SEO and Social Media for Detroit Office Furniture Dealers

You think social media is a waste of time? In certain instances, you’re right. Tweeting all day isn’t going to make a significant impact on your business. Neither is chatting with your friends on Facebook. However, using social to search for the right conversations can be very powerful.

The idea of “social networking” has been lumped in to social media and social networking can pay dividends. LinkedIn is a very strong tool for finding the connections you need. Twitter and Facebook can be too. Never forget that people do business with people. And people do frequent all of these social media sites and more.

Another aspect of social media that is important is how it helps increase your SEO ranking. Sure there are lots of ways to increase SEO that us experts know, but one easy way for everyone to succeed is through social. Especially if your business is visual. You can share lots of pictures or even videos.

Video is increasingly popular as it allows us to tell stories about our work that have never been told before. The right video can grab your intended audience and get them totally involved!

Additionally, If you google a person who has a completed LinkedIn profile, regardless of how much web stuff they’ve done or how many people have that name their LinkedIn profile will be the first result on page 1. Why? Because Google trusts LinkedIn. Often times their Facebook page and Twitter feed may show up on page 1 too. This is also becoming more true for companies. Your corporate page should show up first and then the rest of your digital footprint will follow. Here’s the thing:

If you’re doing SEO to optimize for your company name you’ve got it all wrong!!

Anyone that’s “searching” for your name already knows your name. You need to optimize for the services you provide, the products you sell and the problems you solve.

Your goal is to be the right answer when someone does a search.

Social media can help you achieve that goal to an extent. Having a company that understands the target audience and what they are seeking whose stay on top of changes at Google is always the right answer.

When you’re ready to enter the world of digital dominance, you’re ready to speak to us.

I want my social media to go AKA Get a Smart Phone, Dummy

Social media is so hot because it allows us to stay connected to the world around us. This world involves not only our current business network, but family and friends as well as people we have yet to meet. From a business and job seeking perspective, these connections are priceless.

What’s even cooler is how many of the sites are so compatible with mobile technology. You are 100% missing out if you don’t have a smart phone. Get one. Get one now! I hear people say “I don’t want to be tethered to my phone” or “no one needs to be that connected”. That’s old world thinking. Dinosaurs are old world and you know how well things worked out for them.

What makes social media on the go so valuable is that we have moved fully into the now generation. They called gen X the instant gratification generation. As a senior delegate of that group I can tell you things moved slowly for us relative to what happens now.

Smart phones allow you to do status updates as they come to you. You can read and comment on others as well. Savvy users can actually check out real time conversations that are taking place about them, their brand, their competition or anything else that matters. This instant information wherever you are, whenever you are there is valuable. Couple that with the fact that you don’t have to log around your laptop and it becomes priceless.

You don’t have to get on the smart phone train because I said so. Don’t worry about the fact that in 2009 phone manufacturers produced more phones with a qwerty style keyboard than the traditional phone style.

If you want to see where business is heading, one only needs to look where the kids of today are. They are online on social media sites with their smart phones. Why, because it pays to be connected RIGHT NOW!

Using Status Updates Effectively

Status updates are simply the fastest, easiest way to let your network know what’s going on. The challenge is, so many of us are posting things that neither serve us or our network!

Think about it, does anyone really care if you’re “sitting on the patio”?. Of course they don’t. That is a line from a Verizon ad that exemplifies how useless Twitter can be, especially when used incorrectly. I would contend it’s Twitter’s own fault as they ask the wrong question: “what are you doing?” Linkedin and Facebook ask slightly better questions, but not much.

If that’s the wrong question, what are the right questions? While I’m not entirely sure there is one right question, I will submit that if you think about answering any of the following, you will serve yourself and your network better:

What value do you have to offer your network now?

What information can you share that your network needs?

What interesting links, quotes, or ideas would you like to share?

How can the project you are working on be a potential solution for others?

What is it that you love most about what you’re doing?

What type of people may benefit from what you’re doing now?

Can you make us laugh?

Can you make us think?

What exciting news happened in your day or with your business that you would like to share?

These are just questions that I ripped off the top of my head. You can see that they are value focused. That value should be for others and a little bit for you, too.

One last caveat about status updates. While going negative may yield some responses, think about the types you’re getting. Hopefully before you set out on your social media campaign you decided what you wanted to get from it. On that list should be the types of responses you want. It has been my experience that negative attracts negative. I will leave it to you to decide when you have had enough of that in your life.

Connectedly yours-

Terry Bean

http://terrybean.magntize.com

12 Things to consider while networking online

1. Have a plan. Understand what you want to get out of your online networking time and what you have to get from it.

2. Upload your address book. This step will allow you to grow your networks faster. Larger networks lead to more opportunities.

3.  Realize the importance of being interested over being interesting.  Networking isn’t only about what’s in it for you. It’s about what
I can do for you, what you can do for me and what we can do together.

4.  Ask good questions.  Social networking is really all about conversations. One of the best ways to engage others in conversation is to ask questions.

5.  Be interested in helping others.  Without a healthy interest
in the well being of others, any networking will be a total waste of your
time.

6.  Make connections.  Know two people that need to meet? Introduce them. Networking sites like Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook make this very easy to do.

7. Shine the light on others. By helping to spread the word of others you actually help spread your own word as well.

8. Spend time working your online network daily. It doesn’t have to be all day, and it shouldn’t be overwhelming. But you do need to make a consistent effort on this.

9.  Alter the time you are online. Most people are creatures of habit and are online at the same time everyday. If you want maximum exposure, mix up the times so different people are seeing your message.

10. Upload a photo. People do business with people. Having a photo online makes you human, accessible and more interesting. This is true regardless of how bad you think the photo is.

11. Find another medium by which to connect- Can you meet them in person? Do so. If not, pick up the phone. It’s great to connect online over keystrokes, but it’s also important to do voice to voice or face to face networking.

12. Get started. There isn’t a reason you can conceive that would exonerate you from doing this. Online networking is the most important thing to hit the internet thus far. If you need help, call me!

Five questions to consider before jumping into sites like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter

With so much conversation regarding social media, I thought it time to discuss it here.

Are you using it?

Are you using it effectively?

Am I making an assumption that you know what Social Media is?

Let me answer the last question first. Social Media is a term that is frequently bounced around these days that effectively means the same as: Web 2.0, Social Networking, Digital Marketing, or just the sites one uses like: Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Flickr, Myspace and Youtube.

Here’s what all of these sites have in common: They help you communicate with like-minded individuals. Very simply stated, Social Media is a conversation.

Back to the earlier questions about how you’re using it.

Conversations online are just like conversations in the real world, you need to be engaging the right people in the right discussions. Many people setup a facebook or linkedin account and think that’s all there is to it. That’s the equivalent of showing up to a party and not talking with anyone. Load up your contacts (add friends on facebook and connections on linkedin). Use the status update, not so much to answer “What are you working on?” but as a way to be intriguing or share knowledge. Post links of interest, comment on other people’s thoughts and ideas and most importantly, ask questions.

Here are a couple of other thoughts to consider:

Should you be spending time doing this?

Are you participating in the right conversations? Are you talking with customers, vendors, business partners or better yet, all three?

Are you on the right sites to find what you seek?

Are people responding to conversations you start?

If you could only use three sites, which ones would they be?

I shall look forward to your side of the conversation.

Are you using networking sites to connect with your past?

I recently wrote a post entitled “Demented and Sad, But Social” for The National Networker.

I have been amazed at how people I haven’t thought about in years have started popping back into my life. What’s cool about it is how easy the technology allows it to happen.

Facebook has been keeping me plenty entertained. Although I have yet to actually bust out the yearbook yet, I have been eyeing it up. I recently saw a “friend” of mine who had a joined the alumni group for the elementary school we attended.

Am I running into this a lot more because next year is a big reunion for me or are you experiencing this too?

Be Connected.