The addition of this 2 new features seems to have been silently rolled out across Facebook’s network and I only picked them up whilst browsing my Page last night. They’re not available to everyone yet but it shouldn’t take long for them to roll out. Here’s a quick preview of them both.

1) Improved post analytics on Business Pages

If you want to delve into the performance of how your posts are doing, the main metrics I recommend you use are  found in the insights section of your admin panel. However, Facebook have now included two new features at the bottom of each post which you can quickly use to gauge post performance

In the above image you can see that 79 unique people saw this particular post. If you then click on this information – you get a break down of how many of these 79 people saw your post organically (ie. saw your post in newsfeed/ticker or on your Page’s wall) and how many saw your post virally (saw your post in a story from a friend). The 40% figures illustrates that 40% of my total fan base (at the time of posting) saw this post.

What you can glean from this data (over time) is how efficient the timing of your posts are ie. the posts with higher scores on these two metrics should indicate the optimum time for you to post.

The second feature is equally as exciting.

2) Facebook Page pre-scheduling

To pre-schedule a post from your Page, simply click in the status bar and begin to type your message as normal. Look out for a small clock symbol in the bottom left corner. If you click on this clock, it will allow you to select a future date and time (down to minutes!) for when you want the post to go live.

Once you have completed this information the [Post] button will change to a [Schedule] button and you simply click the [Schedule] button and Facebook will delay the post until the designated time!

I really like the fact that these 2 new features from Facebook make it easier for you to view post performance data and even though I manage the majority of my pre-scheduling activity via Hootsuite, I certainly will be taking more advantage of this new feature whilst I’m active on my Page.

So, the new features definitely get the thumbs up from me. What are your thoughts?

In my last blog, I talked about how to engage your audience and what to tweet about which I hope you found useful. This week I’ll focus on how to find the right people to follow and how to build your followers – and here’s the rub – this will involve a little work by you!

Before I begin though, I would like to stress one really important point- Twitter is not a numbers game. What do I mean by that? Lots of people get caught up in a race to get to their first 100, 500 and 1,000 followers and this categorically should not be your primary aim. It’s far better to have 100 followers who regularly engage with you than 1,000 followers who don’t.

As a social media champion, I read lots of articles pertaining to this particular subject and my favourite to date is written by Rich Brooks and has been published by Social Media Examiner. It illustrates four simple methodologies that when applied correctly will help you to develop a community of people that will regularly interact with you and become loyal followers. Here are the four concepts Rich talked about:

• Find and follow relevant people
• Tweet content that will be interesting to your target audience
• Engage with your audience
• Promote your Twitter account through other channels

With these strategies in mind, here’s how I apply this to my tweets.

1)      Take advantage of Twitters free ‘advanced search’ facility which can be found in your Twitter account. Develop a list of keywords associated with your industry, product or service and search for these keywords. You’ll be presented with a list of Twitter users who tweets which include your key words. You then have the choice of opening up a dialogue with these people and/or subscribing to them.

2)      Connect with influencers. If there are key people within your industry whom you admire and respect, search for them on Twitter and connect. Then you can look at the profile of people who are following them and identify other relevant people to subscribe to.

3)      Frequently participate. Consistency is everything with Marketing and especially on social media platforms. Get lazy and you’ll simply drop off the radar. (You’ve heard me say this before but it’s often one of the main reasons why people using Twitter fail). Set aside time every day to actively engage.

4)      Tweet meaningful tweets that add value. I’ve already covered off the 3 types of tweets that you should use to present a balanced front. By providing meaningful and interesting content as part of this process, your followers will be more inclined to re-tweet your messages and that can naturally lead to organic and viral growth. Use a variety of media to share such as photos, videos, blogs and pictures.

5)      Be conversational. Treat your tweets as if you’re networking and mixing with business people for the first time. Remember you’re on Twitter ultimately to do business so here’s some ideas:

• It’s ok to make ‘small talk’ to get conversations flowing but try to exclude the minutia of daily life or you’ll simply sound dull
• Impress with a little industry knowledge – be prepared to freely share what you know without giving away all your own trade secrets!
• Offer your own opinions on news headlines or trending topics of the day – you’ll set yourself up as someone who’s got their finger on the pulse and who can be regarded as a good source of bang up to date information
• Devise questions that require people to give an opinion or a direct answer
• Follow the 80/20 rule. Spend 80% on engaging and getting to know others and focus just 20% on you.

6)      Ask people to follow your Twitter URL. Might sound obvious but you’d be surprised how many people overlook this point – include your Twitter URL on your email signature, business cards, and other relevant marketing materials. Publish your social media presence as actively as you can.

7)      Leverage your other social media platforms. In Linkedin put your Twitter URL as one of your websites on your profile section and be sure to include your URL at the end of any blogs inviting people to connect with you on Twitter. Include your Twitter URL on your Facebook Page, your YouTube account and at the bottom of all your blogs and articles.

In summary:

Building a healthy Twitter following really boils down to knowing what your followers need and want to know and that links back to you understanding what it is you are offering (remember I talked about your USP in Part 1?) and who your target market is.

My followers won’t want the same things as your followers want, but I think it’s safe to say that most people on Twitter want to see:

• interesting and relevant links to click on
• something worth replying to and having a conversation over
• information that’s worth re-tweeting to their own followers

And finally, yes, this article is about using Twitter for business but let’s not forget people also like to ‘hang out’ with people who are fun. So relax and enjoy Tweeting, talk to the right people, not at them, provide plenty of relevant and varied content, mix it with a little humour and let the numbers grow naturally themselves. canadian pharmacy Seroquel

In this blog, I’ll be addressing two of the most common questions I get asked regarding Twitter: ‘How to Engage your Audience?’  and ‘What to Tweet About?’.

Based on my experience, these are the two areas perceived as being the most difficult things to master when you’re a Twitter newbie and can often mean the difference between Twitter success or Twitter failure for business users.

If you’re in the throws of developing an engagement strategy for your business, I believe this one trait should lie at the centre of everything you do and that trait is to be authentic. By that I mean, be true to yourself and your brand. Don’t try to emulate or copy someone else just because they’re successful and definitely do not try be something you’re intrinsically not, just to impress.  Social media will simply amplify these untruths until it becomes impossible to sustain the lie. Be clear about what your brand values are, what your brand proposition is (what need, desire, problem or issue you fulfil/satisfy for your customers) and you’re USP (unique selling point). Start with these building blocks and in the same way that social media will amplify untruths, it will also amplify things that are integrous, genuine and authentic.

Avoid having a ‘split personality’

By this I mean try not to separate your personal style from your business style. For example, about a year ago, a very close friend of mine heard me talking to a client on the phone and after I’d finished the conversation she said to me:

“You act and sound so different when you’re talking business on the phone, which is a shame because you’re natural, fun personality doesn’t shine through”.

I wasn’t aware that I had adopted a separate ‘business style’ and it really made me look at how I was being perceived professionally – perhaps a little too polished! My friend was right. I now allow myself to be more natural and relaxed in business and this flows through to my interactions on social media. People want to do business with people so be the same person on-line as you are off-line in all your communication. Use the same language, style and tone when tweeting as you would if you’d met someone at a networking event.

Cultivate relationships

Like any regular relationship, it takes time to build up trust. You’re more likely to become a close friend of someone if you spend regular, quality time with them and the same applies to developing business relationships on Twitter.

Remember there are hundreds, if not thousands of conversations going on each minute on Twitter so tweeting first thing on Monday morning then disappearing until Thursday night won’t get you noticed. You have to regularly cultivate and engage with your community of followers.

Set yourself a realistic target time to sit down each day and focus on Twitter without any external distractions. It doesn’t have to be more than half an hour and shouldn’t be less than 10 minutes in order to be effective. Mark this time in your diary. Make it a habit.

If you’re already thinking “there’s not enough hours in the day!”, don’t worry, we’ll cover off some time saving strategies in the next few weeks.

Engage with your audience

As you attract more followers there will be some twitter users who naturally catch your eye. It may be because they share a similar social hobby, have children of a similar age or they operate in a similar industry and share really interesting news.  Engage with these people first, it doesn’t have to about business and it will feel more natural to you to start a conversation on topics or things that appeal to you. If nothing stands out in your Twitter stream, here are some ideas to get the conversation started:

• Provide help & guidance: Not everyone will need your services now but by being helpful it will put you in front of mind when the time is right to do business.

Even if that help is not related to your job, product or service, sometimes just being there for someone is enough to open the door to developing a long standing relationship. I once responded to a tweet on behalf of a client (a manufacturer of children’s organic meals) which said:

“Challenging day at work today, I could just crawl under a duvet”.

Nothing at all to do with food, but a heartfelt response of encouragement meant that I struck up a conversation and they now regularly provide #ff shout outs for the client’s brand.

• Provide information and solutions that will keep them reading. Regularly screen your twitter timeline for questions that people are asking about your product or services. It’s not a green light for you to drive them to your website for a 20% discount!  Genuinely give advice freely and those people will naturally over time want to buy from you when the time is right.

• Use #ff strategically. Don’t tweet out a long list for your follow Friday mentions, for example

#ff @soandso @xyz @qrs @tuv  @akdffkdk @  etc.

This I believe achieves little as people generally don’t go through the list and follow everyone. It’s much more impactful if you list one person who maybe took the time to answer your questions that week or engaged with you. Say something like;

“Hey, I think you should follow this person because……”, it’ll really make their day.

• Ask open ended questions. Actively look for tweets which you find of interest or which resonate with you on a particular topic. Ask questions about these tweets as this will be perceived as a symbol of invitation.
• Promote other people at least 5x more than yourself. Remember, it’s not all about you, it’s about giving first. You don’t have to be too hung up on the actual number – it’s the concept that matters.
• Pay attention when someone RT’s you and personally thank them. Add them to a ‘re-tweet’ list and check in with them every day to see if you can reciprocate with their own content. You’re on Twitter to develop relationships after all!

Some other quick ideas to get the engagement flowing on your account:

• Be positive – sounding ’bored’ or ‘bluesy’ could cause you to lose followers
• Give praise and recommendations
• Share links to useful content, don’t keep them all to yourself!
• Show that you have listened and paid attention
• Promoting others and talking with others is a great way to show your participation to your community

What to Tweet About?

I find this next piece of advice really useful and its something I adopt across all my client accounts.

Whenever you’re active on Twitter try to strike a balance in what you post. There are broadly 3 types of posts you can use.

• Broadcast
• Informational
• Engagement

Endeavour to tweet at least one of each of these posts every time you sign in to Twitter.

• A broadcast tweet is a piece of news about your business. Make it a positive statement, ie ‘Great meeting with @itsolutions today – incredibly helpful’.
• An information tweet relates to something that is going on within your industry that will be of interest to your follower. For example if you’re a wedding organiser, it could be a tweet that advises your followers about a wedding fayre that is coming up.
• An engagement tweet is when you either (a) ask your followers a generic question, (b) ask a question about someone else’s tweet (c) reply to someone else’s tweet or  (d) you re-tweet one of your followers tweet.

When looking to build these types of conversation on Twitter via your posts, be selective about who you engage with.  If uncertain about a particular Twitter user, check out their profile and give their twitter feed a quick scan before you interact with them. Remember, who you chat with, what you say and how you say it are all public (with the exception of Direct Messages) and will contribute to how people formulate an opinion of you and your business.

What not to do on Twitter!

• Push out things on autopilot about you. Think about how you can continuously add value to your followers and people will naturally gravitate towards you.
• Only blurt out information and links. This doesn’t come off as friendly or community-minded.
• Talk about business all day every day. It’s called ‘social’ media for a reason!
• Be obnoxious. Generally, if you have inappropriate content in your bio, your Twitter handle, or on a lot of your tweets, it’s likely people will unfollow or even block you. Ensure that Twitter is an extension of your business and behave and interact accordingly.
• Be rude. If someone pays you a compliment, don’t just re-tweet their tweet out to your followers and feel smug as this shows little respect . Reply to them individually and say thank you, it’s more courteous.
• Tweet about how boring you are. I find this amazing. Self-deprecating humor doesn’t tend to work too well on Twitter, that’s all I will say. If you tweet negatively about yourself, the response is more likely to be, “Thanks for the heads up. I’m off!”
• Try to stir trouble or be too controversial. You might get attention if you do this, but it will most likely be negative attention and it’s a sure fire way to build a shaky on-line presence.

This may all sound like a lot of information to absorb but if you put being authentic at the heart of what you do and approach Twitter with a ‘givers gain’ philosophy, positive things will naturally begin to develop for your business.

My next blog will focus on how to find the right people to follow and how to build your followers so stay tuned!

This blog is the first of a four part series looking at Twitter, one of the world’s most powerful social networking tools with over 140 million active users worldwide.  In this article I’ll be outlining how to set up and optimize your Twitter profile and I’ll be working on the assumption that you have very little knowledge of Twitter. Even if you have a pre- existing account, you may still pick up some useful tips so I’d encourage you to read on. In the next 3 articles I’ll be covering off ‘How To Engage With Your Network and What to Tweet About’, ‘Building Your Following’ and ‘Using Twitter For Business’.

So let’s start with the basics and run through some Twitter language that you may not be familiar with.

Understanding Twitter Terminology

If you are new to Twitter it’s probably useful to get to grips with some of the most commonly used terms on Twitter, some of which you’ll see on your Twitter account when you create it or use it.

Username: This is the unique name that you chose to represent yourself on Twitter (also referred to as your ‘handle’).  For example my username is @jacqschatterbox. All usernames are preceded by the ‘@’ symbol which when combined with your username, acts as a direct link to your Twitter profile.

Tweets: Short messages on Twitter that contain a maximum of 140 characters, also referred to as ‘updates’.  These updates are made in a white text box on your Twitter account which says ‘What’s Happening?’

Followers: Refers to the number of people whom have ‘subscribed’ to receive and read your tweets.

Following: The number of people to whom you have ‘subscribed’ to follow. You will receive their tweets on your Twitter homepage.

@mentions: Refers to tweets in which your username was mentioned i.e. ‘Good morning to @jacqschatterbox’.  TIP: If you start a tweet with @(username), your tweet will only be seen by that particular user and only by your followers who are following that user. If you wish your tweet to be seen by all of your followers, start by using a dot at the beginning .@(username).

Direct Messages: Or DM’s. An abbreviation used to describe private messages sent between one Twitter user and another. Think of it like a mini email.

Re-tweets: Or RT’s.  Refers to when someone has forwarded another user’s content with their own followers because it is deemed to be of particular interest to them.

aHashtags (#) A system devised by Twitter in which the ‘#’ symbol can be attached to keywords, topics, events or themes allowing people to aggregate all conversations relating to that particular hashtag.

#ff Referred to as ‘Follow Fridays’. This is a way to recommend people whom you’d like to personally endorse to your followers. This is usually carried out on a Friday but there are no golden rules to say you can’t use this feature on other days too.  TIP: Do not send out tweets which contain #ff followed by several @usernames. It is highly unlikely people will click on all the usernames you’ve suggested and follow them. It carries much more weight if you take the time to fully endorse one particular person or company in your tweet together with the reason for recommending them, for example  ‘#ff @thegirlsmeanbiz for excellent advice, support and truly insightful marketing content’.

Now we’ve covered off the basics, lets sign up for an account!

Setting Up Your Account And Optimising Your Profile

To set up your account, go to http://twitter.com and fill in the boxes that request your full name, email and password, then click the ‘Sign Up For Twitter’ button as seen in the screen shot below.

Twitter Sign Up Page

You will then be taken to a page where you will need to select your unique username.

Username

Take the time to carefully consider what your username will be. TIP: If you are an employee of a company and you’re using Twitter to act on behalf of the company, then consider using your own name for the account. You will then have the opportunity of mentioning your company name in your profile. If you are representing a company as a whole (i.e. you are self-employed or the owner of a small business) then the account should be in the name of the company as this is your personal brand name. It will also make it easier for people to search for your business on Twitter.

If, like my business – Chatterbox Social Media, your company name has already been taken by someone else, here are some ideas for what you could do:

1. A variation of your company name – ChatterboxSM, ChatterboxSMUK, ChatterboxUK
2. A combination of your name and company name – JacqsChatterbox
3. A combination of your name and your industry – SocialMediaJacqs

Remember to make your username fit your company name as closely as possible to keep your branding consistent. Here are some Twitter username don’ts:

1. Use a random name that may be ‘quirky’ or ‘cool’ but no-one will recognise
2. Use numbers in your username i.e. Chatterbox2012
3. Use the underscore symbol i.e. Chatterbox_SM

Adopting any of these approaches will only make you look unprofessional and amateurish.

Name

Enter your own name in here when using Twitter for business.

Biography

You have only 160 characters in which to capture the attention of any potential followers so it’s important to get it right. Treat this section as if it a 60 seconds sales pitch.

If you are using Twitter in a professional capacity you need to accurately portray what it is your business does and what it delivers. TIP: There’s no point talking about that fact that you love yoga, your kids and horse riding if your business sells stationary. Make the 160 characters count.. Avoid any URL’s in your biography as this takes up valuable space that you could utilise to promote your business. If you are really stuck, think about how your customers may succinctly describe your business or how potential customers may search for your business online. Work out what key words they may use to search for your business and try and incorporate them into your biography.

Picture

This is sometimes referred to as your Avatar. If you are using Twitter for business, use this area for your company logo. Make sure your logo isn’t too large, too small or cropped incorrectly within this area.

Location

Many people leave this blank yet I have come across situations where new business has been gained purely because they were operating within a specific location. A ‘blank’ location to me raises questions about the authenticity of the business. You can use your town, county, country or a combination of these suggestions.

Twitter Background

You have the opportunity of personally designing and branding your own Twitter account which can be a real boost for your business. Treat this area as prime real estate and an opportunity to visually educate people about your products and services – after all its FREE advertising!  TIP: Employ the services of a designer to make sure you that all your design elements fit correctly and work with different laptop and computer monitor sizes.

You can upload your design template by going to your account settings, ‘Design’ then scroll down to ‘customise your own’ and upload your image.

Now that you’ve successfully completed and optimized your profile you’re ready to Tweet!

In  part two of Beginners Guide to Using Twitter for business, I will be talking about ‘How To Engage With Your Network and What to Tweet About’.

Ask anyone involved in Social Media what their biggest challenge is and I’m pretty sure they’ll include right at the top of their list “how to get more ‘Likes’ for your Page”.

I hear lots of people say to me, ‘Yep, I’ve got my Page thanks, yep, I’m posting content, but I’m just not getting any ‘likes’. What do I need to do?”

No matter how good your content strategy is or how frequently or brilliantly you post – if you don’t have an audience, you might as well blast it right out into space!

So how can you get more people to ‘Like’ your page?

Here are a few ideas I’d like to share.

1.    Create a Landing/Welcome Page

Make your Page really stand out by setting up an attention grabbing landing or    ‘Welcome’ Page that every new visitor by default is directed to.  This way they    cannot gain access to your wall and content until they have ‘Liked’ your Page.

Make sure your Page advertises the benefits of your Page, why people should ‘like’ it and what they will gain by ‘Liking’ your page.

Also consider adding a strong ‘call to action’ to incentivise people to ‘Like’ your Page, for example, offer some sort of freebie, a time bound discount, a free e-book or  some other special deal.

2.    Promote Your Page On-Line

Cross promote your Facebook Page on other Social Media Platforms. For example, occasionally ‘tweet’ that you have a Facebook Page and invite your followers to join you on Facebook too. If you have the space, include your Facebook Page URL within your Twitter bio.

Within LinkedIn you have the opportunity to promote up to 3 websites so utilise one of these for your Page.

Ask your Facebook friends to share your Page link with anyone they think may be interested. This seems obvious but requesting simple referrals are often overlooked.

Add a link to your page on your personal profile page. Just under your photo on your personal profile there is a section to write something about yourself, include your Page URL and its benefits in here.

3.     Promote Your Page Off-line

Put up a poster in your office or on your notice board promoting your Page URL and invite people to join it. Send out a leaflet to your existing customers advising that they can now keep in touch with you via Facebook. Email to any existing customer databases inviting them to join your Page and include your Facebook URL as a link within a custom designed email signature.

Include your vanity URL in all of your printing and marketing collateral ie. business cards, letterheads, comp slips, invoices, orders, estimates, flyers, posters, tenders etc.

If you want to be really ‘wizzy’ use a QR code so people with smart phones can get directed straight to your Facebook Page to ‘Like’ it.

4.    Utilise Facebook’s Existing Tools

Thanks to the Facebook Development Team, we now have really strong tools  available to promote your page.

You can post as your Page on other Pages and ‘Like’ them too which means you can actually engage on other active Pages and by doing so expand your target  community. Be careful though not to be perceived as ‘spamming’ other people’s  walls.

Ensure you have Facebook’s own social plug-ins embedded on your website and blog so you can capture people. You have a huge variety to choose from and the impact of using these tools can be considerable. For example, Levis received less than 1% of its overall website traffic from Facebook in March 2010. After adding the ‘Like’ buttons, over 40% of its overall traffic came from Facebook in May 2010, just 2 months later. Here’s the Facebook plug-in link.  http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.

5.    Get Fans to Tag Your Photos

If you are involved in hosting events or regularly attend networking meetings/ seminars etc, make sure you take plenty of photos. Load the photos to your Page and encourage people to tag themselves. This will in turn push your Page out onto their wall and their friends thus providing valuable (and free!) exposure.

6.    Place Facebook Ads

Even with a limited budget you should be able to increase your Facebook followers using Facebook’s own social ad feature. It’s a highly targeted and cost effective way to get great results.

To set up an ad, scroll to the foot of you Page and click on the link at the bottom that says ‘Advertising’. Follow the step by step instructions using the wizard which will help you identify how many Facebook prospects are in your target market.

When your campaign is live, Facebook users can ‘Like’ your page directly from the ad. Here’s a link for more information of Facebook ads. http://www.facebook.com/ads

7.    Ask Others What They Are Doing

Chatterbox Social Media recently conducted a poll on LinkedIn to ask other Social Media activists what tactics they employed to get more ‘Likes’. Here’s just a few of the comments we received.

“I post news and statuses that are relevant to my audience, which draws people who like the kind of thing I post about to “like” my page. Our total audience is very niche, so word travels. There will never be millions of people on any of our pages, because of the niche focus, but our saturation in related spaces is pretty high”
Erica Friedman Social Media Optimizer, Publisher at ALC Publishing, President of  Yuricon

“In February of this year we started a campaign called “Fans for Cans.” Each “Like” of FB we donated a canned good to a local food pantry in Cincinnati OH. We added nearly 400 fans in 30 days.”
Leslie Fultz, President, Expert in Sustainability, Green Carpet Cleaning Pro

“We’re just about to upload three useful videos on email marketing to our website. On there will be an option to LIKE the videos and also post a comment directly onto FB. In addition to this, we are in the process of adding LIKES to all of our blog posts, articles and other videos on our site. In fact, whenever we do something that is useful to our customers, the LIKE button will also be added. The more you can give this option to people I think, the better.”
Helen Dowling, Senior Partner, Exceptional Thinking

“We created a custom Welcome page with a special offer. I think the special offer is where many companies drop the ball. We see a very strong trend towards ‘give to get’. In other words, we give something of genuine value, with no strings attached, and trust people to understand the value, and trust them again to look us up and give us a call. This is quite a stretch for most marketers.”
Carl Diamond – Diamond Website Conversion

“Try the ‘tell your fans feature’ … it’s fabulous. And it’s nice that the Suggest to Friends feature is working again!”
Christine – Christine Hueber.com

8.    Add Value and Variety to Your Content

Offer something that your followers want other than just your product or service ie. your insight, the fact that you have knowledge, you have expertise within your business sector, you have advice. And vary your content, add photos, videos and links – if you’re just posting out boring messages then numbers won’t grow. Share video testimonials, upload photos from a recent event, link your blog. If you add more variety this will in turn generate more interest and numbers will increase as people are more likely to pass on your content and share. And do not forget to engage when your followers are listening. Don’t just smile smugly when someone comments on one of your posts, thank them and add your own comment in response.

And last but not least if you’d like to develop your own personally branded Landing/Welcome Page, create a QR code, receive a tailored 1-2-1 Social Media training session or discuss how I can help you to get Social Media working for you, please do not hesitate to call.

Do let me know your views and thoughts on this article and please ‘Like’ me on my Facebook Page and follow me on Twitter too – I’d love to tweet, poke, and meet you!

http://www.chatterboxsocialmedia.co.uk

http://twitter.com/jacqschatterbox.

Kind regards
Jacqueline Brewster
Chatterbox Social Media

Professional Chatter Where It Matters

Tel: 01670 787 888
M: 07725817864

On Monday of this week, Facebook announced that is launching a new style [SEND] button to improve the functionality of its Groups offering.

Here’s an example of some of the questions I’ve been asked regarding this new feature. I hope that you’ll find the answers of use to you.

What does the new [SEND] button do?
It has been designed to look like the [LIKE] button and when clicked you are presented with a pop up window which allows you to send that article or web page to friends, groups or email addresses. You also have the facility to add a message and then send the article/web page to specific email inboxes, individuals or a Group wall.

Picture: courtesy of www.mashable.com

What are the benefits of using the new [SEND] button?
One of the added bonuses of the [SEND] button versus the [LIKE] button is that it provides you with the opportunity to be more selective and privately share your content rather than publically share the information with all of your friends and followers. It drives traffic by sending a link and message to those who you think you would be most interested in a quicker, smarter way.
Another really important detail is that the new [SEND] button counts toward the total number of [LIKES] a page has.

The [LIKE] total has now been redefined to include the total number of shares, comments and inbox messages containing a specific URL.

Who is using the new [SEND] button?
It’s never long before any of Facebook’s new features begin to appear! Here’s an example of some websites already locked in to using the new [SEND] button functionality.
•    The Wall Street Journal
•    Orbitz,
•    Last.fm,
•    The Huffington Post
•    People.com
•    The Washington Post
•    Chatterbox Social Media

How can I get hold of the new [SEND] button?
The Send button’s code is now available via Facebook Developers and as with the [LIKE] button, it only takes a few lines of code to get the button installed onto a website.

If you’ve found this article useful – please [SEND] to your friends!

Social Media is an umbrella term that defines various activities that integrate technology with video, audio, text or multi-media. In simple terms – it’s the millions of conversations that are people are having with one another all over the world, every second, minute, hour and day of the year. Social Media is the most important commercial development since the launch of the internet.  But why should you care?

Here are 10 really good reasons why you should…

1) Social media is now the number 1 online activity beating porn and personal email to the top spot.
(Nielsen Wire)

2) Because 2/3 of the global internet population visit social networks.
(Nielsen Global face and networked places)

3) Because the time spent on social networks is growing at 2 x the overall internet rate, accounting for 10% of all internet time.
(Nielsen Global faces and networked places)

4) Because online, including social media has become the most influential source in helping consumers make purchasing decisions.
(Weber Shandwick Inline Research)

5) Because of millions of people are creating content for the social web – competitors are already there – your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn’t putting itself out there – IT OUGHT TO BE.
(Business Week)

6) Because the next 3 billion consumers will access the internet from a mobile device.

7) Because Facebook is now the operating system of the social web. It has won the social networking war:

• If it were a country it would be bigger than the USA,  and the 3^rd largest in the world
• It added more than 200 million users in a year
• It adds half a million users in a day

It’s is on target for ½ a billion users by December 2010-10-30

• The number of minutes spent on Facebook every day is 5 billion
• The amount of content (web links, news stories, blogs, posts, notes, photos. Etc.) shared each week on Facebook is 1 billion

8 ) Because Twitter believes it will have 1 billion users by 2012. If this happens it will become the pulse of the planet.

9) Because one way or another, Marketing has had it’s day. Stop thinking campaigns, start thinking conversations. Listening first, selling second.

10) Because in nearly all cases, Social Media is free. All it will cost you is time.

If you aren’t involved in Social Media, now is the time to get involved before it’s too late.  How many customers have you missed out on this year because you’re not using Social Media correctly?

To talk with one of our Social Media Managers call us now on 01670 787 888.  We look forward to connecting with you soon and getting you and your business started on the road to Social Media Success.

Chatterbox Social Media
December 2010 canadian pharmacy Myambutol

One of the questions I get asked all the time is, does social media really work? Can it bring me new customers and more business?

The answer, for the majority of businesses in the UK (there will always be a few exceptions!) is undoubtedly YES!

However, I heard a great story just the other day which really highlights the potential and power of social media. This particular anecdote concerns Twitter.

There’s a very successful UK entrepreneur called Nigel Botterill. Nigel has built five separate million pound plus businesses in the last five years so, he knows a lot about what it takes to build businesses fast. He was one of the first business people to properly understand the potential and power of social media and he has driven literally hundreds of thousands of people to his websites and generated tens of thousands of pounds of revenue directly through social media over the last few months.

However, the story I heard last week is very powerful. Nigel was running a Boot Camp to train potential franchisors, i.e. people that wanted to franchise their business. He was running a Boot Camp over two days at his head offices in Solihull. Tickets cost over £2,000 and the event was fully booked.

On the Sunday evening before the event, Nigel put a Tweet out on Twitter that said, “Really looking forward to my Franchisors Boot Camp tomorrow – off for an early night to make sure I’m on top form (hopefully)”.

Now, this is not one of the most insightful Tweets you will ever see(!) but, what happened next is fascinating and illustrates really well the power of Twitter. One “follower” of Nigel is a guy called Jat Mann who runs a business called PC Pal. Jat has recently franchised his business out and when he saw this Tweet from Nigel (at 9.00pm on a Sunday evening don’t forget) it was the first he knew about Nigel’s Boot Camp. He was very keen to get a place so he tweeted back to Nigel asking for more information. Unfortunately, Nigel had gone offline so Jat jumped on the internet and started filling in every email form he could find on all of Nigel’s websites. One of those emails got picked up by one of Nigel’s colleagues who called Nigel at home at 10.15pm on a Sunday evening to ask whether he would accept another person on his Franchisors Boot Camp.

Long story short, Jat turned up at Nigel’s offices on the Monday morning at 8.30am, paid his two grand plus on credit card and joined the Boot Camp.

The point of this story is to illustrate the ability that Twitter has to generate business and, what’s great about this particular anecdote is that it is completely ring fenced, nothing else was at play here – just Twitter.

Now, it would be easy to dismiss this story as an isolated incident – “Oh, Nigel got lucky!” However, that would be to overlook the platform that had been built over the previous months. Nigel has a large number of followers on Twitter and Jat was one of those people. Nigel engages with his audience on Twitter all the time. Consequently, he is seen as being interesting and interested and, so relationships are forged.

When Nigel launches new products or has new initiatives he is able to let his followers know about these things in the right way, at the right time and a heck of a lot of business gets done as a result.

This kind of platform and access to this community is available to you too – IF you use social media properly.

If you need any help in this regard…..then you know where to come! Dilantin

For sixty years after the Second World War if you were a local business there were only really three things you had to do to market yourself effectively. Life was very straightforward. You took the biggest ad you could afford in Yellow Pages, relied a lot on word of mouth and, if you were very ambitious or a little bit flash(!), then you took an ad out in the local newspaper.

That was pretty much all you had to worry about as far as marketing was concerned.

Oh how times have changed.

Yellow Pages are dying now. They are getting thinner every year, fewer and fewer people are using them and, within the next five to ten years the old printed yellow books will have disappeared altogether.

Right across the country local newspapers are seeing circulation fall and, each month, different titles are shutting down the presses and going out of business.

And, of course, society has become much more transient and mobile than it ever was in the ‘good old days’. Neighbourhood communities are now a real rarity for most people.

For businesses right across the country this has forced a seismic shift in the way they market and promote themselves. New, all encompassing, marketing services like thebestof have come from nowhere to provide a myriad of different services to businesses. The internet is now an integral part of the fabric of modern life and, within that, social media has emerged to fulfil the role of 21^st Century word of mouth.

If you think about it, that’s all social media is, word of mouth.

People sharing with other people (some whom they know and others who they don’t know) what they think about things and places, what they’re doing right now and what they are planning to do.

The fact is, that wherever you live in the country, within a few miles of where you are right now there will be thousands of people online, right this minute, on social media sites. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook or Linked-In, the reality is that these people, in your area, are using social media today. It’s where the people are. And that’s why, if you are a business then you have to be in this space as well and you can’t do it just by buying an ad or writing a cheque.

You have to engage and get involved.

You have to continually update and input.

It’s not difficult and, when you do it right, it can be even more powerful than word of mouth was in the old days because social media allows everybody to communicate with everybody else – and people do.

You don’t really have a choice as to whether you get involved with social media or not – only when. It’s beginning to transform the way people do business in the UK and the opportunities for those businesses sharp enough to see that and adapt to it is immense.

If you would like help with your social media strategy then we’d be delighted to oblige. We understand this stuff, we’re good at it and we love to make it happen. Happy to have a chat……….