social media for the rest of us

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Social Media for the Rest of Us

If you feel overwhelmed by getting started with what seems to be complex social media explanations of how to use Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn, you’re not alone. You want to reach the people who want your message, service or product, but you’re overwhelmed, exhausted and confused before you even begin. If that sounds like you, then you are going to love this little E-‐book. This will make the journey easy, fun and valuable too!

Since I will be sharing food for thought on social media, here’s an easy analogy of the big four social media platforms in terms of food.

• You have to keep feeding your body. This is the most important key to remember as we get started: learning social media is an ongoing process that never ends.

• You don’t inhale your food in one big gulp, and you are not going to understand or get comfortable with using each of these four platforms in one day. Even if you thought you did, these big four are changing all the time and you want to be able to change with them.

At the end of this eBook you will learn the basics of how to use and get results with these top four, but you will only learn by doing. Be patient and positive, you have already succeeded as soon as you get your accounts activated!


In the very last section I am going to share some tips on how to spot a fraud or what I call, "social media stalkers." People who claim to have lots of influence with thousands of followers on twitter, thousands upon thousands of fans on Facebook, and thousands more than that in their connections on LinkedIn and google+. I am telling you right now, don’t believe everything you read. These people are like plastic food decorations, which look shiny and pretty but have no nutritional value and taste badly if you try to bite into them. Save yourself the trouble and avoid the narcissist "all about me show frauds."

I will also share how you can measure how well you are doing on your social media platforms with the help of Klout and Kred, and what I like about each.

What are the Top 4 Social Media Platforms?

Twitter: The Big Party Buffett – lots of choices and bite size tasting opportunities.

Facebook: The Family Meal – taking time to get personal with the ones you love.

LinkedIn: The Business Dinner – cut to the chase, be prepared for serious business networking and little small talk.

Google+: Cocktails & Desert: great ways to hang out with someone you really want to meet in an up close and personal venue.


Why should I be Available on all four platforms?

I use all four for different reasons, and I would suggest you try each of these to discover which one you enjoy the most. You will use and participate what you genuinely enjoy, so make sure you are having some fun!

Because they each serve a different audience for different reasons, you want to be available, flexible and easy to find for your audience.

You don’t eat the same meal offered on the menu when you go out to dinner, and neither does your niche market.

People can’t find you if you are not there, so be there now. Creating a social media presence will not just get you found on the social media sites, but search engines too. The rising trend with Google and Bing is to personalize your search results with content from your social networks. For example:

Google will populate results with your Google+ contacts.

Bing will populate results with friend’s reviews from facebook.

How do I get started on each of these fabulous four?

You first need to make sure you have set up an account, and fill out everything: bios, interest, education ...etc. And make sure to upload an image, to replace the generic avatar. Creating your headline and bio is critical too. Fortunately, it’s easy to do and I've provided further resources and information below.


Before we dive into the setup and various methods of interacting with your contacts, the MOST IMPORTANT thing to keep in mind is:

"Your goal is to create dialogue between you and your customers/friends/followers."

No matter how small, or big, your network becomes, creating dialogue, and sharing information, is the name of the game.

But how do you do that? Well, I'm glad you asked! To begin, let me start with a general rule that you can use across all social media. That is, the use of images and pictures.

Some of your first posts/tweets/comments/ might include a picture or image. A general rule of thumb I use when uploading an image for a post or tweet is to make it easy to understand with just one glance, as if you're speaking to a third grader, keeping things really simple. This will ensure your message is understood quickly; however, don't sacrifice quality, keep it entertaining and captivating so your guests are enticed to join the conversation.

Now for some links to resources, and tips, that I believe will make your foray into social media a pleasant experience.

Twitter:

Pick a handle, or a name which represents you the best. If you were looking for you what would you say to be easily found and understood?

For example, I wanted my name @DebScott but that was already taken (I never knew how many Deb Scott’s there are in the world!). My next idea was to use something aligned with the title of my book; The Sky is Green & The Grass is Blue, so I created @GreenSkyDeb. Try to think long term because you might create a new business, write a new book, or create a new service down the road. Take time to create a good twitter handle right from the start.


Headline tips:

People decide quickly if they want to connect with you based on the words you use in your description, what is different about you, valuable about you, or what they simply might like about you.

Your bio should be clear, concise with a hashtag(s) # that describes what you are about, include your website link, your picture and an appropriate background image which reflects your message in a visual way. And you have to do all this in 140 characters or less so take your time.

Here is mine below:

https://twitter.com/greenskydeb

You can always change your image, background image, and headline by clicking your profile tab in the upper right of your twitter homepage and then clicking the profile link on the left. Here’s what mine looks like below:


To sign up for twitter Click -‐-‐> How To Sign Up With Twitter

Facebook:

I suggest a personal page and a business fan page because Facebook is always changing the rules on fan pages to monetize their money, which might decrease your visibility if you don’t pay their fees. You also need to have a personal Facebook account to create a Facebook fan page.

The maximum number of connections you can have on a personal page is five thousand, were there are no limits to a fan page.

Here’s where to sign up: https://www.facebook.com/help/basics


Here is my personal Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/DebScottAuthorSpeakerRadioHost

Facebook fan: page:https://www.facebook.com/authorandmotivationalspeaker


As I mentioned before, make sure you take time to fill out your page descriptions and about information so people know who you are and what you are about. This will provide the visitor with info as to why they NEED to connect with you in a split second. You can fine-‐tune your image and descriptions later, but don't leave them blank.

I would also suggest getting the code and placing the banner block of your Facebook fan page onto your website homepage. This allows people to connect with you on Facebook and click ‘Like” in an easy action. This helps people see which one of their friends or people they admire and respect are a fan of yours, and it helps to build your community as well.

Here’s what mine looks like on my website:

http://www.greenskyandbluegrass.com/


LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join

Once again, you want to take your time to fill out your profile to be accurate, specific, and interesting. Who are you, what do you do, why do I want to know you? When people search for what you do, have you used key words in your description of yourself which will appear quickly?

The big advantage of LinkedIn to me is knowing you are in a venue where people are already in the mindset to do business with you. You can easily send your connections an email with specific content, or join groups of similar interests to maximize learning and exposure. You can also write posts which get viewed by your followers or you can drive people to your posts from other social media platforms.

Here’s what mine linked in profile page looks like below:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/debscottauthorspeaker


Also, be sure to fill out the contact information so people can get to your website easily, and always use good adjectives to describe each one which will pop up in a search query easily.

Here is mine below:


Google+:

http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/getstarted/guide.html

Google+ is really phenomenal for video conferencing on hangouts, and people that use that feature can get to 1 million page views easily.

I think it is a must have because google owns google+ and google owns the search engines which promote information on google+ at a higher rate than other venues.

The other advantage of google+ is the ability to email your connections directly.

Make your google+ page clear and concise, and fill out the about information provided. Here’s my google+ page: https://plus.google.com/108921827180153698771/about


How do I use each of these platforms?

I am going to give you just a couple of tips and advantages of each platform with the expectations that the more you use each of these outlets the more you are going to naturally learn what they offer and how to use them in greater detail to gain results.

If you are interested in learning more about any of these topics there are many books and blog posts on each. For example, the best book I have found on Twitter to be accurate, simple and to the point is, #Tweepelicious by Lynn Serafinn. One of the best blog posts on currents trends and techniques in social media in my opinion is The Social Media Examiner. Do your research and keep learning.

Twitter:

The Tweet and RT, search tool, lists, finding followers and direct messaging are a few keys concepts to understand when starting out with twitter.

When you send out your message in 140 characters or less, it will be shared with those people who follow you. You want your message to be to the point, and use a hashtag # sign to highlight what the tweet is mainly about. Include a link to your call to action.

The Rt or retweet is when you send out a message you like from someone else to your twitter followers. The RT is social media gold, and people who share more than they take are best known in the twitterverse as terrific tweeples who RT.


Here is an example of how I would RT a quote I liked from the Karma Cafe:

Keeping your handle name and the other persons handle name promotes both handle names in your stream. You can also copy and paste the tweet and add a comment before the letters RT to send a message to the originator of the tweet. See example below from Poised who RT my quote with their comment.


I would suggest you check regularly who is RTing you by going to the notifications tab on your home page, and thank each person who shared something you tweeted. Here is an example of where that tab is located:

Lists are a great way to find what you are looking for, get found, and find people you want to follow.

You can create lists of people you really like and want to put in a specific category, and people can put you on lists for things they like about you.

Want to know what people on twitter really think of you? Look at the lists people put you on. That will tell you a lot about the person, and you might discover a few new things about yourself!

For example, here are some lists people have me in:


Use the search in the upper right hand corner to search a specific person, topic or a specific trend. For example, if I want to search quotes in general type in quotes in the upper right search box and you will find all the people who shared quotes because they included #quote in their tweet. You can do this for your favorite TV show, twitter party, or group. The possibilities are truly endless.

The DM is a direct message. You can only send a direct message to people who follow you. It is a private way to communicate people outside your twitter stream. When you follow a lot of people many with send you an automatic welcome DM.

The other tool you might consider using down the road as you get more comfortable with twitter is the tweetdeck. This separates your tweets into columns so you can see many aspects of new tweets in your timeline, people


who have RT you, mentioned you, or DM you at the same time. It’s also great for twitter parties and tweetchats because you can create columns for those specific events.

Follow @TwitterTips on Twitter at https://twitter.com/TwitterTips for tips on how to use Twitter.

Facebook:

Your personal facebook page can be used in conjunction with your fan page.

Sharing content that interests your Facebook friends can be in the form of a quote, a blog post, a video, or anything you want to share. When you like, share and comment on someone’s posts or they do the same with yours, you are hopefully building a good relationship.

Facebook allows you to tag people on a certain message which is great if you are very respectful of the people you are tagging. Do NOT be obnoxious and spam people. Make sure you have a relationship with people before tagging them. Always respond to people who comment on your posts and thank those who share yours with others.

Perhaps this example will help illustrate my point. A very talented intuitive life coach, Angela Lenhardt, had been a guest on The Best People We Know Show with rave reviews. I had the pleasure of helping her start her own program on blog talk radio, and wanted to share the excitement of her first program with others I thought would be interested in her intuitive talent. I tagged a few people on the information you can read below, and the post got 42 comments, 17 likes and 3 shares.


Fan pages can get really big if you are verified like New York Times Bestselling author Lorna Byrne below. It’s a great way to meet and connect with like-‐minded people, and you can learn a lot by what people are interested in from reading other peoples posts and comments.


LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is especially great to connect with people one on one via linkedin’s email option, and also a great resource to join or create groups. LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 groups.

When I have something of business importance to share I always take the time to create emails to send to my LinkedIn connections. I never automatically sign someone up to my email mailing list just because I am connected with them on LinkedIn, but I know many people do. That is not my social media style.

LinkedIn is great for job searches, finding groups to network with, and getting great content through posts and LinkedIn pulse. Some of my groups are seen below:


Posting content is another great way to get engaged with business colleagues. Here are a couple of posts I have shared through linked in which have gotten quite a bit of interest on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140326164048-‐63089381-‐why-‐the-‐law-‐of-‐attraction-‐might-‐not-‐be-‐working-‐for-‐you?trk=prof-‐post


https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140422121902-‐63089381-‐7-‐ways-‐to-‐turn-‐stress-‐into-‐a-‐positive-‐solution?trk=mp-‐details-‐rr-‐rmpost

There are so many amazing things you can use LinkedIn for to get results I would suggest reading some of the work by Melonie Dodaro, Founder of Top Dog Social Media. She has a special focus on LinkedIn and I find her tips and ideas useful and easy to understand.

Google+:

You really want to be on google+ to get access to having priority on google search if nothing else. If you love live videos, you’ll love the hangout feature where you can speak live with people in the hangout. You can plus 1 people on their post, video or picture. I would suggest connecting with Dawn


Abraham if you want to learn more about google+, she has over a million page views for good reason. See below:

Google+ connects people in terms of circles. You can put people in your circles, and other people can put you in theirs. You will only get updates to people you put in your circles. You can email people who you have in circles that reciprocate, but you are limited to how many emails you can send in a day. This is what my circles look like:


Google+ is like its own institution it offers so much possibility. If you really want to learn more details about Google+ and how it can help your business I suggest your read Martin Shervingtons blog.

Spot the Frauds:

All things in social media are not as they seem. Just because someone has 200K followers and 10K likes on their fan pages doesn’t mean they are real people!

It is easy to buy twitter followers and purchase likes for your fan page. My web designer Gary Reichel taught me early on how to spot the frauds, and now I am going to share this secret with you.

When you see someone who has thousands upon thousands of followers on twitter, unless they are a verified celebrity account, you want to look at how many people the person is following, how many lists the person is in, and the type of people following the person. If all these things don’t add up, you probably discovered a person who is buying their followers.

For example, a person with 200K followers who is only on 100 lists, following a few thousand people, with followers who have no tag lines or business links is a big red flag. Here is an example of what I am talking about:


Someone who is only following 15K people probably has about the same amount of followers with that number of lists and tweets.

To contrast, this is mine:

I have far less followers than this example above, yet I am on three times the number of lists and have tweeted significantly more.

You also want to check the person’s followers. If you see people who don’t look real, they probably aren’t. For example, the example I gave you above has these followers:


If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Frauds on Facebook are also easy to detect. Check the number of likes against the number of people who are talking about the page. If someone has 5K likes and only 2 people are talking about it, you can be sure that person paid to get likes on their fan page and the people are not real honest organic fans. Here is an example of this:

On the opposite end of the spectrum, people who have thousands of people talking about their posts would be the real deal. Here is a great example of Emmanual Dagher who has 87K likes and nearly 25K people talking about his page which you can’t fake:


Take time to look at the stats before you decide if anyone is a sensational success. Looks can be deceiving.

Some people also claim to have thousands of connections on LinkedIn when in reality they have a couple of hundred. True story, I had someone contact me to contribute to a book they were publishing claiming they had the support of 600 LinkedIn followers for the book launch. When I checked to verify this number, I was astonished to see this individual only had 1 connection!

With LinkedIn, go to the person’s page and scroll down to see if they have the following they claim. Example of where to find this information on my page below:


PLEASE don’t get wrapped up in a supposed guru who is probably an expert in manipulating the social media system better than anything else. Don’t sell yourself short, because quantity is no substitute for quality, honesty and trust worthiness. These character traits are priceless, and respect is earned the good old fashion way – through time, consistency, hard work and dedication.

Measuring Your Progress and Success with Klout and Kred:

In addition to confirming your social media success through monitoring the increase in your email opt-‐ins list, and an increase in sales for your product or service, you will want to review concrete data to measure your social media impact.


The two tools I use to do this are Klout and Kred. Klout is more well-‐known, and while I like and use both, I am quickly becoming a bigger fan of Kred and I will share why.

Klout (started in 2008) gives the user a "Klout Score", which is a numerical value between 1 and 100. In determining the user score, Klout measures the size of a user's social media network and correlates the content created to measure how other users interact with that content. The average Klout Score is 40. Users with a score of 63 are in the top 5% of all users.

Kred (started in 2011) is a dual score to distinguish a person's Influence (the likelihood that someone will trust a person and act upon their posts) and Outreach (the propensity to share other people's content forward). A user’s Kred influence score falls on a 1,000-‐point scale, Users with Kred influence score of 600 and above are in the top 21 percent of users. Kred also provides a separate scoring of “outreach level” (on a 10-‐point scale) that “reflects generosity in engaging with others and helping them spread their message,” i.e., a user’s retweets, replies and mentions of others.

Klout is secretive about their scoring while Kred is transparent, and for this reason I am able to monitor exactly what my community likes, shares and wants. It helps me serve my community better, and for this reason I am using Kred more than Klout.

The value of both of these tools helps you monitor your own influence but also others. For example, I always check a klout and kred score before I confirm having a guest on The Best People We Know Radio Show. I use it to give me a


ballpark of a person’s authenticity. Many publishers and employers are using both of these tools in deciding to work with prospect clients.

In Klout my current score is 71, which is very good, but I have to say people who are in the high 70’s and 80’s are really impressive. Klout gives you more points for being connected to more social media outlets. As you can see below, I don’t use Instagram or Foursquare so I don’t gain points in that area as I am compared with others who do use them.

Kred only measures Facebook and Twitter impact, and shows you exactly which tweet or Facebook post has been liked and shared in real time. For this reason I like Kred a lot. I like transparency. If you have achieved being in the top 1% of Kred, they will send you a top 1% Kred influencer badge, which I was recently honored to receive.


In summary, on line or off line, social media is about real people with real messages offering real products and services of real value.

Each of the big four, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn can have an impact in sharing your message and business. These venues allow you to meet and interact with people all over the world, and that to me is quite exciting.

Be you, have fun, be honest, patient yet persistent and I am confident you will be a social media superstar sharing your shine around the planet with sensational style and success!


I’d love to hear from you! Connect with me today at:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/greenskydeb

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorandmotivationalspeaker

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/108921827180153698771/posts

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debscottauthorspeaker

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Deb Scott, BA, CPC is a four time award winning author of, The Sky is Green & the Grass is Blue (a Kindle Top 20 Best Seller!), a top rated best podcaster winner for, The Best People We Know Show, with over 1 million global listeners, and a Top 1% Kred Social Media Influencer. Deb spent twenty years as a cardiovascular surgical specialist, winning numerous awards for


outstanding sales and leadership skills. In her personal life, Deb battled sexual abuse, others’ alcoholism, dysfunctional relationships, depression, was the sole caregiver to both her parents who fought cancer to their death, and even experienced financial devastation. Today, Deb helps people turn things around in their business, or the business of living, with the discovery of the amazing you.