Hal and Joe stopped for a friendly exchange at a red light…

Are you on LinkedIn?  Do you feel like you’re not “part of the gang?” or that LinkedIn is not for you?  Be sure to share your comments below…

Editor’s note: Be sure to check out more of Sean’s artwork here.

If you live the U.S., then you’re likely thinking about next month’s tax deadline.  You’re also likely using TurboTax to file you tax returns.  In this video I interview Christine Morrison, Social Media Marketer at TurboTax.  Christine shares some of the social media tactics TurboTax uses to engage their community.

Be sure to check out how TurboTax uses the social media platforms listed below.

Here are a few ways TurboTax is using social media:

• Leverage reviews to help people improve the buying decision.
• Provide  tax assistance on Twitter. TurboTax’s social media support community has already helped over 10 million people.
• Engage people with the TaxCaster widget on their Facebook Fan Page mentioned in the video. It’s a fun interface to get people to interact and buy from TurboTax.
• Answer questions in a variety of YouTube playlists.

You can check out the TurboTax Social Hub to see all of their social media activities.

Here’s Christine’s tip for people starting out: Listen to what people really say and do.

How does TurboTax’s social media marketing inspire you?  Please leave your comments below.

Let’s face it, LinkedIn is a very underutilized social media network. Most people believe that it’s too hard to make connections, and therefore use it more as a résumé site. There is so much more potential with this professional social media network.

How many of us have created a LinkedIn account and left it dormant for months?

It was my goal recently to attend more LinkedIn webinars and teleseminars to learn more about this mysterious network. I have often thought to myself, “I’m a professional. Why am I not utilizing this site?” I’ve even heard LinkedIn referred to as the “red-headed stepchild” of social media.

Here are some interesting facts that I learned about this often misunderstood network:

LinkedIn is a search engine and has a ton of authority on Google and other popular search engines.

Likely if you Google your name and you have a LinkedIn profile, it will show up on the first page of Google. This demonstrates the ranking authority of LinkedIn on Google.

Here are the top 6 things that I learned about this powerful network:

#1: Boosting Your Search Engine Optimization

There are three areas to add website links to your LinkedIn profile. Instead of displaying “My Blog” & “My Website,” click on Edit and then click on Other.  Type in a keyword phrase that describes how people can search to find your business.

For example, I changed my main mortgage website to say Foreclosure Options

I changed “My Blog” to say Social Media Marketing

I changed my Facebook fan page to say Facebook Marketing

What an incredibly easy way to boost your rankings in the search engines! Be sure to optimize your LinkedIn profile as soon as possible before your next client enters your main keyword(s) and finds your competition.

#2: Promoting Your Blog Feed

It is also possible to import your Wordpress blog feed to your profile by searching for the Wordpress application. This is a quick way for others to scan your blog content at a glance.

There is also another blog application on LinkedIn—Blog Link—which supports TypePad, Movable Type, Vox, Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org, Blogger, LiveJournal and many more.

Promote your blog and develop your personal brand. Everyone knows blogs are the best way to cultivate your personal brand. Now you can share your thoughts and insights on your blog on your professional home, LinkedIn.

#3: Creating LinkedIn Ad Campaigns

I had no clue that LinkedIn has its own Direct Ads Campaign targeted to professionals. I felt like I found a hidden treasure at the bottom of a huge sea! Because LinkedIn is a professional site, there is less likelihood of views from random people; rather, more from people interested in business-related information. I will definitely be utilizing this advertising feature this year.

Reach a rapidly growing community of over 57 million professionals (average household income: US $108,000), and select your ad’s audience by seniority, industry, job function, company size, and more.

It is possible to write, target, and start your ad in minutes, pay by clicks or impressions and get started with as little as US $50. Be sure to leverage the power of LinkedIn by using your professional brand to put a face to your business.

#4: Utilizing Events to Engage Clients

I really love LinkedIn’s event features because I “plan” to be an event planner in my next life. It’s not required to be the event coordinator to create an event. An event can be created if you have an interest in going to an event or will be an attendee.

Invitations can also be sent to your LinkedIn network, which will give you an opportunity to meet face to face if they decide to attend. The best feature is the ability to view at a glance all of your network’s upcoming events. As an event planner geek, it rocks my world to promote business events online just like I do in my personal hemisphere.

#5: Using Groups to Connect With People

Most people join groups and never come back to participate in them. I can raise my hand and say that I’m guilty of this bad practice too. I’ve started changing and participating in a lot more groups lately. However, STARTING a group is a great way to have access to email and stay in touch with your group as it grows. It does take some focused effort to grow your group but a great place to start is to invite your current network. As the people from your network join your group, this is visible to their networks’ news feeds which can potentially pique new interest.

I’m really amazed at the size of various groups on LinkedIn. Then I remember that professionals really enjoy networking, so I really shouldn’t be so surprised. Let’s take a look at a few groups on LinkedIn:

Social Media Today—18,078 members at the time of this writing

On Startups—Community of Entrepreneurs—123,680 members at the time of this writing

Real Estate Open Networkers—17,795 members at the time of this writing

Can you imagine having access to this many people at your fingertips?

#6: Getting Recommendations to Attract More Clients

Recommendations are one of the unique features of LinkedIn that sets it apart from other social media networks. What better way to really market your business than by having your colleagues and clients share your expertise?

I’m sure your next question is, “How can I obtain recommendations?” The best way is to live by the old adage:

“Give and you shall receive.”

Recommend your peers and they will return the favor. This is one area that I need to work on this year. It doesn’t take that much time, but if we don’t make it a focus, it won’t happen.

So what about you? Do you feel that LinkedIn is the red-headed stepchild of social media? Do you have any plans for this network in 2010? Let us know in the comments.

Just as marketers are getting a handle on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, a fresh group of social media networks are poised to make a splash in 2010.

These networks have not reached mass adoption yet, so it’s not necessary to get active on all of them immediately.  But remember, Facebook only took 6 years to reach 400 million registered users.  You should keep an eye on these five upstarts to see if their innovative services attract large audiences in the near future.

Why You Should Pay Attention

Learning the ropes on new services before they gain mass traction can help you get value from them faster once they catch on.  Monitoring the innovations in the social media space also gives you an indication of how the market is changing and will evolve over the next few years. Marketers should stay abreast of broader market trends to assure their messages stay relevant.

The 5 Social Media Sites You Should Explore

#1: Foursquare – This location-based social network/gaming application is rapidly gaining users and mindshare.  Users “check in” at local businesses and earn rewards for frequently visiting participating establishments.

The site receives more than 1 million check-ins per week.  Business owners can get value out of Foursquare by offering incentives for users to check in, such as special offers for repeat visitors.

The site lists more than 800 establishments currently offering deals.  Those deals could include a free drink or appetizer for the Foursquare user who checks in the most (called the Mayor).

Currently available in 45 US cities and many major international cities, Foursquare has plans to expand further and grow its user base over the next year.  It has also signed major partnerships with TV network Bravo and restaurant guide Zagat that will expand its functionality and usage.

#2: Google Buzz – Google’s latest entry into social networking has the potential to attract rapid adoption, due to its connection with the widely used Gmail and Google Maps applications.

Buzz allows users to post status updates and upload pictures and videos to a Google profile, not unlike Facebook and Twitter.  A user’s network is formed by contacts they interact with frequently on Gmail.

If a user makes an update public, the information also gets added to the “Buzz” layer now available on Google mobile maps.  Now, Google Maps users on iPhones and Android devices can view the things other Buzz users have said about businesses in the area.

#3: Loopt – Another location-based social service, Loopt aims to connect its users with their friends by visually displaying their location and availability on a localized map.

Users can connect with friends in the area, see reviews and recommendations of restaurants, and find events in the area that might be of interest.  Businesses have tapped into Loopt’s location data to offer targeted promotions.  The B.R. Guest restaurant chain in New York sent messages containing special discounts to Loopt users near their restaurants.

Loopt is accessible on more than 100 mobile phones, giving it the widest distribution of any of the location-based services.  It is currently used by about 3 million people, which should increase as Loopt expands to more cities.  Marketers should explore the possibilities of interacting and promoting their businesses through Loopt, as well as monitoring posts to judge the sentiment of user reviews.

#4: Blippy – Blippy aims to connect people around the purchases they make.  Easily the most controversial of the applications profiled here, Blippy publishes the amount and location of customer purchases (with user permission, of course), which the rest of the community can then react to.

While the concept may not seem attractive on its face, the site has already signed partnerships with a dozen major vendors and is funded by many marquee investors.   If the service begins to attract a large user base, this community could be very valuable to retailers looking at general purchasing trends.

#5: Groupon – This site offers “collective buying power” by providing deals to groups of people who buy products and services in bulk from participating retailers.  The site uses social networking to get users to share offers with their communities, in order to reach the target number of customers the “Groupon” requires to activate.

Businesses could gain exposure and new customers by making offers on the site—if Groupon develops a large following. For instance, a colleague recently bought a golf lesson package from a local pro shop for 60% off, because he joined a group of 29 others in the “groupon.”  While the revenue from the purchase is helpful, exposing a large group of customers to your product is even more valuable.

This is by no means an inclusive list, only 5 exceptional companies striving to change the social media landscape with fresh ideas.

Which up-and-coming social application are you most excited about? Who did we leave off the list that should have been included? Please leave a comment below…

You’ve likely heard stories about how big companies are using Twitter as a powerful listening tool.   And although Chris Brogan has been telling us to grow bigger ears for a while, what are you actually doing about it?

Do you want to improve your Twitter listening skills? Here’s a closer look at how to monitor your brand, yourself or your competitors using Twitter (and you don’t need to be a big business!).

Why Is Twitter an Ideal Listening Tool?

Here’s why Twitter is one of the best social media platforms for listening:

• Real-time results. We’ve all heard examples of how breaking news spreads immediately on Twitter. Because of Twitter’s real-time search engine, you can get a quick pulse of public opinion.
• Wide reach. Twitter is useful to many different types and sizes of businesses.
• Direct feedback. You hear what people are saying as they say it.

With these points in mind, simply follow these guidelines to grow bionic listening ears.

#1: Decide What You Want to Monitor

Decide which information you want to monitor.  Common types include your brand names, industry keywords, customers and competitors.

A daily listening routine gives you more value over time. Spend the time you need to find the right mix and create a routine that works for you.

# 2:  Find the Best Real-Time Monitoring Tools

Real-time market information is valuable to many businesses today. Here are Nathan Hangen’s suggestions for using Twitter tools. But as professional blogger Ching Ya says, “there’s no such thing as the perfect search tool.” Have a look at Twitter monitoring tools in the decision tree below that Ching Ya put together:

Twitter Monitoring Tools. Image source: http://www.wchingya.com

A good place to start looking for the right people to monitor on Twitter is Twellow.  Also check out Twellowhood for location-based searches.

# 3: Track With URL Shorteners

Use URL shortening tools to monitor the links you share on Twitter and help you find out what’s popular with your audience.

As Jeff Bullas says, the popular URL shortener bit.ly “allows you to track how many people are clicking on the shortened link with a set of metrics that displays it in a visual format as well as textually.” This makes it easy to track your important links and monitor the interactions you have on social media.

#4: Follow Hashtags

Hashtags are a simple search tool. People follow hashtags for Keywords, Events and Trending Topics.

You can simply use Twitter search on a hashtag.  You can also go to Hashtags.org for statistics.

Found a hashtag, but don’t know what it’s about?  Look it up on What The Hashtag, a user-editable encyclopedia for hashtags.

There are also many tools to help you monitor hashtags such as Monitter and Twitterfall.  Have a look at how John Haydon uses multiple hashtag searches on TweetGrid to make sure he doesn’t miss parts of the conversation relevant to him.

Be sure to watch the above video!

# 5: Monitor Trends When It’s Appropriate

Twitter is the best social media platform for real-time search. If staying current on what’s happening in the world is important to your business, you also need to stay current on the latest tools for monitoring trending topics on Twitter.

Hashtags are also used for trending topics, so the tools you use for hashtags can also help you to monitor trending topics.  In addition to the hashtag tools mentioned above, there are a few other tools to keep in mind when following trends on Twitter:

• Trendistic provides a variety of graphs to follow and compare different trends.
• Tweetmeme reveals popular retweeted content.
• Follow @twithority and @TweetingTrends for up-to-date tweets on current trends.

#6: Use Twitter Lists to Monitor People on Twitter

You might find it convenient to create your own Twitter lists and monitor people through these lists.  Remember, you can set up a private list to follow your competitors and you’ll be the only person to see this private list on your Twitter profile.

You can also set up an RSS feed to follow someone else’s Twitter list using Twitter Lists 2 RSS.

#7: Set Up a Listening Plan

A simple listening plan can involve these simple procedures:

• Check your keywords on Twitter Search.
• Sign up for RSS feeds of the search results you need.
• Sign up for email updates for your most important keyword results using tools such as SocialOomph.

You might lose the edge of real-time search but you’ll find more value in a regular routine. With clear objectives on what you need to monitor and by drilling down to find what you’re looking for, simple monitoring tools can give you great results.

#8: Build Relationships

As Olivier Blanchard says, you’re listening to people, so remember to be human. Listening is the first part of creating real relationships with people and it’s only one part of using social media for your business.  You still need to connect your Twitter listening to other social media activities to cultivate and nurture relationships in social communication.

As you proceed to connect and engage with people on Twitter, here are a few words from Olivier: “Engagement doesn’t have to be a perfectly designed and executed PR program where every bit of interaction is carefully crafted and weighed against all possible outcomes. Let it be a living, breathing, imperfect thing: Wing it a little.”

To develop your bionic ear you’ll need to interact and adapt your approach based on what you learn when listening on Twitter.  Follow these 8 steps to listen more and learn more about the people you want to connect with on Twitter.

What are you doing to develop your Twitter listening skills?  How is it working for you? Please share your comments below.

Relationship building via social media marketing is not a one-size-fits all endeavor. Moms, teens and Baby Boomers are three big social media subgroups groups that are unique.

Just like with traditional marketing, the more you know your audience, the more successful you will be at grabbing their attention and keeping it.

In terms of marketing opportunities, recent online buzz shows teens, Boomers and moms as three of the most desirable social networking groups.  They are active on these sites and their behaviors have been studied closely.

Each group is unique, and the secret to success is understanding where they are spending their time and how they are using the social sites to engage and connect.

According to The Nielsen Company, global consumers spent more than 5.5 hours on social networking sites in December 2009.  In December 2008, users were only spending about 3 hours on the same sites.  That’s an increase of 82% in just one year.

Along with the data on overall social media usage, current studies have come out that focus on three major demographics.  Here’s insight into the social media usage of teens, Boomers and moms.

Teens Blog Less, but Use Social Media More (Pew Research Center)

Recent surveys from Pew provide insight on social media usage among teens and young adults.  The 37-page report highlights the attitudes and behaviors of people 18 to 29 years old (Millennial generation).

Here’s a snapshot of some of the key findings:

Social Networking: As can be expected, online social activity is highest for teens and young adults. The data shows that nearly 72% of young adults and teens use social networking sites, compared to 40% of adults 30 and older. This is expected as younger people tend to be digitally savvy and socially connected online.

Social Sites: The sites teens and young adults are spending time on differ from those of adults. The younger audiences are much more inclined to use MySpace (66% of young profile owners have an account, compared to 36% of adults).  The same younger group is much less likely to have a LinkedIn profile, with only 7% participating in this career-oriented site, compared to 19% of adults. Most interesting are the similarities in Facebook activity among the groups. 71% of the younger generation actively maintain a Facebook profile and 75% of the older generation maintain one as well. Once again, Facebook always seems to come out above the rest in terms of social media adoption and engagement.

Blogging: 14% of teens say they blog, compared to 28% in 2006. Fifty-two percent of teen social network users report commenting on friends’ blogs, down from the 76% who did in 2006. Pew offers one explanation, “As the tools and technology embedded in social networking sites change and use of the sites continue to grow, youth may be exchanging macro-blogging for microblogging.”

Twitter: Twitter is a unique exception to most of the other data on teens and adults. The data points out that teens have not been drawn to Twitter as they have to Facebook and MySpace.  This is the one area that teens do not dominate usage over adults. Ten percent of online teens ages 14-17 and only 5% of those ages 12-13 use the tool.  Here’s another interesting stat: 13% of high school girls and only 7% of boys the same age use Twitter.

This report is extensive and offers insight into many more areas of online activity.  It’s definitely worth the read.

Baby Boomers Take on Social Networking (eMarketer)

A recent report by eMarketer looked at the social network usage of multiple generations.  They broke up the generations as follows: Millennials (14-26), Generation X (27-43), Boomers (44-62), and Matures (63-75).

Some of the most interesting data focused on Baby Boomers and their major jump in social media activity from just 2008 to 2009.

Forty-six percent of Boomer respondents said they maintained a social network profile (compared to 30% in 2007, according to a recent Deloitte study).

Here’s the breakdown on 3 popular social sites:

Facebook:

• Baby Boomers using Facebook increased 107% from 2008 to 2009
• 73% of Boomers maintain a Facebook profile
• 90% of Matures maintain a Facebook profile  (That number comes as a surprise considering it was the highest of all generations.)

Twitter:

• Twitter usage jumped 714% from 2008 to 2009
• 13% of Boomers maintain a Twitter account
• 17% of Matures maintain a Twitter account (again, higher than the Boomers!)

LinkedIn:

• 13% of Boomers
• 4% of Matures

“Boomers expect that technology will help them live longer and better lives and keep them connected to family, friends, co-workers and, eventually, healthcare providers,” said Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst. “To fulfill these expectations, Boomers are turning to social media, where they keep up their offline social connections and make new ones. Online marketing messages that help them build on their connections—and foster other online relationships—will get their interest.”

Tech-Savvy Moms Increase Social Media Use by 462% and Favor Facebook Most

According to a study by BabyCenter, LLC, the number of moms who use social media regularly has jumped 462% since 2006.  In addition, 44% use social media for word-of-mouth recommendations on brands and products and 73% feel they find trustworthy information about products and services through niche online communities (parenting, groceries, family, etc.).

In addition, data from lucid marketing and Lisa Finn found a whopping 96.3% of the moms surveyed said they used Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family while only 10.4% said they focused on checking out companies or products while on social networking sites. The good news was that moms were more receptive to marketing in general, a big plus for companies marketing in this space.

Here are some facts to keep in mind when marketing to moms on Facebook:

• 75% are Facebook fans of at least one company or brand
• 16% of mom Facebook users followed more than 10 companies’ fan pages
• 59.9% of moms feel neutral about Facebook ads, while 36% actively dislike them
• Their favorite pages focus on parenting info, and pages focused on coupons, restaurants, groceries and entertainment (kid-oriented entertainment being the most popular).

“Facebook is fertile ground for marketers to engage mothers and drive sales, but it needs to be done on their terms,” said Kevin Burke, president of lucid marketing, in a statement. “They have no time for brands that don’t ‘get it,’ but they do embrace brands that play by their rules.”

Now it’s your turn!

Do you market specifically to any of these three groups online?  If so, does the data support your experiences or is it missing something? What other groups do you think marketers should start paying more attention to in the near future?  I’d like to hear from you.  Please comment below.

Blogs are the most powerful marketing tool you can use to attract leads and new customers, as well as increase visibility in your marketplace.

But what makes one blog successful and another mediocre? The majority of “so-so” blogs lack one or more of four important elements…  In this article I will introduce the CODA system and how it can driven traffic and engagement with your readers.

Some bloggers may be writing well, posting relevant and valuable content on a regular basis, but they aren’t encouraging reader interaction. Or they might have built a blog whose purpose isn’t evident.

Some blogs are difficult to navigate, making it nearly impossible for readers to find important information. Some look good, but they don’t have frequent or relevant posts.

And, most important to the first-time visitor, many blogs lack critical design elements. They offer no way for busy readers to quickly size them up and decide whether the blog is worth reading.

This is where the CODA system comes in, to serve as a guide for bloggers to monitor four elements of their blog and keep it on track as a marketing tool that serves their business. CODA focuses on Content, Outreach, Design and Action.

C Is for Content

The first essential component to a successful blog is content. It is often said that “content is king” because it is the critical element that will make or break your blog.

Always write with your readers in mind. If your posts are not interesting to the people you’re writing for, then they’re not going to come back. They’re not going to subscribe. And they’re not going to buy your products or services. Your content is where you have the opportunity to really penetrate your niche market and dominate, to become the de facto authority.

When developing content, keep in mind the three E’s of content: Educate, Entertain and Engage. The two primary reasons people use the web are to find solutions to their problems and to be entertained (as seen in the phenomenal growth of online video).

The first E is Educate.  A great example of educational blogging is Dr. Eben Davis’ Back and Wrist Pain Blog. Dr. Davis uses his blog to teach prospective and current patients about how the body works, why they might need help, or how he can solve their problem.  Nearly every post is educational and recently he told me that about 50% of his new patients come as a result of reading his blog and that they are getting better results because they are better educated.

Educate your readers so they know how you can solve their problems.

The second E is Entertain.  Video inherently is more entertaining than text (unless you’re really good at writing humor, which is tricky). Use video to tell a story or to better express your personality.  Check out Gary Vaynerchuk and his WineLibrary.tv blog. He posts videos five days a week and because he has a huge personality and is incredibly passionate about his subject, he rarely fails to entertain—as well as educate and engage—his audience, which is evidenced by dozens of comments on every post.

Video is inherently entertaining and quickly engages the viewer.

The third E is Engage. How do you get people to actually connect with you and participate in the conversation?  One way to do that is to use polls. Some of the free polling sites are vizu.com and polldaddy.com.  Create a one-question poll to encourage people to take the step and interact by answering your question.

Even simpler is asking for comments.  I often hear the complaint, “Nobody ever comments on my blog.”  My response is, “Do you ask for comments?  Do you tell readers how to comment?”  People need to be told what to do.  You might need to say at the end of your blog post, “Please let me know what you think about this.  Click on the comment link below.”

Keep in mind that when somebody actually interacts with something—they click a link, they post a comment, they take a poll—they stop being a passive reader. Now they’re actively engaged with you, and that can help bring them one step closer to becoming a client or a customer.

Ask for engagement. A poll gives your readers the opportunity to tell you what they think.

Finally, with all your content, keep it conversational and thoughtful, and be authentic and personal.

I covered content in more detail in previous articles—7 Tips to Create Better Blog Posts and 13 Ideas to Inspire Your Blog Content. Now back to the next step in the CODA system.

O Is for Outreach

Part of being a successful blogger means you should leave your own blog and participate on others in the blogosphere. It means reading and commenting on other blogs related to your industry or audience, reaching out to other bloggers, and becoming more visible. This is how you get known; this is how you build relationships that can turn into joint venture projects and guest interview spots, and attract more traffic and prospects back to your site.

I covered Outreach in more detail in the article The Secret to Growing Your Blog Following.

Outreach is also about participating on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace, among others, if that’s where your target audience hangs out.  Set up your profile. Make sure your avatar is consistent throughout so no matter where people find you, they recognize you.  Most important, make sure your blog content is syndicated via the RSS feed so your connections on social networking sites see your deeper content and can follow you back to your home base—your blog.

D Is for Design

Strong blog design involves a number of layout and usability factors. Design issues can greatly affect how readers experience your blog.

• Is it easy to use and understand?
• Does it build trust with readers?
• Is it easy to navigate?
• Does it look good?

The aesthetic elements also help people feel confident about working with you.  They may like your content, but does it look professional? Does it represent you well?  Do you make it easy for readers to hire or buy something from you?

One of the things to keep in mind when you’re designing your blog is it must be well-branded and it should be memorable. Make sure when people land on your site, it doesn’t look like every other blog.  Just about every blogging platform has templates.  If you use a standard template, that’s OK, but take a few minutes and customize the look and feel by using your brand colors and logo, at minimum.

Adding a custom-designed banner on your blog will help set it apart as well. Make sure to include the name of your blog and a tagline.  Remember that every day someone new lands on your blog.  When they land on your blog, are they going to know what it’s about?  Are they going to know if it’s what they’re looking for?  Make sure you have a tagline that tells people what the blog is about—what they can expect to learn about your subject.

For more details and a video demo, please see my article on 7 Essential Design Elements for Great Business Blogs.

A Is for Action

Finally, ‘A’ is shorthand for call to action. That is, are you encouraging people to act? How do you get your readers to become customers, to click on links, and to sign up for classes, reports, and other offers?

Effective business blogging is results-oriented, which means persuading people to interact with you in some way. Calls to action are crucial. Depending on the goals of your blog and/or specific post, you may include calls to action for:

• Posting comments
• Asking for a retweet
• Directing to download a freebie
• Downloading a white paper
• Taking a survey
• Registering for a program
• Checking out your new product or service

Being clear on the next step you want your readers to take will help them know what to do and help you get the results you want from your blogging efforts. You can see clear examples of calls to action on Rich Brooks’ flyte blog.

Tell your readers what you want them to do.

Putting it all Together for a Balanced Blog

If you’re going to invest time on your blog, you want that time to pay off. You want results.

Keep in mind that no matter which of the four elements (Content, Outreach, Design and Action) you like to focus on, a successful business blog—one that gets results for your business—requires all four to be addressed. A balanced blog that is built and maintained on the CODA system will contribute to getting more visitors, and more customers, for your business.

What would you add? Have you tried any of these techniques with success? What do you consider the most important element for a successful blog? Share your opinion in the comments box below! ;-)

Did you join LinkedIn because someone you know invited you and you didn’t want to hurt his or her feelings, but now you’re wondering why you did it?

Guess what? If you wrinkle your nose in disgust when someone mentions “social media,” LinkedIn is for you!

Because LinkedIn is not like MySpace and Facebook. It’s not where teenagers post pictures of their high school prom or their latest beach party.

LinkedIn was built for professionals who want to use their existing and future social networks to build a career. And for companies that want to find qualified employees. And for job-hunters.

And fortunately for you, there is now a “Dummies” book about LinkedIn. It’s LinkedIn For Dummies by Joel Elad.

This book will tell you everything you need to know about LinkedIn, in language you can understand. It’s filled with screen shots, lists, and detailed instructions for doing everything from signing up and creating a profile to finding venture capitalists and angel investors to fund your startup.

Yes, you can even look for business financing on LinkedIn. The Answers section of LinkedIn has two appropriate categories for this topic: Startups and Small Business, and Venture Capital and Private Equity.

And if you’re looking for venture capital for your startup, you can even use LinkedIn to find experienced professionals for your “dream team.” With tens of millions of experienced professional members, LinkedIn should be the first resource you use to recruit a management team.

But let’s start with the basics.

Information for Employers

If your HR department is trying to fill a job, here’s how they can do that on LinkedIn:

• Search all LinkedIn People profiles using specific keywords.
• Look at each candidate’s profile, which includes education, experience, and recommendations.
• Look at their network to see if you have any connections to them.
• Contact them or one of your connections to them for more information.
• Look at any questions they have answered to learn more about them.
• Do all of this online in the privacy of your office.

The LinkedIn profile is exactly like a resume, but it holds a lot more information. It includes fields for education, jobs, experience, interests, awards and honors, and personal information. Job-hunters can add extensive information about their experience at each job that they could never include on a paper resume.

They can also ask previous employers to recommend them, and those recommendations appear on their profile. They can even upload a picture. Have you ever seen a picture on a resume?

Imagine having access to all of that information when you need to hire someone. Instead of wading through hundreds of documents to eliminate candidates, you can build a search query to select the best ones from the start.

There is only one caveat: you must sign up for a paid account to see full profiles of people outside your network.

Information for Job-Hunters

If you’re looking for a job, here’s what you can do on LinkedIn:

• Create a detailed personal profile because there are over 130,000 recruiters on LinkedIn.
• Search the Jobs database using specific keywords, job titles, and geographic locations.
• See company profiles and current employees.
• Use your connections to get an introduction or informational interview.
• Search for people who used to work for a company and contact them.
• Do all of this without taking time off from work.

Yes, it might take a few hours to create a complete profile on LinkedIn. But once you’ve done it, you’ll never have to send out a paper resume again.

Oh sure, many employers still ask for one. But look at it from their point of view. The old way of filling a job was very tedious and time-consuming:

• Post the job ad somewhere, usually in multiple places.
• Receive dozens of resumes and other documents.
• Spend weeks and even months going over all of that information.
• Invite the best candidates to interview.
• Call their references.
• Select the best candidate.

Is there a new way? See Information for Employers above.

Can you understand why some recruiters might use LinkedIn before they do anything else? Do you see how many recruiters are on LinkedIn?

Information for Independent Contractors

If you’re an independent contractor, here’s what you can do on LinkedIn:

• List your business in the Service Providers directory.
• Send business updates to your network.
• Create a group or join an existing group related to your business.
• Ask your clients on LinkedIn to recommend you.
• Answer questions to establish your expertise.
• Search the People database on specific keywords to find potential clients.

As an independent contractor with a LinkedIn profile, I have to say that LinkedIn isn’t set up for independent contractors. It’s set up for companies, employees and jobs.

Yes, I could call my clients “employers” and my projects “jobs,” but it isn’t my preference. And how do I enter a “job” that lasted only five hours?

“If you want to be seen as an expert in a given field, include references to any articles or books you’ve written, articles you’ve been quoted in, focus or advisory groups you belong to, and any speaking engagements or discussions you’ve participated in,” Elad says.

But where would you put this information? The Profile page is set up like a resume. All you can do is list your education, employers, and job titles. Even entries in the Experience section are linked back to specific jobs.

So where would you list a book that you wrote? Or the one-hour keynote speech you gave at a recent conference? The Interests section just doesn’t seem appropriate for this type of information.

But this is just my personal gripe about LinkedIn, not Elad’s book.

Have I convinced you that a LinkedIn profile might be one way to advance your career or build your business? If so, get a copy of Elad’s 300-page book and start reading it.

Because relationships matter.

Social Media Examiner gives this book a 5-star rating.

What do you think about LinkedIn? If you are using LinkedIn, please share your experience! Comment below…

The Big 4-0. For most, turning 40 inspires something big.

For Danny Brown, it wasn’t a sports car, Vegas trip or marathon run. He was inspired to set a different challenge for himself—to bring people together and raise money for worthy causes.  And the response was very unexpected…

To celebrate his 40^th, Brown and his wife spent a few days at Niagara Falls. Taking a break at a local café, they noticed an elderly woman come in by herself and order ice cream.

Brown wondered about her story.

After he and his wife headed home, Brown couldn’t stop thinking about the lonely-looking woman in the café—and regretted not talking with her.

“Everyone in social media talks about how we need to connect and open up,” Brown says. “I couldn’t make that connection to the lady we saw in the restaurant. We forget human connections offline. I wanted to make sure that if someone needs help or just a little bit of company, that people are reaching out to them.”

That a-ha moment kicked off a project that has since raised nearly $100,000 to date—reaching countless people.

One Man, No Budget

Brown launched the 12for12k Challenge, an initiative to bring social media communities together to help people offline in 2009. For years, Brown has worked in corporate communications and social media for companies like British Telecom. Currently, he’s the social media strategist for Maritz Canada.

Brown’s challenge takes the power of social media to the nonprofit world. “I know quite a few people offline who do charity work and the struggle is administrative costs,” he says. “I knew social media could offer a wider audience for far less investment.”

The 12for12k Challenge set an ambitious goal: raise $12,000 monthly for 12 months for 12 different charities—with no budget (the only costs were the website and hosting, which Brown paid for out of pocket).

His vision: Solely rely on social media to spread the word and raise donations for a featured charity each month. Then, 100% of donations go to the charity.

When word spread of Brown’s plans, his contacts and their contacts lined up to help. There may not be funds, but ideas, persistence and passion are the currency of social media anyway. In that regard, more than a dozen core 12for12k volunteers made it a “rich” initiative.

Four Cornerstones of the Campaign

Danny Brown launched the 12for12k.org site after an experience left him wondering “just how social we are.”

First, they set ground rules. Each supported nonprofit must operate with no more than 10% administrative costs, be a registered charity, and accept donations via PayPal or credit card.

Social media activity drives people directly to the 12for12k.org website to learn more and donate via ChipIn, a Flash widget that shows a running total of donations. Donations go directly to each nonprofit’s bank account.

About half a dozen volunteers joined Brown in generating updates on 12for12k’s four social media cornerstones of the campaign: blogging, video, a Facebook group and Twitter. More recently, they started a Ning community.

Updates on the Facebook group focus on featured charities, events and fundraising progress. The organization posts videos on YouTube and Viddler to kick off monthly campaigns and highlight related causes, such as homelessness.

Additionally, about 30 blog partners take Brown’s messages to their audiences.

Danny Brown prepares to kick off the 12 Days of Christmas Homeless Push in December.

One Cause Nets $15,500 Via a Tweet-a-Thon

Taking advantage of Twitter’s viral capabilities, the organization created a Twitter avatar “frame” for followers to include on their profile pictures, which encourages their followers to ask about 12for12k.

Last March, 12for12k featured Share our Strength, a national organization working to make sure no child in America grows up hungry. The organization’s “Pledge to End Hunger” campaign, led by MediaSauce and Kompolt, sought pledges online in response to a challenge from Tyson Foods. For each pledge, Tyson would donate 35 pounds of food or 140 servings.

Scott Stratton of Un-Marketing.com volunteered to help 12for12k host a Tweet-a-Thon for Pledge to End Hunger. For each $12 entry, donors were entered into a drawing to win one of about 20 prizes, such as an iPod Touch, Amazon Kindle 2, Flip video camera, gift cards, Nintendo Wii Fit and jewelry. A purchase of 10 entries automatically earned donors a free website review.

With entry fees and raffle prizes, the effort hoped to raise $12,000 in just 12 hours.

Scott Stratton of Un-Marketing.com donated his time and ideas for 12for12k.org’s Tweet-a-Thon for Pledge to End Hunger.

Supporters of 12for12k and Share our Strength, and hundreds of other friends and supporters, Tweeted away all day, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The resulting response exceeded Brown’s and Pledge to End Hunger’s expectations. They hit their goal of $12,000 much faster than 12 hours – in just five-and-a-half hours.

“Honestly, I was shocked,” said Jeff Wiedner, director of community engagement at Share Our Strength. “I had a feeling that the timing was right for our mission and, since Scott knew so many people, that we’d do pretty well, but I never expected how quickly we reached that $12,000 target.”

When all was said and done, the total reached $15,549 for Share Our Strength, which pushed donations beyond monthly averages for the nonprofit. But the impact extends well beyond the actual donations.

“We got attention from folks like Mashable, Chronicle of Philanthropy and other media,” Wiedner said. “That led to more folks knowing about SOS and our mission, which led to a bump in our online community, which led to greater interactions with our community and building out of other campaigns later with other bloggers. There were some additional corporations that learned about us, too, as our reach grew.”

A total of 477 contributors raised $15,549 for Share Our Strength during a 12-hour Tweet-a-Thon.

4000% Traffic Increase

Brown turns to analytics tools Woopra and Quantcast for detailed measurement of traffic on the 12for12k.org site. With those, he not only knows traffic numbers but where they live, their income level, average spending, ethnicity and gender—letting him tailor content and events to his audience.

In March, the site was “hammered” with a 4000% increase in traffic in a 12-hour period because of the Pledge to End Hunger Tweet-a-Thon.

Yet the most important metrics for 12for12k don’t require fancy measurement tools. In 2009, the initiative fell short of its goal of $12,000 every month. But it still raised $91,275 that all went directly to charities and the people they help.

More importantly, Brown did so without any organizational budget, on the side of his day job.

Well into 2010, he still hasn’t stopped. In fact, the momentum of last year has inspired him to do more. Plus, he’s intent on continuing to support the charities of 2009 as he can with exposure and social media help, if needed.

Year two began by featuring Hope for Haiti, bringing in $8,000 so far from 140 contributors.

Brown wants to expand by enlisting sponsors, hosting more events and focusing on three charities each quarter, rather than one each separate month. This year’s theme, “connect globally, help locally” will encourage people to do more in their own communities.

“A lot of people don’t do anything because they’re just one person,” Brown said. “If you think you can’t help financially, help a local charity in your city understand how to use social media to tell their story. Ask a charity what you can offer them.”

What do you think about this story?  Have you seen any great examples of social media impacting nonprofits in your community? What are they doing well?

Are you trying to build a community for your company or brand?  Are you looking to go beyond just big numbers of Facebook fans or Twitter followers?

This article reveals three important tips you need to know to help build and manage communities.

What Is Community Management?

Previously I wrote examined the different roles for those who work with social media in business.   Among the many roles, the community manager is by far the most important because he or she is on the front lines of communication. Here’s how I define community manager:

A community manager usually manages an editorial calendar for a blog/community, a Twitter account and various third-party social media channels like a Facebook fan page or a YouTube account.

A community manager may also be responsible for managing a social listening platform like Radian6 and filtering/assigning conversations to others in the business unit for a proper response.  He or she may even organize in-person events (or town halls) to get feedback from the community. The community manager is the face of the brand.  Conversations are at the core of the job responsibility.

Over the years, I have worked for several big brands and have learned some valuable lessons about community.  When I refer to community, it’s not just a “social networking” site where users are required to login and create profiles. Communities can be built on Twitter, YouTube and even on a blog where the conversations are happening within the comments.

Here are three lessons to consider when managing a community:

#1: Embed within your community.

During the War in Iraq, there were several journalists from various news organizations who would embed themselves within infantry units in order to get access to “front line” reporting.  The result was that viewers were able to keep up to speed with what was going on several thousand miles away.

Community managers must also embed themselves within the community they serve and become integrated with the community.

The result is the collecting valuable data and insights from the community members and reporting back to management. The reporting is usually feedback on how to improve the company’s products, services or business processes.

Community managers will be successful if they are authentic and leave egos at the door.  Community members are smart and can see right through egos and many times they will call you on it. The best tip I can give to a community manager is just to be yourself.

During my time at Yahoo!, one of my core responsibilities was community management. In order to do this effectively, I had to earn the trust of the community. I accomplished this by taking off the mask of corporate America and doing what comes naturally: being myself.  I invested hours a day just getting to know others in the community and engaging in really simple and personal conversations. It didn’t take long for others to consider me a friend and begin to trust me.

#2: Don’t just focus on monetizing.

The biggest mistake a community manager can make is to start screaming “one-way” marketing messages at the rest of the community. The members will do one of two things: they will either leave the community or call you out on it publicly. Both are bad for business and should be avoided at all costs.

Unfortunately, situations like this still happen today. Brands and small businesses create groups, fan pages or Ning communities for the sole reason of monetization.  There may be some sales as a result, but there is little to no long-term benefit, much less repeat sales. Remember the old saying, “It takes more to acquire a new customer than to sell to an existing one.”

The most effective strategy to drive revenue for a business is to build the community, earn members’ trust and delicately ask for their permission to market your services, a wise proverb from Seth Godin.

#3: Don’t just listen, get the community involved.

Yes, the hot topic today is “listening” and the tools are just about commoditized with new applications launching every month. Building strong customer loyalty is not just listening but also acting—embedding yourself within the community and becoming a trusted voice there.  However, the challenge for every business in social media is to eventually “become believable.” And that means winning consumer trust.

Here is an example during my tenure at Intel how we succeeded through social media after a big consumer marketing campaign:

In May 2009, Intel launched a “Sponsors of Tomorrow” commercial featuring Ajay Bhatt—the co-inventor of the USB. Check out the video here:

The catch phrase, “Our rock stars aren’t like your rock stars,” aimed to put a human face to the Intel brand.  For a split second, one of the Ajay Bhatt fans in the video rips open his shirt to reveal a T-shirt emblazoned with Bhatt’s image.  We were bombarded with requests for the T-shirt on Twitter, YouTube comments and on our blogs.  We then ran a T-shirt contest through Twitter and gave away 100 Ajay Bhatt T-shirts.

Intel now runs an Ajay Bhatt fan page on Facebook where I see the number of fans still growing today.

Do you manage a community?  What other tips would you suggest? I would love to hear your point of view, please comment below.