Social Media for Those Who Don’t Want to Waste Time on Social Media

clip_image001When I started using the technologies that later became known as social media, before writing Twitter Revolution,  I would have never thought there would come a time when I would get asked every day:

“How do you find the time to use social media?”

As a serial entrepreneur investing and using online connections to build my businesses, I just assumed that I’d only pursue technologies that were good for business. Playing games is not my style.

Blogging, social networking sites, online media and the tools like Twitter are not only a must have for any blog or business that wants to be found online… they will save you time when used right.

Getting Into the Conversations of Customers

At first glance, the conversations fragments you see online look like a waste of time. People talking about TV shows, sports, the weather and what they ate for breakfast. According to the studies we’ve seen on Twitter, 4 out of 5 people never get past setting up an account and wondering what to do next.

The reason these conversations look so frivolous is that you can’t see the context. The writer and the readers likely know each other, maybe met offline, or have engaged in some manner on any number of web sites.

In the past 2 years, we’ve had an unprecedented opportunity to listen in on these conversations. We’ve seen as much as 20% of them are related to some product or service.. the word of mouth that we all knew was happening but could not listen to..

Conversations in any setting are filled with the same phrases and nonsense you might hear in line for a movie, at the next table in a restaurant, or in an airplane.  But when they are posted in public, you can listen, filter out the majority and easily find new leads, new business opportunities and market information that has never before been available.

Social Media Will Revolutionize Your Business

The secret of profitable social media is easy. Just drop the meaning you are used to for media.. this is not an advertising medium.

To succeed online, in business, and in life, remember the golden rule. You will get everything you want if you help enough other people get what they want.

Marketing and social psychology research has proven time and again that reciprocity is not just a good moral code, it is the most powerful of hooks into a customer. When you give a sample, offer free information, or become known as a helpful individual, you draw people to you.

Reciprocity is not quid pro quo. (which I like to translate to “I will scratch your back if you scratch mine”). It goes one step further. Instead of seeking to help someone because they have done or will do something for you, smart marketers have found that giving without expectation of quid pro quo is much more likely to get results.

The simplest example would be offering a drink to someone visiting your office. Offering the beverage without demands always works better than saying “I’ll let you have the drink if you will buy something”. Bottom line oriented marketers have measured the results. You’ll get far more sales when you “let go” and make a gift.  The recipient of the gift feels a social obligation to consider your offer, a much stronger bond that quid pro quo.

Now that we have simple and easy ways to give online… with a quick answer to a question, a referral to an online friend, or just acknowledgement that you are listening, we can invoke reciprocity in just a few seconds.

The result is my marketing mantra for social media…

LISTEN and LOVE

It’s no different than the attitude you’d have if your biggest potential client walked in the front door or called you on the phone. You’ll drop everything and make sure they are taken care of. However, thanks to social media tools like Twitter and the applications to filter and get pertinent messages, we can do this dozens of times a day.

Start with a search for the keywords that someone looking for help in your industry would enter into a search engine. Twitter search at http://Search.Twitter.com will work just fine. You’ll find that someone, somewhere is asking a question that you may have heard a million times. Just REPLY to that person with your short answer.

The reader asking may not be in the right geographical or demographic area to buy from you, but thousands or Twitter users will have access to your answer, and see that you are the kind of person that helps others.

We all want to buy from people that we know, like, and trust. Helping others online is the fastest way ever to get to know prospects, give them good reason to like and trust  you and invoke reciprocity.

Listen and Love.. It’s as simple as that.

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Warren Whitlock is a blogger, speaker, publisher and marketing strategist for Twitter and social media. He works with authors, entrepreneurs, corporations that want to connect with new markets, attract more leads and sell more. His next book, Profitable Social Media, will be published in 2010.  Warren blogs at http://BestSellerAuthors.com/blog

I Don’t Want a “Fan” Page.. Why I’m Getting a Facebook Page

I’ve been putting off doing a “page” on Facebook for as long as they’ve been around.

Fist off, I hated the term “fan page” from the start. I don’t want to be seen as a guy looking to get “fans” or establish myself as a guru.

Trouble is, the limits to connections on Facebook have kept me for interacting with more people and the “page” technology is perfect for allowing the loose connections with good stuff that I support and promote for authors and businesses.

Why I’m Setting Up a PAGE on Facebook

I’ve been playing with a page for the listeners of Profitable Social Media radio for the past few weeks and advises clients to set up page for every book and business.

After all, Facebook as over 400 million readers, pages have grown from 5 to 20 million in the past few months. This is where your readers are expecting to see you.

Today, I logged into Facebook and saw this at the top of my page:

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Introducing the Like button

Starting today people will be able to connect with your Page by clicking “Like” rather than “Become a Fan.” We hope this action will feel much more lightweight, and that it will increase the number of connections made across the site

I like being liked!

Watch for the announcement and links to my page here. I’ll be sure to put gobs of great new information on that page.. that’s the best way to grow a community.. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT.

In the mean time, if you haven’t got a page already.. got get one. If you are technically challenged, let me know and I’ll direct you to some of the wonderful people we have doing Facebook pages.

Do you have a page? Comment below and let me know.

Twitter Book Author at Tweet House at NAB 2010

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If you’re at NAB 2010 this week and interested in Social median in the entertainment industry come by the tweet house session.

Be sure to head for the Destination Broadband Theater in the Las Vegas Convention Center from 5-6pm on Tuesday, April 13th to check out these awesome speakers at the official Tweet House session at NAB:Twitter and the Entertainment Industry: How the Real Time Web is Changing Hollywood.

A complete rundown of the session and speaker here

NAB Blog Review of Session

Are We Using Smart Phones Too Much?

I’ve been reading reports from Steve Baker (author of one of my favorite books The Numerati) about the move from broadband to smart phones.

Steve wrote on his blog (a must read) in a post called Korean wireless chief warns of data overload

"There are limits to the mobile network," he said. Traffic surrounding big news events, such as the suicide of former president Roh Moo-hyun, nearly paralyzed KT’s network. He predicted that the limits of wireless networks could strengthen the hand of the same carriers that are failing to build robust networks. With shortages, they might be able to start billing for megabytes, instead of the more common all-you-can-eat subscriptions. "The dreams of the wireless phone companies will be realized," he said.
The trouble is that handsets, like Apple’s iPhone, are picking up more of the data work from laptops. Lee mentioned on of KT’s customers, a gaming company, that gave iPhones to employees. In the first month, 60% of them moved all computing to their handsets and never even booted up their PCs. "Will the network sustain that heavy traffic?" he asked. "It will have real trouble." (A normal cell phone transmits about 20 mbs of data per month. With the average iPhone or Android, that number jumps to 400 mbs.)

Commenting on a Wall Street Journal article on SmartDataCollective.com

Before the iPhone, it used to be able to accurately forecast to the minute the type of phone usage each new customer would add to its network based on basic demographics such as age and income levels. The forecast always held true across cities and towns.

But with the iPhone, such bets are off, AT&T executives painfully learned. It now looks at a broader set of customer profiles to forecast behaviors. For example, in a metro area with a large proportion of students, the phone operator schedules network upgrades to occur outside of colleges’ nine-month academic terms.

…’I’m as interested now in what you’re doing when you’re not on the network’… said John Stankey, head of AT&T’s operations arm.

One interesting note from the article is while AT&T has taken its bruises in this data-intensive market, at least it’s learning. Some beleaguered users may jump to Verizon and other carriers just as those companies start to struggle with the same issues. It might be smart for Verizon to pay top-dollar for an AT&T engineer or two, just to get the know-how.

Following the series from Steve Baker, I’m still generally optimistic that data connections will improve.. especially knowing that some very smart people are watching this.

The Most Profitable Use of Social Media for Business

social media for businessWe want to showcase the best stories and case studies of actual businesses that are using social media for business to make a real impact on their marketing.

We will have examples in our book well beyond the usual stories you have heard before and will focus on those submitted here.

Post a comment about your business or a business you know or consult that used social media with measurable results to:

  • Give Better Customer Service
  • Respond Quickly to the Market
  • Form New Partnerships
  • Increase Efficiency
  • Help Employees Do Their Jobs
  • Anything PROFITABLE

Engage With Us to Discuss Profitable Social Media for Business

The author reads this blog daily and will reply to your comments or contact you for interviews or clarification.

Here’s your chance to shine a light on a good company.

About Warren Whitlock

Warren is a #1 best selling author, speaker, publisher, blogger, and social media marketing expert. He wrote the first book about Twitter and Mobile Marketing,  He is the host of Social Media Radio and speaks frequently about social media marketing, online publicity and marketing, social networking and building lifetime value for rapid growth.

Warren helps businesses transform to a new way of doing business using social media and online marketing and promotion to attract the right audience from the 2 billion people using the Internet. His breakthrough strategies to integrate mobile marketing, public relations and and lead generation with conversions to return on investment for lifetime value has helped  hundreds businesses achieve rapid and continuing results from their marketing process.

Warren has been an entrepreneur in the computer, publishing and media.  He started his career in broadcast advertising, developing cross promotions between two or more businesses, and has used the same strategies in direct mail and other media.

Over the past decade, Warren has taught thousands of small businesses, authors and individuals how to use proven direct marketing principles to promote product or service, started a trade association for manufacturers in the imaging products industry and served on several executive board

There Is Plenty of Food. Why Are People Hungry?

It troubles me greatly to think that as you I discuss how over a billion people are hungry and have need for clean drinkable water, there will likely be another  child fall because of these basic nutrition problems.

Our modern world support billions of people and capacity grows by the day. And there are two facts staring us in the face:

  1. The world is covers mostly in water so we aren’t running out
  2. Our output in total calories of nutrition far exceeds the needs of 7 billion people.

Sometimes, it seems the best thing to do is to prosper, make a donation and hope you picked one that won’t squander most of the money. Frankly, when asked where someone should send a check to support clean drinking water, I’m never sure what to say.

This isn’t a funding problem.

Friday night, I’ve invited James Talmage Stevens, the best selling author in the preparedness industry on my Profitable Social Media radio show to talk about his education campaign to help families be prepared for any situation. His book Making the Best of Basics, has sold 770,000 copies and is now out in a new edition.

However, I know we’ll spend a lot of time on a passion we share, getting clean drinkable water for the billion plus people suffering right now. Listen to my show here

Looking For Better Explanations.. Better Ideas About Food

I spend an hour each evening reading and searching for new ideas like the one shown here. The following, Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish was one I just about passed on. I never eat fish! But OH, how glad I am that I watch this.

These Ideas Will Help You In Your Marketing

When I’m stuck on a problem, looking for a creative solution for my clients or wondering how I’ll work out a situation that seems insurmountable, I often think back to folks like Dan Barber.

If you’re like me, you’ll have a notepad out and several action items before you finish watching this short video.

I hope you will share your ideas with us.

Not Information Overload.. I’ve Got a Use for All That Data

When you change your frame of reference, and take a 10,000 foot overview, you see thing that you may have missed

Gary Flake shows how we can get out of the pile of trees that we have seen as the Internet and view the forest of knowledge assembled for us.

More on PIVOT:

Let’s Get Profitable In Our Use of Social Media

Welcome to ProfitableSocialMedia.com.

This is our first post, but there will a lot more to come soon.

Profitable Social Media is a book for people who have been thinking “I know there is something to this.. but I just don’t have time.. I run a business”

If this describes you, you want to see how social media can be profitable for your business, or you want to help others learn about profitable ways to use social media.. you’ll love what’s coming.