May 10th, 2010
You’ve heard about Twitter right? You join about 87% of Americans who’ve heard of it, but maybe you’re part of the 93% who haven’t ventured to try it for personal or for business. While there are lots of case studies to show innovate ways to use Twitter and proof it leads to sales, you just don’t know how to start or if you should. You’re not alone.
We frequently present on Twitter for business. It’s so important to help people get started, especially businesses, that Twitter posts a Twitter for Business Guide on its homepage. But before you get there, let us help you with the first steps.
This presentation was given at Atlanta’s Freelancer’s Forum last week. While a lot of learning happened off the screen, these are the basic steps to get start in and understand more about the world’s most popular short-message platform.
Let us know if it helped you!
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Tags: business, Chris Brogan, first steps, marketing, social media, Twitter 101, Twitter get started, Twitter Guide
Posted in marketing, small business, social media | 3 Comments »
April 14th, 2010
As a dedicated team, we consider ourselves fortunate to work with entrepreneurs who take their ideas, apply labor, mix it with passion, and strive to bring new ideas, products and services to the world. We’re fond of people who decided to ‘go out on a limb’ because something inside drove them to step outside of the expected and journey to the unknown.
So for you – our valued and inspirational clients – we offer this quote from Goethe, written in the early 1800s. Consider it a note from an esteemed philosopher echoing from the past hearkening to you today asking you to keep your commitment to be bold.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
Thank you for the opportunity to be part of your passion.
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Tags: client, communication, dedication, Entrepreneur, Goethe, passion, spark
Posted in small business | 1 Comment »
March 28th, 2010
As part of the planning process, we always talk about the issue of social media budgets before we start with a single tweet, post, comment, or video. Sure social media channels are free, but to create, develop and maintain your brand’s efforts, consider these 8 questions before you get started:
- What is/are our goal/s in social media?
- What social media channels make the most sense for your goal/s?
- Do you have staff already available to enter into social media?
- Will any staff need training in social media? If yes, how many hours of training will be required?
- Who will develop your social media channels?
- Who will maintain your social media outreach?
- Who will develop and who will track your results within social media?
- How much time can realistically be allocated to social media each week/month?
What do you think? What questions might you add to build your social media bu
dget?
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Tags: budget, budgets, planning, social media, Social Media budgets
Posted in small business, social media | No Comments »
February 11th, 2009
How do you evaluate the Consultant 2.0?
Just about everyone that is even remotely Web-savvy these days throws around the term “Web 2.0″ (or “social media”) to evoke the evolutionary Web technologies that are enabling rich, interactive and collaborative Web experiences. These experiences are changing the way we interact with people and information. But what is not well understood is how these experiences and enabling technologies should change and elevate your expectations of consultants that you hire to help grow your business. If you are in the market for consulting services in the areas of marketing, communications, sales, business development or recruiting, you should expect a deeply engrained understanding and daily use of the very Web 2.0 ideas that may have left your business behind.
Here are three things you should look for when evaluating your prospective business partner’s understanding of the brave new Web:
1. To be an expert, they have to use it extensively. You wouldn’t hire a landscaper if you drove by their house and saw a weedy front lawn and untrimmed hedges. And you wouldn’t hire a personal trainer that is overweight. If someone says they believe in the transformative potential of Web 2.0, then you need to see proof that they understand it deeply and that they leverage it for the benefit of their own benefit. Do they have a Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace presence? Do they use Twitter or conventional blogs to communicate and collaborate? Or do they have a boring, static Web page that’s difficult to find in search engines? If they don’t understand Web 2.0 enough to raise the awareness of their business, then they can’t do it for yours.
2. If they believe in it, they should stick with it. Your candidate consultants have doubtlessly faced questions about Web 2.0, social networking, etc. so they have likely looked into it and started using it, getting past the first criterion. However, did they just sign up for all of these things to check off items on their Web presence to-do list? Did they create accounts everywhere to get started, then fell quiet? Is their information on all of the various social media and social networking sites stale and abandoned? If they signed up for Twitter and use it once every three weeks, they don’t understand it. If they created a blog, but the last post is from 2006, they don’t believe in it. If they have a corporate MySpace presence but no friends, they don’t see the value in it. If they don’t believe in this stuff for their own benefit, then they will not do you any good with it.
3. How careful are they with their social media identity? For those that do have a modern Web presence, you should peer into their online identity to catch a glimpse of what they think about themselves and their customers. What are they writing about? Who do they associate with? Are there other people talking about them? Are they careful about potentially sensitive information? If they’re not smart caretakers of their own online identity, then they definitely won’t be responsible with yours.
What do you think?
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Tags: Consultant, Consulting, Evalution, marketing, social media, Web 2.0
Posted in marketing, organizational strength, small business, social media | 3 Comments »
