Here are a few quick tips and reminders about how NOT to use social media (that is Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube and the like) when promoting your locally owned, independent small business. If you want to upset customers in your store – ignore them. The same goes for the web. Your customers REALLY don’t see a huge difference in the reality of the web and the brick and mortar… maybe you still do, but I promise – they don’t. So, use the web to leverage your time and your customer relationships. And by all means – don’t turn your back on anyone at the party. It’s not nice…

Here are some specific tips. Let me know what you think and add your own in the comments section!

Do NOT Use Social Media as…

• An outlet for traditional media – For example, don’t post the graphic from your recent direct mail campaign blindly and expect that people will care.
• An online billboard – Don’t constantly announce and scream promotions and push an offer or even a subtle marketing message towards your fans/followers exclusively. This is not a billboard for you to spit out information and no one to talk back to you.
• A 100% free tool – While New Media TOOLS are often free to use, the time, strategy development, and even some elements of advanced use cost money. The point is that $100 goes a long way on New Media—web sites are cheaper and more social; strategy development is more straightforward; and the results are all but immediate. For FAR less investment, you can gain impressive and quick returns.
• A magic wand – It’s not a “build it and they will come” sort of media any more than a web site is. You must promote your social media presence elsewhere and engage in its use strategically or your use of the tools will fail. It’s more about HOW you use it – just being “on” social media doesn’t mean you will improve your results.
• A place to ignore other humans – Rude is no more popular or socially acceptable online than off. It’s still rude to ignore someone standing in the same room with you or to slam a door in someone’s face. The same applies on social media. Whether you know them or not, kindness and respect for other humans is always in good taste.
• A platform to be distasteful – Don’t post or allow employees to post anything negative towards other humans or anything that is distasteful. If your grandmother would have so much as given you a sideways glance, don’t post it. Big personalities are welcome – as long as they’re clean personalities.

Editor’s Note: This post was submitted by Mike Ingalls, FOX 40 News Director in Jackson, Mississippi. They are great supporters of small businesses, especially through their social media engagement and web site.

It is tradition that good magicians don’t reveal their secrets.  News people do not live up to the same strict standards as magicians.  Hopefully, that will help your small business. In fact, I’m going to reveal how you can get FREE advertising, by getting your store in a local news story.  You don’t have to spend money to get your message on local television news programs, but you will need to spend some time making relationships.  Right now, you should look up the telephone number for all of your local newsrooms.  Don’t just call your favorite station!  That would limit your chances of getting air time.  Call and ask to talk to the assignment manager (one tip, call around 10am, 1pm, or 3pm; those are usually slower times of the day, but if the person sounds busy, call back at another time).  Tell the assignment manager what type of business you run, what topics you can speak about on camera, and ask them to put you on their list of contacts.  Leave your name and cell phone and tell them you would be willing to be a source for any future stories.

So, what happens when they take you up on the offer?  You must understand that news people are fighting the clock and several deadlines every day.  If you get a call at 10:00 a.m., the reporter needs to get you on camera as soon as possible.  To get this free advertising, YOU need to find a way to make yourself available.  One quick story; we were doing a story about Ole Miss potentially replacing the plantation owner mascot.  Our reporter called a local business that sells Ole Miss paraphernalia and he was told by the owner that she couldn’t talk because she was stocking shelves.  For the purpose of this lesson, we heard “No, I don’t want more than a minute of free advertising.”  Instead, we ended up at a local mall.  “I’m not wearing make-up, I didn’t do my hair this morning, and the store is a mess” are other reasons interview requests have been turned down by small business owners.  If you take one thing away from this article make it this; if you say no to an interview that will get you free publicity, your competitor may say yes.  Make some phones calls, and when they pay off with an interview request, make the excuses for why you can’t do the interview disappear.

Tomorrow, we’ll learn from the e-mail marketing master of our local market – Jeff Good. As I’m prepping for our visit tomorrow, I am reminded that all great marketing campaigns start with DOING SOMETHING. I can promise you that 11 years ago when I started HALO, I had NO IDEA that I would get to this place where we are creating a completely FREE marketing and shop local resource for small, independently owned businesses.

Often, when we START something, we have NO idea where it will lead. We can’t fathom the end results – but we can envision something greater than where we are today. I can’t say for certain, but I bet Jeff Good could never have imagined the impact that collecting e-mail addresses would ultimately have on his business as it is today. It’s HUGE for his three amazing restaurants and catering company. Jeff can move the needle by sending an e-mail.

But what if he’d waited to collect e-mails until he had a purpose for them? You can probably imagine a purpose for a great e-mail list – but what if you only have 50? Or less?

DO SOMETHING. Everything great started somewhere. Nothing good ever happened from waiting.

Start today. Collect e-mail addresses from every customer, prospect, vendor, and friend that you have. Have your employees do the same. Find creative ways to collect the e-mails. The time is now. Waiting until you have an important message to send is TOO LATE.

If you’re already collecting e-mail addresses, find ways to do it more efficiently and more consistently. Like anything else, there is always room for improvement, and it is a rare case where every single possible e-mail address is collected.

E-mail is still a very powerful and effective marketing tool for small, locally owned businesses. Do not let even a single opportunity to communicate so affordably and directly pass you by. Make e-mail address collection a bold, priority initiative for your business starting today. It’s the first step in getting ready to do REALLY big things (and getting really big results for your marketing).

When thinking about every single aspect of your small business marketing, make sure that your “brand” never disappears or is weakened through the loss of one or more elements. Make sure that every single marketing piece – whether signage, business cards, advertisements or your Facebook Page – sticks to your brand:

1. Logo. (Use in the same ratio and clear resolution, no matter what.)
2. Color Scheme. (Make sure you know the exact Pantone color or process color formula for your exact brand color or colors. If you don’t know what this means, sound off in the comments, and we’ll be happy to collectively answer your questions!)
3. Domain Name. This is your URL or www.mycompanyname.com. Yes, every single business needs a web site because 63% of ALL consumers across all demographics visit a web site before making a brick and mortar buying decision (USA Today/Neilson study, April 2009). This is not optional. Neither is the inclusion of your domain name of every single communication or brand presence that you make public. Put your URL EVERYWHERE.

Use all three of these elements consistently and constantly. You will be surprised at the improved effectiveness of your marketing overall when you take care of this seemingly small and sideline piece of your overall marketing puzzle.

One of the top benefits of social media is found in TIME SAVINGS.

Yes, you heard me right. TIME SAVINGS.

It’s funny that we get asked about how to “make time” for social media. But really, social media has allowed our clients – and us – to work more efficiently and produce results at an exponentially greater rate than ever before. This one simple application is very telling: We all have experienced a situation where a large number of people were involved in a registration or related process. Inevitably, some piece of information is confusing, incomplete or even incorrect. You know the day: You come into the office and the phone rings asking “the question” that alerts you to the problem. You sigh knowing you’ll spend your day answering the phone to fix this problem. Why tie up human resources (that’s code language for YOUR TIME) answering the question when you can post the question and related answer to a Facebook page, tweet the link and set your voicemail, e-mail responder, etc. to point folks THERE to get the answer. Within 20 minutes of the phone call your day has opened back up again.

We all get questions everyday in our work. What if the answers to those questions were all on-line – we post them as we answer them to the first person asking. The time savings from this alone is HUGE.

Most businesses aren’t measuring HOW they spend their time, so they don’t even notice how much time they save and/or how much more effectively their time is spent when social media are leveraged.

Beyond that, time saved by using social media to bring in business versus the long-term effort required for traditional media, the ability to speak once and touch many with a personal message, the networking power without leaving the office (not to say you never have to leave – but this can replace at least a few “hand-shake” meetings a week with greater results) and the shortening of the sales cycle (common in social media) are all huge time savers.

Photo Credit: cdammen

So, you’ve gotten in touch with your inner producer by shooting some video footage of your business, downtown district, restaurant or hotel experience… Now what?

Hopefully, you’re using an easy-to-use camera that makes digital editing quick and easy. (We use the Flip HD.) There are lots of fancy editing, add-ons and other things you can do to make your video more and more professional… However, that is definitely NOT required to bring a positive impact to your brand. In fact, there’s a fair amount of evidence that shows that the more amateurish the video, the more authentic and interesting it is to customers.

Once your video is “produced” – you’ll want to get it out there on the web, so folks can watch it. More importantly, like other content suitable for the web, if you post your video in only one place, you’ll be leaving potential buzz (and resulting dollars) on the table. You’ll notice that these five places build upon each other, and can be accomplished quickly for each video you desire to post. Leverage your content in multiple places for maximum impact.

Here are my top five quick recommendations for placing video content through your new media marketing channels:

1. YouTube. Google owns YouTube, and they love their own content. When you post on YouTube, you’re posting right into the Google universe.

2. Facebook Page. Your business should have a Facebook Page (not a personal profile). When you post video to YouTube, they give you a link to that video. Post that LINK on your Facebook Page along with any comments that you wish to add. I also recommend that once posted on your Page that you go back to your personal profile and give your personal friends the tip that you’ve just updated your Page with a video to start the ball rolling with more intensity.

3. Twitter. Tweet out the topic and put a bit.ly link to your video in the tweet. Here’s what it might look like: “Great video inspiring viewers to Buy Main Street http://bit.ly/8k2Al” Or “We blush at the feedback http://bit.ly/1xYTHR (video)”. Either way, make sure the tweet let’s folks know it’s going to a video and describe what they will learn when they watch.

4. Your Web Site or Blog. Embed the video on your web site and/or blog. YouTube gives you a snippet of code that will allow you to embed the video right onto your web site. Do this in a video section, as a supplement to any individual section or as an aptly worded, keyword rich blog post. There are many creative ways to USE video on a web site…the most important part is to USE the video on your web site period.

5. E-Mail Newsletter. Link to the video from your e-mail newsletter. Let your e-mail newsletter subscribers know that they can watch and learn more. List titles, descriptions that are linked to the video on your web site.

What about you? What are your favorite places to place video content?

Photo Credit: wwworks

I’m a nerd. It’s official.

Here’s the proof: Just picture me. Sitting in paradise this past weekend: Key Largo to be specific. Reclining oceanside in the privacy of a mangrove tree dappled beach. My toes are nestled into the rocky sand and the clear water is gently swooshing in over my feet. I can see the coral below the surface a few feet away and see folks snorkeling off shore in the distance. I’ve got my beach read in hand… Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith.

(That’s the nerdy part.)

We’re writing a book – Andy and I. The book leans heavily on the analogy of teaching a child to ride a bike to communicate the process of “learning” how to assimilate to the social media/new media world. At one point in his book, Chris used my analogy. He stole it. I’m sure he’s stalking me. I gasped and almost dropped the book in the water. But it was too good, so I didn’t. (And no, I really don’t think he stole it or is stalking me. But I think he’s REALLY smart. *wink*)

So, after another hour or so, I finished the book. I know it’s really bad form to give away the ending of a book, but hey, who am I to do things the way they’ve always been done, so here I go (sorry, Chris). Last three sentences of his book:

“Try something new today. It may just REVOLUTIONIZE what you do. Trust us.”

Did you see that? Again, I almost dropped the book. But since I had read all the way to the end, I had filled the margins with notes, my own ideas and analogies – and lots of underlining, stars and arrows…I really didn’t want to feed my notes to the sharks. So, I held on to it. I mean, WE are HOME of the Results Revolution. (I’ve had the domain name for a long time – like more than 6 years a long time: resultsrevolution.com – being reworked right now for a cool 2010 project.) Brogan stole my word! (Again, spoken in jest.) I’ve been giving the Webster’s definition slowly and carefully in speeches for more than nine years. I sign my e-mail newsletter with two words: “Be Revolutionary.” But I’ve also been raising babies and running carpool lines and generally doing this life thing at a pretty hectic pace the last few years. That is very good work – the best work in fact. But maybe now it’s time to finish that book, to really demonstrate “revolutionary.” That’s part of what this weekend in paradise was all about. Refocusing, rejuvenating, writing, learning, listening and thinking – about nothing in particular – just letting the creative juices flow with no pressure induced. I’m so fired up.

(In case you missed it, Webster’s says that a “revolution” is “a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving.” It’s really a revolutionary definition all by itself, if you stop long enough to unpack it.)

So, today, I’m plugging back in and reading some past Brogan e-mail newsletters and ran across one titled the same as this post: “No King Ever Ordered a Revolution.” Made me stop and think over this revolution thing one more time.

How about you? Are you willing to take on the status quo, to be the leader that sticks his neck out for the sake of the cause – even when the cause doesn’t think it’s the right move? Are you the lone voice in the wilderness thinking that social tools and networks might just give your business a chance to connect in a whole new way – even survive? What would a revolution look like if it happened in your business? Isn’t it time you pursued your own personal or professional revolution? No one but you can order it. It’s you against the world – go do big things, different things, far-reaching things.

I’d love to talk about what that means for you. What say you?

P.S. If you haven’t read it, it’s a good read. And if you don’t, follow @chrisbrogan. He’s smart, keeps it all real, and you will benefit from him and his network.

Photo Credit: chris.corwin