photo by respres 

Twitter - it’s everywhere. 

Ashton racing CNN to get to 1,000,000 followers.  Oprah’s on, along with lots of other celebrities.  Growth for twitter the last year has been 2565%.  It’s even being used successfully for business – here’s a great Forbes article on a CEO that’s using it for her business.

The number of twitter profiles is now over 18 Million.  I think it’s safe to say that twitter has hit a tipping point.

But if you’re like most people that I know, the first question is ‘What is Twitter?’ followed closely by ‘What is the big deal and why should I care?’.

The reality is that if and when you go out and try twitter, you are extremely likely to shake your head, look confused and shut your computer off in disgust trying to figure out what all the noise could possibly be about.

One of the secrets about twitter that’s not obvious is that www.twitter.com actually sucks right now when it comes to using twitter – that’s what most new users try to use and justifiably walk away frustrated and overwhelmed in a very short time.

Twitter’s not for everyone, but read on and see if some background and suggestions on what everything means and tips on how to use it might help change your perspective.

Read More…

The business world is buzzing with questions about Social Media Marketing these days.  Whether they’re trying to figure out what do to now that they’re on LinkedIn or Facebook, or what exactly is Twitter and how would I use it for my business or ‘how do you find time to do all this Social Media stuff?’, there’s a lot of talking going on.

I was lucky enough to present last week at the Central Exchange to a sold out room on How to Use Social Media for your Business.  We only had an hour, so it was basically just scratching the surface but the discussions I’ve been hearing and having about the topic over the last couple of months have been fascinating.

Opinions are a lot like…well let’s just say that everyone has one.  What’s great about Social Media is that a lot of people feel very strongly about it, in both directions!  Everything from “It’s the best thing ever!”  to “What a waste of time – who cares what I had for breakfast!”.  The reality is somewhere in the middle – used the right way, Social Media Marketing can be a big benefit to small business owners, a great cost-effective way to generate leads, drive traffic to your website and make your customers happy.

Anyway, I thought I would share a list of 9 things about Social Media and Business that I’ve heard recently that are just bogus – let me know what you think.

Read More…

I’m a big proponent of Social Media – to me it’s pretty clear that it is the wave of the future that will eventually knock down old-school sales and marketing techniques.  In a world of active Social Media, you can’t hide from your customers or prospects – people will say what they think and the best way to generate positive feedback is to deliver quality and value (and isn’t that really the point anyway).

Blogs, professional social media sites and Youtube all have a fairly clear place in an online marketing and Social Media strategy.

However I will admit that to this point I’ve been stumped on how to really view the value of Twitter. 

Read More…

There is a lot of confusion out there on how to use Online Social Networking sites to make money.  Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve heard about the huge rise in popularity in social media and the inevitable rise of interest in how it can used to make money…and that’s where the problem comes in.

I had  a great discussion with one of my fellow PBCA coaches on a very specific example she saw in LinkedIn.  She happens to be in a LinkedIn group with a life coach who could use some pointers on online Social Media Marketing.  See below for details.

Read More…