One of the biggest challenges for any company or individual using Twitter, to engage and market their products and services, is the ever present mountain of spam. Affiliate marketers, multi level marketing schemes, and hard sell scam artists flood Twitter with noise and interrupting messages based on separating you from your hard earned money.

The following is a short list of ideas that could greatly reduce the number of spam messages on Twitter.

7 Twitter Ideas To Eliminate DM Spam

• 7 days: require a 7 day waiting period before a DM (direct message) can be sent when a follow-follower relationship has been established
• Opt In-Out: create a opt in-out option where Twitterers can either choose to receive DMs or turn the DM channel off
• Penalties: automatically penalize Twitter spammers who violate “content regulations” created to stem the tide of unwanted hard sell sales pitches and phishing activities
• Crowdsourcing Court: Twitters to vote on the guideline of penalties awaiting a company or individual who is found guilty of spamming the Twitter network. Base it on Dell’s Ideastorm crowdsourcing site
• Eliminate Links: disallow the use of links in any DM messages with the hope that spammers will no longer see the benefit of using a DM
• Less than 140: cut the number of characters in half for a DM making it a 70 character messaging channel thus challenging a spammer’s ability to create spam
• DM Limit: create a limit for the number of DMs allowed each Twitterer per month. Once you reach your limit, you have to wait until the next month to send a direct message

Done strategically on Facebook pages, the simple act of becoming a Facebook fan could produce great viral opportunities for your products and services.

Become a Fan of a Prominent Facebook Page:

Many blogs with massive traffic (Mashable), have Facebook fan page widgets.  These Facebook widgets, sitting in a prime area of the blog,  display pictures of each new registered fan (or logo) as well as the link to that fan’s own blog or website.

New blog readers, who come to these blogs, can simply roll their cursor over a picture, within the Facebook widget, to find the name and link back to that person or company’s blog. This becomes a pathway to  content providing instant viral marketing possibilities.

Mashable.com: Viral Marketing Dreams Are Made

See the shot below of the Mashable Facebook widget:

With over 60,000 Facebook fans and  an Alexa ranking of 483, Mashable.com is one of the most well read sites in the world according to the statistical sampling done by Alexa. Likewise, Dan Schawbel is one of the most prominent social media writers in the blogosphere today.

The Results

Our CEO Inner Architect’s Susan Hanshaw was displayed in the Facebook fan page widget on the Mashable page for Dan Schwabel’s article. This placement helped bring an additional 40 readers to our blog the day the article was posted.

We also found on the Mashable widget friend and associate Pat Kitano principle of Domus Consulting Group and former workshop attendee Ellen Richman.

In today’s business and economic climate individuals and companies search for ways to cut costs without sacrificing functionality. Blogging is one strategy that allows individuals to leverage a publishing platform while competing with large companies. The following are excuses, myths, or push backs we hear from people and companies on why they just do not want to adopt blogging. What is your excuse?

6 Excuses and Myths Why People Do Not Blog

• Articles must be long:
  Blog articles according to usability expert Jakob Nielsen are best very short, succinct, and written in a “short writing” style. Our average post contains 200-350 words. According to Nielsen, online readers: “users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely”
  
• You must write everyday:
  Everyday is great but even if a blogger writes once a week they are ahead of most competitors. One quick source of content is to convert monthly newsletters to blog article(s).
• Fear to write publicly:
  That will happen to most bloggers if they do not formulate a plan (you should do this first) for their blog and a purpose for writing
• Resistant to take on new technology:
  This is often the biggest reason people do not blog. If a new blogger practices using their blog software they become more familiar with the technology. This familiarity breeds confidence which  makes the blogger more efficient
• What do I have to say that has not already been said before?
  Most likely nothing. Yet if a blogger can prove they are willing to give people valuable content, many readers will return for information. Readers want to understand how a blogger will react in  business situations. Saying what has already been said is fine–each blogger has the opportunity to develop their own voice
• Who will see my blog?:
  Very few readers will see a blogger’s work if that blogger does not know how to promote his/her blog, make it more visible, and be patient. The most important benefit of a blog is the fact it is a delivery system for multiple forms of content. By delivering url-hyperlinks, a blogger can deliver their content through other social networks, within comment sections of blogs, and even via email

Blogging has lead the paradigm shift and evolution in communications away from an environment dominated by the print and electronic medias, of newspapers-magazines-radio-television, to an open “architecture of participation” online.  Businesses and companies that ignore this shift should consider the following 10 Reasons Businesses Must Blog:

10 Reasons Businesses Must Blog

1. Publishing Platform: a blog is the writing platform to begin creating content about your products, services, business, and business culture
2. Control: blogging allows businesses the opportunity to control their own information about their expertise, experience, and brand
3. Delivery: blogs are delivery systems for a company’s content. The url for articles can be delivered to prospective consumers, clients, or strategically targeted audiences within a social network
4. Networking: a blog allows key employees to meet other industry professionals or consumers, it allows networking through the comment section, and it provides a forum to recognize industry association partnerships
5. New Skills: by adopting blogging, key company employees  begin to learn about Web 2.0, social networks, blog software, delivering links, and how the new paradigm shift of information is being formulated everyday
6. Perception: businesses that blog are perceived as being more savvy, as more progressive due to the perception that social media-blogging is a cutting edge progressive activity, and more relevant to their audience of consumers for providing a direct channel of communication and participation
7. Visibility: blogging provides businesses with more visibility as a blog is “open” 24 hours a day, 7 days per week
8. Reputation Management: blogging provides a tool for companies to deliver messages that can correct or challenge erroneous information about them online
9. Due Diligence: when consumers or clients perform due diligence on a business, the first place they begin is with a Google search of that company. The fact remains that consumers searching for any bad behavior or information that might signal the company is unfit as a service provider
10. Research: blogging requires research. Research requires skills in searching and finding information online which is a new skill for many employees. Research opens the door to finding and understanding the conversations and buzz that surrounds a company or brand. This is a vital piece to a business connecting with their audience online

Over the past few days, Facebook has unleashed an overhaul

What has changed?

Prior to this redesign, users would log on and see their home page streaming the most recent updates from all their friends and all the pages they are fans of in reverse chronological order. Now Facebook has changed this landing page to include only the stories they believe the user will be most interested in based on an algorithm that looks at the user’s prior engagement history.

A number of my Facebook friends today were passing on tips on how to configure their settings to see all their updates on their home page proves that there are users who dislike the filtering enough to learn how to disable it. Yet these types of users are not the majority, so any business using Facebook as a channel for delivering marketing messages to customers must understand the implications of the new feed.

Marketing implications of the new feed

The bottom line is that Facebook’s algorithm is determining what level of importance your message is  to your fan. Facebook decides whether your message should be included in the landing page News Feed, or whether your fan will need to click on the Live Feed option to find your message with all the others from their friends and pages which didn’t make the cut of importance.

In order for your Facebook messages to be effective, they first need to be seen. You can increase the chances of your messages getting seen by increasing your chances of getting them picked by the Facebook algorithm as important or relevant stories.

Clues to what Facebook deems important or relevant

I will not pretend to be an expert on Facebook algorithms, but observations I have made from studying the updates selected for my own News Feed give me some insight about how updates get chosen.

Criteria I have observed:

• Updates from people I have sent direct messages to recently
• Updates from people I have commented on the most
• Exact keyword match with another status update I commented on

How to use this information

Once you understand a bit about what Facebook looks at, you can then begin to incorporate this knowledge into your messaging strategy.

Do you have more observations to add from your experience? I’d love to learn and pass them along here.

Those of us who have been marketing directly to consumers since the 1980’s or before have experienced the evolution of channels from mailbox to internet and email. My work now involves encouraging clients to begin to look at Facebook as another prime environment for managing communications with customers and prospects.

While thousands of companies have hopped on board Facebook from pure instinct that they need to be there, few really understand Facebook well enough to be able to design a contact strategy that is effective.

What follows is a primer meant to help you to relate the old ways to the new.

Key #1: Think of Facebook as a public online environment for building your “house” lists.  In days past, we’ve referred to this process as acquiring names and addresses. We can thank Facebook for adding a human element by introducing the term “fan”.

Your fans will include:

• Current or past customers
• People who are becoming familiar with your company

Key #2: Think of Facebook as a public online environment for broadcasting messages to your fans and visitors to your page who are not fans.

These messages are:

• Broadcast on your page wall
• Streamed into your fans’ news feed

Key #3: Think of Facebook as a private online environment for sending messages to your fans.

• Messages are delivered to your fans’ inbox as status updates
• Updates can be sent to all fans
• Updates can be targeted

Questions? I’m happy to answer them.

“Holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system (physical, biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, linguistic, etc.) cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone. Instead, the system as a whole determines in an important way how the parts behave” Holism-Wikipedia

In part 1 of our series “Becoming a Holistic Social Media Marketer” we will outline how to approach your marketing efforts with a top down, whole environment strategy. Although many people begin by integrating social networks into their marketing plans, they often ignore how the pieces relate and can be used together.

Holistic Social Media Strategy

The definition of the word holistic is a great example of how a social media marketer could begin to plan strategies: “relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts. . . ”

3 Holistic Social Media Steps

Before you begin to plan and execute your social media marketing efforts, you must understand the whole playing field. Without an understanding of the “big picture”, you cannot effectively break down the parts and extract relevant analysis:

1. Choosing Social Networks: which social network(s) will be utilized in your plan? The answer to this question comes from the goals being set by your organization.
   • Is this a marketing campaign designed to change public perception?
   • Is it focused on new sales growth? Retention?
   • Is it meant to drive networking and new partnerships?
2. Social “Big Picture”: how do the social networks you have chosen to utilize fit together and collaborate in a “whole” strategy?
   • Widgets: interconnecting your social networks, so people know where to find you, by providing a “portal” aka widget that with one click can take them to your blog, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn profiles or pages
   • Synergy: connecting your blog messaging to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn by embedding links to articles-messages on each social network you are utilizing
   • Uniformity: consistent articles-messages delivered to each social network providing your audience with a clear perception of your company
3. Identification: identify the role(s) each social network will play in the marketing plan.
   • Facebook: can function as the relationship builder, CRM mechanism, and customer service spot for your company
   • Twitter: often takes on the role as the prospect-lead generation tool feeding your Facebook profile, page, or company blog
   • Blog: this is the ultimate publishing platform for your company’s messages. It is the best hub and centerpiece from which to launch
   • LinkedIn: this is your networking portal and due diligence mechanism. If people want to know key  individuals running a company this is where they will land. This is also a fantastic place to create real time update messaging as well as demonstrate and establish company expertise within a niche

One of the best Twitter strategies is to participate in what is called #FollowFriday. Although there are a vast array of Twitter strategies, participating in #FollowFriday is one of the best methods to identify and attract new followers. Susan and I participate in #FollowFriday to identify and recognize followers for our innerarchitect, napavalleynews, susanhanshaw, and deansguide Twitter accounts.

#FollowFriday: A History

#FollowFriday is a hashtag group event that happens every Friday. It was created in January 2009 by Micah Baldwin as a means for Twitter users to find other users–a networking event beginning every Friday morning. Today, It is not only a social event but it is also a strategic tool with many benefits

#FollowFriday Benefits

• Testimonials: by asking people to follow your follower(s) you are providing them with a testimonial
• Value: you add value to your network by making people aware of valuable resources (other Twitterers)
• Networking: by providing #FollowFriday recognition for someone you are opening the lines of communication for others to thank you, contact you for information, or ask you a question
• Targeting: #FollowFriday allows you to target followers you wish to attract
• Differentiate & Stand Apart: by customizing your messages, using descriptive adjectives

#FollowFriday #1 Strategy

Tip #1: If you want to stand apart and differentiate yourself, provide the best value for your network, and create a new stream of followers for you then write very specific “recommendations” that describe the person recommended and their niche. Like minded people (often) want to follow others in the same niche with expertise. Below are two examples- what everyone does now and how to differentiate yourself.

• What everyone does now- “.@deansguide .@susanhanshaw .@innerarchitect #Followfriday.” This  does not provide a reason to follow these people, it does not describe them, it does not identify their business niche
• How to differentiate yourself: “If u want great soc media info #Followfriday .@deansguide .@susanhanshaw .@innerarchitect” This short description identifies the niche as social media and describes these people as valuable sources of information. The added benefit is the fact that people can see you are providing custom “copy” and truly taking the time to give a valuable recommendation

#FollowFriday Example for One: you can create messages for multiple people but with very important resources, write something like this:

Erick Qualman, author of Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business, is behind this eye-opening video that details how social media has changed the world. This kind of development reminds me of the music and cultural revolution of the 1960’s—a transformation that will likely have a long-term impact. Are you ready now to take social media seriously?

I think we all pretty much agree

1. Approach social media as you would a small child with much potential. Invest in its care and feeding and don’t expect it to support itself until it has a chance to grow up.
2. Shift the focus from the concept of influence to the idea of propensity. Look towards building connections with people who have proven to take the action you want rather than rely on their friends to influence them.
3. Invest in developing methods to identify and reach out to your target customers. Don’t allow your social networks to evolve on their own. Manage your networks from the perspective of building the most valuable list you can. Don’t skimp on the time to do some digging as that is where you will discover your gold.