I can’t count the number of people I talk to daily that have a blog. They create great content, and share it through some social media channels. But, their twitter, facebook, and linkedin are not actuallyconnected to the blog.

What do I mean?

I mean that when you post a blog post – it should automatically send to twitter, facebook and linkedin for you. You should never have to actually post it on any other site.

Why?

Well in addition to saving you time from having to go to all the different sites…it also means that you’ll never forget to post it onto the other sites.

Okay, so how do you do it?

Facebook:

• Login to your facebook account
• Click into your main page
• Click on the “notes” tab
• On the right hand side, select to import your blog
• Paste the url to your blog (http://www.yourwebsite.com/blog) into the box
• Click import…and you’re done!

Twitter:

• Login to your blog
• Click on plugins
• Click install new plugins
• Type “wordtwit” into the search box
• The top result will be the one you want, click install
• Once it installs, click activate
• Then, on the left side, click settings and then click Wordtwit
• Sync your twitter account with wordtwit
• Now, every time you post, it will automatically send to wordtwit.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn can be connected two ways, you can either do it through twitter or through linkedin itself. I prefer it though twitter so I am going to walk through that.

• In your blog, you should already have installed WordTwit (as per twitter steps).
• Go into the settings of wordtwit through your blog
• Where its ays tweet message, copy and paste: [title] – [link] #in
• Now, login to your linkedin account
• Click on settings in the top right
• Click on Twitter Settings under your Profile Settings
• Authorize your twitter to be connected
• This will mean that every time you post a blog, it will send to twitter and then to your linkedin status update

Now that you have your blog connected everywhere, you will have an easier time getting people to come to your site!

I tried foursquare. Then I left foursquare. And after a lot of thought and cajoling by a few friends, I decided to go back to foursquare…

Why?

Because although I don’t feel it is quite there for the individual, it will be. Businesses will start getting it better and the functionality will improve (at least I hope!). I see huge potential with foursquare and I regret not joining twitter sooner, so I don’t want to make the same mistake here. The biggest concern I have is privacy, but with how much information is available already about me, I figure this can’t really much worse.

Since I’m trying it again, here are the things I am hoping to see:

1. Benefits for a first time checkin from the business. “It’s your first time here, enjoy 5% off”. Giving someone a benefit at their first trip will increase the likelihood they come back and you’ll have more repeat customers.
2. Reward people for bringing people. Multiple checkin’s for one person who brings in first timers with them? They’re doing marketing for you, reward them!
3. On the mobile app – links to the companies website, twitter or facebook to connect them in other ways. This will help the companies to build a stronger network.
4. Something between first time and mayorship…maybe rewarding people at different levels, 5 checkins, 3 in a week, etc…
5. The ability to checkin at a place without claiming location to everyone. For example, it would be great to be able to checkin at Starbucks and have the exact location know where you are but not send the exact location to your friends, just that you are at a Starbucks.

All in all, I am holding out to see results, and am willing to go with it for a little longer. What can it hurt?

What would you like to see improve with foursquare? Have you found benefits for the individual?

There are a lot of items that I see pass through my twitter stream and I wish that there was more information. I love the start of the idea, but am disappointed when there is nothing more than 140 characters. on the other hand, I also see quite a few blog posts that would have been better as a simple question on twitter, and left off of the blog entirely. So how do you know if a tweet is blogworthy? Or if a blog posts idea should just be a tweet?

First, a tweet has a limit of characters (140, 120 if you want it easily re-tweetable) whereas a blog post can be as long as it needs to be (however, I suggest no more than 750 words per). This means that topics which require a lot of explanation before opening them up for discussion should be done as a blog post. Topics that can start conversation off of one simple (short) question work well as tweets. Second, a blog allows for people to follow the whole conversation easily whereas tweets and replies can get lost. The last thing you want to see happening is the train of a conversation to miss a track and then lose it’s purpose. Third, If you have a topic that will possibly get heated or need a lot of space for responses, this should be done as a blog post. Tweets are short burst, which can be dangerous for tough topics. Blogs give both the writer and the responder the space they need for a strong argument and clear thoughts.

Overall, the biggest difference and determining factor is whether or not you need room to run. Blogs give you as much as you need, while tweets restrict your text.

What other ways do you decide whether to tweet it or blog it?

Everyone around you seems to have a blog. They are all writing furiously about whatever they deem important. You’re wondering if you need one too but are unsure how to decide. Here are 5 steps to know you’re ready to have a blog:

1. Think about what you want to write about. Do you have a specific area of expertise? Do you want to write a generic blog? Who would the speaker be – employee, manager, ceo? What tone of voice would you want to write in? Determining all the pieces to the puzzle will let you know where you have holes and what questions need answering before you can start.
2. Research other bloggers in your topic. While there is nothing wrong with writing about a topic that is already being written about (because more than likely, you will have different thoughts) it is still good to know your competition. Read what they write, how they write and how they are received. This is also a great place to start commenting on blogs, so that when you do start writing, you have someone already paying attention.
3. Write for a month, every day, just in a word document. At the end of the month, count how many of your notes could be actual content that you would want to share with people. Are there at least 12? Then you can consider blogging. Blogging needs consistency, and knowing that if you write for a month that you can come up with at least 3 posts per week that are good content means that you will be able to maintain your writing.
4. Schedule your blog. Can you stick to a schedule? Can you force yourself to write, even when you don’t want to? Being able to add blogging into your schedule like you would a meeting or a phone call means that you have the desire and drive to stick with it. The biggest issue for most beginning bloggers is being willing to set aside time for it.
5. D0 you have a network built? I always suggest that the best bloggers are ones that already have a network of friends and followers built through twitter and facebook first. If you have a group of people who are already interested in what you say, it is more likely that they will read your blog and add comments, making it successful more quickly.

If you can follow all of these steps, you will have a good chance of being successful when you start a blog.

Your brand relies on its customers and consumers. One of the quickest ways to lose these consumers and risk the strength of your brand is to ignore social media. Knowing what is being said about you is the first step towards making a change and improving your business. While not all brands will take the jump into participation, all brands need to be monitoring.  Here are 5 places you need to monitor your brand:

1. Forums: Is there a forum about your industry? It’s easy to find out, just do a quick Google search. Find out the biggest ones and search through for your brand.
2. Twitter: Even if you don’t use your account very often, at least set one up so that you can run searches for keywords in your industry and your own brand name.
3. Facebook: You’d be surprised how many “I hate X Company” groups and fan pages there are. Make sure that yours isn’t one of them. Also, you may want to make sure that the employees aren’t taking to the social media sphere to bash your brand either!
4. Search engines: Google Alerts allow you to set up keyword searches for your business name, executives in the company and even long phrases. Make sure you know every time your company is mentioned on the web.
5. Blogs: Just like forums, almost all industries have 5-10 top blogs that cover the products and companies. Make sure you know who they are and what they are saying about you.

What else can you monitor to protect your brand in the online world?

With twitter and blogging, I was first in line. I got it instantly, and loved them. I completely understood when and why to use them, and was involved in every aspect that I could. With Facebook, I was slower to join the trend, a little concerned about connecting business with personal life. But, after some convincing, I delved into Facebook as well, and now have seen the light.

I have tried tons of other social media tools, some I have kept around (linkedin, stumbleupon) and others have faded to the background (friendfeed, digg, reddit). The problem I find is that I am very wary of adding a new tool to my arsenal without really understanding what it can do for business. We have enough on our plates already, that adding another tool must also add to our business instead of taking our precious time. Twitter, Facebook and blogging are all strong examples of adding vs. taking. They deliver stronger connections and great business results. Since Twitter, I have struggled to find a new site that can add value like these three.

About 8 months ago, a new site launched. They called it Foursquare (no, not the game you played in elementary school), and it is a geo-targetting tool to allow users to ‘check-in’ to the locations that they visit.

When I heard about this site, I was very wary. First, it was only launched in a few places. Second, it was only launched as an application for the iphone. This left me (a blackberry user) a little put off. But, never one to shut something down without research, I learned more about it and watched friends use it. After a few months of seeing people “check-in” at locations and earn ‘badges’ for being at places a lot, I still didn’t see a huge value. If the company or place I was at was on twitter, I could basically do the same thing just referencing their twitter name. While I didn’t earn ‘badges’, I didn’t feel like I was missing much. But recently, as foursquare has become more popular, and more and more businesses are getting involved, I have noticed something new. When some of my friends that use it check in at places, they get a surprise – a free drink, 5% off their bill, etc…and ones that check into the same place a lot? The rewards are even better. Also, they have now released an application for the blackberry, making it accessible to me, and more intriguing to try.

So, after seeing the results that some friends have had from using it, and talking with a few businesses about their experience with it, I have decided to download it for my blackberry. Over the next week, I will be testing it out, checking in everywhere I go and seeing how it works. Next Monday, I will write about my experiences and let you know what I think.

If you have tried it, what do you think? If you haven’t, I invite you to try it with me and share your thoughts next week!

The most common questions we get from our clients are regarding the ‘why’ of social media…and most often, on blogging. Blogs are the largest time commitments and therefore bring the most questions. We have a variety of answers, depending on the industry, but there are a few common answers that all our clients need to know.

You need a blog for many reasons; the most important is a place to start building your business. Your blog is the center of your social media tools; you will use the content that you share here to promote through Twitter and Facebook. In addition, your blog is the largest branding tool that you have on the web. Because the site is all your own, you control the content and the participation. It is also a great way to start building your networking lists, the people whom may be potential clients. You will be able to get to know your readers through comments, will have access to their email addresses and can start to gain trust in the community. It is slower pace than either Facebook or Twitter which allows you more time to develop the relationships in your own way.

The second reason you have a blog is to develop your online brand. The blog is all yours, your style, your content, your experiences. The blog should have a theme, whether it is all about your business or a combination of business and personal, your readers need to know what to expect. By creating a main goal for the site, it will be easier to develop content and stay on theme. Even if you want to keep this as a business blog only, you still need to be honest with yourself. If you struggle with certain areas, do not claim to be perfect at them. On the same token, if you are going to include some of your personal side, make sure that you don’t reveal too much. It should never be more than you want strangers to know about you. All of these details put together will create a picture of you, that others can see and will help you to build a stronger network. People connect with other people like them, and giving them a glimpse of you will help them to determine whether you fit what they need.

Finally, your blog is an educational channel for your past client, future clients and colleagues. Just like this blog post is an educational tool for our readers, this could also help someone interested in working with us to learn more about our services. Rather than answering the same questions to multiple people, you can write a blog post about it and then send it out to the entire group. It is an effective way to share thoughts and ideas and allows the readers to participate in the posts as well. They can contribute more content in their comments, or ask questions for you to answer in the future. The bottom line is to open a communication channel between you, your clients and your potential clients.

What other reasons do you have for starting your blog? Or what questions do you have about blogging?

One of my favorite shows on TV is House, and last night, the case to be solved involved an interesting blogger. The show overall was good, the case solving unique and what you would expect from House…what I want to discuss is the way that they portrayed the blog world.

If you missed the show, the blogger is a woman who shares every detail of her life with her readers, from her fights with her boyfriend to her food choices, and later on, her medical choices as well. As soon as something new happens, she must blog, and tell the whole world (or at least her readers) what has changed. She explains to her boyfriend that if she chooses what to share, and censors what she says, she isn’t being honest, and the readers expect honesty. In one scene, she finds she needs a new liver, and blogs about it. One of the doctors later informs us that they received a call from Singapore asking about how to donate for the blogger. Basically, the show paints her as a woman who isn’t herself without her trusty laptop and blog. So what is the big deal?

My frustration with the show was the fact that they chose to take blogging as only one thing. There was no discussion of blogging other than the type that this woman did – considered ‘life journal-ing’. First, yes, there are probably plenty of women who have blogs and use them just like the woman in the show. They share every detail, some very personal, and use it for publicity. Unfortunately, this paints a poor picture of the blogging world and makes it difficult to help people to understand the other sides of blogging. For me,  this type of blogger is nothing more than a bored woman who can’t deal with intimacy in her own life so she chooses to share it with the rest of the world instead. By the end of the show, I was not only irritated with the woman, but disappointed with the show itself in that it would allow such a poor version of ‘bloggers’ to be broadcast to millions of viewers. Blogging obviously can be just a journal of your thoughts, but that is a stereotype that I fight against every day. When we discuss blogging, most of our clients (and unfortunately friends too) think we mean the type of blogging portrayed in the show. They have a hard time separating the fact that while there are ‘life’ bloggers, that business bloggers are just as important, and can make a huge impact in their industry with the right strategies. In fact, were one of the top business bloggers to share that they needed a liver, they would probably get the same response this woman did. You make connections with your readers through your writing, but that doesn’t mean it has to be personal writing.

On a side note, I found it funny that the blog service she used was a fake – I figured wordpress, blogger or typepad might have jumped at the opportunity to be featured on a hit show…wonder if Fox even reached out to them…

Did you see the show? What do you think about the way it represented bloggers?

We get questions from our clients all the time about social media – why you need it, what it does and how to make it effective. There are thousands of different social tools, but most are very specific or unique to an industry. To avoid the specifics, the social media tools I will be talking about are twitter, facebook and a blog. I will refer to them in general as “social media” although each has its own role in the overall strategy.

As far as answering the questions…none of them have simple answers,  but there are a few ‘in generals’ that we want to share:

1. In general, social media provides an outlet for conversation between you and your potential customers. They can ask questions, share experiences and learn more about your services in a less pressure filled environment.
2. In general, social media builds stronger SEO for your website and your brand. There are more people talking about you, more pages to your site and more links to you.
3. In general, people want to talk with real people and creating social media platforms to allow them to do so will improve your customer service.
4. In general, social media will expand the number of people who know about your services and your company as well as who you are as a person.
5. In general, social media is like a conference. People know that you are there to sell something but don’t want it shoved in their face. If they want to know, they will ask.
6. In general, social media can help any business with exposure in their local market.
7. In general, social media can help any business with exposure on the global scale.
8. In general, social media can provide answers to questions, a testing ground for new ideas and a live version of a focus group for online programs in beta.
9. In general, people involved in social media are more likely to look for services or companies through recommendations from their online friends rather than real life friends.
10. In general, social media is here to stay, and businesses who start participating sooner will have the edge over companies who don’t.

While some of these will fit, others won’t. For a more detailed analysis on the point of social media for your company, contact us today!

What other generalities about social media can you share?

If you want to become a better blogger, you have to grow, change and adapt. You also have to know these four tips.

• Remember your overall goal: The blog should have a theme, whether it is all about your business or a combination of business and personal, your readers need to know what to expect. By creating a main goal for the site, it will be easier to develop content and stay on theme.
• Be honest but not overly personal: Even if you want to keep this as a business blog only, you still need to be honest with yourself. If you struggle with certain areas, do not claim to be perfect at them. On the same token, if you are going to include some of your personal side, make sure that you don’t reveal too much. It should never be more than you want strangers to know about you.
• Be consistent: Without consistent content, your readers will not stay interested. The best number of posts is 3-5 per week. Bloggers who can stay consistent with this number of posts will see success with subscriptions and participation. This consistency can be achieved through a good calendar process.
• Use good titles and keywords: Your title is important for your readers, but also important for the search engines. Make sure to use words that you know people will search for when looking for your content in both the title and the post.

What advice can you add to be a better blogger?