I was reading an article published by Social Times and they provide great information about the 10 ways to generate business on Twitter.  Enjoy!

Things to do…

1. Actively build your network
2. Tweet regularly and consistently
3. Tweet content of value to your network
4. Post about trending topics
5. Improve your tweets
6. Be retweetable
7. Prune the list of people you follow
8. Cross-promote
9. Build trust
10. Convert your network

For more information see http://bit.ly/8ZcEa2

Are you looking for a great Bookmarking tool?

With over 30,000 weekly downloads, “Add this” continues to be one of the most popular social bookmark sharing plug-ins. It provides support for over 200 services, including: Twitter, AIM, Blogger, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

Using Add this is quite simple. You can either click on the Add this button in Firefox browser or right- click on the text which you want to share and choose the service from Add this menu.

Posted in SocialTimes.com

Add This Icon

As always, Mashable has proven to publish great articles about the social media industry.  In this article, they have clearly defined the relevance of social media business integration.

Brian Solis writes:    An overnight success ten years in the making, social media is as transformative as it is evolutionary. At last, 2010 is expected to be the year that social media goes mainstream for business. In speaking with many executives and entrepreneurs, I’ve noticed that the path towards new media enlightenment often hinges on corporate culture and specific marketplace conditions. Full social media integration often happens in stages — it’s an evolutionary process for companies and consumers alike.

Here are the ten most common stages that businesses experience as they travel the road to full social media integration. Read the rest of this entry »

I was reading a Blog by Amber Naslund and she  described “10 ways to get serious about social media.”   I pulled out a couple that I felt were right on the money.

1) Quit counting fans, followers, and blog subscribers like bottle caps. Think, instead, about what you’re hoping to achieve with and through the community that actually cares about what you’re doing.

2) Learn how to measure stuff, and quit making excuses for why you can’t do it.

3) Approach social media methodically, and with the same care that you would any other business investment you make.

4) Quit waiting for the water to be perfect before you get in. It’s not going to be, ever. Try something that makes strategic sense for your business.

5 ) Think long term, and commit to it. That doesn’t mean some of your experiments can’t be finite, but the overall approach has to be for good.

6) Focus on what you’re good at. Know the core of your business, and make that the center of your work, especially through the amplifier of social media.

7) Recognize that potential missteps shouldn’t paralyze you into inaction. Acknowledge that there are ways to recover.  Having a plan to pick yourself up is the key, rather than trying to avoid failure at all costs (including stagnation).

http://altitudebranding.com/2010/01/10-ways-to-get-serious-about-social-media/

Kim States with Inside Tuscan Business wrote that  small businesses are shifting their marketing strategy away from expensive ad buys and are increasingly looking toward social media engagement as the less expensive alternative this year.

According to a recent survey by VerticalResponse Inc., 70 percent of small to medium-sized businesses plan to increase their use of social media in 2010. At the same time, 79 percent say they will not run television ads and 70 percent say they will not make radio buys.

There’s no question that adopting a comprehensive social media strategy can be an inexpensive and effective way to improve customer relations and spread the word about your business. But Read the rest of this entry »

Harvard Business Review posted a great Blog today about evaluating your position in social media.  They asked the big question, “Do you live social?”  I found this article to be very useful when understanding the broad scope of social media.

David Armano wrote: (full article)

Do You Live Social?

Some have asked, Where does social media live? Is it marketing? Is it public relations? Is it IT or corporate? Is it a combination of multiple business units and functions, and if so, who leads the efforts and how does an organization choose partners? These are valid and complex questions, currently with no simple answers. Social media is still emerging and being defined in real time.

There’s a question missing from that litany, one that organizations or individuals rarely ask themselves… Read the rest of this entry »

I was reading an article by Willa Plank from The Wall Street Journal that I would like to share about Social Media Expectations.

Willa Plank writes:  Don’t expect instant sales, but make sure to get actual results. Social media is more about brand outreach. Make sure you have a reasonable goal and a well-thought out strategy to achieve that end. First, listen to what is being said about your business and competitors on Google alerts, RSS queries, Twitter, Yelp and BackType. Make sure you have your profile account names on all print communications you distribute, such as flyers and menus. Identify your biggest fans, and figure out how to organize them or point them out in some way. For example: On Twitter, if you know a person is a loyal customer, mention them in a post or announce a free service or product they’ve won for loyalty. Or reach out to other bloggers in your industry. Sarah Endline, founder of dark chocolate treat maker Sweetriot in New York, said she connected with blog site Hungry Girl and that lead to getting her company’s name out and sales.

Don’t forget social media is a tool to strengthen offline relationships. Many small businesses already have personal ties to customers in their communities, and these tools are designed to enhance those relationships, not replace them. For instance, you can use social-media tools such as YouTube to give customers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of your company, or display more of your personality than you can through an ad. “It also allows you to show your culture,” Endline says. “They’re not just there to [see] a static promotion from you. They want value.” And remember, a social network is “really a big room of people,” author Schaffer says. Use it to “meet” potential clients or business partners, but make sure you follow up with an in-person meeting or phone conversation.

Have you been wondering what those  symbols are on many websites,  blogs and emails?  They are called social media icons and they are your friend!

Social media icons allow for people to find your social media sites and bookmark you on their favorite bookmarking sites.  These icons are easily recognizable and will assist in driving people to other sites you participate in.

from Jon Bishop's site

Are you looking for free social media icons or “share” icons?  Try this link:

http://www.jonbishop.com/2009/06/27-excellent-free-social-media-icons-sets/

Mashable.com reports:  As a standard formula, ROI is pretty basic, ROI = (X – Y) / Y, where X is your final value and Y is your starting value. In other words, if you invest $5 and get back $20, your ROI is (20 – 5) / 5 = 3 times your initial investment. In the financial sense, ROI is measured purely in the context of dollars and cents, however, the principles can really apply to any type of investment — monetary or not.

Although ROI ≠ metrics, traditional web metrics like traffic counts, number of comments, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, etc. are an important component when calculating your ROI.

The trick is to not rely solely on the numbers, but on what the numbers end up leading to. For instance, does your increase in website visitors correlate with higher sales? Are people that find your website from Twitter or Facebook then clicking on your product pages or going to the e-Commerce section of your site? That’s the sort of data you want to be able to look for.

http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/social-media-roi/

The statistics and “Social Media Revolution” video tell the story, social media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.  Please feel free to share with any non-believers!

http://socialnomics.net/2009/08/11/statistics-show-social-media-is-bigger-than-you-think/