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By Matt Wilson . Follow him @MattWilsonTV . We all have them—”social media friends”—people who we talk to online but most likely have never met in person. We connected with them because of a common interest via Twitter, engaged in interesting conversation with them and shared a bond, but we don’t really consider them a true friend. Truly using Twitter to its fullest potential means networking not just for casual online interaction but actually creating long lasting relationships. Real friends will shout from the rooftops to promote your brand, real friends collaborate, work together and would do anything for each other. Let’s start making these Twitter friends into your own global network of people who have a vested interest in each other’s success. Besides, what good are your friends if you don’t really know them? But don’t be a creep! Ew, you want to meet me in person? Is it really okay to meet people online? Yes! It’s important to realize that there is a real person behind that avatar—not just another click thru to your blog. Make people feel like they know you. Your Twitter brand should have both personal and professional elements to it. In order to create real relationships your Twitter friends should trust you. Your avatar must look like you! You want people to stop you at events because they recognize you from Twitter. Take the time to look at someone’s profile and website. Know more about your friends than just their handle. Read their bio, check out their website and ask about them. People want to know you care! Post videos of yourself and ask questions—the more interaction people have with you on Twitter, the closer people feel to you. Engage your audience! Help people! If you are helpful on Twitter, chances are you are helpful offline. Networking is all about giving—remember you have to give to get. Providing value on Twitter eventually creates value in real life. Compliment! Flattery goes a long way on Twitter. Tell someone you admire their work and think they are a leader and you are much more likely to make a real friend! Post Twitpics. Your personal brand should have a personality; make sure they know you are real. Take interesting pictures from your everyday life. It doesn’t have to be a picture of your children, simply try a picture from an event you are attending. Now take networking offline! Attend or organize a Tweetup. Use http://twtvite.com to send out invitations. Get a few real friends who are on Twitter together and invite all your respective Twitter friends. Schedule phone calls. Meet someone on Twitter who you’d like to know better? Ask to schedule a phone call. Send a DM and specify a time limit of 10 minutes. Nobody’s time will be wasted. Imagine you did this every day? Don’t want to pay long distance or give out your number? Invite a Twitter friend for a #VirtualCoffee meeting on Skype. Connect face to face and have a real conversation. Have a column on Tweetdeck specifically for people you’d like to meet in person. You can monitor people more closely this way by organizing friends into one big column, or segment them into geographic location. Never eat alone! Traveling? Make a conscious effort to meet people you’ve connected with on social media. Of course meet in a public place and keep things casual. Plan this in advance. Attend Events: Go to tweetups, networking events, conferences, keynote speeches, unconferences or anything with a hashtag on Twitter. Tag everything with a hashtag and let it be known you are looking to do some real life networking. Take the leap! Creating a network of global friends means going out being assertive. Don’t be shy—start approaching people. Set a goal for yourself of 5 real life connections each week. Connect with one person daily or knock them all out in a single day of the week. It’s time to start using Twitter to its potential. [image] © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . Turn Twitter Friends into Real Friends

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Turn Twitter Friends into Real Friends

Living in the Research Triangle Park (aka The Triangle) area of North Carolina is a good deal. The weather is great because you get 4 seasons but winter is just a taste of what most of the area’s Northeastern US transplants are accustomed to. There is also a very vibrant technology and new media scene as the area has even been considered a threat (albeit a minor one in my opinion to Silicon Valley because of the education focus of the area and a reasonable cost of living. What has been missing, however, is an Internet industry event that was worthy of the area’s reputation. Looks like we may be on the way to curing that ill. Today was the programming portion of the 2nd Internet Summit that is put on by TechJournal South and Southern Capitol Ventures. The site for the event states simply The Internet Summit supports web oriented entrepreneurial activity, innovation, and the resultant economic development of the southeast region. While I did not attend last year it is apparent that there was no evidence of a sophomore slump. In fact, the brand spanking new Raleigh Convention Center as a setting made it very comfortable and that was before any presentations were given. As for the content it was well presented in moderated sessions with some pretty serious titles on the various panels. There was Rick Klau, product manager for Google’s Blogger platform, John Kosner, SVP of ESPN Digital Media, Richard Jalichandra, President and CEO of Technorati and Joe Kennedy, President and CEO of Pandora to name a few. Oh and of course the organizers had the good sense to make sure that MP’s own Andy Beal was on a panel talking about, you guessed it, New Media and Personal Branding. A rather cool feature included a demo hall where area technology start-ups , as chosen by the Summit’s team, displayed their offerings. This included a wide variety of early stage companies that had a chance to show off their offerings to a tech savvy crowd. This is the fourth event I attended this year and it was by far the best of the bunch. While I could give you some of the highlights all you need to do is search Twitter for #isum09 and you’ll get the gist. Better yet plan to attend next year. The Triangle would love to have you!

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Internet Summit Gives Strong Sophomore Effort

Everywhere in business these days you hear about dashboards. Dashboards for marketing, dashboards for the C-suite and even dashboards for dashboards. If dashboards are so popular it’s no wonder that Google rolled out their dashboard for your Google account. The official Google blog reports In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their own data, we’ve built the Google Dashboard. Designed to be simple and useful, the Dashboard summarizes data for each product that you use (when signed in to your account) and provides you direct links to control your personal settings. Today, the Dashboard covers more than 20 products and services, including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Web History, Orkut, YouTube, Picasa, Talk, Reader, Alerts, Latitude and many more. The scale and level of detail of the Dashboard is unprecedented, and we’re delighted to be the first Internet company to offer this — and we hope it will become the standard. Is that true? There is NO other Internet company that offered a dashboard prior to Google’s announcement? I find that a little hard to believe but who has the time to see if that claim is actually accurate? Who even cares if it’s accurate. As we get plowed under with more and more data the real winners in the race to harness the information overflow will be those who can capture things in a manageable fashion. Few if any companies offer the range of services that Google does so having this snapshot of exactly what you do have in the Google system can be helpful. Just another service to keep you close to home and on the ‘mother ship’. Honestly, though, while it seems interesting I am not sure how I will benefit from it but that’s just me. Right? Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

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Google Joins the Dashboard Set

By Firas Steitiyeh – Follow him @steitiyeh It’s known that a brand for a product is like reputation for a human being. There are so many articles, books and people that talk about branding and how it is done properly. A lot of bloggers out there, who are most probably new, just do not care about their Twitter page and how it looks. Considering that you have got a proper brand and theme for your blog (or product) now you need to have a Twitter branded page that matches your current brand. Tip#1: Background Stop using Twitter’s default backgrounds and get yourself a customized background. There are many tutorials on the Internet on how to get yourself a decent Twitter background and if you suck in design (as in my case) I just have my logo repeated all over a solid background. If you’re looking for a top-notch twitter background, there are various providers listed on different posts of Twitip that may be what you’re looking for. Bottom line, never use Twitter’s default background. Tip #2: Avatar I always mention in my articles and discussions about branding, that your avatar should be unified on all of your public profiles including, Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, Flickr, Gravatar, MyBlogLog, FriendFeed, etc… simply, use the same avatar you’re using on the Internet for Twitter, and if you currently use more than one, just try to unify your avatar everywhere. People will reach a level where they will start recognizing you from your avatar, if you use picture1 on Twitter and picture2 on Facebook and for comments you use picture3 they will either think that 3 people share the same name, which happens, or they will have a really hard time knowing it’s you. They also may end-up not reading the comment or your update just because they don’t know it’s you. Tip #3: Design colors Customizing your design colors is a very easy task and an important one as well. You have options where you can customize colors in your Twitter profile; background, text, links, sidebar and sidebar border. Always try to use the colors used within your logo or theme, and make sure to use matching colors. I always use the same background color on both the background photo and design. For cases where a visitor with an unexpected screen resolution lands onto your twitter profile, the background image and the background color will look like one layer! Tip #4: Brand your tweets All of the previous 3 tips are design related tips, but this one which is extremely important is a contextual tip. You might be wondering how could one brand her/his tweets? And no, it’s not about Hashtags. Branding your tweets includes the core topic of your tweets, what your tweets are mainly about, are they personal tweets? Technology tweets? Financial tweets? I think that you should be tweeting about one topic the most; otherwise people will lose trust in you. Remember; Jack of all, master of none. I’m not saying if your main focus is technology not to tweet about movies. No, I just mean to have the major share of your tweets going towards one topic instead of confusing people. This is one part of branding tweets, the other part is the ethics of Twitter which most of you know. The ethics of twittering are many but the most common are: thanking other tweeps for retweeting your tweet, follow back people who are following you (in most cases), keep your tweets family rated (unless you’re in the adult industry), thank other tweeps if they recommended you for a #FollowFriday and do not spam your followers. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . Get a Matching Twitter Brand Related posts: Personal Brand – How to Build Yours In Twitter Why You Should Start Over On Twitter With A BRAND NEW Account Make a Good Impression with a Custom Twitter Background

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Get a Matching Twitter Brand

Social media marketing gives businesses the chance to grow.  The world of marketing within the social media arena is very much different as compared to other forms of marketing.  You will need to educate yourself to the rules, regulations and etiquette of this type of marketing.  Each social network is different Online communities are very similar yet very different.  Educate yourself with the etiquette for the particular social network which you want to begin marketing within.  You must consider carefully the audience which you want to introduce your products and services to.  Each audience per social network will react differently to your marketing efforts therefore why you should create different approaches for different social networks. Examine your website carefully You want to ensure that your website is not boring.  You will want to create a website which is pleasant to the consumer eye.  Bright, attractive colors on your website will appear attractive to consumers visiting your website.  Make sure that your web host contains servers that enable your website to perform fast with pages that load quickly. Count on negativity With social media, marketing you must always consider the negative factor.  Visitors will not always respond in a positive light to your products and services.  Do not take this personally, for if you spin the negativity into a positive light, you are minimally getting people’s attention with your website as well as your products and services. Submit content Write articles about your products and services.  This will make you appear as an expert referencing your products and services.  Always open the arena for people to ask questions and be attentive to the people asking questions.  Ensure that your content is quality content.  This means that the grammar and punctuation within the articles are perfect as well as interesting to your readers. Leave your personal opinion out of the scheme of things You are growing your business by utilizing social media marketing and you must understand that people are different.  You should leave personal opinions and political beliefs out of the equation.  Do not spam Make every effort in avoiding spamming or remotely appearing as a spammer.  Social networks ban spam at all costs.  Ensure that you familiarize yourself with what would be considered spam within the social network which you have chosen to market within. Do not attempt to purchase votes You want people on the social networks to vote positively on your content as well as website however, bugging people continually for votes is very much frowned upon in social networks.  You want to create a strong and successful marketing strategy utilizing social media marketing.  This will take some hard word as well as perseverance on your part in promoting your products and services.  Social media marketing is a wonderful marketing tool if utilized correctly.  Stick to your strong marketing strategy which you have created and you will experience success while experiencing the profits you truly deserve.

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How Social Media Marketing Can Work For Your Business

Facebook and Twitter have proved to be great marketing tools with social marketing.  Both of these social networks allow you to connect with people universally who are interested in your products and services. I would highly recommend that you utilize both Facebook and Twitter for your social marketing needs.  I will explain this in further detail.  Twitter allows you to build your list in a quick fashion.  Facebook allows you to share your notes and video’s while sharing pictures.  These are useful tools with social marketing.  Facebook provides a great arena for building great relationships with customers or potential customers. Facebook allows longer messages to be sent to people.  Twitter only allows 140 characters per message.  On Facebook, if people are interested in learning more about your products and services, they can easily click on your blog or your video’s which will lead them to your capture page while signing up for your personal newsletter. Tweeter offers a free tool called “Tweetlater”.  This tool allows you to set up an automated direct message which new followers will receive on their twitter pages as well as their personal email.  It’s an automated tool.  Do not utilize this wonderful tool to spam people for this tool has been known to be abused.  Spamming people within your social network on Twitter can greatly hinder your social marketing campaign. People who follow you on Twitter should be interested in your particular “niche” and follow them.  Your goal on Twitter is to reciprocate following people.  You can post update “tweets” while sharing quotes, news, tips, and information.  You also want to give people in your social circle the option to join you on Facebook. You want to find influential people and follow them on Twitter.  This will allow you exposure in their follower lists.  This will give you free exposure while searching for people to follow you.  Finding and following people within your “niche” will enable you to grow your followers. People who have home based businesses utilize Facebook constantly.  Facebook allows business owners or marketers to create profiles, videos, notes and pictures.  Make sure in the “notes” section of Facebook, you share compelling information with people within your social circle. Create blog posts on training information while submitting articles which get indexed by the major search engines.  Mini articles are great marketing tools on social networks such as Facebook.  You can place links inside the mini articles which lead people to your website page which will show them your products and services which you are promoting. Invite your Facebook friends to join you on Twitter.  You must build your marketing list while exposing people to your business.  You want to build your followers from both social network sites.  Build relationships with people who you feel would be interested in your products and services.  Share important information while inviting people into your social circle.  Create your marketing list while generating sales while building different income streams.  Everything which I have written about within this article comes free to social marketers.  The powers you will find with your marketing skills utilizing social networks are tremendous.  All you will need is creativity and perseverance while watching your income climb as well as experiencing the success you have always dreamed of.

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Facebook and Twitter can Prove Helpful with Social Network Marketing

This is the classic social media case study that finally someone has put a real face on. I read MG Siegler’s account of Comcast’s CEO Brian Roberts speaking with John Batelle of Federated Media and was getting lulled into the same Comcast story we have been reading for months now. While it is a nice piece of PR there is still an underlying reality that is not mentioned by many. TechCrunch’s Siegler starts the coverage innocuously Today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts spoke on stage with Federated Media’s John Battelle . For the first part of the discussion, they talked about the usual stuff: the state of the industry, competition, and the like. The answers were pretty PR-friendly, as you’d expect. But a bit of a surprise came with Battelle asked about the role Twitter is playing with the company. “It has changed the culture of our company,” Roberts said. Comcast has for a while now been using Twitter to scan for complaints and engage with customers. The idea was not his, but rather rose organically when someone in the company realized that a lot of public complaints were being sent over Twitter. That’s the nice side of the story. Big company has customer service issues and the use of Twitter has made a huge difference in how they do business. Enter the platitudes for the poster-child of customer service Twittering, Frank Eliason. He says Roberts went on to note that “Famous Frank,” also known as Frank Eliason (Comcastcares on Twitter), now has 11 people working under him simply to respond to information about Comcast being broadcast on Twitter. Roberts says that it’s an entirely different kind of dialogue coming in then the usual phone complaints, and he seems very pleased about the work the team has done with the customers on Twitter. Now we hit the meat of the matter. Despite all of the positive vibe around using Twitter to change Comcast and the ability for a company to create a better customer facing effort, Siegler tells the real story that is the personal side of this whole thing. In other words, there may be more hype than reality to this whole story (shocking huh?) As a very unhappy Comcast customer, I’ve had a number of interactions with Comcast’s Twitter team. There’s no doubt, they are very responsive, and are trying to be helpful. The real problem Comcast has is that their product and all other forms of service are simply not up to par, to put it nicely (I often put it much less nicely on Twitter). Bingo! So is what Comcast doing with Twitter a more elaborate cover up for their apparent inability to bring their service in line with their new image as a customer caring organization or is it TRULY affecting the culture of the company? Cultural change would imply that the products get better and less fussing is required by their customers. Maybe C –level understanding of this kind of customer engagement and the ensuing publicity should go a little deeper than “Hey this makes us look good”. Maybe it would be smart for Comcast to address the issues that create the need for 11 people to handle complaints regarding their service? So this feel good Twitter story may just be another marketing / PR tall tale . That’s too bad. At least Frank responded in the comment section to Siegler’s dissatisfaction. MG, could you keep us up to date if the product eventually catches up with the customer service effort?

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Comcast and Twitter: Can Words Overcome Products?