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No matter whether you’re a social media novice, aficionado, or expert, there is bound to be something in this book you can glean from. It’s a great resource for teachers and students, and it covers all of the basis from blogging to the importance of a social media plan.

If you’ve read this book, let me know your thoughts. I’d love to glean from you, and learn what has and has not worked. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, you can buy it below.

The Social Media Survival Guide by Deltina Hay

You can learn more about Deltina by visiting her website, Social Media Power, or following her @Deltina.

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

Recently, I tried to connect with a local business person through Linkedin.  I didn’t know this person, nor had I ever talked to this person on Twitter, Facebook, or in any other way.  They responded to my request with a one-word e-mail: “Incentivize.”

I wrote this person an e-mail informing them that though we had never met, we had common acquaintances and our businesses complemented on another.  This person responded a couple of days later, “Nice try. Maybe next time.” They concluded their e-mail by insinuating that perhaps we could connect at a later time. There won’t be a next time.

By writing “Nice try. Maybe next time,” this person set a tone for the future of any dealings between us.  Had this person responded by saying something such as, ‘Thank you for reaching out to me, but I prefer to only connect with people I know or have done business with,’ I would have understood.

Instead, this person’s response seemed to insinuate that I had not yet obtained a level of worthiness to connect with them.  Now, I can understand why that person did not want to connect.  Some people only make personal or past business connections through Linkedin, while others are more open about whom they connect with.

If someone reaches out to make a connection with you, you don’t need to make that connection.  Though, be careful of how you turn down that connection.  Think of how you might feel if the situation were reversed and that person responded to you in the way you’re about to respond to them.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

#social#networking #social#media #social#media#marketing #LinkedIn #Bing

Today’s the last day of the battle between search and social.  So far search leads the way with more Internet users relying on search than on social.  Social won round three yesterday, so the counts 2-1.  Today, search could land the final blow, or social could force a tie.  First, I need to make a correction in this first category.  Even though I looked at sites as they’re ranked in the U.S. according to Alexa, Alexa ranks this first category according to all Internet users.  My apologies.

Now, let’s bring out our last two contenders and see if search can deal a knock-out blow to social.  Introducing, on the search side, Bing.  And on the social side, LinkedIn.

Bing

Only 3.65% of all Internet users use MSN

LinkedIn

Only 2.85% of all Internet users use LinkedIn

Bing

About 7.5% of their traffic comes from search engines

LinkedIn

About 16% of their traffic comes from search engines, which means their traffic would decrease by less than 1% without search engines.

Bing

Immediately before visiting Bing, 5.97% visit Google, 5.44% of their user visited Yahoo!, 4.61% visited Facebook, 4.08% visited Live, and 1.67% visited Youtube.  After leaving Bing, 6.15% visit Google, 5.82% visit Facebook, 5.23% visit Yahoo!, 3.28% visit Live, and 2.48% visit YouTube.  MSN is in there also.

LinkedIn

Immediately before going to LinkedIn, 23.77% of their users visited Google, 11.65% visited Facebook, 4.35% visited Yahoo!, 4.1% visited Twitter, 1.71% visited Live, and 1.07% visited YouTube.  Immediately after leaving LinkedIn, 22.63% of their users go to Google, 12.31% go to Facebook, 4.55% go to Twitter, 3.92% go to Yahoo!, 1.19% go to Live, and 1.1% go to Youtube.

So, what’s the verdict? Search and social need one another. I’m going to call it a tie.  What’s my point in all this?  Make sure you use both to bring people to your website. If someones telling you search is dead, their probably not a good person to hire or work with.

Come back tomorrow for the latest news about social media.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

Related articles

• Bing’s New Social Search a First Tiny Step Toward a Giant Future (blogs.forrester.com)
• Bing Deal Could Extend Reach for Businesses on Facebook (clickz.com)
• Bing And Facebook Merge Search And Social (ghacks.net)
• Social Search: Links are Dead, Social is the New Pagerank (webpronews.com)
• Bing makes friends with Facebook (telegraph.co.uk)
• Welcome to the social: Bing uses Facebook friends to power search (arstechnica.com)
• Yahoo Loses Market Share, Bing Is #2 (wpromote.com)
• Bing Gets Something Google Can’t Get, Facebook Data (seroundtable.com)

#social#networking #Twitter #social#media #windows#Live

So far the four most trafficked sites in the U.S. have been those four I’ve looked at. There are some socialization capabilities to the site ranked 5^th according to Alexa (Amazon), and pretty much anyone can add content to the site ranked 6th (Wikipedia). But I wouldn’t consider them social networking sites. It’s hard to even think of Youtube as a social networking site. Twitter is ranked 7^th according to Alexa, and Microsoft’s search engine Windows Live is ranked 11^th. Here are the numbers:

Twitter

8% of all Internet users use Twitter

Live

14.96% of all Internet users use Live

Twitter

About 6.2% of their users come from search engines, so their user base would decrease by less than 1% without search engines.

Live

About 4.4% of their user come from search engines

Twitter

Immediately before visiting Twitter, 12.04% of their users visited Facebook, 9.48% visited Google, 2.66% visited Youtube, 2.11% visited Yahoo, and .94% visited Live (Twitpic and LinkedIn are in there). Immediately after leaving Twitter 11.28% of their users visit Facebook, 9.48% visit Google, 2.88% visit Youtube, 1.91% visit Yahoo, and  .85% visit Live.

Live

Immediately before visiting Live, 13.64% of their users visited Facebook, 5.81% visited Google, 3.49% visited Yahoo, 2.42% visited Youtube, and to small of a portion of users come from Twitter for Alexa to rank them. Immediately after leaving Live, 14.6% of their users go to Facebook, 4.83% go to Google, 2.86% go to Yahoo!, and 2.07% go to Youtube. I should also mention that 10.79% of all users who use Live come from MSN and 15.94% go to MSN.

It doesn’t appear Twitter and Live have a very good relationship. That’s okay because once again the numbers show that search and social must coexist. Live receives 16.06% of their traffic from social networking sites, and Twitter receives 13.33% of their traffic from search engines. It looks like search needs social a little more than social needs search in this battle. Come by tomorrow as our last two contenders duke it out.



Stay social my friends,

Erick

Related articles

• You: The social networking tools you need for business – Feature (earthtimes.org)
• Brand Challenges & Opportunities With Social Media & Mobile (searchengineland.com)
• Digital News Roundup: Oct. 11, 2010 (360i.com)
• Twitter Targets 1 Billion Users, Challenging Facebook for Ads (businessweek.com)
• Twitter predicts it will have 1 billion members (sfgate.com)
• SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 12, 2010 (searchengineland.com)

One thing that’s important to us is the ability to keep our social networking local.  We are more than willing to work with a person/company on the east coast, Canada, or anywhere else in the world.  But a large segment of our audience is here in San Diego.  For that reason, it’s important to us to use a social media monitoring service that allows us to keep our social media marketing efforts local.  Sprout Social will allow you to reach a global market while listening to a local audience.

Sprout Social

1.     Use the + symbol at the top of screen to connect up to five Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, Yelp, and Foursquare profiles.

2.     Use the inbox tab to view your Twitter follower demographics on a pie chart, a social scorecard that tells you the change in your message volume and engagement, and the overall rating of your engagement and influence.

3.     Use the inbox tab to see and answer all your messages from those social networks you’ve connected to, including the ability to see your new followers and follow them.

4.     Use the discovery tab to search for new Tweeters to follow (globally or locally) based on keywords, your business mentions throughout the social web, articles and blogs that mention keywords you select, a Business 360 Agent that graphs your social media interaction, and more.

5.     Use the promotions tab to schedule one time or recurring messages on Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook.  If you want to send messages to those social networks now, just click on the icon of the pencil over the piece of paper at the top of the screen.

There’s much more you can do with Sprout Social, so I encourage you to check out their free trial.  They offer a professional package for $9 a month and a business package for $49 a month.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

So, first thing’s first.  I owe TweetDeck an apology.  I said in yesterday’s blog they don’t allow users to schedule Tweets.  Their latest version, which was never updated on my computer, does allow users to schedule Tweets.  So, I apologize for the misinformation; though, if my computer did not automatically update TweetDeck, there are probably millions of other computers operating outdated versions.

Moving on . . . . If you want to drive traffic to your website, try writing a blog.  It doesn’t have to be everyday, but write one at least once a week.  Don’t just let it sit there.  Tell the world.  If you just write your blog and expect search engines to do all the work for you, you won’t get many views.

Various social bookmarking sites and niche social networking sites integrate with sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  That makes it easier for social media gurus, ninjas, and connoisseurs to let the world know about their blogs and other pertinent information.  Also, those Twitter clients I mentioned yesterday integrate with larger social networking sites.

Think of it like standing on a stage in the center of an NFL football stadium filled with tens of thousands of people.  The football stadium represents Twitter, Facebook, and whatever other social networking sites you use to attract your audience.  The audience . . . well, they represent your audience.  You can shout your message and a few hundred people may hear you, but several thousand won’t.  You’d have a much easier time getting your message out to those tens of thousands of people if you set up microphones and speakers.  Social bookmarking is like those microphones and speakers that allow you to get your message out to a wider audience.

Any thoughts?  How do you use social bookmarking?

Stay social,

Erick