Social Media and Social Networking are great ways to establish, build and grow your business and if you are not using Social Networking yet it is time to do so.

I have found though that often keeping on top of managing your Social Networking can be very overwhelming and often time consuming.

Over the last several weeks however I have been researching, testing and implementing tools and process that can assist you in managing your Social Networking activities so that it only takes approximately 15 – 30 minutes a day.

Your largest time commitment is going to be in setting up your profiles and structure in order to streamline your Social Networking.

If you haven’t done so already a good place to start is by setting up profiles on a few of the top Social Networks.  The ones that I would suggest you start with are:

• Twitter
• Facebook Personal Profile and Facebook Fan Page
• LinkedIn
• YouTube if you are going to be using videos

There will be several more that you will want to integrate into your Social Media plan down the road but for today start with setting up profiles on the 4 sites listed above.

SourceOne Technologies is available to assist you with your Social Networking Profile Creation if you would like to have this handled for you.

In the next posts we will discuss more on tools that are available to help you manage these accounts.

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Social Networking and Social Media is a very hot topic right now and one that you really can’t ignore, but is it being embraced?

Many smaller businesses and organizations often question if it is really something they need to add to their marketing mix and communication streams.  When this question comes up they will often ask something like, “Are companies really using this?” and typically when this is asked they also want to know who and how.

There are several companies that are using Social Media and Social Networking in their marketing mix and communication streams.  Some big names are Dell, Southwest Airlines, Comcast and several others.

But how many really are using Social Media and Social Networking

I think you will be surprised when you realize just how many businesses are.  To give you an idea here are three thinks that provide you with over 1100 examples of Social Media being used by companies:

http://wiki.beingpeterkim.com/

http://wiki.beingpeterkim.com/page-2

http://wiki.beingpeterkim.com/master-list-3

You won’t find 1100 companies, but you will find examples of what companies are doing.  These examples contain some of the following methods:

• Twitter
• FaceBook Fan Pages
• Blogs
• Photo Sharing
• Podcasting
• Video Sharing
• Content Aggregation
• Widgets
• Complete Social Networks

Here are a few fun examples of what companies have done:

Fidelity created this mashup for users to play with: http://personal.fidelity.com/misc/buffers/labs/index.shtml

Ford is Sponsoring this Wiki: http://wherearethejoneses.wikidot.com/set:home

Rubbermaid Has a pretty neat YouTube Chanel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RubbermaidOnline

Rubbermaid is also building a nice FaceBook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/RUBBERMAID

Toys R Us ( A favorite of my kids) has a sharp looking Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/toysrus?ref=nf

Newspapers are learning they need to generate content from readers – The Wall Street Journal has over 40 content blogs available: http://blogs.wsj.com/

Wells Fargo has launched Stage Coach Island that is an interactive online virtual world: http://blog.wellsfargo.com/StagecoachIsland/

This is just a handful of examples of companies using and embracing Social Media and Social Networking tools.  To see more great examples take the time to look at the three lists and see what others are doing.

One key item that I see on these lists and I always tell people is that a Blog MUST be part of your mix.  This is where you communicate and share and this helps generate regular content.

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I have talked to many people who want to jump online and start using Facebook but are afraid to do so because they want to keep some privacy around their life.  In a lot of cases I have encountered someone who has been using Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends and then all of a sudden they receive a friend request from their employer or a client.  This often throws them for a loop because to a point people do want to keep their personal and business lives separate – even though in today’s world they are quickly merging.

It is possible however to use Facebook for staying in touch with both your family and friends as well as your employer, co-workers and clients and keeping the level of privacy that you desire.  Lucky for us Facebook users, the team at Facebook saw this as a potential issue and created some privacy features that allow you to choose who sees what information.

The feature that is being covered today is Friend Lists

Friend Lists

One of the top ways to separate what information you share with who on Facebook is to use Friend Lists.  This feature in Facebook allows you to privately group your friends into lists.  This helps for organization as well so that you can look at a particular list and only see the status of those on that list.

You can add people to multiple lists if they belong in more than one.  I have several lists and I use them in various ways.  Here are just a few ways that I use my lists:

Family – this is where all of my family members reside and if I have something that is family related I select this list as the list that can see it

Photos – This is the list that I allow access to my photos.  For me since I use Facebook for both personal and business reasons I don’t want everyone seeing photos of my kiddos.

Buddies – These are my close friends that I do things with on a regular basis

Co-Workers –  This is where I list those that I work with on a daily basis

Real Estate – This contains others that share a passion of Real Estate

Marketing – This group contains those that I get and share marketing info with

One way to use these lists for privacy is to select which list or lists you want to see what you post and share on Facebook.  If you are posting a status update and you only want certain groups to see this then you tell Facebook that.

Here is what you will see when you are updating your status:

If you click on the arrow by the lock then you will have the option to select who you want to see your post.  To select a particular last you will need to select the customize option and pick the lists that you want to see it.

Here are some additional resources for information on Friend Lists from Facebook:

Facebook Help Center: Friends: Friends List and Limited Profile

Organizing Your Connections on the New Friends Page

HOW TO: Create Friend Lists on Facebook (via Mashable)

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Hopefully you are now active on Twitter, if not I am hoping you are getting ready to take that plunge.  One thing you will want to do once you are on Twitter and have posted a few tweets is to select those that you wish to follow.

There are several ways to select who you want to follow on Twitter.  One quick and easy way is to follow your friends or those that you know to start with.  After you have followed your friends however it is time to get down to business and start to find and follow those that are talking about what you are interested in or who are your target market for business.

Here are some ways to locate those individuals on Twitter that fit the criteria of either they talk about what you are interested in or they are your target market for your purpose for being on Twitter.

Search for individuals talking about what you are interested in

There are several ways to find people to follow that are interested in what you want to hear.  I am only going to cover a few today, so please keep in mind there are many more.

HootSuite- Hoot Suite is a web based Twitter client that can be used to do many things (manage multiple twitter accounts, reply to people, follow people, schedule tweets, and more).  The focus on HootSuite today however is the ability to use it to search.  You can search in HootSuite for tweets that contain key words that you are interested in.  Once you find the people that are sharing tweets of interest to you from within HootSuite you can select to follow them.

Search Twitter – You can use good old fashion search Twitter and search on the keywords of interest and follow those individuals directly from Twitter

Tweep Find –  TweepFind allows you to search for a key word and find the top individuals based on user rank for that key word.  ( a similar tool is TweetFind, however this one is based on the Tweets instead of Tweeps)

Nearby Tweets – Nearby Tweets is an excellent way to search for those that are in a particular location and tweet about a particular topic.  This is an excellent tool if you are building a local list for people that may be interested in what you have to offer.

Browse a Directory with Twitter Users Listed

One great way to find people that you wish to follow is to use a directory.  The directories have people grouped based on their interests and what they tweet about.  Here are a list of a few directories to use to search for people to follow:

Twello – Twello is one of my favorite directories.  Individuals are grouped by basic categories as well as very well defined categories.  You can also search for people that contain certain words in their profile.  One thing I really like about this directory is that you can login directly and as you are browsing you can select those that you want to follow without having to move back and forth between the directory and Twitter.

TweetFind – This is a new directory that looks very promising.  It groups individuals into categories and it also ranks users.  One worth checking out.

GeoFollow – this is a directory that allows you to do a few different searches to find what you are looking for.  Another great tool to build a local list.

I am hoping that these tools with give you a place to start to find those to follow that are of interest to you and that you may be an interest to as well.

Good Luck finding and adding followers

-          Stefanie

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• Three steps to getting started in Twitter (socialwebschool.com)

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Over the last few days I have seen several friends and colleagues of a large company that I do some work for face new challenges in life due to being laid off.  I am very sad to see many of them go.

Many of these individuals have had some advance knowledge that this was in the works and they could be impacted.  This knowledge and the availability of tools such as Facebook and LinkedIn had a large impact on actions that were taken pre-layoff.

Over the last couple of months several employees at this company reached out to others that they worked directly with and those that they knew from association to become “connected”.  Several of these connections occurred on LinkedIn where a person can become connected to other business and career minded individuals.  Many of these connections also resulted in a mutual exchange of recommendations (which can be very helpful when looking for new employment).

There were also several connections made between colleagues on Facebook, however these were of a different nature than those on LinkedIn.  The Facebook connections are more of a fun connection on the personal side than the business and possible job search nature that was created on the Linked side.

In years past when someone was impacted by a reduction in force or a layoff usually you patted them on the back and wished them luck and maybe exchanged phone numbers and possibly an email address.  This is no longer the case.

In Today’s changing world where we have tools and avenues to reach out and connect with others saying good bye after someone is impacted by a lay off is not the same.  In most cases you say good bye in terms of your every day working relationship, however you can and should be connected in other ways so that you can continue to be “linked” and hopefully support one another.

The access we have to each other and each other’s networks in today’s world can really make an impact on how we approach things.  We really are no longer a lone wolf in a lot of cases if we are willing to reach out and connect with others.

If you are one of my friends or colleagues that were impacted I am very sorry to lose that relationship I had with you, however I do not consider it as a good-bye, just a change in our connection.  Please be sure to reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or even Facebook. I would like to remain connected with you in some manner and hopefully play a role in your search for new employment opportunities – please reach out and feel free to access my network if it will help you.

- Stefanie

P.S.  Here are some additional links that reference using Social Networks for job and career tools

• Social Networking Mistakes that Can Break Your Career
• Brazen Careerist – A Career Management Tool
• Social Network Basics For Job Hunters
• How to Turn Social Networking into a Job Offer

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• 8 Ways to Network Effectively Online (socialwebschool.com)

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Today I had an opportunity to work with a great new client. In talking to them, however I learned that they had not heard of Twitter yet, let alone did they understand what it is and how it can help them in their business.

This lead me to make this post today, So you are new Twitter and just don’t understand what it is yet ?

In thinking about what is the best way to explain Twitter to someone that hasn’t heard of it or used it yet I thought that sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.  This lead me to YouTube and to some great videos that do a wonderful job explaining what Twitter is.

I hope you enjoy these and find them helpful

~Stefanie

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If you are in business and have had your eyes and ears open over the last several months to a year I am sure that you have heard and seen that you need to move your business into the Social Media and Social Networking arena.  A lot of businesses have heard and seen this and have taken the plunge, but some haven’t yet.

When we investigate why a business hasn’t taken the plunge yet we often find it is because they don’t see or understand what impact or ROI that using Social Media and Social Networking will have on their business.  Here are some case studies that have been pointing to in order to show the positive effect and ROI to business.

Case Study 1: Naked Pizza

Naked Pizza has embraced the Social Media Tool Twitter and has been using it to build and drive business.  One day in April (April 23rd) Naked Pizza tested out the value of using Twitter and posted a special on Twitter.  This post or Tweet on Twitter brought in 15% of the business for that day.  This had a positive impact on the business and showed the power of a Social Media/Social Networking tool.

Case Study 2: Dell Computers

Dell Computers has jumped into Social Media and Social Networking full force and is one company that is able to give hard numbers of the increase in dollars that are directly related to using Twitter.  Dell has over 65 corporate Twitter accounts and one in particular is credited for bringing in over $3 million in sales – @delloutlet .  Dell has well over 400,000 followers currently on Twitter between all accounts.

Case Study 3: Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines has done a wonderful job embracing Social Media and Networking tools.  On Twitter they currently have over 574,000 followers.  In addition to being on Twitter Southwest is also on Facebook, flickr, Linkedin and YouTube as well as they have a company blog at www.blogsouthwest.com .

Southwest Airlines does a wonderful job of communicating with their current customers and followers and has also embraced user generated content.  Here is a YouTub Video showcasing the rapping flight attendant that created quite a viral following for Southwest Airlines.

Case Study 4: CoffeeGroundz a Coffee House in Houston Texas

J.R. Cohen the Operations Manager for CoffeeGroundz was intrigued by Twitter when he heard about it.  He jumped on board though and began to follow local Tweeters of Houston.  Shortly after getting on board he was able to amass a following of over 1,000.  J.R. Cohen did a great job of networking and building his following.

Over time @CoffeGroundz has continued to use Twitter to build a following and has even taken an order through Twitter as well as hosted a Tweetup that produced many new customers as well as brought in a lot of business.

As of today (September 2, 2009) @CoffeGroundz now has over 7,800 followes on Twitter.

Case Study 5: City of Arvada Colorado

The City of Arvada in Colorado has jumped into Social Media and Social Networking tools and have embraced them 100%.   They currently are blogging (Inside the Center ), Micoblogging with Twitter (Twitter account), are using video (YouTube account) as well as sharing photos (Flickr photostream) and have a fan page set up on Facebook (Facebook fan page) .

Imbracing Social Media and Social Networking has allowed the City of Arvada to increase the ways it communicates with current residents as well as future residents.  This also helps build the citie’s image and reputation.

As you can see from the case studies above Social Media and Social Networking is being embraced by both large and small businesses as well as cities and is having a postitive impact.

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