Saying my company doesn’t need Social Media is like saying my company doesn’t need a website 10 years ago.

I remember those days.  While others were debating whether they should or shouldn’t have a web presence, I was building my first website.  So many people doubted the power of the web back then, but I think we all realize that today the internet is a part of our everyday life.  How is Social Media any different?  The web is evolving and it is your job to grow and evolve with it. Old fashioned, in your face advertising is out. Viral, consumer generated reviews and recommendations is the new way and you will either learn it now or later after your competition has already established a strong presence on all of the social media platforms.

• For information on my private consulting services, please visit the Consulting page and contact me for a Free assessment of your needs.

• I am also assembling several Social Media Roundtable teams for a Peer-to-Peer Exchange on Social Media & Your Business which will launch in July.  We will have 3 tables with 10 spots at each table. It’s non-competitive and includes:

1. A monthly half-day meeting, at Netwave Marketing in Point Pleasant Beach or a member’s location if suitable, for a training session on Developing Your Social Media Strategy, Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Video and Podcasts. Each month we will tackle a new platform and discuss what’s working, what’s not working, trends in the marketplace, etc…
2. One hour of in-person coaching on social media
3. One hour of virtual training on the phone.
4. Team members will work together to spread eachothers news through the many social media channels.

Cost = $300/month with a 6-month commitment.

As a business owner, you can’t afford NOT to be part of the new conversation.

To see if you are a good fit for our Social Media Roundtable program, please contact me at 732-966-7450 or by email at info@DeborahLSmith.com.  We will be grouping participants based on their skill levels and business focus.

I am very honored to have been chosen as one of ten finalists for the New Jersey Social Media Hall of Fame.  I am nominated under my twitter handle @JerseyBites which is the account I use to market my Food blog, jerseybites.com.

The Inductees into the NJ 2009 Social Media Hall of Fame will be selected by popular vote through the obvious channels, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Voting ends April 25, 2010.

If you enjoy reading my blog, I would greatly appreciate your vote.  Just click on the Logo to Fan the NJ Social Media Facebook page, then leave a comment with @jerseybites.

Public Voting for #NJSM09 Hall of Fame Inductees will roll out in phases, across multiple platforms, over the next 2 weeks, including:

• Blog Comments Voting begins Tue. April 20. To vote: leave a comment on YouTube #NJSM09 Finalist Video and/or BlogTalkRadio #NJSM09 Episode (must be registered users of each site). Limit one vote on each site, must include reason for vote.
  
• Facebook – Voting begins Mon. April 12. To vote: leave a comment on the#NJSM09 Voting wall post at www.Facebook.com/NJSocialMedia (must be a Fan)
• LinkedIn – Voting begins Tue. April 13. To vote: leave comment on #NJSM09 Event Listing (must have LinkedIn account)
  
• Polling (voting not open yet)
• Twitter (voting not open yet)

For each of the next five days, we will announce which platform for voting will be open and will also include links to take you to each voting platform. Check back daily for updates.

All voting, across all platforms will remain open until 11:59pm EST Sunday, April 25, 2010. Any votes received after that time will not be counted.

Limit one vote per user account per platform for the duration of the voting period

• i.e. You can only vote once on Facebook, once on Twitter, one Blog Comment, etc., only casting 1 vote for only one Finalist per platform.
• The first eligible vote cast from a user’s account will be counted; additional votes cast from the same account on a specific platform will not be counted and will be disqualified and/or flagged for removal.
• NJSM Hall of Fame Finalists are not eligible to vote.

After voting period ends, all votes, across all platforms, will be reviewed, tallied and recorded. Inductees will be selected based on voting data, voting verification and quality of comments. Originality counts!

• Note: Flame wars, derogatory or defamatory remarks will not be tolerated and comments may be subject to removal without warning. The discovery of bots, auto-generating apps, multiple voting abuse, rigging, intimidation or any other form of vote tampering, including offers of cash, incentives or compensation in exchange for votes may result in immediate disqualification of the votes and/or candidate.

Most businesses today are realizing that they need to have a presence on one or more of the popular Social Media platforms.  If you have yet to catch the Social Media wave, LinkedIn is probably the best place to dip your toe.   It is by far the most business focused of the Social Media platforms.  Your LinkedIn Profile is a very effective way to show off your professionalism and to introduce yourself to prospective clients with a nice piece of marketing material to back you up.

1. Complete Your Profile: Your profile is your first impression and trust me, many savvy professionals today are using LinkedIn to research people before they do business with them. If your profile is missing a professional picture of you, or has misspellings and incomplete information, it is very likely that potential clients are seeing this.  Take the time to develop your summary, specialties and all of the other areas LinkedIn recommends you complete. Use keywords specific to your industry and area to help the LinkedIn search engine find you if someone is looking for you or your type of service.
2. Ask for Recommendations: One of the best features on LinkedIn is the Recommendation tool.  Be sure to reach out to people you have worked with and ask them to recommend you through LinkedIn.  It is very easy to do.  You will only be able to request recommendations from LinkedIn members, but I’m going to bet many of the professional working women and men you help are using LinkedIn.
3. Join Local Groups or Start Your Own: Use LinkedIn as a networking tool by joining groups in your region or starting one.  Most areas have some kind of group for local business owners and professionals.  This is a great way to introduce yourself and your services and to network with people you may have never had the chance to otherwise.
4. Connect with People You Meet Offline: If you are like me and attend networking functions or public speaking events and collect business cards from those events, make it a point to look these new contacts up on LinkedIn and connect with them.   This is a great way to grow your network.   The more connections you make and the easier you make it for people to find you when they need you, the more business you will generate.
5. Share Your Link: Include the Link to your LinkedIn Profile in your email signature, on your website or blog, print it on your business card and anywhere else your customers or clients may be visiting or viewing.

Interested in learning more about LinkedIn?  If you would really like to become a savvy LinkedIn Networker, I will be conducting a two hour workshop for the Greater Monmouth Chamber of Commerce at Branches in West Long Branch on February 19th.  It is open to members and non-members.  You can visit the Chamber of Commerce website to sign up.  http://www.greatermonmouthchamber.com/

I also provide in-house company workshops,  so please contact me to discuss your training needs.

There are some simple methods for spreading the word about your business Facebook page.  But first, I want to address the issue I have been coming up against with clients recently. When taking a look at their Facebook accounts, I am finding many businesses or their marketing companies have set up Profile pages instead of Business Pages. This is against the Terms of Service agreement of Facebook and is resulting in some problems for the businesses who then later try to set up a Fan page and register their Vanity URL.  This may also become a very serious if Facebook decides to start really policing this issue and deleting accounts.  So, if you are just starting out with a business page, please know the difference between a profile and a fan page first. Here is an excellent article on the topic, Difference Between a Page and a Profile on Facebook.

10 Ways to Attract more Fans (be sure to read all 10, I’ve left the most important tip for last.)

1. Suggest to Friends: Ok, so let’s assume you have gone down the right path and created a Facebook Page for your Business.  The first thing I recommend is that you also have a personal profile set up for yourself.  If you have a personal profile already and you’ve been acquiring friends over time, this will give you your first opportunity for growing your fan base.  Simply use the “Suggest to Friends” link on the upper left side of your page to pick and choose the friends you would like to invite to become fans.

2. Post a Fan Box: Facebook gives you a very handy tool for promoting your Business Page, the Fan Box widget. Just copy the HTML they provide through their widget and paste the HTML onto your blog or website. You can see my Facebook Fan Box in the right side bar of this blog.

3. Trade Links: The Favorite this Page feature on each and every Facebook page is a great way to trade links with other relevant pages. If you are a fan of a page that you believe attracts the same type of consumer/client then reach out to the owner of the page and offer to trade links.  You favorite their page to your fan page and they likewise, favorite yours.

4. Register your Page’s Vanity URL. Once you have 25 fans, Facebook allows you to register a Vanity URL for your page. Just go to http://www.Facebook.com/usernames.  Once you have the URL registered it makes sharing the direct link to your page so much easier.   My URL on Facebook is Facebook.com/SocialMedia4Business.  This is a lot easier to remember and to share than the long, messy URL’s Facebook generates.

5. Insert a hot link to your page from your Personal Profile. In the little text box Facebook provides below your picture on your profile page.  If you post the full link including the http://www.  in the beginning, the link will become clickable and will lead people right to your Fan page.

6. Paid Advertising: Facebook Ads for Pages and Events allow users to engage with your ads the same way they interact with other content on Facebook – without leaving the page they are viewing. Ads for Pages include a “Become a fan” link, while ads for Facebook Events include an “RSVP” link. Users who view these ads can connect with your Pages and Events from the ad itself, automatically creating a story on the user’s profile page and possibly even their friends’ home page Highlights, generating free distribution for you. When placing a Facebook Ad be sure to choose the Pay Per Click option.  You can set your own daily budget threshold and target your ad to individuals in a specific geographic area and/or gender, age, education level, interests and more.

7. Convert your Twitter Followers and LinkedIn Contacts to Fans: Let your followers on Twitter know you have a fan page.  Send the link out periodically inviting everyone to fan your page. Post a link to your Fan page on your LinkedIn profile. You can post a direct link if you haven’t used all 3 spots for URL’s allowed by LinkedIn.  If you have, post the URL in your Summary section at the bottom with a bullet point.

8. Ask Your Fans to spread the word: This is where having friends who are also fans comes in very handy.   If you have some fans you feel close enough with to reach out to and ask for their help in sharing your page, do so.  Nothing beats a personal endorsement from a fan.

9.  Offline Marketing: Don’t forget to invite your customers and clients to “Become a Fan” of your business in all of your offline marketing.  I have seen invites on Menus, business cards, Power Point Presentations (that would be me), ads in newspapers and magazines. I have one client who has a banner hanging in her store inviting customers to connect on Facebook.  Be creative.  Think about all the places you come in contact with your customer and how to build in that Facebook invitation.

10. Create a vibrant Fan Page with frequent updates:  Video, photos, and fan interaction.  Ask questions, give advice. The more updates and interactions that take place on your page, the more updates will appear in the Status Updates of your Fans which is free publicity for your page.

11. Ok, I lied, you get a bonus tip.  Be sure to tell your customers or clients exactly what you want them to do. “Become a Fan” Some are still very new to the whole Facebook thing and don’t understand that they need to DO something.  Please Become of Fan of my Fan page and stay in the loop on news and information in the ever changing world of Social Media.  Just Click Here.