Making Time for Social Media

It seems like there is never enough time in the day. Fact is that we live in a fast paced world and if you’re not busy, and you’re not where you want to be or on your way there, there might be something wrong with your business model.

That being said, the way busy professionals communicate is changing rapidly and social media is becoming a primary vehicle for that communication. Though many people see this rising trend, I often hear people say “my schedule is busy enough as it is!” or they ask “how do you find the time?”

Well here are some potential answers to those problems and questions.

Trim the fat: Though we are always busy, we can always scan our days and find time that could be better spent. It could be taking that phone call that we know always takes longer than it should or even sleeping in that extra 15 minutes. Try pinpoint similar patterns and cut back on them.

Rethink, Reevaluate, Replace: If your like me, your constantly doing something to try to grow your business. If you see the importance of social media and want to make it part of your routine, think about the methods you are using and evaluate their effectiveness. If adding social media to your arsenal is a priority, consider reducing or eliminating your time with less effective growth strategies.

First thing, last thing: Some people start strong, some finish strong. If you start strong, make social media part of your morning routine. Go to any Starbucks and you’ll see many people on laptops and Blackberries doing just that. If you finish strong, use the thoughts you’ve gathered through the day and share them with the world.

Set it in Stone: If you’re busy, you probably have a planner. Put it in your schedule and stick to it as though it were a meeting with your dream client because who knows, you may end up meeting that person through social media!

Facebook Instant Messaging Gets a Facelift

I’m always bragging about the versatility and customizability of Facebook. Just when you think it’s gotten as custom as it can get, they take it to another level.

The newest change for the Facebook community is in the Instant Messaging application. You can now use the categorization tool that’s used to help you organize and filter your friends in conjunction with the Instant Messenger app.

Here are some of the benefits of these new changes:

1. A new level of privacy: We have different relationships with everyone and the fact is that we aren’t on an instant messaging basis with everyone. This app. allows you to go offline with the friends you specify.

2. Category Selection: If you have your friends categorized, this update allows you to completely deselect an entire folder of friends.

 

 

3. Hierarchy: Some friends have a higher priority than others. With that in mind, you can now set your folders according to importance, relevance, and even tolerance.

 

Some of the changes I don’t like are the fact that if you have a friend in a designated category and they are idle, their picture still appears. This makes it more difficult to identify available friends. Another issue is that some friends could belong to multiple folders. As a result, those friends show up multiple times on the chat list. This leaves to much potential for clutter so hopefully they figure out a way to allow this without the clutter being an issue. In the mean time, I just have to specify which category each friend fits in most and keep them there.

Overall, I love this new change with Facebook!  What are your thoughts?

Social Media Meeting of the Minds in Hampton Roads

The most recent meeting of the Hampton Roads Internet and Technology Meetup was a roundtable discussion at New American Mortgage in Virginia Beach. Because there has been so much interest in Social Media and internet technology, some Hampton Roads Social Media and IT experts gathered to discuss the direction of the HRITM and expanding the knowledge of social media in our area.

The group was founded with the principle of professionals helping professionals make sense of the emerging popularity of social media in a professional environment and it is now read to take social media in Hampton Roads to another level.

The group’s founder Naoma Doriguzzi, expressed her desire to continue to bring relevant and useful information to the MeetUp. Some of the topics discussed were: Blogging for Business, Branding, Website Development, Forums, and Link Building among many other things. That being said, there is something brewing on the horizon. Social Media fans, be on the lookout for great new things! Hope to see you at the next MeetUp

Using the Power of Friend Suggestions

I am notorious for giving friend suggestions. Because of that, I often get feedback from my friends asking who these people are that I suggest to them. I love the suggest a friend to option because it allows me to do two things:

1. Connect people that know each other but are not already connected online.

2. Introduce people who I think may have something in common or who could be a good strategic connection. This is also known as a referral in face to face networking.

For those of us who use social media to build relationships and expand our sphere of relationships, referrals are key. Suggesting new friends allows networkers to do just that.

Facebook has the ‘Suggest Friends for ‘ feature that can be found on the far left, below all the application boxes (see picture). This is a cool feature that allows you to suggest up to 2o friends to someone. This tool is excellent for your friends who are new to Facebook. Suggesting friends to help people grow their network is something that most people appreciate, and often, they return the favor by suggesting people they know that they think may be good connections for you.

Twitter has a fun weekly tradition called #FollowFriday.

Tweeters use Follow Friday to share the people they follow most with their Followers. It’s a way of saying, “this person has good content, follow them”!

These tools are great ways to make and share connections and virtually every social media outlet has a similar feature. Use them to your advantage, and take friend suggestions as a real opportunity to start a new relationship.

Do My Employees Need Social Media?

Recently, while talking about social media with a client, the topic of empowering employees with social media as a business strategy was discussed. Allowing employees to share their company affiliation and actively exchange information in such an open and informal way initially gives a lot of business owners an uneasy feeling and with good reason. Its tough to monitor the content employees are delivering via social media outlets: Ask Dominos Pizza.

The reality is that social media is open to anyone and a motivated person can do something malicious whether they are an employee or angry customer. That being said, there is a tremendous benefit to your company by giving employees access to tools that show them how to use social media to promote what they do both directly and indirectly.

If you have a website, one of the most notable affects social media can have on your online presence is inbound linking. Having each employee posting a link to your website from their social media profile adds relevance to your site which is good for SEO.

Also, employees social networking on your company’s behalf increases the amount of exposure of your business, essentially expanding your sales force and in many cases a sense of taking ownership of the company’s mission to grow and expand via the internet develops.

There’s no real way to monitor all content being put out, however, there are steps business owners can take to protect themselves against social media smearing by irresponsible or disgruntled employees.

1.  Create a clear detailed company policy on social media usage and ensure this policy is given to all employees and agreed upon with a signature.  

2. Hold employees accountable who violate this policy as necessary.

3. Flag or report inappropriate, dishonest, or potentially damaging materials to the site that holds the such material. This is key as most sites are generally accommodating to such requests.

The Best Way to Warm the Cold Call

Before we had phones, people wrote letters to potential prospects and followed up with a phone call. The letter served as a friendly introduction that once received, allowed the reader to get acquainted with the salesperson. Eventually, the phone replaced the letter completely and cold calling was born.

The power of using social media outlets to grow your business has created a euphoric feeling among those who have longed for an escape from a life of cold calling. Inbound marketing has provided a perfect method for businesses to improve their level of exposure, but it hasn’t completely eliminated the need for a phone.

Social networking profiles, blogs and other forms of social media are the new way for customers and businesses to passively get acquainted. Once the connection is made, the cold call is instantly warm, even its a person you’ve never met face to face!

Social Media: The Letter Reborn.

How to make CSS and HTML Work Together Part 1

For the last week or so I have been struggling to figure out how to place an image into the header of my Wordpress blog that covered the entire area of the header. Though I had a reasonable amount of knowledge about HTML, CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) was completely foreign to me.  I’ve been doing a lot of research online trying to figure out the mystery of CSS, and after a lot of dead ends and partial explanations I was finally able to come to some real conclusions about CSS, and how it relates to HTML.

None of the sources I found describe what I believe to be the key to understanding how CSS and HTML interact.  If you think of your website as a room, HTML is the furniture, and CSS is where you put the furniture.

When you look at your CSS, you will likely see something like this on the sheet:

#header {
width: 960px;
height: 180px;
color: #FFFFFF;
font-size: 16px;
font-weight: normal;
margin: 0px auto 0px;
padding: 0px;
overflow: hidden;
}

Pixels (px) is the spacial representation of your header. To be honest I started out just playing with the numbers and previewing each change to see what took place. This also makes it easier to correct mistakes quickly.

CSS does not change the size of HTML objects. If your CSS framework is smaller than your HTML image, the image will not show completely. For instance if your header is 760px and your HTML image is 960px, you will only see 760px of that image.

In the next section, I will explain how HTML and CSS interact.

Blogging For Business

One of the best things you can do to increase traffic to your website is by blogging. I have been blogging for business since 2003 to bring account for my mortgage business. Blogging has been my #1 source of referrals in 2005 and 2006.

What is a blog? A blog is another tool to market, communicate and brand yourself or your business through regular updates – otherwise known as an online journal.

I have a website to capture my leads but I use the blog to bring them there and let them know who they are doing business with.

If you don’t currently have a blog – contact us for a one on one consultation to get started!

Where are the places you can blog?

1. Wordpress.com or Wordpress.org are the #1 sources for blogs.
2. Blogger
3. Moveable Type
4. Active Rain – Real Estate Blog

I know there are many to choose from that I didn’t list but all you need is 1 good blogging platform and Iwould recommend any of these to get started!

Social Media for Network Marketers

One of the primary methods of referral generation in the sales industry has been word of mouth advertising and the perfect example of how to maximize the  potential of this powerful yet simple exposure tool is exhibited by companies that grow via network marketing.

Though often stereotyped as pyramid schemes or scams, Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)  is actually the ultimate example of large companies actually spreading the wealth around. MLM companies actually allow the sales force to generate the majority of the income; income that unlike most forms of income is residual, meaning it recurring as long as the account is open, and/or the customer is paying for the product. The way the sales force is recruited is though word of mouth advertising. Many people find interest in the products or services, and some see the opportunity to generate income while sharing what they have found with others.

The reality however is that the landscape of sales has changed drastically, and direct selling is becoming more and more taboo as consumers are becoming more aware of the power of options and therefore choice in every marketplace. As a result, even the best MLM-ers are turning to social media as a method of connecting with their friends, and potential clients and business partners.

Social Media provides you with a relaxed atmosphere where you can share your life, but also share what you do, because what you do is also a part of who you are. Having a strong social media portfolio is key to establishing an MLM-er as a real person that friends and potential clients can relate to, not a pushy salesperson only concerned with making a sale.  That makes you someone they can connect with by name, face, and profession.  A powerful trifecta of connections!

Hampton Roads Information And Technology Meet Up Testimonials

Our second Meetup was a huge success. Big THANKS to our sponsors and hosts at Victory Nissan of Chesapeake VA who provided an unforgettable forum and the perfect atmosphere for networking! Special thanks goes to Ryan Hall and Tina Pansacula who put in a lot of hard work, and where primary contributors to the success of this event!

Also, thank you to our speaker Justin Hitt who provided invaluable information about search engine optimization (SEO) and how to use the internet to market your business effectively.

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