What’s your business?

MIX Magazine, Portland’s #1 Food + Drink magazine

When did you start using social media and why?

Began in the summer of 09′ primarily to reach out to those interested in the food + drink category, have dialogue with them and encourage them to read our
publication.

Has social media changed your business?

It has helped us as publishers to have a better understanding of our audience, so I would say it has changed it yes.

How to you envision social media changing in the future?

It will need to continue to be relevant to the consumer. This is the greatest
challenge for any media of our day.

Have a social media story you’d like to share?

We recently did a story on a particular cocktail featuring a local
distiller and a bartender who served this drink at a particular
restaurant in town. We posted the story on Facebook and the restaurant
told us they had so many new customers come in to order the cocktail
that they ran out!

It’s actually pretty easy, just login into LinkedIn and they sync up your Twitter account to your LinkedIn account. They also ask if you want all of your tweets on LinkedIn or just certain ones – you are able to sort out which tweets you want by adding a tag (#ln).

It’s that easy. Here’s some steps to help walk you through it

Threadless is a community-centered online apparel store that began in 2000. The business is primarily based on community voting – members of the community submit t-shirt designs online – which, by the way, are some amazing pieces of art.  The designs are put out to a public vote. A percentage of the submitted designs are selected for printing and are sold through their online store. Winning designs receive prizes of cash and store credit.

Their marketing ranges from traditional – holding a “scary designs” contests for Halloween or using social media tools like Facebook,  dedicating themselves to interact with their customers and attract new ones. Here’s some of the ideas they have been cooking up:

• Fans can add items to their cart directly within the Threadless Facebook Page. After choosing your size and clicking “Add to cart,” you’re then directed to Threadless.com where you review your order or return to the Facebook Page and continue shopping.

• Under their tab “New Tees”, you are able to browse the new items of the week. You can post a comment about a t-shirt which then posts to your Wall and News Feed.

• Every Thursday, the company posts hourly videos, giving away prizes by spining on the prize wheel to random fans. Its like a short talk show with prizes and no celebrity guests.

Here’s another profile of Threadless with more examples of how they use Facebook . Who wouldn’t want to go and hang out on their Facebook Fan page? Sounds like fun

For example, if there are people who you’d like to follow, but don’t want them in your main twitter stream, you can add them to a list and then check up on tweets. It’s a win-win solution and helps you consoldate information.

Your lists can either be public or private. One of the easiest ways to create a list is to go through the people who are following you and with the dropdown next to their profile, mark which list you’d like to add them to. Lists are limited to 500 people and each user can have up to 20 lists.

Lists can be made up of:

1) Your peers or colleagues. I find it’s hard to keep track of my peers and it would be nice to have all of them in a list. Maybe they will start talking with each other too.

2) Twitter information folks you follow that provide useful tip, resources, information? Why not throw those guys together in a list. It’s a great way to share that prime knowledge and give credit to the thought leaders you are reading.

3)Specialty Lists – Want to keep a list of all your food carts you are following? Lists are perfect for those.

4)Employees – Get your employees tweeting with each other through Twitter      by creating a list for them

5)Targeted marketing & research – it’s good to keep up with the latest news of business trends and companies you’d like to track.

http://mashable.com/2009/11/02/twitter-lists-guide/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catherine-ventura/new-twitter-lists-open-ho_b_346523.html

http://thenextweb.com/2009/10/16/twitter-lists-work/

Once you have your Facebook page, what do you do with it?

1) Feed your blog postings into your Facebook page – this can be done by editing the Notes tab and adding your blog feed. Facebook will confirm with you if it’s done correctly and you simply confirm.

2) Add business apps, there are a ton to choose from here,  but don’t go overboard, pick a few that having meaning to your business.

3) Promoting your page – you can’t just friend someone the way you do from your personal profile. You can encourage folks to be fans of your page by spreading the word.  Find contacts from your profile that are business connections, in the industry, or who could benefit from what your company provides and invite them to become a fan. Send a personal note what your page offers. Also promote your page in other places such as Twitter, email sigs, business card, your website or blog.

4) Build a community around your page – start discussions by asking questions regarding your products or what they suggests should improve. Post on a regular basis, such as you would on a blog. Be patient, it won’t happen overnight, but it change slowly.

Want to take it to the next level? Read this report on developing a Facebook pan to attract a million fans!

I’ve been reading the “The Wealthy Freelancer” for over a year and have learned some great tips to improve my business. Ed Gandia was one of the founders of this site and is a freelance copywriter, wanting to help others break free of the corporate world and become a freelancer. Definitely a thought leader in his field, Ed’s educated many writers and freelancers on how to market themselves in the new economy. I got the opportunity to ask him a few questions about how he uses social media and how it’s affect his businesses.

Please tell us about yourself and your business

I’m a full-time freelance copywriter based out of Marietta, Ga. In a nutshell, I was a successful corporate sales professional in the high-tech and industrial arenas. Even though I was earning a comfortable six-figure income, I had had enough of the sales treadmill. I was also tired of having someone else dictate my future and my compensation level. I was moonlighting as a copywriter for non-competing software companies, and I realized I could turn that passion into a full-time business. A little over two years later I quit my job and went completely on my own. That was June 2006. I haven’t looked back since!

Today, I work with enterprise software companies, helping them craft persuasive content to drive more leads and to speed up sales cycles. I write a lot of white papers, case studies, direct response pieces, web copy, press releases and other marketing materials. It’s a lot of fun. I love my clients, and I make a great living. I also love the fact that I have a flexible schedule and I make all of my own decisions, including what clients to take on, what type of work to pursue and where I’ll take my business.

How long have you been using social media tools to help promote your blogs, newsletters, etc.

I’ve mainly used social media to promote my blog and newsletter (TheWealthyFreelancer.com), which are both geared toward helping other freelancers—not potential copywriting clients—and which I publish with my two business partners, Pete Savage and Steve Slaunwhite.

Specifically, I’ve used Twitter and to a small extent, LinkedIn. Twitter has enabled me to develop relationships with key influencers in the freelancing community, as well as freelancers across all professions. These relationships have been instrumental in shaping our content and in giving us more exposure in freelance circles.

As far as my core copywriting business, within two months of opening a Twitter account, I was contacted by three potential clients (and I wasn’t really trying to solicit business!). Although none of them turned into clients (they weren’t quite the right fit), I quickly saw how a smart, concerted Twitter effort can pay off quickly. Plus, it’s a fun way to connect with others and develop what could turn out to be very profitable long-term relationships!

What are some of the more interesting results/feedback have you gotten, tell a story if you can

With Twitter, I’ve been able to connect with influential authors and thought leaders. These individuals have provided me with great ideas, invaluable feedback and great exposure. Also, as I co-wrote my book this summer (The Wealthy Freelancer: 12 Secrets to a Great Income and an Enviable Lifestyle), which will be published by Penguin this March, I was able to connect with dozens of  freelancers to get their success stories and tips for successful freelancing. Being able to tap into the ideas and insights of so many wonderful people has been a blast!

How do you feel social media is changing how business market themselves?

Over the last few years, consumers have clearly shifted much of their leisure time away from traditional media, such as TV and radio, and into social media. Email still works. And when done well, it’s still a critical part of a marketer’s promotional mix. But as these consumers flock to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and other social media platforms, you’ll HAVE to move promotional dollars into these tools if you want to compete. Or heck, if you want to SURVIVE!

It’s no longer hype. This is where consumers are “hanging out” now. That’s where you have to meet them. And because these platforms are still emerging, they have a “newness” to them that makes consumers pay more attention and be more receptive to marketing messages. It’s like email marketing was back in the mid and late 1990’s…but better!

What are you excited to see change in the future of marketing online?

That for the first time in quite a while, marketers are having to get very creative. They’re having to reinvent themselves—to experiment like they haven’t done so in a long time. Better yet, their brands and messages are no longer under their control. The consumer is in the driver’s seat now. As a marketer, that’s a bit scary…but it’s also exciting, because it means that the most innovative and transparent marketers will do better than ever.

It’s a great time to be in marketing!

He kept telling me how easy it is to use Ping.fm so I broke down and tried it out. He was right, it only took me 5 minutes.

Some of the best features:

Supports over 30 services such as Twitter, Facebook and even instant messages such as AIM Status or services like Hootsuite and Skype (more on how those integrate these)

You can literally use ping.fm with so many services as well such as your email, SMS, instant message, Facebook app, iPhone app, desktop app, and so on. The possbilities are endless.

Now here’s the feature I’m still playing with and find fascinating:

It allows you to post to different group by methods. The methods are “micro-blogging” such as Twitter style updating, “blogging” as in adding a post to your Wordpress blog, “status” – more for Facebook or LinkedIn updates and “photo posting” which could be Flickr or Facebook.

Creating posting groups is great and allows you to set a group that updates only to Twitter and LinkedIn, but then set up a different group to send updates to Facebook. It’s pretty awesome if you update some social media sites with business and want to keep your personal life separate.

I’m curious how people really use ping.fm and how well it works, here’s a fun example of 16 different ways you could use it.

My favorite reasons to use it:

-Tracking my URLS, I want to make sure and see if folks are following what I post and by golly, they are. I can see at what times were the most clicks, etc.

-Hootlet , the easy to use plugin for Firefox works smoothly, I pop in and shrink my URLs -scheduling tweets, here’s another review that focuses on that: http://www.twitip.com/twitip-reader-review-hootsuite/

-you can use Hootsuite to check several different accounts

-the latest 2.0 version is even better with columns separately different messages and get tabs to help you stay organized and get the data you want!

If you are new to Twitter, find a few folks you respect, for example, journalist from NPR or an author you respect. The power of Twitter is that by following them, it allows you to have a very unique dialogue with these folks. If you reply or direct message them, it’s much more powerful than emailing or phone calls. You can also get insight into what they are into or what’s going on in their lives. It’s also fun to see who else is watching them, you might find some other great people you want to follow.

Wefollow also ranks tweeters and let’s you know whose getting more followers, whose moving up in the ranking and whose moving down.  You can type in keywords to find specific people, for example, if you type in “seattle”, Pearl Jam are the top tweeters!

This is a great tool is you want to start following Though Leaders on subjects such as small business, marketing, coaching, it just goes on and on. Overall, it’s fun tool that keeps it simple.