3 New Ways to Use Twitter at Live Events

social media tools

If you use Twitter, chances are you’ve tweeted from a live event.  But there’s so much more Twitter can offer.  In this article, I’ll share three secrets you’ve likely never heard of…

But first, why do you attend offline events? Is it the lunch (invariably chicken and rice)? Maybe the dorky name tag? Or perhaps you’re lured to the junk contained in a $5 laptop bag made in China?

No, no and no. You go to events and conferences for something more than a snack and some SWAG.  You go to learn something and grow your personal network.

And in that regard, Twitter has a starring role.

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Four Ways to Find Out if Your Customers Are Active With Social Media

social media how toFor many companies, the conversation has shifted from “why” or “should” we do social media, to “where” and “how” social media should be done.

A major component of answering those questions effectively is understanding in which social outposts your customers are concentrated, because there really is no benefit in beating your customers to the punch. Companies should follow, not lead, their customers across the social web.

At conferences, I’m often asked something along these lines: “My boss thinks none of our customers are on Facebook, but I think they are. What do I do?”

Here are 4 ways to find out where your customers are in social media:

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7 Ways to Use Psychological Influence With Social Media Content

social media how toOne of the hallmarks of social media is content:  creating it, sharing it and engaging with it.

The best content in social media inspires, informs, educates or entertains (and if you’re really lucky, it does all four!).  But how do you create content that goes viral?

What follows are seven strategies you can employ to help your content succeed.

The idea for this post came from Jay Baer’s excellent article on creating reusable social media content, which defined how companies can generate more value by repurposing existing content.

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The Biggest Social Media Mistakes (a Jay Baer Interview)

social media expert interviewIn this video I interview Jay Baer of Convince And Convert. Jay provides social media consulting to leading businesses.

In this video, Jay offers social media tips to help businesses succeed.

You’ll learn why Jay talks of “Noah’s ark” in social media and why Twitter and Facebook are not a social media strategy. He shares a wealth of information. Be sure to see the other takeaways below.

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7 Steps to Successful Twitter Interviews

social media how toWant to expand your Twitter business network?  Looking for a way to get to know someone better before connecting with them outside of Twitter?

Twitter interviews are the answer.   Twitter interviews are simply interviews where the conversation is carried out entirely in tweets. Here’s a few of the benefits of Twitter interviews:

  • You learn more about the people you interview.
  • You show your Twitter audience whom you are interested in connecting with.
  • You give others the opportunity to share more about themselves.

Twitter interviews can be fun for everyone when you do them right.

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12 Social Media Secrets From World’s Top Superstars

social media reviewsIt’s no secret that social media marketing is the most powerful business-building tool on the planet.  Now any business can directly reach customers, anytime and anyplace.

To take your social media marketing to the max, here are hot social media tips direct from 12 of the top industry masters. You’re going to want to model their priceless advice:

#1: Engage Your Facebook Fans With Questions

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The Social Media Examiner Story: Proof Social Media Works

social media case studiesBack in October of 2009 we launched SocialMediaExaminer.com.  The response was immediate and it was big (I’ll share some of the back story in the video below).

We relied 100% on social media tactics to drive traffic to this site.

In less than 5 months, Social Media Examiner was declared the #1 small business blog in the world by Technorati, added more than 13,000 email subscribers, brought nearly 100,000 people a month to the site and is ranked as one of the top 4200 websites in all of America by Alexa.

We didn’t advertise, didn’t rely on the press and almost none of our traffic is coming from search engines.  Nearly overnight, this site has become a top destination for businesses.

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7 Reasons Not to Put All Your Eggs in the Twitter Basket

Are you too Twitter-obsessed in your social media approach?

Twitter’s role as a Magic 8 Ball for our shared culture is unrivaled, and it has almost single-handedly ushered in the era of real-time search and social customer relationship management.

But Twitter is the online equivalent of HBO – important more because of who uses it and the media’s infatuation with it, rather than the actual size and impact of its audience.

Don’t get me wrong. I advocate participating in Twitter, and I’ve certainly grown my own audience via that channel.  Twitter indeed should be part of almost every company’s social media tool kit. (See the great post here on how to methodically grow a Twitter following.)

However, Twitter alone does not constitute social media, and you’d think it does given all the disproportionate attention being paid to it at conferences and in trade publications.  Let me provide seven reasons why you shouldn’t focus solely on Twitter…

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7 Ways to Overcome the Social Media Time Sink

Many business owners and marketing professionals respond to the social media buzz with what Olivier Blanchard calls the “Social Media Terror Syndrome“—a wait and see approach.  The next barrier is often a lack of time.  And the focus becomes “how do I avoid the social media time suck?

Here are 7 steps to help you overcome the time dilemma.

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