It seems so contrary, that we would be “practical and tactical” about something identified as “social.”  Yet as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like grow deeper roots in our everyday communications, it’s essential for business people to (1) embrace social media and (2) learn to use it effectively.

Let’s peel that last thought apart.

(1)  Embrace social media:  Business owners should not create a Twitter account or start a Facebook fan page in a reactionary blur.  Instead, they should gain understanding  of social media and be able to place it in context of overall business communications, acknowledging it as a relationship building tool and starting social media efforts on solid footing.
(2)  Use social media effectively:  For social media to be effective, it must be treated as a long term commitment worthy of regular attention and nurturing.  Also, it must be integrated into a total communications program, so that all messages and branding are consistent.  Those business owners who hurriedly open accounts and create pages in a blur are highly likely to use them ineffectively and ultimately abandon them.  That’s no good for anybody!

A great study by Weber Shandwick published last November revealed that Fortune 100 companies are commonly missing the opportunities that Twitter could provide if used properly.  Of the accounts they examined, 76% had tweeted less than 500 times, while 50% had fewer than 500 followers.  Those number indicate lack of engagement and underuse.  

image: Weber Shandwick

If the Fortune 100 companies—presumably working with ample resources—are challenged to effectively use social media tools, imagine how small businesses working on the lean may amble or stumble in trying to use Twitter or other social media networks effectively.  From the results of the Weber Shandwick study, it seems many big time businesses jumped in the deep end of the social media pool yet aren’t even doggy paddling.

In other words, if you haven’t started to tweet on Twitter or collect fans with a Facebook fan page, that’s okay.  If you’ve waited to see if all this social stuff is for real (and surely by now, you’ve seen that it is!), there’s no need to rush now.  Round out your understanding, get a strategy in place and then join the conversation with purpose and personality.

To help you get ahead of the curve as you round out your knowledge, here are some interesting stats about why people follow companies within social networks as published by emarketer.com.

These findings show that average social networkers really want to know about specials, sales and deals, as well as new products and services.  These bits of knowledge will prove very helpful as you ponder ways to make practical and tactical use of social media for business purposes.

In my next few blog entries, I’ll aim to help you do just that.  I’ll give you some “Social Media 101” advice to get your ducks in row before you go-go-go.  I’ll break out specific ideas and tips for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, showing you how each network interlinks to make a full program to take your small biz big time.

Until next time...

Thanks!

If you’ve spent any time tooling around Twitter, Facebook or the like, you’ve probably seen—and clicked—on shortened links to webpages.  The most common short URLs start with ‘bit.ly,’ ‘ow.ly’ or ‘tinyurl.com.’

With a URL shortener, you can reduce this:
http://smallbizbigtime.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/do-you-need-a-facebook-group-or-fanbrand-page/ (gulp!)

to this:

http://bit.ly/4IXYAc (ah!)

Such shortening is essential when posting links on Twitter, with its limited, 140-character messaging, as well as when updating your status on other social sites.  Those long URLs are clunky and junky.  The shortened URLs are lean and clean.

If you want to keep your links short and tweet, here are a few pointers about the most commonly used URL shorterners.

bit.ly
This service is the URL shortener associated with Twitter since midyear 2009.  Simply paste a long link, and the site will shorten it for you.  If you create an account on the site, you can link to your Twitter account(s) for quick, easy posting and view click-through tracking and post history.  I personally find it very helpful to see what links evoke the most number of clicks—very handy.  Also, you can create a custom name for your link so that it’s simple to remember.  The site also accommodates the uploading of files, though I’ve personally hit glitches when attempting this.

bit.ly - sign up to track your clicks, customize your links, post directly to Twitter accounts

tinyurl.com
This site, formerly Twitter’s default URL shortener, is another good go-to when you want to personal the shortened URL.  You don’t have to create an account to use the service, and you can customize your URL for memorability.  For example, I created this link for my singer-songwriter husband’s Facebook fan page:  http://tinyurl.com/jpfanpage.  You won’t be able to keep up with click-throughs or access a history of your shortened URLs with this service, however.

tinyurl.com - no sign-up required, custom URLs, no link history information

ow.ly
This service is associated with the popular Twitter client HootSuite, though you can access the site directly for quick URL reduction.  Like bit.ly, there are added benefits if you create an account (file uploads, direct posts to Twitter and other social networks), though you must use through HootSuite to have access click-through stats and link history.  There’s talk of making more features available to those who don’t utilize HootSuite, but we’ll see.  The ow.ly team touts more privacy on link creation data versus bit.ly, if that means anything to you (it doesn't to me, really; I create shortened links specifically for public use, after all).

ow.ly - best if used with HootSuite, easy sharing functionality to multiple social sites

For what it’s worth, I’m good with bit.ly these days.  I dabble with all three, but I stick with bit.ly because of the easy access to click-through history.  I suppose if I was a HootSuite user, ow.ly would be the way to go.

No matter what service you choose, bear in mind that nothing’s permanent in the ever-evolving world of social media tools.  Just as tinyurl.com has waned since Twitter aligned with bit.ly, there will certainly come a time when another new service becomes the preferred alternative.  Google’s introduced goo.gl, its own variant of this concept, usable only within itsproducts and the Firefox toolbar; Facebook’s toyed with its own link shortener as well.  More will surely come.

As a service may fall by the wayside, so may the links you once created.  The word for that is “linkrot.”  And in the biz of URL shortener, it just might be hard for any of these guys to create a sustainable business model long term, thus the links these services create may eventually become broken.

Yet as long as we have some way to shorten and share, our links will continue to be the ties that bind!

Thanks for dropping by!

Wanna know the big numbers for Americans who indulged during the month of November '09?

170,000,000 & 31,000,000,000

No, these strings of zeroes have nothing to do with the total pounds of turkey consumed or total weight gained due to too much pie eating last November.  These impressive figures reflect the number of Americans who watched video online, as well as the total number of videos viewed—respectively—for that month.

Yes, that's right!  170 million of us looked to the Internet for video, and while looking, we took in nearly 31 billion videos all told.  This is according to a news release by comScore, a leading provider of digital intelligence.

Suffice to say, online video is, uh, the real deal.  Just as big time advertisers are reaping the benefits of this truth, so should small and mid-size business owners.  With technology and resources, the online video playing field may not be level, but it surely is open—for businesses of any size.

Many proponents and providers of online video content are still throwing around stats from a 2007 poll conducted by the Online Publisher’s Association and Online Testing eXchange.  After all, it is compelling data.

- Americans watch about 16 billion Web videos each month
- that’s up 25% from just a year ago
- 80% of online viewers recall seeing a video
- 52% take action and
- 16% of online video viewers make a purchase

Considering the steady growth of this category since this report first came out, it's logical to presume there's continued effectiveness for online video content.  More and more retailers are adding sell videos, showing everythign from swishing skirts to blenders blending, to motivate response from viewers.

A recent story from OpenForum punctuates the role of SEO tagging to maximize video's impact on search rankings.  The reports states that this targeted tagging approach will reach beyond (or around) YouTube to drive traffic more directly to marketers' sites.

In my corner of the world, video has been a cornerstone of online content for many years, but the ante is certainly getting upped in twenty-ten.  More clients newly perceive video as "must" rather than "plus."  What used to be an extra element is now core content.

After I finish this blog post, I'll be working on what else but a video script!  This project's for a client convinced it's time to add some motivating motion and emotion to their website.  For someone who earns her keep writing copy that sells stuff, these are s-e-O, such fun times indeed!

Thanks for reading!

p.s. - All the inane, mundane, arcane, urbane, insane and write-brain tweets you can handle at http://bit.ly/7GkqvZ .