Six Free Tools to Help Measure Your Social Media Activities

By Montrie Rucker AdamsMay 22, 2013 Blog backtweet, facebook, facebook insights, icerocket, klout, pinpuff, pinterest, twitter

Some of my clients are small businesses. Does this mean they should not participate in social media? Does it mean that return on investment (ROI) doesn’t matter? Of course not. I hear it all the time… “It’s not in my budget. My budget won’t allow that expenditure.” If you want to measure your social media ROI, there are many tools you can use.

Some typical products used for Facebook, Twitter, blogs and websites are:

BackTweets.com: BackTweets is a Twitter time machine which enables you to search through a tweet history for tweets that link back to your site. It doesn’t matter if the sharer tweeted your domain name or it was hidden in a tiny URL, BackTweets will be able to find it. This can come in handy when searching for people who love your product/service or who are out there complaining about it – you can immediately address those issues.
Facebook Insights: Facebook Insights provides Facebook Page owners with metrics around their content. By understanding and analyzing trends within user growth and demographics, content consumption, and content creation, page owners are better equipped to improve their business and create better Facebook experiences. Only page administrators can view Insights data for the business pages they own or administer.
Icerocket.com: Icerocket works like a typical search engine – except it searches on Facebook, Twitter and blogging systems.
Klout.com: Klout for Business is a set of tools designed to help you unlock the reach and power of your most influential audience members. By joining Klout, you will have access to free cross-network statistics, tracking and measuring your audience’s influence, and discovering moments and topics that matter most to your social media audience.
Pinpuff.com : On Pinpuff you can measure “Pinfluence,” your popularity, influence and reach on Pinterest. It also decides monetary value of your pins and the traffic your pins generate. It’s similar to Klout and offers perks for popularity.
Pinterest Web Analytics: Pinterest helps people collect and organize the things they love. It allows you to see what people are pinning from your website.

I haven’t used Pinterest yet, but I hear a lot of great stories about it. I think I will make that one of my work-weekend activities – to think of things I may want to “pin,” join Pinterest and start pinning.

What about you? Are you on Pinterest? Let me know so I can see what you’re pinning!

Are You Interactive on Social Media?

By Montrie Rucker AdamsApril 26, 2013 Blog communitainment, engage your audience, facebook, target audience, twitter

If you’re like me, you have heard over and over again that you have to engage your audience. It’s not enough to push information out to them, you have to respond. I’m just learning about and getting used to this process too. I could be much, much better.

To help us out, Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications, answers a PR Daily reader’s Facebook post on how to increase engagement on social media channels–without being annoying.

He uses the term, “communitainment.” He suggests that we can get more interaction with users on Facebook pages and Twitter feeds by providing compelling information, fun compelling videos, humorous news, that is relevant to your audience. People want to be engaged with great content. You don’t want to bore them.

Click here to view his short video. I am going to work very hard incorporating his suggestions. How about you? Let me know what you think.

Cameras and Twitter…The New Weapons of Choice

By Montrie Rucker AdamsMarch 26, 2013 Blog media, mobile cameras, mobile devices, top stories, twitter, women developers

Here’s the scenario: You are sitting at a business conference chit-chatting with a business colleague about something between the “boys.” Someone in front of you overhears your conversation, takes offense, shoots you and your friend (with her cell phone camera), tweets your photo with a comment about you and your friend’s conversation and now, your career is dead (hers too).

What was not expected was how quickly the tweet went viral, that it would get back to your boss and that you would lose the job you love because unbeknownst to you, you violated the conference’s Code of Conduct. You’re not sure you even read it.

The shooter and twitterer didn’t see her pink slip coming either.

This scenario actually happened last week between Adria Richards, developer evangelist at SendGrid and developer Alex Reid of PlayHaven. To read the full story, click here…

Big Brother is here and watching your every move. With cameras on every cell phone, it’s hard to get away from Big Brother. What bothers me is that we’re not safe anywhere. Where are the rights of the individual who just happens to have a yuk-em-up conversation with friends?

Now, I’m not defending Mr. Reid. He and his friend should have carefully chosen their words. However, I’m wondering if Ms. Richards, warned the two that they were offending her. From the article, it seems she just turned around, pointed, shot and tweeted.

There are many lessons in this scenario. A few are:

Always be on your best behavior on company time…no matter where you are.
Always read, read and read again your company’s and any other’s participation agreement. Apparently, these Codes of Conduct are taken seriously.
Always be on your best behavior, period.
Big Brother is always watching…

Do I think anyone should have been fired? No. Everyone should at least get one warning. This social media world in which we now live is so new. We’re all getting used to it.

The age-old sexism issue that Ms. Richards cried is real and may be growing stronger. From the looks of the photo, she was out-numbered. Hers is a field where few women dare to tread. Is it because of sexism? Ms. Richards had a right to be offended. She had a right to voice her discomfort. But, did she have the right to take a photo of Mr. Reid and tweet it without his permission?

What do you think?

Pack a Punch Using Twitter

By Montrie Rucker AdamsMarch 1, 2013 Blog bit.ly, facebook, goo.gl, linkedin, ow.ly, pinterest, social media, social media tools, tinyurl, twitter, url shortener

“Tweeting” is the new email. With smart phones in abundance, millions are using Twitter to communicate around the world and even to people sitting next to them. How can you use this great communications tool to benefit your business?

Using Twitter to market your business in 140 characters or less can be very challenging. Given that you may want to share a link and add a few hashtags, your message will be greatly shortened. So what can you do to make sure your tweet is read and re-tweeted? You need to be very creative and selective about the words you use.

Your Headline

Using techniques like the ones provided below can definitely draw attention to your tweet:

Don’t Make These Mistakes on Twitter or Do You Make These Mistakes on Twitter?
How to Attract and Influence People on Social Media (or replace the words Social Media with Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn)
How to _ [blank] __ on Twitter
Little Known Ways to _ [blank]_____ on Twitter
_[add a specific number]_ Ways Twitter Can Help _[add a subject]__
[blank] Ways to Get the Most Out of [blank]
[blank] Reasons Why [blank]
Last Chance to ___[blank]

Attaching a Link

Twitter links to your blog and news stories can be long. If so, to get the most out of your 140 characters, you should use a URL shortening service. URL shortening is a technique on the World Wide Web in which a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) may be made substantially shorter and still direct users to the required page.

A few of the services available are:

Google – http://goo.gl

Bit.ly – http://bit.ly

Tiny Url – http://tinyurl.com

Ow.ly – http://ow.ly/url/shorten-url

If you decide not to use a shortening service, Twitter will use its own which could leave you with less characters with which to work. See Twitter announcement here. https://dev.twitter.com/blog/upcoming-tco-changes

Adding Hashtags

Keep hashtags short. There is no need to overwhelm the reader. Pick one that best fits your blog and headline so that it reaches your target audience. Don’t use a lot of random words that mean nothing to your message.

Twitter can be a great business tool if used properly. Make sure you are following businesses in your industry and others that are complementary.

Try it and document your results. Let me know what happens…

Many thanks to Media Creations Group for contributing this blog.

Use Twitter to Build a Personal Brand

By Montrie Rucker AdamsDecember 19, 2012 Blog branding, follow, followers, twitter

Sit. Read. Follow. Participate.

Many entrepreneurs are finding that Twitter has helped them tremendously as they begin to increase their visibility – namely their name, business products and services and logo.

After the Twitter account is created, customize the page with a background, header and profile images and logo. The logo can be included in the header image along with the tagline and Hashtags (#). You may also want to include several hashtags so that you will show up in the hashtag searches. A few we have used are: #bemorevisible, #pr, #cleveland, #sustainability. When someone searches one of the hashtags, my account i+s listed. Another tip is to use the same color scheme for your profile. This ensures that everything consistent.

Finding and following others in the same profession or business industry is very important in building your brand. For example, my profession is – public relations, communications, and branding. To get started, follow similar professionals. Twitter helps you locate them by offering several links that can be found on the left of the page – “Who to Follow” or “Similar to You.” Using these can quickly assist you in finding people who are very active on Twitter, who offer discussions and other dialogue in which you can participate. Following others and reading their strategies can also help you build or add to your own strategies – what seems to be working for them may also work for you.

Watch what’s trending. Check out trends that fall in line with your business or profession. Click the hashtag and you will see all the others who are talking about the same subject matter and follow people from there.

You will find that as you follow them, most will follow you. Read, read, read. Stay active and read what they are sharing. Re-tweet what you find interesting. Reply. Be active. The more active you are, the more people will begin to follow you. Share your own pages and blogs. Your followers will begin to share your tweets.

Use Follow Friday (#FF) by giving a “shoutout” to some of your new followers. They will appreciate you advertising their Twitter accounts and others who may not have followed you, who follow them – will start to follow you also.

Lastly, outsourcing your social media can relieve some pressure. However, when you set out to build a personal brand, you need to be active. Share your personal feelings, stories, tips… Outsourcing this to someone else can do more harm than good, as they are not and cannot be you.

“You need to be You.” Make “your” voice heard. Take time to sit, read, follow and participate.

Grow Your Business with Plenty of Tweets

By Montrie Rucker AdamsDecember 3, 2012 Blog advertisers, followers, twitter

As the new world of social media thrives, there will always be ways to grow and gain greater experiences from social media interactions. It is a fascinating place, continuously offering something new.

Did you know that advertising can be bought on Twitter? By advertising on Twitter your presence can be increased, new followers find you and your traffic can quickly grow.

Twitter offers two advertising programs:

Promoted Tweets: These extend the reach of your tweets to a broader audience.
Promoted Accounts: These tweets turbo-charge the growth of your loyal followers.

United States-based advertisers that adhere Twitter’s advertising policies and have 20 or more followers can take advantage of these advertising programs.

To sign up to increase your Twitter presence, click here – https://tweet.twitter.com/TwitterAdvertisingRequest

There’s a video to learn more about how Promoted Tweets and Accounts work. Click and watch.

http://youtu.be/3e5H9b9IM_Q

Double for Your Trouble – 5 Easy Steps To Get More from Your Blogs

By Montrie Rucker AdamsNovember 27, 2012 Blog blogs, calendars, e-newsletters, email, facebook, linkedin, pinterest, rss feed, social media, syndication, twitter

There’s so much more to the Internet than even five or six years ago. Many new businesses, websites, bloggers, news feeds…not to mention the popularity of social networking like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

There is a lot to absorb. Many people are not reading everything they receive in their email. They aren’t visiting all the great websites and blogs. It’s too overwhelming.

Think of your newsletter as mini websites. Businesses created hard copy versions and mailed them. Then came the electronic versions via email (e-newsletters). People are now blogging the information – writing and sharing via social media tools.

If you are a blogger try these five easy steps for getting two for one…:

Why do the work twice? Create an e-newsletter out of the blogs you’ve written the previous month.
If you have upcoming events, add in a calendar.
Include an RSS feed to your blogs.
Include links to your social media pages and links to past newsletters.
Include photos from the previous month, and a list of upcoming topics on this month’s blog.

Get double for your trouble. The information shared is always valuable. Just because the blog was written, doesn’t mean it was read. Create an e-newsletter and get it back out there in a different way.

16 Ways To Be More Visible

By Montrie Rucker AdamsNovember 9, 2012 Blog cards, compliment, enewsletter, facebook, linkedin, postcard, send a card, send a gift, twitter

Tip: Always stay top of mind. Never let them forget you.

Send a card. Any appropriate card.
- Say ‘thank you.’ This should go without saying. One way to be more visible is to send a thank you card. Send a note to your employees, your boss, your co-workers. Yes, you can send an email, but since people are receiving more emails than snail mail these days, your note will definitely be more visible.
- Sympathy. Let them know you care. At this time in their lives, all it takes is a brief moment of your time.
- Happy Birthday! Most people enjoy and appreciate a birthday card or email that reminds them you are thinking of them and you care.
- Congratulations! They are always appreciated.
Give a compliment. People love to hear how their products or services are benefiting others. Let them know how your experience has made an impact on you or your business.
Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Your friends and co-workers appreciate you taking an interest in their personal/family lives. However, know your boundaries.
Send a post card. For any reason. If you have a new product or service, new or changing employees, helpful hints and tips. Send them regularly. You can begin with every month, every two weeks or every quarter.
Send a newsletter. Let them know what you’re doing – on a regular basis. Tell them about your new products or services, new clients, tips and professional advice.
Send an eNewsletter. Same content as above. With an eNewsletter, you’ve saved on the printing costs.
Enter a contest. You become visible when you enter and even more visible when you win. It’s an opportunity to get your name, business and organization out there as a company whose work is worth recognizing.
Have a contest. You create the rules. Some ideas: Ask for creative ways your clients have used your product, best photos using your product, the most referrals, the best essay on any subject. Again, let everyone know about the contest and the winners.
Win something. And let everyone know about it – on your website, blog, Facebook™, LinkedIn, Twitter and anywhere else…letterhead, emails, envelopes, resume. There are many places to let others know you are an award-winning enterprise.
Have a blood drive. Advertise in the newspaper and electronically. Post signs at your business.
Stick it. Buy stickers to place on envelopes and folders. Yours can proclaim your awards, anniversary, new products or service. You choose.
Plan an event. There are many reasons to host a networking event or celebration. Do you have a new product? Did your company/organization win a contest? Did you receive an award or a new contract? Consider the 100th customer or company milestone. Invite clients, potential clients and community members. Inform the media, your Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

There are many more ways that your company can be more visible. What are you doing to stay top of mind with your clients or future clients? Why don’t you share them on our Facebook page at http://facebook.com/VisibilityMarketingInc

Brand Your Company/Yourself

By Montrie Rucker AdamsNovember 5, 2012 Blog be more visible, branding, facebook, logo, tagline, twitter, website

A brand is who you are. It’s your statement. When you have a specific brand, it tells how you are different from your competitors. You could distinguish yourself by your low (or high) prices, impeccable service or the specialized products you offer. Your brand is your business at its core.

There are companies that specialize in helping other companies with branding. Following are a few ways you can begin to brand your company, however, do keep in mind that your brand is much more than a logo or tagline.

Design a creative logo. If you’re having a problem designing your own, consult a graphic designer. Short on cash? Try your local college or university’s art department. There are also websites that offer logos.
Create a memorable tagline. We created two – “making you more visible” and “never let them forget you.” Try to convey what your business does in seven or fewer words. Taglines create a simple and easy way to remember you. They also help to further explain what your company does – which you may not be able to do with just the name of your business.
Create your colors. Stick with them for a least a few years. Pepsi will always be red, white and blue. You know UPS because of their brown truck. They even have a commercial: “What can brown do for you?” It’s their brand. You know it when you see it. It’s universal around the world. Create your memorable brand so that you can be more visible.
Create a catchy outgoing phone message. Let them know all about you when they call. Instead of, “I’m away from my desk, please leave a message,” why not, “We’re the number one company in America that does what we do, and the winner of the 2010 We’re the Best Award.”
Create a website. You can create many sites without professional help. There are free templates and programs out there, so do your research. Ask other business associates how they developed their websites. If professional help is needed, seek a web designer. Every business needs a website. Start one now.
Design a business Facebook page and set up a Twitter account. Even if you have a website, a business Facebook page and Twitter can help keep your clients informed in real time. Many receive more views and can be more interactive and readily updateble than traditional websites. It’s OK to have all three.

If you need assistance in branding your business, call Visibility Marketing Inc. – we can certainly assist you on how to “be more visible.”

Once you’re finished, let me know what you think.