One of my goals now that I am back in the United States is to improve the quality (as well as continuing to grow quantity) of my social networking. At the moment I am still “fairly” automated, which has definite good points, as I pointed out in this Twitter Article. But I am also desiring to make more person to person interactions and connections with Twitter/ Facebook followers.
Thinking along this vein has gotten me thinking a lot about the power of social networking once again. Because of this I decided to make a Sunday post exclusively highlighting posts dealing with social networking.
Basic Social Media Guides
The first tool is for anyone who is new to Social Media. It is an in depth post with tons of links to just about every form of Social Media. It is basic, but if you are new to Social Media, there is not much better of a place to start, since it has everything Social Media related, from Blogs to Wikis.
To call this a massive list is an understatement. It has 90+ links, many of them to quite in depth posts. That is a lot of reading. I haven’t even checked out ¼ of the links here, but if anything in social media interests you, this could be the place to start looking for a post for it.
Oni is up next and us some of the rules we should obey when dealing with Social Media. It is certainly helpful to avoid falling into common traps by breaking these rules and decreasing the efficiency of your Social Media experience.
Twitter
Twitter is a great way to drive some extra traffic. Once someone has a decent amount of twitter followers, either a smaller number of engaged followers or a larger number of semi-random followers, Twitter is great for ensuring extra visitors to your posts both old ones retweeted and new ones. I believe every Twitter follower is worth something, but an engaged and targeted follower that you have a relationship with is worth far more than a random follower. Mark shows us how to get these perfect Twitter followers.
Once you get some of these followers the next logical step is to get some traffic from these followers. Lesley gives us some a list of really good Twitter tips to help drive that extra traffic from Twitter.
Next up is Chris discussing his Twitter Toolbox. One of MY Twitter Tools has been Hootsuite. They just went from being free to having a “pro” version with some of their “neater” tools. The monthly fee is low, and there are other ways to get the job done. But it is nice to have all the tools in one place. James discusses this issue with Hootsuite and brings up some alternative ideas for those on a tight budget.
John Paul discusses something that many of you may not have put a lot of thought into, but which could be of enormous benefit, having a Twitter landing page.
Perhaps you think the Content is King mantra is only for blog posts. Nope, it is valid on Twitter too. What you say and how you say it really makes a big difference. Perhaps more of a difference because you only have 140 characters to get it done with. Marly shows us some ways to write killer Twitter content.
Facebook is big.
I just wanted to let you know that, in case you have been living under a rock for the last few years. To not be on Facebook is fine, but to not be on Facebook if you care about marketing a product or blog is foolish. Like Twitter, it can be a great tool for connecting with a large group of targeted people. The first thing that needs to be done is to grow those targeted followers get them involved. This of course takes some time, social interaction and laying groundwork.
John leads off discussing how to build your Facebook page with some really good ideas and tools.
One of the first things to do on Facebook should be to make a great landing page. Darren rounds things out with an article on how to create a Facebook landing page.
Teaser
Well that is it for this Sunday; fairly short and sweet for a Sunday post. There is a method to my madness though. I want you all to save energy for Monday’s post. I put more effort into that post than any I have done since I started this site. I feel it has MUST READ information on email marketing. I go into detail on numerous types of email messages and I actually wrote a sample of each type of email to use as a concrete example. If you read only one article of mine a week, make sure you tune in tomorrow.
Take Action. Get Results.
Good one, Steve.
Without social media and relationship building it would be a tough go in the online business community, not to mention the fact that it’s fun to do anyway. The largest challenge is to watch how much time we invest and keep a nice balance so that we get other things done as well.
Thanks for the post, looking forward to Monday’s.
Have great day!
I agree. I want to “connect” but I want to do it while still limiting the time I spend on twitter/etc. I think it is way to easy to get sucked into the social aspects. Have a great time talking to people, but then realize that hours have gone by.
Hi Steve:
Great post, about social media. But how effective it is for real results ? I get the feeling it takes much more time than it provided any support to online activity, it only promotes owners of facebook and twitters and few other people.
I am the foolish who got fed up and removed my account from face book few years back. Unwanted people were living and making it their own page all the time. What is the cure for that?
Any ways, I have to rethink now. Very informative post. Thank you.
Have a great Sunday
Fran A
Fran
I am really sort of “just starting” on Facebook myself. I have slowly been trying to build up a personal page and making/ promoting a “fan” page is moving up on my “to-do” list. There are people who do quite well with driving traffic from facebook.
I have a little more experience with Twitter. I have a fairly big list, considering I started it only 8 months or so ago. (11K plus). Those that I would call my “quality” followers are all regular commentators on this page. As I stated in the post, though I make some half-hearted attempts to connect with people, I probably do not do “enough” but I would still say that 1/4-1/3 of my traffic comes through Twitter, so with more targeted and active followers I would say these numbers should get even better.
It is certainly worth it to devote a little effort daily growing and connecting on Twitter and facebook.
Hi Steve,
This Sunday selection of yours is definitely welcome. I have just signed up for my twitter account a few minutes ago and lo and behold, you have addressed the issues on my mind regarding twitter. The universe must be telling me something. Anyway I am grateful for all the great resources you have put together for twitter and facebook. It is really helpful for someone like me who is just starting out on these mediums. Looking forward to your article on Monday!
Thank you for this post!
Irving aka the Vizier
Glad you liked it.
To speed up the “friending” process make sure you check out the first link to my “grow Twitter” article. It has some pretty good ways to speed up growth. You seem like a pretty social guy, so I am sure you will have no problems with the socializing aspects. 🙂
Hey Steve,
Great Sunday selection there! The social media article was definitely an interesting read and a must for newbies in blogging. Mark’s article is yet another good find. I actually commented there some time ago. Following the advices he gives can definitely give a boost in Twitter traffic. The idea of having followers, who are not following many is golden. After all if someone follows 10 000 people, the chances of him seeing exactly your tweet are rather slim. Other than that even though quality matters a lot, quantity should not be underestimated in that case. The more followers you have the higher your exposure. I know that from experience.
The social media one was basic, but like you said….awesome resource for newbies.
I personally agree pretty closely with Alexes comments in the intro to Marks article. I went after sheer numbers first. I do not think this is bad (but GETTING followers with ow numbers can be good as pointed out) but interaction with followers is also equally valid.
By using lists I do not think that these need to be mutually exclusive either. It might take a little more work, but I believe that you can have a large list and also have a degree of personal interaction with a large number of them. …now I just have to put my money where my mouth is and get do that interaction stuff. 🙂
Yes, you have a point Steve – interaction is vital and that strangely seems to be disregarded by many Twitter users these days. There’s nothing bad in retweeting others’ work and sharing your articles, but engaging is what can really make a difference. You don’t have to communicate with each and every follower of course, but not getting to know a single person is a shame. Relationships do play a role and the faster people understand this, the closer they’ll be to reaching the goals, they have set themselves.
Have a nice day mate! 🙂
Good stuff Scott. Like you, I am working to become much more personal with my Social Media accounts, while still doing some automation. Thanks for the collection of good info.
Balancing numbers, interaction and time spent on Twitter (ie not TOO much) might be a juggling act, but I think will be well worth it for both of us!
Thanks for the comment Josh
Steve, thanks for another useful post and thanks for the mention. I really enjoy twitter, so don’t find it a problem, but I struggle on facebook so I will be checking out all the info I can. I was also interested in the Mashable info on how to include social media in a presentation or workshop, that could potentially be very useful!
Thanks!
Lesley,
I struggle on facebook big time. I went to make a “fan” page last night and I guess all “guides” for that are old because I had a tough time figuring out if I had done it right. Think I got it in the end though. 🙂
Now I have got a whole load of reading up to do Steve.
Thanks to you, didn’t know I still had a lot of social media catching up to do. What a resource!
Hey Steve,
I am curious about your views on financial education. The kind that Robert Kiyosaki teaches in books like “Conspiracy of the Rich” and “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” Do you believe wholeheartedly in what he is saying or do you think a lot of it is BS with left out information just to fuel desperate people into believing they can succeed? Kind of like some Internet marketing products. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but do you see it as another “product” with some gold nuggets but also with key points left out so that more knowledge is needed?
Really curious as well which financial education books you DO like? If not rich dad poor dad books, do you read things like Iwillteachyoutoberich or what?
I take everything with a “little” bit of skepticism. There is likely to always be a little hype involved. But rich dad poor dad seemed to contain some pretty good stuff. like working to learn and not for money and some of its views on entrepreneurship.
I am far from being a financial expert though it all sounds good but I cannot make enough of a reasoned argument for or against really.
Suh-weeet! Looking forward to tomorrow’s post.
And thanks for this roundup. I’m still a relative newcomer to Twitter, so I’m off to read some of these resources.
Glad you liked it! 🙂 Hope tomorrows post (up now) lives up to my presell 😉
I’ve not been a fan of social media sites, because my primary stand on them is that they are a huge waste of time, for one, and, secondly, they go too far on breaching your privacy (I’m talking about facebook here in particular). I’ve eradicated television from my life, and I don’t think social media would get to take that space and more.
That said, I fully agree that using social media for promotions is a great thing! And if you see what is going on tweeter these days, it’s 90% promotion and the remaining 10% is commotion. LOL! Just came out with that rhyme from the top of my head. But hey, if that is going to get some people coming by your site, why not add to the commotion (err, promotion) anyway? 🙂
Cheers,
Mark
I think that it is very important to use the social media. It is a way to connect us. Doing work this way, we are connecting to others all over the world, but often work at home, so no coworkers. Being in a community is importatn.
Hey Steve,
Great round up of posts there. Your 2nd link, social media tools 101 is DA BOMB! Plenty of links there. Man I think I need a whole day to go through that one 😀 I’ve read Oni’s post. Gotta check out the facebook page on John’s site.
Glad you like ti Bryan. I Agree too. That is a pretty awesome article. It gives such a good depth of info.