• 95% of new media users believe companies or brands should have a social media presence.
• 89% believe that they should interact with their consumers in this space.

If you have to ask whether or not you or your company should be engaged in social media, go back and read the two statistics above.

Your customers and prospects are telling you that they want you or your brand to have a LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other types of social accounts. They are also telling you that they want you to engage in conversations with them.

One of the questions I get asked by business owners often is “why would someone want to connect, follow, or friend ‘my company’, ‘my brand’, ‘my product’, etc.? People using your product or service already have some level of attachment to it. Social media just allows them to have a deeper attachment. If they have a question, a comment, or a concern they like that they can reach out and communicate that message directly.

One of our client’s is Copeland’s New Orleans Style restaurants. Here are some comments from people that follow Copeland’s on Twitter:

“Going to enjoy some bow-tie pasta spinach artichoke dip @CopelandsATL with the in-laws. Oh yeah!”

“Chillin’ at @CopelandsATL with @MissTikiBaby for drinks and desserts White Russian and White Chocolate Bread Pudding #dying”

“Hands downs @CopelandsATL has the best brunch!!!”

“@CopelandsATL I’ve had the fried crawfish its great. Goes great w/ a cheesecake Napoleon w/ the rum sauce/ pralines”

Some from Facebook

“We LOVE Copeland’s. And we love our Saints!! Come on North Cobb County. Let’s get a great crowd to show up for Superbowl Sunday for the Saint’s WIN! ?I want to be with a huge group of fans at the Kennesaw Copeland’s, watching on the big screen, eating some great food like shrimp and grits!”

There are more comments, tweets, retweets, photos posted …all from people who want to share their experience with a restaurant. I’ve seen similar results with Political Candidates, Business Coaches, Insurance Brokers, Chiropractors, and a number of other businesses.

People want to be heard and if you make the effort to engage them in the social networks where they interact, they’ll talk. Often what they say will be positive thoughts and opinions about your business.

I’ll end this with two more statistics that I think are relevant.

• 51% of respondents saying that social media has influenced their online transactions.
• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations

These two statistics reinforce the value of others posting positive messages about your company and how that can impact the purchase decisions of others.

If you’re still wondering if you and your company can benefit from social media, then I’m not sure what I can say that says it better than the statistics above. Its not so much a question of can it work but more a question of how are your going to make it work.

You need to become your own VP of Getting It Done!

Social Media is everywhere. They talk about it on the news and radio, there are articles in newspapers and magazines, and searching “Social Media” on Google returns 194 million results.

If you want to learn more about it there are hundreds of thousands of blogs, podcasts, and videos available to review. There is no excuse why you cannot figure out how to put social media to work for you. Well maybe one excuse.

That excuse is the missing ingredient in most people’s social media strategy and its “Time”. You can’t learn time and its a limited resource. You either have it or you don’t. Or you need to find or create it.

You really have three choices if you want to get serious about making social media a part of your marketing efforts.

• You can learn it from scratch by simply diving in and figuring things out.
• You can tap into the knowledge of others through classes, books, workshops, blogs, audio, and podcasts.
• You can outsource your efforts.

Regardless of which you choose you will still have to invest some time, but In the end its more a matter of time and money. (more…)

Actually the blog wasn’t competing but I was using two posts that are currently listed here: “The 7 Worst LinkedIn Mistakes and Their Fixes” and “Are You a Lion, Turtle, HoundDog, or Alley Cat – What’s Your LinkedIn Connection Strategy”.

Here’s a press snippet:

“Blog-Off II, a blogging contest offering social media enthusiasts and professionals the opportunity to be independently assessed by judges and statistics on their capability of implementing the fundamentals of social media marketing, came to a close with the announcement of the winner on December 24th.  This years winner, Sean Nelson author of the Social Media Sonar blog, was able to beat out an impressive collection of 28 bloggers representing 6 countries.  During the 12 day contest. Sean’s two posts generated over 8,000 visits and over 200 comments, with an impressive time spent on each post of 6:17 and 5:09 (that’s minutes:seconds).”

What’s not covered in the results above are the several hundred comments that were made in LinkedIn groups where I posted a link to the articles in a Discussion Post and as a News Article. (more…)

Back in 1998 I started building my first website for an Insurance company. The CEO had heard that in one of my graduate school classes I had had to submit a class project using html. He decided that I was just the person he was looking for to build the companies first website.

It was true that I had used html in that project, but all I really did was sit next to a project member while he copied snippets of code from a book to create our first web page. At the time I started creating the companies website it was cool and cutting edge to have a website but it wasn’t necessarily viewed as a business requirement. That would change over the next year.

In 2010 I think we’re at a similar point. Social Media/Networking is still viewed by some as not a business requirement but I expect that will change over the next year. Some will do so because they get it, others because they fear getting left behind. Even if they’re not sure what it is they might be left behind by.

To start off the new year I’m going to discuss what I call the 4 C’s of social media. These are the four concepts we focus on with our clients. (more…)

September was a busy and productive month with 7 posts, including the first three parts of my 10 part LinkedIn series “Can LinkedIn Work for You?”.  This month also included a primer on Twitter speak and a graphic detailing the social media/networking process.

Here’s a review and links to each article.

3 Steps to LinkedIn Success

Even if you’re not at the head of the list, only 24% of LinkedIn users are deemed “Active Users”. So once again the opportunity is out there. You simply need to focus on these three areas starting out to find success with LinkedIn.

Enhance Your Networking with LinkedIn (part 3 of 10)

The core of LinkedIn revolves around connecting to other business professionals. Networking exclusively on LinkedIn, though, ignores the human element of face to face interaction. How do you use it to enhance your other networking?

Do You Speak Twittinese?

Social networking and social media are introducing new languages in order to communicate. For those of you still working on speaking the native language of Twittinese, I offer this basic primer course.

Why Are You On LinkedIn? (Part 2 of 10)

In Part 2 of the 10 Part Series “Can LinkedIn Work for You?” we start with a question…“Why are you on LinkedIn?” LinkedIn takes time and effort to produce results. Without this answer “How do you know what actions you should be taking?”

LinkedIn User Guide

Why do only 25% of LinkedIn members use the site on a regular basis? Because most don’t know what to do after signing up. If you haven’t figured out how to use LinkedIn these resources will help.

Can LinkedIn Work for You? (part 1 of 10)

The first article in this 10 Part series asks “Can LinkedIn work for you?”. There are over 45 million people now on LinkedIn but only about 25% are active users. These articles will provide tips and strategies to more effectively use LinkedIn.

Social Media Process in a Picture

Yesterday I wrote about 6 tools that we use at SONARconnects to create and implement social media/networking strategies for ourselves and our client’s. This got me to thinking about how to simplify things by laying out the process in a graphic.

I speak one language.  I did learn a few words of Latin in my freshman year of college.  And growing up in New Orleans and spending time in Lafayette, LA I learned a few choice words in Cajun French.  But for the record I claim just the one.

I don’t know a single shortened word of Text (as in to txt).  No desire to learn the first.  But Twitter is simple enough that even I can figure it out.  For those of you still working on speaking the native language of Twitinese, I offer this basic primer course.

Tweet
A tweet is simply a statement, message, or string of words composed of a 140 or less characters.  It’s a slightly elongated headline, but like a headline, the more interesting the tweet the more likely someone will react and take action with it.

@username
This is your handle on LinkedIn.  I’m old enough to remember when CB radio’s were the hot thing (Think Smokey and the Bandit) and every trucker and some other interesting people had creative handles.  “That’s a big 10-4 Big Momma, I’ll catch you on the flip flop”.   CB’s were the Texting of the 70’s.

Want to send a tweet to someone, use their handle.  Respond to a tweet and it adds the @ of the person you are replying to.

Unfortunately there’s a downside too.  @’s done solely for the purpose of spamming your marketing message are @ssinine.  They’re enough to make me unfollow someone.  If your message can’t gain traction in a regular tweet what makes anyone think it will do better by adding my @seanenelson.

Direct Message or DM
A good idea, that isn’t much use if you have a couple of hundred followers.  When I first started on Twitter I tried to look at and reply to direct messages.  Now the only time I do is when I’m waiting for an oil change and have nothing better to do with my iPhone.

Automated replies when you follow someone pretty much killed DM.  If you want to send someone a message you’ll have better luck putting a message in a bottle than sending a DM on Twitter. (more…)

Mondays are the day that I post my most significant blog post for the week.  If you’re looking for Part 2 in the 10 Part LinkedIn series it will be released on Monday.

One of the statements I made in Part 1 was that I wasn’t sure why people chose to sign up for a LinkedIn account and then did nothing.  Someone posted a comment to the blog stating that most people don’t know what to do once they sign up for an account.

I can understand that lack of knowledge would lead to lack of activity.  The next question I have, though, is “why is anyone letting a lack of knowledge get in the way of a potential resource that can help you grow your network, develop relationships, and drive new business?”

With any new tool, technology, etc. you have the choice in how long it takes to go from a novice to an effective user.

• You can choose to do nothing
• You can choose to learn it on your own
• You can choose to tap into the knowledge of others
• You can choose to outsource the activity

When I started to learn how to use LinkedIn I chose #2 and #3.  First I looked around the site to see if I could figure it out on my own.  While I learned the basics I decided I would be better served tapping into the knowledge of others to speed up the learning curve.

I started reading any blog I could find that talked about LinkedIn.  At the time there weren’t that many so I bought a LinkedIn ebook.  This one ebook provided the framework I needed to build a foundation of knowledge about LinkedIn.  It also introduced me to some tips and strategies to put to work immediately.

The book I purchased was a high level overview of LinkedIn.  When I decided to write my first LinkedIn ebook I decided I would take the opposite approach and write a very detailed book.  I also decided to base the book chapters on the navigational structure of LinkedIn, making it a great reference tool.  Have a question about Groups, go to the Groups chapter.

In June I released the revision of my first book re-titled as the “LinkedIn MBA”.  I also wrote a workbook, the “LinkedIn MBA Workbook” to help people create a “killer” profile, begin building their credibility, and extend their reach.  Combined the two form a perfect resource for someone who has a LinkedIn account but is not sure what they should be doing.

The book is over 150 pages with close to 100 screenshots and the workbook is around 21 pages.  So you have a choice.  You can continue to do nothing.  You can invest the time to learn it from scratch.  Or you can invest $9.97 (the cost for the book and workbook combined) and begin putting LinkedIn to work for you as soon as today.

The question to ask yourself it what is your time worth?  The minimum wage is $7.25 so if it takes you 40 hours to learn what is in the book and work book your time in cost at a minimum would be $290.  (the average hourly rate for a LinkedIn member is actually $52.40 making the time cost $2,096.15)

The information I share on this blog is free and you can learn a lot by reading through the posts.  I just don’t have the space to provide information in as detailed a manner as in the book.  Also the blog is written based on what I find interesting each week, whereas the book is organized more on a start to finish basis.

For more information on the LinkedIn MBA and the LinkedIn MBA Work book go to http://socialmediasonar.com/book.html

Stop by next Monday for Part 2, “Why are you on LinkedIn?”, of my LinkedIn series.

Yesterday I wrote about 6 tools that we use at SONARconnects to create and implement social media/networking strategies for ourselves and our client’s.  This got me to thinking about how to simplify things by laying out the process in a graphic.  Below is the result of that exercise.  I hope it helps you see the overall picture.

Does this help you see things more clearly?
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Many people use the term “Social Media” to represent the vast array of social networking sites, social media sites, and tools available.  What we’re really talking about is the Social Web.  The Social Web is made up of Social Networking and Social Media.

Social Networking is about sharing the conversation.  Social Media is about sharing content.  Combined they form an effective toolbox to grow you business.

Sharing the Conversation
There are hundreds social networking sites available and you could spend unlimited time trying to determine how to use each.  I’m looking to use social networking in as efficient manner as possible so I focus on two networking sites and one hybrid.

The two sites that I use are LinkedIn and Facebook.  Both allow me to build communities of people, engage and interact with them, and communicate to on an ongoing basis.  The results may include branding but the end goal is always monetization.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a natural fit from a membership perspective.  The average household income per member is $109,000, close to 80% have attended college, and 49% are decision makers.  The average LinkedIn member is a great prospect.

LinkedIn is a somewhat closed environment and it takes time and effort to build the right communities and typically most of our communications are indirect in nature.  I want those in my networks to see the messages I deliver over time and to get to know, like, and trust me so that when they have a need for the services I provide, I’m top of mind.

It also doesn’t hurt that you have the ability to prospect and then see how you connect into each opportunity. (more…)

A lot gets written up in press releases, blog posts, Tweets, and other communications about the number of members on the various sites.   There’s a huge difference though between the number of users each site has and the number of users who are consistently interacting with others.

I recently came across some statistics that I’m going to share.   These statistics were revealed in a study by Anderson Analytics and you can view the report by clicking on the company name.   The study estimates that there are 110 million people who regularly use Social Networking Sites (SNS).

On average, users of SNS sites login to the sites 5 days a week, 4 times a day and spend about 1 hour on SNS each day.   While not explicitly stated this is what I would assume that they consider a regular user. So here are the top sites with the number of users and the number of regular users in parentheses.

• Facebook: 250 million (78 million) 31.2% regular users
• MySpace: 150 million (67 million) 44.6% regular users
• Twitter: 28 million (17 million) *estimated membership 60.7% regular users
• LinkedIn: 45 million (11 million) 24.4% regular users (more…)