I’ll admit, I’ve been reading only tidbits and perhaps should be paying better attention to what’s happening with all of the changes in Facebook’s privacy.
Here’s a nice commentary/recap on what’s been going on in case you’re needing the synopsis, like I did.
The Real Story behind the Facebook Privacy Backlash – The Common Sense Web… An Entrepreneurs’ Blog.
Someday, maybe I’ll have time to be at the forefront of all the newest trends. But, for now, I’m satisfied with keeping up with the people who are and I want to thank them for keeping me apprised of all the latest technology trends and how to use them. I’ve been hearing a lot about Foursquare lately, and I just read this great post on how to use it for my business.
Read this article posted on Social Media Examiner because it talks about the benefits of Foursquare and geo-tagging and how to start implementing it for your business.
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I came across this post by Tim Ferriss, author of one of my favorite books The Four Hour Work Week. Tim inspires me because of his philosophies about life and business, so I like to read what he has to say (and I recommend his book if you are looking for ideas on how to run a successful business and travel the world without working ungodly hours).
Of course, having kids adds a whole new dimension to all of this, but as soon as I figure out how to pair being a mompreneur and traveling the world, will certainly share it on this blog.
Anyway, he recently posted about the new book coming out from the owners of 37Signals, a company whose products I use regularly, and I wanted to share because there are some great insights captured in the excerpts that Tim shares here on his blog. In particular, I like the section on saying “no”, something we as mompreneurs must learn to master over time and a lesson I seem to learn the hard way every week 
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I don’t know about you, but as much as I find Twitter easy to use, I’m still learning how to make it useful for my business purposes. One of the big challenges I’ve found has been in learning how to track how my account is doing, which tweets people are reading and responding to and how to better connect with my audience.
Here’s a great overview of to your Twitter account and start using that data to make meaningful business decisions.
Recently, I have had the opportunity to talk with several moms who are in the process of starting their own business. Like me, they want to be able to create their own hours and work on projects that really inspire them. Even though each of the moms I talked to had different business plans and areas of focus, the one thing that was common among all was the feeling of overwhelm they have when it comes to creating their online presence. Of course, that challenge is not specific to mompreneurs. I think every small-to-midsize business owner feels that same sense each and every day.
One mom asked me pointedly “How Do I Learn All This Stuff?”. That is a great question, and my answer is “You don’t.” It’s not possible to learn and know it all, and as a business owner, you don’t need to. You DO need to have a general sense of what’s going on in the world of social media and marketing, but you do not need to become an expert in all of the specifics. You also DO need to have a clear plan (with the caveat that it will need to be somewhat flexible because things will change as you learn and grow in your business).
So, here are some tips for getting started.
1. Define your target audience. Who will be served by your products and/or services? What are the demographics for your audience, i.e. where do they live, where do they shop, do they work, what are their hobbies/interests, what are the problems they have that you can help to solve?
2. Decide how you want to engage with your customers/potential customers online. Do you want to have an informational website with easy ways to contact you and find you online, e.g. have links to Facebook and Twitter? Do you want to have a blog that you update regularly? Will your blog be your main online presence? If so, how often you do you plan to write for your blog? Do you want to bring on other writers to provide valuable content to your audience?
3. Create a social media marketing plan. Make a list of all of the social networks on which you might want to have a presence. Then, create a priority list for those. Here’s a hint, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the 3 most popular and widely-used social networks, so start there. Remember that there are many tools, e.g. FriendFeed, that allow you to integrate all of your social networks so you can update one and have it update all of them.
4. Learn how to outsource. As I mentioned above, you don’t need to learn and do everything all at once for you business. And, you don’t need to be an expert in all of it either. But, you want to have a general understanding of what’s going on and how you can utilize it so you can decide if you want to hire other people to help. And, having a general idea of what to do can help you to direct those appropriately to help build your online presence. There are many resources out there for hiring freelancers to help you with building your website, writing your blog, building pages on Facebook and Twitter and helping to implement your social media marketing plan. In fact, there are many moms in business who are great in these areas and would love to help.
5. Stay up-to-date on current trends. One of the really great things about the internet today is that you have control over what information you want to receive and how you want receive it. Make sure you are plugging in to the places where you can stay up to date on new technology and marketing trends that can help your business. You don’t have to read or listen to everything every day, but you can certainly glance at articles or headlines to know what’s going on and then delve in further if you’re interested. One thing that I do that helps keep me organized and not so overwhelmed is to find the Facebook Fan pages for the sites and information sources I want to read and become a fan. That way, I get to see all of the updates in my Facebook news feed and I can decide quickly what information I want to learn more about and what information I want to ignore.
Some of the sources I refer to regularly are:
Mashable – www.mashable.com
Social Media Examiner – www.socialmediaexaminer.com
International Social Media Association – www.ismaconnects.org
TechCrunch – www.techcrunch.com
6. Listen to how others are doing it. There are many people who have been successful online and with social media, in particular. Find out what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. Listen to interviews, like the interviews we do with Web Savvy Moms. And, don’t be afraid to ask questions. I’ve found that people are happy to share what they’ve learned and to help out so don’t be shy.
Remember, you don’t need to know it all, and you don’t need to feel overwhelmed. Create a plan and start breaking it down into manageable chunks and you will start to see the payoff from your efforts.
Michael Stelzner just announced on his site, SocialMediaExaminer.com, the 2010 Winners of the Top 10 Social Media Blogs. This is a great list of blogs, written by experts in social media. Check it out and use this list to add to your resource library.
Top 10 Social Media Blogs – The 2010 Winners | Social Media Examiner.
As a small-to-midsize business owner, it can be very challenging to keep up with the infinite ways to market your business online. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere, you know that Facebook is huge and, as a business owner, you need to have a presence there and start using it to get the word out about your products and services. That being said, there is a bit of finesse required if you want to use Facebook appropriately and engage the audience on which you are focused.
This article, written by social media expert Mari Smith on SocialMediaExaminer.com provides some great techniques for building up your fan base and engaging with them properly so they keep coming back.
Remember, you are in business to provide a product or service to someone who has a need to be filled. So, why not use tools like these to make sure you know exactly what the needs of your customers and clients are and how you can best serve them? I think that the more personal we can become with one another in an increasingly virtual world, the better off we will be. You may not have a storefront for your business, but you certainly have a powerful medium to invite people in.
Read the full article here: How to Better Engage Facebook Fan Page ‘Fans’ | Social Media Examiner.
