Last month, I tweeted:

Creating in social media is easy. It’s the maintaining that requires know-how, patience & time.

And, for the most part, that’s true. Social media technologies are cheap at worst; free at best. While there is value in the know-how in the creation of social media activities like a blog, a Twitter account, etc., the process often is not complicated.

So, during the past few days, I created a four-step process to create a Facebook Page. I have a few more thoughts on the social media creation v maintenance issue at my latest Toledo Social Media Examiner article.

If you want to see and download my “How to Create a Facebook Page for Your Business / Organization,” you can click on over to the Toledo Social Media Examiner article or see the file at my DocStoc account.

Of course, any feedback on the how-to will definitely be appreciated. Anything left out? How can it be better?
-Mike

Everyone knows that. Right?

And, of course, “When you give him the milk, he’ll probably ask you for a straw.”

And so on.

Just as with mice, in blogger outreach there are actions you can count on with a very high level of confidence.

My belief that, if a person blogs, he or she is naturally opinionated — or at least the blogger likes to have a soap box. (Hey, I do.)

In traditional media relations, you don’t ask a reporter to do a story on your client. You develop a news release or story idea, and send it to a reporter with a line that so-and-so topic might be of interest to the reporter’s readers (or viewers if we’re talking TV, or listeners, if we’re talking radio).

You don’t directly ask for a story.

The reporter is in the business of writing stories, so it’s assumed that is what you want.

And, there are similar assumptions with bloggers. As I said, most are naturally opinionated and all of them want valuable content for their blogs.

So, don’t ask a blogger for a blog post on your client or employer.

You can ask for feedback on a product, issue or whatever subject you are sending to the blogger. Unbiased market research is a great benefit in social media marketing.

You can say that IF the blogger does use the information for a post, here’s links to other info, images, video or whatever that might be of interest. In addition, you could offer a special price break or other advantage for the blogger’s readers — helping the blogger add value to his/her blog and better serve the readers.

Of course, sometimes the mouse may just want a smaller glass and not a straw. And, every so often, a blogger will really just give you feedback directly or say a post will be published but it never is. Remember that most — at least many — bloggers are every-day people with a passion about a particular subject. Life does get in the way of blogging at times.

If so, move on. Just like there will be other mice, there are plenty of other bloggers to contact.

-Mike

In reality, social media allows more opportunity for PR pros. One area that social media has opened up is managing the information, images and other accessories related to getting clients or employer’s news out. You do not need to know programming to create and manage an online newsroom that:

• Provides value for media by giving them access to information from which they get to choose for their use (information that you put up)
• Enables customers and prospects to easily find information about your employer or clients

Last week, I was fortunate to be part of Denise Dahl’s half-day seminar for non-profit organizations. My focus? “Socializing Your PR Efforts.”

The rationale behind why you should open up your online newsroom and make it social are these two stats:

• 91% of journalists use standard search engines to perform activities such as research companies, past media coverage and subject matter experts (2008 TopRank blog survey)

And…

• “81% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses.”(acccording to the 2009 Social Media Marketing Industry Report)

That “exposure” included, according to the survey, improved search engine results.

So, if journalists are incorporating search as part of their stories, and a strong social media presence enables you to be more findable — it makes sense to have your news online in social media.

If interested, you can find my presentation — which includes examples, and free resources for your PR efforts — at SlideShare.net.

-Mike

Of course, if you want to talk about or want assistance in socializing your PR efforts, let me know.

And, if this post looks familiar, yes, it is similar to the one I did for my Toledo Social Media Examiner column last week.

Today (yes, I know I’m very late with this post), let’s take a look at LinkedIn for building business prospects. This can be used for various objectives, but, in my example, I’m looking at it as a small agency or solo practitioner using it in business development.

LinkedIn has many great ways to find people within your community — professionally and/or geographically — that are open to business relationships. While LinkedIn offers many ways to search, you do business with people, not “companies,” right?

So, use the advanced people search: see right.

While there are many ways to filter your search, I want to point out a few key ways:

Keywords: You can search for prospects based on terms related to vertical industries you have experience in. Sure, you can filter by Industry, but using keywords allow you to refine your search around specific industry terms.

Geography: Looking to do business near you or in your favorite city? LinkedIn has a lot of flexibility to help you search by geography.

Open to potential: The bottom box highlighted is the real key: It shows you who on LinkedIn is interested in what. I have the “interested in: Consultants/contractors” option. There’s also:

• Potential employees
• Entrepreneurs
• Hiring managers
• Industry experts
• Deal-making contacts

And, the ever-there: all option.

Once you get your results, you can sort various ways, from relationship to you, recommendation, keywords and relevance.

So, what are your good LinkedIn tips?

Since business is all about relationships, be sure you are networking with local Social Media Breakfast groups, Social Media Clubs, PRSA, chamber groups, etc. And, be sure you check out LinkedIn to see who is closely connected to you — but you don’t yet know.

-Mike

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can use social media to build business — either having me talk with your group or help your social media marketing efforts — I would appreciate it if you’d contact me.

Today, let’s look at how you can use Twitter for prospecting.

Say you’re a car dealership in a decent metro area. Use a service like Nearbytweets.com or search for your #city’s name on Twitter — like #Toledo, for example — to get a feel for the locals on Twitter. Assuming there’s a good size local community, set up Twitter searches for terms like:

• The names of the car brands you sell.
• The names of key competitive brands.
• Terms like “buy” with “car” or “truck” or “minivan” or other type of vehicle you sell.
• Terms like “car” with “repair” or “service”

When people in your sales and service area show up in results, see if you can contribute (another one of my Three Cs of social media) and add value. For example, you can reply with a tip/suggestion around automotive questions, provide links to information to help them research (third-party links; not your site), and other replies that demonstrate your value and service.

In doing so, you create top-of-mind awareness with potential customers — without trying to sell them a car.

You also start to develop a relationship with potential customers in your sales area, and build followers. The bigger and stronger community you develop, the more these prospects become solid prospects.

They begin to think positively of you — because you add value to their Twitter network.

And, when they need to purchase a vehicle, who do you think they’re going to strongly consider?

You — if you’ve done it right.

Tomorrow, let’s take a look at LinkedIn.

-Mike

While I definitely hope the above was helpful, it’s definitely not any earth-shattering Twitter secret. It’s simply smart social media. For other perspectives in using Twitter for business development see:

• Techrigy’s Connie Bensen’s case study
• Curve Detroit’s Charlie Wollborg’s talk at Social Media Breakfast-Toledo on Oct. 2. I’m one of the founding members of SMB-Toledo and was responsible for inviting and coordinating Charlie’s visit.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can use social media to build business — either having me talk with your group or help your social media marketing efforts — contact me.