Notes and details from today’s “Social Media for the Real World” talk

I gave a talk at the Business Connections series for the North Hennepin Area Chamber of Commerce today. While it was tremendous fun, packing an overview of three of the biggest social media tools (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) into a half-hour presentation meant that I had to cut out an entire universe of tips, tricks and resources.

For those who are visiting my site for the first time as a result of the talk, welcome! You can connect with me on any of the networks we mentioned by following the links at my social media page.

I also promised a bunch of links and resources here, so here are a few:

The presentation can be viewed and downloaded here.

And here are a few other links:

• Twitter: How to Get Started Guide for Business People from CIO Magazine
• Overview of links on using Twitter for Business
• Social Media eBook from DuctTape
• Mr. Tweet: How to find great people to follow on Twitter
• 12 Ways to sell social media to your boss
• 9 reasons you need social media in 2009
• Starting out with LinkedIn (e-doc)
• 5 Reasons it’s great to be late to social media
• Ultimate How-To: Grow your social media network (follow the main links on this page, tons of fantastic roundups and links)
• Fox 9 News’ “Facebook: Addiction by Addition” segment from Tuesday, March 10

What other questions do you have, or what would you change about my presentation? What would you like to see for my blogging presentation on March 26? Reply in comments below.

Social Media: Speak our Language, Please | Small Business Trends

Here’s a shocker: Social media is on everyone’s minds nowadays. My clients are looking for more, better (and cheaper) ways to reach out to their customers and prospects, but the flurry of tools available and the learning curve behind each leaves them bewildered.

A dear friend dropped this article by Zane Safrit into my Facebook account yesterday that pretty well nails what I’m hearing:

Small business CEOs and CFOs are hungry, anxious, for the power of social media. Social media is the great leveler for small business competing against global brands with an ad budget greater than all the revenues of a small business. True, authentic, conversations with small business and our customers are a naturally occurring phenomena. Social media would easily, genuinely, accelerate the spread of those messages.

But where to begin? In the world of social media you can twitter away your time poking Facebook friends waiting for a deal to Pownce and finally get you LinkedIn, but as easy as these tools are to tinker with, executives don’t have a lot of time to tinker. It’s why so much new media is written off as “kids stuff” — kids have time to learn this stuff while adults are busy making sales.

Without a common language to gauge what’s worth investing in, it’s hard to get my clients excited about social media. Zane points to using the language that business owners and leaders do speak: the bottom line.

Social media consultants, for all that is good and right in your world…(ok, a bit dramatic) connect those conversations with cash-flow and customers, prospects and conversion rates, hiring costs and employee turnover. That’s the language the CEOs and CFOs of millions of small business speak every day.

But that’s tricky too. You can’t exactly say that X number of tweets translates into Y number of sales. The old ad-barometers of impressions, clickthroughs or even conversion rates don’t work either.

But, there is a spot where much of the value can be broken down: in building relationships. If done right, social media can engage customers at a new level, allowing them direct access to the products, services and companies they love. Ways to have conversations, hear what customers are really thinking, and really talk to the people using your products and services. It brings the power of a Mom n’ Pop store (easy interchange between Mom, Pop and customers) to a new scale. To bring it back to business-speak — call it building brand loyalty, or customer engagement.

The next question, of course, is where to start…. so here’s where I encourage my clients to begin: drop in on Twitter (or name your favorite service), search to see if there are any conversations already in progress on your company, and listen. If you don’t find anything, start making friends, introduce yourself around the neighborhood, and start asking questions. (Don’t start marketing or advertising — just start chatting).

Once you get a handle on the conversations, then let’s talk about how to meet some of those metrics you live by every day.

Social Media: Speak our Language, Please | Small Business Trends

Twitter for business: 5 ways to tap the power of the tweet

Twitter is something I’m working to incorporate more into my daily routine. I have all of 20 followers, but I’d hoped by tweeting my experience as a new business owner I’d gather some mindshare and get input from the community. Here’s a bunch of hints and help for those, like me, who are just getting rolling.

 

Twitter isn’t just a tool, though; it’s a community — one that will stop paying attention if it feels like you’re exploiting it. One way to make Twitter users feel exploited is to open an account and immediately start blasting out your latest press releases. That kind of headlong behavior could conceivably strike back against you, leaving your brand and your reputation in tatters.
Twitter for business: 5 ways to tap the power of the tweet

The Cab Ride I’ll Never Forget

Via Zen Moments, and Dooce, a great story from the author of Letters To My Son, Kent Nerburn. A great read to remind you about the little moments and deeds that make all the difference:

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

The Cab Ride I’ll Never Forget | Zen Moments

If you’re a dad and you haven’t read Letters to My Son, you should check it out.

Social media searching? spy searches Twitter, Friendfeed, Blogs and more.

This is interesting:

spy :: visualizes the conversations on Twitter, Friendfeed, Blogs and more.

Very handy to get a “right NOW” view of what the “twitterati” et al are thinking and saying about any topic.

Wordpress for iPhone rocks

Just installed WordPress for the iPhone and am trying it out for the first time. Works just fine, although I’d love to be able to type sideways for bigger buttons.

You can even add images from your phone! From yesterday:

Very sweet.

Digg – Running for Office: It’s Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll

My first Digg front-page post. Go Sean!

One superhero’s fight to take back Kansas from the religious goofballs, XKCD-style

Digg – Running for Office: It’s Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll

[this is good]