Hiring A Social Media Manager

I think we can all agree by now that social media is here to stay. As such, the importance of formulating a social media strategy, executing on it, educating and aligning the whole organization, is paramount. This is why your social media manager / director is going to be a crucial hire. Someone asked me on Wednesday night at the SFAMA event: “How do I find someone good to lead social media and community building efforts? What are some success characteristics?” This is a very big question, and one I hear often, so I thought it merited its own blogpost. 

First of all, let me preface the below by saying that some of the characteristics for success in your field will be particular to you, as well as a lot of the differences will be dictated by whether you are a B2C or a B2B (otherwise known as B2B2C) organization. Based on my observation, however, all successful social media and community people share the following characteristics (although this post skews a bit more to social media management than community management). There are definitely overlaps between social media and community management, but it’s important to realize that they are fairly distinct disciplines. For differences between community management and social media management, check out a post I’ve written, as well as this post by Rachel Happe.

1. Passion: You may agree or disagree here, but I think the single most important characteristic in any people-facing job is passion. If you are truly passionate, you will easily develop a lot of the other characteristics below, as well as learn competencies. It’s also one of the most difficult characteristics to fake; if you aren’t passionate, people can tell. There are several reasons why passion is paramount. Firstly it’s an all-consuming job, so if you really don’t love it with every fiber of your being, it will be drudgery and you will burn out quicker than you type your next tweet. Secondly, people can tell when you don’t really care, and if you are in the frontlines evangelizing your company, you won’t garner enough credibility in the market. Passion is contagious, and the best sales people are the natural ones. At the same time the toughest sales job you will ever do is on yourself; so if you are truly passionate, committed and knowledgeable, you won’t have trouble influencing others without “selling”.
2. Domain expertise and credibility: As I mention above, the passionate person with a strong capacity for learning, will learn competencies particular to your company quickly. Therefore, don’t make a mistake of hiring based on a couple of technical skills over the characteristics in this article — those can always be taught. However, you do need to evaluate this person’s professional credibility in the general space you are in. I’d certainly recommend listening to social media conversations to understand who the formidable bloggers, thought and conversation leaders are, and either hire them or rely on their word-of-mouth recommendations. Because this person will be the “face” of your company, you want to make sure they are credible and know what they are talking about.
3. Natural Evangelism: Following from above (passion and credibility), your social media / community manager will be an evangelist of your company and  your products. Because this person will represent your company in many ways, ensure that this person’s value system, brand and voice are consistent with your brand and value system.
4. Service DNA: Because this person is the face of your company, (s)he needs to be infallibly committed to helping people in social channels. Your customers, prospects, partners, analysts, etc. will ask for your help and advice, and you need to be there. In reality, there’s oftentime more than one person can handle, and we’ll talk about building a team a little later. It’s important for this person to realize that customer service is the new marketing, and to be able to instill these values in the rest of the company.
5. Personal, personable, firm and respectable: Related to the above, your “face” has to be approachable enough for people to want to connect with. This person will be the proverbial “guy/gal you’d love to have a beer (or carrot juice) with”.  At the same time, this person is not a pushover, and knows how to establish boundaries effectively. Being service oriented does not mean that you are a pushover, or will entertain foul behavior,] or cater to trolls.
6. Thirsty for knowledge and committed to education: Social tech move at breakneck speed these days; there’s a new social network or product, it seems, daily. As a social media practitioner, you must keep your toolset full of sharp new tools, but also must have enough experience to tell what’s a real trend and what’s a shiny new object that will burn out in 3 months.
7. Risk tolerance, ability to fail fast: The fast-changing landscape of social technology also necessitates more and faster course-correction. It’s absolutely crucial to commit to social media programs and stay with them long enough to evaluate their success or failure. However, it’s just as important to remain flexible and nimble, allowing to course-correct. Your social media leader must be comfortable with constant change and failing fast, because the faster you fail, the faster you learn and move on to something that works.
8. Balance of perfectionism with a bias for action: To say that the social media world expects real-time is an obvious statement.  Therefore, your social media leader should have a definite bias for action. While creating quality content is important, it’s equally as important to avoid going into analysis paralysis or get caught in an endless loop of approvals. I am certainly not advocating publishing blogposts without proofreading them; I am simply saying that if perfection means inaction, you should choose action. If you wait on publishing blogpost or tweet, it will indeed be yesterday’s news tomorrow.
9. Advocate for community and for the company: Your social media leader is in a unique position to be an advocate for both, the company / brand and the community. Although some may think the two goals compete with each other, they really do not. When you are an advocate for the community, you help the company design better products and services. Therefore, you are able to evangelize on behalf of the company more naturally. Providing an excellent and customizable customer experience makes the customer happy, boosting advocacy, loyalty and revenues, and in turn making the company happy.
10. Strategic: You should hire your social media leader with the expectation that this person will set the strategy for the whole company, ensuring that the right things get done, and that the people inside the company are working together like a well-oiled machine. Strategic, big picture thinking, coupled with the willingness to roll up sleeves and execute, is a must for this position. Either eventually, or from the beginning, this person will be managing other social media and community managers to help execute. Because of its strategic importance, this position will need to provide leadership for senior management as well.
11. Business savvy: The problem with a lot of self-proclaimed social media “experts” is that they lack a broad-based business education. Ensure that your hire has a general business savvy and understands marketing, sales, operations, P&L, product management, business process and customer support fundamentals. Social media is not a silo, and being able to understand its relationship to other business functions is critical.
12. Innovative self-starter: Especially if this position is new to company, and because a lot of social efforts are still in uncharted territory, this person can’t wait for directions from the boss. Oftentimes, directions from the boss won’t come at all, because this person will know more about social media than the C-suite. Leading change, being able to build something from nothing, setting and executing strategy, sometimes in the face of internal skepticism, are not easy tasks. Even though it’s important for this person to self-direct, the direction has to be consistent with the overall business’s strategy.

The above is a tall order, and to be frank, there are not too many people who fit the bill. Because it’s a big job that requires a lot of creativity and nerves of steel, you need to ensure that you are providing the right environment for your social media leader to succeed.

• Support from the C-suite: Many social media initiatives fizzle before they are ever born, because the there’s not enough buy-in from senior management. Make sure that social media is embraced and looked upon as a strategic endeavor, and not just a cost center or a fad. As such, your social media leader needs to also have access to the right decision makers, because cross-functional collaboration is required.
• Work hours and locations that make sense: The old paradigm of 9-5 is no longer true. Social is on at all times, and many social media people have schedules that are truly erratic. Don’t require your social media people to be in the  office 9-5 (with the exception to face-to-face meetings), but rather give them the flexibility to get the work done at times and in locations that are appropriate for the job. Give your social media people the ability to be creative on their own terms; if they really know what they are doing, they will know what’s best.
• Feedback tolerance: You have to be open to feedback and willing to listen to the unpleasant. Remember that oftentimes, this person will have a unique insight from the community’s point of view, and you should listen and learn from this feedback, even when it’s uncomforable. The transparency of social media brings a proverbial mirror to your face and exposes more flaws in your organization than otherwise would come to light. And that’s OK. However, it’s not OK to not make changes based on what you learn.
• Commit to ongoing learning: Like with all other knowledge workers, you need to commit to supporting this person’s ongoing education: with time, as well as money.
• Empower personal branding: In social media, the distinction between personal and professional is blurry at best. You need to be comfortable with this person’s personal brand and its relationship to the company brand, and give him / her latitude to grow both.
• Have realistic expectations: More than likely, will not have an Old Spicy type success overnight. Building community and relationships via social media is just like building any other relationship: it’s hard work, daily, and over time. There are no shortcuts, and you need to realize that. While there are certainly tactical things you can do in social media, your investment in it should be similar to your investment in email and phone. After all, social media is a communication channel, and not a broadcast channel.

So what do you think? Did I leave something out that’s important to you? What do you think are some success characteristics? The comments are yours!

Source : www.customerthink.com

11 Things to Avoid When Using Twitter

Twitter has taken off since my last post. It is all over the place. You can turn on the TV at any given time in any given country and be sure to hear it mentioned. Between Oprah, Ellen, Ashton, and many others, it is safe to say, Twitter is becoming much more mainstream as time goes on. I do not mean to say that these celebrities are mainstream, but their audiences are. Since Oprah joined Twitter, you can be sure that hundreds of thousands of “stay-at-home moms” across America have begun tweeting. There are of course endless debates surrounding this topic and whether this is a good or bad development, but one thing’s for sure, there are now many new people joining Twitter who have no idea what they are doing.

I already wrote a list of reasons explaining why you should tweet, how to tweet, and what to do after you join Twitter, I thought I would tell you what NOT to do when tweeting. Before I begin, let me say two things:

1. This is of course my opinion only and since there are so many social media experts out there (will address that later), there are going to many of you who disagree with this list.
2. I do not want to sound like I came up with all this stuff alone. I learned most of them the hard way, when I did them and was virtually stoned (with rocks, not the other kind) by my Twitter community (follow me here).

So here are 11 things to avoid when tweeting:

1:  Do not use the following words in your bio, no matter how much you think they will attract followers:

-Social Media Expert: I think it is safe to say these are the three most annoying words on Twitter. What is a Social Media Expert can someone please explain to me? I am of the opinion that very few people can honestly call themselves experts in the field. The remaining 99% are people who have been using Twitter for a few months, have a few hundred followers, and are as much of an expert on social media as I am on Yoga (never done Yoga).

-Guru: The same pretty much applies to the word Guru. Unless your name is Jeff Pulver or possibly Kevin Rose, and you write that you are a Web 2.0 guru, you can rest assured you will not see me on your followers list. Humility is the key.

-Make Money Online: People are mostly on Twitter to participate in dialog. People who write these words in their bio are just like email spammers, and beyond the annoyance, and the fact that they are single handedly ruining Twitter, they are also doing something immoral and wrong. I can safely say that without exception, these words should never be in anyone’s Twitter bio.

-Affiliate Marketing: Now this is a tricky one. There is nothing inherently wrong with affiliate marketing. It is a legitimate way of making money online. However, to put it in proportion, Viagra is also a legitimate aphrodisiac, that does not mean I would ever open an email with the word Viagra in it. So too, most people on Twitter would not follow someone with the words Affiliate Marketing in their profile.

-Increase your Followers: If you are telling me ways to increase my followers, you obviously have very little confidence in my intellectual ability or at the very best, my social skills. I do not want to be told who to follow and as one of my Twitter mentors told me in response to a question posted on Twitter, I do not want to follow random people. I want to follow people that interest me, and the basic assumption is that the people they conduct dialog with, will also interest me. Thank you Ahuva (follow her, she is the cream of the crop.)

2:  Do not ONLY answer the question “What Are You Doing” in your tweets: Maybe this is how Twitter started, but I think we can all agree that nobody wants to hear when you are eating, when you are going to sleep, and when (yes this has been tweeted on occasion) you are going to the bathroom. Now let me clarify; I am not saying that it is unacceptable to talk about what you are eating for lunch, and even post a picture of it, this kinda thing makes Twitter interesting and fun. However, I think if that is ALL a person tweets about, they will end up with very few followers, who might be true food enthusiasts. A guiding rule when tweeting is tweet things that would interest you if tweeted by others. In fact, I think it is time to change the Twitter box from “What are you Doing”? to possibly “What Can you Share”? or as a true social media expert suggested, just a simple “What’s up?”

3:  Do not ONLY promote your blog/business in your tweets: Once again, the main word here in “only”. In my humble opinion, there is nothing wrong with sharing your blog posts with your followers. If they follow you, they are apparently interested in your thoughts, and your blog can be viewed as an extension of your tweets, so why not share it? However, just like everything else, all in moderation. If I come across someone’s Twitter timeline and all his tweets start with the word “New blog post”, can you guess what my first action would be?

4:  Do not tweet the same thing more than twice in a day: There are some people on Twitter who I actually look up to and respect, but feel it is OK to tweet the same article ten times throughout the day. Now, there is something to this technique. After all, the people reading it in the morning are generally not the same people reading it in the evening. This is true, but there is one little problem. When you tweet the same article or link many times throughout the day, you are not taking the heavy Twitter addicts into account. There are enough people who will see all those tweets and get annoyed fast. If you MUST tweet the same link more than twice, at least change the lead in sentence. I must give props to yet another one of my Twitter mentors on this tip. Thanks Ezra.

5:  Do not tweet about your followers more than once a week: OK, here I must stress something. I was an offender of this rule for a little while when I was new to Twitter. I was put in my place by another fellow Twitterer, who by the way, happens to be one of my favorite bloggers. Check out her Twitter here and her blog here. So thanks Talia, I still think you need to publish a book from your blog. What I mean to say here is do not tweet things like “I have 5,000 followers, and I really want to get to 6,000, please RT this”. This is really annoying especially if you do it often. It is not the end of the world if you are at 99,999 and you tweet “Free iPhone for my 100,000th follower”, but beyond that, please refrain.

6:  Do not tweet exclusively in another language: OK, this one is gonna spark some controversy, and rightfully so. I strongly believe you need to speak the language that most people understand. I am not saying if your mother tongue is Spanish to NEVER tweet in Spanish, I am just saying to be considerate of your followers and the fact that as of today, there are still a lot of applications that only support English text.

7:  Do not tweet sensitive/private information: Once again, I am speaking from experience and learning from my mistakes. As recently as yesterday, I tweeted something that was not for certain eyes, while thinking “Eh, they wont see it anyway”. Mistake, big mistake! Tweets now show up in Google searches and anyone can easily access your tweets. So if you want to keep something private, probably not the best idea to share it on the fastest growing social network on the Web. Additionally, and I am not going to elaborate on this, being as it is a very controversial topic, and I am actually not completely sure what I believe, but I do think Twitter should be treated like a work place. Just like you would not share extreme political views, sexist, or offensive views of any kind at an office event, so to Twitter. It is all about sensitivity. I am sure a lot of you disagree, feel free to share your opinion in the comments.

8: Do not Auto DM people who follow you: Well, this has got to be one of the bigger annoyances in the Twittersphere, thank the Lord, many of my friends taught me how to disable this inconvenience. If someone followed you, they did not do it for you, they did it for them, so no need to thank them. Do not DM them saying “Nice to meet you and thank you for following”. I get one of those messages and you better prepare a goodbye reply too.

9:  Do not Auto Follow: Once again, just my humble opinion. Unfortunately, there are too many bots, spam accounts, and just annoying people on Twitter. Just because someone follows you, does not necessarily mean you have to or want to follow them back. In fact, I would say that maybe 30%-40% of the people that followed me over the past month were real people, with quality tweets on topics that interest me. Follow people that interest you, otherwise you will end up with an uncontrollable amount of people in your stream, which will eventually detract from your ability to use Twitter effectively.

10:  Do not consistently make spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes in your tweets: This is consistent with my general philosophy on Twitter specifically and social media in general. Just like I would not follow a person who could not be bothered to upload a picture to his/her profile, post a bio, or tweet at least a few times, so to I am not quick to follow someone who constantly makes elementary mistakes in their tweets. Now, I know this sounds a little harsh, but I think your followers deserve that extra effort. I am not saying you need to be a professional English writer, but c’mon, what interface does not include a spell check? Use it and be careful how you tweet.

11: Do not use Twitter like you use Facebook: I think it is an acceptable practice to check your Facebook once a day, week, or even month. Twitter needs more effort. It is true that you can use Twitter effectively even if you only tweet once a day. However, in my opinion, if you really want to maximize the tremendous potential that is Twitter, you need to keep your audience on their toes. Keep your followers interested.

There are so many more things you will learn as time goes on, and you will be amazed at how much you can learn about Twitter from the supporting applications to the lingo and the etiquette. I hope these are some useful tips that, in conjunction with Top 5 Reasons to Tweet, Top 5 Steps after Joining Twitter,  and Ten Things you Must Know before Joining Twitter, are sure to get you on your feet, help you start tweeting, and assist you in starting to build your Twitter network. Once you have done that, the possibilities are literally endless.

Would love your feedback in the comments or better yet, reply to me on Twitter here!

Source : http://technmarketing.com

Top 6 Ways to Benefit from Twitter

Hari ini dapet situs yang isinya berguna banget. Aku copas semua di sini ah. Benar-benar memberi banyak ilmu :) nama situsnya http://technmarketing.com
Ini nih salah satu artikel kerennya!

One of the inevitable consequences of Twitter’s growing popularity, is that wherever Twitterers are, they find themselves facing the famous question “What is this Twitter thing everyone is talking about?” I am asked that question literally 5 times a day, and it always leads me to a long rant about how great Twitter is and why everyone should join. (If you do join, follow me here)

Now, it is true that my reasons vary depending on my audience, Twitter will not appeal to my parents the same way it will appeal to a guy my age who is very familiar with the Web and the world of social media. Having said that, there are some universal benefits to tweeting that everyone should know about, so I thought I would list them for you, and I intend on sending this link to anyone who presents that question to me from here on in.

So, here are my top 6 ways to benefit from Twitter:

1: Networking: I am a strong believer that no matter what you do in life, whether you are a blogger, teacher, stay-at-home mom, or CEO of a company, it is always beneficial to build yourself a strong network. This network can be with the  goal of eventually monetizing it (traffic to your site for example) or just meeting some really interesting people whose path you would never cross had it not been for Twitter. This is the foundation of Twitter. Without a network of followers, you are in essence tweeting to no one, your tweets are falling on empty ears. So, as I have written before, do not treat Twitter like Facebook and open an account then check back every month. You need to proactively build your network in order to maximize the potential that Twitter offers its users.

2: News: This is something I think everyone, no matter who you are or what you do, can benefit from. I have not opened a news site in a few months. All my news about current events come from Twitter. Anything that happens around the world, if it is important enough that I would want to know about it, is going to be tweeted by one of the the 2,000 people that I follow. It was true about the plane on the Hudson, it was true about the Mumbai attacks, and it was true about any other significant event that occurred over the last few months. The other big difference between reports you will read on CNN and those on Twitter is that tweets about news are generally in real time. You will most likely know about an event from Twitter before the major news networks pick up the story (although, almost all the news networks started using Twitter to get and report breaking stories).

3: Information: Once again, this is only possible if you take the time to build up your network. Twitter has replaced Google for me in so many ways. One of these ways is that I no longer search Google for answers to computer related questions. I have an error, virus, or a question about a certain product, why would I search Google and read anonymous opinions, when I can get an immediate answer from one of my friends on Twitter? Today, I had a question about Chrome. Yes, I could’ve Googled it and found the answer, instead I tweeted my question, got a faster answer and a much clearer one as well, then I would have gotten from reading forums via Google.

4: Job Search: As a person who was “lucky” enough to have gone through the whole layoff/job search experience, I can tell you first hand from mine as well as my friends’ experiences, searching for a job through Twitter will be easier and much more effective than using the traditional job sites. You are presumably following people in your field or at least with a common interest, and assuming you are somewhat interesting, they are following you back. Once again, why would you want to start looking through a job placement site, filtering out the irrelevant fields, narrowing it down to what you are looking for, and only maybe finding an oppurtunity, when you can simply tweet that info in less than 140 characters and 99% of the time come up with at the very least a good lead? I have at least 4 friends that after looking for months ended up landing a job thanks to Twitter.

5: Entertainment: This is a tricky one. A lot of the people I speak to claim that they have no interest in following this celebrity or another. I hear that and fully understand, but I think that everyone needs a good laugh every once in a while. What better way to lay back and enjoy some relaxation time then following Shaq on Twitter? Just his spelling alone will make you laugh, guaranteed. In all seriousness though, there is something to be said for having the ability to write to your favorite celebrity/athlete. They might not respond to you, but 9 out of 10 times, they will see your tweet. I know some people are going to disagree about the value in that, but  I think it will appeal to a lot of young people out there.

6: Friendships: At the risk of sounding corny, I have to say, I did not join Twitter for this reason, but it ended up being the number most enjoyable part of my Twitter experience. Let me explain! Twitter is all about giving, sorry for the cliche’ but it is really true. What keeps Twitter’s blood pumping is the give and take relationships that exist between Twitter users.  This kind of dynamic contributes to a lot of friendships built on Twitter that go far beyond Tweetdeck. I was fortunate enough to attend a few Tweetups (it’s as it sounds, a real life Twitter meetup) and to meet the people behind the avatars, and let me tell you, I have encountered some truly amazing people through Twitter.

When my daughter was born a few weeks ago, I received a HUGE basket of clothing and accessories for her from Twitterers, most of whom I had met no more than once. The basket itself was prepared by a company owned by a fellow twitterer as well. This is the kind of chemistry that can be found among the Twitter community. Everyone is just so sharing, helpful, and generous. So even if the first 5 reasons didn’t do it for you, this one should. Everyone likes meeting nice people, Twitter is the place to do it.

There are at least 10 more reasons I can think of why you, no matter who you are, should join Twitter. After you take my advice and open an account, I wouldn’t want you to be one of the people that tweet once, decide they don’t “get” it, and leave, so it is important to read the following articles before jumping in:

-Ten Things You Must Know before Joining Twitter

-Top 5 Steps after Joining Twitter

-11 Things to Avoid when Using Twitter

After reading those articles and implementing them, you should be able to build the kind of network you need to tweet like a pro.

Source : http://technmarketing.com

 

4 Reasons to Track Time on Projects

I haven’t punched a clock in more than 10 years. And even when I did, I never cared much for the idea. I guess I didn’t like the message it sent out: that I was being paid for my time — not for my ideas, creativity, excellent customer service and added revenue for my employer.

I still feel that way as a freelancer. I believe my clients hire me for my insights, ideas, creativity, results delivered and commitment to their success, not for my time.

If time is what you’re after, you can buy time anywhere (and for much less!).
That’s a big reason why I don’t price most projects by the hour. Instead, I quote flat fees 95% of the time. I want to keep the focus on the project deliverables, not on the time I’ll spend doing the work. Plus, I want to take on some of the risk and not create a scenario in which the invoiced amount is a big surprise to the client.
However, I still track time. Even when doing flat-fee work, I find that there’s tremendous value in knowing how much time I actually spend on every project. Specifically, a good time tracking system provides me with:


1) Better pricing intelligence. Knowing how much time I spend on projects enables me to adjust my project fees as I learn what it takes to get the job done right. It also helps me see which types of projects and clients are profitable, and which are not.

2) More accurate scheduling. When I know the average time a certain type of project will take, scheduling becomes a lot easier. I don’t have to guess. I can just plug in an average into my schedule and add a few extra hours as a cushion. That means I’m not always scrambling to get the work done, and I’m not turning down work because I’ve overestimated my current workload.

3) Clearer visibility into monthly billable time. If you haven’t tracked your time before, you will be shocked when you start doing it — shocked at how little billable time you actually have every week. I used to think that 90% of my time was spent on billable work. But it was closer to 65% when I ran the numbers. Now, that doesn’t mean that I have to work harder. It just means I have to face reality first, then dig deeper to find opportunities to increase that percentage.

4) Greater discipline. As much as I hated that old punch clock, there’s something about knowing that I’m “on the clock” that makes me work more efficiently. Sure, you can’t rush creativity. But that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about the distractions. When I’m tracking my time, I know I want to end up with an accurate time estimate for every project, so I avoid surfing the web, reading the news, watching TV or checking Facebook and Twitter.

In terms of time-tracking tools, there are a few good ones out there. TraxTime is one. It’s not the best tool for report generation, but it’s super easy to use. Mac users have other options. We keep hearing that On The Job from Stunt Software is a great option.

Freshbooks is also very popular among freelancers. It’s actually an online service that integrates time-tracking, invoicing and bookkeeping, for which you pay a monthly fee.
Pick one that works for you. And learn how to use it strategically to improve your business.

OK, gotta go clock out. See you next time!

Source : freelanceswitch.com

Seven Reasons People Will Retweet You

We all want to get retweeted. It’s one of the most effective ways to spread your influence and reach. Unfortunately, we have very little control over when and how often we get retweeted. But there are some reasons why you might get retweeted that will give you a better understanding of how to make it happen more often.

1. You’re informative
          
People really look for value when it comes to whom they choose to follow on Twitter. Value comes down to being able to offer information not many other Twitter users can. Whatever your niche is, own it. Be an expert on the subject. Be informative. Let people know what’s going on in your niche and be on the cutting edge. If people think they’re one of the first to spread new information, they’ll definitely give you a retweet.

2. You’re remarkable
          
If you’ve ever listened to marketing genius Seth Godin, you know one of his mottos is, “Be remarkable.” It’s easier said than done, but it’s not impossible. Don’t fall in with the rest of the crowd in your niche. Stand out. Figure out a strategy that will make you like no one else in your niche. Gary Vaynerchuk is a great example of this with his Wine Library TV. People hang on his every tweet because he’s remarkable in every sense of the word. Be remarkable and you’ll get retweeted.

3. You’re humorous
          
People can easily double their Twitter followers simply by posting one humorous tweet that happens to catch on. Nothing goes viral like the funny side of life. Think about all the viral videos you’ve seen. What makes them so easy to pass along? In most cases, it’s because it made you laugh. There’s no secret formula to getting your humor retweeted, but if you’re funny enough, it’ll happen. Find your sense of humor and you’ll be rewarded with some good retweets.

4. You’re engaging
          
If you make connections with people on Twitter, they’re going to notice more of what you tweet. When that happens, those people are more likely to retweet your content, even if it doesn’t exhibit some of the characteristics I mentioned earlier. Connections are of utmost importance to Twitter popularity, and if you’re successful at engaging people, you’ll be successful at being retweetable.

5. You’re sharing
          
There are a lot of karmic sayings out there, but perhaps none is more appropriate in this case than, “You get what you give.” If you pay it forward and retweet others first, you will likely see those same people return the favor. Again, this is where connections really show their importance on Twitter. Sharing other people’s content is a really easy way to get you retweeted.

6. You’re opinionated
          
You have opinions and it’s time you started tweeting them. Let people know how you feel about certain things in your niche and they will pay attention. If you’ve established yourself as an expert in your niche, people are really going to notice when you offer your opinion. Facts are great, but sometimes an opinion here or there is great to mix things up. Just make sure to be respectful of opposing opinions.

7. You’re thought-provoking
          
While it’s important to tweet clearly for the benefit of your followers, sometimes it’s great to force your followers to think about something in a different way. Bring up different points on your niche subject and give your followers different ideas of previously held concepts. Your ability to do so may cause your followers to share what you have to say.

Source : www.stumbleupon.com

Aktivitas Otak Tengah Bikin Jenius?

Hari ini dapet lagi artikel tentang otak tengah. Ya, lumayan deh buat wawasan. Ini dia artikelnya!

Yogyakarta, (tvOne)

Aktivasi otak tengah pada anak-anak perlu diteliti terkait adanya anggapan dengan mengaktifkan otak ini dapat membuat seorang anak menjadi jenius, kata psikolog anak Rumah Sakit Umum Pusat dr Sardjito Yogyakarta Indria Laksmi Gamayanti.

Menurut dia, di Yogyakarta, Sabtu, tumbuh kembang dan perilaku anak tidak dapat diubah secara instan, apalagi dapat membuat anak menjadi jenius.

Ia mengatakan aktivasi otak tengah tidak dapat secara instan membuat anak menjadi jenius atau berpontesi dibandingkan anak yang otak tengahnya belum diaktifkan.

"Perlu dikaji terlebih dahulu konsep seorang anak dikatakan jenius itu seperti apa, dan terminologi pengaktifan otak tengah harus dipaparkan dengan jelas," katanya.

Ia mengatakan perkembangan anak adalah sebuah proses, jadi tidak bisa secara instan diubah dalam waktu singkat dan cepat.

"Hingga saat ini, belum ada penelitian tentang hal tersebut apakah dengan diaktifkannya otak tengah pada seorang anak dapat menjamin yang bersangkutan dapat menjadi jenius serta berpotensi," katanya.

Menurut dia, dengan dilakukanya penelitian yang lebih mendalam dan melibatkan para pakar, tentunya dapat memgetahui sebenarnya aktivasi otak tengah itu apakah menjamin terhadap tumbuh kembang dan pola pikir anak atau tidak.

Ia mengatakan cara-cara yang dilakukan saat ini dalam proses pengaktifan otak tengah harus dibuktikan terlebih dahulu.

"Pada umumnya hal-hal yang dilakukan oleh lembaga-lembaga pengaktifan otak tengah, yaitu memberikan sugesti dan motivasi kepada seorang anak untuk mengerjakan sesuatu, menciptakan keadaan relaksasi yaitu anak dibawa dalam keadaan yang tenang tanpa beban serta tanpa takut dalam melakukan sesuatu, katanya.

Laksmi mengatakan hal tersebut baik dilakukan untuk anak, sehingga dapat membantu proses pertumbuhan pola pikir anak, tetapi akan lebih baik jika dilakukan penelitian terlebih dahulu terhadap hal itu.

Menurut dia, aktivasi otak tengah yang sekarang banyak dilakukan lembaga pengembangan anak, hanya sebagai tren bisnis semata. "Dunia pendidikan anak, sebenarnya tidak bisa dicampuradukkan dengan dunia bisnis," katanya. (Ant)

Sumber : sosialbudaya.tvone.co.id 

Bisakah Mengaktifkan Otak Tengah Bikin Anak Jenius?

Pagi ini aku dapet artikel yang sedikit-banyak menguatkan tulisan di bukuku. Check it out!

Jakarta, Einstein memiliki imajinasi 3 dimensi yang tinggi. Dengan duduk melamun ia bisa menciptakan sebuah teori relativitas yang luar biasa. Apa yang membuat Einstein bisa jenius? Benarkah dengan mengaktifkan otak tengah membuat anak bisa jenius?

Dokter spesialis saraf dr Andreas Harry, SpS(K) mengakui kini banyak orangtua yang mengikutkan anaknya untuk pelatihan otak tengah atau aktivasi otak tengah.

Tapi menurutnya, jika yang menjadi tujuan adalah anak menjadi jenius sebenarnya bagian otak yang sangat berperan adalah otak besar bagian luar di wilayah korteks parietal.

Seperti halnya Einstein, ia memiliki korteks parietal yang 1 cm lebih besar dibandingkan dengan orang normal dan memiliki ukuran yang sama besar antara kiri dan kanan. Sedangkan pada orang normal umumnya bagian korteks parietal kiri lebih besar dari kanan.

Hal inilah yang membuat Einstein memiliki imajinasi 3 dimensi yang tinggi. Penemuan ini baru diketahui tahun 1999 seiring dengan perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan.

dr Andreas mengaku tidak tahu bagian mana dari otak tengah yang diaktivasi untuk membuat anak pintar karena otak tengah (midbrain) tidak bisa dikontrol atau bersifat autonom.

dr Andreas menjelaskan ada beberapa bagian otak manusia yang punya peran masing-masing.

1. Otak tengah (midbrain)
Otak tengah adalah bagian dari batang otak yang memiliki fungsi sebagai inti dari pergerakan bola mata dan juga di daerah ini lewat serabut-serabut yang mengatur pernapasan dan kesadaran. Kegiatan ini tidak bisa dikontrol atau bersifat autonom.

2. Otak besar yang terdiri dari otak bagian dalam dan juga otak bagian luar.
Otak bagian dalam (medial)
Pada bagian otak ini antara lain terdiri dari limbiks sistem yang berfungsi untuk mengatur emosi, pusat memori, mengatur viseral (pencernaan) dan pada binatang khusus untuk indera penciumannya. Selain itu juga ada ganglia basalis yang berfungsi sebagai pusat pengontrol gerakan.

Otak bagian luar (korteks)
Pada bagian otak ini terdiri dari empat bagian, yaitu:
- Korteks frontal yang berfungsi sebagai pusat atensi (perhatian) dan juga bicara.
- Korteks temporal yang berfungsi sebagai pusat pendengaran dan juga bicara.
- Korteks parietal yang berfungsi sebagai pusat somato sensorik, pusat matematik dan juga pusat imajinasi 3 dimensi.
- Korteks occipital yang berfungsi sebagai pusat dari penglihatan.

3. Otak kecil (cerebellum)
Pada bagian otak ini memiliki fungsi sebagai pusat koordinasi, pusat tonus otot dan juga pusat keseimbangan.

"Pada bagian otak besar dan kecil, masing-masing terdiri dari otak kanan dan juga otak kiri. Selain itu ada juga penghubung antara otak kiri dan otak kanan yang disebut dengan corpus callosum," ujar dr Andreas saat ditemui detikHealth di tempat prakteknya di Apartemen Slipi Tower 1 Lantai 1, jakarta, Jumat (26/8/2010)

Dengan melihat bagian-bagian otak tersebut maka bisa diketahui fungsi dari otak-otak tersebut. dr Andreas menuturkan kalau dilihat di otak tengah (midbrain) hanya terdapat serabut-serabut yang melewati bagian otak tengah dan fungsi bagian itu tidak dapat dikontrol atau bersifat autonom.

Sehingga kalau yang dimaksud mengaktifkan otak tengah adalah midbrain, maka bagian otak tersebut tidak bisa diaktivasi.

Sedangkan jika yang dimaksud mengaktifkan otak tengah adalah corpus callosum (jembatan yang menghubungkan otak kanan dan kiri), bagaimana cara mengaktivasinya. Karena menurut dr Andreas, tetap saja harus melalui otak kiri dan juga kanan. Apapun yang dikerjakan oleh otak kiri dan mau dikirim ke otak kanan atau sebaliknya akan terhubung oleh corpus callosum.

"Karena pada intinya semua impuls yang diterima oleh otak melalui 5 indera yaitu mata, pendengaran, peraba, penciuman dan juga pengecapan," ungkap dokter yang juga berpraktek di RS Gading Pluit.

Untuk itu bagian otak luar dan bagian otak dalam juga turut berperan, sedangkan pada otak tengah (midbrain) hanya dilewati oleh serabut-serabut tersebut tapi bukan fungsinya.

"Kalau ingin membuat anaknya menjadi pintar, maka bagian korteks yang harus diaktivasi. Karena pada daerah tersebut terdapat pusat matematik, fisika, gambar, nyanyi dan juga pidato. Jadi untuk menjeniuskan anak adalah dengan melatih otak kiri dan kanan yang dijembatani oleh corpus callosum," ujarnya.

Selain itu setiap anak memiliki kemampuan pusat indera yang berbeda-beda. Ada anak yang memiliki indera visual (penglihatan) lebih bagus daripada indera auditori (pendengaran), sehingga ia akan cepat mengingat sesuatu dengan cara melihatnya.

Jadi ketahui terlebih dahulu bagian otak mana yang mau diaktivasi biar anak jenius.

Sumber : www.detik.com

62 Ways to Use Twitter for Business

Twitter can be used for much more than just announcing what you ate for breakfast. Many of you already know Twitter’s value in business, but you can still take it further and use it to land gigs, market your business, grow your network and gain free publicity — all in 140 characters or less.
It’s true that Twitter is what you make of it. Some people publicize their daily activities, some make it about link love, some share quotes all day long. Smart people using Twitter for business mix it up. Here are 62 ways to use Twitter more effectively in your business.

Share Expertise to Build Credibility

1. Help others with problems.
2. Share tips related to your business and work-life balance.
3. Share photos (Twitpic makes it easy) of conferences, travel, products and other interesting finds.
4. Provide selected highlights from a conference or event.
5. Report industry, company, world and other news that’s related to your business, together with some commentary.
6. Link to articles and content posted elsewhere with a summary of why it’s valuable.
7. Post original thoughts on your topic, industry and business.
Grow Your Network
8. Ask about other locales so you can make the most of a trip, or meet up with Twitter friends.
9. Connect with friends from other social networks. Can you name one person who has only one social network account? (Grandparents on Facebook don’t count.)
10. Join industry and topic groups related to your business and career on sites like www.twibes.com and www.wefollow.com.
11. Feed your Twitter tweets into other social networks like FriendFeed. (Although consider carefully before integrating your Twitter feed into other profiles, Like Facebook, as a stream of tweets can overwhelm your contacts.)
12. Combine your social media approach: when someone asks question in Twitter, respond briefly in Twitter with a link to another site with the detailed response.
13. Participate in Twitter chats related to your industry or business on a regular basis. Although you should beware that the stream of tweets from chats can overwhelm contacts that aren’t participating in the chat, so consider using a separate ID for chats.
14. Research prospects before meeting them. You can gain a lot of valuable information just from scanning their tweets, profile and contacts.
15. Discover trends. You can use Twitter search for this purpose. Mashable also has a list of tools that you can use for tracking trends on Twitter.
16. Network to find new clients or land a new job. Just be careful of making your tweets overly promotional, as that’s not appreciated by most twitter users
17. Stay in touch with friends and colleagues. You ever know when a friend of colleague might have a lead for you.
18. Get referrals.
19. Give referrals.
20. Ask questions.
21. Answer questions.
22. Recommend other Twitter users to your network including reasons to follow them — by sharing goodwill you will encourage others to reciprocate.
23. Use search feature to find topics, keywords and locations. Use hashtags or usernames to limit results to topics or responses mentioning a person. Dawn has some more tips on advanced Twitter search here.
24. Spread your tweets throughout the day, rather than posting the all at once, as people check Twitter at different times of the day. It’s always prime time on Twitter.
25. Look for connections related to a job you want.
26. Find vendors and contractors.
Marketing
27. If your site’s not working or you’re suffering from another problem, give updates on Twitter so customers know what’s going on.
28. Find experts to invite as a guest blogger on your blog or as speaker at your event.
29. Seek sponsors for a contest or program.
30. Hold a contest using Twitter: it can spread like wildfire. Squarespace’s iPhone contest made the trending topic list.
31. Use applications and tools like www.clickablenow.com and www.twittercustomizer.com to enhance your Twitter background and profile.
32. Put together a virtual mastermind group.
33. Track conversations mentioning your name or your brand.
34. Respond to tweets talking about you and your brand.
35. Link to your content wisely and sparingly to avoid looking too promotional.
36. Do market research and gain knowledge with polls and surveys.
37. Share those survey and poll results.
38. Publish your Twitter ID on all marketing collateral, including business cards, email signature, email newsletters, web sites and brochures, so prospects can learn more about you.
39. Share what you’re doing so people learn about the type of work you do. Do this on occasion rather than all day long.
40. Avoid hard-sell tactics: focus on relationship building.
41. Write honest and valuable recommendations for your contacts on sources like Mr. Tweet.
42. Link to your presentations and videos.
43. Mention when you’re attending or speaking at an upcoming event.
44. Announce the publication of your newsletter’s latest issue, along with a brief description.
45. Post discounts, coupons and package deals.
46. Announce job openings to find qualified talent.
Do the Right (and Fun) Thing
47. Share information that is useful for prospective clients or employers to enhance your reputation.
48. Be nice even when you have a difference of opinion.
49. Save the “Thanks for following me,” “Thanks for the RT” or similar tweets for direct messages (DM).
50. Use Twitter often to improve, tighten and sharpen your writing.
51. Remember to laugh and have fun because it inspires you to innovate and be creative in your job.
52. Make your goals public to compel you to reach them.
53. Start your day strong: some people find Twitter interactions put them in a good mood.
Finally, Some Tips for Absolute Beginners
54. Read Twitter’s own Twitter 101 Guide and other Twitter articles.
55. Use keywords on your profile and a fun fact to earn trust, add personality and enable you to be found.
56. Dump the default Twitter avatar and use a photo of yourself or a suitable image.
57. Follow experts, companies, competitors and leaders in your industry.
58. Limit Twitter automation, because it comes across as phony.
59. Think quality not quantity.
60. Be authentic, genuine and real. In other words, be yourself.
61. Mix up the tweet types to include retweets (RT), @replies, original thoughts, and links to other people’s content (not just your own).
62. Don’t get overwhelmed by the number of contacts you have. Organize them into groups using third-party applications like Tweetdeck and Seesmic.

Source : webworkerdaily.com

Tentang Buku : 'Ada Apa dengan Otak Tengah'

Beberapa waktu yang lalu, kita sempat dihebohkan dengan suatu metode yang membuat anak-anak berumur di antara 5-15 tahun menjadi superhebat. Bagaimana tidak, dengan mata tertutup, mereka mampu melakukan berbagai aktivitas layaknya tanpa penutup kepala. Ya! Metode itu namanya Aktivasi Otak Tengah atau biasa disebut dengan Midbrain Activation.

Namun, kini metode tersebut banyak menuai protes gugatan. Malah di facebook dan kaskus, ada page yang secara terang-terangan menggugat pihak penyelenggara metode aktivasi otak tengah ini. Mengapa sampai begitu? Hal ini ternyata karena ada dugaan bahwa metode ini hanya palsu belaka.

Benarkah metode aktivasi ini palsu dan mengada-ada? Kita tidak pernah tahu, karena pihak penyelenggara sangat merahasiakan metode yang mereka lakukan. Belum lagi hanya anak-anak yang berusia di antara 5-15 tahun saja yang boleh ikut Aktivasi Otak Tengah Ini. Jadi sangat susah bagi kita untuk mencari tahu kebenaran berita tersebut.

Buku ‘Ada Apa dengan Otak Tengah’ adalah buku yang mengupas aktivasi otak tengah secara jujur dan logis. Dengan membahas secara logis hasil wawancara dengan para peserta yang mengikuti aktivasi otak tengah, penulis mencoba membuat alternatif cara agar anak bahkan orang-orang dewasa bisa sehebat anak-anak yang mengikuti aktivasi otak tengah tanpa harus merogoh kocek dalam-dalam. Tentu saja hal ini tidak termasuk blindfolded activity. Tak hanya itu, buku ini mengajak Anda mengenal otak tengah dari sisi ilmu Biologi baik secara anatomi maupun fungsi-fungsinya. Ada juga bagian di buku ini yang mengajak Anda untuk merawat otak.


Apa saja cara alternatif yang bisa dilakukan agar kita bisa sehebat anak-anak yang ikut aktivasi otak tengah? Dan bagaimana tips dan trik yang bisa dilakukan untuk merawat otak?

Beli buku ini di toko-toko buku kesayangan Anda. Dapatkan juga bonus kartu senam mata yang dapat dipakai Anda untuk berlatih mempertajam konsentrasi otak.

Selamat mencoba :)

The Social Psychology of Twitter Marketing

Social Media has been a revelation in the last couple of years and it has affected how to market a business online. You not only have to be good at online marketing tactics, you need to be a social media expert and have the traits of an efficient social psychologist as well. It’s fair to say that the integration of social media with online business has led to an altogether new breed called social commerce.
Understand a user’s psyche
A popular saying in Tweetverse suggests that “If it’s on your mind, it’s in your tweets”. When you follow a user on Twitter, you can understand his psyche and thinking by following their tweets. This is crucial from a marketing perspective as it makes you aware of what your prospect customers think, what are their liking and dislikes, what kind of factors would they weigh in before taking a decision to purchase a product online etc.
Many users access social media networks as part of their daily lives. Therefore, Twitter and other social media networks offer a unique opportunity to market your products to prospects while they are spending time accessing social media networks. They don’t need to go through the hassle of accessing another website or watching long marketing videos. Your short and simple tweets are in front of their eyes and that’s good enough to create the marketing magic.
Good Marketing
In Marketing terminology, a campaign that outlines how it will solve people’s problems while earning profits for the business is classified as “Good Marketing”. It should not only get the point across to the prospect customers and encourage those to sign-up for a business’ services and offerings; it should be informational without being too pushy. With tweets being increasingly used by businesses to offer product information and answer customer queries, Twitter is a perfect example of “Good Marketing”.
Launch a promotional campaign for Twitter users and let your loyal followers enjoy the special privileges of additional discounts. It’s guaranteed that your followers would return the pleasantries by signing up for your business and boosting your overall revenues.
Feel Good Factor
There’s a feel good factor in buying products or services from someone whom you already know. You always feel a certain risk while dealing with strangers, no matter how professional they may be. Your tweets act as a passive service to build confidence with your followers. They feel assured interacting with you and there’s a good probability that they’re inclined to sign up with you as compared to a competitor.
It’s fair to say that Twitter has been an outstanding success because it fulfills our long standing starvation of having a real community. Twitter has turned the whole world into one gigantic social community and most users feel privileged to “be a part of” and “being heard of” in the community.

Source : smedio.com

Is Social Media Marketing for Everyone?

“To change is difficult, not to change is fatal” – Marketing techniques are no exception to that rule. Companies which have enjoyed success with conventional marketing techniques often ponder if it’s worth the cost and effort to join the social media marketing bandwagon. The most widely prevalent concerns regarding social media marketing are Is social media marketing suitable for my business? Will it work for me?
While I strongly believe that “One size fits all” approach does not work in social media marketing (rather any marketing technique), I believe that it is well suited to cater to a variety of companies be it startups, industrial corporations, niche players, retailers, B2B providers, B2C providers etc. And I have pretty good reasons to believe that social media marketing works just as well for every company.
It’s a means, not an end
Like conventional marketing techniques, Social Media Marketing is a means and not an end. The ultimate goal remains the same – spread the word about your brand/ product and encourage customers to signup for your services. You need to be clear of the goals that you’ve set for your business and how you plan to achieve them by engaging in a social media marketing campaign.
Social Media marketing complements conventional marketing techniques in a fantastic manner. For example, if you opt for a TV ad campaign, you can use upload the advertisements to popular video hosting sites like YouTube and Vimeo and spread the word about it through tweets and your Facebook profile. The reach of social media networks is simply amazing, so why not make the best use out of it?
It comes at the best possible price – Free!
All good things in this world are free and so is social media marketing. While conventional marketing techniques can often be a costly affair, social media comes to you at the best possible price – free.
So, while a social media campaign increases your revenue, it actually reduces your marketing costs. I’m not suggesting that you should hire a social media expert/ consultant irrespective of whatever business you are in, however it’s worth exploring the endless possibilities especially when you can do it on your own and at no additional cost.
Do-it-yourself or Hire an expert
When it comes to conventional marketing techniques such as TV and print ad-campaigns, you need to seek external expertise. However, when it comes to social media marketing, you can choose to try your own hand at it or seek professional help. While I’m an active proponent of the do-it-yourself theory, my advice to newcomers is usually a hybrid approach – hire a social media expert and learn from them. After all, social media marketing is no rocket science.
Once you’ve unraveled the mystery of social media marketing, you can apply its principles to your company/ business pretty easily.
While many online marketers and social media experts believe that social media marketing isn’t right for every company, I beg to differ. I strongly believe that if it isn’t right for your company, you are doing it the wrong way.
After all, where there is a will, there is a way and there is marketing technique for that!

Source : smedio.com

How to Save a Dying Business with Social Media

I’m often asked if social media can serve as the savior tonic for a dying business. Is it magic mantra to revive the failed aspirations of a business? Can social media succeed where conventional marketing techniques and legacy business tactics prove to be no good? I personally believe that the world is yet to see the full potential of social media, at least when it comes to its application for businesses. Whether a flourishing business needs to expand its horizons or a dying business looking for a ray of hope, a well-planned social media strategy can work wonders for any type of business.
Back to the basics
Social media operates on the simple principle that ‘humans are social animals’ and it lets a business derive the best out of our social needs. Building a business is not easy and growing it is even tougher. A business can’t survive if it doesn’t care about its customers. Since users/ customers are the focal point of social media, it ensures that they are in good hands.
Customer is king and social media is the kingmaker.
Improve Customer Service
I’ve come across several businesses which fail or die despite having fantastic products and spending an exorbitant sum of money, why? – Because they overlook the most important aspect of running a business successfully – good customer service.
Social media takes the customer service experience to an unprecedented high by letting businesses answer queries on leading networks such as Facebook & Twitter. Throw in the combo of blogs, wikis and forums and you have a highly interactive on-demand customer service center for your business for no extra cost.
Reputation Matters
What matters most for a business is its public reputation. Build great products, build a good brand and see your business flourishing as the word spreads. On the contrary, if customers are unhappy about your product or services, your reputation is bound to take a public beating.
Social media is a double-edged sword for businesses. It can do wonders to enhance your reputation in quick time and it can help revive a brand’s tarnished image. Likewise, if a dying business doesn’t do anything to prevent its downfall; social media can often unknowingly prove to be the last nail in its coffin.
Contacts and Networking
Social Media isn’t just effective for reaching out to customers; it works equally well for building contacts with suppliers, resellers and channel partners. A great product is of little value if it doesn’t have an effective sales channel. I’ve come across many businesses that’ve managed to overcome troubled waters by building contacts and seeking help using social media. In today’s age of globalization, we live in a unified world and a global economy. It’s fair to say that social media is a business’s gateway to globalization.
Startups and Social Media – Made for each other
Running a startup company or business is often a mountainous task – limited funds, stiff competition and high risk. However, a well-planned strategy for social media adoption can help a startup business minimize the risk of failure. Startups can’t always afford hefty marketing and advertising bills and with social media, they don’t need to.
Don’t let your business die, adopt social media and see how it revives your fortunes!

Source : smedio.com

5 Effective Marketing Tips to Engage Your Customer with Social Media

There’s no doubt that social media is here to stay. As an online marketer, the sooner you accept this reality, the better it will be for you and your business. In today’s age of Web 2.0, social media is the preferred marketing channel for many businesses and there are thousands of success stories of how companies of sizes and business interests have managed to use social media as an effective means of marketing. If you are a champion of traditional marketing techniques but are scared or reluctant to use social media, you are missing out on a massive opportunity. After all, a marketer is only as good as the marketing techniques that he/she uses. I personally find social media to be a perfect channel for marketing for the following reasons.

• Wide Audience base and Far-reaching appeal
• Instantaneous Feedback
• Low Cost
• Improved Brand Credibility

In this post, I present five highly effective marketing tips for engaging with your customers via social media.
1. Do Your Homework First
Social media is not a short cut to successful marketing. Whether you use traditional marketing techniques or social media, there is no substitute for hard work. Make sure you do your home work first. Spend time researching about your competitors and their marketing techniques. Try to learn more about your customers and their preferences. Conduct surveys (using Facebook fan pages) and ask questions (Twitter/ Facebook) before you develop a marketing campaign. There’s nothing better than getting first hand information from people who’ll be driving your business.
2. Innovate
There are millions of Fan Pages and Business Profiles on Facebook and Twitter respectively. You surely do not want to build another run of the mill marketing campaign which does little to attract customers. Innovation is the key. There’s only one golden rule to launching a great marketing campaign and it says – Follow no rules. I personally like the lethal combination of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube working in unison for marketing campaigns. Create an interesting video, publish it on YouTube channel. Link it to your Facebook Page and tweet about it. Many people would argue that there’s hardly any innovation involved in this approach.
Well, the innovative part is to develop a video which appears interesting, tag it in a way so that it attracts a large audience, promoting it on Twitter and Facebook so that people are curious to know more about your product.
3. Offers and Promotions
Social networks are a great place to launch offers and promotions for your products. Reward your Facebook fans and Twitter followers and I’m sure they will reciprocate your kind gesture by helping spread the word about your business. Throw in exclusive offers and setup doorway pages for your social media followers. Online promotions can be far more effective than traditional print ads and billboards.
4. Maintain Transparency
The best part about using social networks for marketing is that they are under the public eye. Everything that you do is viewed by your followers. Therefore, it is important to be transparent while you deal with your customers on social networks. A social network provides an entity to an otherwise faceless corporate image. Transparency sells.
5. Sell using social media
Customers hate it when they are redirected to different sites for buying products. Learn to sell using social media itself. Facebook pages are a wonderful means of setting up an online store in no time. If your fans can initiate a transaction from your Facebook page itself, they get a sense of continuity and security. It’s no fun asking a customer to go to a certain site and then select “blah blah” in order to purchase a product. Customers hate it. The purchase process should be simple and intuitive and linked directly to your business page on social networks.
Think Different, Think Social Media!

Source :  smedio.com

10 Reasons to not keep All Your Social Marketing Efforts Online

While I’m a staunch social media loyalist, I’m well aware of what it can do and what it can’t do for online marketing. I’ve always advocated that the best social marketing strategy for a business is to pick the optimal mix of online marketing and traditional marketing techniques. I firmly believe that social media marketing is a blessing in disguise for conventional marketing and it’s actually helping revive the legacy marketing campaigns. Social media marketing and traditional marketing techniques go hand in hand. They are not meant to replace each other and any such attempts to replace one with the other is bound to have catastrophic consequences for any business.
Here are the top 10 reasons why a business should not keep its entire social media marketing efforts online and rather focus on choosing a hybrid (online + legacy) marketing strategy.
1) Not everybody is online
Though it’s fair to say that we live in the age of Web 2.0 and the internet revolution has truly arrived, however it’s equally true that not everybody accesses the internet. In fact, less than 30% of world’s overall population has access to the internet. Therefore, conventional social marketing techniques are required to reach out to customers who do not access the internet and social networks.
2) Broader Perspective
Traditional marketing techniques are capable of spreading brand awareness with a broader perspective. Online marketing can seldom match print, TV and other legacy marketing campaigns when it comes to reaching out to people from various walks of life.
3) Structured & Consistent
Traditional Marketing techniques are more structured and consistent as compared to social marketing. While social media brings in innovation, critics often point out that it’s not standardized and lacks consistency as compared to traditional marketing techniques. In contrast, conventional marketing techniques are structured and follow a well defined rule of thumb.
4) Recognition
In order to get maximum recognition, a business needs to adopt an approach which combines the best of both worlds – traditional marketing and online marketing using social media. If either of the two is missing, your business is likely to miss out on the recognition that it deserves.
5) Vulnerability
While the internet is by and large secure, there’s some degree of risk involved when it comes to the security of social networks. In the past, hackers have shown that social networks are vulnerable to malware and security attacks thereby promoting the philosophy that it’s way too risky to rely on social media alone to launch a marketing campaign.
6) Social Media Isn‘t Meant for Selling
Social networks were not invented as a medium to sell. While it’s true that Facebook and Twitter have turned out to be fantastic marketing tools, they were not originally meant to be used for marketing. And when it comes to aggressive selling, social media networks sound too pushy.
7) Openness/ Privacy Concerns
Social networks are like open books. While they offer an unparallel reach, their openness can be discomforting at times for any business. Word of mouth – be it good or bad spreads like fire in the world of social media marketing. And then there is the all important concern over “privacy” when it comes to using social networks.
8 ) Social Media is a means, not an end
When it comes to businesses, the final objective is to make profits – be it using traditional media and/ or social media. There are millions of success stories where businesses have effectively used social media along with traditional media to achieve the final object – higher revenues and more profits.
9) Getting the basics right
Social Media Marketing isn’t a magic wand. It is crucial to get the basics of marketing right before you join the social media bandwagon in order to get the maximum benefits from social media marketing. And there’s no better way to getting the basics right than to go back to traditional marketing techniques.
10) Impact on ROI
One of the biggest criticisms of social media marketing is that its impact on ROI isn’t measurable. While it provides a feel good factor, there needs to be a measurement mechanism which determines how social media is affecting the bottom line of your business. Social media needs support from traditional marketing in order to measure the overall impact on a business’s Return On Investment.

Source : www.stumbleupon.com