Check out this video to lean more about that ways that you can use the new functionality of your status updates – http://youtu.be/dES9_n7ou8w

Check out this series Making it Easier to Share with Who You Want for more info on how it all works.

These new features make it easier to share posts, photos, tags and other content with exactly the people and pages that you want.

Check out this blog post from Chris Cox to see all the details of how the new feature will work for you http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150251867797131

How to use Facebookís new selective privacy features

For those of you who like to tweak your privacy setting on your personal posts, check out this blog from our friends at BYTE on details on how to use the new features effectively.

http://www.informationweek.com/byte/howto/personal-tech/social-networking/231600975

What do you think of the new Facebook features and layout?

One of the workshops look like this – Please feel free to comment and leave feedback.

Social Media and Your Business Workshop (Beginners)

Each workshop will run for 2-2.5 hours and will run over the course of 1 day.

The workshops will run with a maximum of 6 businesses in each which also provides a great way to network and learn from each others successes and knowledge.

Workshop 1 – Getting your business ready to market online.

This session will cover:

What is Social Media?

Social Media Channels – What, Where and Why?

Social Media benefits.

What are your assets? Going over what you have currently and seeing how things can be improved.

How to make connections.

Social Networking

Social media management guidelines.

Workshop 2 – Developing your social media plan.

This session will cover:

Your social media plan – What is it and why are we doing it?

Objectives and goals with using social media.

Social media general policies.

Social Media Do’s and Don’ts

Developing your social media plan – step by step

Workshop 3 – Putting it all together.

This session will cover the best ways to use the 4 major social networks relevant to Australian Businesses.

Learn the best practises of the following social networks. Going over the different ways to engage, run promotions, network, connect and convert.

Case studies will be demonstrated from Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, YouTube and referenced back to how your business can effectively use these networks to market you brand, products or services.

At the end of the 3 sessions, your business will be ready to take action towards your social media marketing with confidence and have the right skills and knowledge to effectively launch your business into the social media and online market.

The things you will take away to keep -

You own tailored social media plan – This includes your action plan, social media policy, strategy guidelines and a risk management policy.

Our social media guide to success with all the information from the workshops which will be tailored to form your own business reference or social media guidebook.

I was thinking today about what it really means to be “social” and all I could think of was that line. Are we a bit selfish? We are in a time when everyone wants something for nothing but how many of us truly give back. We all know that customers are not satisfied with being yelled at with traditional sales and advertising yet most business owners are still doing the same things over and over again. Customers want more out of their user experience. They are using the internet as a portal for research and communications but how many of you are tapping into this by truing engaging and giving something of value back.

Social networking is not about what others can do for you but more importantly what you can do for others. Be a giver not a taker. The relationships that we build, the connections that we make are all but useless if we are not able to help each other out as a result of connecting.

I am making it my mission to help at least one person a week via my social connections and genuinely assist or help where I can.

Would you be prepared to do the same?

Let me know if you do, I’d love to hear what happens

Tommy

Little man is doing super and adjusting to getting his injections again sitting by himself. Fingers crossed we get a call today and his levels are back to normal.

On the business front, Tommy Social has merged with Jacinta Mackey from Cre8ing Growth to form Cre8ing Social and is now located at level 1, 28 Donald St Hamilton. It’s onwards and upwards from here. Our focus will be on community and business economical development using innovative social media and online solutions to deliver exceptional results.

Here is a sneak peek at the new logo…

Look forward to catching up with everyone soon =)

Tommy.

What you may not know is that he has Servere Haemophilia A (What is Haemophilia?). He was diagnosed †at 10 months and transferred to Westmead Children’s Hospital for specialised treatment 2 months later who has Australia’s first dedicated Kid’s factor zone for children and families who are touched by this condition.

We are going in for his 3rd portacath today and awaiting for the call from Robyn (Javonte’s favourite nurse) to make to trip to the hospital for the surgery. It has been 2 years and 2 days since his last portacath and boy this last 2 years has flown by. He is doing super and is healthy and happy. This post is more of a release for me to share some information about us and haemophilia.

Javonte has come leaps and bounds in the last 2 years. He has beat an inhibitor,†problems in his first portacath, Daily Porphylaxis – factor VIII injection to keep his blood factor levels right (more info here). He is now on second daily treatment which has been such a blessing for his lifestyle and ours too.

What surprised us was his spirit and attitude yesterday in the hospital. He walked into the factor zone and decided that he was big enough to have a blood test with Robyn all by himself! When we had to do an lineogram (an X-Ray with a dye injected into his portacath so that we could see if there was any leaks or blocks), he just popped himself onto the machine which is quite big and intimidating to us and had a big smile on his face and listened to all the instructions from the nurse and doctor without one bit of fuss. We were just blown away.†Unfortunately his port is leaking so we are in there with a new one

It has been and will be an on-going journey for all of us. A big special thank you goes to all the people that have helped us along the way ( The compassionate and caring team at Westmead, our family and friends) we cannot do it without your guys love and support. Not enough can be said for what it means to us and other families that go through similar journeys in life.

It’s Haemophilia Awareness Week (10-16 October), Please support it any way that you can. Post up the link †on your social networks and †most importantly give your kids a hug and kiss today and tell them how much you love them. If you don’t have children, do it to a loved one. Also if your able please donate blood and/or plazma this week, our boys need all they can get.

My wonderful wife Pierrta and I want to share some of our journey with you so that we can help in our small way to raise awareness and a contact point for other families who are touched by haemophilia. We welcome comments, emails to tommy@tommysocial.com and connects on†Facebook to chat with any of you that are interested.

Thank you for looking at this and getting to know a little more about Haemophilia.

Tommy, Pierrta and Javonte Leung =)

We are here to help businesses work as effectively as possible using social media.

If you have been thinking about getting into social media, then this might help you get started.

Check Out What We Can Do For You.

?

Get in contact with us today to find out more ñ a few minutes is all it takes to find out if Social Media can improve your business.

So the time has come to check out what social media is and what it means for business.

The internet pretty much has a†life force†of its own. It has reshaped the way that we all communicate, keep in touch and find that bit of information faster than we can pick up the phone and dial a few numbers and wait and ask someone. Too little time to spend looking up a directory for that address or phone number. Everybody knows somebody that is spending too much time on facebook or twitter. How many people now are at home connected to the internet in their lounge rooms and throughout the house. These are the same people that are using the internet to find places to go, things to buy, places to eat and telling their friends and †family all about it at an instant.

We will look at ‘Social Media” in overview and each video below is part of a social media plan for a particular business or group. They are using social media (the video on YouTube) to explain social media for people as valued content for their business products/services. †They make it fun, FREE and of good valued content for the viewers, this in turn is shared more by people. Everybody wins! Great business exposure, seen as reliable, a trusted source, innovative and directs people to find out more about them. They are not all big companies and have huge budgets. Social Media is something you can do for your business, all it takes is a little education, time and planning.

1. “Social Media Revolution” – insight to where social media is in 2010 by a cool group in the us called Social Media Energy.

2. “Social Media in Plain English” is an old one but a good one for the basics of connections with people, communities and business. Their business produces educational videos in plain english.

3.Social Media ROI: Socialnomics is authored by Erik Qualman. This guy has cool videos and he is also an author with a book called ‘Socialnomics’ which is his product along with his business online www.socialnomics.net which is a blog designed to cover the latest trends in social media. This video has a lot of hits and is ranked highly on YouTube.

Hope you enjoyed them. Let me know what you would like to know about and I can share my findings with you.

Check out What Can Do For You.

Get in contact with us today to find out more ñ a few minutes is all it takes to find out if Social Media can improve your business.

’1goal- education for all’ is an impressive campaign for all of us interested in Social Media to take notice.

Their website www.join1goal.org is pretty awesome.

Lots of connections with major Social Networks ( twitter, facebook, youtube, flickr, myspace ).

The stats are very impressive 8,129,542 on their website, 5,893 on twitter, 66,402 on facebook and 134,720 views on youtube.

Each platform has a unified voice and different ways for you to get involved. This opens up the door to multiple networks and audiences and gives people an opportunity to make the campaign their own. A key element to the success of the campaign.

Streamlined and very easy for the viewer to get involved. †Let’s have a look at how a local business has become involved with the campaign.

Business – La Fiesta Fitness Studio (Zumba Fitness Classes) 189 King St Newcastle – www.facebook.com/lafiestazumba

How it started -

• A link was posted on facebook with viral campaign from ’1goal’
• We saw a great opportunity to get La Fiesta Fitness involved.
• Got together with the team and discussed a plan for integration into online strategy.
• Made a plan to include the dance into regular classes to extend opportunities to engage audience.
• Made a video with dance †routine from instructions below.

Here is what they did.

The video was live on 30 May 2010 and has had over 4000+ views with lots of comments on facebook and also in classes.

The routine is included in every class and students are invited to view the video for practise at home.

This is a great example of how to give value to your posts in Social Media for a business.

Check out their facebook page to see for yourself. www.facebook.com/lafiestazumba

Results from 3 month campaign for this business -

• 300% increase in business turnover.
• 75%+ conversion from Social Media activities to participation in the form of going to a class (results are checked via an offline registration form.
• Engaged audience who regularly comes to class and posts comments on facebook page.
• Content views on social media networks of over 3500 hits

Now if you have read this far, please leave me a comment or share something that you have done in your business that I can share for you.

Caio for now

Check out What Can Do For You.

Get in contact with us today to find out more ñ a few minutes is all it takes to find out if Social Media can improve your business.

Social media can seem daunting for many business owners.

• What is it all about?
• Is it worth my time?
• How can my business benefit from it?

To start with, there is no right or wrong way to get started with social media. What it can do for you really depends on if you are ready to get involved and have a go.

Getting yourself familiar with your favourite social networks is a great place to start.

Go to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and set up a personal account, explore the basics and observe what others are doing. See what you like and what you don’t, follow some people and businesses of interest and listen to what they are talking about.

If something is of interest, leave a comment or ask questions.†People on social networks are there to have a conversation. Most would be more than happy to point you in the right direction.

If you still feel a little unsure, connect with me and say hi. †Just click on any of the social icons on the top right of this page and you will find me. Post something on my wall on facebook, send me a message on twitter or invite me to connect with you on LinkedIn

To give you an idea of how far social media has come int he past 3 years, check out the presentations below and see for yourself.

This has been one of my favourite presentation sets on Social Media by F**K Espresso. †I came across Marta Kagan’s presentations a couple of years ago and have been following her series of “What The F**K is Social Media”. If you don’t feel like looking through them all, just check out the bottom on for the most updated version.

Welcome to tommysocial!

What do we do?

We help businesses at all levels of engage in social media. From first time users on social networks to established businesses already online, we can empower you to maximise your potential with social media.

Our focus is to get your business “INLINE” with social networks, media and utilise creative strategies to elevate your brand/products/services.

“INLINE” is a term that we use for integrated strategy combining the best of online and offline models. We focus on using free media and tools that will save you money and increase productivity.

To†achieve†the best results in social media, we firmly believe in education, research, planning, strategy, implementation and monitoring.

If you are new to social media we can walk you through the basics of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

If you would like more, we can help you reach for the stars.

Check out What Can Do For You.

Get in contact with us today to find out more ñ a few minutes is all it takes to find out if Social Media can improve your business.