Id33B5: 11 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community

sâmbătă, 21 ianuarie 2012

11 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community

11 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community


Pinterest: The Growing Visual Bulletin Board for Brands

Posted: 21 Jan 2012 12:15 PM PST

If you've been living under a social media rock recently, you might not have heard of Pinterest – a new social bookmarking site that emphasizes images. Users of the invite-only network "pin" images linked to web pages onto their own custom visual bulletin boards. Companies large and small have been figuring how to engage with the fast growing user base; Experian Hitwise reported that Pinterest has 40 times the number of visits than 6 months ago and more than 3 millions users.

Right now certain brands are benefiting from the most engaged group of users – at least 60% of users are women around 25-44. This demographic has been a boon for companies like Whole Foods, Nordstrom, Martha Stewart, and Real Simple who focus on lifestyle trends, clothing and shopping. Users can follow brands' and friends' Boards which puts every new pin into that user's stream.

Pinterst Whole Foods Board

Using Pinterest for Your Brand

Brands that sell consumer goods and image-heavy websites have made the biggest splash on the site so far. Whole Foods has boards for holiday planning, recipes and their philanthropic works. Real Simple Magazine has boards for recipes, decorating ideas, and more. However, Pinterest clearly stats that it's not for solely self-promotion, so you must get creative with your profile. A few examples include:

  • Run contests – Lands' End Canvas was one of the first to run a success contest where users created a "Pin It to Win It" board for a chance to win one of 10 gift cards. This made fans become brand advocates and promote their favorite products.
  • Market research – try testing new products or ideas with your followers first to gain feedback. The ability to "like" and comment on Pins creates an online focus-group for companies.
  • Personalize your company – post images of your employees, events, office, etc to give fans insights into your company culture.
  • Sell more products – although Pinterest doesn't want brands to focus solely on self-promotion, they do offer the ability to feature eCommerce goods. By adding a $ sign to a description automatically places a price banner across the top corner of the photo, enticing users to follow through to the product page. This has been beneficial for artists and designers of unique hand-made goods.

Another added benefit of using Pinterest is with SEO. For each Pin there are two links back to the original source web page, one of which is "followed" by search engines and gives more weight to that inbound link. So whenever applicable, remember to pin your own content and encourage users to do so as well. The only question is how long that will last as Pinterest grows. One of the two links was recently switched to no-follow and the other could easily be switched as well.

Getting Started with Pinterest

At the moment Pinterest is still invite only, but with its growing popularity your odds are high that a female might be able to send you an invite. Pinterest does have a sign-up form for invite, but that appears to be a long waiting line. If you have been lucky enough to join, what benefits have you seen from using it so far? What creative ideas could you use to engage users?

Facebook Bug Turns Numbers into Names

Posted: 21 Jan 2012 11:15 AM PST

Facebook bug alert! Until Facebook fixes it, you can type random numbers into a sequence and watch them turn into a first and last name. No, really.

Try posting a status update or leaving a comment using this sequence: @[XXX:Y] — but insert random numbers into it.

I used this sequence: @[602:0] and got this name: Jenny Lykken. I had Bryan Laurienti try it, our lead graphic designer, and he got this name: Surajit Saha.

Weird, huh? Facebook has not commented on the bug yet, but when they do, I'll update this blog post.  For the moment, though, the bug remains a mystery.

But just like the Double Rainbow guy, I have to ask, "What does it mean?"

Update: One of our programmers, Brian Poole, says the random numbers are actually Facebook user IDs. He somehow figured out what numbers to use to make his name come up and mine as well… That’s what you get when you work with robot/human hybrids. They ruin all the fun.

What Social Media Teaches us about Self Hypnosis

Posted: 21 Jan 2012 11:00 AM PST

I'm learning more and more about self hypnosis, meditation and relaxation as my pregnant belly grows and the indubitable labor approaches. With tools in hand, such as self hypnosis and relaxation, you can use your mind to get through challenging or discomforting times. And that makes you feel more prepared. At least, it does for me.

But how does social media play a role?

Social media and self hypnosis are practically one in the same. Self hypnosis is about focusing and leaving certain thoughts behind. As we scroll through our Facebook and Twitter feeds, we almost forget the world around us. We become engulfed in this pocket of social conversations, even if it's only for a few minutes.

Think about it.

How often do you start on Facebook and end up at some website that came from a video that came from a friend of a friend's wall? We get so entrenched that we don't know how we got to the final destination, how long we've spent on the social site and why we came there in the first place. That's a dose of self hypnosis.

This is nothing new. In fact, we are in a self-hypnotic state quite often. At work, we become so focused that we lose track of time and even forget where we are. We're dedicated and honing in on the task at hand. That's self hypnosis and the social media experience is no different.

What can we do about it? Embrace it. After all, it's a great way to keep your mind off the more discomforting stuff. I like Flipboard because I can cater my social media viewing experience to things like peaceful Instagram photos with an effortless swipe.

Do you agree that you can learn a few things about self hypnosis through social media? Share your thoughts.

Surveys Reveal the Maturing State of Social Media

Posted: 21 Jan 2012 10:05 AM PST

A couple of studies were completed recently which point to the pervasive state of social media today. eConsultancy, a digital publishing and training group worked with a couple of companies to create the State of Social Report 2011. In addition, Neilsen published the Social Media Report Q3 2011. Combined, the message can be heard loud and clear. Social media has permeated our society in a big way:

  • Social networks and blogs consume almost a quarter of American's time online.
  • Nearly 4 out of 5 active internet users visit social networks and blogs.
  • Close to 40% of Americans access social media content from their mobile phones.
  • 64% of businesses say they are no longer in an experimental stage when it comes to social media – up 10% from the year before.
  • 52% of businesses use Facebook and 50% use Twitter.
  • 80% of businesses have integrated social media activity with their email marketing. Blogs and video are also part of many company's strategies.

"Social media has moved well beyond the land-grab phase, and this latest research unlines the fact that brands are now taking this seriously and embracing the opportunity that this presents to connect to their customers base." Said Lyndsay Menzies, CEO of bigmouthmedia. "The increased convergence of the channels, in particularly search and social media, is fuelling adoption as awareness, advocacy and acquisition become intrinsically linked."

It seems clear that companies have a wonderful integrated marketing opportunity staring them in the face. Instead of focusing on one channel such as television to reach prospective buyers, you now have multiple channels to deploy a integrated strategy. For instance, you combine TV, radio, email, QR codes, landing pages, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin – all on one single marketing program.

Are you ready to embrace your integrated marketing future?

Photo: iStockPhoto.com

Google+ for SEO? Don’t Focus on Your Brand Page!

Posted: 21 Jan 2012 09:15 AM PST

Google, Plus Your World was rolled out just over a week ago, and the online world has adopted the rallying call to get onto Google+ for the SEO benefits.

Multiple articles point to brand pages as the solution. Publications from mainstream (Mashable wrote "get your Google+ brand page into as many influential people's circles as possible") to niche (HelloBloggerz.com wrote "brands need to invest more time into promoting their Google Plus brand pages") are misleading marketers.

The problem is, Google+ Brand Pages are not the ticket to SEO success. In fact, if you focus your Google+ efforts on your new brand page, you will miss the most important search benefits of Google+.

How "Google, Plus Your World" Works: A Brief Summary

Google, Plus Your World adds search results from your circles to Google's traditional search results. To see SEO benefits from Google+, your site, pages and content need to become part of "Your Audience's World" on Google+.

To maximize the traffic benefits, you need the Google+ account that shared the information to be an account your audience trusts. When this happens, you are in "Your Audience's Trusted World". This is the position that will improve search ranking and traffic.

Getting Into Your Audience's Trusted World

There are three ways to get into Your Audience's Trusted World. Each has its challenges.

1. Your Brand Shares Content With Its Audience
When your brand shares content, your brands followers will be more likely to see that content in Google search results along with your logo.

Brand pages for SEO benefit have three key challenges:

  • Developing an audience. There is no notification when you circle someone through your brand page (and hence no opportunity for reciprical follower development).
  • Brands are not people. Following and engaging with people is more natural than engaging with brands, particularly lesser-known brands that don't already have a strong following that naturally will migrate to social media.
  • A brand's recommendation doesn't create an endorsement. Of course Ford Motor Company has shared information about the new Ford vehicles and Ford.com. In this case, Ford doesn't have the necessary independence to to recommend a vehicle or a review.

Example: Included in search results for "best cars" because it was shared by Ford on Google+: Ford.com. Since it was shared by Ford (not a personal connection I would trust to have an unbiased view) this isn't a recommendation I trust.

2. Your Employee Shares Content With Their Audience
Even if you have a well recognized brand, your employees are in more people's circles than your brand page is. When your employees share your content, it will be in more of Your Audience's Trusted Circles, as your employees have also established a level of trust with their connections.

Having your employees share your content presents its own unique challenges.

  • Process. G+ still offers very limited automation, so employees need to be notified and then manually share content.
  • Business and Personal separation. Many people separate their business and personal activity. Having employees share your businesses content may require changing corporate and employee culture.

How much further can employees reach?

According to Wikipedia, Ford has 164,000 employees. On Google+, Ford Motor Company is in 4,968 people's circles.

The first 27 employees of Ford listed in Google+ search results (excluding Scott Monty) are in 9,923 people's circles. Or put another way, just 0.016% of Ford's employees can reach nearly twice as many people on Google+ as Ford's brand page can, without including Scott Monty's following of nearly 23,000.

3. Other People Share Your Content With Their Audience
Third parties have the greatest independence, their recommendation of your content will have the greatest influence.

You have complete control over your brand page and have considerable influence over employees. When you focus on other people, you need to rely on the same three keys to social sharing you should be using in other social channels:

  • Make your content easy to share. If Google+ is a key focus, you will want to experiment with the placement of the +1 button.
  • Create content that is worth sharing.
  • Promote your site and content to your audience.

In Summary

Can a brand page help? Yes, it certainly can. Some of the search benefits of Google+ Brand Pages were documented well before Google, Plus Your World was released. However, if your objective is to capitalize on SEO improvements using Google, Plus Your World, you need to get into Your Audience's Trusted World through employees and independent sharing.

Your Turn

Does your Google+ strategy consider the role your employees play in the visibility of your company? Share your approach or opinion in the comments below or with me on Twitter (@wittlake) or Google+.

Why Your Business Should Take Social Media as Seriously as Intel

Posted: 21 Jan 2012 09:00 AM PST

Why Your Business Should Take Social Media as Seriously as Intel

Social media and collaboration are here to stay — at least, that's the approach Intel takes with its aggressive and comprehensive deployment of social media. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the most well-known social media products on the web, and Intel was an early adopter, having created Twitter and Facebook pages in 2008.

But Intel's commitment to social media actually goes back further, to 2003, when the company launched its first blog on Intel.com. Chris Peters, a director of industry engagement for Intel, reflected on the company's social history in a post on the company's Open Port IT community.

At first, our internal solutions were basic one-size-fits-all solutions, offered as nice to have optional service to help employees connect with each other more socially than for any targeted business reason. However, over time, we have continued to expand our solutions offering to include a broader mix of capabilities, including enterprisewide global collaboration tools, corporatewide communication forums, technical support communities, and line of business specific solutions. Today, most Intel users of our social media and collaboration tools state they support core business objectives.

If companies as big as Intel are taking social media seriously, then there's no reason small businesses should ignore the trend. Engagement, discussion and collaboration are the new ways forward in business. How is your company joining in or starting social discussions, both internally and externally?

Read more about Intel's social media efforts in Peters' post on the Open Port IT community.

A Look Inside Bonnier’s Social Intranet

Posted: 21 Jan 2012 08:50 AM PST

Bonnier Corporation, one of the largest consumer publishing groups in America, recently launched their new social intranet, powered by Intranet Connections, to provide improved navigation and design features to better suit the organizations entrepreneurial mindset. Amanda Chu, Operations Manager, gave us a look inside their social intranet.

Bonnier's home page design mirrors their company websites look and feel. This is a smart move as it immediately ties the intranet to Bonnier's brand and modernizes the intranet design, bringing a level of familiarity to their employees.

Bonnier at 1,100 employees, is a large company, so there was a need to create department sites for each business division. To organize the eleven main departments on the intranet, Amanda created clearly marked menu headers for easy navigation. Each department site has identical menu links on the right side of the page, to standardize and maintain consistency in content and layout.

Bonnier' intranet has a Department Leadership Page with pictures of executives, their bios and links to the employee directory profile. Each leader's name is linked back to their employee profile, providing information on their expertise, skills and interests. Employees like this feature because it gives them the ability to learn more about the decision makers in their organization. Amanda loves the ease in which she can link from page to page, generating multiple avenues for employees to find information, people, and content of interest.

Bonnier introduces new hires to the intranet with their New Hire Package, where they review information about the company, learn more about their role at Bonnier, other areas of the intranet to visit, and HR has reduced the paper trail because the expanded new hire documentation is all available on the intranet.

Popular tools include a travel request form, facilities request, holiday schedule, and the Brand Leadership area that showcases Bonnier's various media and publications, including Popular Science, RideBMX, Sport Fishing, Garden Design, Parenting and BabyTalk magazines.

Bonnier promotes corporate culture with their entrepreneurial vision and provides a company overview section that talks about how the company started, the company vision and its core values.

The Intranet Connections team would like to thank Amanda Chu for sharing her insightful ideas from the Bonnier intranet.

How I’m Tweaking My Blogging Strategies This Year

Posted: 21 Jan 2012 08:30 AM PST

Last year was a very successful year in terms of my own brand and the brands that I represent. Because I have got to a stage where the brands are known (at least to my target audience), I will shake things up a bit and change how I go about the online marketing. This includes how my blogs will run in the next 12 months.

jorgensundberg.net

Last year, I put a lot of effort into writing useful and practical blog posts about personal branding, social media, LinkedIn and some other stuff. This paid off and I had just shy of 100,000 pageviews on this blog from Jan 2011 – Dec 2011. This blog has some 1,700 subscribers and gets a fair bit of commenters.

In terms of content for this year I will be shifting away from just social media and branding topics and write go a bit more genreal. Hang on you say, no more social media and branding content coming our way? Yes there will be, but not exclusively. Instead I will use this blog to publish more personal content, the things that I would like to read and the things that really interest me. I realise that from a marketing perspective this might just alienate some of the readers here. I hope some will find the new content of interest, and other people will find the blog through search and social media and hopefully engage with me.

Furthermore, I’m going to stop promoting this blog heavily on social media and rely on the old adage ‘build it and they will come’ (if it worked for Kevin Costner, surely it will work here…). This in my book means, I produce content that is of interest to me and if others find it interesting they will find it – I will not shove it down anybody’s throat. And on that note, the content I will create will not only be blog posts but increasingly video, presentations and podcasts. I guess I will test all different forms of content creation and see what I enjoy producing and what seems to be working. So that’s the scoop for this blog for the next year, hope you’ll stick around but don’t blame you if you don’t of course.

The Undercover Recruiter (my first blog)

The Undercover Recruiter is the first blog I ever created, it’s now two and a half years old which doesn’t sound like much but in this context it is! It’s recently achieved a Page Rank of 5 which is pretty good and means that it will be prioritised in Google searches and that advertisers start sniffing around it. The traffic numbers are terrific, the blog got about 500,000 page views in 2011 and that figure is only going up. I publish about 4 or 5 post per week on this blog which requires a great deal of time and effort of course but luckily there are a few great guest contributors that help out.

With the fact that this blog is so popular, I am henceforth going to focus on this one and when publishing my usual practical hands-on social media tips it will be there jorgensundberg.net which has been the case previously (provided it’s related to careers or recruitment of course). Or I might just post it at both places, in slightly different versions. The way I see it, The Undercover Recruiter is where I can reach the masses and people who have never heard of me, which can be very useful. If they are interested, they will find my personal blog and hopefully think this is of value as well.

Link Humans (the company blog)

The blog at my company Link Humans is a different kettle of fish to the other two. It is designed to attract business, almost exclusively business to business (B2B). This means the regular ‘How-To’ blog posts are of limited use, my experience of clients in our industry is that they want to read case studies and success stories of competitors. And indeed, the most popular posts on that blog are case studies about Deloitte, Philips, CH2M Hill etc. This will be the focus on that blog moving forwards, we will focus on well researched, storytelling and inspirational content. In fact, B2B clients don’t care whether you post once per day or once per quarter. What they are concerned about is quality information and that’s what we aim for here.

Writing for other blogs on the interwebs

I regularly get asked to write posts for other blogs, to contribute to bigger and smaller blogs. Some of these offers come with money and others don’t. In any case, I am rather blogged out and usually decline offers unless it’s a really good opportunity for me to create value to that blog’s audience. If you ever want me to feature on your blog, I suggest an interview type of piece as it’s a little bit simpler to write up (at least the story is already there!).

So that’s the plan for this year, do let me know what you think of this strategy – will it work you think?

5 Steps To Connect With People Outside Your Network On LinkedIn

Posted: 21 Jan 2012 07:15 AM PST

Once you move beyond the generic "add connections" option that LinkedIn has, you might want to specifically search for and increase your connections with people aligned with whatever connection policy you might have. The challenge is that restrictions exist within LinkedIn that may prevent you from inviting others you don't personally know. You are entitled to try to connect with people without knowing their email address, but once five people respond to your invitation to connect by nothing that they don't know you, your ability to connect will be restricted.

Once you've decided to connect with professionals that aren't part of your network, chances are you will initially find them by doing advanced people searches. If you are already an experienced user, you'll likely encounter people you might want to connect with everywhere on LinkedIn. These people often appear on the "people you may know" widget that is featured prominently in the top right-hand corner of your LinkedIn home page and in group discussions. So, once you find someone with whom you'd like to connect, follow these guidelines to complete the connection:

Read the contact settings: There are many people on LinkedIn who aren't engaged on the platform. They signed up and forgot about their profiles, or they just simply "checked out" for some reason. Some may indicate in their contact settings that they are not open to receiving connections, but, if they include their contact details here, or anywhere else on their profile, you have implicit permission to contact them. If you want to be cautious, first contact them and let them know why you want to connect. Also mention how you can help them. Then ask if you can connect on LinkedIn for a mutually beneficial – and connected – relationship.

"Read" the profile: A LinkedIn profile says a thousand things about someone's attitude toward online professional networking, and by thoroughly reading the profile, you can determine how active a particular user is on the website. In general, the more active people are on LinkedIn, the more they will understand the value of business networking and thus the more willing they will be to connect if you send a personalized invite.

Warm leads are always the best: As in real life, a "warm" lead, someone your target connection actually knows who can make a personal introduction on your behalf, often leads to the greatest success. Rather than relying on a cold call or email, get in touch with the person who connects the two of you and ask him or her for a formal introduction. If your targeted user is a third-degree connection, find someone who could facilitate an introduction between you and a person who is actually connected to your targeted user. Your eventual goal is to be introduced to your second-degree connection who can then facilitate the introduction with your third-degree connection.

Join the same LinkedIn Group: A simple tactic you can use to contact someone is to join one of his or her LinkedIn Groups. Of course, this only works if your desired contact has the default settings on, which allows group members to send messages to each other. At present, the option to send a message to a group member does not appear as an option when you find a common group member on an advanced people search result; instead, you will be prompted to send an InMail. No worries: Simply navigate to the same Group that you a member of, do a member search, and you will have the option to send a message from that user interface.

Send the "Hail Mary" InMail: InMail is a paid LinkedIn service to contact people who are not first-degree connections, which I consider to be the equivalent of a "Hail Mary" toss in a football game. LinkedIn promotes the use of InMail as being a very effective way to communicate. Currently, non-paying members have the option to purchase InMails a' la carte for $10 apiece. Though some people might shirk at the idea of paying for such a service, consider it a business investment that may have lucrative potential. Everyone's experience will be different, so you should at least experiment with the InMail and determine your own ROI.

One final note before reaching out: Don't forget your manners. Just as you should continue to foster warm leads in the "real" world, you need to do the same online. Don't forget that, behind every online persona, there is a real person. Whenever you communicate with someone online, you should personalize your communication and give him or her a reason to connect to you. Always remember that manners apply online just as they do offline, and LinkedIn (as well as all social media) is simply an example of new tools, old rules.

What have your experiences been in reaching out to new people on LinkedIn?

How Search Plus Your World Might Change Your Social Media Strategy

Posted: 21 Jan 2012 05:45 AM PST

Last week, Google introduced Search Plus Your World, a method of searching that incorporates both privately shared information and public information on one search results page.

Wait, privately shared information appearing in search results? That sounds wrong, doesn't it?

Search Plus Your World actually integrates information shared on Google+ and presents it in search results that would regularly appear on Google. You can only see information that other Google+ users made public or shared with you directly, so you won't have complete access to all the information on Google+.

There are essentially two issues being discussed regarding Search Plus Your World, the first one being Google is clearly favoring its own social network's postings in their search results. I agree with Danny Sullivan's post that search engines should be like the Santa in the film Miracle on 34th Street: SERPs should display the most valuable results to searchers, even if it means the searchers are leaving Google and going to other places to find the information they desire. If I'm searching for a place to order Chinese food, I don't want to search Google for "Chinese takeout" only to get results from Google+ members' posts related to Chinese food. That doesn't help with my search for tasty takeout, now does it?

The second issue is that this kind of information is not available for other social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. There was actually a pretty heated (by Internet standards anyway) debate between Google and Twitter regarding the issues, which you can read more about here.  Essentially, Twitter showed a Google search for @WWE, the Twitter handle for World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., and showed that the first few lines of results on the results page were for Google+ posts about WWE, with nothing related to Twitter. Twitter cried foul, stating the Search Plus Your World feature wouldn't display the most relevant search results someone were looking for in this instance. Google replied by saying Twitter and Facebook opted out of having their information included in SERPs and Google is open to talking with Twitter and Facebook about having expanded access to data.

So what does this mean for your business? For starters, you need to have a Google+ page if you don't already. If you have a Google account, it's easy to set up and you can now have multiple admins per page and admins can manage multiple Google+ pages. Once you start your Google+ page, you'll need to be using it consistently, about as much as you currently use other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. While this doesn't mean you should abandon ship on Twitter and Facebook, it now means you need a three pronged approach to social media.

This also means that it will become easier for people to find your website when searching online. With now three big ways to find out about your business (four including LinkedIn) through social media, you'll want to make sure people like what they see when they arrive at your website. Make sure any web design for small business you use on your site makes it easy for visitors to navigate your site. Use simple, clean (but never boring) design techniques, and make sure your website's navigation is user friendly.

The future of Search Plus Your World is unclear right now, with formal complaints rolling into the FTC to examine the Google+ integration into search, but this could be the final push Google needed to make its social network big enough to compete with social media giants Facebook and Twitter. Even if Search Plus Your World encounters drastic changes or begins to incorporate Facebook or Twitter into SERPs in the future, your business will still benefit from an additional way to connect with clients and prospects on social media.

Your Company is Going to Go Broke Using Social Media

Posted: 21 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST

This thought has come up in about three different places over the last 24 hours or so, so I figured maybe I should talk to you about it in one place and get it out of my system.

Let me begin by painting for you a rather dire picture (yay!). Are you ready?

It's one year from now, and your company is having to close and deadbolt the doors. The company is bankrupt. Your heart is broken and your mind is confused. How did this happen? You took in the advice that everyone gave you. You did everything the right way. You worked hard. You tried new things, some of which failed and some of which succeeded beyond your wildest dreams. You used social media the way all of the most expert practitioners told you to use it. You had tons of fans. You had tons of "likes" on your Facebook page. You, the head of your company, were extremely well-respected, maybe even admired, in the online world. In the words of King Theoden from Lord of the Rings, "How did it come to this?"

The answer is staring you in the face. Why is your business closing? You ran out of money. What were you not tracking while you did everything right in the online world?

If you said money just now, you are spot on.

The biggest lie is that social media is free

I still remember when social media as a marketing tool really started to take off. At the time, I was working as a media buyer at our family's marketing firm, and already the chatter had begun about how this was going to change everything. It wasn't just the power of this new suite of tools. It was the fact that they were all free. Instantaneously, all agencies, all other forms of marketing, and pretty much everything else were consigned to death. We don't need you now. We've got the Tweeter thing. And it's free.

Except, as we now know, social media is not really free, just like having a receptionist to answer your phone isn't free. Having someone to monitor your inbox for you is not free (unless your family has really been brainwashed by you). Somehow, in all of the excitement created by the onslaught of these new tools, we forgot a very simple and basic business concept.

Time = Money

Let's say that again. Time equals money. You pay people for their time. People pay you for their time. If you are spending time tweeting, it's still time. If you are spending your time writing a blog post, it's still time you are spending on the clock. If you are paying someone and they are doing that stuff for you as a social media manager, social media director, or community manager, you are still paying them for your time.

The platforms you use online may be free. Social Media – it's not free.

I'd like to pay you everything I have. Keep the change.

Now, let's talk about another pretty basic business principle that seems to have fallen by the wayside. Expenditures matter. You need a way to make sure that what you are spending does not exceed what you are taking in. Centuries of business have proven that this is a good path to follow. It is generally considered best practice to make more money than you are spending (I know, tell that to the US government).

Have you ever tried to sell someone your Twitter followers your business has accrued? How much money have you been offered for the fans of your Facebook page? What about comments on your blog? Ever had any offers to buy those? Did that ever work?

My guess is probably not.

So, your company has been paying someone x number of dollars a year for 2-3 years, let's say, to run your social media marketing. They are reporting to you that they are engaging really really well with people. They have gotten 60,000 Twitter followers and your Facebook page is up to 5,000 fans. You've been really excited about this, but your company is now having to let that person, and everyone else, go. Why? None of those happy shiny metrics were actually putting money in your pocket, right? You were paying that person money and they were giving you multi-colored air in return. That's not the lifeblood of most businesses. It's all about the benjamins, as some wise philosopher once said.

Now, had you been aware of this, your situation could have been salvaged. You could have started asking questions like, "OK, but how many of our Twitter followers are buying from us?" "How many leads can we nurture that have their foundation in our Facebook presence so that we can turn those into sales?"

If you weren't getting any buyers from these channels, if you weren't making any sales, or only a small percentage of sales as compared to what you were paying your social media maven/jedi/expert/guru, you could have saved your company, just like King Theoden could have saved his people if he hadn't let Grima Wormtongue and Saruman ruin his mind.

Hey, we all have problems.

There are Gandalfs out there you should listen to

Theoden King was saved in the end, to a large extent, by Gandalf the Wizard. Your company can be saved too, because there are some wizards out there that are telling you how to prevent this kind of catastrophe.

Talk to Marcus Sheridan about how to make sure your blog is helping you drive sales, for example.

Or talk to Olivier Blanchard about how to measure ROI (for social media or other marketing efforts) or read his book (not an affiliate link) if you really want to jump into this.

Let these wizards point you in the right direction. There's no reason for you to keep losing money on your social media efforts, and there's every opportunity, in fact, to improve your performance and thus grow. But more Twitter followers and blog comments is not the way.

Think about it?

First Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/runran/4094527770/ via Creative Commons

Second Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamcromar/5000421162/ via Creative Commons

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