One of the more raging debates and discourse you’ll hear in marketing and business circles is the value, the return on investment of social media. While there is no doubt that social media is a trend, but rather a distinct movement towards active consumerism, measuring the value to a company’s bottom line is much more complex. This week, the good folks over at MDG Advertising created a compelling and easy data visualization focused on the ROI of social media.

Infographic by MDG Advertising

Every company has a visual story to tell. Every. Single. One. And this year, we want you to start thinking of how to share your company, your talent, your product, your services through video.  We’re not talking ads (honestly who watches anything for the ads, except for the Super Bowl) we’re talking about you creating a compelling visual snapshot that share something different with your customers or clients.  Why? Two great reasons: 1) YouTube is the second largest destination for search on the whole web; and 2) according to Forrester Research, video indexes at a rate 50 times higher than text. 

First, grab a smart phone with a video feature or grab a Flip camera for about $120.  And since this whole series is about easy ways to get started, you’ll be happy to know that Flip cameras don’t require software or video training/editing skills. It’s all right there in the camera with it’s own easy steps. Videos for the web don’t need to be broadcast quality, they only need to be good for your web-based audience. Most videos that do well are short, say less than 2 minutes, so keep it in mind when creating your video. (By all means, if you have the cash, make it Oscar-worthy!)

Now, let’s get you started on YouTube in 5 easy steps approach:

1. Go to www.youtube.com and create an account

2. Click on the yellow “Upload” button on the right hand side, select video file.

3. On the new screen, press the button to “Upload Video File”

     a. Locate the file on your hard drive and select

     b. Now YouTube will start the upload

     c. Video cannot be longer than 10 minutes

4. While video is uploading, scroll down to add the

     a. Title – Use keywords that matter, think of how you’d search

     b. Description – Use keywords but be clear about what people will see

     c. Tags – Enter a listing of keywords related to the vide

     d. Category – Select the category which most closely matches your video

     e. Privacy – you’ll want to select Public for most videos

5. Now click on “Save Changes”

     a. You’ll see a message on the new screen that reads, “Success…”

     b. After the video is done loading, you’ll see a “Live” message and your video is now posted.

What makes great video? Share your expertise, answer a question, show a customer event, demonstrate a product, showcase your new offices and more. It’s about showing your customers something more than what they’d get from reading text. For example, if you’re a tire shop, share a short video on how to check the pressure in your tires. It’s a lot easier to see how to do it than how to read it in the car manual.

There is heaps more to spreading your videos around, but for now, create the visual and get started. Send us a link!

(Oh and the irony, we should have made this post a video. So noted.)

It’s already mid-January and on your to-do list was to get started with Twitter. It’s not too late – that’s the nice thing with social media – it’s rarely, if ever to late.  Twitter is a short-messaging platform with great reach to audiences, in fact, according to the research more than 51% of Twitter users will follow a brand or company. Twitter works on multiple levels and has far-reaching benefits. But let’s save the sales pitch and just help you get started. Here’s your step-by-step approach to setting up and to starting to tweet:

1. Go to www.twitter.com

2. Register as a new user

     a. You’ll need a Twitter user name (and yes you can change it later) so keep it simple and avoid punctuation or complicated spellings if possible

     b. You need a 100×10 image (also called an avatar)

     c. You need a bio – 140 characters; key words matter (searchability), if as you’re representing your company, state it (transparency) and finally, caution: this is public

NOTE ON MOBILE:  You can check Twitter and send Tweets from your mobile phone. In fact, many people use Twitter exclusively from mobile phones. On the home page of Twitter are options for downloads at the bottom of the page.  E.g. For the iPhone, HootSuite or Tweetdeck are free options and both are very easy to use; simply download and install from the Apps Store.

What Do I Say?

Now that is the real question isn’t it? The best way to think of what to post is: What has your attention right now?  While Twitter asks you, “what’s happening?” that’s not necessarily the right question to consider.  Describing, sharing, or posting what has your attention is a bit more specific, and quite honestly, interesting.

Tweets tend to fall into three categories: personal, conversational, and promotional.  Almost all successful people on Twitter blend these three categories.

How Do I Tweet?

1. To post a “tweet” simply enter in your 140 characters and hit update

2. If you need to include a URL, use http://bit.ly to save space

3. If you “re-tweet” someone else’s post, start it with RT @theirname

4. If you want to direct message (DM) someone simply exchange the “@” for a “d”

5. If you reply to someone, simply go to the right of their post and you’ll see an arrow icon, click on it. 

     a. this leads you to an update box that has @theirname in the box

     b. this is considered an “open conversation”

     c. take it to DM if you go to more than 3 back-and-forths, otherwise we’re all just eavesdropping

A few notes on etiquette:

• Understand this is social media and not broadcast media (or think of it as no one likes someone who only talks about themselves)
• Do not send off 20 tweets in a row or send tbd tweets – you can lose followers
• If you post someone else’s tweet, include the RT and credit in your post
• If you and another person have more than 3 replies on the same topic, take it offline or to email
• Some text-speak is common, such as “IMHO” (in my humble opinion)
• All of this is in a public domain – heed proper caution

Now there is a lot more to Twitter, but this will get you set up and get you started. There is lots of help out there to help explain how to follow people, the etiquette and the lingo to Twitter. But for now, just get started. And be sure to follow us at www.twitter.com/cloudspark.

In the New Year, you wanted to start a blog for your business or for fun, but you can’t seem to decide on WordPress and you just want to get started. Welcome to the land of so-simple-it’s-like-email and it’s called Posterous.

I like Posterous because of its simplicity, but also because it takes away the technical queasiness when you want to share a video or a photo album. It’s like having your tech-savvy friend take your email and make it a cool post.  It really is that simple, so let’s get started. Here are your step-by-step instructions on how to get started with Posterous:

1. Go to www.posterous.com and create an account.

     a. You’ll get a confirmation email from Posterous asking you to confirm your account.

2. After you sign in, you’ll be taken to the page below and asked to email your first post to the email address post@posterous.com

3. It’s perfectly normal to send a simple first-post such as an introduction

     E.g. This is James with MyBusiness. I’ll be sharing more about X, X, and X.  If you have questions, comments, or ideas for posting, feel free to email me at james(at)mycompany(dot)com. You can also include a photo of your business or other image or video.

4. Next, go back to your Manage page and select Settings this is the place you can add an avatar (photo), your name and professional contact information.

5. You can also change the background theme

     a. Go to My Posterous at the top of the page

     b. It will take you to your personal page

     c. At the top, select the “Posterous” button, it will expand and from there you can select Themes.

     d. Choose a background theme that suits you.

     e. Save changes at the end

6. You can post anytime by emailing post@posterous.com

    a. Common things to post include: Answers to commonly asked questions, New information on new services or products, Examples of good work or innovations working for clients, Photos of new offerings, Photos of teams in action, Videos related to your work, products, services,  

Monitor

Posterous allows you to receive auto-notifications when people comment, link, or respond to your post.

1. Under Manage, look for the Notifications option under Settings. 

       a. It’s a good idea to set up notifications around posts, links, comments.

2. If someone responds with a question, it’s a good idea to reply right there on the post so that others can read the answer as well.

Can I Comment on Post?

Posterous offers full commenting capability with the ability to enable anonymous comments as well as require Posterous, Facebook, or Twitter authentication. See the Commenting and Posting section of Settings from your Manage page.

Spreading the Post

This is one of the best features of Posterous, it will automatically help you spread your blog posts to other social networks.

1. Under Manage, you can select AutoPost

     a. This pulls up a menu of other social sites

2. You can select your posts to be automatically shared with other sites, for example, on Twitter

     a. This saves you from having to remember to share your good thoughts with other social sites, Posterous will do this automatically for you.

3. Be sure to save changes at the end

Posterous really is this simple. So if you’ve thought about creating a blog, but have stopped short because you thought it’d take too much time, well not any more. If you can send an email, you can blog.  You can always find answers on “how-to” at http://help.posterous.com/. Now send us a link!

It’s a New Year, and we want help you know how to take the basic steps in social media. So this whole month, we’re going to post a how-to social media series: Get Started.  Most of us procrastinate until we get past the first step and learn how easy it can be.

So we’re starting here, in WordPress, one of the most popular blogging and web platforms around.  If you’re considering a new website for your business or your blog, it’s the platform we recommend.  But once you’ve got the site, how do you create a new post?  Here are 8 easy step-by-step instructions on how to post on your WordPress blog/page:

1. Go to http://www.YOURWEBSITE.com/wp-admin/edit.php

2. Enter the username and password

3. When you get to the homepage, look on the left side, click on Posts, Click on Add New

a. Now you’ll see the page where you’re going to enter your content

                i. Enter your headline (think keywords here and keep it as short as possible)

ii. Enter the body of your copy (It’s a good idea to write it in Word and spell check it)

b.  If you want to add any visual or attachment:

i. Click on the icon at the top of the place where you put in the body of content, you’ll see “Upload/Insert” and a few icons

First icon is for a photo

Second icon is for a video

Third icon is for music

Fourth icon is for “media” which could be a PDF or other file

(Okay, you’ve got the content in – great!)

4. Right hand side of the page, enter in the Post Tags

a. These are your keywords, so think search engine kind of phrases here

5. Under Tags, you’ll see Categories

a. Select as many of the categories as this post applies to, e.g. events

(You’re nearly all done)

6. At the top right is the Publish section, y ou can “Preview” the post to see how it looks

7. You can publish “Now”

a. Or you can pick a previous date, time or future date, time

8. Ready? Click “Publish”

Ta-da! That’s the easy basics, it really is that simple. Now send us your first post. Or send us feedback on a few steps you might add in the mix.

As someone working everyday in the social media space, I get asked a lot, a lot, about social media policies.  While you can refer to a near encyclopedia of examples and build a behemoth with legal, HR and a “committee” – more than likely you’ll end up with a document that few people will read and even fewer will follow.  With more employees using smart phones and easier ways to circumvent blocks at work, you’re assured that folks are going to engage in social media. (Something I strongly encourage, after all, it’s about listening, collaboration – who doesn’t want that in their company culture?)

Instead of a laborious policy that no one reads and sits in a perfectly bland 3-ring binder in a cabinet somewhere, look to keep it as simple as possible. My take? Seven rules (tenets, principles, points, whatever you call them) to compose nearly any effective social media policy:

Social media policies are only useful if people can read them - in less than 10 minutes.

1. Be smart: You are bound by your company’s policies and by common sense, even on social media channels.  Everything you say online is in the public space and is permanent, act accordingly.
2. Be responsible: You are responsible to any content, conversation or comment you post.
3. Be truthful: All information posted should be factual and accurate, and also atrributed properly if you’re quoting someone else or his/her research. Contribute to content or conversations that are within your area of expertise. If you come across any area of concern on a social media channel, direct the link to the appropriate expert or product manager. If it’s a legal issue or question, simply pass that link with a request for review and comment to your company’s Legal Department (or if you’re in a smaller company, send it to HR or the boss). In the same notion, if you make a mistake, admit it and correct it quickly.
4. Be transparent: Fully disclose your status an employee/contractor with your company.
5. Be sensitive: Do not post or reference confidential information related to the company or any of its products.  (You’d think this would be obvious, but plenty of folks post inside intell into the company’s prospects, products, or personnel. See first point above.)
6. Be polite: Online communities are not the place to disparage competitors, coworkers, vendors or anyone related to the work and products of your company. Social media is not the place to get into any online exchange that could be construed as negative or bickering. If you can post a factual correction to misstated facts related to products or services, do so simply, factually and politely.
7. Be secure: Read and understand the security policies, terms of agreement of every social media channel in which you engage. Only allow “pop-ups” if you know and trust the source. Check with IT before opening or running any “.exe” file.

What do you think? What might you add, takeaway, or fill-in?

And yes, feel free to “borrow” this to start your own social media policy. And if you want your people to be socially-sensible and successful, send over a note.

We’re big fans of TED and thankful they share the videos from their incredible roster of speakers.  This talk from Nicholas Christakis discusses the influence of  our vast social networks of friends, family, co-workers and more. He tracks how a wide variety of traits — from happiness to obesity — can spread from person to person, showing how your location in the network might impact your life in ways you don’t even know.  After watching the video, we were left with two questions: what’s the influence of our own network? are we even aware of its influence on us?

What do you think? What’s the influence of your network?

We originally created a list of a dozen upcoming social media conferences and events in Atlanta.  Since that posting more than a month ago, we updated, revised and added to the list ending up with 17 events.  Rather than continuing to update a dated post, enjoy this fresh post with the 13 upcoming social media conferences and events, from today to the end of the year, happening here in the ATL.

If you are coming to any of these conferences or headed to Atlanta for the first time, let’s be social and connect while you’re here.  And the * notation? Consider it a disclaimer because we’ll be presenting.

(Know about a conference we missed? Send us an email and let us know.)

Inspired by Mashable’s 100 Upcoming Social Media and Technology Conferences list, we cracked open our planners and decided where we could invest our time in learning this fall. We decided on a few national conferences, opted for a few marketing, technology, and PR meetings, but when we got to the topic of social media, we were nearly crushed with the options. While we’d like to go to BlogWorld and APPNation, we needed to consider just how much time we could spend out of the office and our carbon footprint (Jenny’s traveling to speak in Houston at IS Conference and in San Diego at LavaCon). To save on time, we considered only social media conferences and events in Atlanta. To our surprise, we found a dozen* (this post started as 12, but with your input, it’s now at 17) social media conferences and meetings in Atlanta happening before the calendar flips to the new year. What’d we find? Take a look:

 While we’re narrowing down our options, reviewing speakers, and the value we’d get for our time out of the office, tell us how you decide on what conferences to attend? If you are coming to any of these conferences or headed to Atlanta for the first time, let’s be social and connect while you’re here. (Know about a conference we missed? Send us an email and let us know.)

*Thanks to Scott Lockhart (@scott_regator) for sending us the info on Mashable’s Atlanta event on Sept. 30; to Lane Bailey for sending us info about REBarCamp on Oct. 1; to Brandy Nagel (@benang) for the info on TedxPeachtree; to Stephen Boyd for sharing more about the digital/social media track at the IABC conference.

 We knew this town was busy.

Earlier this week, we shared a small social experiment – we were able to discover key details and specific information by browsing the social media profiles of four people we recently met at a local networking event.  The results surprised us and got us thinking more about how casual people tend to be in very public places online.

Are you careful about what you say in public places? Do you ever really know who you’re talking to at a party? Do you mind if people eavesdrop your conversations at Starbucks? Do you let people read your laptop screen while you sit on the airplane? You’re probably socially attuned to all of these and careful about information that you’re revealing when you’re interacting this way in the real world, but you think differently about privacy in the online world. People tend to have this inflated presumption of privacy and they’re less careful about what they reveal. If fact, your privacy expectations and behaviors may be altered if you begin to think about a reality analog to the different types of social situations that you’re encountering through social media. You would probably be surprised how much people can learn about you because of the way you’re treating the online world differently than you act in the real one.

Let’s look at real-world analogies of the most common social networking sites and see how it might make you think differently about your privacy expectations. When you interact with people on Facebook, think of it as how you might act at a wedding reception. You either know everyone there or you have met a lot of them or, at the very least, you trust that they’re ok because the bride and groom invited them there. So you can let your guard down a little bit, share pictures, even drink a little too much and say stupid stuff. But you don’t really know everyone there, do you? You can’t be sure that everybody there was invited to the wedding. So you can’t completely trust everyone there, but on Facebook you pour your heart and personal information out on the table for everybody to sort through it.

If Facebook is a wedding reception, then Twitter is neighborhood bar on a Thursday night. You know a couple of people there, maybe even some good friends, but you have to assume everything you do and say in that bar might be heard by anybody. And you have no idea who those people are or if you can trust them. And who is the creepy guy that’s hanging around and listening to everything you have to say? You might reveal some personal things to your friends, but other people are listening.

If Twitter is a neighborhood bar, then social sites like Chatroulette or adults in MySpace are a shady nightclub downtown. You can’t really trust anything you hear or see there, but you might go there to let loose and have fun sometimes. Or maybe you just go there for bands that you like. You’re definitely going to see a different crowd at that nightclub then you might at the wedding reception last weekend, so you probably are going to put your guard up a little bit. You definitely can’t trust much of anything you see or hear there, and there might even be illegal things around. Plus, nightclubs never seem to stay open for very long.

If you don’t go to bars, then LinkedIn is much like your last professional networking meeting. You go to those types of events to meet like-minded people and to make contacts for business development, job searching or to just grow your network. You have casual and professional conversations with people and hand out business cards, but you don’t normally walk around handing out resumes. But that’s what you do on LinkedIn, right? Except on LinkedIn, the whole world can read all of those details, not just the self-selective group at your networking event. And again, these are people that are a step above strangers off the street, but you’re still not going to reveal tons of personal details to them until you get to know them, or when you run into them at a wedding.

If people thought about these real-world situations a bit when they are interacting socially in the online world, perhaps they would reveal a little bit less. Would you walk in a bar and tell everyone all of that?

If you’re on social media, guess what? You reveal more than you know.