Pic from http://sdow.semanticweb.org

Facebook Privacy seems to be a question that gets raised in nearly every presentation we run, and it’s a no brainer why!

One thing you all should know. Everything you post on facebook is automatically open for anybody to see! That’s every status update, picture and video you upload!!! It can be pretty daunting for some people as for others..they couldn’t care less.

Before we nail the privacy controls, remember this. Every single bit of content you put up on Facebook is a choice….so be wise in what you share.

Facebook Privacy is an educational process for every person who decides to utilise the platform, whether it be for business or for a personal account. It’s now an easy platform to nail, ensuring you’re not pumping out content to everyone and anyone. Facebook in the distant past was known to over complicate the privacy process and it’s great news for us as now, thanks to the “master switch” you can tighten things up in the shake of a lambs tail, controlling all your content at once in the same spot. The main thing to highlight here is you can protect all the content you have ever processed.

What better way to learn than from the second biggest search engine in the world! Soak up this quick Facebook privacy video “how to”.

Other things to remember:

• When you “like” or “share” any content then it’s automatically feed onto your wall too, for all your friends to see. GREAT  viral exposure for brands/products etc and we feed off this quick and easy sharing facility yet if you’re not keen for your mates to see this then simply – take the tick off  “Allow select partners” in your privacy settings (held in your account bar – top right)

• If a person tags you in a picture then it goes straight into your pictures. Great if it’s a flattering photo Yet if it’s one you’re not sure if you want your mates/the world to see (privacy settings) then make sure you untag yourself.

• Last one – have a quick look through all the pages you have liked. Facebook is lapping up the business and community pages and is always looking for ways to utilise this info to link in with specific advertising. They index the business page/community page with info of your profile. So if you’ve liked a page that you’re not keen for other people to see then probably best to punt this one into space!

Facebook is obviously hotter than the sun right now…and it’s one of our favourite social networks for biz and pleasure! The reach is huge and the facebook insights and targeted messages step all over Google analytics. It’s a platform full of potential, yet with huge opportunities there are always risks.

What are your thoughts on how facebook shares your information? If you’re a brand/biz then can you see how this is possibly the most targeted way to connect with your market? If you’re on it for a personal aspect..are you finding to find that brands are finding you now? Hit us up with your thoughts below, we’re keen to hear more.

(via Social Media Examiner)

Picture is from the Foursquare site – www.foursquare.com

Four square is starting to become a big game player for local business this year, so pay attention! It’s powerful location based marketing channel mixed in with its addictive game feature makes this application a place not to turn your nose up to!

In the words of Foursquare – “Foursquare aims to encourage people to explore their neighborhoods and then reward people for doing so.”

So what is Foursquare?

Foursquare is a mobile application where people update where they are at..right now! eg. I’m @georges car yard, 23 darling street, Melbourne. People also have the opportunity to comment about the place they are at – eg. I’m getting my baby seat fitted by George, great guy! They are also approved fitters.Check them out!

This update/ “shout” is shared with their friends on foursquare (as well as twitter and facebook – if they choose it to be published there too) a map is also pulled up so you know exactly where they are. This is called Geotagging. The person updating also receives points each time they “check in” to a place, adding to the competitive streak which makes Foursquare so successful.

So why are people using foursquare and how can it assist your locally based business?

So, you may be thinking along similar lines to when you found out about twitter, ” why the heck do I want to tell someone what I am doing”…well, I’m guessing you know why twitter has sky rocketed…so why are people  telling you where they are..and how can this benefit your business?

As humans, we love to share and connect. Foursquare has these qualities embedded in with the whole competitive nature, giving people a compelling reason to “check in” to a place (eg. bar/coffee shop/hotel/restaurant) . Once you check in to a place you gain points. The person with the most check ins to that particular place becomes the Major. So on one side, people are competing to be the Major of a specific place – eg “The Social Bar” in Melbourne – yet on the flip side, the business also has the opportunity to encourage people to “check in”, as they can receive rewards – eg. a free pint. If someone is in your area, there are also ways to highlight to them that your business is nearby and to come and check in for eg. a discounted meal!

Foursquare for business now offers this service, so you may want to drop in there after reading this post. If you also want to know how to use foursquare then the foursquare site will give you the low down!

So, to make this post even more powerful, I wanted to share with you how a local based business in Melbourne – Caroline Serviced Apartments ( short/long term serviced apartments),  is using Foursquare to their advantage!

They are asking for people to visit one of their properties (in Brighton or South Yarra) and ‘check-in’ on Foursquare at the venue sometime before 2pm Friday 16th April, to win a prize !

So CSA are using foursquare to:

1. build up brand awareness

2. showcase their apartments

3. meet people entering the competition face to face (for an even warmer presence)

4. giving a value add (prize).

5. assisting bloggers like myself to write a post utilising them as the case study/ example.

6. assisting people on twitter/facebook to spread their competition (blog post too) as it’s such a great example of a business using foursquare.

7. gain that trusted word of mouth that we all crave for!

I now believe they are offering a loyalty program for their guests. Four Square for business is a free business program that has built in stats for all that visit/speak about your business. It can tell you who has visited your business the most to the number of check ins in a specific time, so….it’s  a no brainer why CSA are utilising this.

Love it! So, are you a locally based business? Have you/are you reaping the benefits of  foursquare? or simply…what are your thoughts on this powerful 2010 player? Hit me up below

The purpose of this post is to share with you one of my role models within the online world. Damn this guy is so heart pumpingly great that I just had to dedicate a post to him. Why am I sharing this with you? In business, we all need outside influences that fire us up, get us to think differently, challenge our beliefs and assist us to think then action these thoughts.

Gary Vaynerchuck caught my attention from the very first 3min video I saw from him way back last year. His animated and effervescent personality combined with his strong beliefs and ethics in business simply set off a fire works show in my head. I was hooked!

Gary’s insights into social media are inhaled by millions across the globe! It’s not all about the facebook, twitter and youtube accounts you have, it’s about community and relationships and how you use the tools to make this happen. He is a walking, talking example of how you can ultilise social media within business/branding, whilst being authentic, creative, caring about your community and of course working extremely hard.

I wanted to share this phenomenal energy fueled business man with you (that’s if you have not had a taste already). I truly believe he assisted me to sky rocket forwards, strengthening the confidence in me to do what I want to do, and be who I want to be within my career choice.

Here is his latest presentation at Le Web 2009. It’s a full 25 minutes long and I promise, you will all take something away from this presentation, that will get you to think a little differently within your own business/organisation..life! A must watch… and I don’t often say that.

I got a lot of feedback on my recent post on twitter lists. Not all people have this feature and its understandable that people may be confused. In this post, I’ll answer some of the common questions I was asked.

What is Twitter Lists?

This is still in beta stage, which means that many readers may not be able to see it. I’ve included two images that show the major changes.

The below image shows my regular sidebar as well as the page that displays when I click the text ‘Listed.’

There are two differences in the sidebar. You can see the lists you are following under your favourites. I’m only following two lists currently, but you can see more when you click View all. When you click that, you are taken to a screen that shows the lists you are following and the lists following you. You can also see the person that created that list and the amount of followers that list has.

The next image shows what you see when you click on a specific list.

This takes you to a page featuring the tweets by the people on the list. You are able to see who the list was created by and have the option to follow it. You can also block the list owner and check out other lists they have created.

How are these features useful?

Before I go into details, I’ll discuss how these basic features are useful:

• You can ascertain how ‘popular’ someone is by the amount of times they are featured in the list. You can see how truly useful they are by checking out the quality of the individual lists. This can prevent gaming of the twitter system
• It can easily allow you to see what is trending, just by reading the updates by a group of people.
• You don’t necessarily have to create all of these lists yourself. If someone has already discovered fabulous people, you can just follow their list. You can then follow and interact with interact with interesting people within that list.

How Do I Find Interesting People To List.

I was actually asked this recently by the lovely girls at Caroline Service Apartments. They loved the idea of lists but weren’t part of the beta and was wondering how could they find interesting people to add to lists. I was specifically asked about useful tools.

I’m often complimented about how I network on twitter but I don’t use any of the search and follow applications. I just find a core group of interesting people and follow more people as I discover them within a community. This is a very simple version of what I do:

• I follow people that seem interesting and that I want to get to know better
• I see who they interact with and, if interested, start connecting with them
• I see what names are frequently mentioned in that community. These are the influencers/sneezers
• I start to know most of the people in the community and usually follow anyone who enters.
• The rest is mostly based on referrals. People recommend that others connect with me, or vice versa, because we can help each other.

Now, I’ve been on twitter for over a year and it takes up time to do this. You can reduce the amount of time needed by using some of the applications on the twitter fan wiki

How The Twitter Fan Wiki Can Help With Your Lists

On the page, they feature a number of applications that can improve your twitter experience. It is also worth noting that they’ll soon release the API for this feature so there may be some tools developed to specifically help.

They have organized the information into groups. These are the groups I thought would be relevant to those creating lists:

• GeoSocial/Local: These can help you find local people that you may want to interact with
• Groups/organizations: How to find many people according to certain selected variables
• Search Engines: A better way of finding people according to your business goals.
• Trends: Allows you to know what information is hot, so you can see if any people in your lists are talking about it

There are also travel applications which may help Caroline Service Apartments.

You can use these tools to cut down the amount of time it takes to find the interesting people, but it can be hard work creating the lists. I recommend that you follow the lists that other people have created for certain niches and locations and then create certain lists (private or public) for people that fit outside of those categories.

What do I do once they are on a list?

You don’t have to do anything – its like following. However it is a waste of time researching this feature if you have no intentions of connecting with people within the lists. Taking action on this is worthless unless you genuinely want to connect and support your community.

Twitter lists can give you a reason to make the initial connection:

• Explain why you added them to a list and offer to help. Ask if they’d recommend anyone to add to your list
• Thank someone for creating a really useful list. You can network additionally by mentioning specific people you found from that list
• Thank people for adding to a particular good list. If you do this via DM, people will know that you are thanking them because you genuinely appreciate it rather than seeking attention.

Over to you

I understand that lists are a bit confusing. Let me know what questions you still have about them and I’ll answer them either on twitter or in future posts. You can also contact Sam and she’ll help you utilize twitter lists as part of your social media strategy.

Twitter recently added a new feature call Twitter lists. It is reportedly only available to selected users but many  have really started to embrace the feature.

Initially, it seems like a new way of measuring popularity. It is easy to dismiss how it can help your business. However this simple feature can make your work so much easier, especially if you have multiple people managing your social media accounts.

So – what does it do?

Twitter Lists allows you to categorize the people you are following, or are following you. Individuals may create different lists for friends, family and so forth. However twitter lists allows to allocate individuals to certain buyer personas and allow you to better serve them.

How does this relate to buyer personas?

There are different types of people that will buy from you. Lets look at our fabulous clients, Caroline Serviced Apartments.

They will attract:

• Families looking for a quieter place to stay
• People in town for business who want the extra service
• Couples who want a relaxing weekend.

Notice how we identified the emotions they were seeking. This will help you tailor services to their specific needs. This takes the guess work out of finding people to follow on twitter.

Its a simpler form of CRM

People on twitter don’t like being sold to and it can be easy to feel like you are part of a database. This is where twitter lists excel – you can give back to the community while managing their individual needs.

In the case of Caroline Serviced Apartments, they can create a list called ‘Australian travel bloggers.’ This is not only useful for them to see who may be coming to Melbourne, but it can be useful for others looking for such a list. This may help many others discover your twitter profile and engage with your content. You can expand this to so many other categories.

Yet it takes the concept a step further. Not only are you reaching your potential customers, you are also reaching the people who will spread your message to others. This is where twitter lists can really help you. Its simply a matter of discovering the best method of organizing your followers.

How do I categorize people?

There are multiple ways you can organize the people you are following:

• By geographic region

This is useful if your business targets a specific region. You can see what they are talking about, what they like and find ways to help them.

• By how active they are in social media

You can create a separate list for those who are really active within your niche. We call them the ‘sneezers’, or ‘influencers.’ These are the people who rave when they find something great and can generate a lot of traffic to your business.

As with everything in social media, you shouldn’t target ANYONE specifically for personal gain – you have to find ways to help your followers before asking for help. But simply identifying them can help you get a feel for what motivates them.

People to look for are active tweeters, bloggers or those who use niche social networking sites like Flickr.

• Previous customers

People who have already bought from you will most likely trust you. They still need attention, as they are the ones that will continue to talk about your brand. By having a special list you will instantly know that they have bought from you and mention that in conversation.

• People who are ‘trolls’

This category may seem unnecessary but it may prevent you from engaging with someone who is just out to cause trouble.

• People in certain industries

This can be particularly useful for those who are seeking others in different areas of their industry. It can also help if you are looking for support in another industry. A good example is creating a list of journalists on twitter.

• People in the same industry

This is a useful way of giving back to your community. You can keep a track of the competition while supporting others.

Important tips:

• It is important that you are aware of the privacy settings. People may be offended at being categorized, especially in negative terms
• Foster a sense of community. Emphasis that you are doing this to ensure you are helping your followers to the best of your ability
• Be thankful when you are included on other peoples lists. However, this may not be scalable.

Over to you.

This is a very new concept and one I’m sure we will be hearing a lot about. These are just my immediate thoughts about how it can apply to your business. I’m sure that, over time, we will be able to identify other ways that we can use twitter lists to help the community. What are your thoughts?

One thing I’ve discovered during my time on twitter is that many businesses are still unsure about how they can really connect with their clients. Many people hear about it and approach it purely as a sales platform.

While this can work, most companies do this incorrectly and leave a negative impression on their clients. There are multiple ways you use this tool without being seen as a spammer.

5 ways businesses are using twitter:

• Talking about the company positives
• Encourage sales leads
• Providing support
• For promotions and specials.
• Directing people to your other social media outposts

This may seem overwhelming, but isn’t. You can speed up your social media education by watching how other companies are utilising twitter as part of their social media strategy. We will be covering some of the top businesses in future posts on this blog.

There are three main methods that businesses use twitter. I’ll be writing about the positives and negatives of each one.

Encourage employees to use it

Positive:

• It can make your workplace feel more like a community. People in different parts of the office can follow other peoples tweets
• They can share the exciting things they are doing at your business
• You can show the personalities behind the brand. Each twitter user has the potential to find their own following and can spread the message further

Negatives:

• People may tweet sensitive information about your brand. You should provide a set of social media guidelines so they know what is, and isn’t allowed.
• People may spend too much time on social media sites. You should encourage them to use social media during work hours but will need to set limits

Get an account for the person behind the brand

Positive:

• It can give people the chance to see the main personality behind the brand
• It will ensure that news about the brand comes from a really trustworthy source
• In a crisis, you can ensure that you are the go to person for consumers. Some company representatives have gone straight onto twitter after a press conference.

Negatives:

• It may be hard to keep up with the number of replies. This may lead to getting overwhelmed
• People may feel slighted if you don’t respond to them

Create a branded account to tweet from.

Positives

• You can have multiple people tweeting from the same account. This can result in a constant stream of information as it isn’t dependent on one persons schedule
• You have more scope to use inclusive language. This is really useful for community building
• You can have the same consistent image across multiple social media outposts

Negatives

• People may get attached to the people behind the brand. This can cause problems should they move on.
• People may doubt that they are talking to a real person and may be worried they are talking to a social media firm. (At Think tank, we work hard to ensure this doesn’t happen. On one campaign, my friend and colleague didn’t even realise that it was me tweeting him)
• It can seem impersonal and self promotional. Rather than constantly talking about yourself, make sure to focus on the community.

Ways to make contact with the consumer

There are many ‘entry points’ to make contact with your customer. In some cases, they will initiate the conversation by sending an @reply and opting in to read your tweets.

In this section, I’ll be discussing four ways you can make the first contact with the people that are already talking about your brand.

When they tweet something negative about you

When someone goes to social media to complain, they are usually very frustrated. This is a really good time to approach the customer but it has to be done in a way that doesn’t alienate them.

So, how do you respond to them in a tactful way?

• Publicly apologise – even if simply saying you are sorry they feel that way
• Offer to look into a problem personally. This isn’t always possible but it puts a face to the solution
• If possible, add a bit of humour. Sometimes, people don’t know that their tweets are being watched and genuinely didn’t mean to offend
• Thank them. In many cases, the issue will give you a way to improve something. Make them feel they are part of the process.

When they tweet something negative about the competition

The emotion behind the tweet in this situation is similar to the above example. However, they may be very wary of getting ‘pitched.’ If you want to target these people, you should be very cautious.

• Say your sorry to hear about the problems they are having
• Mention a solution that you think may help them – even if that solution doesn’t give you business
• Behave like a person and a brand. People often get upset because they feel like a faceless consumer rather than a real person.

When they something positive about you.

If they are complimenting you on twitter, they are probably complimenting you in real life. If you show them that you are paying attention they will continue to talk about your brand.

Tips to encourage this:

• Retweet the top compliments.
• DM those who have complimented you
• Highlight other social media sites – like blogs – where people have said positive things
• Reward those who have consistently supported your brand.

When they are looking for more information about your service

People in this case are very much in ‘buy’ mode. You can take advantage of this but the customer may feel annoyed at you later if they regret an impulse buy. In this case, you should provide as much value and encourage them to make informed brand comparisons.

How to do this:

• Have a collection of links with reviews and product comparisons on standby. They will appreciate the time they saved by not having to do the research themselves
• Ask them details that will inform your recommendation. Check out their profile and their blog, if time permits. You can then make personal comments about their needs and interests.
• Occasionally, offer them a special deal or tell them a way to find out about extra promotions.
• Offer to help them throughout the buying process.

Over to you:

This article was designed to give you an overview of how you can engage with your clients. I excluded a lot of information because I didn’t want to overwhelm you. I’ll be expanding on many of the concepts in future blog posts. This is where you come in.

What would you like to read more about? Do you want specific case studies? Would you rather a list of businesses that are successfully utilising this space?

Let us know in the comments section. If I wont be writing about it, I’ll try to help you through my twitter account – www.twitter.com/jadecraven.

Google.  It’s just a word right, however it brings up so many different emotions in different people! For me, I get excited every time Google releases a new tool. Why, because the majority of these power platforms assist my team and I to grow, and really provide for what our clients demand.

More people use local search engines like Google (82%) than any other media to find local information.

This new tool is a must for small business and it’s a free listing! Welcome to the Google Local Business Centre.

Knowing how to establish numbers and metrics is key to all business models. Google has developed a killer tool that can help us do just that, plus it has made some updates to the way Google Local works. The new added power tool is metrics. What this means is that you can now control how you want to be defined on Google plus you can see how visitors are finding your information. Soaking up these metrics and making changes that reflect these results can be the difference that makes the difference with you and your competitors.

• Google local Business Centre enables you to:
• See who’s searching for you on Google.
•  See how they are finding you
•  See where they are coming from.
• Plus so much more. 

This information can help you make smart decisions that can bring in more customers. You can see trends in what your customers are searching for before they find you – eg. if you are a massage therapist and shoulder massages are being searched frequently, then you could enhance your services to cater for these trends. You can continuously keep changing the listings in Google based on the results you see in your dash board. Woola!

Grab some popcorn and tuck into the video. Next,  take advantage of the free listings www.google.com/lbc  .

Did you find this helpful?  I wanna know in the comments section (click comments) !

This Web2.0 space is bursting with growth and it’s only ever increasing. The numbers below highlight to all businesses how much opportunity is out there on the web right now! Stop crying and start working harder in this space! 2009 for small business owners has never been so great! 

Hold onto your hats and fasten your seat belts!

Internet

1,596,270,108 people are actively using the internet (Internet Usage and World Population Statistics are for March 31, 2009)

Google

 1 trillion URL’s are indexed on Google –  Source 

Here is how Google grew in terms of number of indexed URLs :

1998 : 26,000,000 (26 million web pages)
2000 : 1,000,000,000 (1 Billion web pages)
2008 : 1,000,000,000,000 (1 Trillion web pages)

Google has done 2 billion searches a day, or about 700 billion a year Source

Top 100 google hot trends - http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends

Blogs

133,000,000 - is the number of blogs Technorati has indexed since 2002

A new blog is created every second, totalling 80,000 new blogs every day. 

900,000 blog posts are created daily

Blogging grew 68% in 2008

346 million people worldwide read blogs

77% of active web users read blogs

The average blogger in the US:

• 51% male 
• Aged 35+ (58%)
• Aged 18-34 (42%)
• College educated, 74%   Source

Twitter

Number of tweets as of right now! - 1,691,543, 819 - ( click here for an up to the minute count)

At the start of 2008 Twitter had only around 500,000 monthly visitors

Growth rate for Twitter was 752%, for a total of 4.43 million unique visitors in December 2008  Source

Twitter.com is a top 500 site that reaches over 4.1 million U.S. monthly people. The site attracts a more educated, slightly more female than male, young adult audience. Quantcast, March

Twitter is receiving 8million unique visitors in the month of March 2009.Compete (via Nick) March 10

 Melbourne’s top 100 twitter users

Facebook

• More than 200 million active users

• More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day

• More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college

• The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older

• More than 20 million users update their statuses at least once each day

• More than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week

• There are more than 30 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.

• http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

• Inside Facebook says: “the number of Americans over 35, 45, and 55 on Facebook is growing fast. In the last 60 days alone, the number of people over 35 has nearly doubled. Developers and marketers may want to think about how to serve this group of new users.” Inside Facebook, March

• “Women over 55 remain the fastest growing group, and growth among the teen and college-age set has been relatively paltry. In absolute numbers there are now even slightly more members between the ages of 45 and 65 than there are 13-to 17-year-olds.” Wired Magazine, March.

YouTube

You tube nears 5 billion views Source

 Average internet users watch 2 YouTube videos a day

The average video length, according to comScore.com, was 2.7 minutes.

YouTube Insight, a free tool that enables anyone with a YouTube account to view detailed statistics about the videos that they upload to the site. 

One of the most watched videos on youtube in 2009 – set to break youtube records! 

This illustrates how web clips are mixing with TV shows and bringing in a bigger audience. 

Mobile usage

63 million on mobile internet daily

Significant growth in the numbers of people accessing the internet from their mobile phones vs. a year ago. The company says that today there are just over 63 million mobile web users in the US and 35 percent of them are online via their handset daily. Source.

I trust your mind had been sparking off like a new years eve fireworks show! Here are the numbers, now where are you seeing the opportunities within your own business?

We all know, as successful business owners, that networking is crucial for business growth and life!

Why? It’s a way to form tight nit relationships, trustworthy referrals, expose your personal brand ,a strong support network, a feeling of belonging, being surrounded around like minded people….the list goes on!

I have spoken to a few people of late who are saying Twitter is for the anti-social – people that are too scared or too lazy to hook up face to face! What a load of bull crap! I have been on Twitter for quite some time now AND my social fixes on Twitter are like injecting myself with 20 cans of Redbull!

 The relationships I have built up on Twitter are strong, powerful and true. Twitter is another form of networking and it can be done from the comfort of your own home to hit a global audience, I believe the people that say it’s anti – social just totally don’t get this space…YET!

A few weeks back I had a brain surge-and I nearly had to go into hospital!

I found that I was engaging in conversations with many people from Melbourne (where I live) on Twitter.  I don’t know about you, but when I tweet with people,  I picture in my mind the type of person they are, what they look like and also what their office/house looks like too? Random I know!

As a social media enthusiast and people lover who has a zest for life, I just had to fizz with these extraordinary twitterers.  They all gave me something on twitter – whether it was support, exposure, a belly full of laughs, referrals, business ….. I JUST HAD TO MEET THEM, face to face!

It was an absolute no brainer to take powerful relationships that I had made on twitter to a whole new level! We all know the power of twitter in lead gen, personal branding and networking. Combine this with an offline networking meet up and shaaazam – add another power marketing strategy to the business model!

@tweetupmellers was born – and for the first meet up,  22 of twitters top talent showed up ! If you are curious to see the  strength of this space then click on this !

My point? Online networking is gold. Combine this with offline networking then you have just hit the jackpot my friends!

Were any of the people that showed up lazy or anti social? Quite the contrary! They get this space and got straight in! They showed up, put in the time and by the end of the night our twitter network was stronger than ever. They all know, as you do that you have to put in the time, care about your network, give great content and be real! When you do THAT then the opportunities are endless.

Twitter is a social networking tool and it’s strength has now lead to an offline networking group too! Both are crucial to any business and both generate powerful results.

Twitter for the anti-social –ppppphffffft – check out @tweetupmellers and the group, then get back to me, wouldn’t you agree?

Social Media…WOW.…. how these two words hold so many meanings! A buzz marketing term? An exciting platform to connect with your target market on? A term that confuses you?..or maybe overwhelms you? A concept you are eager to hear more about? So many meanings are added to these two words with many emotions attached to them!

It’s a super Sunday, and I planned to write a super special post on “The power of using video in your business”. However, due to the amount of  “ HELP ME mail”  I received on Facebook and Twitter this week, I have chosen to listen to my audience (as any good business owner does).   In this post, I aim to shed some sunlight and inner calm on this whole Social Media thing! 

Before I answer by far the most popular question asked this week (” Where do I start with Social Media..I’m confused? “), I feel it’s best to give you a few definitions.

•  The super social savvy Brian Solis shares that “Social Media is, at its most basic sense, a shift in how people discover, read, and share news, information and content. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many.)” 

• ” Social media is a type of online media that expedites conversation as opposed to traditional media, which delivers content but doesn’t allow readers/viewers/listeners to participate in the creation or development of the content” claims Susan Ward

• And me….Sam Mutimer’s definition :-) – “ Social is the communication, interaction and relationship building part of the process.  Media is the platform in which these conversations, interactions and relationships take place (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, FriendFeed ). It’s just like the old media  - newspapers, magazines, radio and television, however the new part to this media is using some of the platforms I have mentioned above to communicate your message”.

One more definition if you are still a little hazy, from the trusty Wikipedia -   Social Media Wikipedia

So where to start within your own business? I say, as my old PE teacher used to harp on about  “keep it simple”. Take one step at a time and start to build up your connections and platforms at your own speed. There is no race here ( I have only just learnt this!). Do what’s best for you, with the time you have available. Anything is better than nothing!  If  you already have a blog set up, then good on you! I would say you are in front of many business owners in Australia. For those of you that haven’t…..this would be an ace place to start! Blogs are a fantastic place to begin.

To give you just a few benefits in short :

1. Blogs give a personal touch to your business as they are usually a more friendly place to connect with your target market,  as opposed to a colder website platform.

2. They can help to place you as an expert in your field, building up trust, confidence and a fan base for your brand/personal brand!

3. Search engines LOVE blogs and you can get a nice little ranking in places such as Google.

There are many more benefits of having a blog and I will go into more depth in the ” Why blog for business?”  post.  My favourite reason to blog is to share some great content and I hope to enthuse, energise and empower small business owners to get excited about web2.0! Its power to the people at last and we all have the opportunity to grow here in a cost effective and fun manner!

Are you a little clearer now? Click the comments section below to share your feedback! I’m pumped to read your thoughts! Whoop whoop!

High fives…. to your Social Media super success!