Posts tagged Business Lists

3 Things You Need to Know About Social Media Strategy

Jan 14th

href=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/14/social-media-strategy-needs/&service=bit.ly”> width=”51″ height=”61″ src=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/14/social-media-strategy-needs/” align=”right”/>

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/strategy.jpg” alt=”strategy image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/>B.L. Ochman is a Managing Director of Proof Digital Media; publisher of href=”http://www.whatsnextblog.com” >What’s Next Blog, and co-founder of pet site href=”http://www.pawfun.com” >Pawfun.com. Follower her on Twitter at href=”http://www.twitter.com/whatsnext” >@whatsnext.

Companies large and small are rushing to understand and get involved in social media. But most of the agencies and consultants who are being paid to establish social media campaigns for corporations are afraid to tell their clients three things they don’t want to hear.

1. Everyone Must Work Together />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/hands-in.jpg” alt=”hands in image” class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-143936″/>In most big companies, IT, digital, marketing and sales not only don’t work together, they compete with each other. Until they start collaborating as a team, you will not succeed in social media.

For example, I recently handled social media advertising for a major retail chain’s holiday microsite. The promotion was conceived by the digital department and involved augmented reality. But the IT department refused to allow a link from the homepage to the microsite because the microsite’s design was done by an external agency.

Further, the marketing department refused to allow a dedicated e-mail to go out to the company’s mailing list, and when placed in the company’s normal promotional e-mail, the link to the microsite was lost in a sea of weekly specials.

These hurdles made it very hard to drive traffic to the microsite.

But more than that, this lack of internal collaboration and contact makes any kind of social media involvement virtually impossible.

A company that hasn’t learned to listen to its own employees, and encourage them to collaborate internally, is not likely to succeed in integrating social media tools into its marketing mix, no matter what agency or consultant they hire.

2. Top Management Must Be On Board />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/managers.jpg” alt=”managers image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/>If the direction doesn’t come from the very top, managers, who have myriad reasons to fear change, will hang on to the status quo.

Despite the best intentions of agencies and consultants, social media integration is bound to meet huge resistance until top management says it’s OK to spend time and money to integrate it into the company’s marketing and culture.

Example: The marketing team of an international manufacturer of electronics wanted to know how the company could begin to use social media and we discussed the many possibilities.

Listening and responding to what customers are saying about the brand in social media can supply good intelligence and give the company a chance to interact with customers.

“Our management doesn’t want to listen to customers,” the PR director said. “They want to talk to them.”

However, that doesn’t work anymore. The status quo is dead. Any company that isn’t willing to listen to customers and be nimble and quick enough to respond, and, when necessary, change, will soon be unable to compete with smart, tech-savvy companies that can turn on a dime.

Willingness to change is the new bottom line for every business today. But top management has to buy in before change can begin.

3. Don’t Expect Overnight Success />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/point-a-b.jpg” alt=”point a to b” class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-143936″/>Sure there are videos that go viral, contests that attract a lot of buzz, and Facebook pages that get a lot of fans. But what comes after those efforts?

After the tools change (and they surely will) how will social media fit into the company’s overall strategy and help it reach long-term goals?

Example: Smart companies look at the long-term. href=”http://www.fiskateers.com/blog/” >The Fiskateers, now in its sixth year, is the brainchild of digital agency Brains on Fire, for their client Fiskars.

With the scissors brand losing market share to foreign knock-offs, the company enlisted several actual crafters to blog, attend events, and represent the brand to customers as part of a new community strategy.

“If you empower your customers to become your evangelists, you’d better be prepared to continue it,” says Brains on Fire’s Geno Church. “It’s permanent when you engage in this type of marketing.”

Once you have created the community, listen to it. Fiskars made several changes to its products based on what it discovered through its Fiskateers community. Doing so helped build customer trust and loyalty.

Where Should Your Company Start? />

Realizing that employing social media in the marketing mix is a long-term commitment to change, the best way to start is to pick manageable, measurable goals.

Pick a small number of social media goals for the coming year. Some possibilities:

- Turn the company newsletter into an internal blog and give all employees the ability to contribute /> – Establish a social media policy for employee participation in social media on company time and beyond /> – Let employees vote on the best ideas suggested by other employees /> – Resolve to respond to customer service issues within three hours, via social media

Don’t try to do all of these things at once. Pick the ones that are most likely to be possible for your company to start and sustain.

More business resources from Mashable: />

- href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/social-media-integration/”>The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/12/social-media-contest/”>5 Tips for Creating a Successful Social Media Contest /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/social-media-roi/”>HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/28/social-media-business-strategy/”>HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/start-page/”>HOW TO: Use a Start Page to Stay Organized

/>Reviews: href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336650-Facebook” >Facebook, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/393797-iStockphoto” >iStockphoto

Tags: href=”http://mashable.com/tag/business/”>business, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/list/”>List, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/lists/”>Lists, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/marketing/”>MARKETING, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/social-media/”>social media, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/strategy/”>strategy

business, Business Lists, contributor, List, Lists, Marketing, Social, social media, Social Media Lists, social networking, strategy

Want to Make Money on Twitter? Take a Look at How Dell Does It

Jan 14th

Posted by Jennifer Van Grove in Social

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src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dollar.jpg” alt=”dollar image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/> rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/want-to-make-money-on-twitter-take-a-look-at-how-dell-does-it-jennifer-van-grove” >This post originally appeared on the rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.openforum.com” >American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Dell is a shining example of a brand that has managed to turn their Twitter presence into both a customer service and sales outlet. Dell may be a big corporation, but the story behind the $6.5 million they’ve raised from their Twitter presence is one that shines a light on a road to success that any company, regardless of size, can learn from and emulate.

I asked Dell’s Senior Manager for Corporate Affairs, Richard Binhammer — otherwise known as href=”http://twitter.com/richardatdell” >RichardatDell — to elaborate on Dell’s Twitter success. The following are principles extracted from that email interview.

1. The Right Motivation is Key />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/richard-dell-tweet.jpg” alt=”dell tweet”>

If you’re simply motivated to make money from Twitter, your heart is in the wrong place. Dell’s strategy is to turn Twitter into an opportunity to build better relationships with customers, which ultimately leads to stronger sales.

According to Binhammer, Dell didn’t initially approach Twitter with dollar signs in their minds, but instead as a listening outpost. “Dell first heard about Twitter at SXSW a few years back and got excited about the listening aspect of Twitter,” he said.

The businesses side of listening was an unintended but welcome bonus to their effective presence on Twitter.

“Dell’s goal has always been to be an online leader and connect with customers wherever they are. It starts with listening and connecting with customers across the Web. This has proven to be invaluable to our business through the years. We see social media connections as a means to further strengthen those direct customer relationships. The added revenue has been a welcome addition to being where our customers are and connecting with them.”

2. Approach Twitter With a Multifaceted Strategy />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/direct2dell-tweet.jpg” alt=”dell tweet”>

Dell’s Twitter presence isn’t limited to a single account or purpose. Instead Dell takes a multifaceted approach to Twitter and attempts to serve niche customer communities and interests all over the world.

If you’re just looking for deals, they’ve got an account for that ( href=”http://twitter.com/delloutlet” >@DellOutlet), if you just want breaking news there’s an account for that too ( href=”http://twitter.com/direct2dell” >@Direct2Dell), and the list goes on.

In Binhammer’s own words, this is how Dell approaches Twitter:

- Direct connections between Dell and customers – listen, learn and engage in direct connections with customers (There are ~ 100 Dell employees using Twitter to connect with customers).

- Subscribe to Dell info – customers can subscribe and get Dell news from our blogs/Ideastorm Twitter.

- Dell offers from businesses – some of our businesses, notably Dell Outlet, publish their latest offers on Twitter.

- More about Dell businesses on Twitter: href=”http://www.dell.com/twitter” >http://www.dell.com/twitter Here you will see various Dell business accounts such as: Small Business, Dell Canada, UK, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Dell Home Sales, Australia, Japan, China, New Zealand, DellOutletIreland and UK and more

If anything, Dell’s all-hands-on-deck approach to Twitter, demonstrates that you need to serve your customers how they want to be served.

For small businesses in particular, Binhammer recommends that you “Make it easy for your customer to talk to you. Do simple things to thank your customers for their business. Ask them for suggestions. Go where your customers congregate, whether it be Facebook or Twitter or elsewhere, and participate in those conversations. Also, listen to your customers in the blogosphere. What they have to say is vitally important to your business.”

3. Don’t Be a Spammer />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/no-spam.jpg” alt=”no spam image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/>This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised by how many small and big businesses alike use Twitter as a one-way marketing channel with overly promotional tweets.

Spamming your customers on Twitter is a surefire way to get unfollowed and immediately ignored. Of course promoting sales and products is encouraged, but do so in a way that your customers can be receptive to. If you need help defining what that looks like, just ask your followers on Twitter for input.

Dell’s approach, as iterated above, is to serve customers’ interests. The dedicated Twitter account for deals means that they can promote Dell deals to only those customers who have opted in to the purely promotional tweets.

Binhammer advises, “Be yourself and avoid spamming. Making genuine, direct connections with your customers in meaningful ways can only help you deliver what customers want at the end of the day.”

More business resources from Mashable: />

- href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/social-media-integration/”>The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/12/social-media-contest/”>5 Tips for Creating a Successful Social Media Contest /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/social-media-roi/”>HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/09/social-media-connect-entrepreneurs/”>HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/28/social-media-business-strategy/”>HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/start-page/”>HOW TO: Use a Start Page to Stay Organized /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/03/news-reader/”>HOW TO: Choose a News Reader for Keeping Tabs on Your Industry

Image courtesy of rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/mashableoffer.php”>iStockphoto, rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=2162587″>NoDerog

/>Reviews: href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/471772-Australia” >Australia, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336650-Facebook” >Facebook, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336651-Twitter” >Twitter, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/393797-iStockphoto” >iStockphoto

Tags: href=”http://mashable.com/tag/business/”>business, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/dell/”>dell, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/list/”>List, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/lists/”>Lists, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/marketing/”>MARKETING, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/money/”>money, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/small-business/”>small business, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/social-media/”>social media, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/strategy/”>strategy, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/twitter/”>twitter

business, Business Lists, dell, List, Lists, Marketing, Money, small business, Social, social media, Social Media Lists, social networking, strategy, twitter, Twitter Lists

10 Musts for Marketing to Women on Facebook

Jan 13th

Posted by Brette Borow in Social

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src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/female-facebook.jpg” alt=”female facebook image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/> href=”http://www.twitter.com/brette” >Brette Borow is the President and Founder of href=”http://GirlsGuideTo.com” >Girls Guide To, the “ladies only” guide to life, and spends most of her days engaging with the community’s over href=”http://facebook.com/GirlsGuideTo” >140,000 members.

There are over href=”http://mashable.com/2009/10/03/women-rule-the-social-web/”>56 million women using Facebook in the United States, and for marketers this means one very important thing –- if you have a brand, product or company that targets women, Facebook is the place to be.

Unfortunately, unless you’re a brand that every woman knows or loves, then just being on Facebook is not enough. Facebook has done a great job of giving marketers a powerful tool with its Pages product, but like most things in life, it comes down to execution. To help, here is a list of 10 tips for marketing to women on Facebook.

1. Quality Counts />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/hide.jpg”>

The first thing I tell marketers, whether it’s a Fortune 500 company or a friend launching an online jewelry site, is to remember that women are bombarded by marketing messages all day, every day. On the surface, Facebook is no different than the “real world” –- constantly being pitched to and spammed is annoying. The main difference between Facebook and the “real world” is that on Facebook, fans can “hide” your marketing message much more easily than they can avoid the billboard on the way to work. As a result, you are going to have to try your best to connect with them. On Facebook, quality rises to the top more often than not.

2. Create an Emotional Connection />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dove.jpg”>

So quality rises to the top, but what does that mean? For starters lets take a look at what href=”http://facebook.com/dove” >Dove has done on Facebook. Dove is one of the few brands that seems to grasp the fact that on Facebook, content really is queen and that brands must deliberately create an emotional connection with their fans. This is a great strategy to emulate because in order to reach women on Facebook, you are going to have to connect with them by providing content that women can relate to. Something that ignites a reaction like “Wow, that’s me!” will encourage women not only to respond to your messages, but actually remember them. Making an emotional connection is one of the best ways to motivate women to use your brand or service.

3. Provide Utility />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/GGquote.jpg”>

Utility should be synonymous with your brand. It will allow you to create a relationship with your fans. Create a series of posts that your fans can look forward to on a daily or weekly basis — something they will feel a real connection to and will teach them something they can use. If you run a fashion web site, for example, provide a piece of advice from a designer every Friday –- it will make it much harder for your fans to block your updates if they have something to look forward to.

4. Give Fans a Voice />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/HM.jpg”>

Women like to be heard. Stand out from the crowd and engage us. By creating a two-way conversation, you are personalizing your brand and making it one that can be trusted.

Your Facebook Page is also one of the best “focus groups” on the web. Not sure if you should add a product to your line? Trying to decide which functionality to add to your iPhone app? Just ask your fans. A great example of this type of interaction is href=”http://facebook.com/HM” >H&M. They are constantly asking their fans what pieces they want to buy, what they would pay and what they want H&M to carry. This type of feedback is invaluable and brings the fan into the overall experience. Women can share their thoughts, and you can enjoy the free insight you’re receiving straight from your target consumer.

5. Listen! />

Not only do we like to be heard, we also like to know we’re actually being listened to. If a fan posts a question on your page, answer it. If she compliments your brand, thank her. And if she complains about it, address her concerns and reassure her that you’re working on fixing it. This is a great way to build trust and showcase the great customer service and support your company offers.

6. Complement Her Life, Don’t Complicate It />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/cosmo.jpg”>

If you’re doing a giveaway, running a great promotion or launching a new product, you need to keep the process simple. href=”http://facebook.com/cosmopolitan” >Cosmopolitan Magazine, for example, constantly offers giveaways and discounts, but always do it in a clear and simple way. The lesson here is not to overthink your promotions. Your fans will look forward to the next time your brand has something new and exciting to share, as long as taking advantage of the offer is relatively pain-free.

7. Don’t Be Redundant />

Unlike Twitter, where most people are following a plethora of people and information is passing by at lightning speed, Facebook has a tendency to draw attention to “spammy posts.” Facebook users do not want to see the same message posted multiple times in their feed. So if you’re promoting something through your Fan Page be sure to reword it and provide additional value before you post it a second time.

8. Keep the Shopping Experience Seamless />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/the-limited.jpg”>

You need to remember that women tend to be the CPOs (Chief Purchasing Officers) in their households, and that they tend to ask friends for advice about brands and products. Women are more than happy to share a good deal when they find one.

href=”http://facebook.com/thelimited” >The Limited was one of the first brands to really grasp that Facebook represents a huge opportunity to reach their CPOs. They have started to embed actual retail offers into their newsfeed. But unlike other brands, they do not drive their traffic off of Facebook. Instead, their feed stories open up into widgets on Facebook that can handle the entire transaction right there. This clever use of technology is a prime example of ways that brands need to think outside of the box to reach their social shoppers.

9. Remember: She’s a Social Shopper />

Women also tend not to be shy about sharing their distaste about a brand or product or talking about their poor experience, so never take advantage of your fans. The last thing you want is your target demographic badmouthing your brand on a viral platform like Facebook.

Keep your offers and processes clear and honest and always respond to feedback and criticism.

10. Keep Your Fans in the Loop />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/lady-gaga.jpg”>

Fill your fans in on the positive but don’t be afraid to address the negative. As we all know, the web is transparent. Allow it to work in your favor. Just launched a new Android app? Let your fans be the first to know. Just got nominated for 6 Grammy Awards and want to share it with the world? Then do what href=”http://facebook.com/LadyGaga” >Lady Gaga did and let your fans know the moment you find out. In a transparent world, you can share your news with your fans, and the sooner the better.

Last but not least, if your company is experiencing difficulties like supply shortage or a down web site, be the first to let your customers know. Be upfront and straightforward. Your honesty will speak volumes about your brand.

More Facebook resources from Mashable

- href=”http://mashable.com/2009/04/02/facebook-personal-brand/”>HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/05/27/facebook-page-vs-group/”>Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups: What’s the Difference? /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/12/facebook-privacy-detrimental/”>Why Facebook’s Privacy Changes are Detrimental to Users /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/10/06/facebook-blog-integration/”>HOW TO: Integrate Facebook With Your Blog /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/10/07/facebook-groups/”>HOW TO: Manage a Facebook Group

/>Reviews: href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336868-Android” >Android, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336650-Facebook” >Facebook

Tags: href=”http://mashable.com/tag/brand/”>brand, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/branding/”>branding, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/business/”>business, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/facebook/”>facebook, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/facebook-fan-page/”>facebook fan page, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/list/”>List, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/lists/”>Lists, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/marketing/”>MARKETING, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/small-business/”>small business, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/social-media/”>social media, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/social-networks/”>social networks

brand, branding, business, Business Lists, contributor, facebook, facebook fan page, Facebook Lists, List, Lists, Marketing, small business, Social, social media, social networking, social networks

5 Tips for Creating a Successful Social Media Contest

Jan 13th

Posted by Clay McDaniel in Social

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href=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/12/social-media-contest/&service=bit.ly”> width=”51″ height=”61″ src=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/12/social-media-contest/” align=”right”/>

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/social-trophies.jpg” alt=”trophies image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/>Clay McDaniel is the principal and co-founder of social media marketing agency, href=”http://www.springcreekgroup.com/” >Spring Creek Group. Find him via href=”http://twitter.com/springcreekgrp” >@springcreekgrp on Twitter.

One of the best ways to drive engagement and build word of mouth traffic about your brand is to run a contest via social media channels. Not only does it engage consumers with your brand in a fun and exciting way, it results in a treasure-trove of customer information, preferences, and feedback you can then mine to improve your business. And, best of all, launching an online contest can be very inexpensive.

However, there is a subtle art to social contests. Your brand needs to appear neither too “cheesy” nor too “salesy,” and you must deliver a prize that people really want. This can be a standard product or gift card, or a “notoriety” prize, such as publishing a winner’s video. What’s more, the contest itself has to be fun and easy to participate in. Few prizes are worth doing something extremely boring, monotonous, or complicated.

Here are five specific strategies you can follow to launch and manage a social contest, and leverage it to deliver real business value.

1. Define Your Marketing Goal />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/goals.jpg” alt=”goals image”>

Every contest you launch should meet a specific marketing goal. Do you want to drive awareness of a new product or service? Collect a list of customers interested in a specific product segment? Encourage new participants to use your company’s social networking channels? There are many valid reasons to launch a contest, but it’s important to know ahead of time what you’re trying to accomplish. This goal will set the tone for your contest strategy.

2. Get Creative />

Here’s the fun part: Creating your contest. The sky’s the limit when it comes to the type of contests you can launch. Here are a few ideas:

– A video contest inviting users to create a new commercial for one of your products /> – A user-generated content contest that awards the best ‘personal experience stories’ /> – A photo contest related to your product or service /> – A product invention contest with a large cash prize

Of course, your contest can be short and offer a small prize, or longer and more involved. Check out the href=”http://www.startupnation.com/homebased100″ >Startup Nation Home Based 100 business creation competition that received thousands of entries and high-profile sponsors for an idea of just how big a contest can become.

3. Leverage Social Channels />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/twitter-search-contest.jpg” alt=”twitter contest search”> /> The best part about online contests is how easy it is to take them viral, encourage participation, and link them into your social marketing activities. Promote your contest via Facebook, Twitter, your company blog, and all other social channels, as well as via traditional marketing channels such as print, e-mail, and in-store signage.

Just search the word href=”http://search.twitter.com/search?q=contest” >contest on Twitter to see hundreds of contests going on right now. The best contests are intensely social by nature, because people like to play games and contests together, and most people love to share the chance to win a cool prize with friends and family. Ensure your contest is easily sharable by embedding “share this” links on the contest site, on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and everywhere else people will come across it.

Use a social media tracking tool like href=”http://www.meteorsolutions.com” >Meteor Solutions to see which people and sites are sharing your contest, then promote your contest more heavily to those communities. Make sure your contest spreads like wildfire by encouraging easy “copy/paste” sharing using the href=”http://www.bit.ly” >Bit.ly URL shortener for the links to your contest location online. Most importantly, allow the contest participants to vote to choose the winner, which keeps the audience interacting with one another and engaged long after each person has submitted their entry.

4. Finish the Contest />

Everyone loves a winner, so make sure you don’t let your contest drag on too long. A typical social contest runs about four weeks –- longer, of course, if it’s more complex (e.g. programming a software algorithm or inventing a new product). When the winner is chosen, do a PR push to publicize their win. Of course, use Facebook and Twitter to promote the winner like mad. Go back to your social media tracking software and find out which people and social sites are talking most about the winner, then post comments on those networks to drive even more interest in the winner.

5. Measure the Contest />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/social-stats.jpg” alt=”social stats image”>

Of course launching a contest wasn’t just for fun, it was to achieve a specific marketing goal. So after the contest is done, you need to measure the impact it had on brand engagement, clickthrough to your site, conversion, and bottom-line sales. Again, you can use your social media tracking tool to measure all of these success metrics. Find out whether your contest drove as much traffic to your site as you had hoped, and whether this traffic resulted in conversion, however you may measure that (e.g. purchases, newsletter subscriptions, Twitter followers, etc.).

Many brands have done a great job with social contests. Spring Creek Group, for example, created a social media contest to drive interest and traffic during the launch of the Microsoft Bing search engine last summer. Bing launched href=”http://mashable.com/2009/07/20/bing-jingle/” >The Bing Jingle Contest, and invited people to upload user-generated video “jingles” about Bing to their official YouTube channel. Bing then promoted the videos via its Facebook Page, Twitter updates, and other social channels. The video with the most views and highest ratings would be crowned the winner, with the creator receiving a $500 gift card.

Overall, the contest garnered 27 video entries, over 238,000 views, 550 comments on the videos, and 2,200 tweets. The word of mouth generated by the contest was phenomenal, and was covered by many top blogs. The contest took on a life of its own, generating both defenders and detractors over the href=”http://mashable.com/2009/08/05/bing-goes-the-internet/”>winning video.

More Great Contest Examples />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/moonfruit-contest.jpg” alt=”moonfruit contest image”>

Marin Software’s href=”http://biggestsearchgeek.com/” >Biggest Search Geek Contest: This is a fun and very popular contest, now in its second year, that pits smart search marketers against one another for a free pass to SMX West — double points for creating a cool B2B social contest.

#TriviaTues: Fancast, Comcast’s competitor to Hulu, promotes href=”http://twitter.com/search?q=%23triviatues” >#TriviaTues, a weekly trivia event where Twitter users who follow href=”http://twitter.com/fancasttrivia” >@FancastTrivia and answer twenty trivia questions can win free DVDs, movie tickets, and t-shirts.

Moonfruit’s Win a Macbook Pro Everyday for 7 Days: Moonfruit, provider of do-it-yourself web site building tools for small businesses, recently completed this href=”http://mashable.com/2009/07/01/moonfruit-macbook/”>hugely successful contest. You can see results and entries href=”http://www.moonfruit.com/macbook-pro.html” >on their web site.

More business resources from Mashable: />

- href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/social-media-integration/”>The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/social-media-roi/”>HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/09/social-media-connect-entrepreneurs/”>HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/28/social-media-business-strategy/”>HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/start-page/”>HOW TO: Use a Start Page to Stay Organized /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/03/news-reader/”>HOW TO: Choose a News Reader for Keeping Tabs on Your Industry /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/09/30/small-business-strategies/”>5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

/>Reviews: href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/393174-Bing” >Bing, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336650-Facebook” >Facebook, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/337063-Hulu” >Hulu, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336651-Twitter” >Twitter, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336658-YouTube” >YouTube, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/393944-bitly” >bit.ly, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/393797-iStockphoto” >iStockphoto

Tags: href=”http://mashable.com/tag/bing/”>bing, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/business/”>business, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/contest/”>contest, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/contests/”>Contests, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/facebook/”>facebook, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/marketing/”>MARKETING, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/moonfruit/”>moonfruit, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/small-business/”>small business, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/social-media/”>social media, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/social-networks/”>social networks, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/twitter/”>twitter, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/youtube/”>youtube

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The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration

Jan 11th

Posted by Brian Solis in Social

No comments

href=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/social-media-integration/&service=bit.ly”> width=”51″ height=”61″ src=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/social-media-integration/” align=”right”/>

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/stages.jpg” alt=”stages image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/> href=”http://www.briansolis.com/” >Brian Solis is a principal at new media agency href=”http://www.future-works.com/” >FutureWorks. You can connect with him on href=”http://www.twitter.com/briansolis” >Twitter or href=”http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-Solis/180669933654″ >Facebook.

An overnight success ten years in the making, social media is as transformative as it is evolutionary. At last, 2010 is expected to be the year that social media goes mainstream for business. In speaking with many executives and entrepreneurs, I’ve noticed that the path towards new media enlightenment often hinges on corporate culture and specific marketplace conditions. Full social media integration often happens in stages — it’s an evolutionary process for companies and consumers alike.

Here are the ten most common stages that businesses experience as they travel the road to full social media integration.

Stage 1: Observe and Report />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/observing.jpg” alt=”observing image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/>This is the entry point for businesses to better understand the behavior of an interactive marketplace.

Listening: Employ listening devices such as Google Alerts, Twitter Search, href=http://www.radian6.com >Radian6, and href=http://www.prnewswire.com/products-services/targeting-monitoring-measurement/social-media-monitoring/Social-Media-Monitoring.html >PR Newswire’s Social Media Metrics to track conversations and instances associated with key words.

Reporting: Distill existing social media conversations into an executive report. This early form of reporting is merely designed to provide decision makers with the information they’ll need for continued exploration of social media and its potential impact on business.

Stage 2: Setting the Stage + Dress Rehearsal />

Once the initial intelligence is gathered, businesses will set the stage for social media participation. This is an interesting phase, as it often joins Stage 1 as a more comprehensive first step. Instead of researching the best ways to engage, many businesses create accounts across multiple social networks and publish content without a plan or purpose.

However, those businesses that conduct research will find a rewarding array of options and opportunities to target.

Presence: Create official presences across one or more social networks, usually Twitter and possibly Facebook (Fan Pages), YouTube, and Flickr. Early on, this is often experimental, and less about strategic engagement.

Analysis: Review activity for frequency (the rate of mentions), the state of sentiment allocation, traffic, as well as the size of connections (friends, followers, fans, etc.). Provide managers with a limited glimpse into the effects of presence and participation.

Stage 3: Socializing Media />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/social-network.jpg” alt=”social network image” class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-143936″/>The next stage in the evolution of a new media business is the proverbial step towards “joining the conversation.”

As companies take the stage, they will eventually pay attention to the reaction of the audience in order to respond and improve content, define future engagements, and humanize communication.

Conversation: Representative of an early form of participation, this stage usually evokes reactive engagement based on the nature of existing dialogue or mentions and also incorporates the proactive broadcasting of activity, events and announcements.

Rapid Response: Listen for potentially heated, viral, and emotional activity in order to extinguish a potential crisis or fan the flames of positive support.

Metrics: Document the aforementioned activity in order to demonstrate momentum. This is usually captured in the form of friends, fans, followers, conversations, sentiment, mentions, traffic, and reach.

Stage 4: Finding a Voice and a Sense of Purpose />

This is a powerful milestone in the maturation of new media and business. By not only listening, but hearing and observing the responses and mannerisms of those who define our markets, we can surface pain points, source ideas, foster innovation, earn inspiration, learn, and feel a little empathy in order to integrate a sense of purpose into our socialized media programs.

Research: Review activity for public sentiment, including negative and neutral commentary. Observe trends in responses and ultimately behavior. This allows for a poignant understanding of where to concentrate activity, at what level, and with what voice across marketing, sales, service, and PR.

Strategic Visibility: Introduce relevance and focus. You don’t have to be everywhere in order to create presence, just in the places where you would be missed. Understanding that the social web is far more extensive than Twitter, blogs, and Facebook, brand managers search across the entire web to locate where influential dialogue transpires.

Relevance: “Chatter” or aimless broadcasting is not as effective as strategic communications and engagement. This stage reflects the exploration of goals, objectives, and value implementation. Companies begin to learn that exchange is based on trust and loyalty.

Stage 5: Turning Words Into Actions />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/runner.jpg” alt=”runner image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/>Actions speak louder than words. Businesses must act. Once the door to social consciousness is opened, bring the spirit of your company through it to affect change.

Empathy: Social media personifies companies. It allows us to see who it is we’re hoping to reach, and what motivates them. Listening and observing is not enough. The ability to truly understand someone, their challenges, objectives, options, and experiences allows us to better connect with them.

Purpose: The shift from simple response to purposeful, strategic communication will be mutually beneficial. It is in this stage that we can truly produce captivating content and messages. In order to hold it, we have to give the audience something to believe in — something that moves them.

Stage 6: Humanizing the Brand and Defining the Experience />

As href=”http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/” >Doc Searls says, “There is no market for messages.” Indeed. Through the internalization of sentiment, brands will relearn how to speak. No longer will we focus on controlling the message from conception to documentation to distribution. We lose control as our messages are introduced into the real world. Our story migrates from consumer to consumer. This chain forms a powerful connection that reveals true reactions, perception, and perspectives.

The conversations that bind us form a human algorithm that serves as the pulse of awareness, trustworthiness, and emotion.

The Humanization of the Brand: Once we truly understand the people who influence our markets, we need to establish a persona worthy of attention and affinity. A socialized version of a branding style guide is necessary.

Experience: Our experience in dynamic social ecosystems teaches us that online activity must not only maintain a sense of purpose, it must also direct traffic and shape perceptions. We question our current online properties, landing pages, processes, and messages. We usually find that the existing architecture leads people from a very vibrant and interactive experience (social networks) to a static dead end (our web sites). As we attempt to redefine the experience of new customers, prospects and influencers, we essentially induce a brand makeover.

Stage 7: Community />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/community1.jpg” alt=”community image” class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-143936″/>Community is an investment in the cultivation and fusion of affinity, interaction, advocacy and loyalty. Learned earlier in the stages of new media adoption, community isn’t established with the creation of a social profile. Community is earned and fortified through shared experiences. It takes commitment. As href=”http://twitter.com/kathySierra” >Kathy Sierra once said, “Trying to replace ‘brand’ with ‘conversation’ does a disservice to both brands & conversations.”

Community Building/Recruitment: While we are building community through engagement in each of the previous stages, we will proactively reach out to ideal participants and potential ambassadors. We become social architects, and build the roads necessary to lead customers to a rich and rewarding network, full of valuable information and connections.

Stage 8: Social Darwinism />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/business-evolution.jpg” alt=”business evolution image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/>Listening and responding is only as effective as its ability to inspire transformation, improvement, and adaptation from the inside out. Survival does not hinge solely on a company’s social media strategy. The social element is but one part of an overall integrated strategy. It’s how we learn and adapt that ensures our place within the evolution of our markets.

Social Media as embraced in the earlier stages is not scalable. The introduction of new roles will beget the restructuring of teams and workflow, which will ultimately necessitate organizational transformation to support effective engagement, production, and the ongoing evolution towards ensuring brand and product relevance.

Adaptation: In order to truly compete for the future, artful listening, community building, and advocacy must align with an organization’s ability to adapt and improve its products, services, and policies. In order for any team to collaborate well externally, it must first foster collaboration within. It is this interdepartmental cooperative exchange that provides a means for which to pursue sincere engagement over time.

Organizational Transformation: The internal reorganization of teams and processes to support a formal Social Customer Relationship Management (sCRM) program will become imperative. As social media chases ubiquity, we learn that influence isn’t relegated to one department or function within an organization. Any department affected by external activity will eventually socialize. Therefore, an integrated and interconnected network of brand ambassadors must work internally to ensure that the brand is responding to constructive instances, by department. However, at the departmental and brand level, successful social media marketing will require governance and accountability. Organizational transformation will gravitate towards a top-down hierarchy of policy, education, and empowerment across the entire organization.

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/chart1.jpg” alt=”chart image”>

Stage 9: The Socialization of Business Processes />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/social-crossword.jpg” alt=”social crossword image” class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-143936″/>Multiple disciplines and departments will socialize, and the assembly or adaptation of infrastructure is required to streamline and manage social workflow.

Social CRM (sCRM): Scalability, resources, and efficiencies will require support, resulting in a modified or completely new infrastructure that either augments or resembles a CRM-like workflow. Combining technology, principles, philosophies and processes, sCRM establishes a value chain that fosters relationships within traditional business dynamics. As an organization evolves through engagement, sCRM will transform into SRM — the recognition that all people, not just customers, are equal. It represents a wider scope of active listening and participation across the full spectrum of influence.

Stage 10: Business Performance Metrics />

Inevitably, we report to executives who may be uninterested in transparency or authenticity. Their goal, and job, is to steer the company toward greater profits. In order to measure the true effects of social media, we need the numbers behind the activity –- at every level.

While many experts argue that there is no need to measure social engagement (much the way that some companies don’t explicitly define the ROI of Superbowl ads or billboards), make no mistake: Social is measurable, and the process of mining data tied to our activity is extremely empowering. Our ambition to excel should be driven through the inclusion of business performance metrics, with or without an executive asking us to do so. It’s the difference between visibility and presence. And in the attention economy, presence is felt.

ROI: Without an understanding of the volume, locations, and nature of online interaction, the true impact of our digital footprint and its relationship to the bottom line of any business is impossible to assess. An immerssive view of our social media goals and objectives allows us to truly measure ROI. Stage 10 reveals the meaning and opportunity behind the numbers and allows us to identify opportunities for interaction, direction, and action.

Conclusion />

There is a great distance between where we are today, and where we need to be. Our work in 2010 will be dedicated to narrowing the social chasm.

The thing about social media is that it’s always new, and as such, these stages represent a moment in time. They will continue to evolve and expand with new technologies and experiences.

In the end, social media is a privilege and a tool — one more opportunity to run a more meaningful and relevant business.

More business resources from Mashable:

- href=”http://mashable.com/2010/01/09/social-media-connect-entrepreneurs/”>HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/28/social-media-business-strategy/”>HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/20/document-collaboration/”>9 Great Document Collaboration Tools for Teams /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/28/new-years-resolutions-smbs/”>5 New Year’s Resolutions for SMBs /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/03/news-reader/”>HOW TO: Choose a News Reader for Keeping Tabs on Your Industry /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/09/30/small-business-strategies/”>5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

Images courtesy of rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/mashableoffer.php”>iStockphoto, rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=614972″>alexsl, rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=2048062″>jpsdk, rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=1678760″>mgkaya, rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=1156476″>BartCo, rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=570137″>photosbyjim, rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=3447533″>3DStock, rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=1306270″>mattjeacock

/>Reviews: href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336650-Facebook” >Facebook, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336659-Flickr” >Flickr, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/567989-Radian6″ >Radian6, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336651-Twitter” >Twitter, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336658-YouTube” >YouTube, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/499834-eXperience” >eXperience, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/393797-iStockphoto” >iStockphoto

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HOW TO: Use a Start Page to Stay Organized

Jan 11th

Posted by Barb Dybwad in Social

No comments

href=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/start-page/&service=bit.ly”> width=”51″ height=”61″ src=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/start-page/” align=”right”/>

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/home-key.jpg” alt=”home key image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/> rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/how-to-use-a-start-page-to-stay-organized” >This post originally appeared on the rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.openforum.com” >American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

With so many online productivity tools at our disposal, there’s never been a better time to check up on what’s out there to help optimize your work flow. One such class of tools that can help set up a dashboard of critical “at a glance” information is the personalized start page.

There are a number of different choices in this category, but the general gist is that a start page enables you to “stick” bits of the web like news feeds, interactive widgets and other specific blocks of information into a one-stop-shop destination you can use as your first port of call when starting a work session.

Why Use a Start Page? />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/netvibes-page.jpg” alt=”netvibes page”>

Like an href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/03/news-reader/”>RSS reader, a start page can help you stay on top of a large volume of information. What sets a start page apart is the ability to integrate far more than just news feeds, including everything from e-mail, to your calendar, to the weather report, to the current time in other places around the world where you do business.

After taking some time to set up your page with relevant feeds and resources, it can be the optimal place to check first to get a sense of what’s going on in your work and your industry. By aggregating multiple widgets and bits of information into a single interface, a start page can serve as a central hub for the most important information that’s always one click away from your regular browsing habits.

Let’s take a look at how to choose and use a personalized dashboard.

How to Choose a Start Page />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/yahoo-google-start-pages.jpg” alt=”google yahoo image”>

Both Google and Yahoo offer personalized start pages, the former at href=”http://igoogle.com” >iGoogle and the latter with href=”http://my.yahoo.com” >My Yahoo. If you or your business already uses web products from either company, the offered integrations with your start page might make either an obvious choice (Google Apps users tend to mesh well with the iGoogle start page, for example).

Another brace of popular options are href=”http://netvibes.com” >Netvibes and href=”http://pageflakes.com” >Pageflakes, both of which offer full-featured start page alternatives to the big companies’ offerings. All four services offer the ability to add widgets to your pages that go beyond presenting mere news feeds (Google calls them “gadgets,” while Pageflakes refers to them as “Flakes”).

The best way to choose which start page fits is to give each one a quick try. Differences in layout, user interface, and style become apparent quickly, and you have the luxury of picking which one looks and “feels” right. Although the widget offerings tend to be fairly comparable between the platforms, you might want to spend some time browsing the available widget and gadget options as well to get a sense of which selections make the most sense for you and your business.

href=”http://alltop.com/” >Alltop is a nice, clean interface that provides just that, and you can set up your own customized dashboard of feeds and/or make use of the pre-collected packages which are organized by hundreds of topics, industries and niches for a quick and pre-curated view into a number of sectors.

How to Set Up and Use Your Start Page />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/netvibes-setup.jpg” alt=”netvibes setup image”>

Once you’ve picked your poison, as it were, you’ll want to spend a bit of up-front time setting it up for optimal use. Of course, it’s always easy to change things around on the fly as well, so as new sources become critical and you discover new widgets, it’s a simple matter to incorporate them into your start page work flow.

Each start page offers the ability to create a tabbed interface. Working much like tabbed browsing, it allows you to set up and toggle between multiple pages for different purposes (Netvibes even allows you to href=”http://mashable.com/2009/05/27/netvibes-pages/”>create multiple instances, similar to having multiple Gmail accounts versus simply forwarding multiple addresses to one inbox). Depending on your needs, you’ll want to take stock of what realms you might want to have at your fingertips. If you’re a frequent traveler, you might want a Travel tab with weather conditions, time zones, flight statuses, and news in your frequently-visited spots. If you need to monitor what’s happening in several industries, you might create a tab for each of them with appropriate sources and widgets. Multiple tabs means your personal dashboard can even live right beside your work dashboard(s) as well.

Once you have an idea which buckets you’ll want to keep track of, start thinking about what are the most high priority sources and bits of information you’d like to collect for each page. Since you can arrange your pages in any manner you wish, you’ll want to set up the highest priority widgets towards the top of the page and fill in the lower parts of the page with some of the lesser priority items.

Feel free to go nuts hunting down new, interesting, and useful widgets and gadgets and giving them a try on your tabs and pages. It’s always easy to move, re-order, or even remove them if they end up being not as useful over time. Each service offers a directory of widgets, most with suggestions of the most popular or essential tools for your pages. From note-taking to e-mail, from stocks to eBay auctions, from your Netflix queue to integrated online storage, there’s a lot of functionality that can be brought into one at-your-fingertips’ interface.

One other consideration when setting up your start page is choosing a theme — much like you can customize the look and feel of your Gmail account or your WordPress blog, you can “skin” your start page with colors and graphics that appeal to you. You’ll also want to consider whether or not you might want to make use of a public component to your start page. Netvibes gives you a public section by default, and Pageflakes allows you to create “Pagecasts” that can be public to the world or shared privately with a group. Setting up a valuable public page could be a novel way to position yourself as a resource in your niche or industry.

These are just a few ideas to help you get started on the road to personalized start page mastery. With more features and widgets being developed over time, there promises to be no shortage of information and functionality to enhance your start page. Plus, since most widgets and gadgets use existing web markup and standards, you could even build your own widgets if you need customized, business-specific information on your dashboard. Enjoy your one stop information shop!

More small business resources from Mashable:

- href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/28/social-media-business-strategy/”>HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/20/document-collaboration/”>9 Great Document Collaboration Tools for Teams /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/28/new-years-resolutions-smbs/”>5 New Year’s Resolutions for SMBs /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/03/news-reader/”>HOW TO: Choose a News Reader for Keeping Tabs on Your Industry /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/11/26/mobile-productivity-tools/”>Top Mobile Productivity Tools for the Small Business /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/09/30/small-business-strategies/”>5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/social-media-business/”>4 Ways Social Media is Changing Business

Image courtesy of rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/mashableoffer.php”>iStockphoto, rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=2177222″> smartstock

/>Reviews: href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336653-Gmail” >Gmail, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336661-Google” >Google, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336657-WordPress” >WordPress, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/393797-iStockphoto” >iStockphoto

Tags: href=”http://mashable.com/tag/business/”>business, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/how-to/”>how to, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/how-tos/”>how tos, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/igoogle/”>iGoogle, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/list/”>List, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/lists/”>Lists, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/my-yahoo/”>My Yahoo, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/netvibes/”>Netvibes, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/organization/”>organization, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/pageflakes/”>Pageflakes, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/productivity/”>productivity, href=”http://mashable.com/tag/small-business/”>small business

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HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs

Jan 9th

Posted by Ben Parr in Social

No comments

href=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/09/social-media-connect-entrepreneurs/&service=bit.ly”> width=”51″ height=”61″ src=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/09/social-media-connect-entrepreneurs/” align=”right”/>

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/computer-business.jpg” alt=”business computer image” class=”alignright size-full wp-image-143936″/> rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/using-social-media-to-connect-with-other-entrepreneurs-ben-parr” >This post originally appeared on the rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.openforum.com” >American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Starting a company is often a lonely and nerve wracking process. One day, you’re working at a big company with tens of thousands of people and health benefits, and then the next day it’s just you, maybe a co-founder, and a lack of steady income.

id=”more-179499″>

Yet you’re really not alone. There are thousands of others making similar journeys around the world, and even more who have not only gone down the entrepreneurial path, but succeeded. These people are more than happy to share their advice, insight, and stories — if you know how to find them.

That’s where social media tools come into play. Forging new connections has never been easier due to the increasing accessibility of people, ideas, and information. Web communities based around business, entrepreneurship, and programming are thriving all over the place. Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks have become an amazing way to learn new lessons and keep in touch with other entrepreneurs.

If you’re looking to enrich your entrepreneurial journey by sharing with others, I have a few social media suggestions that will help:

Follow Entrepreneur Twitter Lists />

src=”http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/listorious.jpg” alt=”listorious image”>

A few months ago, Twitter launched a feature called “Lists,” which gave users the power to create lists of their favorite users. Many have used this to create Twitter lists of top entrepreneurs and startup founders.

Following these people and interacting with them is a good step towards building connections. Check out Listorious’ href=”http://listorious.com/tags/entrepreneur” >collection of entrepreneurship Twitter lists to start.

Connect With Amazing Entrepreneurship Communities />

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Entrepreneurs are already gathered in a lot of great places on the web. Finding these hidden gems of community and startup enthusiasm could be just what you’re looking for.

To start out, we suggest checking out href=”http://news.ycombinator.com/” >Hacker News (a community sharing some of the best articles on startups, development, and human nature), href=”http://thefunded.com/” >TheFunded (focused around raising money for your startup), and href=”http://www.partnerup.com/default.aspx” >PartnerUp (helps you find business partners and co-founders). For more, check out a list of href=”http://mashable.com/2009/03/12/entrepreneur-networks/”>Mashable’s favorite entrepreneur communities.

Use Social Media to Find Local Events />

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While connecting online is great, there is no substitute for shaking hands and meeting in person. Luckily, social media can help you in this regard by helping keep you in the loop about events you’ll want to attend. Tools like href=”http://www.meetup.com/” >Meetup and searches for Facebook Events are good ways to get started.

Just Reach Out />

In the end, social media only helps make it easier to connect – you still have to do the hard work of building a relationship with fellow entrepreneurs. Use social media to find them and reach out, but be sure to take it the next step and start a long-lasting conversation.

More small business resources from Mashable:

- href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/28/social-media-business-strategy/”>HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/20/document-collaboration/”>9 Great Document Collaboration Tools for Teams /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/28/new-years-resolutions-smbs/”>5 New Year’s Resolutions for SMBs /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/12/03/news-reader/”>HOW TO: Choose a News Reader for Keeping Tabs on Your Industry /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/11/26/mobile-productivity-tools/”>Top Mobile Productivity Tools for the Small Business /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/09/30/small-business-strategies/”>5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses /> – href=”http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/social-media-business/”>4 Ways Social Media is Changing Business

Image courtesy of rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/mashableoffer.php”>iStockphoto, rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=193954″>Cimmerian

/>Reviews: href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336650-Facebook” >Facebook, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/393890-Hacker-News” >Hacker News, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/336651-Twitter” >Twitter, href=”http://www.blippr.com/apps/393797-iStockphoto” >iStockphoto

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