Tips from Leveraging Social Media to Promote Your Business

“Social networking is the practice of expanding the number of one’s Business and/or social contacts by making connections through individuals.” Whatis?comHow many of you saw the Movie, Julie/Julia? The story of a blogger Julie Powell who chronicles her way through Julia Childs cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  The whole story revolves around Julie Powell writing a year’s worth of cooking. And she does this on her blog! For those of you who have not seen the movie I will not give the ending away but let me just say this. That story is the PERFECT EXAMPLE of the power of Social Media! I mean, she writes a blog which turns into a movie and there’s the happy beginning for Julie Powell!

That was the opening to my program at the South Florida MPI Chapter meeting this past Thursday.

Let me start by saying if you are a professional speaker and you get an opportunity to speak at an MPI (Meeting professionals International) meeting, consider yourself very lucky.  Meeting professionals are the folks than plan meetings. That includes hiring speakers.

A BIG thank you goes to DeAnne Connolly Graham of Welcome Miami Magazine for asking me to present my program “How to Leverage Social Media to Promote Your Business” and to Judy Goldman of Panache Party Rentals (MPI President) for her hospitality.

Me, DeAnne Graham and Rita Wells of Laughing Matterz

It was an amazing event. Not because I was the speaker (although that was a thrill for me).  Because of all the wonderful people I met!

In this program I talked about Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube  and Twitter (the new darling of social Media). Did you know that Facebook is the largest social network on the planet (with 355 million users)? If Facebook were a country it would be the third largest in the world. MySpace once the leader in social media is still in the top ten with 100 million, YouTube has 124 million users and Twitter has somewhere around 24 million (that number is expected to double by the end of the year).

Here some of the tips I shared with the audience:

With so many social networking sites, it is difficult to choose which ones to participate in.  My suggestion is to find out where your clients and customers hang out and go there.  If your customers are mainly on Facebook, then they will likely look for YOU on Facebook. I suggest if you aren’t sure where to start, you pick one and immerse yourself in it. Get to know the players.  Start conversations with those you link to or want to link to.  Ask for advice.  Ask to be introduced to others. Learn the etiquette.

There are so many sites for every need. In the meetings industry for instance there are Niche social networking sites such as imeet , event crowd, mpi meeting spaces, crowdvine and upcoming.org.

Other examples I shared included: Sermo.com which is geared to the medical industry, AdGabber.com social network is used by those in advertising, Boomj is for Baby Boomers and Generation Jones and WiserEarth.com is an online space for the social and environmental movement.  If you have a very tight niche and want to find networks to meet your needs, go to: www.Go2WEB20.net the repository or directory of just about ALL the social networks online today.

Craigs list is more than a site to buy and sell products. They have a personals section called “Missed Connections.” If you’ve met someone and didnt’ get their contact information or would like to reconnect and don’t know where to begin, Missed Connections is a great place to start.

We talked about creating FACEBOOK FAN pages. Most people don’t know where to find the link, let alone how to set up. At the bottom of every page of FACEBOOK is a category called ADVERTISING. Click that and it takes you to a page with lots of choices. The second choice at the top of the navigation is PAGES. Click there and it will walk you through the steps. If you cannot figure it out, I found this great tutorial by Mari Smith (the queen of FACEBOOK) ~ How To Create and Promote Your Facebook Fan Page. It is a perfect step-by-step tutorial.

We talked about blogs. Did you know that this site and 5 other sites I own were all created using Wordpress.org?  That’s right! According to the latest Technorati state of blogging report, about 12,000 new blogs are started each day, which translates to 1.4 new blogs each and every second! And about 25% of those are abandoned!

I shared the story of Darran Rowse of Problogger.com and how he started out blogging just for fun only to find out that the people following him were becoming his FANS and his fan base was growing so much he quit his day job to pursue blogging full time!  Problogger is all about how to blog! I recommend everyone become a subscriber or follower.

With blogging you can establish yourself as an expert like Darren did, which helps you build your brand and sell more products and services.

There are other high-touch ways to promote your business online such as video email using services like Hello World, or post Videos promoting your business to sites like You Tube and Google Video. For a great example of how one company has used video to promote their products go to Will It blend.com and check out Blentec’s series of videos promoting their blenders. Blendtec has become a legend because of the types of things they blend in their blenders including golf balls, bic lighters and one of their most viewed videos on is the iphone with more than 6 million viewers to date.

You can go to Internet Video Magazine for a huge list of Free Video Hosting sites.

And then there’s TWITTER. When I first heard about Twitter a little more than a year ago, my reaction to it was similar to what I am sure some of you are thinking. What a complete waste of time!   People like productivity guru Tim Ferriss (author of the 4 hour work week) called Twitter “pointless e-mail on steroids.” And I couldn’t have agreed more.  What a difference a year makes! Like me, Tim Ferriss has now joined Twitterville.

According to a new study by Pennsylvania State University, 20% of all tweets on Twitter specifically mention company and product names, as users request product information or supply responses to such requests.

As a business tool, Twitter can help you: Find new clients, Make new contacts with other business and thought leaders like Tim Ferris or Peter Shankman of Help a Reporter Out,
With Twitter you can be the first to know breaking news and news in your own industry.

Twitter helps Drive traffic to your Web site, lmprove your writing and my personal favorite, learn about new tools such as Utterli (share text, posts, video from your mobile phone), roboform and Twitter Feed.

If you have not gotten enough social networking online you can even meet people in person via a Tweetup, or the Social Media Club of South Florida or even Refresh Miami.

And there are even Social Networking Gadgets that will help you exchange information with people you meet in person. My favorite is POKEN.

If you want to become a Social Networking Guru, start connecting, lead a forum or group, use Google Alerts to see what they are saying about you and your company, Check out usernamecheck.com to see if your name is available on the top 60 social networking sites… Join in the conversations, don’t just post information, talk to people, Answer questions, Focus is the key,  check out go2WEB20.net for a list of other social networking sites that might lend themselves to your goals,  Use Ping.fm to make sure the search engines are finding out about your blogs,  and if you do all this you will get slightly famous or maybe even really famous!

Another cool social networking platform is Internet Radio. In fact, you can host your own Internet Radio program for free on Blog Talk Radio.

AS I mentioned earlier, Sites like LinkedIn, MySpace, FaceBook, eCademy, Xing, RYZE and hundreds more exist and there is really no way of knowing which ones are going to work for you until you actually participate.  And more pop up every day!

Thank you to Alan and Kevin from the Kovens Center for making my job easier. These guys are the best Tech people I have ever met on location! And to Jean Harris, Director for hosting the event. And to Tiffany Kennedy for being the best MPI Liaison I ever met!

Tiffany Kennedy, Nathalie Cortes and John BuschmanAnd to MPI for having the confidence in my abilities. I was truly honored to be among the BEST meeting professionals in the country.

MPI Audience members…

» Tips from Leveraging Social Media to Promote YOur Business said,

September 24, 2009 @ 10:17 pm

[...] Continued here:  Tips from Leveraging Social Media to Promote YOur Business [...]

Twitter Trackbacks for how to maximize your online networking with effective social networking strategies | Speaking with Spirit [speakingwithspirit.com] on Topsy.com said,

September 24, 2009 @ 10:47 pm

[...] how to maximize your online networking with effective social networking strategies | Speaking with S… speakingwithspirit.com/tips-from-leveraging-social-media-to-promote-your-business – view page – cached Speaking with spirit, Heidi Richards Mooney helps small Business bloom, by sharing business resources, tips and programs., “Social networking is the practice of expanding the number of one’s Business and/or social contacts by making connections through individuals. — From the page [...]

Eileen Williams said,

September 26, 2009 @ 12:01 pm

Your wealth of information never ceases to amaze me and I’m certain your audience was blown away by your presentation. Congratulations of being the keynote speaker–they picked a great one, for sure!

admin said,

September 26, 2009 @ 12:19 pm

Eileen,

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I always appreciate your feedback! Happy Saturday,

Heidi

Adalia John said,

September 26, 2009 @ 8:42 pm

WOW! nuggets of information. Great content and so easy to digest and assimilate. There a couple that I will be implementing right away.
Thanks

deborah said,

September 27, 2009 @ 5:32 am

Thanks Heidi.
I am just looking to expand into the internet and am getting confused where and how……your article has given me some good pointers.
regards

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