Another’s View of the Benefits of Social Media

Posted on May 6, 2010 by eptoay

"Social Media Report 2010" – a Great Book on Social Media

Recently I came across an excellent book that gives some wonderful insight into the world of Social Media.  It is written by Stefan Swanepoel & Mel Aclaro and is called the “Social Media Report 2010”. Although it pretty much targets the real estate industry, it is an excellent reference for almost everyone.  It is more expensive than any other book I have bought on the subject (and believe me my library has gotten pretty large), but I found it well worth every penny.  The following bullets refer to some of the highlights of the book.

  • The Social Media Revolution may well be the biggest shift in the way we do things since the Industrial Revolution.  Social Media is not a fad – it is a "Game-changer".  Consumers want to be heard and Social Media is causing that to happen.
  • Our population is shifting so quickly that by the end of 2010 Baby Boomers will no longer be the largest generation.  Gen Y is in the process of taking over that role and already approximately "96% of them already joined a social network".
  • The old way of advertising is no longer wanted or trusted by the majority of consumers.  Now they want to talk to other consumers to validate their decisions.  Statistics show that 14% of consumers trust regular media advertising versus 78% trust online peer recommendations
  • Social Media is causing a shift in how we are getting our messages out.  The old way – “one to many” was in the form of newspapers, magazines, TV and radio advertising.  Now the trend is shifting to “many to many” – a two-way conversation between multiple individuals and that conversation is being conducted in real time.
  • Social Media has leveled the playing field.  Previously, the cost of advertising was so prohibitive that only the “big” players had the financial means to get their word to the masses.  Now, anyone with an Internet connection and membership in Social Media sites has the capability of reaching thousands of people in a very inexpensive way
  • The key to establishing a position of influence online lies in the ability to successfully assess the social activities and needs of your market.  No longer can you afford to hold your information to the chest – you have to be willing to freely provide quality content and then give followers or friends the choice as to whether or not they want to participate with you.
  • It costs absolutely nothing except your time to create quality content and once that content is created, it can instantly be seen by others.
  • Anyone can find a home on Social Media and you don’t need to be a superstar in order to collaborate and influence others.

To get more information about Stefan Swanepoel, you can visit his website.Social Media Trends 2010

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Posted in Social Media Tips, What is Social Media | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

6 Initial Tips on Managing Your Facebook Profile

Posted on May 4, 2010 by eptoay

Tips for Managing Your Facebook Profile

If you are going to use Facebook as part of your business strategy, there are some tips you might want to consider adding to your profile.   The following are some of the ones that I have found useful.

  •   Let’s start with your picture.   Think about how you want people to see you.  Make sure you pick a picture that is of you and pet(s), your children and/or grandchildren.  You don’t have to be dressed in a suit or tie, but  your picture should still look somewhat professional.  Remember, this is often where people are going to make that initial decision as to whether they want to connect with you or not.  Also, if you have a common name, and there is no picture attached, someone searching for you might not know which John or Jane Doe is the right one to connect with.  It’s important to be easily identifiable. 
  • Put in your birthday.   First of all, you will have the choice as to whether that date is actually shown on your profile.  Facebook does require that you put the entire date in when you sign up.   Believe it or not, it may also be another way to be found.    One reason might be that a prospect wants to work with someone close in age that might be more apt to understand his/her wants and needs. 
  • Another place to go is the "Edit Information" that is found on the left side of your profile page.  Fill that in (again it doesn’t have to show on your profile).  Then (for example)  if people are searching for you, don’t know your married name but know when and  where you graduated from high school, they still might be able to locate you. 
  • Be sure to put in where you live.  Your future prospect may be looking for someone in your profession who is local.  Also, this can also be another way to identify which "John or Jane" you are when they are searching among those with the same name. 
  •  Avoid controversial subjects unless it is necessary. I happen to doing social media for a Republican running in a SC Congressional primary so obviously people might have a pretty good idea where I stand.  But as you most likely know, the two subjects that can start arguments quickly are politics and religion.  These can really be a turn off for potential prospects. 
  • Be sure to fill in the "About Me" section.   Many people don’t bother doing this but it gives a little information about you that may tip the scales in your favor. On a regular basis, I will be sharing ideas I have picked up on how to use the social media to your advantage.  I welcome others to contribute their views and experiences too.  The more we share, the more we all help each other.

Facebook is an absolutely wonderful site to use both personally and for business.   There is so much you can do with it.  Overtime, I will be adding information on how you can get the most out of being on the site.

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Posted in Being Seen on the Internet, Facebook Tips for Boomers, Social Media Tips | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Facebook is NOT ONLY for Grannies and College Kids

Posted on April 29, 2010 by eptoay

Facebook is NOT ONLY for Grannies and College Kids.

I am a grandmother – a fact that I am very proud of.  I sometimes eat eggs for breakfast, have four cats, go to the doctor, the dentist and do many of the other things that you read about on Facebook.  There are times when I share some personal things about my life.   I  have a cousin who has posted just about every detail of our shared family history so if anyone has connected us, they might know more about my background than I do.  I have seen many pictures of ancestors that I never even knew existed.  So that is one way Facebook can be used.

Although there are many grandmas like me on Facebook , there also are many older people that think of Facebook as a total waste of time and that is their prerogative.  There are others who think that it is just a community for young college students.  Yes, the latter is how Facebook started but it has long evolved beyond that point.
 

Overall, Facebook is a tool for connecting people to each other. 

And its not only for connecting with friends and family.  Facebook is also a tool to use with for your business.  People can use it to market themselves – to expand their presence online and to engage directly with their customers. 
 

Why should someone want to use Facebook for business?

Well, at this point Facebook has well over 350,000,000 users.  It is the top social media site online.  Two-thirds of the people that are using it are no longer in school and the fastest growing demographics are age 35 and above.  What does that mean?  It means that your potential customers are most likely on Facebook. However you do need to learn the difference between Profiles and Pages.

Facebook Profiles vs. Pages   

Profiles are for connecting with people.  This is where you can invite people to be your friends, and they have to accept your invitation before you can directly connect with them and actually share a lot of information.   This is also where others can be kept up to date about you as a person.  If you worry about privacy, you can determine on your profile how much information you want others to see about you.  Profiles are not mean to be used for business.  Facebook is very strict about that. Pages are entirely different – this is where Facebook allows you to market your business. Below are some of the key points of a Page:
  • Pages are public, not private like Profiles.  Therefore, they can be accessed by anyone searching for you.
  • Pages can be split into different categories – that in itself will help you be found a lot faster as it will increase your visibility both on Facebook and in other search sites.
  • Once you get a certain number of “fans” on your Page, you get your own domain name (URL).  This can bring people directly to your Page to learn all about your business.
In following blog posts I will go into more detail about Facebook and other media sites.  If you have anything you would like to add, please feel free to post to the comment section below.
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Posted in Facebook Tips for Boomers, Social Media for Boomers | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

4 Tips About the Benefits of Using Social Media

Posted on April 28, 2010 by eptoay

Tips and Benefits on Using Social Media

As a baby boomer, why would you even want to get involved in social media?

Using Social Media has many benefits.  But many of us who are older have no desire to get involved in social media.  The changes in technology are intimidating and many older people see it as a waste of time – which it can be if not used correctly.   However,  for those of you who are still working, it is a very powerful marketing tool. Whether you like it or not, our world is a technology based world.

More and more people are starting to do their initial research online - whether to buy a house, research a product or industry or just get information about various subjects.

What are some of the benefits of social media? 

Why would you want to spend your time working on social media?  Below are some of benefits that you will derive:

  •  It gives you more exposure.  People will connect with you on the different sites and get to know who you are as a person.  If they like what they see, they will also start develop a sense of trust about you.  But even more so, these same people also have connections that will now have the opportunity to learn more about you.   Remember, "people buy from people who they like and they trust". 
  •  By your being seen in the social media world, many people will want to learn more about what you do and will in turn go to your blog or your website.  They will now know that your website exists, which in itself is a great advantage – getting found in the great black hole called the internet can be a real challenge to begin with.  It also helps people learn about you and will give you higher search engine rankings.  So if people do a Google search using your name, they are more apt to find you. 
  • You will form relationships online.  For example, I have made some new friends on Twitter.  We are now trying to help each other out in our respective businesses.  These are people whose paths I would have never crossed if it weren’t for my being on a social media site. 
  • Learn more about what is happening in your profession.  Through a site called LinkedIn, you can get your hands on an extensive amount of information and join "groups" that are a treasure trove.  LinkedIn also gives you the ability to connect with people that you would never have had the chance to otherwise. Because of the way LinkedIn works, I now have a way of making connections with over 700,000 people  – many of whom I would never have been able to reach without the benefit of technology.   A few years ago, who would have dreamed that my business would have that kind of potential to grow?  In future blogs, I will go into much more detail of how LinkedIn works. So what I am trying to say, social media is an extremely important part your marketing out plan in this day and age.  Learn to use it correctly and it will pay you dividends far beyond your wildest expectations.

The benefits of using social media are well worth the time it takes to learn it.

 

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Online Visibility – Being Found on Google

Posted on April 25, 2010 by eptoay

Online Visibility and Showing up on Google

Your online visibility  and showing up on Google can determine whether or not you will attract potential clients. If you don’t have an online identity, it can really hurt you.

Many of us who are older look at exposing ourselves on the internet a lot differently that the younger generations do.   A lot of us were raised in a way that we didn’t believe we should be sharing everything we do and think to the world.  As my mother used to put it, “it is important that some skeletons remain in the closet with the door KEPT closed”.

In this new age of technology, you will notice that many of the younger people are doing things a lot differently.  Go on to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc, and you will see them posting information that you would have not dared to share with anyone other than your family or closest friends – if even then.   We know that many of them will regret this when they get older.  However, the new rules dictate that we have to be willing to open up too.  Like it or not, the internet is often the first place people go to learn about the credibility of the person or company they are talking to or considering working with.

Being Found Online with Google

As many of you know, Google is the number one search engine on the web. What that means is that when a person wants to get information about any topic or person,  they now usually go to Google, type in a description of what they are looking for and hit the “search” button.  It doesn’t matter whether it is a company, a product or a person. 

That is how much things have changed. However, there are pros and cons to this.  Now, not only can you look up anything you want, but the reverse is true – people are also looking you up to see what they can learn about you.  If you are being considered for something important, chances are you will be “googled” first. If you are not found on Google, that can turn into being a real problem for you.    Not only do you want and need to be found – you want your name to appear a number  of times on the first several pages – otherwise you might end up being dismissed as being insignificant and not worth considering.

Get in the habit of “goggling” yourself.  How do you do that?   First of all, go to Google, type your name in quotations in the search box, hit enter and see what comes up.   If you don’t like what you see, then you will need to make sure some positive information is added in order to push the negative down the list.  Unfortunately, the negatives will not go away – they will just be further down the pages – therefore less apt to be seen.  I hate to tell you, but once on the internet – always on the internet.  That’s just the way it is. So just remember whether you like it or not, what shows up on Google translates to who you are to the reader.   Rather sobering thought isn’t.

Remember, if you do not have online visibility and are not being found on Google, it can hurt your credibility.

 

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Posted in Being Seen on the Internet, Online Marketing tips | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Baby Boomers Can Learn Social Media

Posted on April 22, 2010 by eptoay

Baby Boomers – You Can Learn Social Media

Baby Boomers - learning social media is not that hard.  If I can do it, so can you.

Here I am – an old fogy in her 60s – finding myself not only doing social media, teaching others how to do it, but am now running the social media side of a campaign for a young congressional candidate who is half my age.

 I know nothing of geek speak – in fact am truly intimidated by the younger generation and all their acronyms.   I don’t understand about bits and bytes, writing code and had to have my granddaughters teach me how to text message less than two years ago.

Luckily, I am computer literate when it comes to a number of programs.  For example, one thing I have found is that if you know one or two programs in Microsoft Office – in my case Word and PowerPoint -  it makes it a lot easier to learn others as they have many features in common.  I too have been able to take that knowledge over into other software programs.

So How Did I Learn Social Media?

I first started with Facebook a little over a year ago because someone told me it was a good way to get my name out there, business-wise.  Once I joined, I came across friends and family that I hadn’t seen in years.  I  met family I didn’t even know existed.  So my “friends” list grew.  I never got addicted to the games, couldn’t care less what someone ate for breakfast and, for quite awhile, literally had no idea how this could help me in business.

Several months later, I stumbled onto LinkedIn because someone asked me to join.  I soon learned enough about “groups” to decide that I  should become part of  some pertinent to my business.  I then started getting email notifications about “discussions” from those groups.  Unfortunately, I didn’t keep up with very many of those discussions.  Looking back now, I realize I missed a lot of useful educational information and networking opportunities.

Twitter was another world altogether.  For quite awhile I couldn’t understand what all the hype was about.  But I was asked to follow a person I admire so I joined.   He sent me several “tweets” but I had no idea what to do with them or how to write a “tweet”.   Then to my amazement several people started following me, which was a joke for there was literally nothing to follow.  The turning point came when I went to a convention in early September.  At the opening ceremony we were told we could follow the events of the convention if we just logged on.   As I couldn’t even remember what my user name and password were, it took me two days to figure out how to get on.  By that time the convention was over.  I felt like a fool – came home convinced that would never happen again. Since then, I have completed three different certification courses, read every book I could get my hands on and have become a huge advocate of social media.  

Learning Social Media can be a challenge for baby boomers and other seniors.  But in keeping up with today’s world it can be a necessary one.

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Technology has Changed How We Communicate

Posted on April 14, 2010 by eptoay

Technology has impacted the way we communicate

Whether we want to admit it or not, technology is influencing the way everyone is communicating, and we, the gray haired generation better join in.

The truth is that many of us older folk think spending a lot of  time on the computer is a waste of time.  We believe that technology is for the younger crowd to embrace.  Some of us do know how to email, maybe do a Google search or we may keep in touch on Facebook.   Beyond that, many of us want nothing to do with it.  It almost appears as if it has become us – the older folk -versus “them”- the younger tech oriented generations.

Stereotyping the Generations 

First are the young, sometimes pimply teenagers with their iPods and cell phones spending the majority of their time either typing text messages at the rate of a mile minute or on the computer on social sites such as  My Space, Facebook or that funny sounding site that has a lot of bird sounds like tweet, retweet and twitter.  Another stereotype is the nerdy tech  who can only talk about html, hard drives, memory and gigabytes.
Whether we want to recognize it or not, the world is changing.  
 
Technology has arrived and  it is revolutionizing the way we communicate.  
 
I hate to break it to you but this is not some fad - technology and social media are here to stay.  Those of  us in the working world not only need to accept that fact, but we need to embrace it if our businesses are going to survive.  Otherwise, we will be left behind, and that will hurt us and our pocketbooks.
 
When we were young print and TV ads were how we learned about products and services.  Prior to the days of the remote,  we were besieged by TV ads that usually either talked down to us or we were screamed by the "used car salesman” type.  Unless we turned the TV off, we had to leave the room to get away from them.  Yes, there were a few good ones (Energizer bunny, for example), but those were few and far between.
 
Have you noticed that we don’t have to put up with that type of advertising anymore?  The majority of us now have remote controls with  a wonderful button labled “mute”.  We can even sit down and record our shows – then later fast forward through the ads.  People can now control how and when they get information.  How cool is that?
 
Companies and salespeople still do need to  get the word out about their products and services.  But people are changing as to the way they are listening.  And that’s where social media can help as it has become a major way of communicating.   No longer do people want to spend the time reading or being screamed at.  So those of us who want to stay in the game are going to have to “go along for the ride” and learn to play by the new rules.
 
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Posted in Communicating your brand, Technology and Communication | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments