Last Fall, my colleague Denise Wakeman and I put out a social media use survey to find out what people’s biggest questions were about social media.

Not surprisingly, the biggest questions people had were about how to monetize their social media efforts. What was surprising was how many people were using only the social networks (Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn), but not using the other 10 kinds of social sites.

To have an effective and profitable social media outcome, you need to be using as many of the social media sites as you can.

I can hear you now, “But, Rachna- I spend so much time in social media already, where will I get more time?”

And the good news is, you don’t need more time- you need a better system- and that better system must include content syndication.

Content syndication is the term for rapidly and efficiently sharing your message (text, audio, or video) across the Internet. Done correctly, content syndication has the power to give you four things: better search engine positioning, expert status, a larger following, and more leads for your business.

Until now, content syndication has been kind of a mystery. Even if you understand why you need to do it, the “how” to do it piece has been missing.

Denise & I looking to change that.

In our 4 week training program, you’ll learn how to easily convert your text into audio and video formats, as well as how to set up an easy and efficient syndication system that works.

(Don’t worry, we’re not talking technical geek-speak here.)

We’ll teach you our systems for creating and distributing content across the many kinds of social media sites.

We’ll answer all your questions, and give you the exact steps and specific strategies we use to monetize social media.

You can get full details here: http://fromplatformtoprofit.com.

We’re only taking a limited number of people into the training so we can give the most value. If you’re interested, sign up today so you’re not locked out.

See you there!

When you look at your Facebook friends, or your LinkedIn network, or your Twitter follower list, do you see only people you know? Or, like me, do you have a mix of people you know well, some you don’t know that well (yet), and maybe even a few people who reached out to you, and you’ve never met or talked with them?

As easy as it ease to connect on the social networks (usually just a click and a quick message of Hello!), more and more people are wondering how open they should be with their social network acceptances. Some people are locking down, and only accepting people online that they know in real life. Others are accepting everyone who meets a certain standard of engagement or professionalism. And still others are accepting everyone who asks.

With the site-wide roll out of new privacy settings on Facebook, the questions of how open to be on your social networks is becoming more and more relevant.

While I certainly don’t have all the answers, let me give you a few areas to consider.

How open you should be on your social networks is based on what you’re using your social networks for.

For example, if you are using your Facebook account primarily to stay in touch with friends, family, and neighbors, you can set the most stringent privacy settings- the ones where only friends can see your details. This is also a smart move, perhaps, if you share a lot of details about your life, and want to retain some amount of control over how this information is distributed. Of course, remember that anything that goes online is never really private, or undiscoverable, so keep that in mind when you share.

If you are using Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn to build your professional network, I would suggest being a little more open about who you accept. My rule of thumb, generally, is to accept most people who approach me, after I’ve checked out their profiles, and recent updates, and satisfied myself that I’m comfortable with being associated with them. I call this approach the “giving people the benefit of the doubt” stance- I will connect on the social networks unless or until you give me a reason not to do so.

The third way to approach your social networks is to accept everyone indiscriminately- just to boost your follower ratio, or just because you’re lazy. I definitely do not recommend this, for several reasons. First, it can damage your reputation or standing. Let’s say, for example, that you accept a bunch of people who are porn spammers on Twitter- wouldn’t that negatively impact your brand? (Of course, right, unless you’re a porn spammer yourself, in which case you’re probably not reading this anyway…). The second reason not to accept just everyone is because now that the content of Twitter and Facebook updates are now searchable, you don’t want any ill considered tweets or updates to show up in your stream or on your Wall and be associated with you. Not saying this is exactly how it will work, but better safe than sorry, especially with new technology, right?

If you do any directed promotion online, such as a teleseminar or webinar, be sure you are careful about how you manage your social network additions in the days and weeks after. I have had people who were in my classes or trainings approach me to connect, and you want to encourage this as much as possible in order to build your positioning online. If I were too stringent and denied everyone who wanted to connect with me that I didn’t yet know, I would have pissed some people off, and kind of cut off new potential business relationships before they really began. This is why, for business, I recommend the “give people the benefit of the doubt” approach as a general rule.

Part of the value of social networks is that you can engage with and connect with more people than you might otherwise be able to reach. The value of this is diminished if you are too stringent in your networking, or, conversely, too open with it.

Like the fairy tale of Goldilocks, the goal with social networking is to not be too stringent, nor too open, but instead, just right.

As you may have seen, Denise Wakeman and I are running a social media usage survey to help define what people most want to know about social media. We’ve gotten over 200 responses so far (and please feel free to add yours, if you wish!)

The results are interesting so far, with one of the biggest complaints being how much time social media takes. Even more than that, people are wondering how to monetize their social media efforts. And this combination of factors got me thinking.

What appears to be happening is that people are investing lots of time on the social networks, but not enough time using social media as a content sharing and distribution mechanism. Most of all, people want a process and system for using social media more efficiently, and for seeing more returns from it.

In the interest of saving you some time, and increasing your social media efficiency, I have 5 tips to help:

1) Schedule regular time for social media. I’m fond of saying that social media is a time suck. This means that, without boundaries on your time, chatting on Facebook or tweeting on Twitter can take up your entire day. This will have negative impact on your business. So, instead, schedule time to attend to social media each day, and resist the urge to network all day long, especially if you don’t have a clear and definite business outcome in mind. I tend to schedule an hour in the morning to connect with my social networks, and I have one of my assistants handle all the daily friending back, following back, processes, reducing my time commitment and letting me focus on conversations and connections.

2) Let technology do the heavy lifting. You can be more social media efficient if you use technology to help you. One example would be to set up content distribution and syndication processes. (Denise & I will be sharing tips and ideas for this in the near future.) Another way is to use software programs to help streamline your efforts. I like and use Tweetdeck, for example, which lets me monitor Twitter, Facebook, and now, recently, LinkedIn. No matter what you need, there is probably a piece of software that can help you do it faster or better.

3) Reduce the noise. There are just three main things you need to focus on in social media. The first is gaining attention. The second is making connections. And the third is being consistent. You can do this without any technology at all. It’s fine to be interested in new gadgets and new advances in technology (and I confess, I’m a girl geek at times)- but don’t allow yourself to get overwhelmed and forget the basics of marketing. You must be noticed, make connections, and show up regularly.

4) Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose. The better you are at repurposing your content, the easier your social media marketing will be. Aim to get at least 10 uses out of every blog post, every interview, every video you make. Stay in touch with what your target audience needs, and provide it for them faster, and easier, and quicker than anyone else. Seek to create dialogues and conversations around your content. You’ll learn what people most want to know, and you’ll always have good ideas for new content to create.

5) Tie your social media efforts to your business goals and optimize for them. What this means is that you need to have an idea of what you want social media to DO for you. Do you want to become the household name in XYZ industry? Do you want to get 10000 people on your email database? Do you want to be picked up by major media as an authority or expert? Like any other business arena, you have to know what you want to achieve and lay out a strategy to achieve it. And then you need to do the work. If you’re spending a lot of time in social media, but not feeling like you’re getting enough return, I would suggest that maybe you want to step back and reassess your goals. Don’t take part in social media waiting to see what will happen. Have an idea of what you want to create, and use the social media tools to create it. The clearer your objectives, the faster you’ll reach them, helping balance out your time and return on investment.

Social networking is not the only facet of social media you should be paying attention to. Use the social media sites to build your platform, drive your brand, and send visitors to your website. These kinds of results are trackable and monetizable.

I was recently interviewed for a magazine article  on social media and small business. In the interview, I was asked to provide a concise listing of the benefits of social media for small business. I liked my response, and wanted to share some of my ideas with you here.

(If you’re interested in reading the article when it’s published, I’ll also let you know about that, too!

The way I see social media, it is more than a fad. It is, actually, a key disruptor of traditional marketing and advertising, and the disruption is going to get worse.

Even though the main social media sites are growing, there is still some confusion about how best to take part in the social media space.

Some ideas I have about this:

1) Every business needs an intelligent social media strategy.
Intelligent social media strategy means a strategy which links business objectives to social media marketing goals. It also refers to the idea that your social media toolset should be aligned with the outcomes you seek. While it’s easy to get seduced by having hundreds of friends on Facebook, if none of them represent your business target market or target group, your results won’t be that positive. I want to stress that it is not about your popularity. It is about profitable popularity if you are using social media for business.

2) Build your strategy first, and then select your tools.
I referenced this on an earlier post on social media strategy, but want to bring this up again. Don’t get started on the social media sites until you’ve outlined your goals and set up metrics to measure your outcomes. Skip this step, and you risk wasting a lot of time and resources for little return. Monitor your return at least once a month, so you know if your effort is worth it for your business.

3) Use social media to reduce lead generation costs.
One of the best ways to use social media for small business is to take advantage of the ease of content syndication, and share your content and information as widely and generously as possible. Create multiple marketing touchpoints so that you can create top of mind awareness. You want to build your own community of raving fans and be their first choice of provider when they need what you sell.

4) Right-size your social media approach.
I want to devote another blog post to this topic, but let me mention it here. The concept of “right sizing” your social media approach means that you invest in social media at the level commensurate to the business you can actually deliver on. This means, if you are a local business with just one location, and you can’t deliver services or products outside of your immediate location (whether due to costs, licensing, etc.), you do not need as large or as robust a social media strategy as a company with multiple locations which can fulfill orders nationally or internationally. Don’t be seduced into spending a lot on broad based social media efforts if you don’t have a business model which can profit from it.

5) Use social media to drive branding and awareness.
One of the best ways to use social media is as a method to “get your business on the map”- which means, essentially, that you use it to raise awareness of your business and what you offer. You do this primarily by sharing what interests you, and by using a soft selling approach. You share content and information which engages, informs, and inspires, and then make an offer of how a person can learn more. For those selling services, you are best served to use social media as a step one lead generation tool, and still expect that people won’t purchase until they have a chance to know you better. For a lower investment product, you may be able to convert them more easily. You can use social media to drive social proof, which can also shorten your sales cycle or convince people they should do business with you.

By understanding your own business goals for social media, and approaching this like any other form of marketing, you will position your business for profit.

Though just a few years old, social media is changing. Learn more about the Future of Social Media

As more and more individuals and businesses invest in the social media space, there will come a crisis of trust.

With so much access to so many resources, it will become more difficult to decide who to connect with, and who to do business with.

It’s a given that we all want to do business with people we like and trust. The part that is not so clear is how do we know who to trust in the first place?

At first glance, this is easy- we are naturally going to trust those people we know offline, and with whom we’ve built some kind of relationship.

These may be clients, friends, business partners, colleagues- anyone we have a real-life connection with, as well as on online one. These people move to our first circle of trust.

You can think of the circles of trust as a series of concentric circles, gradually becoming larger and larger and moving further and further out from the center.

The second circle of trust is built by friends of friends: people who have been recommended or endorsed by those in our first circle.

The third circle of trust is made up of people you would be friends with, if you could connect with them.

The fourth circle of trust is made up of people you would never connect with, even if you could.

To generate the greatest reach in social media, it is important to cultivate contacts up to, and including, your third circle of trust. This will give you the greatest range of outreach for your expertise and your message. There is inherent value in building up your social network.

Here are some strategies for building your social media trust factor:

1. Be consistent. The human brain responds to repetition. As I say, “Repetition is Reputation”- which means that what you continually repeat is what people will remember about you. Make sure the messages you send out are what you want to be known for.
2. Don’t participate in social media when you’re stressed, angry, or having a bad day. An ill-timed (or ill-considered) rant can undo all your relationship building efforts. Have your opinions, of course, but find other places to blow off idle steam.
3. Do what you say you will do. If you promise to assist someone with a resource or a lead, follow through. Don’t offer if you aren’t going to do it.
4. Be what people expect. If you have given some thought to how you want to be perceived, you should strive to be what people expect. You must carefully nurture your social media brand, just like in any other interaction.
5. Be congruent to your message offline as well. If you are presenting yourself as an expert with specialized knowledge- look the part in person, too. Never give people a chance to wonder if you are really what you say.

Building trust in social media takes time. But the more you repeat consistent, brand supporting messages, the more likely people will be to notice you.

And getting attention is the first step to making anything happen.