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Entries Tagged as 'Social Media'

How tweet chats work

by Drew McLellan

February 22nd, 2012 · Social Media, Web/Tech

Have you wanted to attend a Tweet Chat but weren’t sure how it worked?  You are not alone, my friend.  Let me see if I can boil it down.

Tweet Chat:  A moderated discussion that happens on Twitter.  They range from business focused topics like leadership (like the one led by Lisa Petrilli and Steve Woodruff) and blogging (like the mega popular BlogChat led by Mack Collier) to crime news and gardening.  And everything in between.

Here’s how it works:  You find a tweet chat that interests you by scrolling through the list kept on Google Docs or one of your favorite bloggers might mention (or host) one.

Each chat has its own hashtag (like #blogchat) so you can follow along.  To participate — you can do that in several ways.

1) Within Twitter itself, you can click on the #hashtag and you’ll see all the recent tweets using that hashtag.  But if it’s a popular one, that gets crazy in a hurry.

2) You can use a tool like Tweetchat.com (there are plenty of others too) to follow the conversation (by entering the chat’s hashtag, it searches for and scrolls the conversation for you).  You can just listen or jump in.

If you’re going to participate, there are some expectations:

  • Use the hashtag if you’re asking a question of the moderator (or another chatter)
  • If you’re responding to something that was said, use the person’s Twitter handle and the hashtag (if what they said is too long to RT and respond)
  • Retweeting is welcomed and encouraged to invite your network into the conversation
  • It’s not cool to go off topic and use the hashtag
  • It’s even less cool to use a chat to market your wares

That’s it.  Very simple and a great way to extend your Twitter network, smarts and typing skills!

Looking for some chats that might be up your alley?  Check out this list: 25 twitter chats every entrepreneur must know.

 

 

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You cannot ignore Google+ for your business

by Drew McLellan

January 10th, 2012 · Social Media, Web/Tech

Google Plus Logo
Google+ cannot be ignored

When Google+ emerged last summer, people’s reactions were to be expected.  The early adopters were all over it. But for most people who were already suffering from social media fatigue — their response was “oh no…not another site for me to maintain!”

And many people simply opted out, not wanting to use/try yet another social networking site.  All along, I have been saying that it  simply could not be ignored. (like here)

Let’s look at time line for those of you who aren’t familiar with how this played out.

  • Summer 2011 — Google+ launches
  • 16 days later — Google+  reaches 10 million users (Facebook took 852 days, Twitter took 780)
  • November 2011 — Google+ launches business pages
  • January 2012 — Google+ has just added three new features to its search giant (see below)
  • Do you think they don’t have the next move already planned?

This newest set of features makes personalization of Google search a given.  Specifically, how/who you are connected to on Google+ will impact your search results. Again — more ammo for the argument that businesses simply cannot ignore how this is changing the world of search. Here is a quick overview of the three new features. (email readers, click here to view video)

Personal Results

These results enable you to find information only pertaining to you and your connections. They show photos and updates from Google+ that include what you’ve shared and what has been shared with you there.

You will be the only one who can access this exact data.

Profiles in Search

These results, also shown in autocomplete and regular search results, will display Google+ profiles of people you know or others you may be interested in following when you search for people’s names.

Once searched, you’ll also have the choice (if you’re signed in and you use it) to add Google+ users to your Circles from directly within the search results.

People and Pages

These results show you profiles or Google+ business pages on the right-hand side of the results page when you search a specific topic or key word/s.

I don’t think I have to paint the picture for you.   Who do you think is going to get a higher search ranking — a business with or without Google+ content?

And take my word on it — this is just the beginning.  You simply cannot ignore Google+.  (Go build your Google+ business page here)

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This book is light on the BS and heavy on social media insight

November 28th, 2011 · Books, Social Media · 6 Comments

Good primer on social media As a member of Amazon’s Vine program, I received a copy of Jason Falls and Erik Deckers‘ new book No Bullshit Social Media*. (click here to buy it) and knew it would be a great read — simply by knowing the authors. I dove into it — and was not [Read more...]

How to use Facebook ads

October 12th, 2011 · Marketing, Media, Social Media · 8 Comments

  Facebook advertising best practices For many businesses, advertising on the social network Facebook has proven to be a very successful model.  Facebook’s model is to be pretty rigid in terms of what you can and can’t do on your ad.  They’re all the same size and shape.  The format for all ads is exactly [Read more...]

The smaller you are, the better Facebook is

September 26th, 2011 · Social Media, Strategy · 13 Comments

  Facebook lets you actually talk to people! A comment made on my blog post about Facebook’s dominance which basically said… “Facebook is only for people who care about social media and media types” had me shaking my head. He’s not alone in his opinion. Check out this recent study that looked at why many [Read more...]

Why Facebook matters to every business

September 21st, 2011 · Media, Social Media, Strategy · 13 Comments

  Why Facebook matters to every business   I’ve heard all the reasons, especially from B2B companies…but the “our customers aren’t on Facebook” excuse is just that, an excuse. We buy radio stations and send direct mail hoping to hit some of our target audience.  Why do we look at Facebook so differently? With statistics [Read more...]

Is social media right for your business?

September 10th, 2011 · Business owner/leader stuff, Social Media, Strategy · 21 Comments

…is social media right for your business? There are a lot of social media “experts” out there who will tell you that every single organization on the globe should be participating in social media.  They will point to the cool Facebook fan pages they’ve made or the funny videos their clients have on YouTube and [Read more...]

What should you buy from a social media savvy agency?

August 5th, 2011 · Business owner/leader stuff, Social Media · 6 Comments

…buy the right help from the right agency Okay…the other day I blew a fuse about social media consultants selling smoke screens and mirrors.  (read my rant here) Which of course begs the question — what SHOULD you buy from someone who actually has an expertise in melding social media into the rest of your [Read more...]

You can’t sleep through your own social media efforts

August 3rd, 2011 · Business owner/leader stuff, Social Media · 30 Comments

  …no effort, no real gain I will admit right off the bat, this is a bit of a rant, which you know I don’t do very often. I was on the phone with a prospect (an organization who is just contemplating how/if they should begin to participate in social media) and I was talking [Read more...]

Radio show on book crowdsourcing

July 5th, 2011 · Books, Social Media, Strategy · 6 Comments

  …media coverage for Age #1 One of the best benefits of being a part of the Age of Conversation series is that I’ve met a lot of really smart, generous people who do good work and celebrate others’ good work. That’s how I had the good fortune of being a guest on the US [Read more...]