It’s the time of the year when we all get reflective about the things we’re grateful for, and as such, I thought I’d highlight four (4) of the social media-related items we should all be thankful for:

1. Social Media Itself:  For those of us that remember it, “social media” used to be a handwritten note sent across a classroom, or a letter mailed to a loved one who was many miles away.  In both those cases, we learned what the phrase “waiting with anticipation” meant, but in today’s rapidly moving high-tech environment, both activities are now a thing of the past.  We now have the capabilities to talk to and view people through video chatting on Skype, keeping up with friends and loved ones through Facebook, and for those brave few early adopters and innovators: Use the social media space to grow and promote our companies.  Families are able to stay connected during the holidays in a way that was unheard of 20 years ago.  Old friends and misplaced loved ones are able to find each other after years of searching, and savvy entrepreneurs are continually looking for new and exciting ways to engage our stakeholders by taking advantage of the widespread popularity of social interaction on the Web.  Look at how far we’ve come in the past 10 years: AMAZING!
2. Social Media Tools:  Applications like Tweetdeck and HootSuite make using social media more manageable.  In fact, having the ability to manage multiple profiles, bulk schedule messages, and track and monitor my social media efforts has made me LOVE my HootSuite Pro account to the point where I can’t imagine what my social media management life was like before it!
3. Social Media Studies:  The Center for Marketing Research at UMass Dartmouth unveiled in its latest study “2011 Fortune 500 and Social Media Adoption: Have America's Largest Companies Reached a Social Media Plateau?” that there appears to be a leveling off of social media use among the most powerful companies in the U.S., thus implying that this may have indications for smaller businesses who take their cues from them.  The Center being in the rare position of conducting multi-year longitudinal and statistically significant insights into the growth of these exciting new technologies has an excellent viewpoint based on their past benchmarking surveys of corporate social media usage.  As more time passes, we’ll all be thankful for studies like these, because as business owners, they’ll work to highlight the almighty “ROI” (Return On Investment) that a lot of late adopters need to see before jumping on the “social media bandwagon”.  Read more about this study here: http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesandresearch/2011fortune500/
4. Your Own Personal Social Media Specialist (Kindra Cotton): It is a joy for me to be able to provide helpful information and advice to people that need it.  I appreciate being able to utilize my social networking and technical skills to help make Technology & Social Media less threatening and easier to understand.  It is my pleasure to serve you, thus feel free to get in touch with me and let me know how I can help you get your Social Media Covered!

Rejoice and Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!

What are you grateful for this year?

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

4 Social Media-Related Things to Be Happy About This Thanksgiving!

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Google is finally allowing brands and companies to officially join its social network with Google+ Pages for Business.  In the past, people may have set up their individual pages for their business, though Google had expressly asked company’s not to.  But now, you can go through the quick 4-step process of Creating Your Google+ Page, Picking a Category, Adding Your Information & Customizing Your Design, and finally Promoting it to all those interested in you and your brand.

Here’s our SSS for Success Google+ Page: https://plus.google.com/107996066801770497422

Check out Mashable’s take on why “4 Reasons Google+ Brand Pages Will Be Better Than Facebook’s”.

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

Have you claimed your Google+ Page for your company? If not, start here: www.google.com/+/business/

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We’ve all seen testimonials before, and as such, we know they aren’t all created equally.  In today’s business climate, a sincere “qualified” testimonial from a satisfied customer goes a long way, especially in an age where social media and word-of-mouth marketing are replacing traditional advertising venues.  Let’s look at these two testimonial examples:

1. “I loved your product and it saved me a lot of time and money!” – L.M.
2. “The only word I can think of to express how great your New Fangled Widget is “WOW!”. I don’t know how I lived without it in my life, and I don’t know what I’d do if it were taken away!  The moment I got it, I put it to work and it saved me 30% on my utility bills in just one month!  I appreciate how fast you delivered and installed the New Fangled Widget and your Customer Service Representatives were so attentive when I inquired about the possibility of upgrading to New Fangled Widget 2.0.  You have a new customer for life, and I can’t wait to come back to you when it’s time to upgrade.  Keep up the good work!” – Heywood U. Cuddleme, Manager, Hugs-R-Us

There are vast differences between the two, both in terms of length and substance.  First, the first one looks a bit made up, and it’s very generic, in that saving time and money, while being a good thing, doesn’t really tell you about the product and how it may have done that.  Also, the signed name “L.M” doesn’t inspire much confidence, nor does it give you the impression as a would-be reader of this testimonial that you could somehow contact “L.M.” to verify his testimony, should you want more information about how the product fared.

On the contrary, the second testimony clearly shows the person’s enthusiasm, gives a specific instance of how the product was used to deliver a real benefit to its user (i.e. saved 30% on utility bills in one month), and it’s signed by “Heywood U. Cuddleme”, who could easily be Google Searched and located by looking up the “Hugs-R-Us” in your community.  Overall, the second testimonial would likely inspire more people to do business with your company, as they can see a very enthusiast cheerleader is encouraging them to do so!

Here is a brief guide that highlights the best way to leave the most effective testimonial that looks good for you and the business you’re rewarding with kind words:

• Avoid Generic Language:  Mention the name of the product or service you’re testifying about, and tell what specifically prompted you to talk about your experience and how the product or service in question impacted you or your bottom line.
• Be Verifiable: Transparency is very important today, especially in the new media era where information is everywhere.  If you take the time to write, comment, or testify about your experience, please leave your name, title, and company, so that people will know you’re a real person, and not just a filler comment that may have been planted by the company.
• Be Specific: Tell why you would recommend this product or service.  Specify the benefits you gained from the product/service’s features.

Compelling testimonials that are verifiable, drastically increase the effectiveness of your message to new customers of the business because they are the word-of-mouth beacons that help shine a light on the really good products or services in that marketplace.

So, with that in mind: What tips do you have for giving business testimonies?

By the way, if you want to leave a testimonial for the great service you’ve received at SSS for Success, click here (and use "Testimonial" as the Subject line).

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

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I get the feeling that I’m not alone, so today I want to share 3 Tips to Getting Content Written Now on your Blog:

• Option 1: Sit down and write:  It seems a bit harsh, but sometimes the easy solution is the simplest one.  If you’re finding that your blog is vacant for months on end, it’s probably time to evaluate if it’s something worth keeping in your marketing mix, and if it is, then you have to dedicate the time that it takes to build your audience and content.  In order to do that, YOU MUST WRITE.  Since most entrepreneurs never have enough time nor money, you have to take the initiative to place writing for your blog on your list of priorities of things that must get done to run your business.  For me, I find that dedicating a pure 4 hour block of time per week works, when I’m really backed up.  If I can’t pull that off, then I try to at least do 2 hours a day during the week until I’m able to catch up.  I find that I have to make this time available in my schedule, because it is important to me and my business, and right now, there’s just no getting around it.
• Option 2: Pay Someone to Write for You:  I start all my meetings with new clients by letting them know that despite the general perception that “Social Media is Free”, IT DOES COST!  It’s going to cost your TIME or it’s going to cost you MONEY, but it will cost you!  If you simply cannot find the time to exercise Option 1, then your next best bet is to hire someone.  Prices for getting content will surely range depending on where you look.  It can be a little as $5 if you can find someone to do it on FiveRR.com or it can be upwards of $500/hour if you hire a true ghostwriter from someplace like elance.com or a specialty website for content writers.  For people that purchase Branded Blogs through me, I offer a competitive writing rate, but I always like to encourage people to write their own content to insure that their own “authentic voice” shines through.
• Option 3: Get Guest Writers:  The jokester in me wanted to title this option “Sucker someone into writing for you for free”, but I opted not to. LOL.  Instead, I’ve left the third option as “Get Guest Writers” because that’s probably the BEST way that you can get posts onto your site in a matter of a few days.  Put out a call (typically privately, via email) to some of your trusted colleagues or up-and-coming people in your field and ask them to write guest posts for your blog.  I find, it’s best to give them an array of topics to choose from, or guide them into a specific area, especially so that their content doesn’t become repetitive of your own.  Ask for 2-3 post submissions at a time, that way, you have the opportunity to review them, and keep them for later, just in case you ever find yourself in another content shortage.

What other strategies can you think of for getting content written right away?

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

3 Ways to Get Content Written Now on Your Blog

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My initial job search started by looking in areas that played to my professional strengths, but also related to both my short and long-term career goals.  I have always had a passion for small businesses, so quite naturally, that led me to the Small Business Administration.  Because the agency is relatively small in terms of the number of offices it has throughout the country and the positions that are available, there typically weren’t many openings that were advertised, and when they were advertised, they tended to be in cities and states far away from where I was in Nashville.

So, taking to heart all of the information I had gathered from the tons of job search books I’d read, I took the initiative and decided to contact the local Nashville SBA Office, and talk to someone there, to perhaps get a better idea about their office and the hiring they might be looking to do in the near future.  Upon reviewing the site, I first decided to call someone that was listed under the position that I wanted to apply for.  I thought it would be a good idea to make a connection with someone who was in a job that I believed I wanted, plus I figured it would be a good idea to hear more about what they do, so that I could learn if the job was really for me.

When I called, I was able to reach the person that I was looking for, however what happened next in the conversation took me by surprise.  This person, asked my name.  And I told it to them.  Then, they asked me where I was from, and I mentioned it.  Then, oddly enough, they asked me for the spelling of my name, or specifically my last name, to check and see if I spelled “Cotton” in the traditional way, or if I spelled it with an “E”.  Ironically, I actually shared with them that my first name was the one that wasn’t spelled in the “traditional way”, as I told them it was “Kindra”, spelled with an “I”, instead of an “E”.  The conversation was taking a bit of a strange turn, so I tried steering it back towards the SBA and the position I was interested in, but this person was dogmatic in their pursuit of information about me.  So, they told me they’d Googled my name, and as such had found pages about all that I had been up to on the net over the past 5-10 years.  Most of that was my school work and a variety of work-related projects that I had worked on, and the majority of it was surely related to my two Masters degrees, neither of which had any relation to small businesses (at least not in any direct way).

On the phone, this person was fascinated with what they found out about me.  They were curious about the projects I worked out, what research I’d conducted, what were my findings, and all the things that I would have been more than happy to talk about in any other context, but being in job-search mode, especially in a job wouldn’t find direct value in these projects, I found this conversation to be ridiculously tedious!  And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy taking about my past work, and am always willing to share it with anyone interested, but I was rather perturbed once I saw that the ultimate aim of my call wasn’t going to be accomplished.  Eventually, my call to the Nashville SBA Office ended, and while I’m certain the caller was now at least superficially aware of the Issues and Challenges of Non-Traditional Students in Higher Education, that knowledge wasn’t going to benefit me in a way that would get me hired in their office.

That phone conversation was an eye-opener for me.  It was my unofficial introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  That conversation made me “Google myself” and see what search engines were saying about me.  Nothing I found there was overly fascinating, bad, nor anything I should have been concerned about, but what I did found didn’t really do a good job of explaining who I was TODAY, just who I had been.  Those results said nothing about what I was looking to gain by becoming a federal employee or working for the Small Business Administration.  In fact, the only mention of small businesses was in a list from my college of all of the graduates in my year, listed by major, which showed my Business Administration minor of Entrepreneurship.  I decided that day, to change that!

I had always been technically savvy and good with computers, but somehow, that savvyness hadn’t quite made it to the internet, in terms of the information that search engines knew about me.  Part of that was because I was, and still am to a large extent, a private person.  The MAJORITY of the information about me on the web at that time was put there because BY SOMEONE ELSE.  For that reason, the story being told was not only fragmented, but wholeheartedly incomplete.  I decided to rectify this by taking a few simple steps, that I’ll share with you here, and give the 5 tips that I believe every person should take to look more professional online (i.e. where the search engine spiders crawl):

1. First, Email: Please get off Yahoo and Gmail email accounts doing business, and by that I mean, making it the front-face of your business.  I can’t tell you how many people I see that have Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, Comcast, etc. email addresses, and swear to me they’re multimillion dollar establishments.  I’m sure there are people closing million-dollar deals on Yahoo accounts that don’t work for the company, but in general, in my opinion, people doing business on “free” email accounts SCREAM AMATEUR!  Especially when they take it a step further and put that email on their business cards!  Really? You’ll pay $30-40 bucks to print up some business cards, but won’t pay $10 to get a domain that comes with a free email account? Ok, that’s not a smart business decision.  But, I don’t say that to be snarky, because I realize that sometimes people do things because they don’t know any better, and we’ve ALL been there before.  And, to be clear, I have Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail and tons of other free email addresses just like everyone else, but I don’t base my business off of them, nor do I typically share those accounts with my customers.  And I don’t do this, for the same reason I don’t wear slippers to a business meeting.  It just doesn’t look professional!
2. Next, let’s talk about Domains: Because I’ve now seen this MORE THAN ONCE recently, I’m going to say: be sure that you own your own domain (or company domain name) outright BEFORE you commit it to a business card or print ad!  You can really get yourself into an ugly place by printing your domain name on marketing materials, or better yet, paying for advertising in a magazine, on the internet, or on TV, without actually owning the name.  Don’t just assume because you made the name up, that it’s available, especially if it’s a .COM extension.  Next, in addition to owning your company name (and your own name, for that matter, because domain names are still relatively cheap), it’s also a good idea to buy a domain name that describes what you do (i.e. nashville-fitness-trainer.com)  It can make for a great landing page to drive more traffic to your website down the road.  Finally, when you buy your domain name, I’d advise you to buy it for whatever the low introductory per-year rate you’re getting is.  For instance, I sell .COM domains at $10/year.  Meaning, you can purchase one from me for as many years as you can afford, for $10 a year (i.e. 5 years = $50). But, if you only purchase one year at that $10, then next year, when it’s time to renew it, you’ll have to pay whatever the renewal rate is, and that’s typically 20%-35% higher than it was the year before.  My own unofficial statistical analysis shows that buying bulk year purchases when you first get your domain can save you up to 33% over a 5 year period.  Add to that, if you purchase your domain for multiple years when you first get it, that’s one less thing to worry about in your early years.
3. Websites:  Even in this day and age there are still people that don’t have a website.  It’s not the end of the world, and it’s an easy problem to rectify.  Also, I want to note that you should have a website, even if you have a Facebook Page and Twitter account, because ultimately, your website will be something you own, and at the end of the day, both Facebook and Twitter can take away your accounts at any time, without rhyme, reason, or warning, and that’s just the price you pay for something when it’s free (add to that, you don’t really OWN your social media pages and profiles, you’re merely using them at the benevolence of the big companies that let you).  When you build your website, keep in mind a couple of things.  Look at the URL for each of your webpages.  Can you read it and logically tell (on sight) what the page is about? If so, then that’s a good URL.  If you see a lot of question marks and equal signs and other non-word characters that don’t spell anything, and you’re not running a major sales site that has a huge catalog where that type of coding is necessary, then your site needs some redesign help.  Last website tip: Be sure to title your pages, and use keywords to guide their content.  It will help you when organizing your site, and later it will help with your search engine optimization.
4. Let’s move on to Social Media: Everybody’s on it, and it’s almost an inevitability that you will be too, so for that reason, go out there and stake your claim on all of the social media sites.  Fill out the profiles, and if you know you wont be using the site that often (or at all) state that, and point people in the direction of your online space that gets used most often.
5. Google Alerts and Social Mention:  I started this with a discussion about what was once found out about me in search engines.  It was a learning experience.  Since then, I use Google Alerts and Social Mention to find out what’s being said about me on the web and in social media in “real time”.  Google Alerts are search alert criteria that you can set, where you receive an email when that criteria is found in a search engine.  It’s a great way to keep tabs on what’s happen with you, your brand name, your industry, and even your competition!  Social Mention, is the social media equivalent of Google Alerts, but it works the same way.  It’s a great way to stay on top of what’s out there so that you aren’t surprised by what others are finding.

These are steps that I give enthusiastically because they’re steps I’ve personally taken and can tell you THEY WORK!  Within three months of taking control of my own Search Engine Optimization (SEO), I changed the top search result for “Kindra Cotton”. Today, if you Google Me, you’ll find mostly information about me that I’ve put into search engines, and that information does paint a great picture about me and what I’ve been up to lately.  It’s a simple thing to do, it just takes a deliberate effort.  You can do it to, if you try.  Get in touch with me if you need some help figuring all this out.

Hope all this information was helpful.

Have a great day!

Any other tips for looking professional in the online arena?

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

Why You Should Google Me, Plus 5 Tips for Looking More Professional Online

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During this workshop, I’ll talk about how to map out a Social Media Marketing Plan that fits squarely within the overall marketing plan of a company.  Through highlighting how social media outlets can be used to drive traffic to websites and blogs, generate interested new and return customers, this workshop aims to outline the process by which a company builds its brand recognition among the users who frequent various online social communities.

The workshop is free and you can register to attend here: http://www.minoritybusinesscenter.com/MedWeek/medweek_registration

Where are you in your social media planning process?

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

Still wondering who I am? Here’s a Brief Bio:

Kindra C. Cotton, Serial Entrepreneur, Technology & Social Media Specialist, Certified Search Engine Marketer, and Jill of All Trades (and a Master of Two), channels her energies into her small business consulting enterprises specializing in brand marketing, market research, and strategic information consultancy.  A transplanted Nashvillian with years of expertise with the Internet and web-based technologies, she channels her passion for entrepreneurship, information technology, and social media into being an excellent resource for online marketers and people looking to promote their brand on the web as Examiner.com’s National Online Marketing Examiner.  Her flagship brand “SSS for Success” specializes in preparing small and medium-sized organizations to take advantage of the free and low-cost marketing avenues that exist in the online arena.  She recently became a Certified Search Engine Marketer and in her spare time (what little there is), she will soon venture into the Career Services field as a Federal Employment Career Transition Coach.

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1. Google Analytics and Facebook Insights: HootSuite offers Google Analytics integration along with Facebook Insights to show you information about who engages with your Facebook page through LIKES, post feedback, and other analytics.  Quick Analytics provides a great way to get a snapshot of the last day, week, or month, and Custom Analytics lets you monitor the success of your social media efforts over 30 analytics modules published into printable reports that you can share.
2. Unlimited Social Profiles and RSS/Atom Feeds: If you’re managing multiple brands or have several company social profiles of your own, the ability to add them all to your HootSuite Dashboard is awesome!  At one point, I was actively managing 15 different profiles, and one of the ONLY ways to do that successfully, without having to log in/out of various platforms all day, was to use HootSuite.  Plus, having only ONE location to log into for social media management just makes life easier and saves me time.  This is well worth the $6/month for HootSuite Pro.
3. Bulk Message Scheduling:  With a HootSuite Pro account, you have the ability to Bulk Schedule up to 50 messages at a time using the bulk upload tool.  With a specially formatted .CSV file (made through Excel or your Spreadsheet Software in the format of: DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM,"MESSAGE","URL"), you simply select a social profile and upload the .CSV file and HootSuite will deliver accordingly.  I like this option because it gives me the opportunity to keep a constant stream of content on my social media profiles.  I use this to augment my other social networking activities, but it’s good that there’s a safety net on days when I can’t actively produce new content.  It takes me about one long afternoon every 2 months to generate a list of interesting article I’ve collected and want to share.  Doing so helps me stay abreast of developments in my field, and aids me in promoting others and using social media to spread useful information to all interested parties.  Also, periodic review of my bulk scheduled messages’ analytics tells me what the “hot topics” are, and helps guide me towards what kind of content I should consider for future blog posts.

HootSuite Pro is definitely the best $6/month investment I’ve made in a long time.  You should try it!

Are you using HootSuite?

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One of the things I liked about the course is that it helped me to refine my Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Advertising, and Website Copyrighting skills, even though I have been informally performing these skills on the job and in my own businesses for more than a decade.  I like how the course brought together the "random" nuggets of knowledge I've acquired throughout the years, and presented it in a standardized, easy-to-follow format.  I also appreciate that the Certificate Study that I completed included tutor-guidance, which meant that I could get help and feedback, in addition to graded work assignments that help me further improve my skills in each of the classes I took.  What I've learned has helped me improve my skills and it makes me more marketable as Technology & Social Media Specialist.  You can read more about my classes and experiences on my website here: http://www.kindracotton.com/about/certified-search-engine-marketer.html

Keep me in mind for your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC), and Website Copywriting needs.  I’m here to help (Contact Me).

Are you in need of a Certified Search Engine Marketer?

Kindra Cotton, Certified Search Engine Marketer

By the way, you can click the image below to learn more about Search Engine College and their course offerings, if you’re interested.

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1. Define the Purpose of Social Media Use in Your Company: Reiterate the goals of your social media marketing effort and what you hope to achieve through your use of new media.
2. Have a Plan: Consider your message, intended audiences, and the overall goals to be reached through social media, and design a strategy that works to meet those goals. 
3. Introduce the Social Media Policy with Employee-centric Language:  Apply the “What’s In It For Me?” Rule when introducing employees to their new Social Media Policy.  Focus on the things they can do, rather than what they can’t do, thus shifting the paradigm of compliance.
4. Outline Responsibilities:  Specifically state who provides final approval for the content and who is in charge of managing your social media outlets.
5. Encourage Employees/Contractors to Exercise Good Judgment and Use Common Sense:  Search engines can archive posts and comments for years after they’ve been created, and words can be easily forwarded, mass-produced, and re-broadcast several times over in the realm of new media, thus employees and contractors should be encouraged to be prudent in their actions on social media and exercise good judgment. 
6. Distinguish the “Personal Voice” from the “Institutional Voice”: Specifically state the perimeters upon which employees are allowed to use company-branded social media outlets, and how they may utilize their affiliation with your company in their personal social media space (if at all).
7. Update Your Policy (as needed): The ever-changing nature of the technology-based mediums of social media means that the tools can and do change frequently.  While any Social Media Policy constructed should focus on the principles behind the policy and not one specific platform, periodic review of the policy, along with an annual employee affirmation of your company’s policy, is a good way to ensure that it is relevant and effect in the social networking space.

Do you have any questions about social media policy?

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Change with us: Use this time to update or re-design your website, add a blog, or start a Social Media Marketing Campaign on Facebook or Twitter.  Get into Video Marketing with an Introduction to Video Marketing, where you’ll find out how quickly you can get started creating and uploading videos to YouTube to market your brand.  Fill out the Contact Us form to get started.

Are you ready for Web 3.0?

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