing your social media networks is to engage them. What does that mean? It means you need to interact with them as you would in a face-to-face conversation. You need to:

• Respond to comments they make to you
• Comment on their posts
• Answer their questions
• Post your own Questions
• Compliment others when appropriate
• Be a person. Share who you are, your quirks and brilliance.

Notice that sending out promotions is only a small part of the content you are able to provide. The more you give the more you will get. Remember to give others a chance to shine and give them credit. People love to be complimented.

This all may sound overwhelming but there are ways to automate some of this and to systematize your processes so you can keep it in line with the time you have allotted. I spend about an hour and half on email and social media each day. I consider the two to be linked as many of my social media accounts shoot me an email when I need to respond to something.

Prioritize you networks

You can’t be super effective at managing 15 social media accounts unless it is your full time job. Feedback shows that most people can only effectively manage 3-5 accounts. The top 3 have become (not in any order):

1. Facebook which is great if you have a consumer audience,
2. LinkedIn which is super if you are b2b or looking for tips and support to build your b2c or b2b company, and
3. Twitter which is great for live streams of information and making connections with people with similar interests (then the relationship often moves to a different forum for more in-depth conversations). It’s great for live event recording, customer service, timely announcements and other time-sensitive information.

There are a myriad of other social media platforms and which ones you choose to focus on should be based on who your target customer is and where they like to hang out.

Remember to bring your own energy to your social media communications. Share your expertise. Share who you are. Be genuine.

I know it’s a bit weird at first when you start communicating with a big black void. But there are people out there and you will be heard. You can be shouting at them, selling them or engaging them into a two-way relationship with you. Which one do you think will be most effective, most productive and most energizing for all parties?

How do you handle an Social Media or Twitter post when you are an affiliate marketer?

Last night I was at an event where an attorney spoke about internet marketing laws. I asked her this very question and she responded about how there was no good legal guideline in tort law established yet. But, based on the new FTC Endorsement Rules, you should somehow disclose your relationship (if compensated for it) when endorsing something via a tweet or status update.

Then, this morning I received this email from a company with whom I am an affiliate. From a business owner perspective, I actually think it is a pretty good policy and guideline for people to follow when posting an affiliate link to Twitter or social media networks so I am posting it here for others to learn from.

Dear Debra Zimmer:

XXX.com will be updating their program terms to include guidelines for advertising in the social media space.  This update was due to recent FTC rules and regulations that XXX.com and its affiliates must comply by.  We encourage you to read through the information below and make the necessary changes to be compliant.

1.     All social media messages must adhere to XXX.com content standards. http://www.XXX.com/affiliate/contentstandards.asp

2.    Affiliates linking to XXX.com on social media sites must disclose their relationship as an affiliate. Reason: We require this so that all affiliates will be in compliance with FTC regulations. If you are recommending a company or product by sharing a link that can potentially earn you revenue, you must disclose this to your followers, readers, fans, etc.

Example of compliant message:
Need dental care savings? XXX.com has 30+ discount dental plans to choose from (affiliate link) http://bit.ly/GoodExample

Example of NON-compliant affiliate message:
Just saved lots of money using my plan from XXX.com. You should get a plan too. http://bit.ly/BadExample

3.    Affiliates linking to XXX.com on social media sites must state in their bio or in the link that they are an affiliate and not a XXX.com employee. Reason: While we welcome affiliates to use social media, we do not allow affiliates to act as official spokespeople for our company.

Contact Information
Have a comment or question about this update? Call or email your Affiliate Manager.

I haven’t seen anyone on twitter or other social media sites using a disclosure statement yet, have you? Have you been seeing tweets and status updates that say “affiliate link”? I would bet that it would make it a lot harder for affiliates to make money. Is it just me or does it seem that the affiliate industry is taking a beating recently?

Follow others

Many people are set up to autofollow so when you follow them, they may follow you back. How do you find twitter followers?

Check twitter directories, do a keyword search, search profiles and connect to people who you meet.

Be selective of the people you are following

You can follow anyone you want to, and they may or may not follow you back. That is okay. At first you may notice this and be sensitive to it, but as your followers and following increases, you don’t really notice it. Just follow the people who tweet something of interest to you, and others will be doing the same.

There are restrictions to how many people Twitter will allow you to follow. If you follow more than 2000 people, this is what twitter has to say:

Every user can follow 2000 people total. Once you’ve followed 2000 users, there are limits to the number of additional users you can follow: this limit is different for every user and is based on your ratio of followers to following. When you hit this limit, we’ll tell you by showing an error message in your browser. You’ll need to wait until you have more followers in order to follow more users—basically, you can’t follow 10,000 people if only 100 people follow you.

There are some tools that are useful in determining who to follow:

• Twubble – Twubble recommends people to follow by spidering the people you’re already following and recommending users that they’re following.
• Who Should i Follow? – Enter you Twitter username into Who Should i Follow? and the service finds users who are similar to those you’re already following.

Tweet consistently

• Mr. Tweet – Your Personal Networking Assistant to Find Great Twitterers & Discuss Great Topics. Personalized based on YOUR friends + tweets. Get relevant tweets using email summaries & lists.
• Twittoria – How many friends are you really following? Twitoria finds your friends that haven’t tweeted in a long time so you can give them the boot!

Market your twitter handle

Twitter is just another way for your customers to find you and connect with you. It’s another communication tool and its free. As other communication tools, such as your email address, you should include it in your communications as yet another way for your customers to engage with you. Here are some suggestions as to where you should list your Twitter handle.

• Email signature: include it in your email signature
• Website: add it to your website
• Blog homepage: add it to your blog
• Blog post: occasionally add it within your blog post
• Email newsletter: add it to the bottom of your email newsletter template.
• Presentations: Include your Twitter account on the last slide of your presentation and when you tell people how to connect with you.
• Business Card: Include it on your business card.
• Article writing: include it in your byline
• Guest blog posting: include your Twitter handle in your byline.
• Retweeting on Twitter: Use “@” symbol when retweeting. When they respond to you in kind, they will be promoting your twitter account to their followers.
• Networking: use the @ symbol to communicate

For more resources on using Twitter, check out the Twitter guidebook from Mashable.

What have you done to get more Twitter followers? Please share your successes and failures in the comments below.

Once you sign up for a Twitter account, the question usually is “Now What?” Well, you need to follow people and get Twitter followers. One way to get Twitter followers is to submit yourself to Twitter directories. You can also use these to find interesting people to follow. Here is a list of popular Twitter directories you can use to find and get more Twitter followers.

• WeFollow- Find Twitter celebrities, actors, TV personalities, or new Twitter friends in your area. WeFollow is a directory of Twitter users organized by interests
• Twellow - A search directory of people by area of expertise, profession or other attribute listed in personal profiles on Twitter.
• Just Tweet It – Just Tweet It is a user directory for Twitter organized by genre to allow for users to easily find other Twitter users to connect with. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of people who sign up in a specific category.
• TweetFind – TweetFind answers the question How to Increase Your Twitter Followers.
• Geofollow Twitter Directories – Geofollow Twitter Directory & Search. There are many Twitter Directories, but we follow the top users.
• TwitR - TwitR is a Twitter user directory, free for anyone to join as long as they have a Twitter account.
• My Twitter Directory - Twitter users directory & groups organized by genre. Search, find, connect and network with users. Find twitter followers,business, app & people easily.
• Loaded Web – Local Twitter Directory. Add yourself to the Local Twitter Directory (about the local Twitter directory).

Which Twitter directories do you like best?

Do you automate the marketing of your blog posts? Here’s what I’ve done.

My blog posts are relevant to small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to market their business better. As such, I have them automatically posted to places that small business owners can find them such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and more. I have spent some time automating this process so I can focus on the creation of content and not the marketing of it. Here are the methods and tools I used to automate the updates of my blog posts.

Twitter

I have two twitter accounts; the first, @expertmktgcoach, I tweet each post once, and the second, @debzimmer, I use to repeat the tweets throughout the day.

I use Hootsuite to import the RSS feed from my blog to twitter. This sends out one tweet per account. With Hootsuite, I can also schedule tweets on that second account so that the tweet reoccurs throughout the day.

LinkedIn

My blog headline posts to my LinkedIn status using Hootsuite. Hootsuite also sends the status to Ping.fm which updates numerous other sites that I visit less often.

My blog is then imported into my LinkedIn Profile using the LinkedIn WordPress Application.

Facebook

I use Facebook Notes to import my RSS feed into my Facebook Page. This creates a duplicate copy of my blog on Facebook. I can also use Hootsuite to import the headlines into my wall on my personal Facebook profile or public page.

Social Bookmarking

Using the WordPress Plugin tool for OnlyWire, my posts are automatically bookmarked to numerous bookmarking sites with which I have accounts. It creates bookmarks at more bookmarking sites than I can reach through Ping.fm. Ping.fm reaches other social media sites that OnlyWire doesn’t, such as Plaxo.

RSS Reader

I use Feedburner for those who want to get my blog posts in an RSS reader format.

Kindle

If you are a Kindle user, you can read my blog by subscribing through the Amazon Kindle Store.

SEO

Each post I write is search engine optimized. I use a number of tools including WordPress plugins to assist me with search engine optimization.

Email

There’s one more automation tool I’m considering but haven’t yet implemented. I see that AWebber is now integrated with Feedburner and can send the RSS feeds in email to your subscriber base. I think that sounds way cool. I just wish the tools I currently use offered that service.

That’s all I’ve got on blog marketing automation. Do you have any tools or systems you use that you particularly like?

Business networking is used to create opportunities through like-minded people.

The goal of business networking is to build new relationships and thus generate business. It can be more cost effective than other forms of marketing. Social Networking is one form of networking, but offline business networking is often more effective.

People do business with people they like and trust. Like and Trust is easier to achieve in a face-to-face format. That is why professional networking is still so popular among small business owners.

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Tips:

• Get out and talk to people.
• Meet with everyone you know to share what you are doing and ask them for referrals.
• Always think about how you can help the person you are talking with.
• Ask for a business card. Give them one of yours.
• Connect with them online. Ask them to subscribe to your mailing list/newsletter.

Resources: Places to Network & People to Network with

• Chambers of commerce
• Alumni Groups
• Friends and family
• Twitter meet ups
• Career fairs
• Religious groups
• Parents of your children’s friends and classmates
• Neighborhood groups
• Professional organizations
• Networking organizations

What is Micro-blogging? Micro-blogging is a type of blogging but all posts are very short (usually less than 160 characters).

How do I Microblog?

As a business owner you can use microblogging to build relationships with potential customers and get referrals. Here are some tips…

• Connect with people you know from the present or the past.
• Connect with people who have shown an interest in your field. Find them through groups, directories or searches on their mircoblog posting topics.
• Tweet it: tweet about your product, service, information, tips, etc.
• Include keywords in your message
• Ask people to take action – click on link.

Resources: Microblogging

Here are several sites that provide a micro-blogging platform:

• Twitter – Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time.
• Plaxo – We securely host address books for more than 40 million people. And now, we’re bringing those address books to life with “Pulse,” a new way to enrich your connection with the people in your life. Pulse is meant to be a better way for you to stay in touch with the people you actually know and care about — your family, your real-world friends, and the people you know from business. Pulse makes it easy for you to see what they’re creating and sharing online — their blogs, the photos they’re uploading, their restaurant reviews, and so much more.
• LinkedIn – LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals.
• Facebook – Leading Social networking site. Status feeds are microblogs.
• Plurk – Plurk is an easy way to chronicle and share the things you do, the way you feel, and all the other things in between that make up your life, with the people close to you..
• Jaiku – Create your own microblog and connect with your friends. Post from the Web, by SMS, or from desktop clients. Add comments, use icons. A Google company.
• Identi.ca – Identi.ca is a microblogging service. Users post short (140 character) notices which are broadcast to their friends and fans using the Web, RSS, or instant messages.

Tools:

• SocialOomph – Easily manage multiple twitter accounts on one single page. Schedule tweets and send DM’s to all of your followers.
• TweetDeck – TweetDeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more. TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organized and up to date.
• HootSuite – HootSuite is the ultimate Twitter toolbox. With HootSuite, you can manage multiple Twitter profiles, pre-schedule tweets, and measure your success. HootSuite lets you manage your entire Twitter experience from one easy-to-use interface.
• Ping.fm – Ping.fm is a simple and FREE service that makes updating your social networks a snap!
• Wefollow – A directory of twitter users.

Are there other tools and platforms that you love? what are they and why do you recommend them?

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