Business to business companies seem to struggle with how they can best capitalize on the available Social Media tools. I say, get your sales staff more social.

1. If your company uses a sales team to conduct business, why not give them the training they need to make the most out of LinkedIn?  Even the most experienced LinkedIn user gains new information and skills from formal training. Get your company page up on LinkedIn and make sure all of your employees are properly linked to this page.
2. Identify “Brand Advocates” who can help lead the social media charge and set an example for less “enthusiastic” employees.
3. Set up a system where your brand advocates can communicate with one another to share content that can then be shared on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I have found that a simple email group, like Google groups, works great for this.
4. Assign one person or a few people to be Administrators on the company Facebook page. Your company should have one central Facebook page and Twitter account. However, your sales reps can certainly have their own accounts if they wish and it falls within company policy. Get your sales people trained on Twitter and Facebook so they understand best practices and can use these tools to their fullest potential.
5. If you sales reps are willing to write articles, create a collaborative blog for you company website. This will give those sales reps who want to participate added exposure not only on the blog, but on the social platforms where the content will be shared.   Instead of waiting for your staff to come up with topics on their own, create a list of topics based on keyword research that you would like them to write about. This will clear up any confusion as to what you are looking for and will encourage them to move forward.
6. Sales professionals respond to goals and rewards. Incentivize their participation by awarding the most active Fan on Facebook or the one who generates the most sharable content that month.

The greatest lesson I have learned in working with so many different companies, is that there is no such thing as a cookie cutter approach. Corporate cultures differ, products and services differ, and people differ. The best approach is to try and see what works. Add to what is working, take away what isn’t working.

Now that your blog is set up, what next? Maybe its not set up, that’s okay too. Join me on Thursday, October 13th for a fun and informative class on Blogging.  Today, blogs come in all forms and with as many features the imagination can conjure up. Businesses are using blogs in place of traditional websites for many practical reasons. Join us and learn why.

You’ll Learn:

In-depth information about the WordPress platform, themes, plugins, and more.

How to optimize your blog for the search engines and keep your articles search engine friendly.

How to attract readers and keep them coming back.

How to monetize your blog, and more.

Space is limited.  Register Now!

*Cost to attend is $10.00 which must be paid in advance, and there will be no refunds. You may register with a Credit Card via Pay Pal, or send a check in advance. If you are sending a check, please list 10/13 Blogging Seminar in the memo portion and address it Attn: Marketing.

Contact : First Financial, http://www.firstffcu.com info@firstffcu.com 866.750.0100

When: Thursday, October 13, Networking and light breakfast – 8:30am Seminar- 9am

Where: First Financial, 1800 Rt. 34 North, Bldg. 3 (Corner of Rt. 34 & Hurley Pond Rd.) Wall, NJ 07719

Guest Post by Scott McKelvey

As a writer, I’m often frustrated when I write content that reads like poetic brilliance until it gets chopped up and cluttered with keywords to improve the almighty search ranking. Enter Inbound Writer. Developed by Eightfold Logic and released in May of this year, Inbound Writer was designed with writers in mind and allows you to optimize your content by tweaking instead of making wholesale changes.

Inbound Writer not only accounts for search, but it digs deeper into what people are discussing and sharing through social media, delivering access to what they call “real-time social intelligence”. When you create a document, you enter seed terms so Inbound Writer knows what you’re writing about and can find it on the web. Then you enter website references (websites that are known to discuss this topic) to drill down its search even further.

When you get to the “New Document” dashboard, you’ll see keywords ranked from 0-5 stars so you know to focus on the right keywords and you can adjust your strategy based on a number of factors. Next, write your document (minimum 250 words) using their editor or simply cut and paste from another source and Inbound Writer will score your content for SEO.

Inbound Writer then offers tips to help you improve your score, whether that means moving a keyword to the beginning of the document title or adding a keyword to the first or second line of content. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I was able to improve my SEO score by 20 points by adding a single term to the very beginning of a blog without making it sound awkward. It’s a great way to save time and preserve content quality.

I also like how Inbound Writer scores your content in real time so you can optimize as you go. Again, any writer would prefer tweaking over rewriting. You can create up to eight documents per month for free and unlimited documents for $19.95 per month, so the price is right.

It’s important to point out that there is no magic bullet that allows you to fly to the top of search rankings with content that’s completely client-focused. Compromise on both sides is always necessary, but Inbound Writer allows you to write for your target audience first and the SEO gods second. It’s a tool that can help writers produce better results and become more marketable. That sounds like a win-win to me.

Scott McKelvey

Copywriting & Marketing

www.ScottMcKelvey.com

info@scottmckelvey.com

908-907-0031

Recently, I signed on a new client, a local restaurant with two locations in New Jersey. As I reviewed their Twitter account, I noticed that the person who had set it up was following Rock Stars in South Africa, and other foreign celebrities in the Philippines and elsewhere.  The owner’s teenage daughter had set up the account and it was pretty obvious, there was no real strategy for using Twitter to help this client’s restaurant. (Unless they deliver pizza to South Africa, but I was pretty certain they didn’t.)

This is not the first time I’ve seen businesses new to Twitter jump on and start following celebrities or other Twitter users who have tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of followers. What business owners and social media managers need to understand is that unless that individual follows you back and interacts with you, they are completely useless to your marketing efforts, unless they are sharing relevant content that you can then share with your followers.

So, if you sell pizza, who should you be following? Local businesses in your area. Business owners and employees eat pizza, and fellow business owners understand the need for helping eachother on Twitter. You Retweet their posts, and they’ll do the same for you. That adds value. Other folks to follow, all those Foursquare users who are checking in to businesses in your area. There is a very easy way to set up a search query on Hootsuite, that will catch all mentions of the towns you designate. When someone checks into Shoprite or BestBuy or another establishment in the town you are monitoring, you will be getting introduced to new folks in your area on Twitter. It’s a free way to get noticed by potential clients.

For more tips on starting off on Twitter on the right foot, check out my Top 3 Tips here. For a recap of my recent “Mastering the Twitterverse” workshop at First Financial Federal Credit Union, click here.

When Facebook created their “Community Pages” they also created a big headache for the businesses who had spent a lot of time and creative juices on building their Facebook pages into active, vibrant communities. When the changes were made to our profiles, and we could no longer directly link our page from our profile from the Info Box, we were stuck with being linked to an empty Community page that we have no control over. Well, here’s the fix.  It will take 2 minutes, and you’ll be all set.

Hootsuite is my command central for Twitter.  This program allows you to manage multiple social networks including the major players like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare and Yelp.  Users can set up individual columns for monitoring keywords and searches which means you can monitor mentions of your competition or keywords specific to your target market, schedule tweets, save drafts and view click thru statistics.  Even though I manage accounts on all of the major platforms, I really only use Hootsuite for Twitter.  It’s my personal preference to engage with my LinkedIn connections on LinkedIn. And the same goes with Facebook. But, if you need to shave a few minutes or more from your  social media daily duties, Hootsuite is a great solution.

Hootsuite is free for a basic membership. If you want to share the management of your account with another user or manage more than 5 accounts, integrate Google Analytics and more, you will need to upgrade to the Pro version for $5.99 per month.

NutshellMail: was purchased by Constant Contact in May of 2010.  In their own words ” NutshellMail takes copies of all your latest updates in your social networking accounts and places them in a snapshot email. The NutshellMail Update is then sent to your primary email address on your schedule.”  I use NutshellMail to catch up on the latest news and updates from my multiple accounts.  What I think is the most attractive feature is the lack of clutter and distraction. No ads, events, or polls to divert your attention. It allows you to quickly scan your news feeds for interesting content and respond or share and get back to business.  Having all of your updates delivered via email is also a very comfortable solution for many social media users who are accustomed to using email as their primary online communication tool.

SocialMention.com: Search blog posts, websites, Facebook, Twitter and more for mentions of keywords important to your business and brand.

Paper.li: I’m a little hesitant about sharing this tool with you because I’m starting to see it pop up more and more on Twitter and I don’t want it to get over used and lose its impact, but, here I go anyway.  Paper.li is a tool that allows you to create a collection of articles through content shared on Twitter and Facebook. You choose the subject matter and Paper.li goes out and finds relevant articles shared by Twitter and Facebook users. My topic of course is Social Media. My “Social Media Snapshot” as it is called, is published daily (automatically by Paper.li) and distributed automatically through my twitter account to my Twitter followers. Not only does this service keep me up to date on all the latest news in my industry, it allows me to share it with my followers AND a little unexpected bonus,  each new post includes the Twitter handles of those who contributed to that day’s Snapshot.  As we all know on Twitter, when someone shares your content, you are extremely grateful for the mention.  In return for your mention, the authors often Re-tweet your Paper.li to their followers.  It’s a win – win for everyone.

Screenr.com: This tool won’t be useful for everyone, but if your profession involves the computer and sharing your work through the internet, Screenr.com is an amazing tool.  How about a tour of your website? Record up to 5 minutes of video. Upload it to Youtube, embed it on a page of your website, share it through email and more. And, its just plain fun.

So, there you have it, my favorite and free Social Media Tools. I’d love to hear about yours. Please share in the comments below. I am always looking for new ways to make my
Social Media life easier to manage and I know my readers are as well.

I wanted to introduce you to our new logo and name, Foxtrot Media, Where Social Gets Smart. As we embark on developing a new website to call home, we will continue to use the Blog as our hub for news, events and all the rest.  With the launch of FoxtrotMediaLLC.com, DeborahLSmith.com will serve as the company blog.

We are so excited to finally get Foxtrot out into the open. For the past year and a half, our clients have come first as well they should, but we are making a concentrated effort to give Foxtrot the attention it deserves in 2011.

Foxtrot Media is a full service social media marketing and management firm. We can provide clients with the following services:

Social Media Audits

Brand Monitoring

Social Media Strategy Development

Ongoing Program Management

Community Management

Seminars & Training

Video

Copywriting

Contact us through the form here or at 732-966-7450 to discuss your company’s needs.

Putting Your Best Foot Foward on Twitter

Nothing irks me more than incomplete Twitter profiles. Ok, other things irk me more, but incomplete profiles are on the list.  Hey, I’m from New Jersey, we get irked a lot here.  Why should a Twitter user care whether their profile is complete or not? Assuming that you are there to network, a big part of networking on Twitter is getting people to follow you. If we can’t get a quick grip on who you are or what you do, chances are we are going to click on and click off your profile without clicking that sought after “Follow” button.

All Twitter asks is that you fill out a few simple pieces of information; your name, location and Bio which can only be up to 160 characters. This should take about 5 minutes, yet many users choose to travel around Twitter half naked. I think the problem is they just don’t know how or where they need to go to add this information. Well, we’re going to clear that up right now.

In New Twitter, under your Name and Avatar in the upper right corner of your Twitter dashboard, click on the down arrow. Click on Settings then select Profile. (In old Twitter you will see a “Settings” link without having to select the down arrow.)

Once the Profile Screen is open, follow these tips for making a great first impression on Twitter.

•   Link to website, blog,  LinkedIn profile or Facebook page. I am always clicking on the links in users profiles to learn more about the person or company and I know I am not alone. Be sure this link is driving leads to the most helpful page on your website or elsewhere.

•   Fill out your Location. People like to connect with people in their area. I don’t use a specific town, I use New Jersey. If I have a client that serves a specific local, I might list several towns they target.

•  Fill out your Bio: Give me a quick snapshot of what you are all about. Why are you on Twitter? What’s your story? People are inpatient (did I mention I was from New Jersey?) get to the point and let your new followers come to a quick decision to follow you back. But here’s a big caution, don’t use your Bio to sell your product. Remember the Golden Rule of Social Media. Be real, be helpful and be patient. Don’t expect to sell your product in 180 characters on your Twitter profile.

•   Upload a picture: Do not use Twitter’s default Egg as your Avatar for long. Nothing says “newbie” like the big, blue egg. If you don’t want to use a personal photo, then a logo or other avatar that represents you or your business can be used.

•   Eventually, you might want to utilize a custom Twitter background service to customize your background.  It’s not something you need to do right away, but down the line it can help expand on your or your company.

Follow these steps, and you are on your way to a complete and professional Twitter profile.  For more tips on getting started with Twitter, read Choosing Your Twitter Handle and The Art of the RT. Now that you have a profile that tells me all about you, I will no longer be “irked” and I will be sure to follow you back. Find me here @DeborahLSmith or here @JerseyBites.