Yesterday I wrote a post about how much I love social media. Since I love it so much, I spent a good portion of my day watching a live stream of the F8 conference, to learn about all the new changes coming to Facebook that are supposed to revolutionize the social network. Not to sound too much like a geek, but wow! These were some pretty intense changes they announced (in case you missed it, here is a recap of all the changes: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20110181-93/what-facebook-announced-at-f8-today/). Now, there is still a lot to digest and I don’t want to be too quick to judge all of these changes, but there was one thing that popped into my mind as I watched. If Google+ is every going to become a real threat to Facebook, they better do it now!

It is no secret that the public opinion of Facebook has been on the decline lately. People have been getting upset over the numerous functionality changes and cosmetic changes that they have been rolling out. Just as you get used to the changes, another seemingly minor one comes out. Annoying as it may be at first, these changes really didn’t have a drastic effect on how the site worked, so people just complained, but continued to use the platform. But that is not the case with the changes announced at yesterdays F8 conference. These are profound changes that will require a significant amount of effort and time for people to get used to. Enough time and effort to compare to signing up for an entirely new network? Possibly. And this is where Google+’s opportunity lies. Before, no matter how annoyed people were with the changes Facebook made, they felt like they really had no other option because they didn’t want to start all over. But if the new Facebook changes will require almost the same amount of effort to understand and get used to, whose to say people wont take this opportunity to leave Facebook and start using Google+?

For the record, I am not saying that these changes are going to be the end of Facebook. I actually think they could be really cool, and have a profound effect on the way we use the Internet. As I said before, it’s still too early to tell. But what I am saying is that if Google+ ever had an opportunity to make a real play at taking Facebook head on, the time is now. Lets just say I don’t think it is a coincidence that Google+ opened to the public just days before the F8 conference.

What do you think? Do these new Facebook changes give Google+ an opportunity to become a real threat? Or will these changes only help to solidify Facebook as the go-to-source for social networking?

This week, September 19-23, is Social Media Week 2011!  Social Media Week (SMW) is a global platform that connects people, content, and conversation around emerging trends in social and mobile media.  This weeks events are taking place in 11 cities spanning across 10 different countries!  That is pretty amazing.  But what makes Social Media so special is that even those who don’t live in one of the cities where events are taking place, or can’t get away from the office to attend an event, can still get in on all the action!  By following one of the designated Twitter hashtags, or watching live streaming events, you can literally stay up to date with everything taking place (maybe even more so than attending in person!).   As I sit here and think about how awesome technology is, and all the great things that have happened to me as a direct result of social media, I wonder why so many people are still so hesitant to give it a try.  So for those people, I decided to put a little list together of why I love social media.  Hopefully it will give them a little something to think about.

Connecting:  This is by far my favorite part of social media.  Life is all about connections.  The people we meet, and the relationships we build, are the foundations for the memories we carry with us.  Social media gives us the ability to connect with like-minded people (and not so like-minded people) that we would most likely never have the opportunity to meet otherwise.   And contrary to the popular belief that social media actually makes us less social in “the real world” (I hate when people say that by the way.  Isn’t everything we do online still “real”?), these online relationships can easily be converted to offline relationships as well.  In fact, that is when they are the most satisfying.  I have a ton of relationships, both business and personal, with people who started off as online acquaintances, and grew into much more.   The opportunities are endless.  Conversations are taking place all the time.  All you have to do is find them, be open to new people and new experiences, and join in on the fun!

Real-time Access:  Social media gives you access to all kinds of wonderful information in real time!  Personally, I used to always be one of the last people to know when something went down.  I don’t watch the news very often, I don’t read the paper first thing in the morning, and the only way I would find most stuff out is either if someone asked me if I heard the news and then I researched it myself, or if I overheard someone talking about it.  Not anymore!  Now, with Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc, barely anything gets by me.  And I love it!

Levels the playing field:  A lot of the reasons I love social media have to do with things that affect my personal life.  But I also really love social media for business.  And one of the best things I can think of about social media for business is that it levels the playing field for small business owners.  You don’t have to be a huge corporation with unlimited marketing funds to run a successful social media campaign.  All you need is a little creativity, time, and the willingness to sincerely engage and provide value to your customers.  In fact, I truly believe that social media is better suited to small businesses, because it is all about customer service and connecting and building relationships.  Which is exactly what makes small businesses stand apart from the “big chains” in the first place.  As a small business owner myself, I know that without social media, my company would not be where it is today.  Now don’t get me wrong.  Social media isn’t some magic bullet that will automatically increase your sales just by creating a Facebook page. Or sending out a few tweets.  You still have to put a lot of time, effort, and hard work into it.  But the point is, you have access to it.  The same access that the large brands and corporations have.  And that is a pretty amazing thing!

These are just a few of the things a really love about social media.  How about you?  What do you love about it?  Or if you are hesitant to give it a try, how come?

Today’s guest post comes to us from Suzzie Moore.  Suzzie is a freelance writer posting about a variety of topics on her blog “Rediscovering the Pen” and working on her dream, her first novel.  You can also find Suzzie on Twitter @suzzziemoore.

Marketing is essential to any business.  But if you’re the owner of a small company you’ll know that successful marketing comes at a cost.  And yet you may not realize how much you can save by doing it yourself.  A small investment of time and money now can save you a fortune in the long run.  You just have to know where to begin.

Brand and Logo

The first thing to do when you’re working out your marketing strategy is to ask yourself a simple question – who am I?  OK.  So maybe that question sounds a little deep.  But in selling your business you are also selling yourself, and your customer wants to know exactly what they’re buying.  This is where branding comes into play.

Your brand is more than just a name or a logo.  It embodies the ethos of you and your company.  It represents the bigger picture of what you do while also giving a sense of the details.  It must have style and substance.  And – most important of all – you’ve got to love your brand.  Because if you don’t then neither will your customers.

1. Start by looking at other brands you like and try to think why you’re drawn to them.

2. Then get together a selection of your favorite color combinations.

3. Now get creative.

Remember – your brand is the first impression your customers have of you.  It’s how they get to know you and how they remember you.  So take the time to get it right.

And then you can put it on everything.  From your envelopes to your coffee cups.  Every time your customers see your business, they need to see your brand.

That Online Thing

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.  Because before you can brand your website or a letterhead, you’ve got to create them.  And this is where the second part of your marketing strategy comes in.  If you want to successfully market your business in this competitive climate you need to be building an online presence as well as working on a local, face-to-face level.

Online marketing is time consuming but the great news is that you can do it all for free.  There are hundreds of easy to follow books on how to create your own website.  And space on Google Maps and any of the numerous social networks is there for the taking.  The key to making the best use of your time, and gaining the most contacts, is to keep your focus on one or two projects.

If you’re only going to do one thing, set up a website.  This is invaluable to your business and the longer you spend making it look professional, the better.  If you want to explore further online communities make sure you don’t get sidetracked on all the different social networks – it’s better to pick one site and build up a following than waste time on maintaining too many groups.  Never forget that your time is as valuable as your money.

Back to the Basics

But the other side to this is that your money is as valuable as your time.  And these days too many small businesses overlook the importance of hard-copy marketing because they can cut costs by doing everything online.  But a vital part of nurturing your business is through direct marketing.  Just think about how many emails you junk without even opening.  And then think how often you do this with a letter.

But keep smiling because creating anything from leaflets to business cards can be simple and low cost if you do it yourself.  Big businesses may save money by professional bulk printing deals but as a small business owner this just doesn’t add up.  What will work for you is an investment in a high quality printer.  This way you can take care of all your own direct marketing, letterheads and business cards.

Just make sure you buy the right printer – one that specializes in this kind of work.  An inkjet is the best machine for producing color graphics and photographs.  And don’t be fooled into thinking you can make a saving by buying sub-standard ink.  The only way your marketing will be worth the investment is if it looks like it’s hot off a professional printing press.  Using the best quality ink will vanquish the homemade look and will lengthen the life of your new best friend – your printer.

Keep it Local

Now your brand looks like a million bucks.  And you’re ready to hand out your leaflets, business cards and letters.  Just remember – direct marketing and online marketing have the same rules – start small, build in your local community and take care of your existing customers.

So when it comes to marketing pieces, do it yourself and remember small is beautiful.  This way you’ll grow your business and shrink your costs.

I have seen a lot of articles recently in response to a small business survey conducted by Hiscox, a small business insurance provider, which surveyed US small business leaders on their social media usage.  Hiscox found that many of these business owners weren’t using social channels to promote their businesses and products.  In fact, the results of the survey showed that only 12% of the business owners described social media as a “must” and 47% indicated they did not use social media for business purposes at all.  The survey also concluded that 50% of the business owners said that word-of-mouth marketing was essential to their business.  This is where things get interesting…and heated!

People have been going back and forth on blog comments, discussion boards, twitter, etc., on whether or not social media and word-of-mouth are the same thing.  Some say that not only are they the same thing, but that social media is word-of-mouth on steroids, since the reach your message can have is almost limitless.   In a recent article titled “Social Media Marketing and Word-of-Mouth Marketing Are Now The Same”, Steve Olenski wrote “Social Media is not set to become the way to spread word of mouth… it already is!”  Others feel that while social media is a component of word-of-mouth, it cannot be considered the same thing.  Rod Brooks, Board President of the Word Of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) said “Social Media is a rapidly growing and highly visible component of word of mouth marketing. That being said, I like to remind savvy marketers that approximately 90% of all word of mouth still occurs offline. So, while I can agree that Social Media is a subset of WOM, it would be very difficult for me to call them “the same”. Word of Mouth is far bigger than social media.”

My question is this: Who cares?!?  In all the back and forth I have read on this topic, there is one common message I keep seeing.  Even if people feel that social media is different from word-of-mouth marketing, they still seem to agree that social media should be used as a tool to achieve word-of-mouth success.  So why then aren’t we focused more on why small businesses continue to shy away from social media, even though they rate word-of-mouth marketing as one of the most crucial aspects to the success of their business?

What do you think?  Is there a difference between social media and word-of-mouth?  Does it matter?  Am I completely missing the mark?

Here at NxtGen, we are always looking for affordable, yet effective, social media solutions that the everyday small business owner can use.  For the past several months, we have been testing out a few different Social Media Management tools.  Today I am going to share my thoughts with you on one of those tools: Sprout Social.

Review: Sprout Social is a social media management tool that allows businesses to efficiently and effectively manage & grow their social presence across multiple channels and turn social connections into loyal customers.  Overall, I really like this tool.  You can easily connect your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare and Gowalla accounts and manage them all from one convenient location.  They even recently added the ability to connect your Google Analytics account, which is a really nice feature.  For business owners that don’t have the time to waste checking and updating several different social media sites, and don’t have the budget to pay a high priced consultant or service, this is a great tool.  You can easily update all your social networks in one place, find new customers with their advanced search technology, monitor conversations taking place across the web either about your brand or your industry, and easily organize all your social media connections in one place, complete with history, notes and more, using the address book feature.  They also provide really great analytics that give you detailed information on followers, influence, engagement, clicks and more – all in colorful, intuitive charts & graphs.  You can review the data right from your browser, or you can create branded PDF reports with the click of a button (data can also be downloaded in CSV form).  But even better is the price!  For the average small business owner out there, who only needs to manage one account (one account handles up to 5 identities), the Pro Plan is only $9/month!  And for those businesses who need to manage multiple accounts, or are looking for a little more in depth analysis, their Business Plan is still an affordable $49/month. Both plans come with a 30-day free trial.  See graphics below for more detailed information on what is included in each package.

Another great part about this tool is the customer service.  Every time I have had a question or needed some help, whether I reached out via email or twitter, I have always gotten a prompt and friendly response.  Including follow-ups to make sure I was completely satisfied with the help I was provided.  This is a big plus, especially for those business owners who are not exactly “tech savy”, and may need some help every now and then.  Below I go into more detail about some of my favorite features, and some things I think they can improve on.  But overall, I would definitely recommend this product to anyone looking for an effective, and affordable, social media management solution.

Highlights

Discovery:  The Discovery feature is one of my favorites.  There are 3 types of searches you can perform in this section of the application.  Keyword searches, People searches and Business searches.  They keyword search allows you to enter different keywords or phrases around your business to search either Twitter or the web to help find new people to connect with, conversations to participate in or content to share with your community.  You can choose to either search globally or locally.  Below is an example of a Keyword search I set up, and the results, where I chose to have it search Twitter for the keywords “social media”, “marketing” and Facebook” within 5 miles of my zip code.

If I had chose to search the web, instead of Twitter, it would have pulled links to any articles across the web that have the keywords I chose to search for.  This is a great way to find relevant content to share with your followers.

The People search is very similar.  You enter some keywords that you want to look for in people’s Twitter profiles and choose whether you want to search globally or locally.  The search results will show you all the relevant profiles and you can go through and follow people right from the search results.

The Business search is a little different and is a great way to measure yourself against your competition.  Enter in a competitors Twitter handle, and it shows you how you stack up against them in engagement, influence, followers, mentions and demographics.  It also lets you look at their Twitter feed so you can see what they are doing that you aren’t.

Schedule: Another feature I really like is the scheduling feature.  Not only can you send out one-time, immediate, messages through the platform, but you can also schedule repeat messages.  You can choose what day of the week and time you want your message to be sent, and how long you want to to run for (a specific end date or until you manually edit it to stop sending).  It even has a link shortner, which you can link to your bitly account, so you can maximize your message and keep track of your links.  This is a great for restaurants or other types of businesses that have the same daily specials each week.  To make it even better, they even give you suggested times of when you should send your messages based on consumer usage data which determines when your messages are most likely to be seen.

Room to Improve

Single User Log-on: The biggest issue I have so far with this tool is that you can only have one user logged in at a time.  My partner and I both use the service to manage our social media, as well as several clients.  We work in separate cities, so when I am in the system and he goes to log on, it kicks me off.  I emailed Sprout Social support to see if they allowed multiple users to login at once, and unfortunately I was informed that they do not have that functionality yet.  They are working on releasing a “Team Edition” that will allow this, but as of now, it is not available.

Engagement and Influence Scores: Another issue I have is with their engagement and influence scores.  I am not quite sure how these scores are determined.  There have been times where the more I engaged with people on Twitter, the lower my score would go.  It just didn’t make sense.  Also, while it does explain what the scores mean and how you compare to the average user (which is nice), what I would like to see are some suggestions of what you can do to improve your scores in these categories.  None of the services I have used offer these type of suggestions, and I think this would be a great value add for their users and a really nice way to differentiate themselves from the competition.

So what do you think?  Have you tried Sprout Social yet? What are your thoughts on it?  Are there other Social Media Management platforms you have used that you like?

Two years ago I needed to have my backyard deck stripped of paint and stained.  I had been looking online and could not find any companies that wanted to do the work I was requesting.  A good friend of mine works for a home and door company in my area, so I asked him if he knew anyone that could do my job.  He gave me the name of a company that he worked with in the past that does decks.  I contacted them, and they were able to recommend a company who could fill my need.  The deck came out great, and I could not be happier.   A few months later I decided to have my front porch replaced.  I ended up using the same deck guy, and was very happy with how the front porch came out initially.  Actually the the front porch came out so nice that both my parents and my in-laws hired him to do work at their houses, thanks to my glowing recommendation.  Two years later, I have a leaking roof and two sets of unhappy parents.  Turns out he took a few short cuts, and while his work looked great initially, it did not last over time.  Now I have to constantly listen to both my parents and my in-laws complain about how the deck guy screwed them.  Lesson learned; word of mouth is a two way street.  In business, and life in general, you are responsible for the recommendations that you give, not just the service that you provide.

As with the deck guy, his work seemed to be great in the beginning, but lacked in the long run.  There is no way that I could have known that he would have taken such shortcuts.  Yet I am still responsible for my recommendation.  NxtGen Marketing has been built on word of mouth marketing.  A good amount of our business comes from recommendations from past clients.  It brings me a lot of pride when I get a phone call from someone who tells me that a client has referred them to me.    We also spend a decent amount of time on social media, and with our clients, recommending service providers, techniques and giving advice on their business.  As we are still a young company, reputation is all that we have to show potential customers.  My experience with the deck guy taught me a valuable lesson about giving out recommendations.  I know that from now on, I am really going to examine what we send out more closely, and make sure that we are willing to stand behind the performance of those products and companies we recommend.   While it is a bit annoying that my family keeps complaining about their experiences with this person that I recommended, they are family and they are not going to cost me business.  On the other hand, if I am giving bad recommendations for work, I could be hurting my businesses reputation.  And that is not acceptable!

Welcome back for the final part of our series on how to build an online community.  In our previous posts, we talked about Choosing the Right Platfrom and Growing Your Community.  Now we will            discuss the critical step of nurturing that community that you have worked so hard to build.

Have you ever seen the show “Yard Crashers” on HGTV?  It is a backyard remodel show, where the host waits at home improvement stores looking for the perfect weekend warriors who could use his help. People go in thinking they’re just buying a bag of mulch, but instead come home with the host and his team, who completely transform their landscape.  It happens to be one of my favorite shows on TV right now (and I don’t even have a backyard.  Go figure), however, at the end of every show, I am left wondering, “what now?”  What happens when the experts all leave and these people, who previously neglected their yard to the point of it needing a complete makeover, are left to handle it all themselves?  Building a beautiful, lush, garden is hard work, but it all goes to waste if you do not continue to care for, and nurture it.  Well, the same can be said about your online community.  You can put all the hard work, time, and effort in the world into picking the right platform and building your community.  But if you don’t continue to nurture that community, it was all a giant waste of time.  Here are a few key tips to focus on once you have built out your community.

Keep Them Engaged

You got em!  Maybe you offered a coupon as an incentive, or posted a really great article that showed off your expertise.  No matter what you did, you get em!  Now you need to make sure you keep them.  One great way to keep people engaged is to ask questions.  Asking questions is a terrific way to start conversations and learn more about your community.  Trying to choose between two new products/services you want to introduce?  Why not ask the people who actually purchase your products/services?  Let’s be honest.   People love to give their opinions, and they love it even more when they feel like that opinion is being valued.  Use that to your advantage.  The questions don’t always have to be so serious too.  Get creative and have fun with it!

Pay Attention to What Works

Monitoring your social media efforts is key!  Not necessarily in terms of measuring ROI (that’s a whole different story which we won’t get into now), but more for determining what type of content is most effective.  It is important to keep an eye on the different types of content you are putting out there for your community to consume and see what is getting the most attention.  If your video content is getting a lot more attention than your photos or blogs, then maybe it is a good idea to start shooting and editing more videos.   While it may be more time consuming for you to put together video content, if that is what people are responding to, in the end it will pay off.

Don’t Focus on the Numbers

No, this is not a typo.  I know I included this in my previous post, but I think it is worth repeating.  Do not fall into the trap of trying to get the biggest following as quick as you can.  Yes, growing your community should always be a point of focus for you.  But if you only focus on growing your community, and stop paying attention to the members you already have, you will alienate those members and end up losing them.   Balance your efforts between growing your community, and nurturing your community, and you will be much happier with the end results.

While this is by no means a “be all, end all”, list of tactics to build an online community, it should be a useful guide to help you get started.  What types of things have you done to build a community?  Are there things you think we missed?  Feel free to ask any questions, or add any additional tips below.

Welcome back to the NxtGen blog and our series about building an online community.  Last week we started things off by explaining the importance of choosing the right social media platform in order to build your community.  Now that you have done your due diligence, and decided what platform you are going to use to broadcast your message, we are going to look at the next step of the process: Growing Your Community. Below are some key areas to focus on when starting to build your community.

Act Like a Host

Picture this.  You get this amazing invitation to attend “the party of the year”.  It promises to be filled with a ton of people, and all kinds of fun and entertaining events.  You decide to go to the party, even though you don’t know anyone else going.  When you arrive, nobody greets you, or introduces you to any of the other partygoers.  You walk around for a while awkwardly introducing yourself to a few people trying to figure out if you have anything in common.  A half hour into the party, you are so bored, you end up sneaking out while nobody is looking.  Sounds pretty awful right?  Well how is that any different than joining a group online, where they promise you all kinds of great stuff in order to get you to join, and then once you do, nothing!  No interaction.  No engagement.  No perks.  Nothing!  When trying to build an online community, you have to act like a (good) host.  Be courteous to members.  Thank them for being a part of your community.  Introduce them to other members that they have common interests with.  Offer them unique and exclusive content or specials.  Make sure they know you are there for them and that you are happy to have them!

Be Consistently Present

Part of being a good host is actually being at the party!  When dealing with social media, one of the biggest mistakes people make is not being present and involved.  With all the great tools that are available to help make our social media lives more efficient, people tend to think they can automate the whole process.  BIG MISTAKE!  While you can certainly use these tools to automate portions of your social media programs, you still need to be available to respond to people when they reach out to you.  There is nothing more frustrating in the social media world than reaching out to someone and never getting a response.  Think of it this way.  You go to a networking event and meet someone you are interested in possibly doing business with.  The next day you email them and get no response.  Then you call them, leave a voice mail, and they never call you back.  Doesn’t sound like someone you want to do business with anymore, right?  The same goes for social media.  If you are advertising that you are actively participating in social media, you need to follow though on it.  Remember, while it is important to be consistent in getting your message out there, it is even more important in being consistently present for your community.

Don’t focus on the numbers

In today’s world of social media, it is easy to get caught up in the numbers game.  People are always talking about the number of followers they have, or how many people “Like” them.  It is very important, especially in the beginning stages of building your community, not to get caught up in all of this.  It is not the number of followers, or fans, or subscribers you have that counts.  What counts is how many people you are actively engaging.  I would rather have 40 followers that participate in discussions, provide feedback and engage with me on a consistent basis, than 10,000 followers who came to my page once, hit “like” and never have anything to do with me again.  The value that I can derive from those 40 engaged followers far outweighs the value that the 10,000 indifferent followers will provide me.  And I promise, if you are a good host to your members, and are consistently there for them, others will notice, and the numbers will come.

Next week, we will take a look at the third and final step: Nurturing you community. Until then, let us know what you think.  What are some of your tactics to growing a strong online community?

I am sure you are sick and tired of everyone telling you that you need to start using social media for your business.  Hopefully by now you’ve read all the articles, seen all the numbers, and are ready to jump on board the social media train.  If so, good for you!  In order to help you get started, I have put together a 3 part series on how to build an online community.  This week, we are going to start off with maybe the most important element in your social media plan: Choosing a Platform.

I am lucky enough to have had the pleasure of seeing Scott Stratten, author of the book UnMarketing, speak a couple of times in the last year.  In his speeches, as well as in his book, he talks about the importance of picking one platform when starting out in social media.  Scott says, “Build a small stage-your platform-that you’re going to stand on and get people to come to.  Pick one place where you want people to find you and play your best “show” there for as long as it takes to build a solid following”.  This advice really stuck with me, and is something I always recommend to people who are starting out in social media.  Especially small business owners, who already feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to do everything they need to get done.  The last thing they need is to have to commit to updating several different social media sites.  People tend to jump onto multiple platforms right away (whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn, etc.), and then expect to have a huge following just because they are “on social media”.  The reality is, unless you are a huge, recognizable brand, this is not going to be the case.  However, if you choose one platform to really invest your time and energy in, you can create a really great, engaged, and interested community, that in time will allow you to expand into other platforms as well.  So, how do you know what platform to start with?

There are a ton of options out there when it comes to social media platforms.  Don’t fall into the trap of thinking, “everyone is on Facebook, so I should be to”.  Just because Facebook is the biggest social network of them all, that doesn’t necessarily mean your customers are interested in connecting with you there.  While Facebook may end up being the best option for you, make sure you do your due diligence before coming to a final conclusion.  Here are a few things to consider when choosing a platform.

What are your primary goals and objectives?

Before you even start to think about which platform you are going to use, you need to define some goals and objectives for your social campaign.  What is most important to you?  Is it driving traffic to your site?  Driving sales?  Is it creating brand awareness?  Maybe you want to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry?  Once you know what it is you are trying to achieve, you can figure out which platform is best suited to help you get there.  For instance, Facebook is better for brand awareness and engagement than LinkedIn, but Blogging and Twitter are better at establishing yourself as an industry expert than Facebook.

Where is your audience?

In order to connect and engage with your audience, the first thing you need to do is find them.  To do this, you need to spend some time LISTENING.  Are there conversations already taking place about your business/products/services/industry?  Where are these conversations happening?  Use free tools, such as Google Alerts, Social Mention, or Twitter Search to help you find out this sort of information.  Are you trying to reach decision makers in other businesses or are you trying to reach the end consumer?  LinkedIn generates the most referrals and conversions for B2B’s, while Facebook generates the most conversions for B2C’s.  You also want to take a look at what the online habits of your audience are?  Are they more interested in news and current events?  Then maybe Twitter is the best platform to reach them on.  Knowing who your audience is and where they are spending their time online, is a crucial part of choosing a social media platform.

How much time can you commit?

Another key factor to consider when determining what platform to choose is, how much time you can commit your social media efforts.  For instance, Facebook has a much higher initial time investment than Twitter, since it is much easier to set up a Twitter profile than a Facebook page.  However, Twitter can require much more ongoing maintenance than Facebook, since your image on this social media platform is largely dictated by you crafting consistent, thoughtful, meaningful tweets while adhering to the 140-character maximum post limit as opposed to a profile page.  There are certainly social media management tools, (which I will talk more about in the next article) that you can use to help make your time more efficient, however, whichever platform you choose, it will still require some dedicated time to ensure you get the most out of it.

Choosing the right social platform is a very important step in building your online community.  Make sure to take your time, do your research, and be realistic about what you want to get out of it, and what you are willing to put into it.

Next week, we will take a look at the next steps after you have chosen your platform: Growing Your Community.

While watching game 6 of the NBA Finals Sunday night, the last thing on my mind was business.  I am a huge basketball fan, and as a basketball fan, I couldn’t help but appreciate the level of basketball that was being played in this series.  I must admit, I was a pretty happy guy as those final seconds ticked off the clock.  I, like so many other people in the country, wanted to see LeBron James and the Miami Heat go down.  I was enjoying it so much, that I decided to stay up a little later and check out some of the post game report.  It was during the post game report, that I heard Magic Johnson, one of my all-time favorite players (and fellow Michigan State Alumni!), say something that really stuck with me.  Since it was kind of late at the time, I didn’t really give it much thought that night.  But as I watched more and more coverage the next day, I realized what a great lesson it was, and how it applies to life and business, as well as sports.

While answering a question about what LeBron James needs to do moving forward to take his game to the next level, Magic spoke about his experience after the 1984 NBA Finals.  Magic said himself that he lost that series for his team.  He put the blame squarely on his shoulders.  And what did he do afterward?  He went to work!  He spent the entire summer, working on his game.  But here is the important part.  He didn’t just work on the things that he liked doing, or that he was already good at.  He worked on his weaknesses.  He studied film to identify where he needed to improve in order to help his team, and he did everything he possibly could to make sure the mistakes he made in that series, never happened again.  And this is from a guy who had already won two championships and been named the Finals MVP each time.  One of which, he did AS A ROOKIE!   He didn’t need to do this.  Nobody told him to do it.  He was already considered one of the best in the game at the time.  But Magic was driven by greatness.  He didn’t want to settle for one of the best.  He wanted to be THE best!  And he knew the path to greatness, was through self-reflection, hard work and dedication.

Often times in life, and in business, we rely too much on praise, and shy away from our weaknesses.  If we do seven things really well, and one thing not so well, we focus on those seven things, in the hopes that they will cover up that one thing we struggle with.  But the truly successful people, and businesses, embrace the uncomfortable.  They don’t ask people what they do well, they ask them what needs to be improved.  And then they do whatever it takes to turn those weaknesses, into strengths.

Magic’s hard work certainly paid off.  He led his team back to the Finals the very next year, and made sure they took home the trophy.  He won again in 1987 and 1988, and added one more Finals MVP to bring his grand total to 5 Championships and 3 Finals MVP’s.  And he will forever be known as one of the greatest players in the history of the game.  How about you?  Are you willing to look yourself, and your business, in the mirror and do what it takes to be the best?