Guest article by Shannon Suetos from Resource Nation

When implementing any type of marketing campaign it is wise to first take a step back and decide how to develop your campaign. Many companies are have made the executive decision to go forward with social media—they just aren’t so sure what to do.

Decide where your target audience is engaging

Tackling a social media campaign is much like, if not exactly like a traditional marketing campaigning. The first order of action is to decide where your target audience is. You could have the latest and greatest product or services in the world, but if your core audience isn’t hearing the message there is no benefit to your company.

According to a study conducted by Chitika (a full service online advertising network) broke down the users of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Digg.com. This study concluded that:

1. 47% of Twitter users are there for news
2. 52% of Myspace users are there for video games or celebrity/entertainment
3. Digg was spread out between news, tech, and video games

Once you have decided on where your target audience is, you can then go to develop strategies for each site that best fits your company.

Social Tone

The tone of your campaign should be less formal, and more conversational. This is not to say you should throw out all social etiquette—but rather a “business casual” approach. People like talking, especially about themselves, but make sure in your campaign you provide information not only about your services, but current events or even industry news.

Staying away from topics such as religion and politics is a good idea as well—especially if you have many clients from diverse backgrounds. Staying neutral will keep your clients happy and keep you out of hot water.

Define Goals and Measuring Results

Going back to traditional marketing tactics, you need to have a clear objective and measurable goals in your social marketing campaign. Knowing how effective your tactics are can also help you determine your social media ROI and help you decide what tactics work and which don’t for your company.

TwitterFriends determines what they call a conversion quotient, which measures how effective your tweets are on Twitter by looking at how many @ replies you receive as well as re-tweets. The goal of Twitter for business owners should be to get as many @ replies (gains you exposure) and re-tweets (helps get your link/links exposed). Once you know how effective your efforts are you will be able to decide on the best social media outlets for your business.

Another great tool to use has been developed by Email Data Source. This tool will allow marketers to measure Twitter’s impact on the traditional brand marketing perspectives of reach, frequency and effectiveness. This tool seems similar to TwitterFriends in the sense it will help you understand what type of people are re-tweeting you, but explains it in a more traditional marketing way. This is a great tool for marketers who aren’t familiar with Twitter yet.

Getting Creative

This is always the fun part of any marketing campaign. There are many types of tactics out there that are useful for brand awareness and fun for the customer as well. Many companies are using quizzes to do this.

Jennifer Stolte, marketing director for Celestial Seasonings (who implemented a Facebook quiz earlier this year) says, “Social media is something that’s really growing. So many people are online, especially on Facebook, so we’re excited to step into the water.”

Another company doing social media right is Dunkin Donuts. Jesse Greco, founder of PRBreakfast Club says, “It’s the small things that they [Dunkin Donuts] truly excel at. They know how to keep consumers engaged and interested on a daily basis and they have a way of making you feel like you’re special, even as just one of their millions of consumers.”

In the end it is up to you how you are going to run your campaign. The main things to remember is research and use measurable means for your tactics. The world of Internet marketing is evolving fast, and it is up to you to keep up.

Shannon Suetos is a writer based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as payroll services & small business services at Resource Nation.

Guest article by Shannon Suetos from Resource Nation

The terms social media and social networking have been tossed around for quite some time now, but businesses are struggling with how to implement these strategies in their budgets.  How much is too much, how much is too little?  There are many factors on how to plan a budget, and the same goes for social media.

A study done by Econsultancy and bigmouthmedia has found that of the, “companies (86%) [they] surveyed plan to spend more money on social media in 2010, and a further 13% are planning to keep the same level of budget.”  With that being said, it seems the biggest struggle for companies is not that they don’t want to spend the money, but they don’t know what to spend it on.

Credit: TW Collins

The good news is many social media outlets are free.  Yes, there are programs you can purchase to help manage your accounts and are necessary for some social networking efforts, but for the most part it’s free to sign up on these sites.

Time

The main cost is how much time you are going to dedicate to your social media campaign.  Someone has to put into action your ideas, and they most likely aren’t going to work for free.  When writing up your budget make sure you take into account the time your employee(s) are going to be dedicating to this new project.

You also need to take into account if you need to hire someone to run your social media efforts.  With the social media industry becoming more popular, there are many people out there claiming to be social media gurus.  There are plenty of quality people in the industry who know what they are doing, but make sure you are getting someone with enough background in social media that makes you comfortable.

Monitoring

Once you have set up who and how much time will be spent on social media, the next step is to decide how you are going to monitor everything.  These analytical tools come in all shapes and sizes and the cost varies from application to application—and in some circumstances are free.

If you are just getting your feet wet, it is a good idea to start small and then grow.  See how effective your efforts are before going full blast.  You need to know where your target audience is engaging.  If your customers are mostly on Twitter and you aren’t there how will they get your message?  Play around with the different social networking sites and figure out which sites are best for your company.

Time will tell

Once you have done some research and dabbled in the different social networking you should be able to get a feel of what tactics work for your company and what don’t.  After you get a better feeling for where your key audience is participating with you, you can then focus your efforts and better know how to manage your time and money.

Shannon Suetos is a writer based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as postage meters & postage scales at Resource Nation.

I have a troll. Do you? We call him Spartacus. Trolls slither over the internet. They start as lurkers, then get brave, creep out and spit things at you. 10 out of 10 trolls feed on attention.

Negative or positive – they don’t care. Attention is the oxygen that keeps them going. Here’s the story of how I found my troll and what we may do next?

How did I get my troll?

I found him on LinkedIn. Or rather he found me. Then (this is true!) he popped up on my site. Odd, I thought, but ‘hey, it’s the web’. Then played peek-a-bo on Twitter (sad but true!) and back on my website again.

Little trolls fingers go click, click, click all day, looking for the next place to make a ‘stand’. Paradoxically, most trolls are highly-moral and like to sermonize. Middle-aged trolls especially. I guess the kids don’t listen to them at home, so they wander online.

Etymology of Trolls

Troll is possibly a truncation of the phrase trolling for suckers derived from the fishing technique of slowly dragging a baited hook from a moving boat, waiting for fish to strike, a technique known as trolling. The word also evokes the trolls portrayed in Scandinavian folklore and children’s tales, as they are often creatures bent on mischief and wickedness. The verb “troll” originates from Old French “troller”, a hunting term.

6 Signs of Trolls

1. Clinging to the high moral ground. They live there. Convenient, I guess.
2. Looking for a ‘fight’.
3. Having the last word. Trolls can’t rest unless they’ve had the final say thus…
4. Finishing tweets with the word PERIOD. Remember: it’s one-way traffic with these folks.
5. Warped pleasure in others misfortunes. Grammar police are often pseudo-trolls or apprentice trolls.
6. Quoting. Prepare to have biblical passages & Gandhi thrown at you. They’re better than you!

What to do with Trolls?

There are different ways to approach this:

1. Don’t correct them when they misquote passages.
2. Agree with them. This confuses the troll. What to do next?
3. Give them the last word and pray they go away.
4. ‘Even if this is true……’ and give your side
5. Although this is on-topic..’
6. Don’t DM your troll. Ever!
7. ‘Can you provide a source for this…’

We’ve nicknamed our troll Spartacus. He’s a bit of a joke at the table.

‘Any word from your Spartacus today?’

Over to you

Do you have a troll or trollette? How did you get rid of it? We’re hoping it will go away but sometimes I wonder what he’s doing now…

One of my best friends, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is worried about his career prospects. He’s turned 40, had a decent job as an IT developer but this has been sent to India. He was furious but now he’s just depressed. Where to start? Many are worried that their jobs will be off-shored to India and China. You can look at tis two ways. As an opportunity or a setback. Here’s some ways you can take advantage of this right now.

5 Careers Opportunities for IT Professionals in China

Before I start, I’m in China so I see things from the other side of the fence, so to speak. I’ve worked in the US, UK and most of Europe. I see where he’s coming from and the future is indeed bleak if you’re in the US IT industry, at least in the QA, technical writing & coding.
It’s not if it will happen, it’s when.

For those who are looking at China, especially Shanghai and Shenzen, the skills most in demand are:

1. Project Management – Asians are terrific workers but lack leadership skills. PM is a (relatively) new discipline here and as companies develop they need people who can put shape on the deliverables.
2. HR – likewise, there is a shortage of skilled HR execs who can develop a strategy and show Management the career paths they need to develop to attract, nurture and retain talent.
3. Legal – as China goes global, it needs people in the legal field to help with contracts, litigation, procurements and other such issues. Mandarin skills are a plus, but not always mandatory.
4. Finance – Shanghai aims to be the Asian hub for Finance. They’ve recently opened a new Nasdaq-type stock exchange. So much money is getting plowed into its Finance Centre. You have to see it! The financial world involves interacting with bankers all over the world – and the default language of all business communications is English, which brings us to…
5. Communications – Chinese CEOs want to improve their English. Can you help?  Chinese Marketers want to refine their campaigns. Can you help? Chinese HR Depts want to hire the right people. Can you help with the interviews? Chinese exporters want to arrange meetings in London, New York & Amsterdam. Can you be there to help?

Remember, there are more BMWs per head in Beijing than any other city on the planet! Lot’s on business to be done here.

Opportunities for Entrepreneur

Saying that, I see many opportunities here. Let’s take a step back for a second. Many Indians, Chinese, and Europeans made the move to the US to better their careers. I’m sure you know some.

• They’re hard-working, right?
• They studied English (a foreign language), right?
• They made the move to a new country and survived, right?

Well, it’s the same for you.

It’s do-able.

Unless you’re held back by domestic commitments, which are understandable, then moving to Asia is worth considering. Maybe now it’s (possibly) the turn for US folks to move to these countries to find work. I know this is hard to swallow for many people, but well… why not?

There are so many opportunities for people in India, Singapore, China, and now Vietnam (the new low cost dev centre). And no, you don’t always need to speak the language but if you do, just learn it.

One of the most successful web marketers in the US is John Chow, a guy who moved from China as young man. Today, he’s minting it.

How to get started

• Read the China Daily http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/ to get an insight into China today
• Read China Tech News http://www.chinatechnews.com/
• Connect with me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh where I share links, photos and videos
• Signup to LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/ and connect with me http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh there.

LinkedIn is an excellent gateway with some really super groups where you can ask questions and get real feedback. It’s for business professionals and has been the most productive social network for me.. I really recommend it.

If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments section so we can share with others.

Likewise, if you think you’re friends might like this article, please send it to them.

Most people think it’s difficult start a career as a business consultant. I used to think the same in my early 20s when I started in IT.

In retrospect, I should have made more efforts to establish myself as a consultant earlier; the benefits certainly outweigh the downsides. As luck would have it, I was forced into a consultancy role when I lost my 9-5 job. Time to learn to hustling and bring in business. Harvard Business Review refers to it as The Hustle Strategy. More on that later.

3 Types of Business Consultant

Before we start, there are 3 types of consultants:

1. Academic — those with academic achievements, e.g. PhDs, who are brought in to solve/explore/test problems. Their skills match the problem at hand. So you have it or you don’t.
2. Management — those with senior management skills, such as in M&A, legal, international business development and
3. Solutions — this includes the broad spectrum of 9-workers who’ve ‘repositioned’ their skills, want to work for themselves and/or have others working for them. This, I assume, it where you fit in. It’s where most consultants start out.

How to get started as a Business Consultant

The next question is: how do I get started? Here’s one way of approaching it.

1. Focus — identify your top 3 skills (not technologies). Be honest. If someone put a gun to your head and said “what are the three things you do best?”, then you’d say ”what I do best is…”
2. How do you see yourself — write a pen portrait (100 words max) of how you see yourself. So, if you were introducing yourself person to someone at a conference, you’d say “Hi, this is Amanda she,….” Remember, focus on the benefits you offer, not the tools. Tip – Start to visualize the person/consultant you want to become.
3. Role Models — identify 3 business leaders and use them as role models. For me, Richard Branson is a good example, for you it might be someone else. Read everything about these people, soak up how they made it. It’s not in the words of their bio – but the energy, the drive they had. Having a role model gives you a frame of reference, something to use as a compass/anchor.
4. Meet and Greet — Contact 10 people who are in a similar position as yourself. Meet up, for example, on a Saturday afternoon and see how you can help each other. Remember, you’re looking to link up with people for the long haul. Ignore the tire-kickers. Find 1 or 2 decent people that you trust and keep connecting with them.
5. Be the Glue — Define one common goal with these folks and make it happen. For example, aim to run an event, workshop, training course (whatever) by a specific date. You have to have targets, otherwise nothing will happen. It will just be talking shop.
6. Action Plan — doesn’t need to be fancy. List what needs to be done, assign names, and dates.
7. Examine your USP – I know this sounds lame but you have to differentiate yourself from the competition. This is the key. If you become ‘that guy’ who does, for example, Facebook training, Social Media business communications, Proposal development for biotechnology or whatever, then laser focus on this. Your aim is to dominate this one area. You have to become ‘that guy’.
8. Promotion — once you’ve all your ducks lined up, start getting the message out. Write guest articles in blogs, contribute to events, share information on LinkedIn, send free White Papers to people in your target market – do whatever it takes to promote yourself (and your colleagues) so that you become you become ‘that girl’. Girls, when I say ‘that guy’ I mean both guys and girls. You know that, right?
9. Personal branding – get your site, business cards, sharp suit etc in place. People still judge on appearances. If you look successful…
10. Network — Look for places to get out and meet people. People do business with people they meet. Again, it doesn’t have to be fancy. Find fast ways to meet up and find out where it’s happening. Tip – if you’re a single mom, link up with other parents who want to run their own business and take turns minding each other’s kids:  that way you both get one night a week to get out there and network.
11. Stick to the plan — If you keep this up for 3 months, you’ll change your perception of who you are and also by meeting people, you’ll learn new things. While the web is great, the human touch is what counts.
12. Follow the leader — Tom Peters, Chris Brogan, Richard Branson, ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ have all helped me in different ways.

Chris Brogan made a very interesting observation recently when he said that he tries to be there ‘before the fire starts’. What he meant was that everyone wants to help (i.e. sell you something) when things go wrong but it’s the people you know before it happened that count. I bet there you’ve been in that similar situation yourself. It’s the people you already know that you trust.

One last thing – the harder you try, the luckier you get. Take it one step at a time. Remember the turtle and the hare. Use everyday opportunities as ways to close the gap between where you are and where you want to go.

PS: Started to read this. Impressed so far. Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust

What’s your first step?

What advice would you give to those who want to start as a Business Consultant? What’s the one mistake they must avoid? What’s the best tip you ever got on starting your own business?

I’ve started to use my social networks more strategically rather than adopting a ‘shotgun approach’. In other words, I try to leverage each site by seeing the opportunities it offers and then using these. Recently, I’ve started to shift away from Facebook and moved to LinkedIn.

Ivan Walsh's Linkedin Profile page

5 Reasons You Should Leave Facebook and Join LinkedIn

What does LinkedIn offer that Facebook doesn’t? Here are five reasons to Leave Facebook and join LinkedIn instead.

1. Target Audience – the average age on Facebook is 20 something and female. It’s a great place to meet people, swap videos, and chat. But it’s not a business platform. LinkedIn’s average age is 41. Most everyone is a business professional trying to meet other business professionals. So, for me, this gives it a huge edge of Facebook.
2. Business Groups – LinkedIn is designed around business groups. You can join these and instantly connect with people with similar interest. On Facebook, there may be fan pages, but it’s often just that, fans! No real dialogue goes on.
3. Recommendations – you can build relationships with people on LinkedIn and once they know/trust/do business with you, will give you recommendations. These professional endorsements give you an element of credibility that you don’t get elsewhere. And while this can be abused (I recommend you if you recommend me) it does seem to work.
4. Integration with other platforms – you can connect to LinkedIn from multiple social media portals, such as BusinessWeek, AMEX Open Platform, and even from Facebook.
5. Knowledge Exchange – I’ve kept the best for last. The conversations I have on LinkedIn are with the best people in their fields. You can learn a huge amount just by listening. Ask questions and see what comes back. The quality is very high. And unlike other sites, the conversations rarely degenerate into slanging matches. You can also receive the comments by email every day or bundled into a single email every week.

I will highlight other business benefits in the coming weeks. These are the first that come to mind.

Your thoughts

What do you think of LinkedIn? How does it compare to other business sites you’ve used? What would you like to see changed in it? How could it be improved?

PS – You can view my profile here – http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh

If you have multiple Twitter accounts, want to schedule your tweets, want to see stats on your tweets, and want it all in a new user interface, then try Hootsuite. I used to use TweetDeck but have moved to Hootsuite as it offers better stats and integration with Facebook. Here are 10 tips to get the most out of this desktop twitter client.

1. How to add multiple Twitter accounts

To add multiple Twitter accounts (ie profiles), click Settings and then the Social Networks tab.

Enter your Twitter credentials and it will display in a new tab (usually to the right).

2. How to allow an Editor (e.g. friend) to access a Twitter profile?

Once you have added an editor to your account, click the Social Networks tab in Settings. Select the Twitter profiles an editor can have access to.

Click the box next to the editor(s) name in order to grant access to the Twitter profile.

3. How to monitor my brands?

Set up a search column or a keyword column.

Click Add Column and enter the keywords you want to track. This column is displayed to the right of the screen.

4. How to add tabs?

To add a tab, click the [+] Add Tab button next to your current tabs .

Name it and decide how often you’d like that tab to refresh.

Hootsuite gives you 20 tabs – should be enough!.

5. How to add columns to tabs?

Click Add Column and choose which type of feed you’d like to add.

6. How to configure column options?

The Profile Feed lets you add your Home feed, Mentions feed, Pending tweets, Sent tweets, and Favorite tweets.

7. How to use Keyword Tracking

Enter the keyword and then hit Add.

Hootsuite lets you create customized Twitter searches and perform searches like “from:username” or @username

8. How to change refresh frequency?

Click Edit Tab and select the frequency.

The default is 30 min.

9. How to change the user interface layout

You can drag and drop the tabs to change thee layout.You can also drag/drop the columns in each profile.10 How to create a List?

Create a new column and click Lists.

Enter an existing list or create a new one.

Here I’ve added a LinkedIn list. This let’s me see all the people I have ‘tagged’ as having useful links/info regarding LinkedIn.

Do you know any other good Hootsuite tricks? If you do, please add them below.

Sarah O’Keefe (Scriptorium) discusses STC’s new dues structure: Dues are going up; Printed publications are no longer included in basic dues; No chapter or SIG membership are included in the basic dues.

She adds that while reaction is largely negative, she finds value from her STC membership and gives some examples and reasons to join/stay with the STC. I have to confess that I disagree her on most all points.

STC gives Sarah a channel to attract new customers; many prospective customers find her at STC organized conferences. For example:

“During an STC conference a few years ago, I was approached by representatives of a government agency to discuss a major project. (I found out later they had attended my session to see if they wanted to talk to me. I apparently passed that test.) That meeting resulted in a new customer and over $250,000 in revenue for Scriptorium.”

Why join the STC?

Sarah gives several reasons why you should join/stay with the STC.

Here’s my thoughts:

1. If STC succeeds, you are more likely to find jobs that pay well because your work is respected.

I honestly don’t see how the success or failure of the STC has any material impact on my career. I’ve never joined the STC and managed to work for Intel, IBM and others for almost 20 years.

If the STC closed, would technical writers across the planet get their marching orders or see a cut in salary? Don’t think so, tbh.

Re: your work is respected.

I think this depends on the company and people you work for.

STC membership doesn’t automatically earn you any respect, certainly not with the negative perception surrounding the STC, i.e. out of touch and broken.

Most HR and IT Managers are not aware of the STC and rarely if ever mention it in interviews.

2. You are less likely to be the first person laid off in a downturn.

Why?

Most HR Managers make their decisions on budgets, cutback and other factors.

It would be great if this membership gave an extra layer of protection but the reality is that if you’re going to get laid off, all the certs, degrees etc in the world don’t make one iota of difference.

3. You are less likely to find job postings that include general office work among technical communication tasks.

Not sure what this is about. Most job postings I see for technical writers don’t include ‘general office work’, which I assume means admin tasks.

You are less likely to be replaced by another, less skilled, less expensive writer.

Read this s l o w l y.

• We made cut-backs to the technical writing dept in my last company; most of the technical writing tasks were shipped out to Poland and India.
• These guys and girls were less skilled and less expensive.
• Actually, the last 3 months at the place was spent up-skilling the offshore team.
• The company needed to reduce costs, full stop.
• The quality of the tech docs is not great but the share price is up. Analysts are positive regarding the company’s stance on ‘fiscal controls’.

4. If technical communication is valued, your work is less likely to be viewed like a commodity.

Now this is an interesting point. Is it valued?

Most of us who write for a living value the written word —that’s why we’re here, right? —but not everyone shares the same enthusiasm.

You could also replace ‘technical communication’ with any other job title and make the same argument.

• If software development is valued, your work is less likely to be viewed like a commodity.
• If quality control is valued, your work is less likely to be viewed like a commodity.
• If network admin is valued, your work is less likely to be viewed like a commodity.

Links:

A mercenary view of STC: http://www.scriptorium.com

Broken STC Model http://www.idratherbewriting.com

Bill Swallow http://techcommdood.com/?p=309

Final Thoughts

Going back to Sarah’s point about drumming up work at events.

My take on the STC and other groups, for example, LinkedIn, is that their value is in proportion to what you put in.

The more effort you make, the greater the returns.

Those that make an effort to ‘use’ the STC (in the best possible way) are likely to see their careers blossom.

If you sit on your hands, then nothing is likely to come your way.

What do you think?

Is the STC value for money?