Twelve Rules For Using Social Media for Business
  1. Go Deep! There are probably 300 social media sites. Forget 296 of them! Start with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and a WordPress blog. Social media does take time and effort and consistency is important. If you are spread too thin chance are you will not give enough attention to the sites you do participate in. Spend more time on fewer networks and learn how each site works.
  2. Engage! Most start with posting tons of drivel or re-posting other people’s posts just to create traffic. Be thoughtful! Ask questions! Answer questions! Engage! Connect with other users – build real connections and you will create real followers and overtime this is what you want. My golden rule of networking is “need a friend, be a friend!”
  3. Don’t promote, enthuse! We can all smell a sale – try to avoid this! I am a sales consultant so trust me on this point! Talk about what you love, hopefully you love your business, and convey your love for what you do in every post. There is nothing wrong with including links to your business site!
  4. Blog, blog, blog! Blog posts will do a great deal, over time, to raise the profile of your business. Blog quality over quantity and blog consistently. Google search will only index blog titles of 70 characters or less so keep you titles tight. Link all relevant words back to your web site, LinkedIn profile, etc.
  5. Keywords! Everything that you post should be lightly sprinkled with the keywords relevant to your business. Don’t overdo it but just carefully drop appropriate keywords into all of your posts.
  6. You are your brand! You have your private life to complain about the world or tell off coloured jokes. This is business. Every post should be positive, forward thinking, clever, bright and interesting – just like your brand. Right? If you’re in a bad mood – don’t post! Discussing politics, religion, sex or the troubles of the world are unlikely to enhance your brand. Never put anything in writing you wouldn’t want everyone to see – there are no secrets!
  7. Consistent, persistent, dogged! Post daily! All of these programs have mobile versions, which you should be using on your smart phone. Don’t have a smart phone? Don’t be so 2009, get involved!
  8. Learn this stuff! This is new technology but don’t be scared! Poke around. Have a question? Google and learn! Get involved and learn. One thing is for certain this is not a passing fad. This is a fast changing world so keep your eyes open and learn what is on the horizon. Social networking has been building for years and know one knows where it is going except it is moving and this is a train you had better be on!
  9. Share! Have some thought ideas or are you on top of the newest trend? Please send me a note! I would be pleased to learn from you! And, share with your network! These are not really rules just ideas to help others succeed! After all, is that not what social networking is all about?
  10. Exploit! Do you know that Twitter allows you to view someones profile and see who follows then and who they follow? This could be a good source of people to follow for your business and build awareness of your product / service offering.
  11. Can money buy friends? Well, in social media yes! If you are just launching a social media program and don’t like the idea of going to market with 3 people following your Tweets and 1 “liking” your facebook faces then you may want to consider buying friends and followers to create a bit of buzz. This is the same as paying good looking people to stand in line outside a nightclub – it has been done for years and does help to build momentum.
  12. Push content! Please note the share buttons on the bottom of this post. This allows us to “Tweet” this post or to Post it on to Linkedin Groups and generate a great deal of traffic! Blog articles can also be submitted to article submission services that help you distribute your articles to thousands of Article Directories and Blogs, so that you can effectively attract more targeted traffic and receive thousands of quality backlinks to your website. This can seriously increase your Google ranking!