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http://www.podcampnashville.org/pcn10/

Inexpensive and efficient, social media can give customers more extensive explanations of their offerings than traditional marketing and advertising can.

In a new Babson Executive Education survey of over 900 global executives, managers, and individual contributors, researchers identified Social Media Customer (SMC) Leaders as the companies where employees “strongly agree” with the survey statement: “our organization has embraced social media (like Twitter, blogs, and Facebook) to improve its responsiveness to customer needs.” At the other end of the spectrum are SMC Laggards, who strongly disagree with that same statement.

Leaders say they are putting more sweat equity into retaining customers, and social media is one way to keep in touch with clients: “In these uncertain times our company has invested more in client relationships and building stronger client teams,” noted one respondent.

Additionally, aggressive adoption of social media can be a signal that an organization is more dynamic and innovative in the first place. For instance, SMC Leaders are two-and-a-half times more likely to strongly agree with the statement, “My company puts more emphasis on innovation and growth today than before the recession” (43% vs. 17%).

Read the full article >>

Author H. James Wilson is a Senior Researcher and Senior Writer at Babson Executive Education (BEE) in Wellesley, MA. At BEE he is a contributor to an ongoing Social Media research study led by Dr. PJ Guinan. Wilson has written for numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review, and HBR Online where “Innovation Teams Lack Data, Structure” appears.

1. Think strategically about their goals first and then decide which social media tools best suit their needs.
2. Use listening tools like Google Alerts and Twitter Search to collect data and find out where the people (potential clients) are.
3. Consume information in your niche and follow/comment on other blogs regularly and often (especially on blogs of potential A clients).  This introduces you to people you want to influence and positions you as an expert.
4. Go to where the people are.  You can no longer launch a website and wait for people to come to you.  Identify your targets and play in their “sandboxes”.
5. Create content (blogs, video, podcasts, ebooks, tweets, email marketing, etc) that is focused; carve out a niche for yourself.  If it’s too general, readers won’t know what to expect from one day to the next and they’ll lose interest if they can’t relate.

Bonus:

6. Remember that social media is a process, not an event.  It takes a long time to build a community of followers.  So I refer back to #3 and #4 – go to where the people are and comment and share.  Eventually, they’ll return the favor and before you know it, you’ve built a community of loyal followers.

The successful firms understand that the sales cycle consists of awareness, education, negotiation, purchase, support and renewal.  They build this into their strategy and use social media to create awareness and educate potential clients about their firm.  They’ve spent lots of TIME building community and positioning themselves as experts in very niched areas.  Because, as Jeffrey Gitomer says, “all things equal, people want to do business with their friends; all things not equal, people still want to do business with their friends.”

Have you been thinking about launching a social media marketing campaign? Are your competitors already using these new media channels? Before you do anything, I want you to STOP. This brave new world is an exciting place and it’s easy to get swept up in the moment. Where do you want to start? Are you going to create a blog, podcast, Facebook page or tweet? Before you dive in headfirst with all of them, choose one media channel to work with. There’s plenty of time to do all of them, but start slow with one.

Let’s say you’ve decided to create a blog. Great! Where should you start? With a little R&D of course! LOOK at what others in your space are doing. Where are your competitors and where are your customers? LISTEN and learn by reading their blogs regularly and commenting on them. It’s important that these experts get to know you and value what you add to the conversation. Why is this an important step? Because when you do start blogging, these same people will follow you back and regard you as an expert.

Every day, you should stop, look and listen. Take a break from the daily grind and perform some simple searches. Listen to what others are saying and join the conversation. The key is to be the center of something useful. Help others. Add value. Listen. Reciprocate. Ask questions. Comment and answer questions. Be an active part of the community in which you do business. Your customers are out there looking for you. This is your chance to foster community, conversation and commerce.

“Everyone is connected; connect your business to everyone.”
~Mitch Joel, Six Pixels of Separation

Okay, you’ve seen me quote Jeffrey Gitomer more than once, out of his “Little Black Book of Connections”. And I’m going to do it again, because social media is all about CONNECTING. Here are a few tips he mentions in his book:

GIVE VALUE: You strengthen relationships by giving value to them – not facts about you. Get them (whoever you are trying to influence) leads or put them in front of contacts that might lead to business for them.

TELL TRUTHS: You build relationships by telling the truth even if it hurts or embarrasses you. (me: think about Covey’s emotional bank account)

HAVE ANSWERS: Be a resource. Get to the point where they consider you a resource of information rather than a salesperson or just another acquaintance.

FIND LINKS: Part of the relationship building secret is to break the ice. Find something in common – a link that ties you together.

USE LINKS: Find stuff that helps them build their business, and surprise them with it.

GET PERSONAL: Use personal information in a creative, sincere way.

BE THERE: Stay in front of them without an agenda (asking for the sale). Just earn it with valuable information they can use.

BE FRIENDS: Perform acts of friendship as well as acts of business. Have fun. Do nonbusiness things with them.

Social Media, as with any Web 2.0 medium, is about user/consumer control. You can’t control – nor should you even try – the content of social media, including what others are saying about you or your brand (i.e. Firm). What you can do is be proactive with tips like these, and if you do come across some negative comments, do your best to own whatever the problem is/was and try to fix it. If you succeed, not only have you regained someone’s confidence (and business) but you have probably also created a positive story that this person will want to share with others.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Jeffrey Gitomers “Little Black Book of Connections” it is available on Amazon.com.

Twitter for Business (Advanced Users)

The first thing I’d recommend doing is personalizing your Twitter background (see snapshot of mine above). If you’ve got a graphic designer on staff, the dimensions of the graphic are 1920 px wide by 1200 px tall (but you have to leave space for your feed, etc.) I used this website to download a PowerPoint template that I turned into a JPEG to upload (the directions are on the website). If you get the PPT finished and get stuck there, email it to me and I’ll convert it for you (once I completed the design in PPT I used Photoshop; much easier!).

The next thing you want to do, if you have a Facebook page, is set your Twitter account to cross-post to both sites (so you’re not duplicating your efforts). You can use the Twitter Facebook App (http://apps.facebook.com/twitter) or a third party site like http://ping.fm, which will cross post to multiple sites at once.

If this is a firm account and you’re trying to decide to use one account or several, here’s my advice (take it for what it’s worth). I would use one account with multiple users. Using your custom background, you can identify each of the twitterers by including a photo and their name, title, etc. Include some way for them to sign their messages, like their initials (mine would be “^KG”) so the readers know who tweeted the message. Also be sure to include all of their names in the Bio section of Twitter’s Settings/Profile, since you will have used your firm name as the name of the account.

This leads me to the reminder to be authentic and transparent. Always let the readers know who is behind the tweets; the greatest opportunity Twitter gives you is the chance to show the personality and humanness behind your organization. This is your chance to communicate your firm’s culture (I keep coming back to @Zappos as an example because I think Tony does this exquisitely). Allow your staff to participate in the conversations too. They are an extension of your firm’s brand and can have a positive impact on your web presence. Just be sure to have some guidelines in place.

Twitter is not really a place to sell your services; yes, that will hopefully be a byproduct of the dialogue that happens within Twitter, but Twitter is for making conversations and generating buzz. Your traditional marketing methods (because yes, you still need those) are for closing the deal. However, if you can come up with a creative contest, promotion or tweetup, Twitterers are suckers for those and will participate and retweet, potentially generating revenue for the firm.

Back up, what’s a TweetUp? A tweetup is akin to a meet-up; through Twitter, sometimes using a designated hashtag, you organize a live gathering somewhere in your city. For instance, you’ve been conversing with several individuals who may be good prospects so you invite them for a tweetup at the local Starbucks, coffee on you. It’s an informal opportunity to gather and network in person.

Okay, I’m getting “wordy” again, so I’m going to jump back into bullet points of info:

• Twhirl (http://twhirl.com) sits on your desktop and delivers a steady stream of tweets (you have to download Adobe Air first;http://www.adobe.com/products/air). It can help you stay on top of your tweets, but may be overwhelming and suck up time. So use this with caution.
• Use Advanced Search to locate questions/needs in your area of expertise and grab an RSS feed; keep an eye on this and respond when you can. Please note that you should approach with a little caution; be friendly and offer your assistance. If done right, you’ll develop a positive reputation as an expert in your area.
• Link appealingly and creatively to your website or blog; the headline you choose will either generate more web traffic or drive people away (never tweet, “New blog post: blah, blah, blah, link).
• Pictures ARE worth a thousand words. Post pictures using TwitPic (http://twitpic.com)
• REPOST IMPORTANT MESSAGES several times; each post only receives about 5 minutes of view time. That means if it hasn’t been clicked through within the first 5 minutes, chances are people didn’t see it. So repost it throughout the day to be sure it’s seen (use bit.ly to track click throughs)

Advanced Hashtag Uses (in each instance, you need to designate a hashtag so you can aggregate the responses)

• Tweetups
• Collecting ideas
• Sharing experiences
• Group live chats (publicize hashtag and date/time in advance!)
• Live Twitter an event, seminar or conference (publicize hashtag and date/times in advance!)

Tracking Traffic to your Website & Blog

• Google Analytics
• http://bit.ly.com (URL shortener and tracker)
• http://backtweets.com (tracks links to your site that may have been shortened by someone else); you can also grab an RSS feed from Backtweets

Finally, use Twitter to engage journalists and PR people (see Centers of Influence). Twitter has become a major source for reporters to find great stories. Follow HARO (“Help a Reporter Out”), Twitter handle @skydiver; he regularly posts inquiries from reporters.

That’s it! You made it through! Easy enough, right? Maybe not. Just remember that I’m here to help you navigate the Twitterverse, so feel free to email me anytime with questions.

If you plan to make the leap (or already have but are quickly seeing how complicated 140 characters can be), I recommend buying The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein. It retails for $19.99 but you can find it on Amazon for under $14.

According to an informal poll, only 35% of firms are using Twitter while 45% are using Facebook and 95% are using LinkedIn.

Twitter for New and Learning Users

First, is this for your firm’s account or a personal account? There are very few differences except when it comes to following people. If it’s your personal account, you can be choosy about who you follow. If it’s a firm account, it’s best to be safe and not risk offending anybody (like a potential client) and follow everyone who follows you. So what happens if you’re following 1000 people but there is only a handful that you really want to keep tabs on? Grab the RSS feed from their account page so all their tweets dump into your Outlook. Just click on the user’s name (http://twitter.com/kristingentry) and scroll down a little. On the right, look under the set of “following” boxes and you’ll see “RSS feed of Kristin Gentry’s tweets); click on it and it will walk you through adding the feed to your Outlook. I have several that I follow like that (including all of those I recommended in yesterday’s blog).

Twitter has a basic search function and an advanced search function. The advanced is usually more helpful, so I recommend going there:http://search.twitter.com/advanced. There are 4 very important things you should search for:

• Your name
• Your Twitter account name
• Your company, brand or product
• Your competitors

To keep tabs on these, you can also pull RSS feed of your searches into your Outlook.

One critical aspect of Twitter is the 140 character limit and the value of providing links to interesting and informative websites. Websites URL’s are typically quite long and can take up most/all of you character limit. I recommend using a URL shortener like http://bit.lyto both shorten your links and allow you to track click-throughs. It’s user friendly so just create an account and begin dumping your links (especially to your site or blog) in there. It saves the shortened links and you can go back in anytime to copy them for reuse, and it tracks the click-throughs for you (this is a nice complement to Google Analytics for your website and blog; both are free to use).

There are several reasons to have mobile access to Twitter; it may be the conversational aspect of what you’re doing or interesting/funny things that you come across that people enjoy or catching breaking news (like the Hudson River landing). You can use SMS texting for your mobile phone (in Twitter, go to Settings / Devices to set up), or you can download an application for your Blackberry or iPhone. Examples of apps include Twitterberry for Blackberry (http://orangatame.com/products/twitterberry) and Twitterific for iPhone (http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterific).

Still lots to cover, so we’re going to move into bullet points again:

• Retweet – Add your own commentary so your followers know why you found it valuable (especially when you’re passing on a link). And always give credit to the original poster; if there are several and it puts you over the character limit, you only need to credit the originator and the person you received it from. You are allowed to edit/delete previous commentary if you’re still over the character limit. One more thing; RT your clients whenever you can; it shows respect and builds rapport.
• @messages/replies – Make sure your replies are smart and seen. How? If you reply to someone’s tweet, include enough commentary so everyone knows what you’re referencing (not, “hey, thanks for the info!”). That’s smart. To be seen, you need to be sure to place at least one word before the @kristingentry or only those who are following both of you will see it. What do I mean? Here are 2 examples: (@kristingentry Thanks for the sample Social Media Policy, it was very helpful!), only those who are following both you and @kristingentry are going to see that post. If you post it like this, (Thanks for the sample Social Media Policy@kristingentry It was very helpful!), everyone who follows you will see it; you have a bigger audience that way. Get it?
• Links – Link to interesting and consistent (for your expertise) websites; people will click through and are more likely to Retweet you AND it boosts your reputation as a thought leader in that realm of expertise.
• Spam – DON’T spam anyone! First rule of thumb, don’t set an auto DM (direct message) to go out whenever someone follows you, especially if it contains a link to your site or blog. It’s impersonal and sounds like spam. Also, listen first; Twitter is for holding conversations, not making announcements.
• Follow Fridays – #FollowFridays (or #FF) were created for Twitterers to recommend their favorite followers to others. I make it a point to recommend those people who RT me, because if they enjoy my tweets, chances are my followers have something in common with them and it’s nice to make that connection. Also, try to include some context as to why you think others should follow them.
• Post on the right days – The bulk of tweets happen Tuesday through Thursday. And readership is highest those days; also, try to post during the Eastern time zone business hours.

When you’re tweeting, before you hit “update”, stop and think of a more entertaining or informative way to make your point. If you’re not interesting, people will un-follow you (remember, this is an opt-in medium). Make an offbeat observation or poke a little fun at yourself. Don’t always talk about business! People want to connect with the person behind the tweets…people want to do business with their friends. Be friendly and approachable.

REMINDER: Here are the Keys to Success at Twitter

• Add value by holding great conversations
• Get followers, which means be interesting and conversational (Zappos is a great example)
• Follow relevant people
• Reply to your @messages
• Make sure you are findable
• Don’t get overwhelmed; the average number of tweets per day is only 4.22

Got it? Are you still with me? We have one more day to go…Advanced Twitter, or Twitter for Business. It’s easier than you may think, and please feel free to tweet me or email me with questions. I’m here to help you navigate the Twitterverse!

If you plan to make the leap (or already have but are quickly seeing how complicated 140 characters can be), I recommend buying The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein. It retails for $19.99 but you can find it on Amazon for under $14.

According to the poll on my blog, only 25% of firms are using Twitter while 43% are using Facebook and 93% are using LinkedIn. If you haven’t yet weighed in, please do so (the poll is in the column on the left). The survey is only open for 3 more days…so hurry!

Getting Started – Beginners

First, if you haven’t already, go to http://twitter.com and sign up. Choose a username with as few characters as possible (because there is a 140 character limit on tweets and just trust me, that will be important as you grow with Twitter). Twitter doesn’t ask for much information when getting set up, so as soon as you finish the process you should immediately click on “Settings” (upper right corner of screen) and finish completing your profile. In particular, you need to add a bio and a picture or other screen icon (DON’T keep the default icon, it makes other people suspicious that you may be a spammer). Are you getting nervous? Don’t, I know there’s a lot to learn about Twitter but we’ll get through it together.

A funny side story; a friend of mine finally created an account on Twitter and followed me. So I went to his profile and saw he hadn’t finished completing it so I suggested he do so. He said he did that on purpose because he wasn’t sure he wanted anyone to know it was him yet! Trust me, it’s okay to put yourself out there. You’re probably just going to be listening in for awhile anyway until you get the hang of it.

Start out by finding your friends and other interesting people to follow. Warning: people can sometimes be hard to find if they’re username is different from their real name; that’s one reason it’s so important to make sure your profile and bio are complete.

Here are some of my recommendations for CPAs:
http://twitter.com/AICPA_JofA (AICPA Journal of Accountancy)
http://twitter.com/AICPANews (AICPA News)
http://twitter.com/CPA_Trendlines (Rick Telberg)
http://twitter.com/cpamanagement (Rita Keller)
http://twitter.com/kristingentry (me!)
http://twitter.com/zappos (Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos; he’s just plain fun to follow)
http://twitter.com/mashable (if you’re into social media, Mashable is a great resource)

Okay, we have a lot more to cover so we’re going to change gears into bullet points of info:

• You get an email notification every time someone follows you
• You do not get an email notification if someone un-follows you (that also means that if you change your mind about following someone, they probably won’t know if you un-follow them, so don’t feel guilty)
• All communications are limited to 140 characters, which is like a headline or 2 sentences, tops. Use abbreviations and numerals instead of writing out the numbers, etc. You may have to get a little creative. And make it interesting and/or funny if you can.
• Hashtags (#) – Hashtags allow you to categorize your tweets into topics; for example, you might see #CPA a lot. At any time, you can search for #CPA and find all postings that contain that hashtag.
• @ Messages – You can use an @kristingentry to reply to something I tweeted (for a direct but public reply, put it at the very beginning of the tweet), or use it inside a message to give credit or acknowledge someone else. You can view all messages that contain your name by clicking on the @yourname link in the navbar on the right.
• Retweets (RT) – The Retweet is an important part of Twitter. It shows respect and interest in someone else’s post by copying their tweet and pasting it into your message bar with “RT @kristingentry” at the beginning (giving that person credit for the original post).
• Direct Message (DM) – This is a private messaging option, but is only available if that person is following you (it doesn’t matter if you’re following them).
• Favorites – If you come across a tweet you want to save, hover your mouse over the tweet and you’ll see a little star; click on the star and it will move into your Favorites file in the navbar on the right.
• Following – The stream of tweets you get comes from the people you are following. Follow your friends and family, and follow smart people you don’t know. You can find these people by seeing who your friends are following or by using a service like Twellow (http://twellow.com) which is like a yellow pages for Twitter and categorizes users by topic. Oftentimes, if you follow someone and they think your profile is interesting, they’ll reciprocate with a follow.

Here are the Keys to Success at Twitter

• Add value by holding great conversations
• Get great followers, which means be interesting and conversational (Zappos is a great example)
• Follow relevant people
• Reply to your @messages
• Make sure you are findable (if it’s a firm account, put the firm name in the “name” field instead of your name because people will search for your company)
• Don’t get overwhelmed and/or spend too much time on Twitter. The average number of tweets per day is only 4.22.

Are you getting excited yet? Get moving, because there are two more blogs to come this week on Twitter; Intermediate and Advanced User information. So stay tuned!

If you plan to make the leap (or already have but are quickly seeing how complicated 140 characters can be), I recommend buying The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein. It retails for $19.99 but you can find it on Amazon for under $14.