As a social media manager, I’m constantly trying to help people efficiently work with the various social media and networking tools. But keeping up with the changes on Facebook has become a full-time job.

I should love Facebook for this I suppose, because it puts my services in high demand. It’s my job to know what the changes are and how to work with them. I should not only be able to demonstrate the new features, but also help people make adjustments in their processes when features they’re used to using have disappeared (see examples, below).

I hate Facebook for this too, though, because I like to demonstrate how to use social media tools on video.  But with the pace of change on Facebook, the videos become obsolete almost before I finish recording them. I now post a disclaimer in the video descriptions reminding people that Facebook is constantly undergoing changes. (You can leave requests for current, customized video demos on the 3D Communications Facebook Page.)

I’m not criticizing. After all, we’re all still figuring out the best ways to use social media tools, and Facebook has every right to make changes in their quest for perfection. Facebook isn’t the only popular social networking platform that makes changes. Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube have all rolled out their share of changes. After a bit of time, I adjust to the changes and even truly appreciate most of them. Today, though, I’m just venting my frustration with Facebook.

Stuff that has disappeared from Facebook

1. The “Link” link on the status update on the personal Facebook profile is gone (still available on business Facebook Pages, though). I noticed this when someone asked me how to choose the thumbnail that appears when you post a link on your status update. Here’s a graphic of what I discovered.
2. I used to be able to work on my business Facebook page and choose “Use Facebook as Debi” and then post a comment as me rather than as my business. However, today I discovered that I can no longer do that. I can still click “Use Facebook as Debi,” but when I click in the comment box, my business logo shows up. Maybe it’s a glitch; maybe not. Who knows? Further, I can’t post a personal comment on any of the pages on which I’ve been assigned as an administrator. I don’t “like!”
3. I used to be able to post a status update from my personal Facebook and tag a business page (i.e., use the @ symbol in front of the Page name causing it to become a hyperlink to that Page). The update would then appear on that Page’s Wall and/or Newsfeed. But, that doesn’t seem to be happening anymore. So much for letting a Page you want to support know you’re sending them a little social love!

I will do my best to help people deal with the changes. Can you help me with any of the three things that are challenging me today?

Photo credit: Ben Heine

The first steps for creating a social media process for your business include:

1.  Establishing your objective for using social media,
2.  Identifying the online communities you’d like to join, and
3.  Choosing the tools you’ll use to reach them.

The next step is to commit to a system for managing your time.

Start early

If you develop time management habits during this early stage, it’ll be easier to carry those habits into later stages – when you’re fully interacting and engaging through new media. If you don’t adopt time management practices early on, you’re likely to become discouraged and quit before you realize any benefit from social media at all.

Because your time will represent a major portion of your investment in social media, a time management system will help to determine the ROI of your social media.

Get organized

During the planning stage for your social media process, you’ll analyze elements of your business strategy to help answer questions related to your products, services and purpose. All of that information should be cataloged in a simple format that can be used later when you’re implementing your social media process. The system I use is an Excel spreadsheet that contains five pages:
Community – lists of people in your existing face-to-face networks, organizations you’d like to connect with, and people in your industry or field who already have a presence in the online social space.
Conversations – key messages and the resources you currently use to get those messages out. If you already have a website, many of your key messages will probably come from that. Some of your resources might include video that you’ve uploaded, or even brochures or flyers that you’ve had printed (and could convert to .pdf or html for distribution through your digital channels).
Keywords – Every business can be described by a distinct set of key words. They are used to describe the people who use your services and products. People find your website by typing keywords into search engines. List those and refer to them often. They will provide direction on countless levels as you develop your online presence.
Comparisons – People and entities that may not fit into your community, but who are using social media and digital communication in ways that might work well for your own business. It’s a place to come for inspiration and ideas.
Daily Checklist – Critical to managing your time. Before creating it, know how much time you can afford to spend each day or week maintaining and growing the social networks that will support your business. Here is an example of some of the tasks that might be included on this list. Start with just a few, and add more as you hone your skills and become more efficient using the tools.

Be patient

Transitioning to the use of social media for business purposes is not the slam-dunk that most of us were cajoled into thinking it was in the earlier days. It takes serious planning and effort. You’ll make mistakes and experience set-backs. Approaching social media systematically, with an organized plan, will give you a good foundation. Track what’s working and what’s not. Build on your plan as you make progress. Nurture it and let it be your guide to online success.

Photo by Juggling Frogs

The question about the ROI (return on investment) of Social Media comes up all the time; the answers are numerous, varied and often vague.  An approach discussed recently among my Social Marketing for Businesses MeetUp group suggested that before calculating the R (return), it makes good sense to analyze the I (investment).

Anyone with any experience using social media, knows that your investment is not hard dollars. In fact, many social media tools are virtually free.  Your investment, however,  is time; and your time is valuable.  Therefore, managing the time spent on social media is critical in the ROI equation.

Social Media in 20 Minutes a Day

Start out by committing to a set amount of time each day or week that you can realistically afford to spend on social media.  Then, create a checklist of the tasks you need to accomplish within that set amount of time.  Here is an example – Social Media in 20 Minutes a Day.  You might be willing to invest an hour a day in social media. Or, you might decide that all you can afford is 20 minutes a week.  A checklist like this can be customized depending on your situation and your expectations for social media.

The trick to making a checklist like this work is to exercise discipline.  It’s easy to get distracted and lured into an unintended direction. (We’ve all done it!)  To help you avoid this:

1. Keep a printed copy of your checklist on your desk, in clear sight.
2. Set the timer on your phone.
3. Commit to getting through the checklist before the timer goes off.
4. Reward yourself each time you successfully complete your list.

Social Media Doesn’t Have To Be All Work

Even if you’re using social media for business, it doesn’t have to be all work.  Make it fun by rewarding yourself for accomplishing your checklist within the allotted time.  You’ll be less likely to give in to distractions if you know you’ll be rewarded  later with 15 minutes to go check out your best friend’s photos on Facebook, or go back to the YouTube video one of your college friends sent you on Twitter.

Social media is a wonderful playground.  It is, after all, SOCIAL media. So, we should allow ourselves to socialize and share with our family and friends.

While you’re working, though, and trying to manage the ROI of social media for your business, stay focused on your business objectives . . . and keep an eye on the clock!

Photo by Anna Hendy

In conversations with other social media enthusiasts I often hear it predicted that the term “social media” will eventually become just “media.” While I believe this to be true, I, for one, want to hang on to this more descriptive term, at least for the time being. Here’s the reason why:

I work with small businesses that are ready to embrace social media as a business tool. Most of them, however, are doing it because they feel they have to. That’s it. Their objective for using social media goes no deeper than that. I’m then faced with the challenge of getting them to think through their rationale. That process usually reveals the fact that they don’t really understand social media . . . in fact, most aren’t even using social media as a consumer. They simply want to jump in and start using it as a business.

Traditional methods fail in new media

The first thing most businesses want to do is use new media – emerging media – social media – as a channel to deliver traditional marketing messages that are formed using traditional marketing methods. That’s when I enter the scene and begin chanting the mantra, “It’s SOCIAL media, not SALES media.”

I can’t take full credit for that snappy little chant. Unfortunately, though, I can’t give credit to the rightful person, either. My own understanding of social media has developed over the years with the help of brilliant minds like Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, Brian Solis, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Jay Baer. I can’t remember where I read, “It’s SOCIAL media, not SALES media” [my emphasis]; but when I did, it resonated so clearly with me that I found myself saying it in my sleep. I’m still having difficulty getting it to resonate with owners of small businesses, though; especially if they don’t have even a fundamental understanding of what social media is.

First, use social media as a consumer

Since adding social media strategy services to my consulting practice two years ago, I have revised my requirements for taking on new clients interested in using social media as a business tool. Now, before I discuss helping a business enter the social media environment, the business owner must already be using social media as a consumer. For example, they must have a personal Facebook profile, be tweeting from a personal account, and regularly view or upload YouTube videos. If they don’t have this experience, I’m happy to guide them and get them familiar with how us consumers use social media.

Social rules apply to social networks

My rationale for this approach is that social media platforms are designed for social interaction. Social rules apply. Social networks are a lot like social events, and those who arrived early have set the pace, theme and mood within their communities. Jumping in and disrupting the atmosphere with inappropriate behavior (i.e., spam, marketing messages, selfish blabber) will get you ousted.

Business owners need to see how this works. They need to respect the social network for what it is – a social setting. If they don’t, they’ll know how it feels to be a social outcast.

Photo by bonkedproducer on flickr

Twitter, of all the popular social sites, seems to be one of the most misunderstood.  At least that’s what I hear from people exploring their options for using social media as a business tool.  I find it difficult to explain all the strengths of Twitter in just one conversation, so I usually respond to these folks by validating their perception that Twitter can seem overwhelming at first blush. Then I encourage them to not be discouraged.

I find them, and follow them . . . or do I?

My next step is to find them and follow them on Twitter, and then try to lead by example.  But before I do that, I take a look at their Twitter profile and see if I can gain insight about them, their business, and why they’d want to be using social media as a business tool in the first place.  Often, I notice that their profile isn’t really working for them.  In fact, if I hadn’t already met them face-to-face and had an interest in them and their business, I might not even follow them based on their Twitter profile.  That’s because before I start following anyone on Twitter . . .

. . . I want to see who they are.  A generic Twitter avatar is a red flag.
. . . I want to know a bit about them.  It’s amazing what I can learn from a 160-character Twitter bio.
. . . I want to know where I can learn more about them – preferably a website.

Here’s what goes through my head – and keeps me from following people who have incomplete Twitter profiles.  I get the impression that:

• They don’t know how to upload an avatar (if they don’t have time to learn that, they’re not going to have time to learn how to use social media well).
• They don’t understand the importance of transparency on social media (that turns me off).
• They don’t care about the impression they give on these public platforms (I only care about people who care).
• They’re afraid or embarrassed, for whatever reason, that they’ll be recognized (then they shouldn’t use social media).
• They’re hiding something (and I’m not really interested in playing THAT game).

I’m not a social media snob. Honest.

I apologize if I seem like a snob.  But try to understand that social networks are teeming with interesting people with important things to say.  They’re also pretty crowded with a lot of time wasters.  I have to have some system for sorting and filtering through the noise, and I start by looking at the only information I have available to me when I meet someone for the first time online.

Don’t pass up the chance to make a good first impression

If you want me to follow you on Twitter – and I think I speak for a lot of others – make a good first impression. Make me want to get to know you.  Welcome me into your world by giving me a glimpse of it.  It’s as easy as completing your Twitter profile.

Using social media as a business tool is best approached as a process rather than a strategy. However, you want your social media to be strategy-driven. In other words, you want to have a plan for managing your social media, aimed at a specific objective. To get started, be able to articulate a singular, well-defined reason for using social media – at least for the first three to six months. You can add more objectives later, but right out of the chute, it’s best to focus your efforts on one purpose.

Reasons for using social media

There are hundreds of reasons for using social media. Here are just a few:

• Engaging and energizing your current customer base
• Gaining visibility among potential new customers
• Reducing the expense of more costly, less effective traditional methods of marketing
• Establishing yourself as an expert in your field
• Being a resource of valuable information to your customers and potential customers

Don’t be tempted to target more than one objective. Fortunately, there is lots of overlap between objectives and you will likely achieve more than one at a time. But concentrate on only one for starters, and see where that takes you.

Identifying the right objective

The challenge, of course, is deciding on that first objective. One way you can do that is to look at your existing business strategy. One of the tools I use is the Components of Existing Business Strategy worksheet. It lists some common business functions that could benefit from the use of social media.

Go through the worksheet and think about each of the functions listed. You may have formal strategies for some of them; but even if you don’t, you certainly have some kind of plan or process for functions such as public relations, sales, and/or HR activities.  Customer Service is one example of a business function that can be enhanced by social media.

Once you’ve chosen a few functions that are relevant to your operations, think about the current costs associated with those functions. That factor may help you decide where you want to start making cost-saving adjustments by implementing social media tools.

At the end of the exercise, you should be able to define your social media objective in one simple sentence. Then, paste that into your timeline and get to work building the rest of the process that you’ll use to leverage the power of social media.

Let me know if you find this worksheet helpful in defining your singular objective for using social media. Better yet, share your objective in the comment section on this blog post. Thanks!

Those of us who blog know the challenge of creating valuable, interesting, accurate content. Blogging on a regular schedule adds to that challenge. I have discovered a method that works like magic. (more…)

May 7, 2011 will be the 2-year anniversary of my decision to start learning everything I could about social networks and how they would play a part in business communications.

In June 2010, about a year after I started studying social media, I signed up for an online training program – Let’s Get Social – conducted by Kate Buck Jr. Her program validated everything I had been doing to that point, and pushed me to the next level in my learning process.

A few weeks ago, Kate was interviewed by her local news station. This report talks about what social media managers do; “They get paid . . . to keep your business relevant.” (more…)

According to a blog I read in mid December about 2010’s top brands on Facebook, the businesses listed  below are the ones we should be looking at to see how to use social media as a business tool. Each of the following links takes you to their respective Facebook page – check ‘em out.

I observed three common denominators among these 10 pages that I believe contribute to the overall success of the Facebook pages. (more…)

Here are just a handful of Twitter tips that are written with the Twitter newbie in mind.  These  few tips will help you get more out of Twitter, and probably help you contribute more as well.

Using Links in your Tweets

You see links to websites being used in tweets all the time.  That’s because they’re effective.  They allow you to send your followers to more information.  They give you a means for engaging with your followers.

So, be sure that your links are easy to use.  If you’re going to use a full link, make it a “hotlink” by including the http://www… portion of the link.  That way, all someone has to do is click on it from the tweet and they’ll be sent right to the website or page you intended for them to see.

Because Twitter limits you to 140 characters, you may find that the full URL takes up too much space.  For that, there are several URL shortening services.  These will not only shorten your URLs (which you then copy and paste into your tweet), but many of them will also track the shortened URL and give you statistics on how many people clicked on it from your Tweet.  Two of the most common URL shorteners are bit.ly and tinyurl.
(more…)