In fact, my job title at Kinesis is Execution Team Leader. I bring the “get ‘er done” mentality to our team, our clients, our projects, and our professional development.  A recent article over at Results.com inspired me to share a few tips on how to make the big projects more manageable, how to find the right resources, and how to work around the roadblocks.

We’re big fans of the Results.com approach. Here’s some of their advice on getting things done:

• Define what “done” looks like: It’s time to get specific, people! Clearly state what the completed project looks like, and assign a due date (and stick to it!).
• Scope out each project: Think through the key components of each project before you begin. Then scope out the key steps – what needs to be accomplished with due dates assigned (and again, stick to it!).
• Single point accountability: Assign a lead to each project – many people can be involved, but only one person should be held accountable. The leader makes sure everything gets done, and doesn’t mean they have to do it all themselves.
• Separate projects from tasks: Projects are the long-term, while tasks are the short-term items to move each project forward. Identifying the specific tasks will make the project much more manageable.
• The 1 thing: Asking yourself what the #1 thing is to accomplish each week to move a project forward makes the project itself much less daunting. Thinking through all of the tasks can be overwhelming, so break it down.
•  “Stuff” happens: Set realistic outcomes and deadlines that take into account the distracters. Things come up – but make your deadline a promise and achieve your milestones.

90% of strategies fail

One additional tip that I would add is the importance of involvement from all levels. From the top down, there should be ownership and commitment to both planning and execution. From an article on the Financial Times Press, “The greater the interaction between ‘doers’ and ‘planners’ or the greater the overlap of the two processes or tasks, the higher the probability of execution success.” For more on the importance of leaders supporting the process, see our previous post on achieving your goals.

Need proof? Here are a few statistics to back up the importance of execution:

• According to Harvard Business School professor Robert Kaplan, 90% of strategies fail due to poor execution.
• Based on a Harvard Business Review database, employees at three out of every five companies rated their organization weak at execution – that is, when asked if they agreed with the statement “Important strategic and operational decisions are quickly translated into action,” the majority answered no.
• A Bain Consulting study notes that seven out of eight companies in a global sample of 1,854 large corporations failed to achieve profitable growth, though more than 90% had detailed strategic plans with much higher targets.

Quoting Chip and Dan Heath from their book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, “Ambiguity is the enemy. Any successful change requires a translation of ambiguous goals into concrete behaviors. In short, to make a switch, you need to script the critical moves.”

You want something done? Let’s make it happen. It’s all about the execution.

Visit Results.com to check out the full article: http://us.results.com/announcements/business-execution-tips-for-getting-things-done

Don’t do it!

Compelling blog posts require you to hold back the reins a bit on your passion. Most people want to read articles that are lively, tight, clear, and short. In addition, they should be optimized for search engines using key words and phrases.

(I will do many of the things in this blog post that I mention. So, notice how I weave in these tips.)

Tips to Write Better Blog Posts for Your Business

Here are my basic tips to help you write better business blog posts:

• Forget most of English 101: Write in the way that people speak to each other. Start sentences with “and” or “but.” Don’t be afraid to break grammatical rules if it makes your writing more interesting. Like one-word sentences and expressions. Jeez.
• Be concise: Use short declarative sentences. Write paragraphs that are 1-3 sentences. Simple sentence structure is best.
• Scanability: Make your posts easy to scan for information. Use subheadings, bullets, and bold text for emphasis.
• Add value, always: Before you hit publish, ask yourself “Am I adding value to my clients and other readers?”
• Calls to action: You took the time to write the post, make sure the darn thing is working for you. Add a call to action at the end. If you want people to comment, then ask your readers a question or for their feedback. You could also ask people to Like your Facebook page, Follow you on Twitter, Sign up for your e-newsletter, subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed, or call you for a consultation.
• Link to your internal pages: This is a great practice and you should do it at least a couple of times in every blog post. It drives your readers into your site to learn more. Search engines follow links too.
• Occasionally link to external pages: Some of your readers will want to learn more. Link to the original source, especially if you are referencing a publication, newspaper, bios, blog, or other information resource.
• Write less. Aim at keeping your blog posts between 250-300 words. Go to 500 if you must, but try to keep it short.
• Create compelling blog post titles: Try to write blog post titles that include a key word or phrase and describe the things that people want to learn about your business and services. Ex: “How to Save Taxes,” “Why Writing for People Works for Search Engines,” “Five Ways to Save Money with Coupons.” If you want to learn more about SEO copywriting, here is a great free resource: SEO Copywriting Made Simple.
• Keep it light: You don’t want to get into in-depth discussions of the nuances of your services. That’s why people call you. Give them the overview and invite them to call you to learn more.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously: One of the most amazing things about blogging is its ability to develop relationships with your readers. So, be friendly and approachable. No pompous people need apply.
• Voice opinions: Don’t be bland. If you have an opinion, then express it. Feel free to be a contrarian (and link to the article or source that you are contradicting). This makes for great reading.

So, these are my top tips for great business blogging posts.

Do you have any of your own to add? Write them in the comments section below.

Every day, we work with clients who offer a professional service like accounting or healthcare. And, while I am advocate of social media, I have to say it’s much harder to see the return on your investment of time and energy on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets when you aren’t selling a widget to a consumer.

That said, there is gold there – you just have to dig a little deeper. Let’s look at the reasons I’ve come to this conclusion and how a Facebook page can help your company:

1. Your FB Fan page establishes another outpost on the web for your company
Your Fan page is a place where prospects, customers, employees, vendors, management and the media can find information out about your products and services. These pages are indexed by the search engines and are public-facing by default – this means that people can find you even if they aren’t logged in to Facebook. With more than 500 million active users, it’s a place your business should be just to keep up with the competition. And even if you are marketing B2B, with that many folks on Facebook – there’s a really good chance your target audience is using it too.

2. Improved SEO and increased traffic
Google has added a new Social Search function. This indexes content on sites like Facebook. So your Fan page content has the potential to improve your search engine ranking and increase the number of ways people can find you. You can capture people on Facebook who are interested in your services, but may not have heard of your company. They follow your links to your website.

3. Connects management and staff directly to customers and fans – easily and free.
By engaging regularly with your Facebook Fans, you increase their loyalty and their advocacy. They are more likely to spread the word about your services because you are staying on their radar – your updates appear in their Facebook News Feed.

Your branded FB page allows people to share your videos and photos, ask and answer questions, and interact with your company and each other. And you have a direct pipeline to your customers. You can send messages to them all at once or target people by location or other demographics – for free.

4. Provide better customer service
You can deepen your relationships with your customers by connecting with them in a social way. And if they have specific questions or feedback, you can talk to them immediately. This provides HUGE value to your audience. You can keep them updated with tips, strategies, industry news, latest research, and so on.

Everytime you update your Facebook page, think: How can I best add value to my clients and Facebook Fans? What do they really want to know? For example, a medical practice may be adding a new technology or an accounting firm may want to let Fans know about important tax filing deadlines.

5. Get ROI-related metrics about your Fans
Facebook’s Page Insights tools and dashboard facilitate the analysis of your marketing and communication by revealing data related to interactions (Comments, Wall posts, and “Likes”); discussed posts, reviews, and mentions; Fan demographics (gender, ages, geographic location/distribution); and so on. These tools improve your ability to identify and target specific demographics and gauge ROI.

This should get you started thinking in the right direction about how to add value to your community using Facebook. I’ll write several more posts to help you with your Business Fan page in the next week or so.

Let me know if you have any thoughts or feedback in the comments section below.

“What is the ROI of Social Media?

and

“How do I measure the ROI of social media?”

And these are great questions that companies should be asking.

Unfortunately, there is no one answer. While we can certainly obtain some metrics through tools like Twitter Search and Google Analytics, some of social media is simply about building goodwill and nurturing relationships. Like the good old-fashioned golf game and the “Let’s Do Lunch” strategy, people like connecting with people.

That said, to start determining your ROI on social media, you must know your baseline and define your goals. (from Mashable): “As a standard formula, ROI is pretty basic, ROI = (X – Y) / Y, where X is your final value and Y is your starting value. In other words, if you invest $5 and get back $20, your ROI is (20 – 5) / 5 = 3 times your initial investment. In the financial sense, ROI is measured purely in the context of dollars and cents, however, the principles can really apply to any type of investment — monetary or not.”

“Having concrete goals and concrete baselines is crucial to calculating your return on investment. So before you set out to measure and monitor your social media returns, you need to have a clear idea of what it is you want to accomplish.”

“Once you have your goals defined, you need to gauge the baseline for your levels before starting or changing your social media strategy. For example, if your goal is to increase social media mentions of your company, in order to measure the ROI of any actions taken toward that goal, you need to know where you stand now. You can’t evaluate the ROI accurately without a baseline.”

“Although ROI ≠ metrics, traditional web metrics like traffic counts, number of comments, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, etc. are an important component when calculating your ROI.”

“The trick is to not rely solely on the numbers, but on what the numbers end up leading to. For instance, does your increase in website visitors correlate with higher sales? Are people that find your website from Twitter or Facebook then clicking on your product pages or going to the e-Commerce section of your site? That’s the sort of data you want to be able to look for.”

Erik Qualman of Socialnomics has put together another fabulous video that breaks down the staggering numbers of social media into an absorbent format. (See our post, The Social Media Revolution, for his first video.)

Social Media ROI

Click here to view the embedded video.

Erik writes,

While the video uses familiar nomenclature like ROI, many pieces of social media behave so differently than anything we have ever seen, that I prefer to use “What does or will success look like?” rather than “What’s the ROI?” After all, why are we trying to measure social media like a traditional channel?  Social media touches every facet of business and it should be viewed more as an extension of good business ethics.  Which, if done properly, will harvest sales down the line.

Social Media ROI Statistics

Here are some key statistics pulled from the ROI of Social Media Video:

1.  Over 300,000 businesses have a presence on Facebook and roughly a 1/3 of these are small businesses.

2.  Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million using social media.

3.  Vaynerchuk found first hand that $15,000 in Direct Mail = 200 new customers, $7,500 Billboard = 300 new customers, $0 Twitter = 1,800 new customers.

4.  Lenovo was able to achieve cost savings by a 20% reduction in call center activity as customers go to community website for answers.

5.  Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice Facebook program incented users to give up ten of their Facebook friends in return for a free Whopper.  The estimated investment for this program was less than $50,000 yet they received 32 million media impressions which roughly estimated equals greater than $400,000 in press/media value.  Which to put in context is somewhat like reaching the entire populations of 19 states (understanding this doesn’t account for unique vs. repeat visitors, etc.)

6.  BlendTec increased its sales 5x by running the often humorous “Will it Blend” Videos on YouTube blending everything from an iPhone to a sneaker.

7.  Dell sold $3,000,000 worth of computers on Twitter.

8.  Naked Pizza, a New Orleans Pizzeria that specializes in healthy pies, set a one day sales record using social media.  In fact 68% of their sales came from people “calling in from Twitter.”  And 85% of their new customers were from Twitter.  So, yes, social media does work for small businesses.

9.  Tweets for a Cause sent out a tweet from Atlanta to encourage support of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  As a result of retweets, the Atlanta Chapter site received 11,000 visitors in 24 hours as a result of this initiative by ResponseMine Interactive.

10.  Intuit introduced “Live Community” into their TurboTax® products 2 years ago.  Due in part to the resulting word-of-mouth, they have seen unit sales increase +30% each year and have now integrated “Live Community” into their other products like QuickBooks, Quicken, etc.

11.  Software company Genius.com reports that 24% of its social media leads convert to sales opportunities.

12.  During Barack Obama’s rise to the White House, he garnered 5 million fans on social media and 5.4 million clicked on an “I voted for Obama” Facebook button.  Most importantly this resulted in three million online donors contributing $500 million in fundraising. An astounding 92% of the donations were in increments of less than $100.

13.  The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center witnessed a 9.5% increase in registrations by using social media.

14.  Web host provider Moonfruit more than recouped its $15,000 social media investment as their Website Traffic soared +300% while correspondingly sales increased +20%.

15.  eBay found that participants in online communities spend 54% more money.

16.  71% of companies plan to increase investments in social media by an average of 40% because: a) Low Cost Marketing b) Getting Traction c) We Have To Do It.

Supporting articles:

Lee Oden, “Book Review: Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk,” Online Marketing Blog

Jan M. Rosen, “Be It Twittering or Blogging, It’s All About Marketing,” New York Times, 3/11/2009

Jon Swartz,  “More marketers use social networking to reach customers,” USA Today,  8/28/09

Let’s talk about your company’s social media strategy. Small investments in Internet Marketing lead to big ROI (as you can see): 503-922-2289

There are some companies that target seniors and Baby Boomers, but are still resisting an interactive online presence and participating in social media.

They may think, “Well my clients are mostly over 60 so they’re not very tech savvy.” Or, “Social media is for kids. My clients are older – they don’t use that stuff.”

However, this is a misperception. While there are still many Baby Boomers and seniors who are not using the Internet as voraciously as Generation Y, the numbers may surprise you.

Seniors Online

Individuals 65 and older still make up less than 10 percent of the active Internet universe. However, their numbers are on the rise. In the last five years, the number of seniors actively using the Internet has increased by more than 55 percent, from 11.3 million active users in November 2004 to 17.5 million in November 2009. Among people 65+, the growth of women online in the last five years has outpaced the growth of men by 6 percentage points.

The largest percentage increase in Internet use since 2005 has been in the 70-to-75 age group, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The survey found that 45 percent of that age bracket is online, compared with 26 percent in 2005. Researching health information is the third most popular online activity with the most senior age group, after email and online search.

What’s more, many seniors find social networking exciting and enjoy finding online community. They’re creating their own blogs and, more often, connecting with family and friends by joining Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

“Social media are giving seniors a voice, and for a generation that has sometimes felt isolated and overlooked, that’s no small feat,” said Sarah Hoit, chief executive of My Way Village, which designs online social networks for older adults.

The No. 1 online destination for people over 65 in November 2009 was Google Search, with 10.3 million unique visitors. Windows Media Player and Facebook were No. 2 and No. 3, with 8.2 million and 7.9 million visitors, respectively. Interestingly, Facebook, which came in at No. 3, ranked No. 45 just a year ago among sites visited by senior citizens.

The trend has caught the attention of senior-living communities that have begun to introduce social media to residents. People who grew up with vacuum-tube radio sets are now learning how to befriend grandchildren and old classmates on Facebook and Classmates.com.

Retirement communities are also launching their own Facebook pages and posting videos on YouTube to appeal to the Boomer children of current or prospective residents. For example, Edgemere Senior Living has a Facebook page. Fan pages like this often include dozens of photos of recent activities at the communities. Visitors to the page can become “fans” and post comments. There are entire social networking sites devoted just to seniors such as the Over 60 Exchange, as well as dedicated website areas of organizations like the AARP that has added a forum called Online Communities.

Baby Boomers Online

Baby Boomers are a much bigger force on the Web. The research group, eMarketer, estimates that in 2009 Internet users ages 45 to 63 make up 28.8% of the total online population, or 57.4 million users.

A new report from Forrester Research also reveals some information that may be different than you thought: More than 60 percent of those in the Baby Boomer generational group actively consume socially created content like blogs, videos, podcasts, and forums. What’s more, the percentage of those participating is on the rise.

In 2007, the percentage of Boomers consuming social media was 46% for younger Boomers (ages 43 to 52) and 39% for older Boomers (ages 53 to 63). By 2008, those number increased to 67% and 62%, respectively.

The number of Boomers responding to content posted online, as opposed to just passively consuming it, is also going up. For example, the proportion of older Boomers responding to content doubled from 15% in 2007 to 34% in 2008. According to Forrester, this is now a percentage that’s high enough to target this group with a social application.

Here are some relevant statistics from eMarketer that you should know about the baby boomer generation:

• 74% use the Internet at least once a month
• younger Boomers outnumber older Boomers online 35.3 million to 21.4 million
• more Boomer women are Internet users than Boomer men
• 62% of households headed by someone age 50 or older had annual incomes of $75,000 or more, nearly 5% higher than in 2004
• 68% of Baby Boomer women trust online recommendations and rated information they heard in online conversations as credible

What do all of these numbers mean to you and your company? They mean that even if your target audience is Baby Boomers and/or seniors, you cannot ignore Internet marketing. You must ensure that your Web site is keeping pace with the trends, and that you should have a social media strategy in place including a blog and Facebook page, at the very least. And a Twitter and YouTube presence would also be beneficial to reaching your prospects.

You used to have to futz with the date or add WP-Sticky plug-in. As of WordPress 2.7, the Sticky Post feature is built right in – how lovely!

And it is very easy to use. On the right sidebar (just to the right of the post you are creating), there is a block called Publish. The second section of Publish is Visibility. Click on the Edit link:

Once you click on the Edit link, you’ll want to check the box “Stick this post to the front page.”

Then click the Publish (or Update Post) button.

Voila! Your post is now Sticky! When you are tired of your sticky post, simply uncheck the box and hit Save. Your post will go back to live in its chronological order.

Fantasticky!!!

Kinesis is a Portland Web Design and Branding Firm. We help our clients reach their marketing and growth goals. Call us at 503.922.2289.

]]> http://www.kinesisinc.com/blogs/how-to-make-a-post-sticky-in-your-wordpress-blog/feed/ 0 http://www.kinesisinc.com/advertising/social-media-marketing-for-business/ http://www.kinesisinc.com/advertising/social-media-marketing-for-business/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:04:57 +0000 Wendy Maynard http://kinesisblog.com/?p=503 — read more —]]> It’s time to rethink your marketing strategy to include social media as part of your toolkit.

Because the rules have changed – a LOT.

Let’s go back…oh, let’s say about 5 years or so.

And in this not-so-distant past, a company could simply call the newspaper or the radio and just run a few ads to get more business. Basically, you used to be able to spend your dollars to buy more audience. The more you spent, the more customers you would get. That’s why the big businesses stayed big.

But NOW, this throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach doesn’t work.

Because NOW, there’s Facebook and ezines and SEO and mobile and viral videos and applications and Twitter…and …and…and…

The way that our customers are looking for information is changing rapidly.

Therefore, marketing via social media is essential if you want your company to stay up with the trends.

Because today, people want to get excited. They want to engage in dialogues with the companies that they support. So, to thrive and grow you must use social media to create exciting ideas and to stimulate conversations and to build online brands with which people have passionate love affairs.

This is a really exciting shift for most companies and organizations. Because new marketing and social media has so many opportunities for small- to mid-sized business to get themselves KNOWN.

Social media allows every business to leverage huge numbers of people by creating online community and generating excitement around its brand.

If you are not using social media, then begin now. Because people are flocking to these online venues in huge numbers. And your business should be marketing itself where your prospects are spending time.

Below is a presentation that I gave recently to a group of marketing professionals explaining more about the power of social media (you can also click here to go to the presentation on SlideShare). I hope it gives you some ideas about ways you can take your brand to the next level:

Online Marketing: Employers Using Social Media to Screen and Report

10 Surprising Ways that Twitter Has Helped My Business…and Ideas On How it Can Help Yours Too

Small and Medium Businesses Are Not Using Web 2.0 for Marketing (Here’s Why They Should!)

Recent reports from the Nielson Company give more compelling reasons. According to Nielson, social networks and blogs are grabbing a bigger share of the Net. Stats show that Americans have nearly tripled the amount of time they spend at social networking and blog sites such as Facebook and MySpace from a year ago.

In August 2009, 17 percent of all time spent on the Internet was at social networking sites, up from 6 percent in August 2008. Advertising spending on social networking sites and blogs more than doubled despite the recession, going from about $49 million in August 2008 to about $108 million in August 2009.

Nielsen VP John Gibs says that “advertisers that want to connect with core fan bases, such as movie studios, are allocating more and more dollars to online communities like Facebook and MySpace, where they can engage in an ongoing dialog with their target market.”

And a LOT of people are spending at least a bit of time on social networking sites. Consumers are deeply engaged with them. Nielsen’s data shows that about half of the U.S. population visited a social networking website in the last year and that number grows every quarter.

Here are some interesting trends in how the big social media sites break out demographically (and which will affect your choices in how you leverage these sites for your marketing efforts):

• Facebook users have a largely upscale profile. The top third of lifestyle segments relative to affluence were 25% more likely to use Facebook than those in the those in the lower third.
• The bottom third segments related to affluence are 37% more likely to use MySpace than those in the top third.
• Users of Facebook were also much more likely to use LinkedIn, a network geared towards business and professional networking, than those who use MySpace.
• The blogging and tweeting community at large isn’t necessarily more affluent, but bloggers and tweeters do live in more urban areas such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago.

Let’s look at one more report from Nielsen. This one relates to traditional advertising. U.S. ad spending fell 15.4% in the first half of 2009, according to data released today by The Nielsen Company. A total of $56.9 billion was spent on advertising in the first six months of the year, more than $10.3 billion less than the same time period in 2008.

So, traditional ad dollars fell while social media ad dollars more than doubled. The big players are shifting the ad dollars because they are following the trends that consumers are setting. Mashable has a  great article listing some fantastic case studies citing examples of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media.

If you aren’t on the social media bandwagon yet, it’s time to hop aboard.

If you need help planning and implementing your social media campaign, call Kinesis for a free initial consultation at 503-922-2289.

Kinesis is a Portland Web Design and Branding Firm. We help our clients reach their marketing and growth goals. Call us at 503.922.2289.

Many of our clients are becoming more and more aware of the power of the Internet for this purpose. Accounting Firm Delap, and IT Specialists Marquam Group, both have excellent careers section in their Web sites that Kinesis created for them.

Now let’s take a look at social media. This is the next piece to online marketing for recruits. It is increasingly becoming an important way to search for new applicants. Companies are running ads on Facebook and MySpace, and they are on Twitter. It’s also a way to keep track of your applicants and employees who may not be up to par.

In fact, screening employees and applicants on a regular basis has become so commonplace, that there is a even a term known as “Facebook Fired,” which describes getting canned because of something you posted on your Facebook page.

My favorite story is of Kevin Colvin, who lied to his boss about a family emergency, and then an incriminating picture of himself on his Facebook page wearing his costume at a Halloween party that he apparently ditched work to attend (see e-mail and response and photo below).

You can see the incriminating photo of Kevin here.

Twitter brings this phenom to a whole other level of excitement when you can get fired (or not hired) in 140 characters or less.

A recent story on MSNBC.com describes the story of a Cisco applicant who tweeted:

“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

To which, Tim Levad, a channel partner advocate for Cisco Alert Tweeted back:

“Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.”

Ooops. You can read the entire story here.

In todays’ Portland Business Journal, there is an article called Job Hunting, Watch What You Tweet! You’ll notice that more and more HR departments are screening applicants online.

From the article:

“The number of companies using social networking Web sites to screen potential employees has doubled in the last year, and what they have found has killed the hire for more than a third of candidates, according to a CareerBuilder report.

Its survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers found that 45 percent are searching for information on job candidates, up from 22 percent a year ago. Another 11 percent say they plan to start using social networking sites for screening.

Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace are the top sites being screened, but 11 percent of hirers are searching blogs and 7 percent are following job applicants Twitter postings.

Thirty-five percent of employers decided not to hire someone because of what they found out about them on these sites.

Top reasons for choosing not to hire a candidate based on their social networking content include posting inappropriate photographs, content about them drinking or using drugs, bad-mouthing previous employers or clients and showing poor communications skills.

Resume Bear ran a simple online search and easily found hundreds of examples of things that people have said that could keep them from getting fired or prevent them from getting a job in the future. The blogger writes, “Many people don’t realize that even if you go back and later protect your updates or even go as far as deleting your Twitter account that your prior comments can still be seen.”

Some examples that Resume Bear found include:

Goofing off at work.

Ugh! I hate my job and very strongly dislike my bosses! Thank goodness im quitting in may!

bored…So bored. I hate my job.

I tricked my boss into agreeing to pay me more money! hee hee He is no match for this sales person I am a pro.

On the flip side of this, more top talent are using Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to promote themselves. Here is a description of one man who used Twitter to obtain a new job, as well as the response to him from his current boss:

Kyle really took an out of the box approach using Twitter. He had already informed his employer that he wanted to make a career move and made a list of the exact opportunity he was looking for, so he posted an announcement to his 700+ Twitter followers and described that role. So, between the agency referral, Kyle’s use of Twitter and the insights he’d posted on his blog, I knew he would be a great addition to the team. I emailed him immediately.

Once Kyle and I connected, we communicated throughout the interview process via Twitter. I followed his Twitter updates and sent him regular updates on what was going on at BreakingPoint and in the industry. I could also tell the other companies he was talking to in Austin so I knew my competition. It was also a good way to get to know each others’ interests and philosophy about the role prior to closing the deal.

I believe that Social Media will become essential to recruiting in the next few years. What does this mean for your business? It means that you should:

1) Make sure that your Web site has a section that promotes your company to new hires.

2) Have a presence on LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Twitter that drives people to your Web site. Some new talent may think your company is old and stodgy if you don’t have a presence on these sites (remember, people in their 20s have grown up with the Internet and social media).

3) Begin to develop a social media strategy to entice quality talent and to screen applicants.

Be patient and stick with it. Online marketing and recruiting can take some time to see results. But, by doing these things, your company will be positioned miles ahead of your competition in finding the highest-quality talent. It will ensure that your business will thrive well into the future.

More and more companies are using social media. And there is only one reason – because it works.

According to a recent article in Portland’s Business Journal,

Increasingly, businesses are using Twitter, Facebook and other online tools to build brand awareness, cultivate customer loyalty and sell products.

Eighty-five percent of all U.S. consumers will read or view social content by the end of 2009, according to Forrester Research. Jupiter Research found that 46 percent of small-business decision makers use social media each month to make a purchasing decision.

Take a minute to click on the link and read the article – there are some great case studies of the ways in which companies are using social media to connect, survey, observe, interact, and promote.

I have to admit – I was on Facebook and LinkedIn, but I started out as a Twitter doubter. Twits and Tweets and Tweeps just all sounded so…well…stupid.

But, like a good little online marketer, I jumped in and set up an account (@WendyMaynard) since I figured I had better know how the heck to Tweet so I could explain it to my clients. This was probably back in January.

And Twitter is very weird when you first begin to use it. It really is. You just jump into this ongoing river of thoughts that have no seeming rhyme or reason. And then you try to figure out what to say…and when to say it…and who to say it to…

But I quickly learned how to join the Twitter party (that’s what it reminds of most – a cocktail party with lots of smart people). And now I have over 3,600 followers and many new connections. Are you on Twitter already? Tweet me: @WendyMaynard

As you can see, I have become a Twitter believer…perhaps even a Twitter evangelist. Once you learn how to use it strategically, it is an amazing tool. And I think that every business can benefit from using social media for a variety of different purposes.

Many people begin with Twitter expecting to use it specifically as a tool to get new business. And, while that is one of the things that Twitter can do for you, I’ve discovered many other benefits of the tool. In fact, there have been a lot of things that have happened to me as a result of being on Twitter that I didn’t expect.

So, I created a list of Surprising Ways that Twitter Has Helped My Business:

1 ) New Friendships: I’ve made some wonderful new friends on Twitter who are inspiring entrepreneurs and amazing bloggers. They have given me ideas and valuable support.

2 ) Relationships with Peers: I’ve been able to make connections with other owners of design firms and they have been very helpful with my insider questions.

3 ) Software Reviews: When working on a marketing campaign for a client, I often need a specific software or analysis tool. In response to my Tweets about this, I’ve gotten almost instantaneous feedback to questions about what works best online for specific purposes.

4 ) WordPress Plugin Recommendations: WordPress blogs have thousands of plugins that allow bloggers to perform almost any task imaginable. Both in adding functionality to the Kinesis Blog and setting up blogs for clients, I have been able to get recommendations from “Tweeps” on the perfect plugin for the job.

5 ) Help for Writer’s Block: I’ve shot out a Tweet when struggling with a synonym for a word or phrase while writing marketing copy. Within minutes, I have a dozen different ways to say it better.

6 ) Unsolicited Testimonials: I’ve had a number of incredibly generous people give testimonials about me as a marketing strategist. I’ve cached these in my Twitter Favorites in case I want to refer a prospect to them.

7 ) Connections With People in The Same Industry as My Clients: I’ve made a number of Twitter connections with people who are in the same industry but a different geographical location as my clients. This has proved to be invaluable to learn more about their marketing tricks and techniques (Have I mentioned how generous people on Twitter tend to be?)

8 ) Connections With People Who Represent My Clients’ Target Audience: I’ve also made some connections with people who are in the industries that my clients target. This has been downright amazing. It’s like a Twitter focus group that I can run in seconds. I can ask these individuals questions about their preferences and bring this info back to my clients to help sharpen their marketing efforts.

9 ) Connections with People Looking for Speakers: I speak on social media and online marketing both live and via teleseminars. I have received several invitations as a direct result of being on Twitter – great exposure! I’ve also learned of several opportunities that I have submitted ideas to as a potential speaker (I don’t know the results of these yet since they are in 2010), but I wouldn’t have known about them other than folks on Twitter.

10 ) Increased Traffic to My Blog: I have developed a loyal group of Twitter followers who are interested in what I have to say (thank you, Tweeps, for your support). I send out several Tweets when I have completed a blog post and I always see a spike in blog traffic from Twitter as a result. I also get insightful comments from these folks.

I could go on, but I thought it would be fun to quote some other Twitterers on how it’s helped them:

Quotes about Twitter:

From ProBlogger Darren Rowse:

If you own a business of any size and you’re still not Twittering, you’re missing out on what amounts to a worldwide virtual chamber of commerce networking event that’s at your fingertips 24/7. Only on Twitter, you don’t press flesh or swap business cards—you exchange links to your Web site, blog, e-books, and online résumé. And you build relationships 140 characters at a time.

From Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch

(1) I get great insight when I ask questions, (2) let’s face it, I get traffic and (3) people on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places.

From Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh

We’ve found that Twitter has been a great way for us to connect on a more personal level with our employees and customers. We use it to help build our brand, not drive direct sales. It’d be like asking how does providing a telephone number for customer service translate into new business when they are mostly non-sales-related calls. In the long term, Twitter helps drive repeat customers and word of mouth, but we’re not looking to it as a way of driving immediate sales.

From BreakingPoint VP of Marketing Pam O’Neil

Twitter has all but replaced our PR agency as a large percentage of our followers are press and analysts. A writer for ZDNet wrote about us and linked to us based on something we tweeted and that resulted in a huge spike in web traffic and at least one deal with a major service provider.

From Dosh Dosh blogger, Maki (taken from his list of ways Twitter Can Grow Your Business)

1. Personal Branding. Twitter is a social media platform you can use to build your personal brand. It has the primary benefit of developing a casual persona and establishes you as a social personality that is connected and approachable. As Twitter adoption increases, new users will be drawn towards well established Twitter personas.

2. Get Feedback. Need an alternative perspective on how a website looks or the right course of action to take? Blast out a message asking for advice and you’ll receive replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used as fodder for articles or projects.

3. Hire People. Need a good logo designer, marketer or programmer? Send out a message asking for recommendations. This is a very quick and easy way to hire freelancers or even companies based on familiar recommendations.

4. Notify Your Customers. Set up a Twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new products come in. Customers can subscribe via mobile or RSS for instant notification. Twitter can also be used to provide mini-updates for one-on-one clients.

5. Find Prospects. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online. Do a search for keywords related to your product on Twitter Search and then follow users. Tweet about topics parallel to your product and close prospects away from public channels by using direct messages or offline communications. Discretion and skill is needed in this area.

So now you have many new ways to use Twitter. If you found this article useful, feel free to share it with your Twitter friends.

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback. I would also love to know the ways you are using Twitter to help your business (were any surprising to you)?