So, if you own a small business or you work for a small business, and you’re tasked with the dreaded “social media” assignment, what should you do? Are you just going to look at the floor and hope the whole thing passes you by and that soon you’ll be able to go back to buying yellow page ads and wake up from this ridiculous online marketing nightmare? Or are you going to find some help?

If you need to attack the social media monster, there are three paths you can take.

1. Do It Yourself
2. Done With You
3. Done For You

Let’s say you decide to go the Do It Yourself route. This means you’re going to need to find training. Either you’ll need to attend some conferences or webinars, get some coaching, read some books or some combination of all of the above. You’ll need to come up with a plan for implementing the strategy you create in such a way that you still have time to run your business. There are tools out there that can help you with this. It can be done. But learning about social media is kind of like shaving– once you start, you’ve got to keep it up, so plan on budgeting time and money for continuing education on an ongoing basis.

Who should consider the Do It Yourself route? If you’re low on budget but have some extra time on your hands and have an interest in the social media and technology world, this may be an excellent fit for you.

What about Done With You solutions? This is more of a coaching/consulting model. You hire someone to get you started, maybe they do some of the implementation at the beginning, hold your hand along the way, continue to check in on you for at least the first 6-12 months. This person can be responsible for adjusting the strategy along the way and for keeping up with changes in the social media landscape. But you or one of your employees will be responsible for most of the heavy lifting. Long-term, implementation of the plan will fall squarely on your shoulders.

Who is a good fit for Done With You? If you have time (or staff) to handle writing regular blog posts, tweets or Facebook updates, but you don’t want to have to think too much about what to do when or if you learn best by seeing a plan modeled for you, this is a great opportunity for you. You can learn alongside someone who knows the landscape.

And, finally, Done For You. More and more business owners are finding that it is cheaper and more effective to hire a company to manage at least some aspects of their social media than to handle it in house. Let’s face it, if you hire someone, then you’re responsible for taxes, benefits and all sorts of other expenses beyond just a salary. And you don’t want to just pass off the responsibility of running a social media campaign to some already stressed assistant or salesperson. You can outsource as much of your social media campaign as you like– just make sure that you hire someone who is going to work closely with you to ensure that your company’s message, style and values are truly being represented. Keep an eye on what’s going on and make sure that you set measurable goals and check in to see if those are being met– just like you would with any other marketing strategy.

Should you find a Done For You solution? Maybe. If you go this route, it won’t take up a lot of your time. The main drawback of outsourcing your social media campaign is the expense. But if the choice is between hiring an outside company and hiring and employee, then bringing in some sort of contractor is almost always cheaper.

So, there you have it. You don’t have to panic. You just need to look at your resources and see what mix of time, money and interest you have. Then find a solution to help you move forward.

How can MantyWeb Designs help you? We offer solutions across the spectrum, from consulting to help you get started on the Do It Yourself path to Done For You services. In the coming months, we’re going to be expanding our service offerings to help you even more in this area. If you’d like to discuss how we can be of assistance, please call us or fill out our contact form.

On the other hand, there is some talk that Facebook Places is actually designed to take on Google Places. There’s also some chatter that Places will eventually replace Facebook business pages for the most part. If that’s true, then local businesses will want to make sure that they claim their Facebook Places listing to insure that any information about their business is correct. The good news is that some random person can’t claim your Places listing, as the claim process is pretty specific. You receive a phone call giving you a code at the number listed for your business or you will be required to provide documentation that the business is really yours.

In case you’re wondering how to claim your Facebook Places list, you’ll need an iPhone, or you’ll need to go to touch.facebook.com with your non-iPhone mobile phone. You’ll need to be at your business location. Do NOT check in from home, unless you have a home business, as Facebook will tag wherever you are as the location of the business. From there, the process is pretty easy. Check in at your location, and you will be asked “Is This Your Business?”. Then, you just need to follow the instructions moving forward from there.

If you’ve claimed your Places listing with Facebook, leave a comment and let us know how the process went.

Facebook recently passed Google as THE most visited site on the web. Facebook is now one of the best ways to promote your business online.  It began as a way to connect you with your high school friends and has evolved into perhaps the best way to reach your target market. You can begin your journey into promoting your business using Facebook by learning about all the fantastic applications available from Facebook.

So, what are the best Facebook Apps to use for promoting your business?

Well, here is a list of some of the best Facebook Apps for promoting your business and what they are used for:

• Promote Your Self or Your Business:  whether you are promoting yourself or your company, applications like Define Me, Testimonials, and iEndorse (where your “friends” contribute testimonials to endorse your company) and applications such as GLPrint Business Cards, Professional Profile, and Posted Items (Default App) which allows you to share your business contact information, upcoming activities or goals help to inform your clients about your company.
• Communicate to Your Customers: Applications such as Smart Phone, Telephone and CalliFlower allow you to make free phone calls and conference calls, whereas applications such as SmartMessage Center and Voice Mail allow you to send messages to groups and individuals or simply add sound to your profile.
• Network, Network, Network: Social Fly allows you to organize your contacts and add notes and reminders about each one, Tag Biz Business Network creates a cloud of descriptive words on your profile which link you to similar businesses and people, while Workin’ It! helps send your resume and recommendations from friends to potential customers and employers.
• Show them How it’s Done: You can share videos, product demonstrations, PowerPoint presentations through Facebook Video (Default App) and SlideShare, or you can utilize an application like  PodCast Player allows you to share your audio files.
• Promote your Blog: Networked Blogs app displays your blog as well as any other blogs you read on your Facebook Profile, while applications like Simplaris BlogCast links your blog to your profile, thus connecting your various promotions efforts and making it easier for you customer to find out more about you and your business.

Promoting your business on Facebook is something every business owner should be doing. There are many great Facebook Apps to help you do it. By using Facebook to connect with customers, you can communicate with them year-round, making it more convenient for both you and them.  And before you know it a majority of your leads will be coming to you because of your online presence!

Contact us if you are in the Houston Texas area and would like us to create a video for you.

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I talk to such owners frequently and when I ask about social media, the typical answer is typically something along the lines of “you mean Facebook?”. It’s impossible to leverage a tool when you don’t really understand it.

So, let’s answer the question. What is social media? There are a million definitions out there, but all the definitions have a few things in common. When you’re talking about social media, you’re talking about an internet or mobile application that involves user-generated content or feedback intended for public consumption. So, if there is a way for you, as the website visitor, to interact directly with the content of the page and others can see that interaction, it’s probably social media.

What about email? Is email a form of social media? It depends. If you are using email in a group setting, such as Yahoo groups or Big Tent, then that’s a basic form of social media. The content for that group is user-generated and intended for public consumption.

Private email is not social media, as it is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed. If email is like a letter in your mailbox, social media is like putting up a message on a billboard and allowing others to spray paint messages on your billboard in response.

Some other examples of social media include:

Blogs — Notice that there’s a comment at the bottom of this post. That means you can give feedback on this post, and we can have a conversation. That makes this a social media site.

Website polls — If you put a poll on your website, and people can vote and see the results, that is a basic form of social media.

Facebook — This is a pretty easy one to grasp. Everything on your Facebook page, whether it’s a personal page or a fan page, is created by you, your friends, your “fans” or someone who is reading the page.

Twitter — Again, it’s pretty easy to grasp why Twitter is a “conversation” tool. You don’t go to Twitter to read what the creators of Twitter have to say. You go to say something or ready something that some regular person (or not so regular person) had to say.

YouTube and other video sharing sites — Although it’s obvious when you think about it based on the above definition, many people don’t immediately think of YouTube as social media. But it is. Where does the content come from? Users. People can comment on that content and provide feedback. That’s social media.

Social bookmarking sites, such as Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon — For the sake of brevity, I’m lumping all of these together. Social bookmarking sites are websites made up entirely of links to articles that users have said are worthwhile reads. Users give content a thumbs up or thumbs down, and people can see the most popular articles on a given topic.

Websites that utilize Facebook’s new social media tools — This is a new option for changing any website into a social media site. Facebook now provides a suite of tools that allows you to incorporate some of Facebook’s features directly on your website. People can “like” your page and perform and see other Facebook actions without ever leaving your site. This is a great opportunity to include a social media aspect on a site without spending a fortune designing a brand new site.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all of the social media sites and applications that exist. But I hope it gives you a better idea of what people mean when they mention social media.

If you have any questions about how you can use social media on your website or to promote your business, please give us a call or contact us. We’re always happy to help.

Here are the top 7 reasons that every business should have a blog:

1. Traffic
Blogs give the Search Engines fresh new content on a regular basis, and that’s exactly what they love to see. Search engines reward most blogs by sending them more traffic. Now you do have to know a little about SEO, but even people who don’t have clue about SEO sometimes get great traffic from the Search Engines when they blog.

2. You Become Known As The Expert
When you write about your profession on a regular basis people start noticing you. Also, new people that come to your site will read your blog and instantly be able to tell that you know what you are talking about. Regular blogging about your profession makes you stand out as an expert in people’s minds.

For instance by having a blog and having it ranked high in the Search Engines, my wife Jill was able to get an interview with Cristy Yamaguchi. Why would they chose Jill? Because her blogging has helped her to become known as an expert on the Winter Olympics. In some ways, she is an expert on the Winter Olympics, but it’s not something she would have ever been if it weren’t for her blogging.

Becoming known as an expert increases the likelihood that people will buy your products and/or services. In fact, being known as an expert goes hand in hand with…

3. Trust
When people read your blog posts and interact with your by commenting your posts you build a level of trust with them that’s just not possible without a blog. Having a blog helps build trust, which is one of the biggest hurdles you have to get past to get people to buy from you.

4. Networking
Blogging is a great way to network both with your potential clients and with other people in your industry. I have made many great business contacts because of my blogs. Blogging and interacting with other people’s blogs is a great way to form relationships with potential clients and potential partners.

5. Branding
Blogging gives your brand a personal face. By writing about your business and providing helpful tips to both your customers and potential customers you are branding yourself not just as an expert, but as someone who cares about the people you are helping. For this to really work, you do have to care. It will show in the way you interact with your readers and it will build your personal brand. You have something unique to bring to the table that no other person in your profession has…

YOU!

By writing on a blog or putting out videos on a blog you are showing a side of yourself that makes it easier for your customers to relate to you. Which builds your unique personal brand along with the brand of your business.

6. Makes it easy to update content
Blogs make it very easy for you to add unique content to your site. This is very important to the Search engines and is one of several reasons that they rank so well in Search engines.

7. Makes Your Site Sticky
When you blog you are putting out new content on your site on a regular basis. People who like what they read on your blog will want to come back and read your frequently which makes your site “sticky” ie. a site that people want to come back to time and time again and a site that once they are there people want to stay and read more.

When all is said and done…

In summary, blogs are something every business needs if they want to maximize their profits through the web. So if you own a business and aren’t blogging… what are you waiting for? Get started now! You will be glad you did.

P.S. If you need help getting your blog set up, make sure to give us a call.

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This piece of news may change the way you look at Facebook. Last week Facebook surpassed Google as the most visited website on the internet. So, if you think you can ignore Facebook, does that mean you think you can ignore Google? Visitors to Google are still growing– up 9%. But visitors to Facebook were up… wait for it… 185%!

So, what does that mean for your business? There are a few things you should absolutely be doing.

Make sure your business has a fan page

Even if you have a personal page (which is better than nothing), you should really still have a fan page. It’s not that hard. Once you’ve set up the page, invite all your friends, colleagues and customers to become fans. Don’t have time or inclination to do that? Check out our services page for our social networking package.

Use Events

You can use Events to run specials, not just to run events. Having a March Madness sale? Create an event. It will automatically promote on your Facebook page. And when your fans RSVP, this information goes on their wall, going out to all of their friends, serving as an instantaneous promotion tool.

Post Regularly

It doesn’t have to be profound. Integrate Facebook with your company blog. Or your Twitter account. Send public thank yous to clients or employees. Give your clients hints for how to better utilize your services. Give them hints to make their lives easier. Post inspirational quotes sometimes. You don’t have to post every single day, but you should aim for at least once a week. Set aside 15 minutes a week (at least) to work on your social networking.

Obviously there’s a lot more you could do with Facebook. This is just the bare minimum. But it’s something every business can and should do to take advantage of the rising number of Facebook visitors.