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.

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.”’

(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

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.

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

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 with you before buying your product or service?

A comparable question might be:

Can you quantify how many times someone has to view the same full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal (at a cost of how many thousands of dollars per ad?) before deciding to buy the advertised product?

Five or 10 years from now almost every company in the U.S. will be effectively using social media. But right now many, many companies are behind the eight ball.

The June 24th Wall Street Journal article “How Twitter and Facebook Can Get You Better Service at Hotels” by Sarah Nassauer was quite interesting. But what I found most revealing was that some hotels in the same hotel chain use social media while others do not. I’m assuming it depends on the open-mindedness of whoever is at the top of each individual hotel unit.

If I headed a company that has yet to embrace social media, including using it to provide exceptional customer service and to attract more business, I’d think seriously about how I’ll feel when my company is left so far behind in the dust by competitors that I may never be able to catch up.

We’re no longer talking about early adopters when we talk about using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook for business. We’re now talking about mainstream American business practices. And if you’re not in the mainstream you’re in danger of being totally out of it.

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. Miller Mosaic has a program with Doron Orenstein of Magnetic Webworks to build social media-friendly WordPress websites. See www.magneticwebworks.com/services/ultra-pro-websites/

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 a cornucopia of information on how to use Twitter to promote a retail store – and by extension the examples can apply to almost any endeavor.

This book is an excellent addition to Carolyn’s How to Do It Frugally series of books – and it is an excellent resource whether you are a beginner or a pro on Twitter. Carolyn has included in one easily readable book all the beginning information as well as the advanced techniques that can help you effectively use Twitter.

(Trust me, I have read several books on Twitter and am on my fourth three-ring-binder of Twitter information I’ve read – and in this book I learned things I didn’t know.)

The thing is, the “simple” Twitter microblogging platform actually leaves room for all kinds of innovative uses. And as Twitter continually makes changes, new opportunities arise. Or, sometimes, as in my case, one forgets about some of the techniques one has used and a refresher comes in handy.

FYI – Here’s one of the opportunities that I personally needed reminding about:

RSS Feeds …. is a tool letting your Tweets be seen in many different places on the Web. All you need do is copy and past the HTML code that you find when you click on RSS Feeds link into your Web site, your blog, your other social networks. Like magic your Tweets will appear there.

If you want to ensure that you are getting the most you can out of participating on Twitter, get this book right now! You’ll be glad you did. (And, yes, this is an affiliate link for Amazon – I highly recommend this book!)

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing, which has launched the Miller Mosaic Inner Circle mentorship program.

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 a maven in one field does NOT make you a maven in another field.)

One disagreement was because the client preferred a long, long list of accomplishments on a single site page rather than these considerable accomplishments being spread over three separate pages under different category titles.

Here is part of the explanation I included in the memo I wrote the client:

PROBLEM WITH SCROLLING DOWN PAGES:

There is numerous research that demonstrates that people dislike scrolling down website pages. There is even a Google tool that lets you see what others see on your website (depending on what browser they are using) WITHOUT scrolling down. (You can read a blog post about this.)

This is the reason that we have kept the home page short and have separated out the [topic] listings to separate pages. (Note that at the top of each of these three listings are links to the two other pages.)

Many decisions made on the layout of this site are based on what’s called “best practices” of encouraging people, once they land on your site, to stay there and read what you have on offer.

Okay, I admit that I don’t have high expectations that this explanation will convince the client. But I’m feeling “green” because it’s a tightrope-walking act to decide when to fight for things in the client’s best interests even when you’re “fighting” the client.

Anyone care to share how you deal with this problem, whether you’re building a website for a client or designing the plans for a new home?

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. The company has launched a monthly mentorship program to help people learn about the “best practices” of social media marketing (which includes effective WordPress websites).

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 failure of the ERA to pass.

Now in 2010 I attended a meeting of a women's professional group and came away from it much discouraged. The irony is that the speaker gave an excellent brief history of women’s rights and politicians from the ERA through today.

And, yet, earlier in the meeting, many of the successful, intelligent women present appeared proud of the fact that they didn’t even know how to fill out a simple bio on a social media site and they seemed disinclined to learn. Either they had assistants do it for them or they didn’t do it at all.

What’s the connection to Erica Jong's book and this meeting (besides how disappointed Erica Jong would be that almost 40 years later women are still willing to be behind-the-times)?

Whether people like it or not, the Internet and social media sites such as Facebook are going to continue to play a bigger and bigger role in which opinions, which bills in Congress, which almost anything are going to be popular and which are not.

When a woman – or man – announces an inability to even post a bio online (and acts as if that is a badge of honor), that person is surrendering his/her life to having very little influence on the outcome of future events that may, in fact, be very important to him or her.

Yes, people can always join these sites at a later date. But when you start getting active on social media sites only when there’s something you really care about, you come from a position that is way behind where you could have been had you already been active on the major sites.

In other words, if you haven't built up goodwill through having many friends on Facebook, fans on Twitter, connections on LinkedIn, etc., you are basically starting from scratch at what may be a pivotal moment for your cause.

I urge both women and men to learn as much as possible about participating on social media sites. There are helpful books on Amazon, free reports, all kinds of ways to do this.

And if you'd be interested in a monthly social media webinar (with recording available afterwards) for which you can submit questions beforehand, see www.millermosaicllc.com/join-miller-mosaic-inner-circle/

In offering this program, Yael and I want to help women and men get over their “fear of flying” on the Internet and learn to use the power of the Internet for themselves.

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing.

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 may be comforting to hold out as long as possible before embracing the new world of social media, you may be putting your company at risk by procrastinating on accepting the new world.

Let’s look at this from the point of view of an imaginary company that we shall call National Restaurant Chain.

National Restaurant Chain has stuck its toes into the social media pond. There’s a Facebook page with lots of people, a relatively new Twitter account, and a website that makes it very difficult to learn that the company does indeed have a social media presence.

On any one day the company gets good comments and not-so-good comments on its Facebook page and perhaps its Twitter account. This is expected – the best customer service organization in the world cannot please everyone all of the time. There are bound to be people, for example, who got out of bed on the wrong side and just can’t be pleased.

Now the truth is that most people intuitively defend themselves when “accused” of something. Especially when we feel the criticism is unjust, we rush to set the record straight.

In the 1970s the book WHEN I SAY NO I FEEL GUILTY by Manuel J. Smith came out. It explained, among other things, how to use assertiveness techniques to block negative feedback from people who are determined to criticize you no matter what you say in your defense.

I have been a proponent of these assertiveness techniques ever since the book came out and I took several classes on these techniques.

Now let’s zip up the years to 2010 and the world of social media. With a click of the send button on a computer someone can criticize your business and spread that criticism to the entire globe. And what can you do about it?

If it is legitimate criticism, such as your company promised to give a refund for a burnt sandwich and didn’t keep the promise, you can immediately give the refund and post that you did this on your social media accounts.

But what do you do if it is the kind of criticism that no matter how strongly you deny it there are people who will insist on believing it? Especially what do you do if you have been procrastinating about having a strategic company-wide social media policy?

You stop denying the criticism – after all, every time you talk about the situation you are allowing more people to weigh in with their pro and con opinions.

In other words, you sidestep the negative comments and instead promote your positive actions.

You do this by effectively using your social media presence. And if your social media presence is not very effective, you quickly expand its effectiveness.

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing,  which implements positive social media marketing campaigns for companies that may find themselves behind the eight ball.  If you need help right now, email powermarketing@millermosaicllc.com to learn how power marketing can help you climb out of the hot water.

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 he says:

“Any attempt to garner positive search results for your primary Web site hub must be accompanied by a strategy to optimize your entire Web presence through the effective use of social media.”

Yes! That’s precisely right.

So how do you get a social media marketing strategy? You first start with some basic steps:

Step 1: Decide on your social media marketing top goals:

Do you want to encourage people to buy your book on Amazon?

Do you want the ability to offer discounts coupons to raving fans of your restaurant?

Do you want people to hire you to consult with them?

Step 2: Come up with a list of the most relevant keywords – terms that people searching on might use to find you — for your goals:

If, for example, you are a scuba diving instructor, scuba diving is probably too broad a keyword term on which to rank high up in Google’s search engines if you are just starting on social media. Plus, even if you ranked high on this keyword term, you would be pulling in people who want to buy scuba diving equipment or read articles about scuba diving as well as people who want to hire a scuba diving instructor.

Thus working on trying to rank for the keyword term scuba diving instructor is more targeted, more likely to reach the people you want to reach, and probably less competitive a keyword term than scuba diving. (Yes, you could use any number of keyword tools to find out how competitive these two terms are. At the moment I’m simply illustrating a point.)

Step 3: Use your keyword terms in your social media profiles:

For example, if you have a Twitter account, do NOT leave the bio blank. Instead in the 160-character limit you can write something such as:

Scuba diving instructor who teaches individuals and groups at every level.

You’ve used your keyword term here, and you would do the same in your Facebook profile bio and your LinkedIn profile bio. You would also use the keyword term in other places on social media sites, such as the specialties section of your LinkedIn profile bio.

Bottom line? For an effective social media marketing presence you can’t just dive into the water without any expert advice. You need some instruction first so that you can optimize your social media marketing efforts.

(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. Join her company’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/powermarketing

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 in your hands.”

Then in terms of security, I was asked to confirm my birth date by looking at it written and not saying it aloud – only saying yes or no – for security reasons. As someone who formerly had a U.S. Army security clearance, I appreciated that request. And as the Internet is as widely open as the reception area of a hospital imaging center, we, too, should always follow sensible security precautions.

Next, the gel used for the ultrasound wasn’t cold but heated. I asked the tech how he did that and he said there’s a little burner that keeps the gel hot. What a customer service innovation – such a small thing but such a very big thing at the same time! Definitely fits in with the philosophy of the book by John Jantsch “The Referral Engine” that I had with me.

And, of course, I also had my copy of the day’s Wall Street Journal. If I hadn’t been waiting in the reception area, I might not have gotten to the special section on small business. If I hadn’t, I would have missed the article by Diana Ransom titled “When the Customer Is in the Neighborhood: New tech tools let restaurants know if potential business is around the corner.”

This article’s focus is exactly connected to the types of social media marketing that my company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing will be doing in partnership with international franchise broker Ngenter.com to help franchisors and franchisees utilize effective social media marketing. (You can read about this new program now.)

FYI — This being Los Angeles, there was valet parking for only $4 with validation. This is definitely an example of knowing who your target market is and providing what they want.

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. Download her FREE report “Twitter, Facebook and Your Business: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business.”

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 a time and individually.

This shows that Invitations cannot (yet) be Deleted.

It is a nice start.  Check back as we evaluate the functionality of the new LinkedIn InBox.