Have you ever thought about building your own social network? You can do it in 15 minutes for less than $3 per month. Imagine everything that Facebook offers, tailored to your specific purpose, totally under your control. I’ve built five such networks and will likely build many more. The secret is www.Ning.com. Q: Why would you want your own social network? A: Because it’s a more efficient and effective means of connecting and communicating than the methods you’re using now (newsletters, email, website). Unlike a website, a Ning network is fully interactive and requires no programming. Instead, you edit just … Read more »

In today’s crazy, noisy, hyper-accelerated social media world, your choice is to be known for one thing… or none. Social media is fabulous in that, in contrast to your email blasts, newsletters, and direct mail, Google sees your blog posts, Tweets, and Yelps. That helps your business get found at the very moment when someone goes searching for exactly what you offer. But if you’re Yammering about something different every time you check-in, thousands of other businesses will appear higher in the Google results than you do. Even just a dozen or two above you means that you’re an Internet … Read more »

The best sales people don’t work at your company. Fighting words? Read on and decide for yourself. The Internet recently marked its fortieth birthday. For the first, say, thirty-eight years, it brought us an exponentially increasing tsunami of information with one big caveat. The source of much of that information was unknown, suspect, or worse. I recently learned that 63.2% of statistics are made up. That stipulated, it turns out that only 14% of us trust the advertising and marketing being trumpeted by businesses. Shocked that people aren’t buying as soon as they discover your website? On the other hand, … Read more »

When I was young, the one super power I deeply desired was extra sensory perception — ESP. I wanted to know what people were thinking. Now, thanks to Twitter and other social media services, I’ve acquired an ability that very closely approximates it. It took the Twitter team three years to figure out that this version of ESP is the most interesting thing they created. As a result, they’ve redesigned their home page to focus on it. When you go to site without signing in, there it is: The most popular topic this minute… this day… this week. As I … Read more »

I have seen the future of advertising! It’s interesting and interactive, and at least for the moment it’s free. Welcome to the rapidly evolving world of social media for business. Two excellent examples of such “ads” are by Blendtec, a commercial blender manufacturer (B2B), and by T-Mobile, a cell service provider (B2C). You might not even recognize these as ads and that’s the point; they’re part product demo, part entertainment. Possibly borrowing the idea from Saturday Night Live (recall the Super Bass-O-Matic ’76), George Write, Blendtec’s Director of Marketing, created a kitschy video series, “Will It Blend”. He convinced his … Read more »

Social media and social networking are quickly becoming “de rigueur” for business. A recent study by the Chicago-based firm, Slack Barshinger, showed that small and medium businesses are getting “heavily involved with social media, with about half using blogs, wikis, Twitter or other social media channels for business purposes.” If your company and team are not yet engaged, it’s time to jump in before your competitors beat you to the punch; and “punch” is an apropos term. This is not your father’s marketing. When participating in social media, here are ten basic rules for what to do and not do: … Read more »

Facebook… Business… Facebook… Business… These words don’t go together, do they? In the early days (so many weeks ago), Facebook was just about connecting with “friends”. Let’s face it; your business does not have friends. Ideally, it has satisfied or maybe even delighted customers given that you fulfill their needs more effectively than do your competitors. In Facebook lingo, these people are “fans”. That brings us to one of the BIG ideas behind social networking for business. Much of yesterday’s business communications was monologue. Brochures, press releases, direct mail, and advertisements only go one-way: out! What if you and your … Read more »

In my previous column, I talked about using social media to build your small business.  In this second column about using social media to accelerate business growth, let’s talk about that sizzling new sensation called Twitter. Twitter Explained For the Small Business Owner and CEO Twitter is an effortless service that allows you to broadcast messages of up to 140 characters to everyone who opts to follow your “tweets.” Need a sense of how that drives concise communication? Count the characters in the first paragraph, or the second, or this one; exactly 140! You get the point, but there’s more … Read more »

This is the first column of a continuing series of articles addressing new developments and applications in the world of social networking and social media services, with an important twist. It isn’t for kids and consumers as you might expect; rather it’s all about how businesses and organizations are using these new tools to enhance communication with their key constituencies, improving marketing, customer support, sales, and even their products and services. What’s Social Networking? According to Wikipedia, “A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the … Read more »

I’m writing this column for the first time directly on my iPad. I’m using this device in places I’ve never used a computer before: On my sofa reading The Wall Street Journal, in my bed streaming NetFlix movies, and presently propped comfortably on my Southwest Airlines tray table flying from the ‘Burgh to the windy city (an allusion to Chicago politicians more than the weather, although tonight 65,000-foot cumulonimbus clouds delayed us for hours). You don’t have to be a social media expert to know that Southwest is an entertaining airline. Many of their flight attendants are comedians, singers, and … Read more »