• Before You Start: You have a Facebook business page where you post items frequently each week.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Do You Understand Facebook?

How well do you understand Facebook? Check your understanding by answering this question.

• Question: Does everyone who likes your business page sees everything you post on your business page wall?
• Answer: NO!

Does this surprise you? It shocks most business people.

Facebook News Feed Filter

It turns out that Facebook has a complicated formula it uses to decide what to put into each person’s news feed. It takes all of the possible items from all of their friends and every business they like, and figures out which items each person most likely will love to read. That’s right! Facebook filters what goes into each person’s news feed. So what does this mean for your business?

• Some who like your page may never see anything you post.
• Other people will see some of what you post.
• Most likely, no one who likes your page will ever see all of your posts.

What Is Facebook Thinking?

Facebook has a good reason for filtering the news feed. They want everyone with a personal profile to have a great experience on Facebook. So they want to provide items in the news feed that are most likely to delight each person. Facebook’s primary concern is not getting your business message out. Facebook’s primary concern is giving people (not businesses) a  wonderful Facebook experience. If that means eliminating your business wall posts from the news feed, they are okay with that. Facebook does give each business another way to reach people, a way that they guarantee will reach your target audience. That tool is Facebook ads. The odds are stacked against your business page wall posts getting the visibility you want. So is it even worth your effort to be on Facebook? And if you decide to use Facebook, is there a way you can still get the most from your Facebook wall posts?

Should My Business Be On Facebook?

Choosing which social media tools to use for your business is one of the most important decisions you make for your business. The right social media tools help you business in many ways.

• Showcase your products and services.
• Help you build stronger relationships with existing customers.
• Help you reach out to the public and potential customers.
• Increase the visibility of your business and products.

Facebook is the largest social media tool on the planet. It can help you reach your existing customers and find new customers whether you are B2B or B2C. It’s not a perfect platform for every business or every industry. But having a Facebook presence can help most businesses.

How May People See Each Post?

Facebook tells you how many people see each item you post on your business page wall. To see this, you must be using Facebook as your page. Display your business page wall. At the bottom of each post, right above the links for like, comment, and share, Facebook says: “X people reached.” This tells you how many people got this item in their news feed.

Measuring Post Visibility

You can calculate what percent of the people who like your page see each wall post. To do this, take the number of people reached and divide it by the number of likes for your page. For example, if Facebook says 48 people reached and you have 287 people who like your page, you take 48 ÷ 287, or approximately 17% saw that post.

Getting Your Posts Seen

There are things you can do to increase the chances of people seeing your business page wall posts. It’s really worth your effort to do these things. They can double or triple the visibility of each post. With a little effort, you can increase the visibility of each wall post and keep reaching deeper into your Facebook community. But to really reach your online community with your message, you need to be using tools other than Facebook. For example, you can:

• Share your Facebook posts on Twitter with a link to the individual post.
• Mention your Facebook posts in your email newsletter.
• Talk about your Facebook posts when you conduct conference calls or webinars.
• Add a link to your Facebook business page to your website and email signature.

The key to getting your message out on Facebook is to increase the chances of people seeing your wall posts. Then, use other tools to direct people to your Facebook page. Together, these practices will help you reach deeper into your Facebook community.

• 6 Ways To Get Your Facebook Wall Posts Seen
• Use Facebook As Your Page
• Connect With Facebook Tags
• Facebook Status Update Tricks
• Should My Business Be On Facebook?
• Facebook As A Social Media Hub
• Does Anyone See Your Facebook Posts?

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• Before You Start: You have one or more social media accounts.
• Learning level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated: Friday, December 2 2011

Conversation Basics

When it comes to conversation, we all have different skills and comfort zones. Perhaps you are:

• Outgoing and gregarious, and feel comfortable being the center of attention.
• Shy and retiring, and stay on the edge of conversations.
• Able to find conversation topics with anyone you meet.
• Uncomfortable starting conversations because you struggle to find conversation topics.

In general, a conversation takes place when you have these components:

• Speaker. Someone with something to say.
• Message. The idea you want to share.
• Listener. One or more people who hear your message.

People take turns being the speaker and listener, so you sometimes speak and sometimes listen. This is true no matter where you have a conversation.

Social Media Conversation Features

Whatever your conversation style, you can be successful on social media. Social media conversations are different from other types of conversations you have with your customers and the public.

With social media conversations, you often start a conversation without knowing who is listening or who will answer. You have time to think about what you want to say, and you can include words, pictures, videos, or links to online resources with your message.

Social media conversations tend to be one-to-many communication. You post a message that you want to engage many people in your online community. In some ways, learning how to talk on social media is more like public speaking than one-on-one conversations you have in real life.

Responses

Much of the time with social media conversations, you speak without getting any response. The communication process still took place. You shared a message with one or more listeners. However, the listeners didn’t share anything back with you. Or, they shared by liking your post, or retweeting it, or sharing it with their friends.

Without responses, it’s hard for you to know what people thought about your message. You can’t tell what happened when they read your message.

• Did people choose not to respond because they didn’t see any value in your message?
• Did people like your message but chose not to respond because they didn’t have anything to add?

While both of these situations have the same outcome (no response), they are very different situations. It’s really important for your to get feedback to understand how to talk with your online community.

If you are not getting a lot of responses to your one-to-many messages, shift gears and start building relationships with one person at a time.

Warming Up Relationships

One of the smartest ways for you to get great feedback from your online community is to start conversations with individuals. And the most effective way to start conversations with one person is to respond to something he says on social media. This means that you put aside your agenda and the things you want to say, and listen to what individuals in your online community are saying.

Spend some time each day reading what other people are sharing on social media. Jump into existing conversations, or reply to something posted. It’s important that you add something to the conversation, and don’t simply agree or like what they said.

One of the quickest ways to start a conversation is to ask a follow up question. When someone posts on social media, ask them for more details, or ask why they feel that way.  Not only do you get the chance to learn more about the topic, but you learn more about that person and start to build a relationship.

As you begin building warm relationships on social media, you start getting the feedback you need to fine-turn your message for your online community. You start to build relationships with people in your community. And you discover that you being getting more responses to your one-to-many messages as well.

Related Articles:

• Find Social Media Topics For Your Business
• Customers With Benefits
• Is Your Business Ready For Social Media?
• Should You Say The Same Thing On Different Tools?

• Before You Start: You have one or more social media account. You have regular conversation topics with your online community.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Friday, December 2 2011

Content Curation

There’s a new social media buzzword: curation. It comes from the same root word as “curator” which always reminds me of stuffy museums and things you can’t touch.

However, when it comes to social media, curation is hip, interactive, and a really practical thing. Let me back up and explain this in context.

Social Media Is About Conversations

While there are many reasons to bring social media into your business, one of the best reasons has to do with customer conversations. Social media is a set of tools that lets you have two-way conversations with your customers. Traditional marketing has always been one-way communication: whether it’s a billboard, a mailer, or your website–it’s your message broadcast out to the public. You do all of the talking.

With social media, your business can begin having online conversations with your customers and the public. That means both listening and talking. It means talking about topics important to you and important to your customers.

While talking on social media is a little different than a face-to-face or telephone chat, it’s still a conversation. Conversations are important to your business because the more you talk with people, the more you know and understand them, and the more they know and understand you. Conversations build relationships ,and businesses are built upon relationships.

Your Social Media Conversation Topics

What you talk about on social media is important. You want to build your online community with people who are customers, people who want to be customers, and people who care about your business and industry. Those are the people who support your business and help you meet your business goals.

You should focus your social media conversation around topics related to your business, including your industry, your community, and things you passionately care about. That way, your conversation attracts people to your business, and provides valuable information to your community–things they want to hear.

Sharing Your Content

Everything you share on social media can be considered your content. If you imagine your conversations written down, like a book, what you talk about on social media is the content of your book. Other ways that you create and share content include:

• Blog posts provide practical information, product and company updates, and share success stories.
• Videos show people how to use your products and services, or provide practical tips your customers can use in their own lives.
• Pictures of your customers, employees, and daily operations.
• Tweets with gems of insight.
• Status updates that provides background information, or explain the importance of an event, person, or idea.

Your business may also create content in other ways, such as ebooks, books, as guest blog posts, etc.

Other People’s Content

You are not the only person on the planet talking about your conversation topics. There are other people creating content for their own businesses that are similar to yours. Their content may agree with your content, it may expand on your content, or it may disagree with your content. Everyone has their own take on the world, their own way of explaining things, and different reasons for sharing their ideas. It’s part of the diversity of life.

No one owns a conversation topic. Even people who are seen as a guru in their topic are not able to create all of the valuable content for that topic. There is room for every voice, even the ones that disagree with you.

Content curation means that you search through the many people talking about your topics, pick out what you consider to be the gems, and share those with your community. You share the person or business who created the content with your audience.  It’s a little like walking through a field of wildflowers (or opening a florist’s refrigerator) to create a beautiful bouquet for your community.

Become A Content Curator

When you select someone else’s content to share with your audience, you give it your stamp of approval. By sharing it, you tell your community that you believe they will find it practical, or instructional, or entertaining, or otherwise helpful. After all, you can’t write every blog post or ebook or tweet on your conversation topics! If you tried to do that, you wouldn’t have time to actually run your business.

So the next time that you read a blog post or article that makes you think, that sheds new light on a topic, or pinpoints the humor of a common situation, you have an opportunity. Why not become a content curator? Share that tidbit and its source with your online community. It makes your conversation bouquet more beautiful and valuable.

Related Articles:

• Should You Say The Same Things On Different Tools
• Find Social Media Topics For Your Business
• It’s Not About You–It’s About Your Customers
• Twitter Conversation Checklist

• Before You Start: You use more than one social media tool for business.
• Learning level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated: Friday, December 2, 2011

Cross Posting Messages

Many of the social media tools allow you to post the same message in multiple places. For example, you can:

• Send your tweets to Facebook and LinkedIn.
• Share your Facebook status updates on Twitter.
• Automatically share your new blog posts on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
• Posting the same video to your blog and YouTube.
• Share your Google+ post to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
• And more…

The tools allow it, but the big question is: should you do it?

Advantages of Cross-Posting

Many people love the idea of cross-posting messages for these reasons:

• Time Efficiency. No doubt, only posting one time in one place saves time.
• Message Consistency. People who only follow you on one tool get to see the same messages that you share on all tools.

Disadvantages of Cross-Posting

But there are disadvantages to cross posting messages. Before you sign up with any cross-posting service, consider these factors:

• Community boredom. Overlapping audience members don’t want to read the same thing twice. In fact, if people see the same message in different places, they may disconnect from you on one or more social media tools.
• Different publication rates on different platforms. Posting multiple times a day works on Twitter, but may appear spammy on Facebook. You have to understand the environment of each tool to know if your publication rate is appropriate.
• Dilutes your message. When people see the same thing many times, you start to slip into the background noise. Your message might have caught their attention the first time, but when they see it a second or third time, they may dismiss it as unimportant.
• Doesn’t take advantage of the features of each platform. Each tool is different and offers you different advantages. By standardizing your publication across all tools, you no longer can take advantage of the unique features of each tool. You have to aim for the middle ground.
• Facebook penalizes automated postings EdgeRank score. If you cross-post to Facebook, each item you post gets a lower EdgeRank score than if you posted it directly on Facebook. That might sound crazy, but it’s how Facebook does it. Cross-posted items on Facebook will never get the visibility of things you directly post on Facebook.

Your Business Cross-Posting Strategy

Many businesses today that use cross-posting say it saves them time. Yes, it can save you a little bit of time. Bu honestly, how long does it take to post something on any social media tool? A minute? Are you really saving that much time?

I believe that many businesses use cross-posting because they really don’t understand what message to put on each social media tool. Posting the same thing across all tools covers up that question.

If you are cross-posting, or if you are considering cross-posting, take some time to think about each social media tool. What advantages does it offer? Who is connected to you on each tool?

Instead of sharing the same message everywhere, come up with a plan for what items to share on each social media tool. Make a list so you know what tool should share each type of information you share. This type of strategy planning takes a little thought and effort, but will give you far greater results than simply using a cross-posting service.

Find Your Own Balance

I do cross-post items from Facebook to Twitter. There are several reasons why I do this.

• I only post on Facebook once a day.
• The items I post on Facebook are things I do not post on Twitter directly.
• My Facebook page has a much smaller following than my Twitter presence.
• Twitter has such a quick publication frequency that I don’t believe many people will see the Facebook item cross-posted on Twitter. In other words, I believe things can get lost on Twitter.

While I generally advise businesses not to cross-post, there are some cross-posting strategies that might help your business to get your message out. Like so many other things on social media, it’s about trying things and seeing how they work with your community.

Related Articles:

• Multiple Twitter Personalities (Part 1)
• Find Social Media Topics For Your Business
• Twitter Conversation Checklist
• Are You Really Engaging Your Customers?

• Before You Start: You use social media for your business.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Friday, December 2, 2011

Ebooks And Social Media

Ebooks provide a great way to share information with your current and potential customers. They are easy to promote and distribute through social media to your online community.

There are two different types of ebooks people talk about using the same name. The type I’m talking about today are the PDF files that you create and people download to their own computers. In this post, I’m not talking about ebooks for e-readers like the Kindle or Nook.

I published my first business ebook more than three years ago. Since then, they have become an important part of how I share information with my online community. Here’s an overview of what I’ve learned from own experiences and from watching how other people create, use, and distribute ebooks.

Define Your Business Goal

You must be clear about the business goal for your ebook. For example:

• Do you want to increase your visibility by writing an ebook that a lot of people will want to read?
• Do you want to increase your email newsletter subscriber list?
• Do you want to prove your expertise so people want to purchase your products and services?

The business goal for your ebook is a major factor in the following types of decisions:

• Will you give away your ebook or charge for it?
• Will you make your ebook available for anyone to download (low threshold), or will you require them to subscribe to your newsletter or join your website (high threshold).
• What topics will you include or exclude? If you want people to purchase your products and services, you only want to give them a taste of what you share in those items.

There is one really important idea you must understand to add a successful ebook to your business. Your ebook must serve your community. It’s not about you showing off what you know. It’s also not about cashing in on your online community. It’s about giving people something that solves problems, improves their lives, and inspires them. If your ebook meets that criteria, it won’t matter if you give it away or charge for it. Your ebook will build loyal fans in your online community.

Make sure your ebook provides real value to your community.

Create Your Ebook

The most important aspect of your ebook is the content. It’s not enough for you to write about something you know and are passionate about in your ebook.

You must always keep in mind your reader.

• What does your reader already know about this subject?
• What does your reader need to learn about this subject?
• How can you help your reader solve a real business (or personal) challenge with your ebook?

You know the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover, ” but in truth, people will evaluate your ebook by the way it looks. You can have the best content in the world on your topic, but if your ebook doesn’t look professional, people will discount the contents.

It’s important that your ebook has a clean, functional layout, consistent design throughout, and that all language and grammar errors are removed.

I don’t know anyone who has all of the skills needed to create a great ebook alone. Start looking now for people who can help you with the parts that challenge you. You may have to pay for their services, or you may be able to work out a barter or collaboration deal with them.

Distribution Decisions

Before you tell the world about your ebook, you have to get your distribution mechanisms in place. For example:

• Your ebook is free. Write a blog post that explains the features and benefits of your ebook to your target audience. Include a link to the ebook file with a download button. You may also want to add your ebook to your blog sidebar for increased visibility.
• You require a sign up. Write a blog post about your ebook, and include the sign up form at the bottom of the post. Set up the form with your membership software or email list service. Mention your ebook in your blog sidebar with a link to this blog post.
• Purchase required. Write a blog post that explains the features and benefits of your ebook and include an e-commerce link in the post. Depending on your site, you may add a purchase button at the bottom of the post, or a link to the ebook inside the e-commerce portion of your site. This is the most complicated option, and may require additional technical assistance. You also want to make your product visible to all of your site and blog visitors.

It’s critical that you test your distribution before you tell the world about your ebook! Make sure that you have things set up correctly and that your customers will have a smooth experience getting your ebook. I can’t stress this enough! Test it many times.

Launch Your Ebook

After you complete your ebook and have the distribution system ready, it’s time to tell the world. There are many websites, ebooks, books, and courses online today to help you successfully launch your new ebook. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Instead of saying “you must get my amazing new ebook,” focus on the features and benefits your ebook provides to its readers. Talk about the problems your ebook solves. Go back to your writing decisions when you were thinking about the readers, and emphasize those points in your launch.

In general, you want to use all of your social media and customer communication tools to spread the news.

• Use your existing tools and publication devices (blog, mailing list, website, etc.) to announce your ebook to the world.
• Send notices to people who can share your ebook with their audience (bloggers, authors, PR agencies, customers, etc.)
• Post notices using your social media tools. Post it on your Facebook wall, share it on LinkedIn, and tweet about it.
• Include ebook information in your email signature.

It’s really important that you don’t do anything that seems spammy. If it seems like it might be spammy, don’t do it. For example, don’t send an auto direct message (DM) to your new Twitter followers with an ad for your ebook!

Related Articles:

• Getting Started With Ebooks
• It’s Not Obvious To Anyone Else
• Find Social Media Topics For Your Business
• Talk About Your Business (Part 2)
• Social Media Press Releases

• Before You Start: You have business social media accounts. You want to improve your strategy for sharing information through your social media accounts with your online community.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Friday, December 2, 2011

Share Your Experience

We live in a time where information is available at our fingertips. Thanks to search engines, we can find out almost anything with just a few clicks.

If that’s the case, then what information does your business have to share with your online community that they can’t already find online without you?

It’s your experience.

WordPress Backup Example

Here’s an example of how your experience adds value to information. I just got off a chat session with a friend, a peer who is relatively new to WordPress. She had some questions and we ended up talking about how she should be doing her blog backups.

There are plenty of articles out there about how to do a backup of your WordPress blog. (Or how to do most things.) What I was able to share with her are the things that were not listed in any of the how-to articles. For example, I told her:

• How often to do a database backup based on my experience (every 6-8 weeks and before every WordPress upgrade).
• Where to keep the backups (on her computer in a folder marked backups).
• How many backups to keep (3).
• What to do in between database backups (exports of all content to her backups folder weekly).

Some of these things I learned the hard way. All of them I learned through experimentation and occasionally through failure.

Mix In Your Experience

There are many things of value you can share with your community because of what you know from running your business. For example:

• A dry cleaner can talk about how to get lunch spills out of your clothing.
• A real estate agent can talk about how to research the schools in each neighborhood.
• A restaurant can talk about how to keep your produce fresher longer.
• A business coach can talk about how to shift your outlook when the rain clouds appear over your parade.

However, all of these can be improved by adding in your experience. Here are a few ways to do that.

• Tell the story about what happened one time, and how you used that experience to try something new that really worked.
• Add your review or rating for each resource. Which one do you like best? Or how do you decide which resource you use in each situation?
• Provide additional details like how you know when it’s time to do something. Or practical tips that answer questions in the future (like how many backups should my friend save).

Going back to my examples:

• The dry cleaner can create a list of must-have items for every office desk that has all of the items you need to keep stains out of your work clothes. But also add in where to purchase items, and how to get a trial size bottle of club soda, for example.
• The real estate agent can create a list of tools for checking out a new neighborhood, and mention the strengths of each resource. Include the exact neighborhood links to make it easier for people to find them online.
• The restaurant can share its tips for storing produce, including a list of which items don’t store well, how long you can expect each item to last, and how to mark items for quick assessments.
• The business coach can share what she does when she has a tough day, and how to build up your rainy outlook survival kit on the sunny days (before you need it).

Your online community wants more than raw information. They want to learn things from your experience that will save them time, energy, and even money. You have the experience to give them really great information. So include your experience in your social media conversations. Your online community will love you for it!

Related Articles:

• Why It’s Important To Work With The Right People
• Find Social Media Topics For Your Business
• It’s Not Obvious To Anyone Else
• Customers With Benefits
• How Does A Blog Help My Business?
• 5 Things You Can Learn From Your Blog Comments

• Before You Start: You have a business Twitter account. You have more than one Twitter account, or you are considering adding another Twitter account.
• Learning level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated: Friday, December 2, 2011

Managing Multiple Twitter Accounts

If you want to give multiple accounts a try, or if you have multiple accounts and you aren’t quite happy with the results yet, here are some things to consider with managing multiple Twitter accounts.

• Account names. When possible, you want to have an appropriate name for your accounts. A nickname works well for a personal account, but might not help brand you with a business account.
• Account profiles. With two accounts, you need two different profiles, and two different avatars for people who might follow both accounts. Create a different Twitter landing pages for each account where you explain what you talk about in each account, and give each account an appropriate bio. You want to make it easy for someone who doesn’t already know you to figure out which account they want to follow.
• Follow policy. Decide whom you want in your community, in your conversation zone, and set up your follow policy accordingly. For example, with one business account, I limit the number of people I follow to a size I can know and engage. However, for my other business account, I want to connect to a larger community, so I follow most of the people I meet. Obviously, I know the people in one community much better than I do the other community, but that’s okay. I still meet my account goals.
• What to tweet. Make a bulleted list of the topics you tweet for each account. You may find there is a gray area, tweets that can go into both or either account. When you have a tweet in the gray area, think about the overlap between your communities. If you have a lot of overlap, I recommend that you make a choice and just tweet in one account. However, if you have little overlap, you can either:  a) tweet in one and retweet in the other, or b) tweet the same tweet in both accounts, or c) tweet in both accounts, but rewrite it so it isn’t exactly the same.
• Figure our your tools. Unfortunately, Twitter.com doesn’t allow you to log into separate accounts at the same time. You must decide either to split your time between accounts, or find a tool that allows multiple accounts at the same time, such as HootSuite or TweetDeck.
• Make sure you have enough time. It’s a lot of work to maintain two or more Twitter accounts. Not only is the conversation to maintain, but you have community management tasks for each account. I found it was a bigger time commitment than I expected.

Using Multiple Accounts

For many people and many situations, having multiple Twitter accounts is a good strategy. The challenge of finding a good set of tools and investing the time pays off because of the goals met.

If you are thinking about trying multiple accounts, start first with one account. Get your feet wet and get some Twitter experience with a single account. Take what you have learned with one account to set up your multiple account strategy. Be prepared to experiment until you get a set up that really works.

As a multiple account person, I’m very happy with the results I get from this strategy.

Related Articles:

• Multiple Twitter Personalities (Part 1)
• Ebook: Twitter For Beginners
• Setting Twitter Goals
• Using Your Twitter Goals
• Twitter Profile Checklist
• Write A Great Twitter Bio

• Before You Start: You have a small business. You are using some social media tools.
• Learning level: 1 | Social Media Basics
• Article Last Updated: Friday, December 2, 2011

Find Your Voice On Social Media

One of the reasons why some small businesses don’t get great results on social media is because they feel awkward talking about what they do. Maybe you fall into that category. You don’t think what you do is especially important. Or unique. Or interesting. These feelings keep you from sharing on social media. You feel awkward. Not special.

Your Unique Take On The World

I believe every business is filled with smart ideas that others would like to hear. Every business person has a unique take on their business world. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you are in, or how many other people are in the same business. You are unique. The way you approach things is unique. And there are people out there who would be inspired by what you have to say.

You Can Solve Problems

I want to inspire small business people to speak up. Share what you do. Share why you do it that way. Of course, everyone will not agree with you. Some people will think your ideas are ordinary. That’s part of it. But there are people who will be thrilled to hear what you have to say. People who have been waiting for the kinds of insights you have to offer. People who have problems that get resolved by your approach and your outlook.

Get Inspired

If you are feeling ordinary, awkward, or tongue-tied on social media, take a minute to think about this. And while you are thinking, watch this amazing video from Derek Sivers to get inspired to find your voice.

The world is waiting for you to share.

You Have Something To Share

One of my great pleasures with this business is connecting with people who feel inspired after talking with me. These people find something about what I say and how I say it reaches deeply into them. They become empowered to step out into the world in a bolder, stronger way. I love that. I love helping people realize the spark of unique brilliance inside each one of us.

I find that small businesses are started by people who have a strong statement they want to make to the world. Are you sharing your voice and your opinions?

Your turn: Have you ever felt that your voice or insights are not important? Have you found people who enthusiastically embrace what you do and how you do it? Share your experience here.

Related Articles:

• Talk About Your Business (Part 1)
• Talk About Your Business (Part 2)
• Customers With Benefits
• Why It’s Important To Work With The Right People

• Before You Start: You have a business Twitter account.
• Learning level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated: Friday, December 2, 2011

Does Your Business Need Two Twitter Accounts?

Many large brands have multiple Twitter accounts. But so do many smaller businesses. If you are struggling with finding your voice on Twitter, one reason may be that you are trying to fit too many kinds of conversation into a single account.

Before digging into the details about how your business can decide if it needs multiple Twitter accounts, here’s an interview I did with Bo Bennett and Ryan Levesque on the Twooting podcast on this topic.

Figuring Out Multiple Accounts

There are several reasons why your business might have more than one Twitter account.

• You have several Twitter goals and you can’t meet them with one account.
• You want to engage distinct and separate Twitter communities.

For example, you might want to have separate Twitter accounts for these conversations:

• Peers vs. clients. You may want to talk shop and exchange advice or tips with other people in your industry. You may not want to have those conversations in front of your clients.
• Clients vs. potential clients. You may talk more about benefits and the features of your services and products with potential clients, and talk nitty gritty details with your clients.
• Friends vs. business. You may want to arrange tweetups or chat with people you met at a tweetup and not do that in front of your clients.
• English vs. another language. If you speak more than one language, you may want to engage separate communities based on language.

Keep in mind that nothing you say on Twitter is ever private. So don’t get the wrong idea that if you have a separate account for peers and clients, for example, that you can trash talk your clients on your peer account, or vice versa.

Is One Account Best For Your Business?

There are also good reasons not to create multiple accounts.

• You like having one voice. You like the transparency of saying “this is me” and sharing both personal and business information in the same account. It’s part of who you are, no matter whether you are talking business or personal.
• Your business is a personal business. For example, my friend @PhxREGuy sells real estate and has just one account because he believes his clients want to hear about his family activities interspersed with his real estate tips.

In the end, it’s a personal choice you make. There isn’t any right or wrong answer. It’s about what works for you and your business, and that may change over time.

My Business Experience

When I first started using two accounts (I have four today), I floundered and wondered if I had made a mistake about starting the second account. After some time and experimentation, I found my groove with multiple accounts. I could have decided to go back to one account and I would have made that work, also.

There is no right or wrong answer. It’s all about what works for you.

Your turn: Do you have multiple accounts? Here’s your chance to share with us what works for you, and what challenges you still face. Use the comments to this post to share your experience.

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Your turn: Does your business currently have more than one Twitter account? Or do you have a personal and a business account? Do you follow a business that has multiple accounts? Share your experience.

Related Articles:

• Ebook: Twitter For Beginners
• Setting Twitter Goals
• Using Your Twitter Goals
• Twitter Profile Checklist
• Write A Great Twitter Bio
• Multiple Twitter Personalities (Part 2)

• Before You Start: You have one or more social media accounts. You actively use social media for your business.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Sunday, December 4, 2011

Are You Disappointed With Social Media?

Many businesses today are using social media and disappointed with their results. Maybe you are one of them.

If you run a business, you can’t turn around without hearing about social media. It’s trendy. It’s popular. Everyone seems to be doing it.

The way most people talk about social media, it’s the cure-all for every business ailment. It’s magical. If you create a Facebook Page or Twitter account, you can expect throngs of potential customers to suddenly show up and want to throw money at you.

If only social media were really like this.

Social Media Mindset

Let’s cut through the mythology of social media and deal with some real world facts.

To be successful with social media, you have to invest some time in the thinking stage before you start into the doing stage. Unfortunately, many business people jump into social media without doing much thinking, or without doing the right kind of thinking.

If you are using social media today and you are disappointed with your results, it’s not too late to do the thinking stage.

Here are some ideas for you to weave into your thinking about social media.

• “If you build it, they will come” happens only in a movie. There are lots of businesses on social media competing for the attention of your customers. You have to do more than just show up.
• People want to learn things that make their lives better. Take an inventory of the things you know because you run your business. How can you turn your knowledge into valuable information to help others? How can you add value to their lives? Those are the topics to emphasize in your social media conversations.
• People want to connect with other people, not companies. Do your posts sound like a press release? Or a marketing brochure? Let your personality shine through. Talk to people, let them see that you are a real person.
• You can’t measure your success if you didn’t have a goal. If you are wandering aimlessly in social media, there is no way to know which tactics are most effective. Or to know when you are wasting your time. Social media goals provide the skeleton for your online activities.

Turning It Around

If you haven’t yet created social media goals, take some time now to do that. A goal that is specific and measurable not only gives you direction for your actions, it gives you a way to measure the results at the end.

In the beginning, the smartest social media goals should focus on your behavior, not the behavior of others. For example, instead of setting a goal for a number of people you want to like your Facebook Page (out of your control), set a goal to post two items to your Facebook Page every business day for three weeks (in your control).

Spend some time looking at what your competitors are doing on social media. Or other businesses in your neighborhood. Or industry. Ask yourself the following questions:

• How many times per day (or week) do they post?
• Create a list of posting categories (product news, community update, customer news, etc.)
• Which items get the most response? Count the number of responses for each post, and see if you can find a pattern.

When you have documented their activities, take a step back. What are they doing well that you can borrow or adapt for your social media interactions?

Related Articles:

• Write Great Social Media Goals
• Using Your Twitter Goals
• Find Social Media Topics For Your Business
• The Value Of Your Experience
• Are You Really Engaging Your Customers?
• Talk About Your Business (Part 1)
• Social Media Communications Audit
• Why Do You Use Social Media?