A New Age of Influence Has Arrived

There is a new age of Influence upon us!

Social media is a broad term used to describe the various tools, networks, and technologies for sharing content, ideas, and knowledge, while connecting and collaborating online. It encompasses wikis, podcasts, blogs, social networks, forums, message boards, and other viral-type platforms where communities of people come together.

Read these statistics if you do not know what I am referring to:

  • 21% of US companies report their activity on Twitter has led directly to sales.
  • 20% of tweets published are actually invitations for product information, answers or responses from peers or directly by brand representatives.
  • 8% of those who came into contact with a brand name on Twitter went on to search for additional information on search engines with 34% searching other social networks.
  • About half of Twitter users who were introduced to a brand on Twitter were compelled to search for additional information.
  • 44% admitted they have recommended products in Social Media and 39% stated that they have discussed a product specifically on Twitter.
  • 46% of Facebook users talk about recommending products on the 500+ million strong social network.
  • 27% reported that they were receptive to receiving invitations for events, special offers or promotions.
  • 25% stated that they visited a site after learning about a product on their social network of preference.
  • There are more than 500 million active users for Facebook and 75 million for Twitter.
  • People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

Globally, social networks and blogs are the most popular online category when ranked by average time spent, followed by online games and instant messaging.

People in the U.S. continue to spend more time on social networking and blog sites as well, with total minutes increasing 210% year-after-year and the average time per person increasing 143% year-after-year.

The statistics are staggering and endless, but, while everybody is discussing Twitter and Facebook, not everyone knows how to use it.

How are businesses making the most of this social media phenomenon? What are they doing to manage their Twitter and Facebook accounts?

Here are some tips for using Twitter and Facebook:

  • Build an account and immediately start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space, etc.
  • Add a picture – people want to see you.
  • Talk to people about their interests.
  • Point out attention-grabbing things in your space, not just topics about you.
  • Share links to important things in your community.
  • Be helpful, in other words suggest relevant materials.
  • Do not only promote your business, your interests, etc. Also talk about non-business-related topics.
  • Establish a business account if you don’t already have one.
  • Follow the Twitter and Facebook rules regarding business accounts.
  • Install appropriate applications to integrate feeds from your blog and other social media accounts into your Facebook profile.
  • Limit business contacts’ access to personal photos.
  • Post your newsletter subscription information and archives somewhere in your profile.
  • Obtain a Facebook vanity URL so that people can find you easily.
  • Add your Twitter and Facebook URL to your email signature and any marketing collateral (business cards, etc.) so prospects can learn more about you.
  • Post business updates on your wall.
  • Share useful articles and links to presentation and valuable resources that interest customers and prospects on your wall, to establish credibility.
  • Combine the mediums — for example, when someone asks a question on Twitter, you can respond in detail in a blog post and link to it from Facebook.
  • Before traveling, check contacts locations so you can meet with those in the city where you’re heading.
  • Research prospects before meeting or contacting them.
  • Upload your contacts from your email client to find more connections.
  • Look for mutual contacts on your contacts’ friend’s lists.
  • Find experts in your field and invite them as a guest blogger on your blog or speaker at your event.
  • Market your products by posting discounts and package deals.
  • Share survey or research data to gain credibility.
  • Use Facebook Connect to add social networking features to your web site.
  • Suggest Friends to clients and colleagues — by helping them, you establish trust.
  • Start a group or fan page for product, brand or business.
  • Add basic information to the group or fan page such as links to company site, newsletter subscription information, and newsletter archives.
  • Post upcoming events including webinars, conferences, and additional programs where you or someone from your company will be present.
  • Update your group or fan page on a regular basis with helpful information and answers to questions.
  • Join network, industry, and alumni groups related to your business.

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a great technique to get more traffic and business for your website. It is the method of using social media activity with the intent of attracting unique visitors to website content. SMO is one of two online methods of website optimization; the other method is search engine optimization or SEO.

Start your SEO and SMO today with Prestige TechnologiesSEO packages start as low as $500.00/month.  Please call today to inquire about SMO.

*Did You Know— The first social networking website was SixDegrees which let people make profiles and connect with friends in 1997. This kind of interactive, social web application style became popularly known as “Web 2.0” and it really gained momentum with Friendster around 2002-2003. This was followed by MySpace in 2004.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.