One of the most pressing questions that I have received is “How can I measure my social media success?” But I think before any person can answer that question for themselves, a predetermining question must be asked:

“What is the real value of social media for business?”

The real value of social media is not going to be exactly the same for every business. Many marketing professionals claim that the one and only purpose of using social media is to engage others. While I think that is an admirable goal, it is also one that is unrealistic and sets forth an unfair expectation of people in general. Social media has many purposes which includes engagement, but also information sharing, collaboration, customer service, and reputation management, just to name a few.

The real value of social media has to be self-determined based upon two main criteria.

DIRECT RETURN ON INVESTMENT. Your businesses direct ability to use social media as a marketing platform, integrating strategies into your overall business plan; both enhancing and replacing some forms of traditional media.

INDIRECT INFLUENCE. Your individual ability to indirectly influence others through thoughts, social actions and relationships being built, sustained and cultured, while translating that into a business value.
Using Social Media to Have a Direct Impact on Your Target Market

Get instructions on creating measurable social media strategies, and how to position yourself as a trustworthy online niche leader:

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Scott suggests that ideas are only 1% of what make ideas happen, and the rest is made up of organization, community and leadership. I would highly recommend this book to… almost everyone.

I have been encouraging businesses for years that the best way to approach social media is to add it to their existing marketing plan… to have a weekly checklist of things to do on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Scott makes this easier to grasp by suggesting that we create daily ‘Action Step’ for everything we do – from adding sugar to the grocery list to returning a phone call and following up on your employees. He calls in ‘The Action Method’ and I can tell you first hand, it works. I didn’t know it, but I have been using the action method for years by processing all of my to-do’s on a piece of paper every morning – it helps me to focus during the day and not get side tracked by all of the ideas that randomly pop into my head. (Making me crazy!)

Adding Social Media to Your Action Plan

I come in contact with business owners every day who are afraid of social media. They don’t know what it is, they don’t have time for it, and they are afraid to adapt. If this is you… you aren’t alone!

They key to overcoming this “socialmediobia” is twofold:

1) Start using it. You cannot get past a fear without getting to know the thing you are afraid of. Spend some time on it. Sign up for a Facebook account and invite someone you know to be your friends, then try writing on their wall. Do it!

2) Organize it. Anything can become overwhelming in life (even eating breakfast) if you aren’t organized and prepared. If I don’t have yogurt in the fridge in the morning, I won’t eat anything and starve to death. But if I continue to do my grocery shopping every Sunday and buy my week’s supply of yogurt and granola, it becomes part of my routine.

The same concept works for social media. If you add it to your daily schedule, your action plan, and organize it… you won’t have to be overwhelmed, or afraid of it, anymore.

Now, I am going to go check this article off of my Action Steps checklist…

YOU, go check out the book! >

I know, I am using Spring as an excuse to write to you about all the things you should be doing online. Some of you may be saying, “Oh, gosh, I haven’t even finished getting online right, how can I spring clean it already?!”

Well, this is the perfect opportunity for you, then! Here are some EASY and SIMPLE steps anyone can take to boost their appearance on the web. And trust me, people DO look.

1. Evaluate.

Do you remember all of the places you are listed online? Heck, I don’t! When social media just came out, people signed up for everything. But obviously, we only use just a few online tools like Facebook and Twitter.

So first, start writing down all of the places that you KNOW you are listed in. Then, start searching for those you forgot. Look in your email box for welcome messages from accounts you may have opened. Do a search in Google for your own name, your “handle” (or whatever you may have used to identify yourself) and of course, your business name.

Look for a Google listing, yellowpages and other online phone books. Make sure you write down your website, blog and any other mini-website you may have had at one point, including Yahoo, Godaddy, or (God forbid) Microsoft.

Once you have a complete list:

2. Decide what you want to keep, and throw away what you don’t.

Since our bodies themselves cannot live online, the only thing people are going to know about us in the world wide web is what they see online. So, we want to try and do a good job at representing!

There are some things you may want to throw out… like an old Godaddy website that you don’t use anymore. Please, please throw it out.

But there are other things you may want to hang onto, even if you don’t actively use it. For example, I signed up for a Foursquare account some months ago, but since then decided it was too dangerous to use. So, I have this old Foursquare account hanging out there in cyberspace that I don’t ever use. So what should I do? I am going to hang on to it… I will explain what to do with it in Step 3.

So how do you decide what to keep and what to get rid of?

Use these simple rules. If ALL of them apply, keep the account:

• The account helps you get found on Google
• The account is up to date OR can be updated
• If you don’t plan to be active on the account, it will sustain itself
• It does not conflict with your current brand
• It makes you look good

How do you shut your accounts down? Well, that is the tricky part. A lot of services make it kind of difficult to shut down. Myspace, for example, used to be almost nearly impossible. In fact, for my Spring cleaning I have promised myself that I will find a way to take my old, decrepit, almost non-existent 10 year old Myspace account down.

Once you have a complete list of all the accounts you are keeping:

3. Write a standard bio for you and your company.

Gather the basic information about yourself. You want your accounts to be consistent and correctly branded across the board. What will you need for your standard bio?

• A professional picture (maybe a few versions and one with your family)
• A thumbnail version of your picture (very small copy for microblogging, etc)
• Your bio (who are you, what do you do, why do you do it)
• Your “tagline” (a sentence about what makes you … you)
• A couple of favorite quotes

Once you have all of this information compiled you can go to step 4:

Step 4: Update all of your accounts

Using the information you gathered, you can mix and match it to all of your accounts online. Easy, consistent, clean.

Consider yourself Spring Cleaned! Now… there is just one more thing you need to do:

Step 5: Keep track of all of your accounts.

Write them down with their user names and passwords, and the email address that is assigned to them. Trust me, this will save you a ton of headache in the future.

Check out these other articles on Spring Cleaning:

How to Clean Up Your Facebook >

Twitter Spring Clean Up >

An 8-Step Plan for Social Media Spring Cleaning >

In sum, Chris defines SPAM not just as “email that illegally comes from people you have never met or done business with before” but also “people you know who add your name to their email list without permission.”

OK, point taken. It can be annoying to get unsolicited emails – even from people you know – trying to sell you their product.

But are there situations when it is OK to send people unsolicited emails?

After discussing Chris’ post, reading some of the comments, and sharing our own stories, this is the conclusion we came to:

• Trust and Relationships are what matter. Period. So whatever decision you make should be based on this.
• There are many different types of businesses, targets, geographies and goals. So there may be some cases or businesses when it is perfectly legitimate to add people to your email mailing list. I live in a small city, for example, and everyone pretty much knows everyone… so in this case it might be OK to add people to your newsletter list.
• Getting email newsletters or email marketing is no different than getting a piece of junk in the mail… sometimes you read it, sometimes you don’t. Either way, you have the opportunity to throw it out.
• The kind of people who don’t want your information might be the kind of people you don’t need to know, anyway!
• If you aren’t sure, it doesn’t hurt to just ASK PERMISSION! Most email programs allow you to “double” opt in people, meaning that once someone subscribes, they have to confirm their subscription. SO, if you subscribe someone from a business card they gave you, they will have the opportunity to confirm their subscription.

Some other tips we came up with:

1. Make it easy to unsubscribe
2. Put a disclaimer on the top
3. Put the words “save money by_______” to catch someone’s attention

Thoughts?

After teaching a social media crash course workshop yesterday with the Bedford Chamber of Commerce, I realized how confusing Facebook really is for business owners who just want to open an account for their company! (Or nonprofit)

An educational nonprofit “Safe Surfing” – a safe internet education program was there learning how to create a business page for the cause. But when they went to Facebook.com and clicked on “Create a Page for a Celebrity, Band, or Business” it wouldn’t allow them to create just a business page.

“You must have a personal profile before creating a business page,” it said. After adding your business name, it asks you if you already have a Facebook account or would like to open a new one.

Another participant had a business profile that was created like a person. He used the first part of the business name as his “first name” and the last part as the “last name.” It let him created it and everything was fine. You could become a “friend” of the business.

But when his business name changed, he went to change it on Facebook and it told him he could not create a profile for his business, that he would have to create a personal profile and create a page for the business.

Page… profile… friends… followers… UGH!

Now he has to shut down that account and open a new account under his personal profile, just to change his business name. He will have to regain “friends” … or this time “followers.” and repost all of his information.

What a mess.

So, what’s the purpose of having a Facebook Business page, anyway?

Facebook Business pages are not to “sell” your product. In fact, if you do, Facebook will shut down your page. Not only does this keep social media a “social” tool but it also takes the pressure off of businesses to try and sell their products.

Facebook Business pages are setup by category, so they act more like online directories or phone books than anything else. Of course, the owner of the page can send its fan’s updates which – if done right – can lead to product sales. Business pages are important for business owners to make themselves available through. Do a search for “restaurant” in your Facebook search bar, then click on “Pages” on the left hand side, and all pages related to food will come up in your area!

When you do update your business page, it will come up in your fan’s network updates on their home pages.

Well, here are the rules and some tips on opening a business page on Facebook, to help you avoid a mess in the future:

• You cannot create a profile for a business, you can only create PAGES for businesses
• A business page must be attached to a personal profile
• Nobody will know – except for you – who’s personal profile is associated with who’s business page.
• If you need to associate your business page with a business email address which is separate from your personal account and email address, then you can create a secondary personal account if it is static and blank. Just know that when people search for you, they may find your secondary static account and wonder if it is you.
• A business page has less functionality than a profile
• People can only become “fans” of your business
• You should offer people something of value on your business page
• The purpose of a business page is NOT to “sell” people on it
• People can “review” your business using business pages
• Start some “discussions” on your business page that make you a credible expert

Tips to Help You Market Your Business Using Facebook Business Pages:

• Use it as your online portfolio, posting pictures or descriptions of your most recent work
• Offer coupons or discounts
• Give people a trial service through your Facebook page
• Write articles so people know you are a credible expert
• Give away tips
• Have video demos
• Link to your website where you CAN sell your product!

Questions?

What sticks out to me:

• Men and women are using the internet equally.
• 38% of 65+ uses the internet
• 59% of internet users use it two or more times a day
• 28% of bloggers are 35-44 years old.
• 35% of bloggers are 45-64
• 25% of bloggers are 25-34.
• 41% of bloggers say they are “journalistic.”
• 54% of bloggers say they are “Expert.”

But I am not just going to teach the ladies about social media. I am going to take them on a trip to Scoopville – where, (according to Lee Lefever from the Commoncraft Show), everyone makes ice cream:

The truth is that no one goddess makes ice cream the same way. Some make it creamy and soft, and others pack it full of swirls and candy drops. Some can make the best, to-die-for chocolate ice cream around, while others might try something more adventurous like pickle ice cream.

But no matter what ice cream each of the goddesses are going to make… I know it is going to be special and unique.

Well, as it turns out, making ice cream is just like social media. We each have a chance to share something unique about ourselves or the things we love. But… how are we going to stand out among all the other goddesses?

Join me at The Gathering of Goddesses on February 5th at 8:30 p.m.  for ‘The Social Media Secret’ … how to release your inner Goddess through social media.

Get info from Facebook about the Gathering of Goddesses >

Haiti saw a disaster. The United States responded. Not like they did in Katrina. Not with water bottles and trucks of goods. But with a million dollars, 10 at a time — donated from their cell phones.

So what do we know?

• Nonprofits have seen a major decline in giving in the United States
• Americans, more and more, and not satisfied unless they can get what they want instantly (instant gratification)
• New giving generations (18-24) won’t give or volunteer unless they can do so at their own will, whenever they please with no commitments of a time and place. (In a study by MTV)
• New giving generations (18-24) won’t get involved in a cause unless they either have a personal experience with something, or there is an existing community where they can engage with others (like Facebook!) (Again, a study by MTV)

How does this not change everything?

A few years ago the shift began to happen. Nonprofits started to realize that if they wanted to stay in the game they had to shift their nonprofit to an “organization” and position it as a “Cause.” Why? People don’t care about faceless organizations. They care about purposes and goals and real life.

They care about the girl who was so hopeless in her life that she cut. She cut her arms to make them bleed. So the cause “To Write Love on Her Arms” was born out of a story about a girl. Now the cause has helped over 80,000 individuals get through a period of depression, bringing a message of hope to the world.

From “Social Responsibility” to Making Real Change

Not everybody likes to feel like they have to be “socially responsible.” Social responsibility has become a word that most people use to refer to voting, or recycling.

Now with cell phones and social media, we have a way to give like never before. We can make change happen instantly, with the click of a button.We can make a difference and actually see the results.

Mobile Money

The Red Cross raised funds through cell phones and cell phone companies. But what if we had funds just like cash that could be transferred right from our cell phones? That day is coming, soon.

A New Definition for “Social Responsibility”

How much of that million dollars that the Red Cross raised, actually went to Haiti? How much of it went to the cell phone companies who collected the funds, and the SMS company? How much of it went to the Red Cross for “operating expenses?” How many people who donated to the Red Cross, knew about their history of bad press surrounding donations? That at least half of the donations they receive go to commissions and operating expenses?

I don’t care if you recycle, and frankly politics make me sick. But what movements have you been involved in lately? Who have you given $10 to, and did you check their background first? There are plenty of other organizations out there accepting donations to Haiti.

Being social responsible is about recognizing what is available to us and making wise choices. Don’t give just because you can, getting instant gratification.

Like they say at To Write Love on Her Arms: Be the movement.