Twitter can be a very lonely place when you first start out. I like to compare it to my first day at school. A very unfamiliar experience! I felt a bit lonely, a little unsure of what to say or who to be friends with. I also didn’t want to look stupid and ask questions I thought I should know.

If you are feeling like this then it’s completely normal, we all had to start at the beginning, and we are all human – phew!

This post is aimed at the freshies.  I trust I can clear a few things up for you straight away, saving you time and enabling you to dive straight into this powerful business tool!

Firstly let’s look at twitter talk:

1.      Tweet:  a tweet is a short message of 140 characters or less. In your tweet you can involve links to pictures (twitpic), music (blip.fm), your blog/site, other peoples, articles, pretty much anything you want to share. This builds up the whole connection process and enables people to really get a great understanding of who you are and what your business does. Once you start to build up quality relationships leading to trust, then you are well on your way to utilizing this space in its most powerful form! 

2.      You can also read tweets of the people you follow.

2. Follow: You can choose to follow people who take your interest. You can follow anyone. These are going to be your twitter buddies. You can learn from these people, connect with them and their follow base, plus they may want to follow you back (if they believe you will provide great content /will be beneficial to them in some way). Remember on twitter, people usually think “what’s in it for me” (well, that’s actually in life). I follow people who provide quality content, entertain me, engage in conversation with me, help me, who I can outsource work to, who I see as being potential clients, who make me laugh!

3. Un follow: You do this if you do not want to see these people’s tweets anymore. If people are not providing the quality of information I’m looking for, do not engage or just promote their product most of the time, I tend to hit the unfollow button.

4. @ : This symbol appears in front of the name of the person you want to alert, eg. @sammutimer (that’s me). If you want to talk about a person or get their attention then use the @ then their name. This comes up in their twitter stream (see explanation below). I would use this if I wanted the person to see my tweet about them, gaining their attention. It can also be used in an RT “re-tweet” (see explanation below). In a nutshell it highlights to the person you are tweeting about them!

5. RT :  This means “retweet”. It means that the person who read your tweet thinks it would be great to share this with their follow base. I RT great content and also RT links from followers who I have a close relationship with (supporting them). I RT great messages about me at times (because I can)   I also RT clients tweets!

6. Twitter stream : This is a flow of tweets from all the people you are following.

7. DM :  This means direct message and is used to personally send a message to the follower without the rest of the twitter world seeing it (it usually goes straight to your email account also, if you have set this up on twitter).  You cannot DM someone if they are not following you. This can be annoying at times yet there are subtle ways of getting around this if you really do want to connect with them. You can use the @ signal to notify them.  My usual line to grab attention here is eg.  “  @name, I went to DM you yet you were not following me, tissues please..sniff sniff!” or something like that! I have then been followed back 90% of the time by these awesome people and gained some great exposure from them. I use this strategy with people who I believe have a big influence over the traditional media and social media crowd – it’s a winner.

8. # -means hashtag  : You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag. The hash mark (#) before a word in a tweet allows you to tag that tweet. Why would you use a hashtag? Use a hash tag if you want to track a conversation. An example of a popular hash tag is  #followfriday. Every Friday people nominate quality tweeters – eg. #followfriday @beebow @steitiyeh @mr_billiam  @a_web_designer@alblack @trevoryoung @robhartnett    @ rebeccamezziono @kirsty_wilson etc . You can then check out the hashtag and see if you want to follow these people, adding them to your follow base. Many #followfriday people I have followed from the request of others have been fantastic people, so it’s totally worth spending the time to do. These people above are great people to link up to for first follows! Gold!

So, I trust this post has made you feel a little bit more comfortable in your first few weeks on twitter – stick at it. You need patience, authenticity and most of all, you need to be yourself to get the most out of this powerful space (well that’s my opinion, and it’s working a treat)!  ;-)

One last thing.

Once you have signed up for twitter, install either 1) www.tweetdeck.com or 2) www.twitzap.com  . These platforms make it easier to manage twitter in real time. 

Has this post helped you to get started on twitter? Do you feel ready to get stuck into this heart pumping tool? I would love to know in the comments section below - click comments. 

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!

I’m in England right now – God save the Queen…and all that Jazz!  (If you are curious to know why – then click here – Sam’s youtube video  ).

Any how, I have many friends in the UK that own their own businesses, from small business start ups to companies increasingly expanding. Now, I must say, if I’m passionate about something and know it works then you can’t shut me up….I’ve been told I can be a little full on at times! FULL ON…come on…..if you’re passionate about something and know it works then why not share, especially if you know it’s going to boost their business and gain them more exposure!

Right now,  one of the strategies I am utilising with my clients (to gain exposure and push them up the Google rankings) involves blogging. I luuurve da blog –   INNIT!  (said in a cockney London accent!).

Why???? Well, I’ll go into that on my next post, yet firstly I’m guessing some of you may not know what a blog is, so I will break it down.

What is a business blog?

A business blog is also known as a web blog. It’s basically a journal with software that is installed into your computer.  It has a content management system (a system where you can control the content) and uses a data base and a scripting language….blah blah. Yet, the main feature of a blog is that YOU can contribute messages (posts) into this and have full control over it. POWER TO THE PEOPLE – AKA – WEB 2.0!

A blog is like a website yet far more powerful (in my eyes) as it’s interactive and engaging (Web2.0), that’s if your website hasn’t been all web2.0ed up yet!

Your business blog is like a diary. It can contain tips about your products, success stories about your clients, quality information about what your target market would like to read, who is in your team (a personal version from the heart..with pictures or video) etc.  It’s you – you are your brand! Remember, you are helping people and engaging them in the conversation, you are giving them previews of what’s new and what’s coming up – there are so many exciting things a business blog can write about. I’m going to burst!

So why blog?

As mentioned above, a lot of my friends run businesses, and the usual questions they ask  me are :  “what shall I do to increase traffic to my business web site” and  “what shall I do to let people know my business exists” “how can I sell more  and position myself as an expert, whilst banding  myself”, to name just a few! My first answer..honestly…  START A BLOG!!!!

So, why am I so aweeeeeeeeeeeeeeee  about  blogging?

Ok, think about a normal website for a sec, (static website) that has not been web2.0ed up…by us  :-) ! It’s pretty much like a brochure, wouldn’t you agree? So many websites we upgrade are like printed brochures in an online form (web 1.0). BORING! There are usually a few pages that describe what the business does, how they do it and their vision/mission along with the services they provide. The language is usually in marketing speak; you know the ones, right? Can I be honest and straight to the point?  People get bored and distracted by this; they’re more interested in how you can help them (what’s in it for them), how can you relieve their pain! Or fulfil their pleasure!

Think about this..then read our “Why blog?” and “How to blog for business success” in the next coming blog posts – be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out!

If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave comments below (you can leave comments by clicking the comments link under the tweet this link) – I can assure you I will get back to you in the shake of a lambs tail …or something like that!  (Also share this on facebook and/or tweet it)  if you believe it’s a great post using the buttons below!) I will be tracking these!  :-) Whoop whoop!