Everybody knows that social media is all of the craze. I’m actually a steering committee member of the Social Media Club of Southwest Florida.  Needless to say, social media is so mainstream that businesses are wading in unchartered waters to market there.  That’s a great thing, well, assuming the business knows how to market there.

Here are some great tips that I’ve learned over the years.  Not all of them are original, actually I’m pretty sure that someone has probably written about them at some point.  The reality behind these tips is the fact that I want to help local business owners survive and thrive with this ever changing market.

Most business owners go into social media to get more business.  That’s a great strategy, but it’s a long term one.  If you simply go on Facebook and Twitter to tell everyone about your business or opportunity, no one will listen.  One of the best speakers on the topic that I have seen live is Perry Belcher.  He talks about Social Media like it’s a party.  Think about this. If you’re going to a networking event, you would never want to be the person that goes straight up to someone and throws your card in their face and tells them to buy from you now!  What would you do if someone did that to you?  I’m pretty sure you would either ignore them, tell them to leave, or stop being acquaintances with them.  OR ALL OF THE ABOVE.

You see people go on Facebook and Twitter because it’s a way to connect with other people…not businesses.

Social Media Etiquette Mistake #1 – Creating a personal Facebook Profile for your business

People don’t become “friends” with businesses!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been requested by a local club, restaurant, heck even lawn mowing company to become their friend.  I am not friends with your company.  Deal with it.  I may be friends with the owner, but not the company.  That’s a big fat invitation that says, be my friend so I can market to you.  Not cool

Instead, set up a Fan page for your business in Facebook.  It only takes a couple of minutes to set up and there is no limit to the number of fans that you can have.  With a personal profile, your limit is 5,000.

Social Media Etiquette Mistake #2 – Fake or bad profile picture

More important than even your bio, your profile picture in Social Media is how others judge if they want to follow you or be your friend.  I wish it wasn’t this way, but in social media, people completely judge a book by its cover.  I’ve seen many people put up pictures of celebrities, pictures of their business logo, or just a terrible picture of themselves.  This can cause you to lose many connections that you could have had.

Put in a good picture of your smiling or at least doing something really cool.  You want people to feel welcomed when they look at your profile picture.

Social Media Etiquette Mistake #3 – Requesting to be everyone’s friend or follow as many people as possible

If you’re using social media in hopes that you will increase your business from usage, you need to have a good plan about who you want in your social circle.  This is the perfect opportunity to speak to your target market.  I’ve seen some people in Twitter go on and follow 2,001 people in their first couple days.  This is the maximum allowance from Twitter.  This looks really bad on the user, because people know that you went out and just followed as many people as possible in hopes that some would follow you back.  You should go out, however, and follow people with similar interests, especially those who live in your geographical area.  You can go to http://www.twellow.com to search in your local area.

It’s also a good idea to follow people who have a significant amount of followers to see how they interact with their followers.  Obviously, they are doing something right to have that many followers.  The more captivated followers you have, the great your influence in the social media world.

Let me know with your comments some of the biggest social media mistakes that you have seen in your experiences.

Ladies and Gentlemen!  I am so excited about this new Social Media tool.  I believe I’m the first test account in the world.  Watch the video below to check out my Big Strand unveiling.

Contact me directly brad@braddohack.com if you’re interested in the possibility of being accepted for free to test/use the product.

As many of you know, over the past week I decided to do a social media experiment. Actually, it was more of a human interaction and communication experiment more than anything. Here’s why…last Monday, I was speaking with a close group of friends about relationships in today’s society. We all know that we have more technology available to us to make communicating “easier” than ever. You literally can reach me using snail mail (which I rarely get), an old fashioned telephone call, texting, Google chatting, Skyping, Facebooking, Twittering, commenting on my blog, (oh and how could I forget) and emailing one of my many email addresses.

A Look at Communication in the Past

We are bombarded with communication, but the question was “are people really connecting?” There is definitely something to be said about human interaction. During our conversation last week I brought up a point about communication 200 years ago. At that time, the only real way to communicate was in person. Yes, they had the Pony Express, so you could send snail mail. That could take a month for someone to receive your message though. Back in that day, personal relationships were greatly cherished. Think about the soldiers going off to war in the Revolutionary War or even the Civil War. They would tell their wives that they were going away for an undetermined amount of time and there was no assurance they would come back at all. No such things as cell phones to call to check in and certainly no such thing as skype with video to see each other and have a live conversation. Yet, in this time people fell madly in love and the divorce rate was inconsequential compared to today’s roughly 50% divorce rate for first marriages.
What does all of this mean? Our theory is that people now always need the constant reassurance that everything is ok. In this world of negativity, people anticipate what they see on TV will come true. Trust and faith have declined greatly and communication has gotten more hollow.

The Experiment

For one week, we didn’t stop communicating with technology altogether…we’re not that crazy.  Actually, we challenged ourselves for an entire week to make communication more personal.  Obviously running an Internet Marketing Company I couldn’t stop communicating as a whole, but rather we called people back who texted, emailed, chatted, facebooked, etc.  We wanted to see what effects actually speaking to someone had on our relationships.

The Results

From the experiment, I was able to connect with people on a much different level.  I talked to people on the phone who I’ve never spoken with in the past.  In one instance in particular, I set up a business meeting with a prospect who I would have never spoken to otherwise.  In other cases, I developed closer relationships with those who I already consider friends.

Lessons Learned

This was not an easy experiment.  In  many cases, it is so much easier to simply text someone a quick question or answer.  It’s also a ton of fun to post and interact on Social Media.   I’ve decided to break down the lessons to person and business lessons.

Personal:

I will not stop texting and using Social Media.  No way.  There are just too many benefits that come with them, including ease of interaction and time saving.  Instead, I will look at as many chances to interact in real conversations as possible.  This past week I called people to wish them happy birthday instead of the typical Facebook “Happy Birthday!” wall post.   People sincerely appreciate you taking the time to call.  That will always be the case.

Business:

Some great marketing lessons came from the Social Media Experiment as well.  The internet and techn0logy give us great abilities to communicate with people in the masses, but once the communication lines are open it’s good to give personal touch.

One of they ways to do this is to come up with a follow up system for your prospects.  It doesn’t matter how you meet someone, but it does matter how you follow up with them.  Email marketing is a great leverage tool to use, but at some point, if you’re asking people to spend thousands of dollars on your products or services, you need to develop that relationship.  The relationship can be built in person, over the phone or even through videos (if you’re really good).  Simple emails and copy writing are not enough for people to know you, like you and trust you.

Take all of your messages and focus on building relationships.

Even with all of the communication technology in the world, there will never be a substitute for building relationships.

Let me know by posting your comments below how you think technology affects our current communication.

You’ve probably noticed in my blog that I post a combination of business related things to help people and fun posts.  This happens to fall in the latter category!  Last night for the Advancing Business Leaders Annual Celebration at Hotel Indigo Heather Brooks who performed that catchy and annoying Zoom Tan Commercial performed it live.  Well, it just happens to be my girlfriend’s favorite song for some reason.

Here’s the live rendition and killer moves to support…

It’s apparent that Twitter is blowing up, and now more than ever you want to be on the forefront of integrating it with your presence on the web.  If you have a blog or website, it’s a really good idea to integrate a Twitter Flash Badge into it to keep people up-to-date and allow them to follow you directly from your website.  You can see exactly how to do this in the video below.  If you like the video, please comment and give it 5 stars on YouTube .