“I have an intern taking care of our Facebook/Twitter accounts….”

I usually respond with one of these two questions:

• Would you put this intern into a new business meeting with a potential client?
• Would you let this intern manage one of your most important accounts?

I am sure the answer to both questions is NO.  Then why would you put an intern in charge of your entire company voice?  This platform is great when used correctly and can provide great ways to get in front of new clients or customers.

Now don’t get me wrong – Interns are great!  They are full of ideas, questions and are very eager to learn.  Another bonus is they don’t have an ego yet. I am sure a few interns would do a fine job, but all it takes is one small slip up and you make MSNBC front page.  Why take that chance?

My point is simple – If you have an intern posting on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube for your social media marketing, make sure it is supervised.  Nothing gets posted until it is approved.  Don’t let them run with it because they get this new technology and have a Facebook account.  You didn’t spend 30 years building your business to have it go down in a Public Relations nightmare.

Here are some pointers to keep your brand in check:

• Put an approval process in place prior to updating your social networks.
• Use a schedule to manage your status updates and promotions.
• Use a social media workflow tool like Hoot Suite to manage your accounts.
• Ask yourself each time – Would you put this status, including your picture, name(company name) on a bill board in the middle of town?  If not, it should not be said.
• All negative feedback needs to handled immediately.  Have a process on how to handle these now and not when they happen.
• Remember why you are using social media – to be gain brand awareness.

If this is the case, you can hire a seasoned Social Media professional to manage your accounts.  I am sure most companies offer plans similar to ours when it comes to monthly Social Media Maintenance.  Whomever you hire, make sure they can show you results of previous engagements.

1. Create a Social Media Workflow
Create a social media work flow that you are comfortable with.  Explore how much time you would like to invest early so you have a firm understanding of the time commitment involved.  Social Media is a great free platform to engage your customers, but you must make a time investment.  By biting off too much, your social media plan will be pushed aside because you’re busy with your normal day to day operations.

2. Consistency builds your brand
By creating a workflow, you can maintain your consistency. The easiest way to loose your customer base is to disappear for weeks on end.  This is especially true if this is your main platform for customer dialogue.  If your customers post negative feedback, address them in a timely manner.  Negative feedback will happen, you can’t please everyone.  Show your customers how you want to keep them as customers and correct the issue at hand.  This does not mean have public dialogue with the person with poor experience.  It can be handled privately, but show other visitors that you care, by posting something as simple as “We are sorry that you had a poor experience at <insert establishment name>.  We take pride in our service and would like to correct the issue so it does not happen again.  Please email us at company@company.com so we can address your concern directly. “

3. Be personal
This may be the first thing that drops off the workflow, but you must be a person first, a business second.  Think of social media as a face to face networking event done via computer.  The example below would not go over very well in person, so why do so many business’s do it in the virtual world.

Bill: Hi, I am Bill from XYC Corp.
Jane: Hi, Bill I am Jane.
XYC Corp(Bill): This week we are providing service A for $199.
XYC Corp(Bill): This Friday only – all widgets on sale for $85.
XYC Corp(Bill): Our new product reduces your out of pocket costs by 24%.
XYC Corp(Bill): Product C on sale for $99.
Jane: ?????????

Get to know your audience, and let them know who you are.  Sales are built on relationships, so build them.

4. Create customer engagement
Ask your customers what they want.  Listen to their feedback.  It will help you grow as a business.  Point 3 mentioned being personal, you need to create that two way dialogue with your customers.  Some ideas on how to involve your social media peeps – hold social media only events, or trivia to get them engaged.  If you have leftover swag from the last trade show, use it as prizes for trivia.  Get them talking about you to their friends, and their friends, in turn will become a fan or a follower.

5.  Use Events (Facebook)
If you have events at your establishment, use the event section on Facebook.  Create an event and send it to your fans.  Sometimes they don’t always see your status update at 6pm on Thursday, but an event will be sent to them as a notification forcing them to view the details.  It also gives you a “light” head count for your event by those that have marked “Attending” or “Maybe Attending”.  When someone marks attending your event, it will be posted to their wall, so their friends, that may not be your fans may also see the event and think it is interesting.  Friend of a friend….and so on.

With these 5 social media tips you can keep your business in front of your fans and followers.

Social Media Eye Tracking on Mashable

The first step in the application creation process is to determine what you want. From simple to complicated, you can always find an application development company to make your vision a reality. Take detailed notes on what you need your application to accomplish, as you will have to collaborate with the development team and designer. If you can, find examples of what you like in other applications and what you don’t to provide as much information as possible to your development team.

The next step is to find a application developer that has the skills you require. Take a look at their portfolio, learn about the programming languages they use, and discuss with them the feasibility of your idea. Make sure you keep your in house designers involved, as communication is a key part of the development process.

Once your application is under development, talk to your team about how to test. If you’re launching a full-scale application, your website may be impacted. The testing process can be stressful, but it is essential to iron out any bugs before your web application goes live.

The last of these steps is to launch your new web application. Your development team will help you create a detailed plan, as well as a contingency plan in case deployment does not go smoothly. Be sure to devote enough time to your launch, as this is one of the most important steps in the process.

To learn more about the web application creation process, contact Technostones Interactive Solutions and see how to bring your ideas to fruition.

In order to drive more traffic to your website, you need to implement an organic and/or paid search marketing campaign. But with a lot of acronyms (PPC, SEO, and SEM), and not a lot of straight answers, how do you begin?

Learn the steps to planning and executing a search strategy with Technostones, Inc.

The first step that our experts recommend is determining what you want from your campaign. PPC, or Pay Per Click campaigns can help drive traffic and branding efforts, but aren’t always the best choice for generating leads. Talk to a search consultant to best determine how to reach your market, attain your search goals, and increase your web presence.

The second step begins with optimizing your website. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of embedding specific keywords into the content of your website in order to attract the algorithms of search engines. Unless you’re experienced in SEO, it’s best to leave this step to the professionals.

The third step is to work with vendors to deploy your campaign. Starting with Google AdWords may sound tempting, but an experienced search professional can help you better reach your target market. They can also help troubleshoot a campaign that starts to lag.

Find out how Technostones Interactive can provide the set up and management for an effective PPC or organic search campaign.

What Not to Do on Local Business websites

As long as you assemble the right combination of expertise, equipment, and content, you can successfully upload, promote, and produce a video for YouTube.

The first key to produce a YouTube video is having good content. Whether your video is a step-by-step tutorial, a business demo, a speech, a staged act, or any other medium, you need to make sure that the content is appealing to the audience. If what you’re offering is relevant and exciting, start filming! If it’s not, think again. YouTube audiences need to be captivated, and the only way to make this happen is with solid content or a buzzworthy act.

The second step in a good video is proper production. While you can film a video on a small digital camera or a handheld video, for a professional-quality look, experts recommend using professional equipment. Once you have the right equipment, it is essential that your filming area be optimized. This includes removing background noise, clearing out any clutter or extra furniture or items you’re not using, and keeping bystanders away. If you’re filming in a public place, be sure to keep an eye out for distractions, as these can disrupt your actor’s attention. It might even make sense to designate someone to keep the area clear and quiet while the camera’s rolling. As you film your subject, keep your camera steady by using a tripod. This will give a very professional look to your video.

Once you have your filming and production complete, the last step is editing. Proper film editing should be done by professionals, or at least with professional equipment and software. It takes hours of experience to learn all the ins and outs of editing. You can save a lot of time and hassle by working with a video editor. While you may be able to make small changes, an experienced film editor and producer can take your video to the next level and really make it stand out.

Learn how to get expert help from Technostones Interative on producing a great YouTube video!