Paul Chaney - Internet Marketing Social Media Consulting

Creating Custom Twitter Backgrounds

This is part three of a five-part series on using Twitter for business. Today, we're discussing the use of custom backgrounds. 

I want to encourage you to consider using a custom background with your Twitter account. There are a number of good reasons to do so, not the least of which is that it sets your apart from other sites, gives your site personality, and makes it easier to identify you with your company's brand. 

Here are some factors to consider when doing so:

The background is a flat image - It's not an HTML page that you can associate links with. The background is a flat JPG, GIF or PNG image. 

Browser resolutions have bearing on widths - Because it is a flat image, the background can't adjust to fit different browser resolutions (and it seems everyone has a different screen resolution). That's a fact you'll have to accept, and come to terms with. Often, that means designing an image suited to the most common width which, these days, tends to be 1024X768. 

There are no hard and fast rules - Because it's an image, you can pretty much do with it as you please.

Here are some suggested guidelines:

• Make the image 2048 px by 1707 px
• You're safe with 1400 x 900
• The left column should be about 200-225 pixels wide (leave left margin)
• If using image to the right, start at around 700 px from the left

Here are some options for creating custom backgrounds:

Photoshop (or other image editor) - If you're handy with Photoshop, you're home free!

Powerpoint - Did you know you can create a Twitter background using Powerpoint? You can. Here's a link to a post that describes how to do so

Online Tools - There are a number of online tools that make creating custom backgrounds easy, some of which are free to use and some which have a cost associated with them:

• Twitterbackgrounds.com
• TwitterImage.com
• TwitterPatterns.com
• Twitbacks.com

iStockPhoto.com - This site and others like it provide great background images for very little cost. Though it won't do everything you need, if you're comfortable using Photoshop or other such editor, it can provide the background image (and other images as well) to get you started.

Paul Chaney - This is a service I provide. Contact me if you'd like to know more.

Here are some examples of great background images that might serve as inspiration.  

• 
• 
• 

 Also, take a look at these Twitter sites for even more inspiration:

• Bizzuka Web Content Management
• Trisys Call Accounting
• Terri Murphy

Five Factors to Consider When Setting Up Your Twitter Account

 
There are certain things you should consider when setting up your Twitter account. As you can see from the graphic above, those are: Username, avatar, bio, link, and background.

USERNAME

When I set up my Twitter ago years ago, somewhere in the process it asked me to input a username. Now, my username for most account is "pchaney," so that's what I used here. 

What I failed to understand is that "username" in Twitterese really means "handle." Think of truckers and CBs. That all have a handle. (BTW, I'm the son of a long-haul trucker and my handle was "fireball.") That's how you need to think of a Twitter username, as a handle.  

What's in a name? 

In a word, everything. It's how people will reference you on Twitter from hereon, so thought needs to be given to what you'll use. My advice, for business purposes, use your name. In my case, that meant using "paulchaney." (Twitter usernames have to be concatenated. You can use an underscore as a connector, but I don't advise it. 

By the time I came to that realization I was already building a follower-base. To make the change would have been inconvenient at best. So, I stuck with @pchaney (or "P. C. Haney" is how Liz Strauss referenced it. <g>) You can use other terms of course, but I advise staying with your name by default. Whatever you do, don't put numbers behind your name! That is, unless you want everyone to think of you as a spammer (or an AOL user!)

By the way, you only get 15 characters, so be thoughtful about how you want to those used.

You might ask, "What if my name is taken?" That's a real possibility. You could consider a variation on your name, such as the inclusion of a first or middle name initial. Or, you could do what I did (and many others have done) and use your first initial, last name. That's often the way business email addresses are set up, so it's not too far afield. I would appreciate hearing any thoughts you have on the subject.

AVATAR

No, I'm not talking about the movie. Avatar is the term used for the thumbnail photo associated with your account. A couple of thoughts here:

1. Use an avatar. Otherwise, you'll get the placeholder that Twitter provides and that's never good. 

2. Use your headshot. People use all kinds of images for their avatar. For business purposes, I advise using a headshot. Keep it a closeup too. An image of you standing on a mountain 100 feet from the camera won't render well in a 60X60 pixel environment. 

3. Use some personality. Twitter ain't LinkedIn, so your avatar doesn't need to be a suit-and-tie, professionally-done business photo. Inject some personality. Use a shot taken with an iphone or digital camera. Candid photos are great for this purpose. 

4. Don't use a cat. Whatever you do, please don't use a cat or some other furry creature. I'm just sayin'.

BIO

You only get 140 characters to write a post in Twitter, and you only get 160 characters to write your bio. It's your Twitter-sized elevator pitch, so think about what you want people to know. The beauty is you can always change it to suit your needs. The main thing is, use a bio. Spammers don't. It's a credibility-building tool. 

LINK

You get the opportunity to input a link, so think about where you want that to point. Some options include:

LinkedIn profile - A number of people use this to point to places where those interested can find out more about them, and LinkedIn is often the place

Twitterized "About" page - Some people, like my friend Jeff Turner, have created a special Twitter version of an About page as the place to send visitors. Jeff is a thought-leader when it comes to the use of social media, so his is a good example to follow. 

Company profile page - If you're part of a large organization and have a profile on the website, then link there. 

Blog or website - I link to my blog, which also serves as my website. Certainly, that's an acceptable option. 

You may ideas about how to use the link. The main thing is to use it! Again, as with the bio, it's a credibility-builder.

CUSTOM BACKGROUND

Twitter is a little like MySpace, in that you can customize it to reflect your personality or your company's branding. Therefore, it's always a good idea to create a custom background. 

I'm going to cover this more in-depth tomorrow in part 3 of this series, so stay tuned. 

Please feel free to share your ideas about important things to consider when using Twitter. My thoughts are nothing more than a steppingstone. 

Using Twitter for Business, Part 1: A Simple Three-Step Strategy

This is part 1 of a five-part series that outlines how to use Twitter for business. Parts two and three follow tomorrow and Thursday. The remainder of the series will be posted next week. 

So, someone suggested you start using Twitter for your business. You've created an account and are now sitting in front of your computer wondering what the heck you should do. 

Here's a simple three-step strategy that will help you get started - Listen, Follow, Engage. 

LISTEN

We must begin by listening to the groundswell. I've said for some time that "listening is the new marketing." If people are talking about our brand, products, services, company, people, industry or competition (and they are) using social networks like Facebook and Twitter (and they do), then we darn well better be listening. 

From results that I see having done a number of reputation monitoring projects, Twitter is one primary platform that people are using to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions with others. Therefore, it is a place we need to pay attention to. 

What am I listening for?

Any term that might have bearing on our business interests. For example, over at Practical Ecommerce, the site I serve as social media director, I listen for not only the brand name, but the publisher's name as well. In your case it might be the names of your products or services, the names of your C-suite, or industry-related terms. 

Think in terms of keywords. What keywords are important to your business? Obviously, at Practical Ecommerce, the term "ecommerce" is important, as well as similar terms like "ecommerce news," or "ecommerce trends." I also listen for variations on the spelling of those terms - e-commerce, for example.

Where do I listen?

You can use Twitter search and subscribe to RSS feeds associated with key terms, then save those searches for later reference. Or, you can use a third-party service such as Tweetbeep, which is a application that allows you to input keywords. Each time those are referenced in Twitter, you receive an email notification. 

Listening is your on-ramp to engagement. In fact, I encourage you to listen to the conversation for a week or two prior to engagement just to get a better idea of how Twitter works. Get the lay of the land, in other words, before you move forward.

FOLLOW

The second step (or one that is concurrent with listening) is following. That's Twitter's version of "friending" someone. 

Who do I follow? 

Relevance, not numbers is the key. You want to follow those it makes sense from a business perspective to follow. That would include customers, prospects, vendors, industry participants, colleagues, and competitors. 

Whatever you do, don't get sucked into using mass follow systems. It's not a numbers game! It's a relevance game.

Here's a short list: 

• Think in terms of demographics and/or geography - Is your business focused on a certain geographical area? Then, that's where you want to place your emphasis. Is it industry-related? Then think in those terms
• Follow those you already know
• Follow “influentials” - Again, it's not the persons with the biggest number of followers, but those who is most deeply embedded within the target market you're attempting to reach 
• Follow keyword users
• Follow hashtag users (#) - Hashtags are those terms that people use to follow conversation threads
• Follow those who follow you - Don't do this indescriminately; many spammers and "bots" will follow you, so be judicious
• Follow followers of followers - Those who follow you probably have people following them that it makes sense for you to connect with as well

For a more extensive list, read this post: Fifteen Twitter Follow Dos and Don'ts

ENGAGE

At some point, you have to start talking. I mean, you don't HAVE to talk, but it makes sense to enter the conversation that's going on, or kickstart one if it's not. Here are some pointers:

• Respond to what others are saying - That's the easiest way to get started; just jump in and add your two cents
• Provide valuable information your target market would appreciate - This is, by far, the most sought after form of Twitter post; remember, people are using Twitter as a search engine now, give them something worth reading
• Engage in casual conversation with followers - Your posts don't always have to be about business; instead, be yourself
• Ask for feedback - I use Twitter as my grassroots focus group; whenever I need an answer to something business-related or otherwise, I know I can go to Twitter and people will respond
• Answer questions people are asking - Similar to providing valuable information, think in terms of what your community would value
• Don’t solicit; don’t pitch (at least not at first) - Take time to get to know people before hitting them over the head with a marketing message

JUMP IN, THE WATER'S FINE!

My mother taught me to swim by taking me to classes. My dad taught me by rowing out to the middle of our small pond and throwing me in! Guess which worked best. Well, both actually. Through the classes I learned the mechanics, but dad's method forced me to use what I had learned. Using Twitter is no different. You've just had a short-course on the subject, now jump in and try out what you've learned. 

New Client: Trisys Call Accounting and Call Recording

I just finished work with Trisys, a company that provides call accounting and call recording services to businesses large and small. Some of their marquis clients include companies such as 1-800-FLOWERS, Booz Allen Hamilton and Coca-Cola. 

I created a custom Facebook fan page and Twitter account and providing social media skills training to Trisys CEO, Mike Shevelev. 

Facebook Fan Page

I created a muti-tab micro-site within the fan page under the Welcome tab. 

 
 

Twitter

I created a design to match that of the Facebook fan page. Both reflect the look/feel of the Trisys site itself.

   

I want to express my appreciation to Mike and Trisys for giving me this opportunity to work with them to build out their social media presence. If you need call accounting or call recording services, I recommend them to you. They have 30 years in the business and their client roster is certainly impressive. However, they also serve the needs of small business and are priced accordingly. 

If you need a custom Facebook fan page or Twitter page, or if you could benefit from social media skills training, please contact me.

Fifteen Twitter Follow dos and Don'ts

Having trouble trying to figure out who to follow on Twitter? Here are 15 Twitter follow do's and don'ts: 

Dos...

1. Focus your efforts - If you're in sales and marketing, hopefully you've outlined specific target markets based on demographic, psychographic and technographic profiles. Maybe you've even created a persona of the ideal client or customer. Find those folks and follow them.

One good way to do that is by using Twellow, which is a Twitter "yellow pages." It categorizes Twitter followers based on geography and industry and covers everything from aerospace to Web development.

For example, a search on my city, Lafayette, LA, brought five pages of returns totaling 100 people. Not a lot, but consider that a) Lafayette is a small city by comparison and b) it's in the deep south which is often the last to catch on to new trends. If you're in a more metro area, chances are your returns will be manifold times this.

What might be more relevant is search by category. For example, Bizzuka, the company I formerly served as Internet marketing director, was targeting the legal industry. A search for lawyers brought over 930 returns. They were also targeting healthcare. A search returned almost 100 hospitals. Apply that same methodology to your own situation and see what comes of it.

Twellow defaults to ranking returns based on number of followers, but you can also sort by
recent activity and/or whether the person has verified their Twellow account.

Each person listed has a profile associated with their entry which, depending on whether they've verified their account or not, could contain lots of information, including a bio, latest Twitter updates (good for knowing whether they're an active user or not), and link to their Web site or blog.

2. Follow those with real names - That's one way to know it's a genuine account. (It's always a good practice when setting up a Twitter account to use your real name. I wish I had realized that when I set up my Twitter account years ago.)

3. Follow those who follow you - In most cases it's a common courtesy. Chances are they're in the same industry or have some relevance to you.

4. Follow those following the people who are following you - Same rationale as #3, just once removed.

5. Follow those following the people you are following - If you've chosen to follow a particular individual for whatever reason (maybe they fit the profile mentioned in #1), there's a good likelihood at least some of the people following them would be relevant for you as well.

6. Follow those in your industry - Obviously, one of the best uses for Twitter is as a vehicle for networking, gathering feedback and getting advice. It's a great tool for meeting others in your industry or discipline.

7. Follow those you find interesting and/or entertaining - In all the mad rush to turn Twitter into a business communications and marketing tool, leave a little for pure fun. If you find someone's posts interesting, maybe they're worth following as well.

8. Follow those who use the same hashtags (ex. #nms08) to follow a conversation - Again, if they're interested in the same things as you, consider following them.

9. Follow those who @reply you - @replies can be sent into the public timeline addressed to people you're not following. If a user has addressed you in that way, might be fruitful to add them.

10. Follow those interacting with people you follow - If you see a tweet with an @reply addressing someone you're following that comes from someone you're not, they may be worth following. Check em out!

Don'ts...

11. Don't follow those with numbers behind their names - This is a technique often used by spammers (Twammers) due to the fact that have multiple accounts. It's a dead give-away. (One word of caution: When setting up your Twitter handle, don't use numbers. Your real name will do nicely.)

12. Don't follow those with no avatar - If you can't see their face, company logo or some sort of avatar, don't follow.

13. Don't follow those who only broadcast - Unless you know it's an account set up strictly for that purpose - a news, shopping or "tips" type account - don't follow. If they don't participate in conversations with anyone else, they won't with you either.

14. Don't follow those who aren't active - I don't know the number or percentage, but I bet the number of people who've subscribed to Twitter and aren't actively using it is sizable. If a user is not actively maintaining the account, chances are it's dead.

15. Don't follow users based on their follower count - In social media, it's not necessarily how many eyeballs that count but who those eyeballs belong to. There are some very influential people who may not have huge numbers of followers.

There you have it - 15 tips for know who to follow and who not to. That's my list at least for now, though I'm sure I'll add to it. BTW, you can too! What criteria do you use in determining who to follow? Please share it in a comment. Thanks!

Finally, if you're not following me, please do. My Twitter handle is @pchaney.

Four Social Media Marketing Tools Local Retailers Should Use Today

 
If you are a local retailer, especially one that depends on foot traffic into your store, there are four social media marketing tools you should put into use today: Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and Foursquare.

'BPGlobalPR' Twitterer Donates $10K to Non-Profit Plus My Thoughts on Gulf Oil Spill

This story is taken right out of the Baton Rouge Business Report. I would have simply tweeted the link to it, but the Business Report doesn't provide hyperlinks to individual stories on its Daily Report Page, which is where this came from. 

I reference this on the handyman blog because it serves a dual purpose, allowing me to write about an issue that is very real to me, given that I live in south Louisiana, and it's talking about Twitter. 

Following the story, I express my own viewpoint about the Gulf oil spill and in no uncertain terms. I hope you will take a moment to read my comments. But first, here's the story straight from the Business Report.

"A spoof on BP PLC's oil spill press relations has brought in $10,000 for a nonprofit group created in 1995 to restore the Gulf region's natural resources. Gulf Restoration Network official Aaron Viles says that the person who has been tweeting as "BPGlobalPR" put $10,000 into the organization's PayPal account this morning. And he says there's a promise of more if spoof BP T-shirts sold by the same person keep selling. 

"That Twitter account has gained nearly 104,000 followers since it opened May 19 with the comment, "We regretfully admit that something has happened off of the Gulf Coast. More to come." Since last week the owner has been selling $25 T-shirts, bearing a black BP logo and the black, smudged legend "bp cares." The originator has said all proceeds are going to the Gulf Restoration Network."

Here's the T-shirt in question:

 
Here's the link to Gulf Restoration Network's Twitter account.  

Here's where to go to make a donation. 

Here's what I think about this: 

BP CEO Tony Hayward says he wants his life back. Well, Mr. Hayward, we want our way of life back. The fisherman who have been put out of job want their livelihoods back. The families of the 11 victims who died in this tragedy want their loved ones back. We want out wetlands back. We want the millions of dollars in lost tourism back. We want you, Mr. Hayward, to shut the hell up and fix the gusher! 

I don't mean to cast everyone at BP in such a negative light. I believe there are well-intentioned people who are trying everything they can think of to stop the leak and repair the damage, to the extent such reparation is possible. Unfortunately, it may take years before things are returned to normal and no one knows how long that could be. 

I understand that there were strong warnings something wasn't right with the rig. If that's the case, then we can only chalk this up to human error or negligence. Face it, there has never been a leak of this magnitude before, so it's not surprising people may have paid less heed than they should. I'm not excusing inaction, but that's human nature. 

It's not unlike those who stayed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast during Hurricane Camille back in 1969. Hurricanes were not uncommon and many people even threw "hurricane parties" during the storms.

However, in Camille's case, that negligence led to the death of 259 people and I dare say no one has taken the same lackadaisical attitude about hurricanes since. If they did, Katrina straightened that out once and for all.

Similarly, no one will take underwater oil leaks with the same attitude again either. I guarantee you an entire subset of the oil & gas industry will develop to ensure this never happens again. 

Regardless, it has happened and, once again, the Gulf Coast has to pick up the pieces and rebuild. And we will. We most certainly will. 

NOTE: BP promises to "make this right." No clue has to how they will do that. Merely throwing money at people won't solve this, though stopping this gusher is a good start. 

Question for you, will PR help stem the tide of the overwhelming amount of bad press BP has received? 

From Conversation to Conversion: Using Social Media to Drive Sales

In December of 2004, I was interviewed about business blogging by a reporter from the Mississippi Business Journal. It was the first interview I did after starting my own Internet marketing consultancy. 

In that article, the reporter asked me to elucidate the advantages of using a blog for business purposes. I talked about how a blog can help humanize a company, build buzz, improve search engine results and facilitate customer feedback. (The same can be said of social media, for it, too, functions to serve similar ends.)

While each of those benefits hold true today just as much as they did five years ago, there's more to it now than then.

Recently, I was interviewed by a reporter from another business journal, the Wall Street Journal to be exact. This time, the question was different. "Can social media be used to drive sales," the reporter asked. I responded with an emphatic "yes!" Allow me to explain.

CONVERSATION ALONE A WASTE OF TIME

One of the smartest statements I've ever heard regarding the use of social media for business came from Infusionsoft marketing VP Tyler Garns, who said (and I paraphrase), "If engagement in social media does not lead to some type of conversion, then you are just wasting your time and that of others." 

Though some might consider that an audacious statement, I believe social media has transitioned from being a marketing medium strictly rooted in conversation to one that is proving to have a direct bearing on sales. Let me cite a couple of examples as evidence to support my claim.

Twitter

What would you suppose is the number one most valued type of tweet? DMs? Retweets? @replies? According to a SmartBrief on Social Media poll, the most valued type of tweet is "links to useful resources." Second to that are broadcast-style announcements. Not that conversation-type tweets rank fourth at only 7%. 

• Links to useful resources 60%
• Broadcast-style announcements 18%
• I love them all, 10%
• Conversation with other Twitterers, 7%
• Re-tweets, 2%
• Other, 2%

Twitter has become less a tool for conversation and more a tool for conversion. 

As you may know, I'm serving as social media director (part-time) for Practical Ecommerce, one of the ecommerce industry's leading, most widely-read and well-respected publications (small plug). 

When I started working with PeC, the publisher, Kerry Murdock, said he had three goals in mind for how social media could effectively serve the publication: 1) Drive traffic to the Web site, 2) increase newsletter subscriptions, and 3) increase webinar registrations. 

Those particular metrics are the ones he depends on to drive revenue, which comes primarily in the form of advertising. Thus, I set about using social media to meet his expectations. As a result, we have seen a double-digit increase in traffic coming from social networks. (I'm still working on measurements for newsletter and webinar registrations.) 

While I do engage in conversation, which includes retweets, DMs, and all the rest of it, I approach Twitter with those singular ends in view. For PeC, Twitter is a tool for conversion more than it is for conversation. 

Facebook Ecommerce

Since I'm spending a lot more time focused on ecommerce these days, allow me to cite another industry example. It comes in the form of Facebook ecommerce, or what is coming to be known as f-commerce.

There are a number of ecommerce platform providers - Volusion and BigCommerce being two that come to mind - along with several third-party app providers who have developed applications that allow ecommerce transactions to take place inside Facebook (or get their start anyway). 

For example, Payvment allows merchants to set up a shopping cart directly inside their Facebook fan page. The transaction is initiated within Facebook and completed on Paypal, where a secure environment can be guaranteed.

Essentially, Payvment and similar apps turn your fan page from something conversationally-oriented to one that's also rooted in conversion.

SOCIAL MEDIA OR SIMPLY MEDIA

I believe social media is headed in the direction of simply being "media." In the future, all media will be social, so there will be less need to dichotomize it. 

Facebook, which sees itself as the operating system of the social Web, continues to retain dominance by not only fixing its privacy problems, but also allowing the incorporation of social commerce. Not only that, the evolution of the Open Graph enables merchants to bring the Facebook experience into their very own Web sites. 

This "conversation + conversion" convergence doesn't occur without intention. A strategy must be put in place to facilitate it, along with the necessary tools and tactics to implement it. 

That's why I've become a fan of (and reseller for) Infusionsoft. It allows me to take the relationships that start on social networks like Facebook and Twitter and turn them into long-standing relationships that revolve around my brand, products and services, which is yet another reason I believe email and social media were meant for each other. 

You don't have to use Infusionsoft to facilitate such an approach, almost any email platform will do it. I just happen to favor Infusionsoft's "autoresponder on steroids" follow-up sequence capabilities.  

BLOGS AS A VENUE FOR CONVERSION

Let me end this post by returning to where I started, and talk about blogs in light of this new paradigm.

A person who has carried the banner for social media as conversation + conversion is Chris Baggott, founder and CEO of Compendium Blogware. 

Chris understands that, while the editorial content of a blog must remain non-sales oriented, it should always be accompanied by a definite, conspicuously-placed call-to-action. Click on the following screenshot, which was taken from one of Compendium's blogs and you see what I mean. 
 

 
 (click to enlarge)

In an interview from February of this year Chris said, "This word of mouth that I am providing...through my own social channels is going to provide a nice, healthy glow for the company and add measurable ROI. They are going to focus on conversion, and that's one of the big things that we haven't talked about. Companies are really starting to focus on conversion of their blog traffic."

By no means am I declaring an end to the use of social media for customer service, public relations, brand-building or any other conversationally-oriented marketing purpose. What I am saying is that social media is evolving into a channel that has a direct effect on sales and other forms of conversion. It has to, if for no other reason than the CEO (or small business owner) is expecting a measurable return on the investment as a result.

NOTE: This "conversation + conversion" mantra has had a profound effect on my consulting practice. Practically everything I'm doing now has conversion as an end in view. If I can help your company achieve measurable ends through the use of Internet marketing, and more specifically through social media, please don't hesitate to contact me.

In Twitter Six Degrees of Separation Are Actually Five

   

A new study just released reveals that, in Twitter, you don't need six degrees of separation to reach most everyone. In fact, five will do just fine. 

Sysomos, a social media measurement company, analyzed over 5.2 billion Twitter connections and came to some interesting conclusions:

• The "Six Degrees of Separation" for Twitter is actually five.
• On average, a Twitter user will encounter 83% of all other Twitter users by visiting everyone's friends up to a distance of five steps. Sysomos says this means that the Twitter network has good social connectivity, and that, in theory, a re-tweet (RT) does not have to propagate that much to reach a potentially large number of people!
• There are many small, circular connections on Twitter. If you look at your friends, and their friends, you will find someone who follows you.

Again, these finding are based on analysis of over 5.2 billion friend relationships on Twitter. If you want to learn more, continue reading on http://sysomos.com/insidetwitter/sixdegrees/.

I don't know who would be willing to expend the time to drill down five levels to see if that's the case. (I'm betting not even Kevin Bacon would do so.) 

The question I have then is, how does this information help me? Will it enable me to grow my network more effectively and efficiently than I am able to now? It's a question I'm putting before sysomos via an interview, hopefully within the next week. 

How about you...what benefit do you see? 

Sure-fire Way to Make Social Media Work for B2C Small Business

Pat Kitano is one of the smartest people I know. I met Pat years ago during my Blogging Systems days when my business partner Richard Nacht and I were trying to convince the real estate industry that blogging was THE thing to do. Pat was/is a seasoned entrepreneur with keen insights as to how social media can be used for marketing.

Pat recently wrote a post that opened my eyes to how local, retail-oriented small businesses could use social media. It's simple, effective and won't take a great deal of anyone's time. It's involves the use of four social network platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Yelp. 

Here's how it works (and I'm borrowing some great quotes from Pat's post for context):

Facebook

"Facebook is primed to evolve into a massive Sunday advertising circular for local businesses."

Every local small business should set up a Facebook Fan Page. Why? Because, with over 400 million users, over 50% of whom log on every day, there is a great likelihood that your customer is there. What better way to connect with them than by creating a presence there as well.

For many small businesses who have either no Web site or an online brochure, for all intents and purposes the fan page could become their new Web site. 

What do you do once you've set it up? Let me answer that question by asking one. What are you promoting via other forms of advertising (TV, radio, print)? Do the same thing via your fan page. Not only that, use it to create coupons and special offers just for fans. 

Of course, use it as an interactive medium through which you engage with fans, upload interesting content such as videos, blog posts, photos, etc. Make it your digital outpost inside Facebook. 

Click here to learn how to use Facebook for business.

Twitter

"[T]he new local advertising vehicle is the Twitter coupon...Twitter will develop hyperlocal couponing systems that will be online equivalents of PennySaver coupons and Valpak."

If anyone has proven the effectiveness of marketing products via Twitter, it's Dell. Through their Dell Outlet Twitter account, the company has sold millions of dollars worth of inventory with only a minimal investment of resources. Even though they are a Fortune 100 company, the principle holds just as true for small business. 

There are a number of good examples, not the least of which is Naked Pizza in New Orleans, which gained national attention due to their use of Twitter. (Another great example is what Ramon de Leon, owner of a Dominos franchise in Chicago, is doing with Twitter and other forms of social media.)

It hurts me to think of small business not seeing the value of using Twitter for couponing, customer service, customer relationship building, search marketing, and so on. 

Click here to learn more about how to use Twitter for business. 

Foursquare

"Geolocation is changing the social media by providing nothing more than the tagging mechanism to define social networks by localities."

Applications like Foursquare, Gowalla and others are hot right now. If you're not familiar, they are location-based social networks that allow users to "check-in" to wherever they may be at a given moment. In addition, there is a game playing element to each. Foursquare, for example, allows users to accrue points each time they check-in to a given location. The person with the most points is deemed the "mayor." 

"Geolocation is changing the social media by providing nothing more than the tagging mechanism to define social networks by localities. Geolocation facilitates the development of a new, more practical, more intimate Twitter/Foursquare network of friends who just happen to be living down the street," says Pat. 

More and more businesses are rewarding the mayor with special offers, discounts, or freebies (free drink, free appetizer). Think of the benefit to doing this. It's a great way to build repeat traffic to your location. 

Not only that, when a user checks-in, Foursquare shares that information with their social network. And, it can automatically publish the information to the users Twitter and Facebook accounts! Talk about viral, word-of-mouth marketing...using social media, it's on steroids! (Oh, and small business owner, you had to do nothing for this to happen except extend a special offer to the mayor.)

Click here to learn more about how to use Foursquare for business.  

Yelp

"[T]he new reviews column is Yelp."

The fourth social network local, retail small businesses should be using is Yelp, a "rating and review" site that allows consumers to "share the experiences they've had with local businesses and lets business owners share information about their business with their customers."

Claiming your business profile allows you to:

• Communicate with your customers-- privately and publicly
• Track how many people view your business page
• Add photos, a detailed business description, up-to-date information, history, and specialties
• Announce special offers and upcoming events
• Recommend other businesses

It's a way to leverage grass-roots opinion and encourage those who are favorable toward your business to express their pleasure. For those who may post unfavorable comments, by claiming your profile you get the opportunity to turn an enemy into a friend and do so in a public way, which can serve to engender trust by consumers. 

Click here to learn how to use Yelp for business.

What role does the company Web site play?

With all these new outlets, you may think the role of the company Web site is marginalized. To the contrary, I see a unique role as a "hub," or base of operations from which your visitors can connect with you on all of the above. Those that find your first on Facebook, Twitter or Yelp can be directed back to your site. 

I've said it numerous times, the Web today is all about shared connections, not information silos. Connect your company Web site to all the places you have a presence online and connect from those places back to your site. It will create a unique synergy that will attract the attention of human visitors and search engine spiders alike. 

What about the time investment? 

Facebook/Twitter - You will more than likely spend the majority of your time updating your Facebook fan page. It can serve as your social media digital center. From there, you can autopost content to Twitter. Conversely, you can have your Twitter posts publish to your fan page as well. 

There are some things that cannot be automated, such as personal interaction with fans/followers, but that investment of time is well worth it in the long run. 

Foursquare - Your responsibility to Foursquare is simply to a) offer a coupon, special offer or discount to the mayor (or offer something to anyone who checks-in via Foursquare; it doesn't have to only be the mayor) and b) monitor check-in activity and comments. 

Yelp - Claim and populate your business profile, then encourage your best customers to post reviews/ratings there. Each time someone writes a review you will receive an email notification, so you're not having to constantly monitor the site. (Note: Yelp has also launched a geolocation/check-in app for the iPhone.)  

What if I need help?

The Handyman is here to help! I can provide anything from social media strategy consulting to assistance in setting up a Facebook Fan Page, Twitter account, or Yelp profile. DM me using Twitter, email me at pchaney at gmail dot com or call me at 337-804-2081 with questions or to learn more. 

Conclusion

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that Pat's secret sauce in all of this is the use of what he refers to as the Breaking News Network, a series of hyper-local portals that get lots of traffic and attention via the use of aggregated/filtered localized Twitter feeds. In effect, it is a digital "watering hole" where people gather daily to learn about what's going on in their community. 

It's a brilliant concept which Pat is taking to city after city (his target is 300 cities). He sees it as just as essential a component as any of the four I've just mentioned. (And, frankly, so do I.) If you'd like to learn more about BNN, contact Pat at pkitano (at) gmail (dot) com. Tell him I sent you!