There’s been a lot of talk concerning social media tracking. Observing other conversations are a good idea before participating in them. That is exactly what social media allows you to do.

Social media tracking eludes many brand and marketing managers put in charge of social media activities. Social media tracking matters for several reasons, a few of which are outlined below to get you started:

Social Media Tracking is Your Ears

This is figurative, since the discussions you listen to online don’t require ears. Through the means of search engines, social media can be tracked by scanning the web for files that include keywords that you choose. The results of these searches are displayed in a sequence that shows you the places where people have mentioned your brand, company, business or any other keyword you entered.

Viewing these results informs you of the websites and blogs you may be interested in visiting, so you can find out what people are sharing about you or even to add to the conversation. Without such tracking, you are left in the dark as to the opinions others are expressing.

Tracking Social Media Doesn’t Have to Cost You Money

For a smooth start to tracking social media, your best bet is to register accounts with some free resources. A great tracking service is Google Alerts, which lets you enter any word or phrase that you would normally search for and then sends you email notifications any time new content containing that search term appears on the web. You also have the option of subscribing to these alerts with RSS, if you prefer.

Another way to stay updated on current discussions around your brand is by searching for your business using Twitter. To expand your tracking even further into the blog world, add Technorati to your list.

Professional Services For Tracking Social Media Offer Value in Most Cases

When using free services for tracking, you will be responsible for gathering all the information and creating a diagram of all your results. This is the only real disadvantage of free tracking methods. Alternatively, paid services that specialize in tracking social media (Radian6 and Scout Labs, for example) aggregate all relevant conversations into a structured presentation which allows you to display the data in charts and requires almost no effort on your part.

A selection of professional tracking systems also have the added feature of being able to examine the mood and tone being expressed in discussions, by using advanced algorithms that employ natural language processing. This breaks down the total number of discussions into positive, negative and indifferent percentages.

Tracking Is Just the Starting Point

Social media tracking goes way beyond keeping an up-to-date record of the discussions about your business. After discovering where people are discussing your business and the opinions they are sharing, you have the chance to join in the conversation. The need for this is of the utmost importance for companies, because the modern consumer using the internet demands accessibility to the people involved in the products and services they purchase.

Imagine that you have found a customer that was unsatisfied with the service she received at your business yesterday. Sitting back while she proceeds to vent out to her friends who either have a tendency to side with her or join in the rant, makes it certain that your business will not be viewed favorably within this discussion. On the other hand, social media case studies have consistently reported that an interjection as brief as “I am sorry that you weren’t happy with your experience. How can I help?” is an effective way to communicate a genuine desire to help improve the situation, both to the dissatisfied customer and the friends taking their side. In most of these cases, the response is along the lines of: “Wow, I had no idea you read this. I appreciate the offer.”

Your Business Can Grow from Intelligent Tracking

Having a voice to defend your company in negative conversations is not all that you can do by tracking social media. Widening the scope of conversations you study to more broad areas such as your industry and competition is an effective way to gain useful market advantages and even fuel business.

To use an example, imagine you’re tracking conversations of your closest competition and notice a pattern of complaints regarding the durability of one of their products (a car stereo, for this example) amid otherwise positive comments. Being aware of this common complaint, you can edit your company’s advertising so that it places more emphasis on the longevity of your product compared to your competitor’s.

Another possible scenario, imagine your product is distributed nationally but generates different sales patterns depending on the region. Your social media tracking displays the opinions of people in the Southeast regarding what they think are your products strongest and weakest features. These opinions are starkly contrasted by those expressed from the Northern population. By having this knowledge about your consumers, you are better equipped to market your product differently based on location and cultural demographics that may be a deciding factor in whether a customer chooses your product or a competitor’s.

Advanced tracking can even help to locate individuals in the process of deciding on a purchase, and this gives you an opportunity to engage a connection to your product when it will matter most.

Why Put it Off?

After gaining an understanding of social media tracking and getting an idea of all that it makes possible, there is no good reason to not partake! Initiate the process by starting a Google Alert for your business. Include one for some more broad terms within your industry as well as terms your customers may mention when discussing your type of product. Once you feel relaxed enough, add Twitter and Technorati searches too, and then experiment with other tracking resources. If nothing else, you will at least be more aware of your reputation in social media circles, which can’t be a bad thing.

Which services do you use to track social media? What do you think of them? Your comments are invited.

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Among social media platforms, Facebook is unique because it gives you the freedom to customize your page. Rather than having the same limited profile that everyone else has, your business has the ability to implement HTML codes. This has a number of advantages when it comes to page design, online presence, promoting and branding for your business.

This freedom to customize means your interface can be designed to stand out and grab people’s attention in so many different ways.

If you’d like to reach a larger audience that will back you up, you will need to fine-tune your business page, and use each feature to its maximum potential.

The driving force that makes this all happen is an application designed for Facebook, commonly known as Static FBML. Too many people are still in the dark on how much functionality can be added by FBML. By using it, you can rename your tabs and boxes however you’d like, for starters. Are you intrigued so far? Either way, continue to read if you’d like to find out the true power of Static FBML…

#1: Welcome Visitors to Your Page with…a Welcome Page!

The primary idea of having a welcome tab is pretty easy to guess: to offer a summary of your page, including a sampling of what you have to offer and why it is relevant to those who like your page. This is not a place meant for bombarding visitors with sales pitches, but rather it is your chance to persuade them into becoming followers based on the value of what you provide. Most people will form their first impression of your business largely based on your welcome page. Just like a firm handshake leaves a good impression, make sure your welcome page is also strong. Be sure to convey eagerness when greeting visitors, point out other tabs they can explore and include a reminder that they can “like” your page if they feel compelled to. Mini websites, Flash animation and webcasts are only a few of the more intermediate techniques that can be used to ensure your welcome page is remembered.

Bold and visually appealing graphics accompanied by instructions that are easy to understand will create a substantial call to action.

#2: Contact Details and Social Profiles

Did you notice that a selection of options is missing in the info tab? You will see that it lacks a field to add your business hours and location as well, but you’ve probably seen other pages that include this type of information. Most likely, this means you have chosen the wrong type of page to setup when you first registered it. If you have a good number of fans, it isn’t really viable to consider deleting the page and starting over, and the need to do this is eliminated by Static FBML. Using it, you can place your business contact information in as many different places as you’d like.

Social buttons and additional details are effective ads of drawing attention to your contact box.

#3: Customer Reviews, Testimonials and Feedback

In the world of service providers and other professionals, one of the most persuasive elements of reputation is the feedback from those who have done business with you. You have the choice of a static page with testimonials, or you can even hire a designer to setup a dynamic layout with more bells and whistles to capture the attention of your audience. This decision should be made purely based on how creative you care to be, and how relevant it is to your page. Due to the limitless possibilities of FBML, even video feedback is something to consider.

Add some creative flair to your Testimonial tab with FBML to spark interest.

#4: Email Updates and Opt-In Forms

Two of the optimal locations for an opt-in form are your welcome tab or the box found on your fan page sidebar. More importantly than where you decide it goes, it needs to be easy to find and highly visible. It’s an invitation for visitors to sign-up for updates, which is one stepping stone closer to loyal readers and possible clients resulting from your email marketing. To make this easier, sites like Aweber and MailChimp can be used to obtain HTML code for placing an opt-in form in whatever tab you want, using static FBML.

(To urge opting in, I suggest including your form on the welcome page in the form of a box on your wall or as a tab).

#5: Exclusive Content for Fans and Followers

This one is a crafty way of tempting visitors to like your fan page. Make sure you have an arsenal of incentives to offer, tickets to events, promotions or coupons, anything you can come up with so long as it’s worth something. Even an announcement or list of useful information and resources can be written exclusively for your followers.

Lure visitors towards the like button by hinting at the value of your exclusive content.

#6: Promotional Contests and Celebrations

If your fan page plans on hosting some type of event on a monthly basis, you should probably devote an entire tab to promoting these events and so that your fans can find out more about the event details and time frames. Make it easy even for the laziest person to pass on news about your events to their friends by using a share button. Sit back and behold how quickly your event can spread across the web.

Give reoccurring events a tab all of its own with all the information people need, and make sure it is not difficult for them to share with friends.

#7: Revive Old Blog Posts

Not sure what to do with past posts from your blog? There’s no reason that you couldn’t harvest the best of the bunch and make a ‘Best Of’ box to go alongside your fan box. Make a reference here and there to them in your updates, to let readers know they are there. Variant frequency of post links and even topics, will help to offer a more diverse mixture of choices for your visitors. This has a great deal more power than your standard Social RSS feed, since those only show the most recent additions.

Feature your articles in a category box that leads visitors right to the main site.

#8: Employment Opportunities

With all the networks of professionals present on social media sites, more people are beginning to use them as a job-seeking resource as well. Facebook itself is no exception to this, if you notice on their own fan page they feature a tab with the title “We’re Hiring” to open up the door for new additions. Every day Facebook is accessed by 200 million regular users. If you could use some new team members for your business, why not add a job board on your fan page?

Don’t turn down a chance at more good opportunities.

#9: Tracking Visitor Statistics

Google Analytics can be a priceless piece of code placed in and when placed in FBML tabs would keep track of page visits. This will spell it out in black and white — no more uncertainty about what tabs are worth keeping and which ones aren’t.

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The 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report claims that Twitter generates more interest from businesses than most other social media resources.

Don’t have a Twitter account set up for your business? Then you are reading the right article. The process of making an account is painless and takes only a few moments. However, following the correct procedure when setting up your account is important.

This article is half of a two-part collection of tips and hints for creating a Twitter account for the purpose of establishing interaction with your audience and also your brand’s online presence.

#1: Sign-Up For an Account With Twitter

A good practice when choosing a username is to use your real name and company name, reserving their use before another user takes them. Businesses should put some thought into getting Twitter names for any brands they may own. The selection of a Twitter name inspires additional questions that should be asked during the set up process.

Are multiple accounts a good option for your business? Maintaining your Twitter account can eat up a good chunk of time and resources. For this reason, limiting yourself to one central account is typically easier. However, if you will be communicating with more than one audience, you should think about having separate accounts for each. Among the best reasons for deciding on more than one account are: to keep personal and professional content separate from one another and tweeting in more than one language.

Is a company account appropriate, or should you opt for a personal profile? Do you need both? This will vary based on the type of business you have, how you plan on tweeting and who you’d like to communicate with through Twitter.

#2: Select Your Twitter Username

When selecting a username for your Twitter account, the following are helpful considerations:

Your username does not exceed fifteen characters.

Twitter names are not case-sensitive, but the system will store the name identically to however you enter it when creating your profile. So even if you register using capitals, like “VanDaley” and will show up listed as such, your followers on Twitter can find you using @vandaley.

Do your best to stay away from usernames containing numerical characters, unusual abbreviations and names that are not easy to remember. For the convenience of your mobile users, don’t include underscores in your name either.

Still unsure about what your Twitter name should be? Try to identify with a name that has personal meaning to you and stands for the same causes that you believe in.

Perhaps you are juggling the possibilities of using your real name or a company name? More often than not, a greater number of people will be receptive of you if your name is familiar to them or easily recognized. In cases where this account is being created for the purpose of brand management, I’d suggest using your website’s name (not including the “.com”). Another good option is using a moniker or pen name, if you already use one.

In some other cases, a keyword may be considered as an option for choosing a Twitter name. Keyword names are best implemented by people who keep their identity transparent. This should be used sparingly, since keyword names are usually connected with spammers and obnoxious sales pitches.

#3: Customize Your Photo

In order to avoid being mistaken as a spam-bot, it is recommended that the default image in your profile be changed. Allow yourself some creative freedom for a touch of your character.

You should always implement the same picture of yourself across all social media profiles. This will boost your branding and increase your outreach beyond Twitter as well.

#4: Choose Your Link With Care

There is only one spot for an active link on a Twitter profile. Before deciding which link you include, give some thought to your collective web marketing strategy. What are you using the internet for? What content best represents you to the Twitter users who will follow your link? Most commonly, this link will either lead to a website or blog. It’s very simple to modify this.

It’s a small detail, but don’t forget to visualize which actual page on your site will be seen by your followers upon clicking your link.

Generating a greeting page just for Twitter visitors is something to consider. One way of putting this idea into action is to compile a list of contacts you suggest others to follow on Twitter.

If you blog, your best option is linking there.

#5: Grab The Attention of Readers With Your Bio

Communicating who you are and the topics relevant to you is a great way to introduce yourself to Twitter followers. Not the easiest task when your bio can’t exceed 160 characters. The best type of bio is a short sentence which will stand out and get other Twitter users interested in what you have to say. At least a couple of words in your bio sentence or tagline should be keywords which will help connect you to users with common interests. Keywords are an excellent method of bringing you closer to the type of people you are looking to meet through Twitter.

Another little hint is to mention your Facebook Fan Page within your bio or incorporate it into your profile as a background graphic. Even considering that this will not be an active link, it still encourages branding and hopefully is easy to remember assuming you have a vanity URL.

When you have successfully completed the steps above, you must add the finishing touch to your profile. This final step, of course, is to design a graphical background for your Twitter account. Part two of this tutorial will elaborate on how you can use your background image to solidify your Twitter presence.

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If you want your blog to gain active readers, it won’t happen without some skills.

The following are seven ways to beef up your blog posts:

Tip #1: Speak to Your Audience

The reason you blog must be determined in order to add content that will work for you. You should become well acquainted with your target audience and their profile, as well as your main message and how it relates to your company. Knowing your reader makes writing to them much easier. This also means that your posts will have meaning and be directed to the right audience. You won’t be wandering off-topic and covering topics that do not concern your readers.

Tip #2: Be Aware Your Reader’s Wants

Always keep in mind what your reader wants when writing. Let them know what they will walk away with from reading your blog. Why does it matter to them? Readers constantly evaluate a blog and decide whether or not it’s worth their time to keep reading. Putting yourself in their position increases your chances of keeping them interested. Bring up serious problems and other events important to them. If you aren’t sure what those are, simply ask and find out.

Tip #3: Frequent Editing

There are tons of blog entries that open up with, “I had this great idea yesterday…” or “As Winter comes to an end…”. People often make the mistake of treating a blog like an essay or other literary work. But they are not. You should waste no time in getting your main idea across. Use the helpful acronym of KISS = Keep It Short and Sweet. It will end up meaning less writing is required of you.

Write using brief and strong phrases, leaving out words that you can do without. Do this by reviewing posts more than once before publishing them. It isn’t necessary to have any formal education in writing. Writing an email is as simple as writing a blog post. But just like emails, your posts will become better if you go over them before they are published.

Read it through one more time following publication. Sometimes this is useful for noticing small grammatical mistakes and other typos that slipped by. Many readers will place a good deal of importance on correct spelling, so make sure you fix any errors you find. Online, text is all that represents you.

Tip #4: Titles with Keywords are the Key

Write headlines full of carefully placed keywords that relate to your topic. Keywords are held in the highest regard of SEO experts who charge hefty sums for their services. But let’s simplify this area.

Imagine you are your reader. If you are using Google to find information or answers to a question, would you find your blog? Compile a list of all words and phrases that may be entered into a search engine when looking for your business and the things you offer. Those items are the words and phrases you should litter your site with. When creating headlines, use these often. This highlights what is important about your post, both to readers as well as search engines.

Staying up to date on keywords will help you stay in touch with what your potential customers would like. By doing a little research on occasion, you can discover how readers are locating the information you specialize in. Use descriptive headlines. Don’t keep them general. Keep them cute without going overboard, but just be sure to include the topic of your writing and make sure it clearly lets the reader know what is discussed.

Remember, this is centered around your audience. The idea is to guide them with the content you provide. Blogging will do you little to no good at all if your readers are not getting what they’re looking for out of reading your blog.

Tip #5: Start Off With Strong Opening Sentences

Using the keywords from your posts headline, compose the first paragraph. State your message clearly and right away, rather than writing an introduction for it. Your first sentence should be keyword rich, and should be reused again to wrap up your post. Always include an invitation to leave feedback at the end of each post.

Tip #6: Keep it Brief and Space it Out

When blogging, paragraphs should never drone on. Instead, keep them limited to a couple sentences and then break for the next. In some cases, a single sentence can convey as much as an entire paragraph. White space is good, use it generously between your blog post paragraphs.

Don’t forget that many readers are pressed for time. It’s not as easy to read text on a computer screen as it is to read text on paper. Your goal should be to communicate your message in a timely manner, making it as easy for your readers as possible.

Tip #7: Apply Bullets and Other Formatting to Your Lists

Lists and bullet points should be put to frequent use. A few reasons they add convenience to your post are:

Easier Reading
Easier to skim
Easier to comprehend
Easier to retain

According to research, people like things to be easily absorbed and broken into parts for them. Formatting your message into a list of 3-5 items makes them more likely to recall it later. Online writing professionals suggest keeping lists to an odd number of bullet points, but the biggest emphasis should be on using lists whenever possible.

There are several methods for strengthening your blog posts. These seven tips are a good start in the right direction and can be used as a checklist to keep you on track and supplying content that will interest and motivate your readers.

What other suggestions should be added to this list in order to improve blog posts? Share your favorite blogging tips in the comments below.

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The line of experts on social media is endless these days. While many assert that there is no such thing as a “social media expert” one thing is clear — they all are giving out advice on the ways that it works, the ways it doesn’t and the correct protocol for using it.

A great deal of these statements are regarded as being absolutely true and effective for any business that sets out to use social media. Such experts give this type of advice based on experience which is mostly their own and doesn’t account for the circumstances of the non-expert. There is a good chance that their instructions will not be helpful to you. Even if someone is only doing their best to point you in the right direction, they may end up leading you way off the track for YOUR business.

It’s important to have respect for experience and seniority, but when suggestions become set in stone, it becomes necessary to question them.

The following list includes some buzz phrases that are being passed off as “rules”. Each one should be evaluated on an individual basis when starting to work towards your social media marketing goals.

Claim 1: The Social Media Revolution Effects EVERYTHING

This is quite frankly nonsense. It has given us some exciting and innovative resources and given customers a louder voice to express their opinions on products and services. This is all true. But potential clients must still be sought after, sales still have to be closed and billing departments still need to prepare and send out invoices. All of these things are still as essential to a business’ longevity as they ever were.

Another fact to keep in mind is that networking has been around far longer than LinkedIn. Before these kinds of sites existed, networking took place in person. Was it so bad back then when it meant social events complete with refreshments and good company? I don’t think so.

“How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie, could be considered among the best publications on the topic of social media marketing, despite the fact it was written before such a concept had been formed. I urge you to read it or revisit it if you already have, because all that is covered within it remains valid to this day. The only difference now is that it is taking place on sites like Twitter.

Claim 2: Social Media is Useless for Boosting Sales

The above claim is often a sentiment held onto by those who were pioneers and who reflect on “better times” for social media, before ads invaded Facebook and spammers exploited it.

It’s indisputable that Dell has generated millions of dollars in sales of PC’s and accessories through Twitter deals. Smaller and more local businesses like cafes and coffee shops have used Twitter to take customer orders that are ready for pick-up upon their arrival. They’ve also found opportunities to use location-specific applications like FourSquare and Gowalla.

None of this should be taken as encouragement for sending out spam to all the people you possibly can through social media. That will only work against you, and may even result in account termination on more widely-used sites. The idea behind this and the goal is to deliver a meaningful message to someone it will have meaning to, because this will make sales happen.

Claim 3: Straying from Your Message is Prohibited

Some of the most successful social media gurus of today will oftentimes swear by this. When you think of the type of people who constantly keep to one message, who comes to mind? Politicians and inhuman corporations. Unless you fall into one of those categories, it isn’t your best option.
Don’t be afraid to express yourself or make comments on your personal life. No single subject has to totally dominate all your discussions, but you shouldn’t stray too far from whatever you are trying to represent. You can’t expect to attract many leads if ALL you talk about is your favorite TV show or what you had for lunch, after all.

Your mundane daily tasks and thoughts may not be the most effective way to capture anyones interest, but including a balanced mixture of topics that add personality can and will. Maybe you enjoy jogging, flea market shopping, working on cars, but what matters is that by sharing these things you will appeal more to others with common interests and this will fortify your network.

To quote Chris Garrett’s blogpost titled “How to Boost Your Personal Brand with Social Media”:

“Using light humor, being kind, sharing about more than just your work — including your interests — allow people to connect with you on a human level as well as a business and technical level.”

Claim 4: Social Media is Useless Without a Massive Following

Among my own network, we’ve exchanged and discussed the types of expert advice that we disagree with. The emphasis placed on establishing a huge following is the most commonly mentioned.

If a so-called expert is relating social media using numbers, they likely fall into one of two different groups. Either they claim to be a “guru” of social media and have offers in their bio which promise to teach you special knowledge that is guaranteed to gain followers by the hundreds on a daily basis, yet oddly he can’t boast more than 19 followers himself.

The other is the more legitimate social media marketer who lives and breaths the ideas behind it and takes it seriously because their type of business needs a large list of clients in order to thrive. For this type of person, it makes sense to think in terms of numbers.

There is something to be said for this suggestion, however. It is true that you reach a greater number of people if you accumulate a target network. Naturally, your response rate will depend mostly on how many followers your questions go out to.

Oftentimes we see that a user has thousands of followers and we figure anything they recommend has to be trustworthy. If we see someone getting tons of comments on their blog, it becomes validation in our minds and we make a big assumption that they’re madly successful.

Quite honestly, the number is not what really matters. The value of having even 100 followers who actively read your posts and contribute to the conversation is far greater than having thousands of readers who are never attentive.

It’s a common practice for people to devote a day to finding as many new people as they can find, then removing them a day later if they aren’t followed back in return. Realistically, you can only expect so much attention from your followers if they are reading posts from 20,000 other users. How well do you think you will stand out?

On the other side of that, if you follow thousands of people you can’t expect to have time for individually responding to them either.

Claim 5: You Need Oodles of Comments

Undoubtedly, inspiring others to leave comments makes the writer feel proud of what they’ve written. Recognition is great when you’ve put considerable work into something.

However, the fact of the matter is that comments are not customers. Aside from boosting your confidence, they get you no closer to your actual goal. Putting too much importance on comments can actually hurt your business instead of help it. I know of some businesses who gave up on blogging altogether simply due to a lack of comments. That equals no new posts, which in turn equals less exposure that would have led to more online leads.

If your business plan is all about a high volume of comments, blog about popular topics that spark controversy. Politics, religion, or reality TV shows are some good choices if you’re seeking a high comment count. But if expanding your business is more your concern, you should really pay more attention to your blog’s search engine ranking and how many warm leads it sends to your site.

Claim 6: You Can’t Account for How Much Profit Social Media Generates

The truth is you can. It’s easy to find statistics that do NOT relate to profit. Some popular examples are the number of views for a YouTube video, the subscriber count for your podcast, or even the popularity of your blog according to Del.icio.us. Other types of social media sites also make certain numbers very accessible, like how many followers you have on Twitter or friends you have on Facebook, even how many times your blog post has been “dugg”. (Just do well to remember that not all followers and friends will be equally important and it’s not a race for numbers alone).

Apart from statistics like these, there are also numbers related to sales. Traffic sent to your site by social media and blogs, and how many visitors end up doing business with you are some of the most important. If you ask your visitors to list a referrer in your contact form somewhere, you could begin to see more responses from Twitter followers or search engine results.

Claim 7: Facebook and Twitter are Your Only Choices

There is a single valid explanation for where you choose to engage in social media: your target audience uses the site.

The best social media avenue will not be the same for all businesses. If you’re unsure which platform is right for your company, go with the one most used by your target audience.

I still urge you to register your username on every social media site you can find, for two crucial reasons:

1. No one else can register that name, which will give security to your brand.

2. Even for brand new startups that haven’t been noticed yet, you never know when it may become more widely-used by an audience your business is relevant to.

Never forget to individually evaluate what is right for your business. You may be given advice that has been tested and proven, but bear in mind that it was someone else it worked for.

The only exception is…

One Rule That Works For Everyone

Offer content worth something. It’s that simple. Social Media makes it as easy to lose subscribers and followers as it does gain them. People will lose interest quickly unless your content has value. Every message, tweet, update, post, video or other communication to your audience should matter to them.

If you ask more than one or two people what makes something valuable, you’re bound to get several different answers. Maybe your value comes from blogging about thought-provoking topics, or collecting and publishing links to other useful resources online. Or even your witty and entertaining opinion on a city where your target audience resides. It doesn’t matter what topic you cover, just make sure you are covering it well and your contribution is worth people’s time.

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Perhaps the biggest argument against social media is how time consuming it can be.

Can you relate to questions like these: “Who has that kind of time?” or “When am I supposed to do all of this?”

To be totally honest with you, social media does require some of your time. It may very well qualify as being the greatest of hidden costs when promoting your business online. Many of us could end up losing a lot of valuable time if we don’t exercise some care.

It’s good to have a clear agenda when setting out, and to keep close tabs on how your time is being spent. The following list will give you five ideas on how to work towards your goals.

#1: Keep Your Goals In Sight

Social Media is full of opportunities to become distracted. Chatting, games, and endless content can all give us the illusion of accomplishment without actually getting anything done. Interacting with social media can be useful, but much interaction is potentially a waste of time, so it’s important that you are able to tell the difference.

For a point of reference, try to imagine a company party or other event. How do you spend your time at those sorts of functions? Do you socialize with one or two people about mundane things or do you try to distribute your attention more evenly and strike up conversation with new contacts? Are you there because you have nothing better to do, or is it because you are representing yourself as a professional and utilizing the opportunity to network?

It’s necessary to have a plan and also know a good means by which to measure your success.

You might be wondering how this helps you find extra time? The majority of companies already budget their time spent on marketing, PR and research. If you are confident that your efforts spent on social media fall into one of these groupings, and will be equally or more effective than other efforts towards these projects, then you actually already have a grasp on how to divide up the time you should spend using social media as an alternative to your current methods.

#2: Use Social Media in Areas Where it is More Efficient for You

What if you could say, “Due to the work I’ve invested in social media, I have eliminated having to make pitches, compose proposals or attend sales meetings. I never place cold-calls for my business, nor do I bother with competitive bids.”

Think about all the time you would suddenly end up with if you were spared having to pursue leads and sales closings!

My last job in Sports Marketing would sometimes require me to be in a car for three to six hours in order to attend a half hour sales presentation up against other companies competing against us. Even more important than how unbearable it was, it simply did not work very well.

Realistically, I am not trying to convince you that it’s possible to use social media as a replacement for your current business practices in all circumstances. I don’t believe it’s a smart choice to rely solely upon it, even if it could be done. What I do believe is that it will be worth your time to set aside a couple hours each work week to explore what social media has to offer and test it out. You will find that it may be a great tool in combination with other techniques, and can work smoothly within a greater business model.

A great benefit of social media is the accessibility of it and freedom of choosing when to use it.

#3: Take Advantage of Slow Times

Do you spend a good amount of time simply waiting? I recently attended a conference in Nashville and between travel time and staying alone at my hotel, I put it all towards social media. If you travel for business, how much of each trip do you spend actually doing business? Now, how much of the time are you…

On a plane?
In a cab?
Waiting in line?
In an airport?
Dining out?
Meetings?
At a hotel?

As long as you are equipped with a device that you can connect to the internet through, you have all that is needed to turn some of this down time into something somewhat productive, like adding an update or interacting with people online. Even if you don’t get as much done, staying connected to others will be refreshing.

Ask yourself how much time goes into checking your messages and posting a tweet or status update? Or maybe to investigate a link or answer a simple inquiry? It’s no more than a few minutes, is it?

You will be surprised if you take an inventory throughout the day of how often you get as much as 10 minutes at a time where you are on hold for some reason.

When I’m at my desk, I still oftentimes am waiting, whether it’s for the PC to boot up, a print job, renders or uploaded files. Those are some of the best moments to take a peek at your social media profiles!

Thinking in these terms, what could be accomplished with MORE than only these few minutes a day?

#4: Change Your Surroundings, Create Future Content and Focus on Structure

Whenever you find yourself with an open block of time, spend an hour of that time expending your maximum level of effort on generating content. Some great ways of doing this could include:

Creating an outline and compose a series of blog topic entries to post at a later date when you won’t have the time to write them.

Experiment with your ideas, visualize them with mind mapping tools, form headlines and lay it all out in a way that you can later reference.

Think ahead by adding important events to your calendar, make a list of contacts who you would like to touch base with, whether they are prospective contacts or ones you’ve fallen out of touch with.

Organize and increase efficiency for the next week by sorting tasks and filing messages.

Make a week’s worth of tweets that will spark interest, which will mean only having to check in and respond every day.

One of my friends in Georgia visits an internet cafe a couple times each week for a change of “scenery”. On these visits he spends a few distraction-free hours doing all of his scheduling and content creation for the following week. Sometimes an environment outside of the office allows for more concentration and you will end up with higher quality work in a relatively short period of time.

#5: Try Not to Stress Out

The last point I will make is that none of this should feel like a chore. No one will penalize you or judge how well you are doing. The idea behind it all is to make use of a great resource and ideally to enjoy yourself while you accomplish this.

Luckily, most people will not demand perfection if you are sure to offer your best assistance, and if you’ve built a strong reputation by providing great value. With these things all in place, you will have some room for mistakes.

Don’t panic if you haven’t posted an article on any given day. Your followers on Twitter may begin to wonder if you disappear for several days at a time, but being too busy to tweet on some days will hardly cost you anything.

Personally, I use social media in a very social fashion. It takes the place of a coffee break in my day. While I do manage to use social media very effectively for work, I also appreciate the real people behind those avatars as well. Do your best not to approach social media as an obligation, but instead place more importance on developing relationships within it. A mindset like this is optimal for greater success!

What are your thoughts? Is it a challenge for you to find time? How do you fit social media into your daily schedule? Feel free to tell us in your comments below…

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Inbound marketing refers to a type of marketing that instead of businesses trying to find customers through advertising, focuses on having customers find them. In this style of social media marketing, instead of paying for advertisements, marketers use blogs, and other media, to in essence publish themselves into business. Inbound marketing uses search to get found by customers, and works better than outbound marketing since you aren’t bothering people through emails, cold calling, and other annoying marketing methods.

Inbound marketing works when you build a website that is full of awesome information, and allows customers to discover you. To make the most of your inbound marketing, search marketing is an excellent method. If you have the correct search marketing processes, you can make your website into a very effective way to pull in customers and leads. This is realized through the constant expansion of high value content and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

The more you know about the keywords you are implementing to reach your target audience, the better your inbound marketing method will work. When you are aware of the way people search for your products and services you are offering, and the great value of all the keywords you are using, then your SEO work will be more fruitful.

Since the way in which people shop has changed a great deal, consumers are much more in control than in the past. Since they can now find out anything they need to know about different products, services, and vendors without actually interacting with the company, they know much more about you than you know about them.

When you utilize inbound marketing, and social media marketing, you will be found by those already looking for your products or services. The best way to do this is by making your website a main source for information in your industry, this will bring in people right from the various search engines, blogs, and social media sites. Instead of sending out your message repeatedly using old techniques, inbound marketing virtually drives traffic to your business. In place of print advertisements, inbound marketing uses white papers, blogs, and Ebooks. Instead of paying for expensive electronic media advertisements, you can use Viral You Tube Videos and Podcasts. Instead of wasting time cold calling potential customers, you can use Search engine optimization. Instead of wasting time and money at trade shows, you can do webinars. In place of sending out hundreds or thousands of direct mail pieces in the hopes that you will get a few customers, you can use RSS feeds.

There are three key ingredients to any successful inbound marketing campaign:

1. Content- This is the very most important, because it is the honey that attracts the bees, or customers, to your site, and makes them hungry for more information.

2. Search Engine Optimization- This is essential because you can only get more customers if they can find you, and this is exactly what SEO is designed to do. It is done through site building and inbound links to your site, so that your search engine rankings are as high as they can be. Since this is where the majority of people start when researching before a purchase, it is the crux of your inbound marketing campaign.

3. Last but not least, is Social Media Marketing, and its ability to expound on your content’s effect on potential customers. Having what you write talked about through various social sites gives it a greater air of realness, allowing a trust to develop between you and your potential customers. When people feel safe, good, and very well informed, they are more likely to trust you or your company, thus buy from you.

Inbound marketing is a smart choice with us being in any economy, but especially now. One reason is that it is far cheaper than many outbound marketing methods. You can start a blog for free, as well as a Twitter account. These two simple things can mean thousands of potential customers brought right to your site.

Another reason it is better is because the targeting is dead on. Unlike older methods, i.e., cold calling, mass mail, etc., inbound marketing works because the only people that are being targeting are ones that have themselves shown real interest in what you have to offer by way of content, which means they are much more likely to want what you have to sell as well.

Instead of just investing in Pay per click advertising on Google, you should investment in quality content that will rank you high in Google’s organic search results, and will allow you to remain there as long as you continue to monitor and tweak your campaigns.

The better and more effective way to get your business noticed is through the use of
Inbound Marketing and Social Media Marketing. It works because people respond better to gentle coaxing than to all out assaults. Let the customers come to you, and stop hijacking their time and attention through old marketing methods.

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Late last year, Google launched real-time search into its algorithm. What does real-time search mean to Googlers? When you perform a Google search, there is a very good chance that the most recent and relevant blog articles, news, and social media conversations related to the search query will show up in Google’s SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). Social networks ARE relevant in the eyes of Google! Now that Google is indexing social media content in real-time, how can you leverage blogs and social networks to rank on Google?

Read more: How To Use Social Media to Rank on Google

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What do you think of when you think of “social media marketing”? True, most of us have become used to social media listening to connect with friends, renew old contacts from the past, and simply have fun. However, social media marketing may not have actually entered many of our minds as a way to promote our local businesses. It can actually be a very important part of your marketing strategy, since inbound marketing can be a much more effective way to “become found” by people who are already looking for what you have to offer, thus largely bypassing the old competitive paradigm of outbound marketing, where you are basically fighting competitors for your piece of the pie.

Social media marketing in fact really streamlines the process for you so that your marketing efforts can become focused on the audience you really want to zone in on, thus making you both more efficient and more effective. This is cost saving, of course, but it also makes your business much more enjoyable, because you can spend a lot more time marketing to the people you want to market to, while leaving the “the masses” aside.

This is especially true for small local businesses, which generally have a relatively small customer base to market to. However, how do you most effectively use social media marketing as an inbound marketing tactic, so that you draw those customers to you? Here are five things you can do to make your social media marketing efforts most effective.

Start a social networking group that’s focused on the “local”.

Social networking sites like Facebook let you set up groups based upon a topic, niche, and so on. This is a great way to draw people who are already interested in your services or products to you, thus giving you a ready customer base. With a social networking group, you can tell your customers about your products or services, and answer their questions, too. And because it’s locally based, chances are many of those potential customers already feel a certain affinity for you.

Network with other bloggers and business people who are local.

Chances are, many bloggers and other business people are local, too, and networking tools that are also available online can help you find these people; they may be interested in writing about you, linking to your blog, or networking in other ways. This will help increase your exposure, which will also help increase your business. (By the way, return the favor and link to, comment on, etc., other qualified people’s blogs and sites as well, so that they get exposure, too.)

“Meet and tweet” online.

There are social media tools that can help you both create and then advertise local events so that you can draw local people to you. With these, you can hold open houses, provide product demonstrations, and so on.

Similarly, Twitter, too, is a way to gather people together who can then meet locally, centered around your products or services.

Shop for partners or local prospects on social media sites.

Because there are powerful search interfaces built into all social media sites, it’s a small step indeed to simply search for others in your area who are also using social media to find products or services, and/or to network with other people in similar industries.

Make yourself known.

If you create profiles on as many social media sites as you can find, and then link those sites with keywords that are locally based back to your main site, people are going to find you. In other words, put your city and state in your profile, so that people can find you and use your services if they are in nearby locations. You can and should optimize by brand, need, etc., as well, of course, but you should also optimize by location, so that those who want to use local services can easily find you.

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Article marketing can be a great way to get your message out to the masses. Many of the best and most successful entrepreneurs in the world utilize article marketing as a way to bring in prospects over the Internet. Here are the basics of article marketing and how it can help you with personal branding.

Article marketing is very powerful for a number of different reasons. First of all, it can help you create a brand for yourself. On the Internet, people run across information overload. There are so many people out there trying to sell their products that it is very difficult to separate one from the other. If you want to create customer loyalty and make as many sales as possible, you need to create a personal brand in order to do so. The only reason that a customer has any incentive to buy from you is if they feel comfortable with you. They want to deal with the expert in the industry that can help them with their problem.

When you utilize an article marketing strategy, you appear to be the expert. By writing targeted articles that portray valuable information to your potential clients for free, they will believe that they can gain even more vital information by doing business with you. This creates an incentive for them to contact you and ask to do business with you.

In addition to using article marketing for personal branding, it can also help you bring in traffic to your website. When you write a new article, you should be able to submit it to many different article directories. Webmasters frequently use these directories to come up with content for their websites. Therefore, if your article happens to be about a topic that a webmaster is searching for content on, they might republish it on their website or in an e-zine. This will essentially turn out to be free traffic for you because they have to republish your link as well. This will bring in a plethora of new leads for you to work with. On top of that, these leads will automatically think that you are an expert in the field.

Article marketing is also a great way to help boost the search engine rankings of your website. One of the most important criteria with search engine rankings is the amount of inbound links that you have to your site. By creating an article and submitting it to numerous article databases, you are getting your link out onto the Internet. The more places that your article goes, the more places that your link will be spread across the Internet. This will have the effect of boosting your search engine ranking and increasing your traffic. When your traffic increases, your search engine ranking will be boosted even more. This creates a snowball effect that was started by a consistent article marketing campaign.

If you are an independent professional such as a real estate agent, consultant, financial planners, or insurance salesman, this type of strategy could be invaluable for you and help you separate yourself from the masses.

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