Google For Productivity: TalkFloor Social Media Marketing Series

As valuable as Google is for digital visibility and for search & discovery, it's also an amazing productivity enhancer as I discussed recently with TalkFloor's Dave Foster.

Dave described the interview as follows:

Christine Whittemore Google as a Productivity Enhancer

Christine Whittemore, Simple Marketing Now in an ongoing series on online tools and social networking discusses Google as a productivity enhancer in areas of communications, collaboration, organizational, analysis, and advanced publishing. Whittemore talks about topics from chat opportunities and voice mail to working on community documents to Webmaster tools.

You can access all three parts of the interview by clicking on Christine Whittemore: Google as Productivity Enhancer. The segments range from 14 minutes to 18 minutes.

I consider to topic of Google the productivity enhancer particularly relevant for small to medium sized businesses – such as floor covering retailers, tile & stone contractors and others in the flooring business - which now have access to tools that used to only be available to large organizations with significant resources!

NOTE: To access most of these tools, you need a gmail account.

For the conversation with Dave Foster, I detailed several productivity categories:

• Communication
• Collaboration
• Organization
• Analysis
• Advanced - Publishing

You may consider others, but these struck me as the major ones.

Google for Communication
Via gmail, you not only access email, but also chat, voice mail and video calls {my other solution for video calls is Skype}. Email is searchable and features a new priority mailbox feature. Have you checked out Google voice? It offers one number for all phones. [Note: this video describes Google voice features.]

Google for Collaboration
Google docs are a terrific way to collaborate regardless of location! My favorite example is the master Twitter chat document which details all of the Twitter Chats taking place. The document is public and crowd sourced so it is always up to date. It's also very easily accessible. I've just recently used Google docs to create a lengthy survey. The results automatically pre-populate a spreadsheet for easy analysis.

Calendars, as Daryl Ciokiewicz from Floorcrafters in Wisconsin does, can be used to schedule installers.

Google Groups allow you to organize people and explore already existing groups.

Sites allow you to create a wiki for your work group to exchange information and collaborate.

Google Sketchup – I learned about this from Paul Anater, Kitchen & Residential Design. He uses it to create 3d models of spaces he is designing.

Google for Organizing
If you haven't yet, do try Picasa to help organize, edit and share photos. Install it on your desktop and it will find all the photos you have on your computer and organize them so you can actually find them when you need them!

I like to use Google Calendar as a content calendar. I find it more user friendly than Outlook Calendar for that purpose. I also use the to do list functionality.

Don't forget Google Reader to organize your different feeds and alerts.

Google for Analysis
You have two powerful tools available here: Google analytics for websites and Webmaster tools.

Advanced: Google for Publishing
Google offers many valuable tools for publishing: Blogger, YouTube, Feedburner, Picasa online, and Picnik for easy online photo editing [~ photoshop].

This conversation only scratched the surface of what's available from Google to help with productivity. You may be looking for a checkout solution for your website or a means for translating your content into another language. Google even offers Google apps for Business instead of using Microsoft Office, for example.

Assignment
Go create a gmail account, experiment with communicating, collaborating or organizing.

Explore Google/options and let me know in the  comments which Google tool you find most interesting. How has it improved your productivity?

Google For Search & Discovery: TalkFloor Social Media Marketing Series

After a long hiatus [our last interview took place in December 2010], Dave Foster and I resumed our social media marketing discussion series, continuing where we left off in Google for Visibility: TalkFloor Social Media Marketing Series as we explored  Google for search and discovery.

To listen to the three-part interview - which TalkFloor's FloorRadio describes as follows - simply click on this link: Christine B. Whittemore on Social Networking & the Many Options on Google:

Christine B. Whittemore, Simple Marketing Now, in an ongoing series on social networking discussing investing in social network vs. building ones website and the benefits available on Google including: Google Alerts, Google Profiles, Google Places, Google Zeitgeist, Google Trends, Google Adwords and optimizing websites using Google’s SEO starter guide.

This was a wild discussion that went into a multitude of Google related directions. Here are my notes. I hope you enjoy the interview.

Part I of Google for Search and Discovery - the Many Options on Google: 15 minutes

The conversation starts with smartphones and how they bridge between the digital and the physical or analog world. [If you haven't already checked it out, you may enjoy the link to Mary Meeker's mobile presentation in Social, Mobile, Legal: NY Law School 2011 Conference.]

These are the recent seminars and presentations I refer to:

• Whittemore Surfaces Sessions Focus on Connecting With Customers
• Practical Marketing & Business Survival Guide to be Highlighted at Coverings 11
• Managing Your Social Reputation: Highlights
• Recapping NJ AMA 5/10/11 Presentation: Managing Your Reputation in a Social World

Common questions that come up during presentations:

• How to connect with customers when they start at a search window? See Improving Visibility Online: Advice For Businesses.
• How to grow your fans, subscribers, followers, etc.? See How Do I Increase My Followers?

We discuss the importance of understanding what your business objectives are, who are your customers and what matters to them as well as how you differentiate yourself in marketplace. From there you can develop a plan and more successfully integrate your online work into your overall business. It also avoids the 'seat of the pants' element that Dave refers to.  Social profiles are easy to set up; but it's also really easy to waste time and become frustrated with how to make them meaningful to your business.

Here is the link to the video - Social Media Revolution 2 - the Refresh - I mention. It's approximately 4 minutes long and refers to possibly the most well respected networker and relationship builder of all time: Dale Carnegie. Born in 1888, his best seller How To Win Friends and Influence People was written in 1936. That is what's at the core of what social and digital tools enable: getting to know customers, building a relationship and establishing trustworthiness.

I've noticed a trend with adding social icons to a website to look hip and socially connected. Unfortunately, when you click on those icons and check out the profiles, you realize that there's nothing going on. The icons are purely cosmetic when there's opportunity to do so much more!

Spend time up front with your business objectives, understanding you customers, your competition, your strengths.. You want a website that offers potential value with great (blog) content that you can share on other platforms.  If you have nothing to share, you'll have a hard time sustaining social efforts long term. It's all  interconnected.

It's easy to share/interact on your website by including a Facebook widget or your Twitter feed [just make sure you are creating meaningful content!].

Beware of autoposting because communities are not all the same. The dynamics differ from Facebook, Twitter to LinkedIn, etc.

Part II of Google for Search and Discovery - the Many Options on Google: 16 minutes

In this segment, we recapped several of the highlights from the Google for visibility interview [e.g., Google profile and Google Places, Google SEO starter guide] and I recommend that you check out the links and notes from that session [link in first paragraph]. Since then, I've written How To Manage Your Online Reputation which reinforces how to keep track of what's happening online, and the value of Google alerts [and checking on your Google juice].

Beware of taking short cuts to improve search engine rankings.  Google has changed its search algorithm in response to short cuts JC Penney and others had taken [see The Dirty Little Secrets of Search from the New York Times].

Click on image for larger view

Spend time exploring Google search. It changes periodically and you are sure to find valuable tools to use.

Note that we now get blended results where you'll see a mix of social results [which may include recommendations based on your social circle], video, photos and what's relevant to your IP address in addition to more traditional search results. This will vary depending on how popular your search query is.

Notice “instant” results – which offer suggestions as you type a query. This is a quick way to get feedback on search terms.

For a more objective result, log out of Google, try different browsers [which you may be able to access at the bottom of the left sidebar in the 'something different' section. This changes. Think 'wildcard'!].

You can change your location to see different geographic relevant results.

Click on 'more search tools'. I find the 'timeline' option fascinating. You can look for historic relevance. For carpet, for example, you'll notice references dating back to 500 BC! You can also specify time ranges.

That's where you'll find the WonderWheel which visually represents related search terms and topics. It's a great source of ideas.  [See Choosing Keywords with Google Wonder Wheel.]

We discussed real world benefits to using Google for Search and Discovery.  The flooring world is filled with wrong customer product expectations [I'm sure this is true in other industries].  Wouldn't it be nice to address those expectations up front and prevent problems?  [Here are the frustrations my Mom encountered when she was in the market for flooring!] Help your customers and address their concerns in FAQs that are readily available on your website.  Offer recommendations. Anticipate what they will experience.  Listen to the words they use. Our online presence has to be about our customers.

By the way, I recommend a timer or alarm clock to help you manage your time as you explore Google search results.

You'll want to spend time searching particularly in the discovery phase as you validate keywords and topics relevant to your marketplace and customers.

Part III of Google for Search and Discovery - the Many Options on Google: 13 minutes

Dave and I discuss geographic search, Google Places, searching based on location. It's good to experiment and see how results differ based on changing location.

The New York Times had a fascinating article titled Advice From a Sticky Web Site on How to Make Yours the Same which brought up the value of "local local" and connecting with potential customers on a very local level.  See my post How Are You Finding New Customers?; it refers to the stat that 97% of local customers use online media to research businesses in their community.  "If you can't be found, you don't exist!"

You might also enjoy Results Revolution's Plan for the New Economy With the Niche Model.

Other Google Tools for Search & Discovery:

Try Google Insights for Search to compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. Here are ideas on how to use Google Insights for Search. I did a comparison of Mohawk flooring vs. Shaw flooring vs. Beaulieu carpet using Google Insights. Note that it's a North American  marketplace. Go explore and drill down by region or state.

You'll enjoy John Simonson's post titled Google Insights for Search for carpet, hardwood & laminate flooring for 2010.

The Google Adwords Keyword Tool is not only immediately relevant for PPC, but it allows you to better understand keywords, variations [e.g., plural vs. singular] and how competitive the words are. For example, did you know that hardwood is more competitive than carpet?

The research allows you to discover patterns, better understand your competition, find the words that are meaningful to potential customers when they start the search process and go from a general one word search to increasingly specific 4, 5 and 6 word searches. See How to Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool for SEO.

Yes, all of this takes time, but it allows you to find better qualified leads. You are focusing on quality rather than quantity and 'qualified potential customers'. It's part of your preparation work and ensuring that all of your marketing efforts work harder on your behalf!

Summing up Google:
Google puts valuable information into your hands with these search and discovery tools. They allow you to an determine how to connect with customers with relevant, meaningful content. You can be smarter with what you offer customers.

Next Google as productivity enhancer.

What's your reaction to this conversation about Google for search and discovery? How do you use Google? Which tools have you found most helpful? Have you been surprised at what you discovered while searching?

Added 5/20/11: Google has introduced the Inside Search Blog - the official Google Search blog.

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Google for Visibility: TalkFloor Social Media Marketing Series

Dave Foster from TalkFloor.com and I connected recently to continue our conversation about social media marketing.  This time we discussed Google for Visibility.

He described the three-part interview on Google for visibility as follows:

Christine Whittemore, Simple Marketing Now, on the Opportunities Available on Google

Christine Whittemore, Simple Marketing Now, in an ongoing series on social networking looks at the opportunities available on Google looking to enhance a company’s visibility, looking at various tools on Google including Google Alerts, Google Profiles and Google Places along with the benefits of website optimization.

As usual, we had a blast and even managed to touch on geolocation / location based marketing tools!

You can access the three interview segments by clicking on this link to Christine Whittemore on the Opportunities Available on Google. Each segment is approximately 12 minutes long.

My show notes for Google for Visibility.

My theory is – if you can’t be found online, you don’t exist. Extreme, but increasingly true when 97% of local consumers use online media to research businesses in their community** BIA/Kelsey research. People start at a search engine to start any kind of research. Majority of the time, that search engine is Google.

Being found can be an issue for people working at the same organization for a long time, for businesses used to doing business in person. That means it’s important for all of us to be paying attention to our digital visibility – for ourselves individually and for our companies.

Step 1: Google yourself

Check out your “google juice”. What do you see? Do you show up? Is it positive? Negative? Irrelevant?  You want to pay attention to the results on the first 3 pages; ideally, the majority of those 30 entries are about you and positive.

This is your opportunity to start managing your social reputation.

Step 2: Set up Google alerts

Everyone should set up Google alerts. Set them up for your name in quotes, for your company name, for your company URL, for products terms, even competitors.

I still meet people who don’t take advantage of Google alerts. They are free. You can set them up so you receive email notifications; you can even have them flow into Google reader where you can further organize them into relevant folders.

Google alerts allow you to monitor any new entries about you. For example, if someone writes about you in a blog or reviews your company. You’ll know about it and can say thanks.

Note: you’ll need to set up a gmail account for yourself.

Google alerts search tips: [not included in the interview recording]

+ You can create an alert with up to 32 words
+ Add a “+” sign in front of your alert term to force Google to search for exactly the word you want [blocks stemming]
+ Add a “~” sign in front of your alert term to generate synonyms for your search terms
+ Use quotes for exact searches
+ Exclude words using the minus sign in front of your alert term.
+ Add OR uppercase to search for any words in a list
+ Use AND uppercase to search for all terms
+ Wildcard: * [e.g., favorite * store]

Experiment with these in a search window and fine tune your query based on how relevant your results are. Check out this marvelous Google Guide for Selecting Search Terms which includes lots more details!

Step 3: Become more visible

If, when you Google yourself, you don’t find much that’s relevant to you, you need to take some steps to become more visible. More specifically:

+ Create and complete your LinkedIn profile and create one for your company [See How Do I Make the Most of LinkedIn]
+ Create a Twitter profile [See How Do I Do Twitter]
+ Create a Google profile
+ Claim your business listing on Google Places – particularly valuable for a retailer

Google Profiles: Allows you to gather all of your digital presences in one place: LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, websites, SlideShare presentations, Flickr photos… You can add specific photos to your profile. You have unlimited space for telling your story. It complements your LinkedIn profile. A great example is Glenn Raines [google.com/profiles/rainesmaker]. Mine is google.com/profiles/cbwhittemore.

Google Places: A Places page is the listing that shows up when you search for a business geographically and you notice several options to choose from from a map. Google allows you to claim such a listing for your business. Every business should do so, especially ones with physical locations. You can add coupons and special offers, visitors can rate and review you [which means you should be encouraging your customers to add reviews so you build up a positive track record consistently online rather than have to panic and react when you get your first negative review.]

Good reason to pay attention to Places is that Google has just released Google Hotpot, a location-based recommendation engine for places. It has a social element and integrates with mobile smartphones.

Note: you had better be paying attention to mobile for all of these digital tools.

BTW, also be aware that Yahoo offers local listings. A basic free listing lets you include phone/address/website, store hours, products.

Step 4: Optimizing your website to maximize your visibility

With this topic, we are getting into SEO or search engine optimization. Since we’re talking Google, it’s important to be aware of what Google pays attention to for digital visibility particularly as it relates to your business website.

I wrote a post titled SEO Primer: Nurturing Your Online Digital Visibility in which I list a few tips:

1. Review each page of your website paying attention to the META data – e.g, Page title, description, keywords

2. Review the content on each of your website pages making sure it is unique

3. Pay attention to your keywords

4. Static vs. dynamic content or websites vs. blogs.

Google has issued a Search Engine Optimization Starter guide that I recommend you read.

That SEO Primer post started with another article I wrote titled 10 tips for being found online:

• Beware of Flash
• Focus on Content
• Consistent Keywords
• Post frequently, consistently, relevantly on a blog
• Create unique content
• Listen. Listen more
• Banish the Hard Sell!
• What do your physical & digital retail experiences communicate? Are they fresh?
• Promote your digital presence offline & your physical presence online
• Invite visitors to opt-in for memorable email communications

Summary and Assignment:

• Set up Google alerts.
• Complete your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. Participate in those networks.
• Create a Google profile.
• Claim your Google places listing
• Read the Google SEO Starter Guide.

Next: Google the Search Engine

How Do I Make The Most of LinkedIn?

With all of these LinkedIn resources that I've put together, it's definitely time to group them together and share with you in How Do I? Make the Most of LinkedIn.

As I come across other interesting LinkedIn resources, I'll be sure to add them to this post.

Here goes How Do I Make the Most of LinkedIn?

Most recently I took part in a fascinating conversation with Bernie Borges which became a podcast titled 8 Content Marketing Tips For LinkedIn. I think you'll enjoy both the podcast and Bernie's show notes.

The TalkFloor Social Media Marketing Interview Series with Dave Foster continues, this time all about LinkedIn and in three parts!

• In Part I, we introduced LinkedIn and examined features of LinkedIn.
• In part II, we explored advanced LinkedIn features such as Groups, Answers, Events and Search.
• Part III addressed LinkedIn Business Successes on TalkFloor Social Media Marketing Interview Series.

Finally, I just came across this post LinkedIn Marketing: 5 Reasons B-to-B Companies Can't Ignore It which includes some valuable LinkedIn recommendations.

Added 12/8/2010:
Notes on the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York Making Your LinkedIn Profile Pop: CBSAC/NY Social Media Event

From Hubspot Blog:
LinkedIn's Little Secret: It's a Great Lead-Gen Tool
5 Tips for Creating, Promoting and Managing a LinkedIn Group

Added 12/9/10: Why LinkedIn is the Social Network That Will Never Die from AdAge
Added 12/22/10: How To Add Video To Your LinkedIn Profile - A Reel Tutorial 

That's the lowdown on LinkedIn so far.

If you come across other LinkedIn resources you consider helpful, would you let me know? I'll add them here.

Also, I'd love to hear about your LinkedIn success stories.

LinkedIn Business Successes on TalkFloor Social Media Marketing Interview Series

The conversation about LinkedIn continues on the TalkFloor social media marketing interview series with Dave Foster.

In part I, we introduced LinkedIn and examined features of LinkedIn.

In part II, we explored advanced LinkedIn features such as Groups, Answers, Events and Search.

In part III, we examine LinkedIn business successes - practical examples of businesses using LinkedIn. The TalkFloor interview is in three parts and aired October 25, 26 and 27, 2010.

Dave and I are both on LinkedIn, so please do connect with us: Dave Foster and Christine B. Whittemore. What follows are my show notes.

LinkedIn is a social network.

The best uses for LinkedIn involve connecting with others – to build your reputation, recruit or make contact with, to do market research with, to establish thought leadership and generate new business with down the road. It’s a network of people, more specifically business professionals.

LinkedIn is not the best source of mass consumer leads. It is, however, a valuable B2B source and will connect with you professionals from around the globe allowing you a rich source for networking. LinkedIn is a powerful social networking platform as we discussed in the last session. It's considered the #1 resource for marketing your business.

For retailers, LinkedIn means connecting with:

• peers to consult with in a non-competitive environment.
• suppliers.
• valuable for B2B or commercial relationship building and to supplement/reinforce the networking you do at Chamber of Commerce meetings and other local groups.

Remember the rules for social networking. They apply to LinkedIn, too:

+ offer value
+ no hard sell
+ be active consistently
+ mind your manners
+ Don’t spam
+ remember that your reputation is at stake
+ think long term.

1. Build Your Business Reputation via LinkedIn

Offer value based on your area of expertise. As important as it is to fully understand your own company and products, if you want to connect with others – find commonality, develop a relationship, engage in conversation with them – it’s equally important to think beyond products to solutions. You may be in the flooring business, but you also deal with business processes or marketplace issues that are relevant to other business people. Perhaps, too, your product fits into a bigger solution: flooring is part of a building, for example.

The poster child for building reputation via LinkedIn is Jason Alba who has written the book I'm on LinkedIn--Now What???: A Guide to Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn

LinkedIn offers those who participate in LinkedIn Answers the opportunity to accumulate ‘reputation points’.  To build your reputation via LinkedIn, take a topic of interest and knowledge to you. Maybe it’s environmental sustainability or time management.

Search for groups related to your category => participate.
Update your status regularly to reflect your theme
Search through LinkedIn Answers => participate to share insights and advice NOT TO SELL

Thank privately all those who comment and express interest.

Be consistent about sharing, have a theme. Is it all related to sustainability? Or is it sustainability in your town? Or related to one product?

Consider gathering what you share into a newsletter. [Think how to repurpose the content you create.]

2. Recruit for Business Using LinkedIn

In terms of case studies for recruiting, just about every company has turned to LinkedIn for recruiting. Either for hiring leads or to supplement candidate research by searching on specific keywords and connecting with those who have an interesting and relevant background. So, be prepared!

Another valuable idea with long term benefit is to create a group that brings together people with common interests – perhaps around a cause – and interesting backgrounds that may relate to your field of interest or expertise.

+ By inviting them, you make them feel good.
+ At some point down the road, this might be a group that you hire from or pull from for additional activities.
+ By creating such a forum, you create goodwill and readiness to help you when you need the help.

LinkedIn Business Examples:

+ Marvelous example of this is the #prstudchat group which supports a weekly PR student chat. The group is robust, active, further discussing ideas presented during the Twitter chat and representing talented young PR candidates.

+ Incept helps blood centers recruit and maintain blood donors to maintain a supply of blood. They created a customer-centric group around giving blood that connected people who work at blood centers around the country, discussed issues faced at blood centers and identified solutions [how to knowledge] and built relationships. Imagine how powerful this will be for the next blood crisis! [Read Nate Riggs' post: How To Build a Customer-Centric LinkedIn Group.]

NOTE: remember to moderate and manage your groups. Don’t forget to set rules for behavior.

Develop the relationships first. Once you’re active in LinkedIn groups and answers, you’ll find that you can seamlessly turn to the relationships and goodwill that you’ve built for other purposes.

3. Market Research Using LinkedIn

Given the tools that LinkedIn makes available for asking/answering questions and engaging in discussions and conversations, don’t overlook LinkedIn as a source of valuable market research and insight.

For example, in the groups you’re active in, post a request/invitation to participate in your research.

Create an event [i.e., a research event] and invite others to the event.

Be sure to have a series of messages prepared explaining what you’re researching, thanking for participation. Etc.

Be sure to mine existing data on LinkedIn including existing Answers.

Read through relevant group discussions.

Connect with those whom you find insightful.

Build relationships.

4. Building you Business with LinkedIn

This one is near and dear to many of us as we try to figure out how to reach more customers, right?

The New York Times recently featured a Canadian entrepreneur who sells equestrian luggage. It’s called Red Scarf Equestrian. She credits LinkedIn for building her business because it allowed her to expand beyond Canada.

How: by searching on relevant terms, finding groups related to her product category and building relationships.

As with building your business offline, this happens gradually over time.

It supports all of your offline or in-person activities and it allows you to connect in a way that overcomes location, makes the most out of the relationships you’ve built throughout your career.

It’s efficient.

Your LinkedIn Assignment:

Go explore.

Make a habit of spending 20 minutes a week on LinkedIn. Add a reminder to your Outlook calendar to do so.

Same as with networking offline: Start building relationships and establishing your reputation now so you earn enough social capital to make sales pitches down the road more acceptable.

Before heading off to Surfaces, do a LinkedIn search on some of the people you will be meeting with. Bring that information up when you meet.  Observe what happens.

Please, let me know if you have any questions and also what you find most valuable as you create business successes using LinkedIn.

Other Resource:
Ann Handley on How I was wrong about LinkedIn (with 2 Mini Case Studies)

LinkedIn Advanced on TalkFloor Social Media Marketing Interview Series

The social media marketing series on TalkFloor continues with Advanced LinkedIn! Here is a link to the three interviews in this Advanced LinkedIn segment.

In the last session, we did an introduction and overview of LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a powerful social networking platform as we discussed in the last session.  It's considered the #1 resource for marketing your business.

In Advanced LinkedIn, we cover some of the advanced features – Groups, Answers, Event, Search.

Dave and I are both on LinkedIn, so please do connect with us.

Dave Foster
Christine B. Whittemore

As a reminder, you should definitely set up a profile on LinkedIn – it’s free. Complete it 100% paying attention to using relevant keywords and include a photo. Claim your personalized URL; link your website and blog to your profile. Connect your Twitter account if you have one. Then, update your status regularly – I use Outlook to remind myself. Connect with people you meet and share relevant links and resources.

*** Note: this is true for all of the social networking tools we discuss, remember to focus on offering others value. Don’t self-promote or you’ll turn people off.***

LinkedIn Groups

Within your individual LinkedIn profile, you can join up to 50 groups.  Groups are a great opportunity to reach and engage with potential customers online.

The first step is to search existing groups based on keywords your consider relevant to determine if one already exists. If yes, join it. Familiarize yourself with the group’s guidelines; read through existing conversation threads; do some research on those who actively participate and start getting involved.

Definitely consider researching successful groups so you understand what makes them work, what kinds of questions does the moderator ask? How frequently do new discussions start? What are the group’s dynamics? Just a few people or a wide range of perspectives? What is the tone of the discussion?

If a group doesn’t exist, create one!

+ pick a name with keywords relevant to your audience
+ make it an industry group rather than a company group
+ add a logo
+ invite coworkers, friends, colleagues to join
+ be sure to promote it online and offline

For a group to be successful, it’s important to actively manage it and encourage discussion. If you don’t it will become overrun with spammy self-promotion rather than valuable insights.

It’s a good idea to develop and post guidelines for group interaction [be respectful, no self-promotion, what topics are acceptable, etc.]. Post those as a featured discussion so everyone can find them. When you welcome new members, send them a link to the guidelines. By the way, you can send announcements to the members of the group; you can import your blog feed into the News section. You can also directly message group members even if you aren’t connected to them. LinkedIn has added a lot of rich functionality to groups.

Please note: as with all social media and social networking tools, this will take focused time and effort to generate success. You are building a community.

It’s a good idea to spend time beforehand determining what your objective is and how you will add value. You can then prepare a content plan and develop a content calendar.

For example, let’s take the TalkFloor group which has ~ 518 members. You'll notice a wide range of flooring related conversations: from green cleaning, to window treatments in flooring stores, to some self-promotion. You have prominent industry people engaged [e.g., Warren Tyler], but it isn’t actively managed.

What you might do is develop guidelines and post them as a featured discussion. You might add a feed from TalkFloor. You might go through all 518 existing members and says thanks for being part of the group, here are the guidelines for discussion and what would you like to hear more about. Going forward, you might welcome new members with a note and the guidelines. For those who are self-promotional you would want to remind them that this isn’t the forum…

Then, consider one new industry topic per month. Let’s say for September it’s ‘Cash for Caulkers”; develop 4 subthemes for each week of September related to Cash for Caulkers.

1. Recap legislation. How does this affect you?

2. Implications for consumers? How can you benefit?

3. Environmental repercussions. How can you benefit?

4. How does it relate to the flooring industry reports on the state of the flooring industry?

Perhaps each theme/subtheme relates to TalkFloor interviews that Dave has done.

Dave might invite industry experts to help ask and answer questions with each sub-theme. Possibly CRI Government Affairs can give a big picture overview of Cash for Caulkers from a legislative perspective?

Dave might invite Stuart Hirschhorn to answer data questions about the flooring industry.

By the way, you can make your group private and use it as an ongoing focus group discussion. You can also ‘follow’ individuals within a group [as you can companies now].

LinkedIn Answers

These are particularly effective for lead generation, demonstrating expertise.

Access Answers from the “MORE” tab.

Interestingly, you won’t find much that is recent relating to carpet or floors. That suggests to me an opportunity – especially given that there are plenty of groups related to floor, floors, flooring…

When you respond to relevant questions, your answers will appear in your network updates.

You gain expertise points

You can include links to relevant articles, blogposts, etc. [e.g., you can add value].

LinkedIn Groups & Answers Reminders

Don’t spam
Be helpful.
Don’t self-promote.
Be aware of rules of behavior
Do your homework so you know who’s asking the question.

You can also ask your own questions for research; you can make your questions private.

LinkedIn Events

You can use LinkedIn Events to promote your activities and invite your connections. When they RSVP, it shows up in their home profile so all their connections see it.

To access, go to MORE and follow the steps/answer questions to Add an Event.

LinkedIn Search

Search is powerful in LinkedIn. You can search people and companies [as well as groups, jobs, answers…].

Other LinkedIn Features:

LinkedIn now offers Direct Ads. Access them through MORE. Allows you to target specific parameters with ads.

Your Advanced LinkedIn Assignment:

Go explore groups; pick one to get involved in. [Maybe TalkFloor?] Get involved in the conversation.

Explore Answers and pick one to answer.

Additional LinkedIn Resources:

LinkedIn Takes Groups To The Next Level With Likes, Follows And More
How to Use LinkedIn for Business from Hubspot
17 Invisible LinkedIn Tricks Revealed
3 ways to expand your reach on LinkedIn
10 Ways to Leverage LinkedIn to Generate Business
6-Step Corporate LinedIn Strategy
Top 5 Ways to Market Your Business With LinkedIn
11 Tips for LinkedIn Business Development

Let me know of any questions.

Next:  LinkedIn Success Stories

#TalkFloor Social Media Marketing Series: LinkedIn

TalkFloor's Dave Foster and I continue to explore social media marketing.  From Advanced Twitter, we have moved on to LinkedIn.

Before I go further, are you on LinkedIn? How do you use LinkedIn? What do you like most and least? I'd love to hear.

Both Dave and I are on LinkedIn.  I invite you to connect with us. Here are links to our profiles:

Dave Foster
Christine Whittemore

Of all of the social networks, I've been on LinkedIn the longest having joined shortly after it was launched.  However, it's also the network that has taken the longest to evolve beyond a resume posting site into an actual social network with interesting and useful interactive resources. Dave and I explore some of those features in the following TalkFloor interview about LinkedIn which you can access by clicking on this link.

Dave describes the three-part interview as follows:

Christine Whittemore, Simple Marketing Now, in the third segment in an ongoing series on social networking talks about LinkedIn the professional social network, the host of tools and applications and tools it makes available and how newcomers can quickly initiate business contacts using the platform.

Here are shownotes and details relating to our discussion about LinkedIn.

What is LinkedIn

It's a professional social network, launched in 2003, which now claims 70 million members in 200 countries in all 7 continents.

Demographics:

• 72% college grads
• 66% over $60K/year
• 68% 35+ years old

Visitors to the site have jumped 31% from last year to 17.6 million in February 2010.  Every Fortune 500 company is represented and 81% of business-to-business marketers use LinkedIn.

Here's what I find particularly valuable: new networking functionality has been recently added - particularly as it relates to groups [for more information read: Welcome to a whole new way of experiencing LinkedIn Groups]. Pretty exciting!

LinkedIn used to be quite static – primarily a place for resumes. Although it is considerably more interactive, LinkedIn is a much calmer, corporate like environment compared to Twitter or Facebook.  It's a wonderful environment for keeping track of people you know and connecting with people you meet professionally.  It's valuable for networking, researching and connecting for business purposes.

What's important to remember is that search engines such as Google like LinkedIn profiles.  If you have a LinkedIn profile and Google yourself, you'll notice that your profile appears prominently on page one of search results, making it an important element of your personal and professional brand reputation management. Manage your profile and control what people find about you and  your company.

Within LinkedIn you can search people, companies and groups. You can see how you are connected to others; you can learn more about the person you’ll be having a business meeting with and have a more productive session. You can also send personal messages.

What to do first on LinkedIn:

Definitely, your personal profile.  Set it up; complete it 100%.  Add a photo, import your contacts and browse through your connections’ connections to find others you know. LinkedIn will also suggest people for you to connect with.  NOTE: when you invite others to connect with you, be sure to customize the invitation so it sounds like it came from you. This makes a difference!

Once you have your profile created, be sure to claim your vanity LinkedIn URL [e.g., mine is CBWhittemore].  To do so, go to settings/public profile; you'll see the prompt to customize your LinkedIn profile URL.  Be sure to note the other options available.

I recommend that you look into several neat features that LinkedIn offers for enhancing your personal profile:  You can add a feed from your blog. Embed your Slideshare presentations. Add link to files like resumes and marketing kits [via Box.net].

To find these applications, on the LinkedIn Nav bar, look for MORE – you’ll notice many options including the apps directory. [Others include: polls, private collaboration space, track travel via TripIt..]

How to increase your LinkedIn visibility:

Definitely complete your profile.  Include in your profile links to your website, blog, etc. Be sure to  use relevant keywords in your headline, your current experience, your summary, your specialties... Don't forget to  issue status updates on a regular basis.

Note: your LinkedIn updates can be connected to your Twitter account.

• Consider creating events in LinkedIn to raise awareness for what you are doing.
• Definitely, recommend others and request recommendations [again, be sure to customize your request message].
• Explore the other valuable LinkedIn features.

Other valuable LinkedIn features:

LinkedIn offers several features for interacting with others: LinkedIn Answers: a Q& A Forum. Per a report in Business.com in Dec. 2009, 59.2% of companies and 79% of B2B organizations who participate in online business forums use LinkedIn Answers.  LinkedIn Groups – over 500,000 based on companies, schools, affinities…

Do a search and see what comes up [Note: simply select groups in the LinkedIn search window; it defaults to people].  As it relates to Flooring, you'll notice 109 currently. Most popular ones appear first. Check them out.  Consider creating your own about a subject you are passionate about.

NOTE: It's critically important to moderate and be actively involved in your group to ensure quality of content and high level interaction [i.e., no spam].  I give the example of HIMSS' best practices : moderate, post guidelines, educate about policies, ask questions, followup, interact, keep it fresh and relevant.

How to use LinkedIn for business?

In addition to your personal profile, you should also be sure to claim your business profile.  There, too, you should use keywords.  You can now track companies of interest – new feature – find out when they move locations; upcoming big events; new employees…

I recommend that you integrate LinkedIn into your other activities online and offline.  For example, on your website, add link to your LinkedIn profile on your about us page.  When you meet new people, connect with them on LinkedIn.  Add a link to your LinkedIn profile in your email signature.  Include a reference to it on your business card.

Demonstrate thought leadership by participating in LinkedIn Answers: ask questions/provide answers – Caution: don’t shamelessly self-promote!  Find relevant groups to contribute insights to. You can also use LinkedIn’s DirectAds to push relevant ads to LinkedIn subscribers targeted by profile demographic info.

For more information, check out LinkedIn’s Learning Center [click on More in your LinkedIn navigation menu], the LinkedIn Blog, MarketingProfs has put together a case study collection, and see the resources below.

Here's your LinkedIn assignment:

• Set up your profile
• Complete it 100%
• Invite people to join both from your own email list as well as by checking out connections of connections
• Explore groups and join one.
• Update your status on a weekly basis

LinkedIn resources for you:

• SMSS: How to use LinkedIn with business savvy
• 5 Ways to Weave LinkedIn Into Your Marketing Mix
• How LinkedIn will fire up your career
• Worksheet: Using LinkedIn to Market Your Business
• Added 8/31/10: Expert Tips For Using LinkedIn

What LinkedIn questions do you have? How do you make LinkedIn work for you?


Next: Getting practical with LinkedIn.

#TalkFloor Series: Advanced Twitter

Are you ready for Advanced Twitter and How to Make Sense of Twitter for Business? TalkFloor's Dave Foster and I are continuing with our special #TalkFloor social media series and ready to discuss that very subject.  You can participate with us via Twitter as you listen to the recorded interviews.

Part I was titled #TalkFloor Series on Social Media and addressed What is Twitter and Why Should I Care?

Part II was titled #TalkFloor Series: Twitter & Social Media and addressed How To Get Started With Twitter.

This segment covers Advanced Uses For Twitter.

Dave's Twitter handle is @DaveTalkFloor and mine is @cbwhittemore. Consider following us. Feel free to practice some of what we discuss. If you want to Tweet us questions, simply use #TalkFloor and the '@' to direct the question to us. I'm listening!

Dave's introduction to this interview reads as follows:

Christine Whittemore – All About Social Networking - Part 3
Christine Whittemore, Simple Marketing Now, in the third segment in an ongoing series on social networking talks about advanced uses For Twitter, setting up TweetDeck and conducting multiple parallel searches as well as the prime benefits of Twitter and the prime differences between Twitter and LinkedIn and Facebook.

This segment is in three parts, each approximately 10 minutes long.

These are my show notes for the segment.

Advanced Twitter Introduction

At this point, you’ve set up a Twitter account, you’ve experimented with it, done searches using search.Twitter.com and Bing.com/Twitter, and you’ve shortened some URLs using Bit.ly. If you’ve done it enough, you’ve started to get aggravated with the inefficiency of working with 3 browser tabs, going back and forth.  That’s when you know you are ready to go to the next step and set up TweetDeck.

What is TweetDeck? How Do You Use It?

TweetDeck is a free, third party Adobe Air desktop application. The best part about TweetDeck [some others are Seesmic, HootSuite, Twhirl, …] is that it allows you to create multiple parallel searches that you can easily edit and monitor so you can make sense of the Twitter Stream of the people you follow. You can filter based on the keywords or terms that matter to you.

When you download it [just go to a search window and type in TweetDeck; you can also get a version for your iPhone. For your Blackberry, an equivalent tool is UberTwitter..], you’ll see 3 columns:

- All Friends
- Mentions
- Direct Messages

Go ahead and add more columns! You might add a column for #TalkFloor or flooring, perhaps a brand name or a company name.

You might create a group and have a column for tweets made by those in the group [e.g., all those involved in home interiors or green based on their profiles].

As you filter, you can start to pay attention to who says what, and then start interacting by: RT or addressing someone directly with @. Then share some links.  By the way, TweetDeck automatically shortens links - a marvelous feature!

Making Meaning out of Twitter

Twitter is different from LinkedIn and Facebook where you connect based on who you know professionally and casually. Twitter allows you to connect based on AFFINITY and shared interests. Similar to an in-person networking event except that you have a better chance of quickly finding people with whom you share a lot in common. I find it extremely beneficial as a B2B tool whereas others have found it extremely useful as a customer service tool, or for special offers, for ordering, to communicate specific information [e.g., the Red Cross], for focus group type research, for conversational marketing or generating word of mouth. It all depends.

Whole Foods, for example: each store has its own Twitter account. There’s also a Whole Foods Twitter account for cheese and one for wine. [For more about Whole Foods and other Twitter success stories, read Twitter Success Stories From MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer.]

If you search under keywords or terms that are relevant to you, you’ll notice people whose tweets appeal to you. Consider following them.

Word of Caution: Don’t plan on building your following over night. Focus on quality rather than quantity. Build it slowly, consistently over time. Beware of schemes that promise you 10 million followers. You will regret it.

I build my network by connecting with folks I meet at conferences or in anticipation of a conference by following the # for that conference.  During webinars, I follow and share observations via Twitter and meet liked minded professionals.

There are events called Meetups and Tweetups – ie.., meetings organized online. At Coverings, I participated in a Tweetup and met several fascinating people with whom I continue to exchange updates and relevant information. [If you are in the Northern New Jersey area, consider attending a Meetup of New Jersey Open Coffee - Montclair.]

Meetups address - Meetup.com
Tweetups address – Twtvite.com

Check Out a Twitter Chat!

Another fascinating event that takes place on Twitter is a Twitterchat - a regularly occurring conversation on a specific topic usually weekly and at a set time. There are a whole range of Twitter chats available. For example: #PRchat #carchat #booktweet or #BlogChat.

Here’s how it works.

The organizer will put together a summary blogpost in anticipation of the event listing discussion topic and questions for the Twitterchat.

On the day of the event, you can participate by creating a search column with the # for the event in TweetDeck, or use another application such at WhatTheHashtag. At the start, the moderator will do introductions and start the conversation by asking questions sequentially and responding to participants. Event can last 1 hour+. When it’s over, the moderator will summarize key points in a recap and include a transcript.

How to Build Your Twitter Following:

Other ways to build your following:
Use the Social Flooring Index to explore other Twitter accounts in the flooring industry.

You can search on ExecTweets and explore those accounts.

Two resources – WeFollow and Twellow – allow you to find users by subject area. There’s also Twellowhood which is geography based.

Ideas on How to Use Twitter for Business

WiseGrass uses Twitter to exchange perspectives and get advice from fellow businesspeople.[See Small Businesses Marketing With Twitter: WiseGrass, NakedPizza, Berry Chill.]

Let’s say you are a big supporter of Girls Scouts. The Girls Scouts has several active Twitter presences. You can connect with them on Twitter and help them get the word out.

Street food vendors around the country use Twitter to announce where they will be selling, and what they have available. [e.g., talk about a fascinating mobile/geo location based use of Twitter].

Laura Gainor used Twitter in combination with a few other tools [Twitpik and Twitvid + Foursquare] to stand out for a position when she was relocating from Charlotte to Milwaukee. [See Simplifying Social Media. For Research, Connection, Differentiation.]

Be sure to integrate your Twitter activity with LinkedIn and Facebook

What’s the point of all of this Twitter stuff?

Digital visibility! Twitter is search engine visible. It’s a way for you to differentiate yourself, it’s a way for you to be visible, to reach out and provide value.

Common Twitter Mistakes To Avoid:

At the recent MarketingProfs B2B Forum, I offered 20 minute 1 on 1 Twitter consulting advice to corporate marketers. My sessions started out with a quick evaluation to find patterns that got in the way of effective Twitter engagement. Here are some of the patterns I was on the lookout for:

- Unequal follower/following numbers
- No engagement - as in all tweets coming from you without any kind of interaction with others. May include a lot of 'shouting', too.  It's usually because someone is tweeting from the web and has no idea conversation is taking place! This may make sense for a news organization, but not really for individuals.
- Tweeting as a corporate entity rather than as a person with a human voice.

What's Your Twitter Assignment?

Here's your assignment: Go explore! Think about how Twitter can create value for your business by thinking how you can offer value to others using the tool.

You may find the following links interesting:
+ 21 Tips for Using Twitter for Business
+ How to Use Twitter Events to Grow Your Network

Questions or comments? Please send a Tweet to @cbwhittemore or email me at cbwhittemore @ simple marketing now.com

#TalkFloor Series: Twitter & Social Media

TalkFloor's Dave Foster and I are continuing with our special #TalkFloor social media series, which you can participate in via Twitter as you listen to the recorded interviews.

Part I was titled #TalkFloor Series on Social Media and addressed What is Twitter and Why Should I Care?

This segment covers how to get started with Twitter.

Dave's Twitter handle is @DaveTalkFloor and mine is @cbwhittemore. Consider following us. Feel free to practice some of what we discuss. If you want to Tweet us questions, simply use #TalkFloor and the '@' to direct the question to us.

Dave's introduction to this interview reads as follows:

Christine Whittemore, Simple Marketing Now, Part II - Social Networking

Christine Whittemore, Chief Simplifier, Simple Marketing Now, in the 2nd installment of a Social Networking series discusses getting serious about Twitter, becoming familiar with the search functions and finding people that are relevant to your business and using the platform in a way that can be beneficial to your business.

This installment consists of three segments, each approximately 15 minutes long.

These are my show notes for the session.

Getting practical with Twitter.

Go to your web browser and create 2 tabs: one for search.twitter.com and one for twitter.com.

If this is your first time on Twitter, then definitely create an account. When you do, be sure to add a picture [also known as your Avatar]. Fill in the description; make it meaningful and representative of what defines you and your brand; try to include keywords. Do add a URL so potential followers can learn more about you and your brand.

Next, you want to find people relevant to your world to follow. Relevance is key so you don’t get meaningless breakfast details.

Go to your search.twitter.com tab and enter search terms. When you notice a meaningful tweet for that term, click on the person’s image. This will take you to their Twitter home page where you can decided whether to follow them or not.

Another resource for Twitter searches is BING - http://www.bing.com/twitter.

Whenever I click on a new Twitter profile, I evaluate it to determine whether I do indeed want to follow that user or not. I check to see if there is a picture, a description - after all, I'm doing this to make sure that I'm dealing with a real person [vs. an automated account] and whether the content is relevant to me. Is there contact information? What about the quality of the Tweets? Is there conversation going on? Just shouting*? Interaction? Or is it all one-way?

Check out the ‘Lists” that that profile may have created and be a part of. Check out his/her followers for ideas on others to follow.

*Note: Shouting refers to writing all in caps, pushing only sales messages, repeating the same sales message multiple times, or communicating in a way that allows no interaction. You get the picture, right?

Deciphering the Twitter language:

You'll notice many unusual terms when you first check out Twitter.

• The '@' symbol is a tweet [a Twitter entry] directed specifically to another Twitter user.
• The 'RT' letters represents 'ReTweet' and refers to repeating another's tweets that you admire/appreciate/find relevant so your followers can also benefit from the content.
• Twitter offers the ability to DM or direct message another Twitter user as long as you are both following one another. This can come in very handy as the DM generates an email message to the other party.You must go back to Twitter to respond.
  
• The '#' symbol is a way to tag or identify Tweets that are related. For example, #TalkFloor or #Surfaces 2010 will bring up any tweets relating to those subjects.
• You may also notice tags such as #FF or #FollowFriday and #MarketerMonday followed by a list of Twitter account names - those are friendly ways that the Twitter community has come up with to draw attention to other Twitter users.

Another important feature for effectively using Twitter and making the most of the 140 character limit is compressed or tiny URLs. You can create your own using third party applications to shorten otherwise lengthy web addresses. To do this, open a third browser tab for http://bit.ly/ or similar URL shortener [3rd party Twitter apps integrate this functionality as we’ll see in the Advanced session].

The Twitter Code of Behavior

As with all social media, it's critical to be aware that norms for behavior exist. If you don't follow some of the rules, you chance not being taken seriously and will have trouble building a meaningful following.

When you first get started, it's a good idea to pay close attention to what you observe before jumping in. Imagine that you're entering into someone else's home and you know no one... how would you behave? Exactly!

Be respectful.
Listen first.
Acknowledge when people refer to you [i.e., say thank you when someone sends you a tweet directed @ you].

To keep track of whether people are referring to you, type your Twitter handle without the @ in the search.twitter.com browser window.

[I often keep a tab with my name as the search subject to help keep track. Then check the list daily so I can acknowledge.]

Share what others say that you find meaningful - i.e., RT a tweet.

Pay attention to #identifiers.

Think about what you might share with others? Articles, quotes, links. [That’s when you’ll want to use tiny URLs to fit all the info in 140 characters!] Try to leave enough room in your tweet so someone can RT your message [i.e., don't use all 140 of your characters].

Follow people back - assuming they are relevant to you!

Don’t ever Shout!!! Yes, this goes against many traditional advertising practices. But then Twitter is not a traditional mass advertising medium; it is for engagement, conversation, relationship- and brand-building, and sharing relevant information. When done authentically, consistently and respectfully, it can lead to business. So, be aware and ready to adapt!

In terms of frequency for participating in Twitter... if you want to develop relationships, you need to show up and participate regularly. Daily if possible or as frequently as you can. You do not need to be on every minute of the day, but you should monitor regularly, acknowledge and contribute.

Your #TalkFloor Twitter Assignment:

• Set up a Twitter account, prep 5 tweets that share value with others.
• Find followers.
• Identify people to follow, check out lists they are included in and who their followers are. Consider following those people.
• Check out the recently updated Social Flooring Index Twitter list. You’ll find ideas there [e.g., BuildDirect, McKayFlooring...]
• Follow Dave, follow me.
• Search on some terms: flooring, #flooring, brand names.
• Use search.twitter.com
• Use bing.com/twitter
• Interact with 3 or 4 followers. Observe what happens. Do they interact with followers? Do they share information?

Let me know your questions and we’ll address them in the next segment about Advanced Twitter.

These related posts may be of interest as you explore Twitter:
HIMSS rules of behavior
A Practical Twitter Primer

Thanks for listening!

#TalkFloor Series on Social Media

TalkFloor's Dave Foster and I have embarked on a special #TalkFloor social media series. In addition to listening to the interviews, you can also follow us on Twitter using the #TalkFloor symbol.

Not sure what a '#TalkFloor' identifier is? It's also referred to as a 'hashtag'. Simply follow along with us and you'll learn what it is and how to use it effectively.

Dave's Twitter handle is @DaveTalkFloor. Mine is @cbwhittemore. Follow us.

First up to be explored: Twitter.

In this first interview about social media, Dave Foster and I explore Twitter to answer the questions: What is Twitter and Why Should I Care?

Dave's introduction to the interview:

Christine Whittemore on Learning to Use & Profiting from Twitter

Christine B. Whittemore, Chief Simplifier, Simple Marketing Now and the industry’s best known social networker discusses Twitter and how it works, how retailers and others can get involved and profit from using this microblogging platform.

This first interview consists of two segments, each approximately 15 minutes long.

These are my show notes for the session.

What is Twitter?

+ Twitter is a microblogging platform which means that you have 140 characters to communicate a thought. As a result, succinctness and the ability to abbreviate - including shortened URLs - are highly prized!

+ It's easy to use via the web or on a mobile device.

Yet, it's also complicated! When you first experience a Twitter stream, it almost feels as if you’re in a foreign country with a foreign language, different customs and what looks to be a lot of gibberish. If you have no one to experiment with on Twitter, it makes no sense.

A common reaction from Twitter neophytes: what’s the point? Who cares what you had for breakfast? [Twitter now asks the question: What’s happening?]

Here’s why you should care:

Twitter continues to grow. Currently, there are 75 million accounts, with an active [very active] user base of 15 million.

You are hearing it integrated into the News, into conferences, and emergency relief efforts. It is a source of late breaking news for trending topics, political or global crises, disasters, and cutting edge thinking. It is searchable via search engines.

Twitter represents an opportunity for you to ‘listen’ to topics of relevance to you, your brand, your business and an opportunity to interact with potential users of your products/services. It’s a research tool that leads to links to relevant articles, other like-minded thinkers, as well as collaboration. It allows you to develop a reputation for sharing information and value, and to participate remotely in events [see my writeup on participating in NeoCon via Twitter].

For me, it is a B2B tool. For other businesses, it can be a B2C tool.

Using the ‘#’ symbol, you can follow related tweets. E.g., #Surfaces. See my transcript relating to Surfaces 2010. Or weekly tweet chats on a topic. E.g., #brandchat, target=new #carchat, #designchat.

What Twitter is NOT.

It is not a broadcast mechanism – unless perhaps you are Ashton Kutcher or CNN.

You build followers slowly over time as a function of participating and interacting. It’s a slow consistent process.

Your followers follow you because they expect consistent content from you.

It is not a hard sell tool. Hard selling is considering SPAM.

There are rules! For every 2-3 tweets about you, you need to come up with 7 or 8 about and for others. That can be articles of interest, inspirational quotes, retweeting content from others.

Although you can use Twitter to run campaigns, it’s more effective for relationship building over the long haul – just like other social platforms.

It is NOT the solution to all of your marketing and business issues. Rather it is an element of your overall strategy.

It is not a one-time/static platform. You need to show up and participate to get the most benefit for your brand and business.

Your #TalkFloor Twitter Assignment

Go to search.twitter.com and enter terms to search on. For example, surfaces, #flooring, #retailexp, your brand name. Observe what comes up.

Here is the transcript from the Twitter conversation around today's #TalkFloor interview.

Next in the series: How to get started with Twitter

Send me your questions at cbwhittemore@simplemarketingnow.com and we’ll answer them during the next program.

Thanks for listening!