The Power of Information, Networking, and Social Media

Here is an excellent video about the effects of technology and social media on our world. I thought it was crazy that 90% of customers trust peer recomendations and only 14% trust advertisements. This one fact alone informs businesses that advertising isn't what it used to be. Now, the best and most efficient way to advertise to your customers is to get people to talk about your products and services on social media sites and to comment on their experiences. Hope you enjoy the video!

3 Ways Social Media Can Ruin Your Career

I read an interesting article on the internet today about the negative side effects of social media. First off, joining a social media network can be helpful to starting your career, but as we shall see it can be detrimental as well. When done right and maintained properly, social media can enhance your career; but one false move and it can come back to haunt you in the future. Here are a few social media moves you should think twice about doing: 1.) Being too opinionated; 2.) Allowing photos of yourself to be posted or tagged; and 3.) Using foul or inappropriate language.

If you are voicing a strong opinion, you might want to be careful about how free your speech is, especially in regard to the following topics: religion, politics, race and employers. When talking about religion or politics, you have your own values that you strongly believe in and are proud of, but there's no need to attack someone else's. The same goes for complaining about employers while you are still under their employment. A future employer might stumble across your profile, read comments from months or even years ago, and decide you are not a suitable. The article provided an example, in which someone updated their status on Facebook to “bored at work.”  The final result, her boss saw the post and she was fired.

The best line of defense with regards to photographs is to not have any questionable photographs taken at all. The article provided an example of a teacher posting photographs on Facebook from a trip to Paris. There was alcohol in her picture and guess what? She was fired for it.

With regards to using foul or inappropriate language, just keep it clean and you will have nothing to worry about. There is always an element of risk when posting online, especially under your social media profiles because you can't always control who is going to be reading or watching it. If nothing else, familiarize yourself with privacy settings and keep in mind that the internet remembers everything.

Small Businesses and Social Media

I read an interesting article tonight about social media and small businesses. The story talked about how Ivy Guiler, a social media specialist, created a job for herself by helping small businesses with their online marketing strategies. A local Ace Hardware store wanted her to do a presentation about social media and to give them tips about how to get involved with it. Turns out, that Ace Hardware store created a Facebook page and it was an instant success. Small businesses alike enjoy using Facebook because it makes a more personal "relationship" with the customer and its easy to use. Facebook is a perfect medium for advertising your business to potential customers and it makes it easy to invite people to events. It also helps the businesses better understand their customers and makes it easier to communicate with them. Some businesses view Facebook as a relationship building tool rather than an advertising opportunity. Click on this link to read the article: http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=96533

New Social Media

Before Facebook, Myspace was king. However, times have changed and Facebook has become the most popular networking site available. Is Facebook going to remain on top? Or is there room for more potential? Color, a new photo application, thought there was more room for potential and created a free social networking photo application for mobile phones. Click this link to read the full article: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/new_photo_app_called_color_is_1.html

1st Annual 5K Run and 1M Walk Benefit

Hi everyone! I know this is short notice but I just signed up for a 5K run this Saturday (March 26,2011) to benefit the disabled and disadvantaged individuals of Western and Central MA. I hope some of you can sign up! The road race starts and finishes at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame @ 10:00 a.m. in Springfield, MA. Click on this link to register! HRUn4FUN! run2overcome. Your participation in either the 5K run or 1M walk will help demonstrate that diversity and inclusion can be a reality for all!!

Small Businesses Seek Word of Mouth

In a recent American Express survey of small business executives, 82% responded that they get their new customers from word of mouth. This is exactly how social media sites work, people tell other people about interesting and useful things, and share useful and interesting places. People respond to insight from other people because they view them as more trustworthy than listening to an advertisement on television telling you how great their product is. The most common online marketing techniques currently used by small businesses are company websites at 86%, social media at 44%, and search advertising at 21% of all businesses. If you want to read this article, click on this link:http://communication-solutions.tmcnet.com/topics/communication-solutions/articles/157167-why-social-media-perfect-small-businesses.htm

5 Great New Social Media Strategies

I was skimming through the news archives on Google today and an article caught my eyes, so I decided to take a look at it. The title of the article was “5 Great New Social Media Strategies.” It basically discussed the effects of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn on businesses and how effective they are. The article also mentioned five great new social media strategies that businesses should engage in to market themselves. They are as follows:

1. Claim your business profile on Yelp. If you have a storefront or office, you absolutely must list it on Yelp. Why? Because Yelp has a great mobile app that is very popular for finding products and services when you are on the road. It is quicker and easier to use than Google's iPhone search app, making your store hours, phone, and location instantly accessible to the large group of Yelp users.

2. Improve your business search results with a listing on Google Places. In its recent efforts to improve search results, Google now gives greater weight to local data, most notably from its own Google Places. The first step is to simply Google your company name, then locate it on the Google map for your area. Like Yelp, you then claim your business identity (creating a Google account if you don't already have one) and are able to add lots of information about your business.

3. Engage with other experts in your field on Quora. One stand-out social media tool isQuora.com, which operates on a simple premise: there should be a place to go on the web for clear, concise answers to specific questions. With a minimum of hype and noise, Quora does just that. It is an excellent way to increase your visibility and connect with others interested in similar topics. Its interface is also clean and relatively easy to master, unlike Facebook with its endless settings and options.

4. Create big value with a very small camera. If there is one gadget that will do more to boost your online presence than anything other than your phone, it is a video camera. Whether you use your iPhone 4, a Flip camera, or something else, the technology is well within your grasp to create short, fun videos on topics of interest to your customers, and upload them to your website, blog, Facebook page, or YouTube channel in minutes.

5. Join or create a group for local events on Meetup. If you regularly hold informational meetings about your business, consider expanding your reach by listing them on Meetup.com. And if you want to network with others in your area with similar interests, you are most likely to find them on Meetup. Unlike most tools mentioned so far, Meetup results in actual face-to-face meetings with like-minded people from your own area. It gives event planners the tools to set maximum attendance levels, send out reminders before the meeting, and easily keep in touch with group members.