Last post I discussed blending social media into your business cards, now let’s get into those biz cards again. With Pubcon and other conferences coming up, a lot of business cards will be being dished out. Stay on top of your social connections and utilize some of these resources.

Creative Business Card Ideas

MOO minicards are smaller versions of the classic business card format. They allow you to print 100 different images on the fronts. This can be great with promotions or coupons.

Here is a great business card Flickr set of inspirational, beautifully designed business cards. Also check out the Business Card Group Pool at Flickr for some more creative ideas.

Humor can be a great way to capture someone’s interest and keep in memory. It also serves as an icebreaker of sorts and can easily get a conversation moving along.

Virtual Business Cards

Some are advocating a paperless business card world, but the technology (or acceptance of this technology) isn’t there just yet. Sure, it’s cool to ‘bump’ your iPhones and share contact information (or maybe you would rather shake?), but not everyone is carrying an iPhone and this makes virtual cards unstable.

There are also hundreds of sites that offer services to make a virtual business card. Card.ly and Contxts allow users to make a “tiny” portfolio online in which they’ll be able to integrate into networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) or share via SMS.

Although I think the main idea and green aspects of a paperless business card are commendable, I won’t be jumping on that anytime soon (much like how Kindle hasn’t make the paper page go the way of the dodo yet). I recommend recycled paper for card, as the environment matters. The one big advantage printed business cards have over any virtual method is that they serve as a reminder. Once information goes into your phone or PDA, how likely is it you’ll remember to look at it again?

What to Do with All Those Business Cards You Have?

CloudContacts is a service that scans all of your business cards that you have gotten over the years from conferences and networking events and transcribes and connects your business cards on social networks, email services and CRM systems. This allows you to access your business card contacts from anywhere in the world. Or you could just throw them all away…

Personally, I have a bin of business cards that I have gotten or collected because I met the people or I just saw the card and thought it was visually appealing. Some are beautifully designed and given such personal touch, while others are clean and classic. Whatever the reason that I saved these cards, I like the tangible aspect of them- hard proof that they are out there doing business! These cards are more than just information about how to contact someone; in a way, they are a piece of each person.

Making the most out of your business cards can sometimes be the difference between making a connection or breaking one. By using some creative ideas and utilizing other networks, you can be sure to stick out of the stack of cards.

Need easy ideas for linkbait? Want to get all seasonal on it?  Well we have a  helpful list to get your pre-winter creative juices flowing!  By looking at some of the topics and finding a way to relate to your field, you can harness the momentum of that topic and hopefully get more traction.  November is jam-packed with possibilities, including the following:

• Thanksgiving
  Pilgrims, Maize and Native Americans – oh my!  Everyone loves some good T-giving linkbait so talk about the worst foods, what really happened on that first Thanksgiving, or anything related.  Just get this in early as it will be saturated on the week of the 22nd!
• Twilight: New Moon
  This is some movie that is based on popular books about werewolves or Vvmpires or something.  It will be huge – I have no other advice than that
• MMA
  Strikeforce is going all in on a primetime deal with the world’s best fighter, Fedor Emelianenko, airing on CBS.  How will it work?  Could it fail, and if so, why?  Can MMA be a primetime event?
• 2012
  Who doesn’t love a good disaster movie?  Talk about the flaws, what could be true or any other aspect of the world ending.  As long as the world doesn’t actually end, you will have a lot of success.
• NBA
  The season just opened at the very end of October, and this is one of those rare times where the NBA is relevant.  How are the rookies doing? Are Shaq and Kobe ok?  There is a lot out there so get some early season jabs in and use professional hoops to give you a hand!
• Motorola Droid
  The best Andoid phone yet launches this week on Verizon.  They use creative ads for promotion and the phone has some cool new features.

• Winter
  While this sounds dumb, there are a lot of opportunities that you can create around this upcoming season.  This can be tied into virtually any niche, from how to prep your house/garden for the cold to winter essentials for the family.  The coming cold is a great opportunity for hot content!
• V
  This is a TV show that is new on ABC and features aliens as “visitors.”  Could this really happen?  Do aliens exist?  If so, would 29 ships hover over major cities?  What are the best alien moments in movies/television?  This series might be short-lived, but I think it can help you out while it does.
• Elections
  While voting just wrapped up, the results are a great opportunity for content.  Take a look at the closest voting, surprises and the underdogs that won.
• Avatar
  This is going to be the biggest movie of 2009 and contains a variety of topics from the technology of the special effects to the social and cultural implications of the plot.  December will be packed with Avatar stories, so do yourself a favor and get in early.
• Christmas
  Sound early?  It’s not.  If you have “best buy lists” or top gifts, the time is NOW.  In December those lists get too saturated, so your best option for prime visibility is as soon as possible (and it will have a much longer shelf life).

Have any other hot topics for the month of November?  Feel free to share examples below!

…and don’t forget to follow 10e20 on Twitter and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Next week Greg, Rebecca and I will be heading to Pubcon in Las Vegas.  Pubcon is always one of my favorite conferences because I get to see so many old friends, learn a bunch of new things and perhaps most importantly, meet some great new connections.  In the Internet marketing industry having a strong network of people to work with, refer business to, bounce ideas off of and help you grow your business is one of the most important things that I can think of.  A conference like Pubcon is a great place to help build that network.  Be sure to check out Rebecca’s great post from yesterday about 7 Ways to Network and Be Social at Conferences to help make this easier for you.

10e20 Session Schedule

Here’s a quick look at our session schedule for the week:

I will be speaking on the first session of the first day (it starts at 10am and is in Salon C – be there!

Twitter Landscape – Hot Topics and Trends

Date: 11/10/09 (Tuesday)
Time: 10am
Location: Salon C

Twitter is the trending topic. Find out more about the state of the tweetscape and where things are headed. We’ll take a look at where Twitter is and where it’s headed. If your strategy doesn’t include Twitter, your marketing campaign is incomplete.

This session is moderated by Krista Neher and will also have Warren Whitlock, Dan Zarrella & Kate Morris dropping their Twitter knowledge.

On Wednesday I will be moderating (with the help of Greg Finn on Q&A) a really cool session called:

Social Media & Press Relations
Date: 11/11/09 (Wednesday)
Time: 1:30pm
Location: Salon C

The relationship between social media and press relations is red hot. Companies and PR agencies all over the country are have problems setting policy on how to tweet, when they tweet, who is cleared to tweet, and what about Facebook? Should my company be worried if our CEO puts a new resume on LinkedIn?

We have some great speakers for this one, such as Guillaume Bouchard, Pat Strader, Giovanni Gallucci & Joanna Lord.

Then our very own Rebecca Kelley has a great presentation lined up for this session on Day 2:

Going For the Gold – Optimizing for the Social Media Pay Day
Date: 10/11/09 (Wednesday)
Time: 2:55pm
Location: Salon C

This session will discuss the latest ways to engage social media and prove that it is a viable revenue source.

This session will be moderated by Dixon Jones and Rebecca will be joined by Big Dave Snyder, Jay Berkowitz, and Reem Abeidoh.

Networking & Having Fun

The majority of my time at Pubcon will be spent meeting with people.  I already have a ton of meetings setup (hint – use your social networks ahead of time to put the word out and start setting up meetings).  Another big event that will be going on is…

dk’s Super Happy Funland in Vegas

Actually, I’m not sure what he’s actually calling his week of events, but that’s what they will equal.  Check out the whole lineup on Puropose Inc.  The main event that will cap it off is his now famous Texas Hold ‘Em Poker Tournament which takes place starting at 8pm at the Mirage Hotel.  If you want to be a part of it, check out this post here.

We hope to see you there!  As always, mention this post to me and I’ll buy you a drink of your choice!

Also, be sure to follow @10e20on Twitter here.

Conference season is upon us, and you might find yourself at an event with the specific instruction to “Network” commanded by your boss. While interacting with real-life humans can be daunting (omg, eye contact and physical contact!), networking is arguably the most important part of attending conferences and industry events. Below I’ve outlined a few simple ways you can get the ball rolling and break the ice to make some contacts and collect those business cards.

1. Get There Early and Mingle Over Muffins

Freshly baked morsels of ice breaking goodness…

Many conferences will offer some sort of morning coffee/tea/pastry combo in conjunction with registration, so get there early and mingle with fellow attendees. Don’t be overly enthusiastic — you don’t want to be That Guy so early in the morning — but usually pre-conference am mingling is a bit quieter and less overwhelming than other events throughout the day, so it’s a nice chance to quietly and casually meet some new people.

2. Sit with People You Don’t Know

Yes, even pigs

It can be hard to cut the cord and venture away from your entourage, but you really need to branch off on your own and meet new people if you want your trip to be valuable. Get to a session a bit early and ask to sit next to a stranger, then introduce yourself and strike up a conversation before the panel starts. Sit with new people each day at lunch and chat about what they do. Talk about yourself but also ask a lot of questions about them. Collect some business cards and follow up with everyone you meet — even if someone doesn’t seem like an appropriate client, they might prove to be a valuable colleague or contact for later down the road.

3. Be the Prepared Guy (or Girl)

Hey, you never know…

Be the person who has the power adapter, an extra pen and some paper, gum, candy, an extra copy of the session agenda, the wifi code, etc. Lots of people show up unprepared (or unprepared and hungover) to sessions, so if you can offer up whatever they need (Tylenol, notes, a foolproof hangover cure), you’ll look like the conference hero (not to be confused with the Jukebox Hero). Just be sure to follow up on opportunities like this — don’t just hand over a pen and say nothing, introduce yourself and get to know the person in need.

4. Attend Evening Events

Alcohol: the ultimate social lubricant

If someone’s hosting a post-conference networking event and you can attend, do it. You don’t have to stay out every night until 4 am, but you should strive to attend as many parties, mixers and dinners you can score invites to. Oftentimes the most valuable contacts are made in bars and at post-conference events, probably because people are less formal and more at ease when they’ve got a belly full of food and a drink in their hand.

5. Be Generous (if you can afford it)

Close enough…

If you can, offer to host a dinner or buy a round of drinks. You don’t have to do anything huge like sponsor a huge event, but if you can take a few folks out to dinner or buy some beers for a group, definitely do it. If you’re operating on a much smaller budget, give out candy, cookies, stickers, anything you can — you’d be surprised how many people are suckers for free stuff.

6. Have a Unique Business Card

It also may help to be Matt Inman

Patick posted last week about how you can blend social media into your business card, and this week he’ll tackle some more business card tactics. Creative cards build buzz and attract attention. If you have any say over how your business cards are designed, try to think of something a bit creative and different to stand out amongst the throngs of folks touting little 3.5×2 inch pieces of paper.

7. Don’t Try Too Hard

I hate you, Guy Fieri

You want to stand out at events, but don’t do it at the expense of your integrity or who you are. Be yourself — do you normally wear stupidly garish t-shirts? If not, why would you don one at a conference just to get attention? If you’re knowledgeable about something, work its way into a conversation naturally; don’t start spouting off stuff that you know in order to seem like an expert. You’ll probably end up alienating yourself and seeming like a know-it-all. Just be confident in yourself and play upon your strengths. If you’re funny, crack a few jokes. If you’re generous, buy some drinks. If you’re organized, share some notes. If you’re smart, help people answer some tough questions they need help with. If you’re none of the above and have no discernible personality or skill whatsoever…well, then maybe your boss needs to send someone else to these things.

What other ways can you think of to be social at conferences? Bruce Clay shared some networking tips last year, but if you have any new ones, let us know by commenting or tweeting at 10e20!

So you have a website that is not doing too great in the search engines, and you have just now heard of search engine optimization but don’t know where to start. Welcome to the party! Or say you’re an SEO beginner who is taking on some websites to optimize — where should you begin? Here is a basic assessment checklist of what you should investigate about the site before diving in and doing any of the actual work.

1. Check the age of the domain

Why? The older the domain, usually the more authority it has and it has a greater chance to rank higher for the same keywords as a younger domain. If the domain is more than a few years old, you know you’re on a good track and should get results faster than if the domain was just registered.

How? Use whois.sc search or a free quick tool on SEOmoz.

2. Is there a canonical issue with the domain?

Does http://yourdomain.com redirect to http://www.yourdomain.com ?

Why? http://yourdomain.com should always redirect to http://www.yourdomain.com OR the other way around. You don’t want two different domain names (with and without www) to be on your site.

How? Just type in both domain names and see if it redirects. If it does not, you can set up the redirect in your hosting control panel, or do it in .htaccess file depending on the server, or just contact your hosting support/admin and let them know about it, if you’re not technically proficient. You can also set a preference just for Google in your Google Webmaster Central account – but it’s best to set it up on your server to serve all purposes, not just Google.

3. Check for ‘pre-existing’ conditions

Why? You want to see if any previous SEO work has put any kind of hindrance or penalties on the website.

How? If the site has been around for a while, just do a few Google searches for your brand and few of the keywords you SHOULD undoubtedly rank for to see if you do come up as #1 or close to it. That way you can get a quick check how the domain has performed in the past and if it suffered any penalties at all.

4. Is the site search engine friendly?

Why? Obviously, if it is not, it will make your work that much harder and you should look to change it up or rebuild it entirely from scratch.

How? Review the source code of the site. This is the only thing that search engines see. Do you see the content, navigation, links, etc. in the HTML code? If not, there can be multiple explanations:

• Is the site in Flash?
• Does it use frames?
• Does it use javascript for parts of the content or navigation?

Ideally all the text and navigation should be in HTML, and if it’s your site you should really look to change the site structure to HTML/CSS. But if you run into a client or developer who just doesn’t buy it or insists on keeping it the way it is, there are few compromises that you can do:

1. For a Flash site, you can suggest to restructure the site as HTML with Flash elements added in to keep the flair they’re looking for.
2. Another compromise can be to build the HTML version of the Flash site to run behind the Flash, but that would mean the developer would need to worry about updating and maintaining two separate websites.
3. For javascript dropdown navigation, you can use or suggest many free CSS menus that are available online and do pretty much the same thing as JS, but are search engine friendly. Or you can redo the JS navigation where it’s a combination of HTML and javascript,  i.e., the URLs are inside the HTML and javascript is only used to move them as needed.
4. For other javascript functions that hide the text within javascript from the HTML source, make sure that the actual content/text is within HTML and then you can use javascript to only move/animate that content as needed. But if the content is within javascript, the search engines cannot see it.
5. Frames just need to be removed. Nobody uses frames design anymore, and if your site is one of the dinosaurs it just needs to be rebuilt. Having one frame within a page for certain functionality is OK, but I’m talking about if your site is built entirely in frames and you cannot see any content in the source code because of it.

5. Has the site been previously optimized?

Why? If it has, then possibly you will need to do less work. Although, most of the time you would probably still need to redo what was done previously if it was done improperly.

How? Some of the quick things to check for are:

• Title tags – are they different for each page? Do they contain keywords?
• Does a Meta Description exist?
• Is there interlinking within the content of the page that uses keywords?
• Are keywords used at all/enough times within the content of the pages?
• Is there a logical navigation structure that uses keywords?

6. Check the URL structure of the site

Why? The URL Structure must be search engine friendly. Google has a very informative article on the URL structure, which you should follow.

How? Change the URL structure to remove characters such as “?”, “=”, “&”, etc. If you have a dynamic website, make sure a sound URL structure is a requirement from the beginning. You will see many dynamic e-commerce sites use something like this for a product page: domain.com/product.php?id=2343&color=23489. That’s an example of a really bad URL. Instead, use product names and keep the pages as close to the root domain as possible – for example, domain.com/video-games or domain.com/video-games.html. Using keywords inside the URLs can help as well, but it’s best not to make them too long. Also, use dashes “-” to separate the words.

7. Check for broken URLs

Why? Having broken URLs means you’re missing out on link juice or potential traffic. It can also cause confusion from the visitors that may not bother with your site if the URL they clicked on is broken.

How? Register your site in Google Webmaster Central. It’s a good idea to do this anyway to help your site get indexed, so kill two birds with one stone and also use their tools to see if they found any broken URLs. If there are, make sure you 301 redirect those to matching pages or to the homepage.

8. Run a crawl check on the site

Why? Obviously your site needs to be easily crawlable, and there are some great tools available that will give you a quick overview and suggest how to fix issues.

How? You can use Google Webmaster Central to point out any obvious issues. But also there are other tools available that go in deeper: SEOmoz, Raven SEO Tools, and SEO Book have some great tools that will scan your site and will point out anything that may be wrong with it.

9. Run a backlink report

Why? You want to see how many links are pointing back to the site, which anchor keywords are being used, and the quality of the links you’re getting (PageRank, Link Juice, etc.)

How? The quick and free way is to use Yahoo Site Explorer. If you want to a nice report complete with anchor text and/or link juice, you can use the SEOmoz Linkscape, Raven SEO Tools, Majestic-SEO, or some others that are available. I personally like Link Research Tools, which goes really in-depth.

10. See which keywords the site is already ranking for

Why? This should factor in your keyword research. If you’re already ranking on page 2 and 3 for certain keywords, it should be easier to get those keywords to page 1.

How? SEM Rush is a great tool for this. It will show you what you rank for and can suggest keywords that are related. You can also run this report to see what your competitors are ranking for.

The above is just a start-up list of things to do before you even get to some of the more in-depth SEO research, on-site changes and link building, but you should check all these things and MORE, whether you’re starting SEO for your own site or taking on a new project as an SEO.

Last week James Gurd from eConsultancy.com asked whether speakers need to weave social media into their presentations. With the prevalence of smart phones and real-time updates, it seems as if speaker feedback is more immediate and accessible than ever, and before you even give your presentation you can get lots of advice and help crafting your message thanks to various social networks. Below are some ways you can integrate social media into your presentation before, during and after you give it.

Before

• If you’re pitching to speak at a conference and need to come up with a session or presentation idea, reach out to your colleagues via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and ask them what they think would be an interesting/valuable topic to cover.
• Once your session’s been established and you know what you’ll be talking about, you can pull a Winfield and ping your colleagues again with questions related to your presentation. Feature their responses in your presentation, or use examples or case studies they’ve brought up to help illustrate your point. Make sure you have their permission and attribute proper credit!
• Blog about the upcoming event to build some buzz and awareness of your upcoming speaking gig. Encourage people to comment and leave questions about the panel that you can strive to answer during your session.
• Share tips related to your presentation via your blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc, and conclude with something like “You’ll hear more great tips about how to test and optimize landing pages at my Landing Page Testing & Tactics session December 5th at XYZ Conference!”

During

• Tweet/update Facebook right before your session starts and remind people that you’ll be speaking momentarily and that they should attend if they’re at the conference.
• Tweet to your followers that if they’re shy but have a question or if they’re not attending but have a question for the panel, they can forward it to you or your fellow panelists to address during the session. Try to compile some questions in case there’s a lull during the Q&A portion (this is an especially good tip for moderators, but it won’t hurt for you to do it, either).
• Be sure to use any predetermined conference-related hashtags for anyone who wants to follow all the action going on during the show.

After

• If your fellow presenters did well, give them proper kudos! Tweet something like “@brentcsutoras gave a stellar presentation about social media. Was a pleasure speaking alongside him!”
• Write a followup post on your blog detailing (if you’re allowed to) a couple nuggets of information from the session and the conference. Include your contact information (or link to it) if anyone wants to get a hold of you (Always Be Closing, baby!) and a little call to action like “If you enjoyed the session and would like to get in touch regarding some questions/information, contact me at” yada yada.
• Ping attendees for feedback — ask them what they thought of you presentation, how you could improve, highlights, etc. You should always be striving to make each speaking gig the best it can possibly be, and collecting/listening to feedback is the most important way to do so. Be sure to pay attention to any unsolicited buzz or feedback floating around and act on it promptly — manage that reputation, yo!

What other ways can you think to integrate social media into your presentations? Respond below or tweet at 10e20!

Move over, LL Cool J, because right now Ladies Love Social Media. Numerous articles have come out citing a survey and analysis of social network demographics conducted by Brian Solis of FutureWorks. It appears that for the vast majority of sites, women are the dominant demographic:

Image courtesy of BrianSolis.com and InformationisBeautiful.net. For a larger image, click here.

What attracts females to social networks? Salon.com weighs in:

“The knee-jerk explanation for Solis’ findings looks something like this: Ladies like to chat, share intimate details of their lives and keep in touch with friends they haven’t seen in person since grade school. Menfolk don’t have time for such social frivolity. (Or hey, maybe they’re just too busy trolling the Web for porn.)”

It makes sense. After all, females often seem to be the more social of the two genders, so I find it unsurprising to hear that they’re taking to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. like moths to a flame. Social networks might end up being a bit of an Internet equalizer. For so long it seemed as if the Internet was a boys’ club treehouse with a “No Girls Allowed” sign hand-scrawled on the front door. Now, however, social networks and social media are being adopted more and more by females and are playing to their strengths.  Suddenly the intertubes seems less like a sausagefest…

As more females become familiar with social networking and incorporate it into their daily lifestyles, what does this mean for marketers? Well, if you’re a business who caters to females or depend on women as your primary customers, the answer seems simple, really: you need to get social, and you need to do it now. The Wall Street Journal cites a study conducted by Rapleaf that states “married women between the ages 35 and 50 are the fastest-growing segment of social-networking users.” That’s a pretty powerful purchasing demographic. You need to flock to where your customers are, and right now your customers are gettin’ social, baby.

Is it enough to register a bunch of social profiles and watch the sales roll in? Obviously not; clearly, the most appealing part of social networking for females is the “social” part. It’s not enough to create a profile, add a bunch of friends and say nothing. You need to be an active participant and engage with your audience. Nobody wants to hear your monologue, they want to converse with you.

Let’s say your business is Cupcake Couture, and you specialize in fresh cupcakes as well as bakeware and cute cupcake and sweets-themed accessories (e.g., aprons, oven mitts, dish towels, pieces of jewelry and clothing).

Mmm, cupcakes…

If you created a profile on Twitter, you’d probably want to track mentions of both your brand as well as instances where people tweet about cupcakes, baking and other related keywords.

Following these folks is just the first step. What about posting pics of delectable cupcakes, tweeting about contest giveaways, and sharing deals, sales and recipes? Well, that’s all well and good too, but the most important thing you can do with your account is interact with your audience. If someone following Cupcake Couture mentions that she’s trying out a new cupcake recipe, respond with “Sounds yummy! Let me know how they turn out!” Is a follower prepping for a bake sale? Follow up and ask how it went. If a cupcake fan laments about how she burned her oven mitt, send her a link to one of yours and offer 10% off.

Engagement is absolutely essential. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have and how many stupid press mentions you tweet about in a self-absorbed manner; if you’re not stressing the “social” part of social networking, your conversions will be nil and your females will spend their dollars on a business that makes them feel like they’re being heard. So what are you waiting for? You better join the party before all your competitors jump in the pool too.

I came across a post on Twitter that was written by David Spinks. The entry, titled “DEBATE: Don’t Hire a Social Media Intern,” details why you shouldn’t rely on an intern to work on your social media campaigns. While his list is, for the most part, dead-on, I thought I’d take David up on the “DEBATE” portion of his title and outline some ways an intern can help with social media marketing as well as identify some areas that should be off-limits.

List of Intern Do’s and Don’ts

Don’t:

• Rely on an intern to build your social media profiles. If you haven’t yet dipped a toe into the social media pool, don’t have an intern shove you in headfirst and then abandon you when he realizes you can’t swim. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you still won’t know what you’re doing once that intern leaves and takes all of his social media knowledge with him…and that’s in the best-case scenario. At the very worst, you could be giving an intern the keys to your social media ride, only to see him immediately crash it into a tree. Are you going to trust someone who’s only around temporarily and probably isn’t getting paid with the integrity of your brand?

Do:

• Allow your intern to contribute to an already thriving brand. If you’ve already got an established list of profiles and know what you’re doing but need some help consistently updating content and engaging with others, here’s where an intern can step in. You don’t have to have him or her make direct updates and changes if you’re not comfortable assigning such a big responsibility that has close impact to the brand. Instead,you can  instruct your intern to create a list of news, ideas and things to blog, Tweet and post about on Facebook and then hand the list over to your main editor or writer.

Don’t:

• Assume your intern is a born brand evangelist. He may have said he was Company XYZ’s biggest fan when you interviewed him for the internship, but don’t assume that to be fact. Just because someone is familiar with your brand, doesn’t mean he’s qualified to speak confidently and in great detail about what your company does.

Do:

• Teach your intern the ropes before sending him out to fight. Better to be safe than sorry — have a mandatory training day where you teach your intern the brand culture and how you want the company publicly portrayed. This is especially important if you decide to entrust your intern with direct updates. You may want to have him “shadow” you for a few days so he sees how the brand is handled before you let him get behind the wheel (if you do at all). Even after training and shadowing, you’ll still want to monitor what he’s doing and act quickly on any slip ups that may occur (he shared a broken link, answered a question incorrectly, etc).

Don’t:

• Allow your interns to create or change any passwords without permission. Be organized and keep track of the logins you’ve created for your interns, and don’t allow them to change them without getting an approval from you first. It’s easy to fall behind and just let your intern take care of a lot of things, but when it comes to profile access and your brand, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Do:

• Change passwords between interns. If you have an intern leave, change any logins he has access to for the next intern or for your staff. You don’t want to forget about the part-time dude who doesn’t work for you any more but still has access to your accounts…especially if you parted on bad terms.

Don’t:

• Overload your intern and expect him to handle everything. Just because it’s free (or cheap) labor doesn’t mean it’ll be any good. Start your intern off with small tasks and don’t throw every social media assignment his way. Figure out what he’s especially interested in. Does he have an active personal Twitter account? See if he’ll bring some knowledge to the company Twitter profile. Don’t overlook your intern’s strengths, and certainly don’t expect him to successfully manage multiple social media profiles. If you don’t have someone in-house full-time to manage them, what makes you think a part-time intern can do the job adequately?

Do:

• Consider giving your intern the spotlight in some way. Victoria’s Secret PINK Twitter account is run by the interns, and they’ve gotten a positive response on both Twitter and Facebook. If you’re a fun company who likes to “think outside the box” (sorry, it’s cliche, I know), consider letting your intern shine in some form or another. One suggestion is to set up an “intern” blog profile and let your intern post a blog entry chronicling things from his perspective. Your intern will likely appreciate the kudos and it will make the internship more fun and rewarding, and your audience will probably find the new point of view to be refreshing and interesting.

What other social media do’s and don’ts can you think of when working with an intern? Drop your comments below! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed and follow 10e20 (and our awesome Charlie avatar) on Twitter!

When you’re networking, you want to make it easy for the person you’re meeting to remember you and to find you later. Having a business card is integral to this process, and not having a card could lead to a missed opportunity. The card should be a reflection of your ideas, style and the way you want to be perceived by any new contact that you hand it to.

Social media sites are the places to make contacts and keep in touch with them. If your business cards have multiple social site URL’s on them, you need to make sure that these accounts are syncing with each other and with the printed word.

Usernames and Vanity URL’s

Having your Twitter URL, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. on your business card is important. You want people to connect with you and interact with you after you meet, and this is done with social media. Including your Twitter URL is especially important. If someone forgets who you are when looking at your card, the easiest way to get an idea about you is to check out your Twitter profile. They most likely won’t call you or IM you and say, “Hey, I met you but forgot who you are. Who are you again?”

Having vanity URL’s on all of your social sites is a great idea. Especially if these names are the same, they help contacts find you much easier. For example, you can find me at Twitter.com/patrickwinfield or at Linkedin.com/in/patrickwinfield.

With LinkedIn you must enable your LinkedIn page to have a public profile. Then you simply enter either your username or the URL of your public profile. This way, the URL to your profile page is something other than random numbers and associates with you, making it easier for contacts to find you.

Facebook also allows you to register a vanity URL with your profile name or a similar name. To learn more about this and how to prepare/secure them, read Greg’s post on Facebook usernames.

Look at one of Zappos’ new Twitter-styled business cards with the Twitter id and “Powered by Twittering” verbiage. Since Twitter is such a big part of the Zappos culture and brand, they know that featuring the URL is enough (in addition to the normal information) and added a little tagline on the back that reinforced this idea.

By blending your business card with your social media accounts, you are creating more opportunities for potential customers and contacts to find and converse with you. Just be sure to sync these accounts and various usernames so that the connection is in place!

*This is a guest post from Chris Goddard from Affilorama, an affiliate marking training portal.

“Focus on where the money is!” That’s something a successful businessman once told me. “It’s easy to get distracted, but at the end of the day, where the money’s coming from is where you ought to be focusing.” It’s a sound business rule, and it works – today. The trouble is with this rule is it doesn’t ask a really important question – where will your money be coming from tomorrow?

Although social media use has exploded in the past 5 years, it is still seen by a large portion of the business community as a ‘kid’s thing’. Granted, Facebook’s fastest growing demographic may be women between 55 and 65*, and social media is growing in all demographics, but largely, it’s still the domain of the young.

As many businesses inherently focus on the middle aged (that’s where the money is!), many have been slow to recognize the importance and influence of the web on their customers. Fortunately for them, a large proportion of their market is as unfamiliar with the web as they are, so there hasn’t been much fallout from doing nothing (with the exception of the music and newspaper industries – but more on that later!).

But All That is About to Change…

The funny thing about those kids is that they have a tendency to grow up and become your core market. A new generation of consumers is nearly here… and they’re like no other generation the world has ever seen.
Generation Y, or the ‘Millennial’ Generation (children born in the 80’s and early 90’s), are going to be bigger than the Baby Boomers by 2010, and the fact that approximately 94% of Millennials have joined a social network cannot be overlooked.

This generation communicates differently – more likely to send a text, or message over a social media platform, than make a phone call, even considering email old-fashioned!

Gen Y’s consume media differently too. Why watch your favorite TV program at a specific time when you can watch it online for free with fewer ads, whenever you want? Even better, how about watching it on your mobile phone? Instead of having to learn and adapt to new technologies as they appear, Gen Y’s seem to have an inherent ability to embrace new technology with ease.

How Exactly Do You Advertise to this Generation?

Don’t bother with print ads. We don’t read newspapers – we get our news online, not just from news sites but through virtual word-of-mouth.

Don’t bother with TV either – we don’t watch it.  We watch tons of TV shows, but not on TV when the TV Guide says we have to.

And forget radio – we download our music. Yes, often illegally, but we also subscribe to streaming services like last.fm and Pandora.

What Does That Mean for Businesses in the Future?

It means advertising as we know it is going to become obsolete. Instead of a one-way torrent of promotional messages, consumers will begin seeking companies that actually engage with them, and more importantly, actually listen to them.

You might be thinking, “Ok, social media’s where it’s heading – but why start now? Can’t I just wait until everything’s been figured out and all my customers are using it?” Yes. But why don’t you ask a music exec or a newspaper mogul how that whole ‘waiting until everything’s been figured out’ thing is working out for them?

In my opinion, the reason why the average teenager’s iPod contains 800 illegally copied songs (British Times Newspaper… via their website… oh the irony!) is that it wasn’t Sony or EMI that figured out to leverage the power of the web to distribute music – it was Shawn Fanning with Napster.

It wasn’t even a music company, but a technology company that finally figured out an effective way to monetize online music.

Imagine a world where iTunes, or some variation had preceded Napster. It’s not that people just wanted to get their music for free – that’s been available since the cassette recorder – they wanted to get their music online, instantaneously. Napster delivered – iTunes came too late.

In business there are no prizes for second place. You have to be first and you have to be better than everyone else. Someone will figure out how to leverage social media in your industry. Will it be you, your competitor, or some kid in his dorm room with nothing but an idea and a laptop – potentially your most dangerous competitor yet?

Starting now is essential, because there is still room to make mistakes. It will take trial and error for you to find the strategy that suits your business. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but there are some good principles:

• Social Media isn’t PR – it’s direct interaction between your people and your current and potential customers, so leave the over-polished releases for the press; on social media they’ll appear disingenuous and fake.
• Don’t hide behind your company name – let your people front your company online. People talk with other people, not with brands.
• Listen! The most important thing that you may get out of social media is the ability to hear what your customers are saying.
• Don’t freak out about negative comments! This once private conversation is now public for you to hear, so appreciate the opportunity to hear criticism. Work to solve the problem, and then respond over the same channel as the complainant used – video for video, blog post for blog post, tweet for tweet.

Some of what you try will work, and some of it definitely won’t, but if you don’t start trying now, in 10 years you’re going to have a customer you’ll be clambering just to communicate with and a competitor who’s already figured it out.

*Special thank you to Socialnomics by Erik Qualman for most of the figures in this post.