The real question is whether your business will benefit from using Vine.  It’s always a good idea to be visible in as many places as possible, but if you do not have someone dedicated to managing your social media presence, you should pick and choose where you want to invest your resources.  Think about your target market and whether they would benefit or enjoy watching videos by your company.  Currently, Vine is only for iOS, optimized for the iPhone, so that is also something to keep in mind.

Vine is still a new medium, so finding the right way to use it to leverage your brand properly may be a challenge.  However, here are a few different accounts that are already using Vine in creative ways:

1. NBC News

They posted a video showing a tour inside 30 Rock and already have Vine accounts for their affiliates throughout the country.

2. Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon posted a hilarious video telling us the meaning of life.

3. Buzzfeed

Buzzfeed gives their followers an inside scoop of what goes on in the office

4. Redvines

Redvines has posted fun videos on different ways you can play with their delicious candy

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What do you think of Vine? Do you think you’ll be using it for your business? If so, please comment with your Vine ID – I’d love to follow you!

However, offering social proof to website visitors isn’t the only reason branding is more important now than ever before.  There’s also speculation that the search engines – in their continuous effort to weed out thin sites from quality pages – are beginning to mine data related to branding metrics, meaning that websites with strong brands could be rewarded with higher search engine rankings.

According to Kaiser the Sage, a leading internet marketing website:

“With search engines mining brand related, it is almost certain that the next shift in search engine optimization is going to be mostly about branding, seeing as a strong brand presence indicates authoritativeness. Moreover, popular brands are most likely to be rewarded by search engines with higher rankings (for very competitive keywords) on their search results, knowing that they have earned their trust basing from users’ perspectives.”

So what is a “brand” and how can you use your website to build one?  Let’s explore how this powerful business building practice can be integrated into existing websites in order to attract the benefits described above…

Essentially, your digital brand encompasses what people feel and envision when they think about your company.  Think, for a second, what your mental associations are for discount chain Walmart, compared with what you picture when thinking about high-end retailer Williams-Sonoma.  Although both chains are the same in that their primary goal is to sell products, the way that they do that – and, consequently, the brand associations they’ve built around their companies – are quite different.

As a business owner, you have the ability to control and influence these feelings through specific elements of your website’s development.

Element #1 – Voice

The “voice” of your website relates to the textual content you place on your pages – specifically, the way you structure this text to evoke different feelings.

To understand how voice is deployed effectively, consider the difference in tone that would be used on a website publishing scientific findings compared to social networking sites targeting kids and teenagers.  In general, the kids’ site will be much more likely to use simple words, short sentences and quick, punchy phrases to convey a sense of fun and excitement.

The scientific journal, on the other hand, is likely to feature highly complex sentences, packed with jargon that’s unique to the specific field the journal targets.   Clearly, there’s nothing wrong with either of these examples – what’s important is how the voice used on each site appeals to its target readers.

When thinking about the ideal voice for your website, consider the following factors:

• What is the average reading level of my readers? Unless you’re in a highly technical field, aim for content with an average reading level of grades 6-8 (as determined by a readability test website).
• Do the words I’m using convey the emotional state I want my readers to achieve? Whether you want your readers to be excited, happy, sad or nervous, make sure this feeling comes across in the words you choose and the way you structure your sentences.
• Should I use jargon words on my website? Be careful of using too much jargon or you’ll risk turning off readers who don’t understand your meaning.  However, on some technical websites, jargon is a must in order to make more advanced readers feel welcome.

Element #2 – Differentiation

Brand differentiation refers to making your company’s unique selling point (USP) visible across all aspects of your website.  Really, it isn’t enough to *be* different – you’ve got to make your website visitors aware of these differences and constantly reinforce them throughout various aspects of your website.

Obviously, the first step in this process is to identify your company’s USP (if you don’t already have one).  Once this is set, consider integrating your point of differentiation into any of the following areas of your website:

• Your site’s header graphic or tagline
• The “About me” page on your website
• As a standalone, featured item on your homepage
• Integrated into an advertisement on your sidebar
• In any pop up banners you make use of

Element #3 – Design Elements

Finally, be aware that the different design elements you use can also play a significant role in how well the message of your brand is carried out across your website.  There’s no doubt that the “look and feel” of a website helps to control the way we think about the site’s brand, which is why it’s important to take the following factors account when integrating your branding message into your website design elements:

• Color selection – We’ve talked here before about how important color theory is to conveying a desired feeling to your website visitors, but now’s the time to check your color selections to ensure they’re in line with the brand you want to build.  Think about our earlier example of the kids’ site versus the scientific journal.  Clearly, to convey the right brand message, the former would do best to incorporate bright, fun colors, while the latter type of site would benefit from more staid burgundy and forest green tones that create a feeling of maturity and learning.
• Fonts – Many of the same associations we hold with colors apply to fonts and type faces as well.  Serif fonts, like Times New Roman, are perceived as being more formal and old fashioned, while sans-serif fonts – including Arial and Verdana – convey a more modern feeling (and don’t even get me started on Comic Sans…).  If you’ve gone to all the effort of identifying the right voice for your content and the best colors for your website layout, don’t diminish your branding efforts by choosing a font that doesn’t match up with your visitors’ expectations.
• Site structure – Although the way your site is laid out may be dictated in large part by the website design platform you use, alterations here can also impact the way your website (and, consequently, your brand) is perceived.  The amount of white space included, the number of images used and even how structured your layout is can all influence the success of your branding activities.

Obviously, if your company has any offline marketing materials, including business cards or pre-printed stationery, you’ll want to be sure the design elements you use on these pieces match the ones you use on your website in order to create a consistent visual experience for your customers.

On the other hand, if you aren’t tied to an offline brand, don’t be afraid to get creative here.  Put some effort into determining exactly what kind of message you want to convey, then take the time to ensure that the voice you use and the design elements you choose help to clearly explain the point of differentiation that makes your business unique.

Image: Adam Crowe

You can promote a social environment on your website in a number of ways, each of which comes with its own level of difficulty and required commitment post-installation. Let’s look at a few types of social tools you can integrate into your website, as well as determine which ones might make the most sense for your business.

Comments Sections

Although Comments sections are most often used in conjunction with a blog and blog posts, you can add one to any page on your website to give readers the opportunity to leave feedback about your business and your content. Comments sections can be particularly valuable in increasing visitor engagement, because they are a standard feature across websites. But be aware that they do require an ongoing investment, in terms of moderating readers’ notes and adding your own responses.

If you do decide to integrate Comments sections into your website, there are a few places where you’ll find them to be most effective:

• At the end of each blog post
• At the end of any news articles on your site
• At the end of any other major content pages on your site

Conversely, you wouldn’t want to put Comments sections on sales pages or promotion-specific pages, where the goal isn’t to facilitate customer interaction, but instead to drive visitors through the sales process as quickly as possible.

Depending upon the type of website you run, adding Comments sections might be as simple as turning on a standard option and specifying where on your site you’d like the sections to appear. If your web platform doesn’t include commenting as a standard feature — or if you simply want more functionality added to your Comments sections — look into solutions like DISQUS or IntenseDebate.

Social Sharing Tools

Social sharing tools are another vital component in the process of making your site more interactive. These tools typically consist of button sets that allow readers to post content on your website to their favorite social networks. These “shares” are the type that are most rewarded by the search engine ranking algorithms, which makes integrating tools that facilitate this process into your website a smart move for any webmaster.

But the best part about adding social sharing tools to your website to increase shares on social networks is that, for the most part, it is a “set it and forget it” process. Once you install the buttons on your site, the entire process of social sharing can be carried out automatically. All you have to do is to check back every so often to make sure the buttons are still working correctly.

Social sharing tools are another feature that’s often included as a standard option within most website platforms. If it isn’t an option for you, check out AddThis or ShareThis, both of which can be integrated into any type of website.

Once you’ve activated this feature or installed any necessary plug-ins, the only choice you’ll need to make is where on your site to display the buttons. As with the Comments sections described above, social sharing buttons will be most effectively used on news content or other “shareable” text that users will want to distribute to friends and family members. To facilitate maximum sharing, add buttons that appear integrated into the top of the article content, at the bottom of the text, and as part of a sliding toolbar that moves down the article as the user scrolls.

Customer Review Trackers

People love to share their opinions about products and services, so giving them the opportunity to rate your products or services will keep them on your website longer — and make them more engaged with your brand. Customer reviews can also generate market research data that will allow you to improve your offerings or decide what product lines to feature next.

Integrating customer review tools into your site can be a little more difficult if your chosen website platform doesn’t come with this feature pre-installed. However, it is possible with the use of third-party software scripts (search “review script” on Google to find different options), although you may need to hire out the installation of these scripts to a professional web developer if you aren’t technically inclined yourself.

Of course, when discussing the possible addition of customer review trackers to your website, it’s important to mention one potential caveat — the possibility that you’ll receive negative reviews. If you decide to enable reviews on your site, be sure to have a plan in place for how you’ll deal with this feedback, as yanking the tool down after a few bad reviews comes off as extremely unprofessional.

User Forums or Message Boards

Another option for creating more social interactions on your website is to create a user forum or message board. Although this option won’t make sense for many small-business owners, these tools can be incredibly powerful for “authority” sites in any industry or for those selling highly technical products (for example, software developers or financial advisers).

Essentially, user forums and message boards allow your customers to “talk amongst themselves” by posting questions and comments to the website’s community-at-large. At their best, these tools can help take the customer service burden off of you by allowing expert members of your community to answer the questions of neophytes.

At their worst, user forums and message boards can become dangerous repositories for spam, malware ads, and other nasty items. If you decide to host your own forum or message board, it’s important to choose a provider that requires all participants to register (which will discourage fraudulent postings) and to develop a good strategy for policing the forum (whether through your own efforts or those of designated moderator).

If a forum or message board sounds like it would be a useful tool for your customers — and you’re willing to commit the time that’s necessary to foster vibrant, useful discussions — there are several different tools available. SimpleMachines and phpBB offer free, open-source forum programs, although you’ll need to know how to manage PHP databases within your site’s dashboard to install them on your own.

Finally, keep in mind that the tools listed here represent only a small number of ways in which you can encourage social participation on your website. If you have other ideas or strategies for increasing customer engagement that you’ve used successfully on your site, please share your thoughts in the Comments section below!

Image: bengrey

Traffic, in and of itself, is easy to come by – and indeed, there’s already been plenty written on this subject that I won’t repeat here.  But we aren’t just looking for regular visitors.  We’re looking for true fans that will hang on your every word and, better yet, share your site with their friends and family members.  It is these repeat visitors that contribute most to a business’s bottom line and result in the easiest sales you’ll ever make.

Here’s how to attract your own fan base fast:

Step #1 – Identify an Unmet Need

One of the fastest ways to build up your fan base is to meet an unmet need by identifying the type of information people are struggling to find and then delivering it.  For example, say you operate a site in the diet and fitness industry.  There are plenty of established diet plans out there, but check any weight loss forum and you’ll find plenty of people having trouble finding recipes and meal plans that work with the diet.

Do you think these people might be excited to find a website full of specific advice on how to follow the diet plan, along with recipes, grocery shopping lists and tips for integrating the diet into their daily lives?  Absolutely – and you can provide them with this information!

Of course, this is just one example, but the principle holds true across industries.  If you’re not sure how to find these unmet needs that you can then expand on and build a website out of, try out any of the following options.  Even if you already have an existing business, figuring out how to incorporate some of these unmet needs into your product or service offering strategy can help you to capture new buyers and convert them into rabid brand advocates.

• Practice identifying problems – The better you are at recognizing areas where improvements can be made, the better you’ll be at identifying and providing for unmet needs in your business.  Try to be conscious of “everyday” problems you encounter and brainstorm ways to improve them.  You might be surprised by the kind of business insight this practice uncovers!
• Spend time on forums – Niche forums and message boards can give you a tremendous amount of insight into the kinds of problems people in your industry are experiencing and the types of information they’re looking for.  A quick glance through forum threads in your industry should turn up a number of problems people are actively looking for information that you can provide.
• Ask your current customers – Tapping into your current customers’ unmet needs is one of the fastest ways of discovering the specific types of information people are looking for.  If your current audience isn’t that engaged, asking them to respond to a poll designed to uncover their hot button issues could give you a wealth of material to draw from in order to meet their unmet needs.

Step #2 – Over Deliver

Whether you sell physical products through an ecommerce store, distribute information products online or use your website to generate leads for an offline service business, the key to building a fan base of repeat visitors is to over deliver.  The more you can set yourself apart from other websites in your space, the more likely you’ll be to attract the kind of widespread attention that results in a highly engaged audience.

Let’s look at a few examples from a recent survey on companies that over deliver from LinkedIn…

Dave T shares this story about Apple:

“I heard a story recently about a guy who took an iPad 2 back to the Apple Store after a blazing row about finances with his wife. He put a note on the return saying “Wife said no”. Shortly after a parcel arrived at his house, with a note on it saying “Apple says yes”.”

Lisa C shared her experience with Crate & Barrel:

“I had ordered 2 pieces of furniture from Crate & Barrel. One item was backordered and because I’m way out of their local delivery zone, I was going to have to wait until both items could be delivered together. However, within days of placing my order, Crate & Barrel called and said they were delivering something to someone nearby and would be glad to drop off the available item with no extra delivery charge to me.”

David J took note of a great experience at a local Longhorn Steakhouse:

“Longhorn Steakhouse once made us wait. The waitress was in the back making dressing. She came out, apologized up and down. Later she gave us free desert. We appreciated. Then they brought the check for $0.00 We ask for that waitress every time my wife and I go there.”

Stories and experiences like these make an impact.  It’s likely that each of these people will remember the interactions they had with these brands and go out of their way to recommend them to friends or spend their dollars with them again in the future.  The expense was relatively minor on the part of the business, especially when the lifetime value of these customers is taken into account.

So how can you tell if you’re over delivering?  Start by surveying your industry.  If all of the other websites in your niche are offering email support, offer live chat.  If your competitors offer a return policy that’s limited to the first 30 days after purchase, give your customers 60 days.  Basically, find some way to stand out and differentiate yourself.  When customers see how willing you are to go above and beyond, they’ll reward your loyalty by becoming fans of your business.

Step #3 – Be Everywhere

Finding an unmet need and then going out of your way to over deliver on it is a winning combination, but it’s still not a guarantee for business success.  The problem is that despite the incredible value proposition you’re offering, you can’t succeed unless people know who you are what you bring to the table.

The solution to this problem is to be everywhere your target customers are.  If they spend time on Facebook or Twitter, you need to be present there as well.  If they’re more active on message boards, authority blogs or niche forums, you need to spend time on these sites, offering helpful information at every turn.

It will take some research to uncover the sites where your potential fans spend their time, but it’s time well spent.  As you become better known in your community, the level of support and accessibility will help you to build the kind of active, engaged fan base that will lead to your success.

Image: Mark J.P.

However, jumping into a program like Facebook ads without fully understanding how it works and what types of web advertising campaigns it’s best suited for is, at best, a lost opportunity – and, at worst, a huge waste of money!  If you’re thinking about advertising with Facebook Ads, be sure to check out the following information first.

What are Facebook Ads?

Basically, there are two types of Facebook Ads – Premium ads and Marketplace ads.  Another type of Facebook ad exists that allows you to feature sponsored ads in your customers’ News Feeds, but as these ads are typically only used by more advanced advertisers with enormous budgets, we’ll focus on the standard sidebar ads for now.

Within the Facebook Premium sidebar ads group, there are six distinct types of ads that can be run:

• Like Ads – Like ads allow the people who view your ads to “Like” your brand through the advertisement, resulting in both a “Like” for your brand’s Facebook and a share in the viewer’s News Feed (which can lead to additional exposure and social proof).
• Poll Ads – Poll ads include a voting feature within the ad that enables viewers to share their thoughts and opinions on your ad content or brand.  As with the like ads, the poll option that each viewer selects appears on his News Feed, increasing the eyeballs on your brand’s name.
• Event Ads – Event ads are typically used by major corporations to advertise things like band tours, movie releases and other big promotions.  Viewers of these ads can “RSVP” to each event ad, with their selections – again – being shared in their News Feeds.
• Sampling Ads – Sampling ads offer viewers a very clear call to action by enabling companies to offer free samples of their product via Facebook ad.
• Video Comment Ads – Similar to the sampling ads, video comment ads automatically deploy a video for the viewer to watch when clicked.  When the video is done, viewers can leave their comments or share the video with friends (both of which result in additional exposure).
• Standard Ads – Standard ads, as you might expect, are the simplified versions of these options.  There’s no polling features and no pop-up videos – just the opportunity for users to click through to the brand’s Facebook page or to an external page.

Marketplace ads come in four varieties, including Standard, Like and Event ads that are similar to the premium versions described above.  In addition to these options, the Marketplace ads program also offers Application ads which allow advertisers to promote specific Facebook applications.

There are a few significant differences between Premium and Marketplace ads that you should be aware of:

• Premium ads get the best placements. As you might expect, Premium ads are guaranteed spots on Facebook’s highest traffic pages – including the home pages of all users encompassed by the ad’s demographic targets.
• Premium ads are guaranteed. Placing a Premium ad ensures that your message gets seen, while Facebook Marketplace ads may be bumped to accommodate extra Premium ads.
• Marketplace ads have additional link restrictions. Premium ads can redirect to any link location specified by the advertiser, while Like and Event only redirect to Facebook Pages and Facebook Event Pages respectively.

It’s also worth noting that Facebook Premium ads can be significantly more expensive than their Marketplace counterparts, which makes these top-tier messages best suited to large advertisers with extensive budgets.  Smaller operators need not worry, though – both the Premium and Marketplace advertising programs include the advanced viewer demographic targeting features that set Facebook ads apart from other pay-per-click programs.

Why Use Facebook Ads?

As mentioned above, one of the biggest advantages of the Facebook advertising program is its ability to pinpoint the users to which each ad will be most relevant.  Consider the program in relation to Google’s Adwords PPC program…

Within Google Adwords, you’re able to target your ads to specific keyword phrases and countries (in some cases you may be able to target genders or age ranges).  These demographic parameters are obviously limited by the fact that Google has very little information about their users, unless they happened to be signed in to their Google profiles.

Facebook, on the other hand, knows just about everything about you – from your specific city to your birthday to your stated interests.  This makes it possible to target ads not just to certain search queries but to extremely specific circumstances – for example, male Facebook users aged 18-21 who live in Bozeman, MT  and have an interest in clowns and punk rock music.  Although that example might be a bit too restrictive, better targeting almost always results in better performance.

In addition, it’s important to remember that Facebook is the second most popular site on the web and that with more than 800,000 users, it’s possible to attract a lot of interest in a little time.

Who are Facebook Ads Best for?

However, just because you’re able to rack up hundreds of thousands of ad views in a single day doesn’t mean that you should.  The key to success with Facebook ads lies in making sure you understand your expected return on investment (ROI).

Basically, simply accumulating Facebook Page views, “Likes” or even visitors to your external page isn’t important unless you know the monetary value of each visitor and can ensure that your cost to acquire that visitor through Facebook Ads (whether you decide to pay by click or per 1,000 impressions) is less than what you expect to get in return.  Yes, you can use Facebook Ads to dramatically boost your traffic or “Likes”, but if you can’t tie these increases to a positive ROI, there’s no reason to use this program.

So the first question you need to ask yourself when deciding whether or not to use Facebook Ads is, “Do I know the value of each visitor or “Like” on my Facebook page?”  If you can’t answer this question, stop and do not pass go until you’ve figured out this dollar value.

If you can answer this question, set up an advertiser account with Facebook to see what your estimated ad spend will be.  It’s also a good idea to spend some time studying Facebook and the pages of related brands in your industry to ensure that your target visitors are active on this site.  If there isn’t a lot of activity in your niche, you probably won’t see good results from your campaign.

If all signs point to “Go” and you expect that Facebook’s ads will boost your business in a concrete way, give the program a try.  Be sure to put a cap on your daily ad spend and evaluate your campaigns frequently to ensure freshness (Facebook viewers are notoriously fickle) and effectiveness.  Once you’ve generated a few days worth of data, take a look at your numbers to decide conclusively whether or not the Facebook Ads program is right for your business.

Image: West McGowan

With that in mind, here’s what you need to know about the various Facebook changes thus far, as well as how each of them could impact your business’s Facebook marketing plan.

Real-Time Ticker

One of the most obvious new additions to the latest Facebook rollout is the creation of a real-time Ticker that displays every action taken by a user’s friends and “liked” brands.  The Ticker sits next to the user’s Wall, which no longer displays updates in chronological order, but instead prioritizes specific updates based on the user’s past preferences.

And although Facebook’s engineers would never release details about the specific factors that go into determining which posts are classified as “Top Stories”, social marketing strategists have noticed that the site is more likely to prioritize messages from friends over messages deployed by brands that the user has “liked.”  In addition, changes made to the Facebook News Feed mean that brand images won’t be as aesthetically pleasing as they are on personal pages, leading to a diminished brand importance.

The implications of this change for Facebook marketers are pretty obvious.  It’s no longer enough to simply plaster your sales message across every area of your profile – chances are your clients won’t even see it!  Instead, you’re going to have to invest the time in crafting compelling messages that resonate with your prospects and customers if you want to maintain visibility in this new environment.

Like Button

Though the Facebook “Like” button was widely expected to play a larger role in determining how information was prioritized within Facebook and on search engines using this information to create more personalized search recommendations, the latest updates make it seem as if the button is actually decreasing in importance.

In rollouts thus far, it seems that when a user “likes” a specific piece of content from within the Facebook platform, that link is no longer automatically posted to the user’s Wall.  For brands that rely on the social sharing nature of the site, losing the impressions generated by friends viewing each other’s content could be significant (although it’s worth noting that this applies to content pieces only, not fan pages in general).

Subscriptions

Another one of Facebook’s newest releases is the “Subscribe” button which enables users to customize the stories that appear in their News Feeds by opting in to some updates, important updates or all updates from their Facebook friends.  Although the appeal of this feature for most people will be the ability to turn off Cousin Billy’s “Farmville” updates, the move does offer some advantages for brand figureheads.

If you’re branding yourself as an industry leader or business owner, chances are you already have a fan page to promote your business activities, but up until now, you may have avoided “friending” potential customers in order to maintain the separation between your personal and professional lives.  While this can be great for your sanity, it also means that potential customers might be missing out on connecting with you if you aren’t as active on your fan page as you are on your personal profile.

Enter the “Subscribe” button.  By simply turning on this feature, brand leaders and other superusers are able to share public updates with anyone who has subscribed to them without having to “friend” these readers in the first place.  Brand leaders will also have the ability to direct message subscribers and will have the former 5,000 friend cap removed, enabling them to connect with even more people.

Data Availability

One of the bright spots amidst the recent Facebook changes is the availability of personal user data, which could substantially improve the quality of targeting within Facebook’s Ads platform.  Users are already sharing more of themselves than ever on the service, but the increased presence of apps and the new organization of information within the Ticker and Timeline features could make this information even more accessible to Facebook and the marketers that use its advertising services.

Mobile Marketing

Some of the most interesting changes to Facebook for marketers are the new and improved mobile marketing features that debuted in this most recent rollout, including the creation of a Facebook app for non-smartphones and the long awaited release of the iPad Facebook app.

But why are these changes so interesting?  For starters, did you know that over 350 million people access Facebook every month from their mobile devices?  That’s a pretty big segment that many website marketers overlook when planning their Facebook marketing campaigns.

According Facebook engineer Luke Shepard, in a quote on the Social Media Today blog:

“Today, we are extending Facebook Platform on mobile, bringing all the social channels that have helped apps and games reach hundreds of millions of users on the Web to mobile apps and websites. You can now easily reach the 350 million people who use Facebook every month on a mobile device, including iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and our mobile web site.”

So what does this mean for you?  Even if you’ve never considered mobile marketing a part of your business’s promotional plan, know that consumers are likely seeing your marketing messages from within a mobile environment.  Because of this, it’s a good idea to invest in setting up a mobile version of your site, so that consumers who see your Facebook posts while on-the-go won’t have to click through to a website that isn’t optimized for smaller screens.

But beyond this, it’s enough to simply be aware that Facebook is pursuing expansion throughout the mobile world and to keep up with developments in this area, as they could have a significant impact on your Facebook marketing strategy going forward.  As Steve Olenski, writing for Business2Community noted:

“Facebook sees the future and knows that it’s a mobile future and I would expect more enhancements to their mobile arsenal and I would equally expect Google and Twitter and ALL social media platforms to up their mobile marketing capabilities as well.”

These changes represent one of the largest overhauls that Facebook has seen since its launch in 2004, but all indications from the f8 Conference where these new tools and resources were introduced demonstrate that we haven’t seen the last of the updates that will be included in this rollout yet.  If you rely on Facebook as an important part of your sites marketing campaigns, staying up-to-date on new announcements from this social networking site will be vital for the next few months.

Image: a-powers.fudmya

If you’re a new website owner, you’ve likely read articles talking about how important it is to be active with social media.  And it’s true – social networking is booming, and it’s a great way to both improve your website’s search engine optimization and to connect directly with your target audience.

But unfortunately, the advice to be active with social media is often accompanied by panic on the part of website owners, who are already stressed by the day-to-day activities involved in running a successful website.  Is it really that important that they take time out of their busy days in order to invest in the social networking site of the moment?

The answer is yes, it is important to get involved in this latest web trend.  However, using social media sites effectively doesn’t have to be a burden.  Instead, let’s look at how to balance investment across multiple social networking sites and share a strategy for implementing effective social media usage in just 20 minutes a day.

First of all, keep in mind that it isn’t necessary to maintain an active presence on every single social networking site known to man.  In fact, it’s pretty likely that your target audiences only uses one or two social networking sites for the bulk of their online interactions, meaning that as long as you’re active on these specific sites, it’s probably enough to simply upload and maintain a profile on the other networks.

To find out what these sites are, enter your niche’s top keywords into the search features of each site.  For example, say you run a website about dog training.  Type the words “dog training” into the search bars on every social networking site you’re considering getting involved with.

Do you see an active community when you look at the results of your search?  On Facebook, do you see active groups dedicated to discussing your chosen topics?  Or, on Twitter, are there hashtags or chat groups devoted to your niche?  You might even find that your followers aren’t active on social networking sites at all, in which case it might make more sense to invest time in forums or on chat boards related to your website.

But let’s say that the results of your searches do turn up active communities on the major social networking sites.  What now?  Are you really expected to spend hours a day following conversations and responding to threads?

In a word, no.  You’ve got better things to do, so let’s break your social networking investment down to a simple 20 minutes a day.  If you find that this small investment pays off, you can always become more active with these sites.  But for now, keep your investment small in order to determine whether or not social media investment really works for your business.

In order to maximize your social networking investment, consider the following 20 minute daily schedule:

:00-:03 Minutes

Log in to each of your social networking accounts and read through any messages or notifications you’ve received.  If the action required to respond to these messages will only take a second (for example, “liking” someone’s comment on your Facebook fan page or re-tweeting a link someone shared with you on Twitter), go ahead and do it right away.

If the message requires any kind of follow-up, save it for later, once you’ve had a chance to see what else is being said about your website or your niche on these sites.

:03-:10 Minutes

Take this time to search the social networking sites on which you maintain an active presence for any mentions of you, your brand or any specific keywords that are relevant to your business.  By searching for these mentions, you’ll be able to connect with new people in your niche, while demonstrating your authority as an expert in your field.

There are a few tools you can use to simplify this process:

Google Alerts – Google Alerts are a free tool put out by Google that email you every time a specified phrase is used on blogs, in news articles, in videos or in discussions.  By setting up a Google Alert for your business name or any keywords you’re targeting to be triggered whenever the words are mentioned on blogs or in discussion, you can quickly identify opportunities to connect with members of your niche.

Tweetdeck – Tweetdeck is one of a number of different desktop Twitter programs that enables you to better sort information from your Twitter stream.  The best way to use this program to identify mentions of your business or your target keywords is to create a new “Search” column that will pull out any tweets that meet your set criteria.

In the example below, Tweetdeck would create a column highlighting any tweet with the words “dog training”, enabling you to identify opportunities to connect more quickly:

Having these tools in place can help you filter through all of the noise on social networking sites so that you can interact with your followers faster and much more effectively.

:10-:15 Minutes

Use the next five minutes to respond to any messages that require longer follow-up and to seek out new people to engage with through these sites.  For example, if a new contact posts a question to your Facebook Wall that will require more extensive follow-up, do the necessary research to compose a response and then do a little follow-up on the person.

Would it be appropriate to friend this person or to connect with him on other networks?  For example, if you see though the visitor’s public profiles that he’s very active on Digg or StumbleUpon, taking the time to introduce yourself and make a connection could result in significant traffic for your business through these channels.

:15-:20 Minutes

Finally, take this time to get updates and posts ready to launch on your social networking profiles.  In an ideal world, we’d have all day to sit around and wait for notifications that people are discussing our brand or our target keywords.  But since we’ve got other things to do, we need to instead find a way to remain active in the social networking conversation, even when we aren’t physically present.

If you’re crunched for time (and, quite frankly, what business owner isn’t?!), make use of tools like BufferApp or SocialOomph to schedule Facebook status updates and Twitter tweets ahead of time.  Although they can’t totally take the place of real-time interaction, scheduling posts ahead of time allows you to share helpful information or links in order to remain visible, without needing an ongoing time investment on social media sites.

So there you have it – a simple, easy-to-follow plan for engaging with the web’s top social networking sites in under 20 minutes each day.  If you find that your efforts are paying off, that’s great – go ahead and expand your involvement if you see fit.  Just be careful.  Social networking can be addictive, so it’s important to set boundaries in order to remain productive in the all-encompassing world of social media.

Today Google and Intuit teamed up for Kansas Get Your Business Online, the third installment in Google’s nationwide initiative to get small businesses up and running on the internet. The event was held in Kansas City, which straddles both Kansas and Missouri.

Set up at OfficePort, Google and Intuit continued their partnership to serve small businesses with free Intuit websites, including website design, website hosting, and support for the online initiative. In addition to several workshops and one-on-one consultations about Google’s small business solutions, Intuit hosted a free website workshop, explaining the basics of setting up a website, and helped several hundred businesses get up and running. These weren’t necessarily your typical small businesses. Companies at the event ranged from a woman who provides help creating online dating profiles to a retailer of nurses’ uniforms.

The event attracted some of the city’s most well-recognized leaders. Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill stopped by to express the importance of growing the local economy through small business success, as did both Joe Reardon, mayor of Kansas City, Kansas and Sly James, mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. The event was also captured by local print media and Kansas City’s own Fox4KC TV station. Local partners, including the Kansas City Kansas Chamber, Greater Kansas City Chamber, Kansas City Area Development Council, Kauffman Foundation, and the Missouri Small Business & Technology Development Centers also participated to show their support.

KC’s small businesses get a taste of what Intuit and Google had to offer, and along the way attendees also got to try fare from some of Kansas City’s tastiest local eateries. No one went hungry with Good You‘s mobile organic eatery, Slice Custom Cakes, Fresher Than Fresh Snow Cones, and Crossroads Coffee all offering delicious treats.

Today was only day one. Tomorrow promises to bring even more small business owners, and more opportunities to make small business stronger here in Kansas and Missouri. As Senator McCaskill said, ”We all want more jobs; small business is where it’s at.”

In this digital age, privacy matters.  If you’re a part of any social networking site operating today, it’s important to understand the privacy settings that each site offers and take advantage of them to prevent your sensitive information from being unwittingly shared with the public.

Privacy Settings on Facebook

Facebook comes under fire quite often for changing the way it handles its privacy settings without notifying users about the true impact of these changes.  And, to be honest, it’s really not a surprise that this controversy exists, as Facebook privacy settings are complicated by the fact that different privacy settings exist for every interaction on the site.

For example, want to share your status updates with everyone, but keep your personal contact information limited to just a few people?  Want to enable third party apps to access certain information within your profile, but keep out those annoying Facebook game requests?  Each of these set-ups is possible, but both require specific configurations of an already confusing system.

So for the purposes of this article, let’s cover a few of the most common privacy settings you’ll want to set on the site.  If you have further questions or want to see if recent updates have been made or if a specific configuration can be set up, check out Facebook’s Basic Privacy Controls Help page.

To start, click on the “Account” menu in the upper right-hand corner, and then select “Privacy Settings” from the drop-down menu.  On the privacy settings page, you’ll have the option of setting all of your privacy configurations to a default “Public” or a default “Friends” option.  If you don’t want to protect anything, select the first radio button.  If you want everything you share to be limited to your friends only, select the second button and you’re all set.

On the other hand, if you want to set specific elements of your profile to public while protecting some elements to share with your friends only, select the “Custom” radio button and choose from the list of categories below to edit specific settings.

In the “How You Connect” section, you’ll be able to change things like how people find you, who is able to post to your wall and who will be able to see information on your wall.

The “How Tags Work” section lets you control who is able to tag you in pictures, who can see pictures you’re tagged in and who is able to tag people in the pictures you post.  If you prefer to opt out of the Facebook service that lets other people tag you in at physical locations, this is where you’ll go to change this setting.

The “Apps and Websites” section allows you to grant and revoke permissions for third party apps to interact with your profile.  Although these apps can add extra functionality to your Facebook experience, it’s also possible that information shared with these sites could be compromised outside of Facebook’s strict privacy requirements.

If you’re new to Facebook, it’s a good idea to visit each of these menus and learn about the specific options available to you in-depth to be sure your information is secure on this social networking site.

Information Sharing on Twitter

Given the simplicity of communicating on Twitter, it’s no surprise that – compared to Facebook – Twitter’s privacy settings are easy to understand.  When you first sign up for a Twitter account, you’ll have the option of making your tweets public or locking them down so that only approved viewers can read what you have to say.  If you choose this “protected tweet” feature, other users won’t be able to re-tweet your messages

If you initially decide to make your tweets public but later want to switch to protected status, simply follow these steps:

1. Sign on to Twitter
2. Click on “Settings” and then select “Account Settings”
3. Locate the box near the bottom of the screen labeled “Protect my Tweets” and check it to enable protected tweeting.
4. Save the change and navigate away from the settings page.

In addition, Twitter offers the direct message feature, which enables you to send messages directly to Twitter users without the text of the message being visible to all users.  If you want your general tweets to be public, but still want to share protected information with certain users, the direct message feature is a good way to achieve this goal.

Getting to Know the Google+ Privacy Settings

Controlling the way information is shared on Google+ occurs in two complementary ways – through overall Google+ account privacy settings and through the set-up of “circles” of contacts.

To get started, click on the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of your Google+ account and click on “Google+ settings”.  From there, you’ll be able to navigate to a “Profile and privacy” panel which will allow you to change which elements of your Google profile are viewable by others.

If you’re concerned about unintended information sharing, this is the place to lockdown your profile and ensure that only your trusted contacts are able to view your information.  If you would prefer that your public profile and the information you share through it not be visible to the search engines, this is the place to adjust that setting as well.

Once you have your profile adjusted to reflect your preferred level of privacy, you’ll want to spend a little time organizing your contacts into circles.  This way, when you share status updates in the future, you’ll be able to easily include some circles while leaving others out, effectively managing the privacy of the information you share.

General Social Networking Site Privacy Guidelines

But while it’s important to understand the specific settings each social networking site provides in order to manage your private information, it’s also important to use common sense when sharing information on these sites.  Remember to stay up-to-date on any changes to social networking privacy policies, as these revisions may result in previously classified information your profiles from becoming public.

And finally, think of privacy on social networking sites in this way – if you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see it, chances are you probably shouldn’t be sharing it on a worldwide website in the first place!  When in doubt – whether you’re conveying sensitive business information, personally-compromising pictures or simply regular status updates on your life – consider finding another venue in which to share your information.

Is it possible that Google+ could overtake Facebook in terms of member size?  And if this were to occur, what does it mean for website owners who are already struggling to maintain a presence on multiple social media channels?

First, let’s look at the data. A recent Bloomberg/YouGov survey of adult internet users found that although the current number of adults on Google+ lags behind other second-tier social networking engines like LinkedIn, Twitter and Myspace, the number of adults who plan to join Google+ within the next year could cause the site to become the second largest social networking site within a few short months.

The survey also revealed a number of interesting facts about the demographics of Google+ users.  For example:

• Active engagement is high on the network.  Approximately 45% of members report reading content on the site once a day, which falls behind only Facebook (in the #1 spot with over 62% of members engaging daily).
• Google+ users tend to be young, male and educated, with higher rates in each of these criteria than on competing social networks.

To achieve this type of growth within the first month of a site’s debut is tremendous; especially considering how skeptical many social media insiders were of the site following Google’s failures with the Buzz and Wave projects.

But despite these initially promising numbers, there are some signals that Google’s growth might not be as rosy as surveys like this would have you believe.  Here’s why…

Engaging with multiple networks can lead to burnout.  There’s no doubt that the people who choose to be active with social networking commit a serious amount of time to maintaining their profiles and connecting with friends.  Add yet another social networking service to the mix, and this engagement gets spread even thinner.  As JR Raphael of PC World says:

“First, my virtual life is already overflowing with a surplus of social services. I get recommendations from friends and colleagues on Facebook. I get links all day on Twitter. My inbox oozes with references and referrals. The last thing I need is one more place to find endorsements and share suggestions.”

There are also plenty of concerns about information security and private data being shared or exploited inappropriately on the Google+ network.  This is because Google+ is more than just a social network – because the “likes” and “+1’s” generate by users on the site could play a role in which results are reported on your search engine results pages, the site is technically also a player in the social search field.

And while there are certainly instances where it might be useful to know if your friends approve of a particular restaurant in your area, there are also plenty of people who are wary of Google having access to that much of their personal data.

It’s worth keeping in mind that, in order to use the Google+ social network, participants must have an active, public Google profile.  Certainly, those who are used to sharing the intimate details of their lives on other sites like Facebook will have no qualms about forking over their personal information, but this development is giving plenty of web strategists – like Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media – pause:

“I see us willingly giving Google a complete blueprint of our personal and professional social connections. I see Google Profiles and Google Friend Connect being used to create one user/password to unlock your entire personal Internet. I see a Google Internet secured by a Google Social Network, a place where you either exist or you don’t, where you’re either competing or you’re not.”

Of course, at this point, any speculation about the future potential growth of the Google+ network is simply that – speculation.  For one, the site remains in it’s “by invitation only” phase, and even that has been shut down due to exceeded capacity, so no new members are being added at all right now.

It’s also important to remember that surveys have their limitations as a research tool.  For this specific survey, only 1,003 people were interviewed – an incredibly small sample size considering that Facebook has over 700 million users.  There is also no mention in the survey summary of how the participants were selected, though it stands to reason that people who are engaged early adopters of new social networking sites might also be more likely to volunteer their opinions about said services.

It’s also important to remember that any extrapolations made from these small sample sizes will have their own weaknesses.  Of the 9 million estimated people who plan to join the Google+ network in the next year, some may lose interest, while others may eventually decide against expanding their social networking profile.

But for the purposes of this article, let’s consider what would happen if Google+ did continue its current growth trajectory, siphoning away frustrated Facebook users and eventually overtaking the world’s current “super power” social network.

If this were to come to pass, website owners have two major concerns – maintaining active social networking profiles on multiple sites and optimizing their sites to take advantage of the power of social search.

The first of these concerns – balancing the time investment needed to participate in multiple social networks – can be addressed by identifying where the site’s target customers or “community” spends most of their time.  For example, if Google+ remains largely young and male, website owners targeting female demographics might have better luck investing time and effort into sites that cater more closely to these groups.

The second concern is a little more difficult to address.  In the past, website owners simply needed to follow a set of defined recommendations called search engine optimization (SEO) in order to have their sites show up first when specific keywords are entered into a search engine.

However, the implementation of social search could make it more difficult to achieve these top rankings by giving preference to sites that the friends of a searcher have “+1’ed” using the Google+ toolset.  And although this idea is frustrating to many website owners who have invested heavily in SEO, it isn’t cause for alarm – just a slight adjustment in strategy.

Instead of writing for the search engines when it comes to building content for your website, you’re now writing for people – actual people who want to find and read good content, then share it with their friends.  Focus on building this great content now, and you’ll definitely see the rewards, whether or not the full potential of the Google+ social networking site and social search features are ever fully realized.