Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

Riding the new wave o f o n l i n e m a r ke ti n g

SocialBeing

Volume I Febuary 2012

Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

Before you get started on making money,

you need to learn the rules. Neti-quette is one thing (at least, it’s that

one thing you remember from your computer class back in the day), but if you want social media success you’re going to need a complete make-over! Look pretty, talk pretty, stand up tall, and

don’t forget to throw in some polite humour. Who knew one day your worst nightmare of attending Finishing School would haunt you in the form of something as casual as social media! At least the Finishing School isn’t

for you, it’s to turn your business image into the spectacular young soul you always dreamed it would be. And when your messy, misbe-haved, youngster transforms into a handsome gentle-man of a business, you will be glad you took the chance and invested in good social media skills development. So here is what you need to know about online social skills:

Like real life social skills there are psychological aspects to online social skills as well but, it’s just a much harsher world out there and you’ll need to adapt. Here are five tips for acquiring the correct social skills for social networking:

1. If you’re going to write a comment on a blog post, comment on a Facebook status or send out a Tweet it would be wise of you to re-read it with the eyes and mind of your audience before you press the Enter key.

Try to see whether readers

will approve of the message you’re trying to get across before you send it! 2. Support your fellow bloggers, Tweeters and social networkers; instead of trying to fix the problem or tell someone that they're doing something incorrectly, you might want to bite your tongue and show a little more enthusiasm for the things they've done well. 3. Be prepared for the fact that people are forming an opinion in their minds about you as they read your status update. It might be an intimidating thing to deal with but it comes with the territory; you will probably do the same to others who join your online community. 4. In your mind, you know everything there is to know about your business niche. That’s great; but it’s best to save your know-it-all attitude for your blog (where you are boss, and

no one can argue it). On other social media platforms it is wise to be less pedantic about what others have to say.

5. You could post anonymously, and a lot of people do, espe-cially on YouTube, but if you don’t want to put your name

behind something you’re saying ‘publicly’ then you may want to reconsider making the comment.

Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

Chapter 1 – So Are Your Social Skills In Order? 1 Chapter 2 – Searching For The Rich, The Fresh and The Funny 5Chapter 3 – Building Social Connections 9Chapter 4 – You’re Now Officially A Social Business 11Chapter 5 – Your New Corporate Philosophy 13Chapter 6 – Now Improve Your Sales 15Chapter 7 – We’re Here To Help You 17

Contents

You’ve heard of social media – that’s why you’re here reading this book – but you just can’t get your head around why you need to implement it into your future business plan. To give you credit, it’s not as simple as the pros make it out to be. It can be time consuming and

downright irritating if you don’t really know what you’re doing. You could wing it – that’s how so many have learnt to use it – but if you’re going the risk-free route it’s best to devise a strategy to get you the social media outfit that’s going to make you

the centre of attention, and the envy of so many! That is, so many as in close to a billion people! Social media gives you that big a target market! Facebook statistics show that their once young users are now growing up and their fastest growing

age-group ranges between 18 and 34 year olds, with the second largest and rapidly growing and rang-ing between 35 and 45 year olds. Moral of the story: It’s no longer consid-ered child’s play to get into the social media scene.

Before you get started on making money,

you need to learn the rules. Neti-quette is one thing (at least, it’s that

one thing you remember from your computer class back in the day), but if you want social media success you’re going to need a complete make-over! Look pretty, talk pretty, stand up tall, and

don’t forget to throw in some polite humour. Who knew one day your worst nightmare of attending Finishing School would haunt you in the form of something as casual as social media! At least the Finishing School isn’t

for you, it’s to turn your business image into the spectacular young soul you always dreamed it would be. And when your messy, misbe-haved, youngster transforms into a handsome gentle-man of a business, you will be glad you took the chance and invested in good social media skills development. So here is what you need to know about online social skills:

Like real life social skills there are psychological aspects to online social skills as well but, it’s just a much harsher world out there and you’ll need to adapt. Here are five tips for acquiring the correct social skills for social networking:

1. If you’re going to write a comment on a blog post, comment on a Facebook status or send out a Tweet it would be wise of you to re-read it with the eyes and mind of your audience before you press the Enter key.

Try to see whether readers

will approve of the message you’re trying to get across before you send it! 2. Support your fellow bloggers, Tweeters and social networkers; instead of trying to fix the problem or tell someone that they're doing something incorrectly, you might want to bite your tongue and show a little more enthusiasm for the things they've done well. 3. Be prepared for the fact that people are forming an opinion in their minds about you as they read your status update. It might be an intimidating thing to deal with but it comes with the territory; you will probably do the same to others who join your online community. 4. In your mind, you know everything there is to know about your business niche. That’s great; but it’s best to save your know-it-all attitude for your blog (where you are boss, and

no one can argue it). On other social media platforms it is wise to be less pedantic about what others have to say.

5. You could post anonymously, and a lot of people do, espe-cially on YouTube, but if you don’t want to put your name

behind something you’re saying ‘publicly’ then you may want to reconsider making the comment.

Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends. - Jeff Bezos, CEO at amazon.com

““

So Are Your Social Skills In Order?

Chapter 1

Before you get started on making money,

you need to learn the rules. Neti-quette is one thing (at least, it’s that

one thing you remember from your computer class back in the day), but if you want social media success you’re going to need a complete make-over! Look pretty, talk pretty, stand up tall, and

don’t forget to throw in some polite humour. Who knew one day your worst nightmare of attending Finishing School would haunt you in the form of something as casual as social media! At least the Finishing School isn’t

for you, it’s to turn your business image into the spectacular young soul you always dreamed it would be. And when your messy, misbe-haved, youngster transforms into a handsome gentle-man of a business, you will be glad you took the chance and invested in good social media skills development. So here is what you need to know about online social skills:

Like real life social skills there are psychological aspects to online social skills as well but, it’s just a much harsher world out there and you’ll need to adapt. Here are five tips for acquiring the correct social skills for social networking:

1. If you’re going to write a comment on a blog post, comment on a Facebook status or send out a Tweet it would be wise of you to re-read it with the eyes and mind of your audience before you press the Enter key.

Try to see whether readers

will approve of the message you’re trying to get across before you send it! 2. Support your fellow bloggers, Tweeters and social networkers; instead of trying to fix the problem or tell someone that they're doing something incorrectly, you might want to bite your tongue and show a little more enthusiasm for the things they've done well. 3. Be prepared for the fact that people are forming an opinion in their minds about you as they read your status update. It might be an intimidating thing to deal with but it comes with the territory; you will probably do the same to others who join your online community. 4. In your mind, you know everything there is to know about your business niche. That’s great; but it’s best to save your know-it-all attitude for your blog (where you are boss, and

no one can argue it). On other social media platforms it is wise to be less pedantic about what others have to say.

5. You could post anonymously, and a lot of people do, espe-cially on YouTube, but if you don’t want to put your name

behind something you’re saying ‘publicly’ then you may want to reconsider making the comment.

Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends. - Jeff Bezos, CEO at amazon.com

Look Pretty, Talk PrettyStand up tall and don’t forget to throw in some polite Humour.

Before you get started on making money,

you need to learn the rules. Neti-quette is one thing (at least, it’s that

one thing you remember from your computer class back in the day), but if you want social media success you’re going to need a complete make-over! Look pretty, talk pretty, stand up tall, and

don’t forget to throw in some polite humour. Who knew one day your worst nightmare of attending Finishing School would haunt you in the form of something as casual as social media! At least the Finishing School isn’t

for you, it’s to turn your business image into the spectacular young soul you always dreamed it would be. And when your messy, misbe-haved, youngster transforms into a handsome gentle-man of a business, you will be glad you took the chance and invested in good social media skills development. So here is what you need to know about online social skills:

Like real life social skills there are psychological aspects to online social skills as well but, it’s just a much harsher world out there and you’ll need to adapt. Here are five tips for acquiring the correct social skills for social networking:

1. If you’re going to write a comment on a blog post, comment on a Facebook status or send out a Tweet it would be wise of you to re-read it with the eyes and mind of your audience before you press the Enter key.

Try to see whether readers

will approve of the message you’re trying to get across before you send it! 2. Support your fellow bloggers, Tweeters and social networkers; instead of trying to fix the problem or tell someone that they're doing something incorrectly, you might want to bite your tongue and show a little more enthusiasm for the things they've done well. 3. Be prepared for the fact that people are forming an opinion in their minds about you as they read your status update. It might be an intimidating thing to deal with but it comes with the territory; you will probably do the same to others who join your online community. 4. In your mind, you know everything there is to know about your business niche. That’s great; but it’s best to save your know-it-all attitude for your blog (where you are boss, and

no one can argue it). On other social media platforms it is wise to be less pedantic about what others have to say.

5. You could post anonymously, and a lot of people do, espe-cially on YouTube, but if you don’t want to put your name

behind something you’re saying ‘publicly’ then you may want to reconsider making the comment.

Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

Before you get started on making money,

you need to learn the rules. Neti-quette is one thing (at least, it’s that

one thing you remember from your computer class back in the day), but if you want social media success you’re going to need a complete make-over! Look pretty, talk pretty, stand up tall, and

don’t forget to throw in some polite humour. Who knew one day your worst nightmare of attending Finishing School would haunt you in the form of something as casual as social media! At least the Finishing School isn’t

for you, it’s to turn your business image into the spectacular young soul you always dreamed it would be. And when your messy, misbe-haved, youngster transforms into a handsome gentle-man of a business, you will be glad you took the chance and invested in good social media skills development. So here is what you need to know about online social skills:

Like real life social skills there are psychological aspects to online social skills as well but, it’s just a much harsher world out there and you’ll need to adapt. Here are five tips for acquiring the correct social skills for social networking:

1. If you’re going to write a comment on a blog post, comment on a Facebook status or send out a Tweet it would be wise of you to re-read it with the eyes and mind of your audience before you press the Enter key.

Try to see whether readers

will approve of the message you’re trying to get across before you send it! 2. Support your fellow bloggers, Tweeters and social networkers; instead of trying to fix the problem or tell someone that they're doing something incorrectly, you might want to bite your tongue and show a little more enthusiasm for the things they've done well. 3. Be prepared for the fact that people are forming an opinion in their minds about you as they read your status update. It might be an intimidating thing to deal with but it comes with the territory; you will probably do the same to others who join your online community. 4. In your mind, you know everything there is to know about your business niche. That’s great; but it’s best to save your know-it-all attitude for your blog (where you are boss, and

no one can argue it). On other social media platforms it is wise to be less pedantic about what others have to say.

5. You could post anonymously, and a lot of people do, espe-cially on YouTube, but if you don’t want to put your name

behind something you’re saying ‘publicly’ then you may want to reconsider making the comment.

Research is the key to any successful online venture, but especially when it comes to social media. The best thing about research, is that you can take it with you wherever you’re going in the form of your cell phone/mobile device.

Whenever you have a free moment to get some facts straight, use it! You never know how much time you’ll have later in the day. Time is precious. We all know how very little of it we have every day, so it makes sense to strategize what information you’ll

be putting up via social media on a regular basis. Take an afternoon to sit down (preferably with Google) and really get into understanding your niche. Then write down a month’s schedule of what articles and blogs you will write, what status updates

you will put up, what inter-esting reads you will share, and possibly what videos you will upload. You’ll want to pick things that fit in with your niche. If you’re a hardware store, it doesn’t make sense to write a blog about the latest fashion accessories

nity. Perhaps some DIY tips once in a while or a paint brand comparison would interest your readers. Rich, fresh, and funny is the way to go – ask any woman and she’ll tell you these are the three most important charac-teristics to look for in a personality. Believe it or not, your online profile needs an amazing personality! If you think you can’t

o r new techno-

logical advances; you’ll want to write about things that

will interest your c o m m u -

Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

Before you get started on making money,

you need to learn the rules. Neti-quette is one thing (at least, it’s that

one thing you remember from your computer class back in the day), but if you want social media success you’re going to need a complete make-over! Look pretty, talk pretty, stand up tall, and

don’t forget to throw in some polite humour. Who knew one day your worst nightmare of attending Finishing School would haunt you in the form of something as casual as social media! At least the Finishing School isn’t

for you, it’s to turn your business image into the spectacular young soul you always dreamed it would be. And when your messy, misbe-haved, youngster transforms into a handsome gentle-man of a business, you will be glad you took the chance and invested in good social media skills development. So here is what you need to know about online social skills:

Like real life social skills there are psychological aspects to online social skills as well but, it’s just a much harsher world out there and you’ll need to adapt. Here are five tips for acquiring the correct social skills for social networking:

1. If you’re going to write a comment on a blog post, comment on a Facebook status or send out a Tweet it would be wise of you to re-read it with the eyes and mind of your audience before you press the Enter key.

Try to see whether readers

will approve of the message you’re trying to get across before you send it! 2. Support your fellow bloggers, Tweeters and social networkers; instead of trying to fix the problem or tell someone that they're doing something incorrectly, you might want to bite your tongue and show a little more enthusiasm for the things they've done well. 3. Be prepared for the fact that people are forming an opinion in their minds about you as they read your status update. It might be an intimidating thing to deal with but it comes with the territory; you will probably do the same to others who join your online community. 4. In your mind, you know everything there is to know about your business niche. That’s great; but it’s best to save your know-it-all attitude for your blog (where you are boss, and

no one can argue it). On other social media platforms it is wise to be less pedantic about what others have to say.

5. You could post anonymously, and a lot of people do, espe-cially on YouTube, but if you don’t want to put your name

behind something you’re saying ‘publicly’ then you may want to reconsider making the comment.

Research is the key to any successful online venture, but especially when it comes to social media. The best thing about research, is that you can take it with you wherever you’re going in the form of your cell phone/mobile device.

Whenever you have a free moment to get some facts straight, use it! You never know how much time you’ll have later in the day. Time is precious. We all know how very little of it we have every day, so it makes sense to strategize what information you’ll

be putting up via social media on a regular basis. Take an afternoon to sit down (preferably with Google) and really get into understanding your niche. Then write down a month’s schedule of what articles and blogs you will write, what status updates

you will put up, what inter-esting reads you will share, and possibly what videos you will upload. You’ll want to pick things that fit in with your niche. If you’re a hardware store, it doesn’t make sense to write a blog about the latest fashion accessories

nity. Perhaps some DIY tips once in a while or a paint brand comparison would interest your readers. Rich, fresh, and funny is the way to go – ask any woman and she’ll tell you these are the three most important charac-teristics to look for in a personality. Believe it or not, your online profile needs an amazing personality! If you think you can’t

o r new techno-

logical advances; you’ll want to write about things that

will interest your c o m m u -

Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

Before you get started on making money,

you need to learn the rules. Neti-quette is one thing (at least, it’s that

one thing you remember from your computer class back in the day), but if you want social media success you’re going to need a complete make-over! Look pretty, talk pretty, stand up tall, and

don’t forget to throw in some polite humour. Who knew one day your worst nightmare of attending Finishing School would haunt you in the form of something as casual as social media! At least the Finishing School isn’t

for you, it’s to turn your business image into the spectacular young soul you always dreamed it would be. And when your messy, misbe-haved, youngster transforms into a handsome gentle-man of a business, you will be glad you took the chance and invested in good social media skills development. So here is what you need to know about online social skills:

Like real life social skills there are psychological aspects to online social skills as well but, it’s just a much harsher world out there and you’ll need to adapt. Here are five tips for acquiring the correct social skills for social networking:

1. If you’re going to write a comment on a blog post, comment on a Facebook status or send out a Tweet it would be wise of you to re-read it with the eyes and mind of your audience before you press the Enter key.

Try to see whether readers

will approve of the message you’re trying to get across before you send it! 2. Support your fellow bloggers, Tweeters and social networkers; instead of trying to fix the problem or tell someone that they're doing something incorrectly, you might want to bite your tongue and show a little more enthusiasm for the things they've done well. 3. Be prepared for the fact that people are forming an opinion in their minds about you as they read your status update. It might be an intimidating thing to deal with but it comes with the territory; you will probably do the same to others who join your online community. 4. In your mind, you know everything there is to know about your business niche. That’s great; but it’s best to save your know-it-all attitude for your blog (where you are boss, and

no one can argue it). On other social media platforms it is wise to be less pedantic about what others have to say.

5. You could post anonymously, and a lot of people do, espe-cially on YouTube, but if you don’t want to put your name

behind something you’re saying ‘publicly’ then you may want to reconsider making the comment.

Blogs are about sharing with authenticity. A good enterprise blog can help you really connect deeply with your customers in a meaningful way because the content is not only relevant but, insightful and personal. I think most enterprises miss that point. When you do it right, your customers will walk away not only having learned something new but will also feel much more connected to your brand. - David Armano, Logic + Emotion.

““

Chapter 2

Research is the key to any successful online venture, but especially when it comes to social media. The best thing about research, is that you can take it with you wherever you’re going in the form of your cell phone/mobile device.

Whenever you have a free moment to get some facts straight, use it! You never know how much time you’ll have later in the day. Time is precious. We all know how very little of it we have every day, so it makes sense to strategize what information you’ll

be putting up via social media on a regular basis. Take an afternoon to sit down (preferably with Google) and really get into understanding your niche. Then write down a month’s schedule of what articles and blogs you will write, what status updates

you will put up, what inter-esting reads you will share, and possibly what videos you will upload. You’ll want to pick things that fit in with your niche. If you’re a hardware store, it doesn’t make sense to write a blog about the latest fashion accessories

nity. Perhaps some DIY tips once in a while or a paint brand comparison would interest your readers. Rich, fresh, and funny is the way to go – ask any woman and she’ll tell you these are the three most important charac-teristics to look for in a personality. Believe it or not, your online profile needs an amazing personality! If you think you can’t

o r new techno-

logical advances; you’ll want to write about things that

will interest your c o m m u -

Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

Before you get started on making money,

you need to learn the rules. Neti-quette is one thing (at least, it’s that

one thing you remember from your computer class back in the day), but if you want social media success you’re going to need a complete make-over! Look pretty, talk pretty, stand up tall, and

don’t forget to throw in some polite humour. Who knew one day your worst nightmare of attending Finishing School would haunt you in the form of something as casual as social media! At least the Finishing School isn’t

for you, it’s to turn your business image into the spectacular young soul you always dreamed it would be. And when your messy, misbe-haved, youngster transforms into a handsome gentle-man of a business, you will be glad you took the chance and invested in good social media skills development. So here is what you need to know about online social skills:

Like real life social skills there are psychological aspects to online social skills as well but, it’s just a much harsher world out there and you’ll need to adapt. Here are five tips for acquiring the correct social skills for social networking:

1. If you’re going to write a comment on a blog post, comment on a Facebook status or send out a Tweet it would be wise of you to re-read it with the eyes and mind of your audience before you press the Enter key.

Try to see whether readers

will approve of the message you’re trying to get across before you send it! 2. Support your fellow bloggers, Tweeters and social networkers; instead of trying to fix the problem or tell someone that they're doing something incorrectly, you might want to bite your tongue and show a little more enthusiasm for the things they've done well. 3. Be prepared for the fact that people are forming an opinion in their minds about you as they read your status update. It might be an intimidating thing to deal with but it comes with the territory; you will probably do the same to others who join your online community. 4. In your mind, you know everything there is to know about your business niche. That’s great; but it’s best to save your know-it-all attitude for your blog (where you are boss, and

no one can argue it). On other social media platforms it is wise to be less pedantic about what others have to say.

5. You could post anonymously, and a lot of people do, espe-cially on YouTube, but if you don’t want to put your name

behind something you’re saying ‘publicly’ then you may want to reconsider making the comment.

Blogs are about sharing with authenticity. A good enterprise blog can help you really connect deeply with your customers in a meaningful way because the content is not only relevant but, insightful and personal. I think most enterprises miss that point. When you do it right, your customers will walk away not only having learned something new but will also feel much more connected to your brand. - David Armano, Logic + Emotion.

Whenever you get some free time during the day,use it! You never know howmuch time you’ll have laterin the day.

Research is the key to any successful online venture, but especially when it comes to social media. The best thing about research, is that you can take it with you wherever you’re going in the form of your cell phone/mobile device.

Whenever you have a free moment to get some facts straight, use it! You never know how much time you’ll have later in the day. Time is precious. We all know how very little of it we have every day, so it makes sense to strategize what information you’ll

be putting up via social media on a regular basis. Take an afternoon to sit down (preferably with Google) and really get into understanding your niche. Then write down a month’s schedule of what articles and blogs you will write, what status updates

you will put up, what inter-esting reads you will share, and possibly what videos you will upload. You’ll want to pick things that fit in with your niche. If you’re a hardware store, it doesn’t make sense to write a blog about the latest fashion accessories

nity. Perhaps some DIY tips once in a while or a paint brand comparison would interest your readers. Rich, fresh, and funny is the way to go – ask any woman and she’ll tell you these are the three most important charac-teristics to look for in a personality. Believe it or not, your online profile needs an amazing personality! If you think you can’t

o r new techno-

logical advances; you’ll want to write about things that

will interest your c o m m u -

Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

Research is the key to any successful online venture, but especially when it comes to social media. The best thing about research, is that you can take it with you wherever you’re going in the form of your cell phone/mobile device.

Whenever you have a free moment to get some facts straight, use it! You never know how much time you’ll have later in the day. Time is precious. We all know how very little of it we have every day, so it makes sense to strategize what information you’ll

be putting up via social media on a regular basis. Take an afternoon to sit down (preferably with Google) and really get into understanding your niche. Then write down a month’s schedule of what articles and blogs you will write, what status updates

you will put up, what inter-esting reads you will share, and possibly what videos you will upload. You’ll want to pick things that fit in with your niche. If you’re a hardware store, it doesn’t make sense to write a blog about the latest fashion accessories

nity. Perhaps some DIY tips once in a while or a paint brand comparison would interest your readers. Rich, fresh, and funny is the way to go – ask any woman and she’ll tell you these are the three most important charac-teristics to look for in a personality. Believe it or not, your online profile needs an amazing personality! If you think you can’t

o r new techno-

logical advances; you’ll want to write about things that

will interest your c o m m u -

manage to pull it off, get a professional to help you. Hire writers to write for you, and get social media marketers to run all of your campaigns smoothly and effecie- nly. Creativity is also important, the more interesting your campaigns are to follow, the more followers you will get and the more people you will have in your

online community. The more people you have in your online community, the larger your online target market will be. So rember to make sure you send out informa-tion that’s rich, fresh, funny, appropriate – oh, and creative! –in order to stay in the social media market-ing game and get noticed out there!

Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

Research is the key to any successful online venture, but especially when it comes to social media. The best thing about research, is that you can take it with you wherever you’re going in the form of your cell phone/mobile device.

Whenever you have a free moment to get some facts straight, use it! You never know how much time you’ll have later in the day. Time is precious. We all know how very little of it we have every day, so it makes sense to strategize what information you’ll

be putting up via social media on a regular basis. Take an afternoon to sit down (preferably with Google) and really get into understanding your niche. Then write down a month’s schedule of what articles and blogs you will write, what status updates

you will put up, what inter-esting reads you will share, and possibly what videos you will upload. You’ll want to pick things that fit in with your niche. If you’re a hardware store, it doesn’t make sense to write a blog about the latest fashion accessories

nity. Perhaps some DIY tips once in a while or a paint brand comparison would interest your readers. Rich, fresh, and funny is the way to go – ask any woman and she’ll tell you these are the three most important charac-teristics to look for in a personality. Believe it or not, your online profile needs an amazing personality! If you think you can’t

o r new techno-

logical advances; you’ll want to write about things that

will interest your c o m m u -

Rich, Fresh, Funny.

manage to pull it off, get a professional to help you. Hire writers to write for you, and get social media marketers to run all of your campaigns smoothly and effecie- nly. Creativity is also important, the more interesting your campaigns are to follow, the more followers you will get and the more people you will have in your

Free Moorish Grid Graph Paper from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/moorish/

Research is the key to any successful online venture, but especially when it comes to social media. The best thing about research, is that you can take it with you wherever you’re going in the form of your cell phone/mobile device.

Whenever you have a free moment to get some facts straight, use it! You never know how much time you’ll have later in the day. Time is precious. We all know how very little of it we have every day, so it makes sense to strategize what information you’ll

be putting up via social media on a regular basis. Take an afternoon to sit down (preferably with Google) and really get into understanding your niche. Then write down a month’s schedule of what articles and blogs you will write, what status updates

you will put up, what inter-esting reads you will share, and possibly what videos you will upload. You’ll want to pick things that fit in with your niche. If you’re a hardware store, it doesn’t make sense to write a blog about the latest fashion accessories

nity. Perhaps some DIY tips once in a while or a paint brand comparison would interest your readers. Rich, fresh, and funny is the way to go – ask any woman and she’ll tell you these are the three most important charac-teristics to look for in a personality. Believe it or not, your online profile needs an amazing personality! If you think you can’t

o r new techno-

logical advances; you’ll want to write about things that

will interest your c o m m u -

You can’t buy attention anymore. Having a huge budget doesn’t mean anything in Social Media… The old paradigm was pay to play. Now you get back what you authentically put in. You’ve got to be willing to play to play. - Alex Bogusky, Co-Chairman of CP&B

““

Building Social Connections

Chapter 3

tweet!

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Research is the key to any successful online venture, but especially when it comes to social media. The best thing about research, is that you can take it with you wherever you’re going in the form of your cell phone/mobile device.

Whenever you have a free moment to get some facts straight, use it! You never know how much time you’ll have later in the day. Time is precious. We all know how very little of it we have every day, so it makes sense to strategize what information you’ll

be putting up via social media on a regular basis. Take an afternoon to sit down (preferably with Google) and really get into understanding your niche. Then write down a month’s schedule of what articles and blogs you will write, what status updates

you will put up, what inter-esting reads you will share, and possibly what videos you will upload. You’ll want to pick things that fit in with your niche. If you’re a hardware store, it doesn’t make sense to write a blog about the latest fashion accessories

nity. Perhaps some DIY tips once in a while or a paint brand comparison would interest your readers. Rich, fresh, and funny is the way to go – ask any woman and she’ll tell you these are the three most important charac-teristics to look for in a personality. Believe it or not, your online profile needs an amazing personality! If you think you can’t

o r new techno-

logical advances; you’ll want to write about things that

will interest your c o m m u - Obviously, you can’t access the personal information of

your fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter. So how do you get in touch with them in order to promote a product or send

out some catalogues, etc.? The answer is quite simple, and quite exciting (especially if you’re new to the whole online marketing space. Many business pages on Facebook have an input box that asks you for your email address. Addresses are then stored and are accessible with email marketing software. Pretty techy stuff, huh! Good news is you don’t have to be a nerd to work it, just let the program do the work for you. Another way to collect information is to direct traffic to your website where they can subscribe to a newsletter (which you will have to follow up with!). If your website is all done up and looking pretty, visitors will be more inclined to slip you their personal information. On your website, you can take pretty much whatever you like, from cell phone numbers to physical and email addresses. You’ll use your email marketing software to help you out here as well. If you don’t want the hassle of creating a monthly newsletter, you could always give something away for free.

PDFs are a good option, whether it’s an e-book or your catalogue it is wise to look into this option. It saves you the time

How to get in touch with consumers:1. Input box2. Direct traffic to your website3. Give something away for free

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Human beings are far more likely to com-municate ideas and information with others when they are emotionally engaged. Find the key issues that concern your audience and then inculcate them within your mar-keting plan to get an emotional response. - Maki, doshdosh.com

““

You’re Now Officially A Social Business

Chapter 4

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Hats off to you for getting this far! The journey doesn’t end here though; this is merely the beginning of one that’s going to prove to be very fruitful and rewarding for you and your brand. Before you get to the rewards, here are a few guidelines to get you to the top with your shirt on your back and your sanity in place…

Lisa Barone, co-founder of Outspoken Media, Inc. has written an article on Things That Great Brands Do In Social Media. Here are just a few of her tips to help you over the many hills and mountain peaks you will encounter and get you through the Ever-est of obstacles when you need it most. According to Lisa, great social media brands:

1. Bring sexy back to word of mouth marketing.2. Dedicate time to answering questions from customers and people who are encountering the brand for the first time.3. Constantly poll their community for opinion, feedback and criticism.4. Make a habit of highlighting other brands that are doing cool things…5. Don’t forget to tie offline events into what they’re doing online so there’s cohesion between strategies.6. Give us the ‘why’ to go along with their social media calls to action.

Most of them are pretty obvious, but very easy to leave out. Or we might

be busy trying to hold up our ‘real’

business in one hand and our

‘social’ busi-ness in the

other that we forget

that they need to

draw from o n e a n o t h e r and link up some-how. These are all common mistakes of businesses starting out in the blogosphere.

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Activate your fans, don’t just collect them like baseball cards. - Jay Baer, Convince & Convert

““

Your New Corporate Philosophy

Chapter 5

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You know the old saying ‘the customer is always right’? Social Media takes this old saying, dips it in chocolate, and hands it out on street corners to very eager passers-by. Since the Social Media revolution, customers have come to realise just how much pull they have with corporations via the Internet. They know just how much damage a nasty comment on a Facebook wall or a Twitter mention can do, and they’re exercising their consumer rights like never before!

And if your corporation doesn’t have the capacity to

deal with a negative remark or two, you will quickly lose your repu-

tation and credibility. Whether you are aboard the social media ship or not, others on-board could be bad-mouthing you nonetheless. If for only this reason, it makes sense to rather hear about your corporate short-comings via some kind of platform then to lose more cus-tomers to a statement you do not have the means justify.

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We’re living at a time when attention is the new currency. Those who insert them-selves into as many channels as possible look set to capture the most value. - Pete Cashmore, Founder of mashable.com

““

Now Improve Your Sales

Chapter 6

You’ve embraced the change you’ve had to undergo, and you are loving your new found online fame; the trick is to keep the momentum going. Don’t give up on your social media goals just because things are going very slowly in the beginning.

Chances are, it will go REALLY slowly at first. Just know that potential customers are sizing you up, checking whether you’re legit, whether it’s worth it for them to link with you, and whether you’ve been around long enough to not suddenly disappear off the realm completely, but mostly, they just want something for free.

If you can hang on during the first few months and continually intro-duce creative ideas to entice people toward your social profiles, you will be sure to reap the benefits. Brian Moran of Get 10000 Fans, a web-site based-business on helping people use Facebook effectively for business purposes, says “you need to use your Facebook page to sell directly to your fans. Put all of your products/services out there so that they are linked directly to your website and your e-store.”

Here are a few things you can do in order to improve your sales:

1. Promote your products and services regularly; there should always be some kind of business activity happening on your platforms. 2. Use pay per click advertising to help you with online promotions, e.g. Google AdSense, Facebook advertising, etc.3. Everyone likes to receive, and they do especially on the Internet. Competitions, freebies, and polls are all great ways to get customers to interact with your brand and once they receive their gifts they might be more inclined to support you in the future. 4. Strategize as well as your income revenue as well as your profitability like you would your everyday business. Try not to cross your two incomes in the beginning or at least keep track of them separately for a while so that you can monitor progress and viability

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Social Media marketing is about brands acting, well, social. Which means they need to show up to the party with a nice bottle of wine, if that’s what the party calls for. They need to come ready to have a dialog, and add value to the event. - John Battelle, Founder & CEO of Federated Media Publishing, battellemedia.com

““

We’re Here To Help You

Chapter 7

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Feeling intimidated?

is a full service digital solutions agency with the manpower and the expertise to successfully get you onto your social marketing feet without breaking your back in the process. That is figuratively speaking, although social media marketing can be back-breaking stuff!

We are 100 % behind the social media busi-ness and you will find we’re always singing its praises. We love social media marketing so much; we’ve got an entire team of hard working professionals in this field in order to get our clients precisely

what they’re expecting from us. We would love to become your ally in social marketing and advertising. We’ll work with you on projects we think might suit your business. We’ll brain-storm, strategize, and engage with your potential customers on

your behalf. A major component of social media requires listen-ing to customers (complaints, criticisms and praises) and giving them feedback. We will do this for you, as well as strategize and create your content, optimize your output, manage

your conversations, and measure your viability on an on-going basis. And while social media is expanding every day, we’re continuously on the lookout for these changes so that we’re on top of our game.

Listening to customers (complaints, criticism & praise) and giving feedback.

Talented content writers are part of the package.As your marketing and social ally, you can expect to leave the handling of your online profiles in our hands entirely. Our editorial panel, and content writers are part of the package so you can expect only the high-est quality work from us (using our own rules of rich, fresh, funny, and creative – of course!). Take a shot at keeping your back intact and allow us to be your agency of choice; your business ally. There are so many ways we can help you!

Socially Yours,

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twiter: @DigitlByDesignblog: dbdblogs.wordpress.comfacebook: Digital By Designwebsite: www.digitalbydesign.co.zaaddress: No10 Cheetah Crescenttel: 087 809 3221