Three little pigs decided to use social media to attract more customers for their businesses.

The first little pig, Gretchen, set up a Twitter account and a Facebook profile and a Facebook (business) page for her nail salon shop, for which she did not have a website or blog.

Gretchen tweeted several times a day about the low prices at her nail salon and she used the same information for her Facebook profile and Facebook (business) page.

But as hard as Gretchen tweeted and shared the information on Facebook, she did not get any new people coming to her nail salon.

The second little pig, Jack, set up a Twitter account and a Facebook profile and a Facebook (business) page for his dry cleaners, for which he had a website several years old. The website did not have even basic search engine optimization and Jack never added new content.

Jack tweeted several times a day about his low prices – and he often put a link to his website in the body of his tweets. He posted the same information on Facebook.

But as many times as Jack tweeted the link to his website, he did not get any new people coming to his dry cleaners.

The third little pig, Priscilla, read as many articles and took as many online courses as she could about effectively using social media. Then she had a web person set up a WordPress site/blog for her hair salon business. She made sure that the site had basic search engine optimization.

Next she set up a Twitter account and a Facebook profile and a Facebook (business) page. She used the search function on Twitter to find people who might be interested in hair care – whether or not they might be interested in her own hair salon.

Then Priscilla started sharing tweets with links to the best hair care articles she could find as well as her three-times-a-week posts on her own site.

People on Twitter and Facebook responded by asking Priscilla questions about curly hair, hair coloring, and other hair care questions. Priscilla tweeted back replies and answered these questions on Facebook.

When at first these efforts seemed to produce no new customers, Priscilla did not give up. She just kept dispensing good hair care advice on Twitter and Facebook as well as writing three informative blog posts each week.

And then one day someone called for an appointment and mentioned that he was one of her Twitter followers. Priscilla tweeted about this call.

Two days later she got another new appointment call from a follower on Twitter.

Then Priscilla tweeted that she would give her Twitter followers a 10% discount on hair care services if they sent her an appointment request via Twitter.

And that’s when Priscilla reaped the benefits of her social media efforts. She got new customers who were appreciative of the helpful advice she shared on social media as well as her responsiveness in answering individual questions.

If you’re using social media to attract more business, which little pig are you?

(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing.

{ 0 comments }

The cover of the Summer 2010 MSU Alumni Magazine features the icons of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, StumbleUpon, RSS feed and the Spartan helmet along with the headline “Social Media: MSU Rides the New Media Wave.”

Wow! This is a long way from when my husband Mitch first spoke to me next to the old manual typewriters in the editorial offices of the State News, the student newspaper at Michigan State University.

Mitch was a junior in ROTC majoring in political science and I a freshman. I got my B.A. in Journalism in three years while he got a year’s deferment from active military duty to earn an M.A. in Communications from MSU.

A few months later we were off to Ft. Knox, Kentucky, the subject of my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT (which includes flashback scenes at MSU). And, in a small world way, that novel brought me to social media and everything my company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing has done since.

Scott Westerman (@MSUScottW on Twitter), who is executive director of the MSU Alumni Association, is quoted in the magazine issue on the subject of monitoring your brand, a topic that especially interests me:

“You have to listen to people, act quickly to solve problems, and be transparent about what you are doing. There is a risk involved. I can give you examples of companies that blew it when they scoffed at complaints instead of handling it right. You can’t control communication in a top-down, one-way manner. You have to engage people in a two-way conversation.”

Before MSU Westerman was a group vice president at Comcast, where he used Twitter to help Comcast’s customer service reputation. Now he’s using social media for a variety of alumni projects and is also using the expertise of MSU’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences. He says:

“At the end of the day, you have to find new ways to add value to the world. It’s about the friendships and relationships that you have gained.”

MSU journalism alumna Rachel Wilkerson, ’08, who blogs at www.sheddingit.com, has this piece of advice attributed to her: “It’s not ‘plastics,’ as Benjamin [in the movie THE GRADUATE] was advised in 1967. It’s the modern equivalent — ‘get a blog.”’

And whether a college student should have a blog is actually the subject of the fourth post in the new social media blog series that Yael K. Miller and I are writing for eBranding.me (see the first three posts at http://budurl.com/dreamjobseries).

(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller earned her B.A. in Journalism from MSU in 1969 and her M.B.A. in Finance from Wharton in 1980. Her company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing helps clients use social media to attract more business. Read more about the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT at www.mrslieutenant.com

{ 0 comments }

While many adults participate on LinkedIn.com as a site on which to make professional contacts, this social media site can also be quite good for college students to explore possible career paths and to connect with people who might hire them for jobs after college graduation.

Keith E. Petri is a young person who just graduated college himself. As he started his own job search, he began using social media and realized how powerful social media can be for college students.

An enterprising young man, he started his own site — www.ebranding.me — to help other college students appreciate and utilize the power of social media.

I met him through an announcement he posted on www.bloggerlinkup.com (a free resource I highly recommend) and we immediately hit it off.

The first major result of our connecting is that my business partner, Yael K. Miller, and I have begun the blog series “WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP: How to Use Social Media to Get Your Dream Job.”

The series focuses on FICTIONAL CHARACTER Amy H., an English major who will be a senior this fall at the University of Pennsylvania, as she learns how to use social media to explore possible career paths and position her personal brand online.

The first two posts in the blog series are out (new ones appear each Tuesday). And note in the second post – “Setting Up a Professional Profile on LInkedIn” — that the extra credit tip is for Amy to get a copy of Mike O’Neil’s LinkedIn book ROCK THE WORLD WITH YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE.

You can find the links to all posts in the series at http://ebranding.me/resources/curriculum/mmpm/

And for more extra credit — get the eBranding.me grammar cheat sheet to avoid the most common mistakes people make.

(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (www.linkedin.com/in/phylliszimblermiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing.

{ 3 comments }

I’m pleased to announce that my business partner Yael K. Miller and I are now writing a new blog series for Keith Petri at eBranding.me

The title of the series is: “WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP: How to Use Social Media to Get Your Dream Job”

The series is directed to young people who will be seniors in college this fall, although the material is adaptable for people of all ages.

The series provides a step-by-step process to help young people identify careers that may be of interest as well as connect on social media with people already pursuing those careers.

The second post — to go live on Tuesday, July 13 — features getting started on LinkedIn as a professional social media site that you want to be on.

Bonus tip: In this upcoming post we recommend Mike O’Neil’s book ROCK THE WORLD in order to set up a truly effective LinkedIn profile.

Read the first post now and then do the assignment if you want to take advantage of this series.

And here’s the link where you’ll find all the posts in the series — http://ebranding.me/resources/curriculum/mmpm/
(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller) had an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder with Yael K. Miller of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. The company offers a monthly mentorship program for keeping up with social media — see www.millermosaicllc.com/join-miller-mosaic-inner-circle

{ 0 comments }

The Question of Quantifying Social Media

June 29, 2010

I am always taken aback when people ask about quantifying the ROI of social media.
Social media is a relationship-building endeavor. It’s being willing to put yourself out there in public on the Internet and interact with potential customers/clients while sharing worthwhile information.
Can you quantify how many times a person/company interacts [...]

Read the full article →

Tweeting for Retailers Book Full of Expert Advice

June 21, 2010

Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s new book “Frugal and Focused Tweeting for Retailers: Tweaking Your Tweets and Other Tips for Integrating Your Social Media” is for everyone – not just retailers – who wants to use Twitter more effectively to promote a brand, book, cause or business.
Carolyn’s years of experience as a writer and retailer make this book [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make Social Media Clients Happy in Spite of Themselves?

June 16, 2010

I’m having a problem making a social media/website client happy.
The basic problem stems from the client’s desire to have things on the website a certain way regardless of whether those things encourage or discourage people to engage with the content on the site.
(In my world this problem can be restated as: Just because you’re [...]

Read the full article →

Getting Over Your Fear of Flying in Cyberspace

June 14, 2010

In 1973 Erica Jong's novel “Fear of Flying” was published, and in many ways it was a seminal book for the relatively new women’s movement.
The book had a profound influence on both many of us who supported the Equal Rights Amendment and, I believe, on the subsequent opening up of opportunities to women despite the [...]

Read the full article →

Gone Are the Days When a Static Website Meant Effective Online Marketing

June 3, 2010

Life used to be so much easier when all a company needed was a static website that, if the company were local, gave the location and hours and, if the company were national or international, sold products on the site or gave an info@companyURL email address.
That life is GONE – GONE FOREVER. And while it [...]

Read the full article →

Social Media Marketing Is Major Factor in Search Engine Optimization

May 25, 2010

In John Jantsch’s book “The Referral Engine” talking about search engine optimization he says:
“It has become extremely difficult to achieve any measure of success for important keyword phrases without the use of social media. (The flip side is that the organizations that take advantage of social media can dominate, particularly within industries slow to adapt.)”
Later [...]

Read the full article →

What I Learned About Internet Marketing and Customer Service From an Ultrasound

May 18, 2010

While standing in the registration line I noticed the sign “The Power Is in Your Hands.” This actually had to do with the request throughout the facility to use the hand sanitizers to prevent the spread of germs.
But it was a really appropriate message for what I believe about Internet marketing – “the power is [...]

Read the full article →

LinkedIn’s new InBox lets you delete for the first time, sort of

May 13, 2010

LinkedIn is rolling out a new InBox.  It has been a bit unreliable for me thuis far, but that’s because it is BRAND NEW.
For the first time users can actually begin deleting some communications. It is part of the new LinkedIn InBox design.
This screen shot shows that LinkedIn Messages can be deleted, a page at [...]

Read the full article →

What Does Your Social Media/Website Photo Say About You?

May 12, 2010

Social media has changed the “dress code” of the photos we use on our website and for our social media profiles. Nowadays we no longer expect to see photos of businessmen and businesswomen dressed in formal business attire.
If we’re taking the advice of an Internet marketing entrepreneur, for example, we want to “see” [...]

Read the full article →

Guy Kawasaki really lays it out there

May 12, 2010

I just attended an amazing webinar put on by Cisco WebEx that featured legend Guy Kawasaki. He’s a bold dude and I love that about him.
This is paraphrasing a bit but“If your’re going to push the envelope, to be bold, some people are just going to get offended.”
He used amazing examples of companies like Kosi BBQ, tools [...]

Read the full article →

Tweeting New and Old Information on Twitter

May 6, 2010

As I have written before, Twitter deceptively appears simple when it is anything but simple. There are written rules – and many unwritten rules – that it is wise to follow in order to reap the most benefits from Twitter.
Thus when I was a little startled by something a client new to Twitter asked, I [...]

Read the full article →

Internet and Start-up Pioneer Jeff Hoffman to Keynote at CO Capital Conference

May 6, 2010

‘Outside-The-Box Technology, Internet and Startup Pioneer’, Jeff Hoffman will share his wealth of experience with the Colorado Technology and Entrepreneurial Business community on innovation, successful execution, proven techniques for raising capital and more at three events hosted by Startup Guru,
Jeff Hoffman is an accomplished entrepreneur and innovator in the fields of Internet, e-commerce, and media/entertainment. [...]

Read the full article →

What Is All the Buzz About Facebook’s New Social Plugin Like Feature?

April 27, 2010

I’ve listened to Robert Grant of www.crowdconversion.com speak two nights in a row on the incredible power of Facebook’s new social plugins. What are these?
If you’ve been reading Internet marketing news in the last few days, you know that these new features have many people either very excited or very upset.
It seems to me [...]

Read the full article →

The Good and the Bad in an Internet Marketer’s Email Inbox

April 22, 2010

An exciting thing about being an Internet marketer is that one never knows what one’s email inbox might hold.
On the positive side, here are three things from my inbox today:

Jennifer Thieme, a QuickBooks consultant, responded to my email message asking what people thought of the new email format I used. She replied: “I like [...]

Read the full article →

Vote for your favorite “Rock The World” Tour T-Shirt design

April 20, 2010

We are trialing 2 designs for our Rock The World North American Tour 2010 T-Shirt design.  Can you help us with your comments?  Tell us what you like, what you don’t like, which you prefer, things we might not be thinking of, etc. Estimate price point is $20.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                  Option #1                                             Option #2
These shirts will be available [...]

Read the full article →

Looking for a custom static Facebook landing page?

April 14, 2010

Unless you choose a different option, when fans visit your Facebook page, it defaults to your Wall with just your posts showing. this option can be changed to default to one of the other tabs as well.  Better yet, you can make it default to a Static FBML-language (think HTML) based landing page of your [...]

Read the full article →

LinkedIn testing new home page look?

April 14, 2010

All of a sudden today, this afternoon actually, I get this new LinkedIn Home Page  look. My business partner, Lori Ruff, does not have this but I do.  Ha ha!
She is usually the one that gets all this new stuff it seems, like when LinkedIn was rolling out their new user interface late last year. In [...]

Read the full article →

Watch out for the “Koobface” Facebook Virus

April 13, 2010

My good friend Lisa Hendrickson (Call That Girl) in Minneapolis has a great newsletter and this is from the most recent send.  I thought itg would be of a lot of interest to our audience. 
The “Koobface” virus (Facebook’s big virus) is at it again and this time, hitting the Twitter folks too.
If you want to get [...]

Read the full article →

Does Your Website Present a Professional Image?

April 11, 2010

I’ll admit that, no matter how careful we are, there will be mistakes that will slip onto our websites.
Personally, although years and years ago I taught copyediting courses at Temple University in Center City Philadelphia, I’m sure there are a few errors on this website that have gotten past my copyediting. (Plus there are [...]

Read the full article →

Loose Lips Sink Ships

April 7, 2010

The saying “loose lips sink ships” is an old one used in connection with guarding military secrets during wartime.
This saying is as useful now as it ever was. Here’s an example from today:
My business partner and I were having lunch at a local restaurant. Two tables away (with no occupants in the intervening [...]

Read the full article →

The Ghosts of Blogs Past

April 6, 2010

Like many people, I started out on WordPress.com for my blog, it was sometime in 2008.  Built up a business blog too, also on WordPress.com.
Now, most people in the know think of WordPress.com as the “poor man’s” WordPress. They are not wrong. It is WordPress.org where things get interesting. You have to become a bit [...]

Read the full article →

Great Sales/Biz Dev tool helping you manage social media

April 1, 2010

Integrated Alliances would like to invite you to join and connect with us on LoopDesk!
LoopDesk is an Online Business Networking Group that allows members to connect solely for business purposes.
The LoopDesk experience is unique in that members connect directly to business owners, partners and decision
makers creating Global Business to Business Marketing Opportunities (B2B).  LoopDesk offers lifetime membership
for [...]

Read the full article →

Creating Effective Facebook Fan Pages

March 28, 2010

Facebook fan pages (not the same as your Facebook profile) offer powerful opportunities to promote your brand, book or business – IF you know how to effectively use these opportunities.
And it’s important to understand these opportunities BEFORE you create your Facebook fan page for your business. And here’s one important reason why:
I received an [...]

Read the full article →

Rock the World seeking Rock Band Host in Denver

March 28, 2010

Our Old Chicago Rock Band night location in Denver is done for a while and we are seeking a new location in or near downtown. Perhaps The Blake St. Tavern. Looking for ideas, open to all nights.
See some of our rock band action on video at Rock the World Facebook Fan [...]

Read the full article →

TiE-Rockies gets The LinkedIn Rock Star treatment April 6

March 26, 2010

For TiE-Rockies’ Members, this is a FREE event. If you’re not a member, it is just $25 and you can pay at the door.
DATE: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 2-4 pm.
Become a Rock Star on LinkedIn!
Repeat Event—Back by Popular Demand
Mike O’Neil and Lori Ruff, nationally renowned LinkedIn Rock Stars, will share inside guidance on how to [...]

Read the full article →

Overcoming Resistance to Participating in Social Media

March 25, 2010

I’ve been thinking about ways to help people overcome their resistance to participating in social media in order to make connections for their brand, book, cause or business.  I even wrote the post “Are You Using 20th Century Communication Techniques in the 21st Century” after a friend told me about the reluctance of a social [...]

Read the full article →