Archive for the ‘What not to do’ Category

Google search changes not small News~

December 9th, 2009

After reading this post by Jennifer Van Grove I had to post it here for all you awesome readers! Check it out and then read the rest at http://ow.ly/Ksgb

The New Social Google: What it Means for SMBs

Oct 30, 2009 –

On Wednesday, October 21, at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Google’s Vice President of Search,Marissa Mayer, made two important announcements regarding search.

The first big piece of news is that Google will integrate real-time Twitter search into search results. The second ground-breaking tidbit is that the search giant will be unveiling Google Social Search in just a few weeks.

These aren’t your everyday announcements. Both have major implications for social brands and present huge opportunities for small businesses. Let’s take a look at why.

Tweets Matter

Twitter search tools have always been important resources for finding out what people are saying right now on any given subject matter, product, service, or brand. But tweets have been largely irrelevant to online users not using Twitter. That’s about to change forever, as both Google and Bing have announced integrated real-time Twitter search. Bing’s product is a separate webpage, but Google confirmed that their offering will include tweets integrated into standard search results.

Essentially this means that tweets matter more than ever, because they will be exposed to mainstream searchers. All the good, bad, and ugly things ever said about your small business or your competitors are now ripe for perusing by the common web searcher. Having a social presence, especially on Twitter, is now mandatory.

Say, for instance, you have a disgruntled customer who decides to tweet their frustration. Somewhere else in the world another individual is searching Google for a service provider in your industry, but their search returns the aforementioned negative tweet, replies, and retweets. You’ve now lost that sale. The situation is exacerbated if the Twitterer in question happens to be highly influential.

But, should you be using Twitter for your SMB, see the negative tweets pop up, and engage with the naysayers to try and remedy the situation, your customer service tweets will also become a part of the search experience. Since it’s a real-time integration, your tweets are actually much more likely to catch the eye of a searcher over the older tweets from the disgruntled customer. you can actively change the real-time dialogue about your business.

Customers Rule Search

Google Social Search is equally just as important to understand if you’re an SMB. The basic idea is that when you search, you’ll now be able to see contextual and relevant search results from your friend connections on the social networks you’ve added to your Google Profile. While Social Search will be launched as a Google Lab feature, and will be entirely opt-in, it’s likely to become one of the most popular extras ever introduced by Google.

I use Google for everything, for quick spell checks, finding restaurants in my immediate city, geeky …. Make sure to read the rest http://ow.ly/Ksgb!

Technorati Tags: twitter, google, mashable, search

Posted in Blog, Business, Facebook, Twitter, What not to do

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Twiiter scam ALERT

October 14th, 2009

Social Media DJ says to be careful. Thank you Adam for the update!
October 14th, 2009 | by Adam Ostrow

It looks like a Twitter phishing scam that we reported on last month has re-emerged today. This morning, I was greeted by a direct message saying “you’re on this vid” with a link. Still groggy, I clicked it, and quickly realized it was likely a phishing scam.

And, it most definitely is, as Twitter search () reveals lots of users spreading the same message – presumably after logging in on the phishing site – and others tweeting about receiving the same DM that I did. The site in question looks just like Twitter (), but a quick look at the address bar reveals it clearly is not.

Per usual, the best way to avoid this scam is to avoid visiting the link, and to not provide your Twitter username and password on sites that look suspicious (most apps should be using OAuth at this point anyhow). And if you believe you’ve been duped, be sure to change your password immediately.

Posted in Business, Personal, Twitter, What not to do

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Setting goals for social Media

September 26th, 2009

Social Media DJ says this is a post worth noting for those trying to jump straight into measuring ROI.

How do you “manage” Social Media?

Posted by | Posted in business | Posted on 26-09-2009

Tags: business, clients, Social media

Comments (0)

Time and time again I hear business owners saying, they are trying to utilize Social Media to grow their business. The truth is a lot of these businesses have no clue on what they are doing and some times feel they are wasting time, energy and resources to Social Media, all while trying to measure a ROI.

The key word in the title of this post is “MANAGE”. It is so common to hear people stumble over their words and give me a duh look when I ask the question, “What is your goals for Social Media?”. Social Media is a platform that can help your business but you have to decide first, how you want it to help. If you are in business, setting goals is a no brainier for the everyday task and it seems most have forgotten to set their goals for Social Media. Once you have your goals set, you can now start to “MANAGE” how you will use Social Media.

Keep in mind your goals can vary from one business to the next. Keep your goals realistic, specific and measurable.

Technorati Tags: ROI, Goals, Social Media

Posted in Business, What not to do

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How companies are wasting time in Social Media

September 12th, 2009

The following read is just OK for me but does provide an excellent point. Just as you manage every aspect of your business to get desired results, Social Media has to be managed as well. As a consultant to various businesses on Social Media, I am always surprised how businesses manage and set goals on every other aspect of their business but neglect goal setting and management when it comes to Social Media. How to manage Social Media is another post but in short you need to have a purpose for why you are on a specific median of Social media (twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc..). When you have a purpose, you also need to set a measurable goal, what do you hope to get out of this median? Then of course you need to manage and track your results. Not rocket science just good old fashion Business Management 101.

The Overlooked Side of Social Media

Most companies are embracing social media—but too many are wasting their efforts through sloppy management

By The Staff of the Corporate Executive Board

More than 70% of companies are already using social media; many are planning to increase their spending on social media across the coming years. Whether for learning from customers, building their brands or a range of other hoped-for outcomes, companies are clearly diving in.

Unfortunately, few have thought very hard about managing these initiatives. In a classic case or “ready, fire, aim,” companies are committing resources to social media efforts with very little process behind them. The result? A hodgepodge of unrelated initiatives, wheels re-invented and resources wasted.

The Corporate Executive Board has found that the best companies recognize that social media are just another set of promising tools and as such are to be understood, mastered, and used efficiently. Importantly, they also recognize that how they manage their social media efforts depends on where they are in the journey from initial discovery to mainstream use. That journey has three stages:

• Discovery: At this stage, the organization is just finding out about the potential uses (and risks) of social media for its purposes and making initial forays. The goal: understanding (”could this work for us?”). Since few resources are necessary at this point, companies don’t need heavy managerial oversight. But they do need downside protection. Clear, well-communicated policies on everything from information sharing to appropriate language is in order.

• Experimentation: As an organization does more with social media, the importance of learning efficiently becomes urgent. At this point, companies need tighter oversight and coordination of efforts. There are a number of ways to create that kind of transparency and sharing, ranging from steering committees to tiger teams” to social media czars. These bodies should develop and steward a learning agenda for the firm’s efforts, using each initiative to deliberately increase the institutional knowledge of social media use.

Measurement standards also become more important at this stage. The best companies settle on a consistent set of measures for similar initiatives, using that data to test and learn over time. Metrics like track-backs, for example, can clarify better or worse social media vehicles for a given objective.

• Adoption: While few companies currently find themselves in this stage, those that do loosen their managerial posture, moving away from oversight toward support. Here, the role of any central or dedicated management body should be one of education, coaching and provision of expertise. Some firms are building centers of excellence, repositories of people and knowledge about using social media. Metrics should shift here too, tailored for assessing efficiency and effectiveness of specific initiatives.

The short story: Social media isn’t a fad about to fade away; it’s a good idea for your organization to learn how to use it to your advantage. The best companies will learn faster and get more out of social media by aggressively managing their efforts.

Provided by Corporate Executive Board —What the Best Companies Do™

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Business Management, Companies