Should I Use Paid or Free Social Media Tools?

This question is easy for us to answer if we knew deeper information about your business, project, or blog. I will advise most clients to invest into tools such as HootSuite for a small monthly fee to start because the tools are powerful enough to help any business owner, web manager, or employee to focus in on the company brand via Social Media outlets.

The saying, “You get what you pay for” still rings true! Free tools are great if you are only managing your personal profiles and twitter account, and for this purpose we always recommend Seesmic.  If your company has yet to utilize social media for marketing and branding, then we also suggest you hire a professional to advise, setup accounts, design custom pages and backgrounds, and help set you in the right direction. Of course we cannot help but give a shameless plug for own Social Media Packages, so click on and get started!

I Am Overwhelmed By the #, ^, @, and Crazy SM Talk!

So you worked hard your whole life to climb the ladder, get a great degree, start a lucrative business, and now… your getting beat by a custom T-Shirt store online run by a 17 year old who wins customers with tweets like:

Come get #trickedup with @CrazyTees and save 25% #discounts with #couponcode 45holla today only! http://bit.ly/23023

When you see tweets like this, you may just throw your hands in the air and feel like this is foreign territory, but there is hope. While we would love to help you understand Social Media lingo and get you tweeting like a pro right now, the learning curve is short and mistakes are only 140 characters long. This means for every blundered tweet you do (everyone does it), you just need to have a few winners and people start to forget.

The key is to just get started right away with getting our there, but you should consider doing it right. It is better to get started setting up all your facebook, linkedin, youtube, and twitter accounts versus sitting around wondering if this is for you. How many companies waited around wondering if they should get a domain and a simple website and regretted waiting that long?!

Making an impact in your marketplace requires effort, but most importantly it requires doing something about it!

Call us at (972) 351-7295 for a custom quote for your Web Design and Social Media needs!

What do I want to accomplish with my blog?

After reading Mitch Joel’s blog post titled The Other Side of Comments and Community earlier today, I was inspired to get my thoughts out about purpose in your blogging/publishing. For instance, I blog here at JMMD to simply put thoughts out that I see as valuable, and to publish our brand’s personality so clients understand who we are as a company. What is your purpose for blogging?

If your purpose is to be the next Justin Bieber of the blogosphere (do we even call it that anymore?) than you may need to rely on community comments, people watching your facebook, twitter, youtube, and other Social Media outlets constantly. I find that most of our clients will succeed or fail based on their planning and understanding of purpose.

Is it all a numbers game?

Yes… and No! Your ultimate goal of blogging probably entails getting people to actually read it, right? I have always chalked up a good blog to some great value being added to the subject at hand. Is it exciting to get a ton of comments on each and every post you make? Of course, but if your purpose is to display your company’s thoughts and authority on a topic, than a back and forth comment session can distract just as much as it can build. I would recommend you get your blog plugged into some kind of analytics software, and Google has it for free. This will tell you which articles are being read the most, and many more reports of vital information that will help you build your blog.

My opinion, write like millions are reading and be humble in your interactions.

What can I do to get people to like me?

If I had the solid answer, it would probably be an ebook with a $24.95 per month subscription; however, I think that most businesses fail to engage the community they are part of. If you expect to write a post, tweet it, and get thousands to hang on your every word without investment… you may fail. Give more than you take online!

You walk into a restaurant to meet your friend Jack for a quick lunch, and you see him in the back sitting with someone else. You think to yourself, “not a problem, Jack just brought some extra company.” So you head back to the table and Jack introduces you to his new associate Keith. You all shake hands and exchange friendly banter while beverages are being served. Suddenly Jack leaves table, wishes you and Keith well, and disappears into the busy sidewalks you came from.

So there you are sitting with Keith, and he starts to hand you literature about the latest Multi-Level Marketing Success and explains to you the high demand for the anti-fungal socks that his “opportunity” distributes. You are overwhelmed by latent disregard for your time, definitely not interested, and not sure you can trust your friend Jack in the future. Besides… the way Jack parted company gave you the first sign of caution anyway.

Social Media Leaves No Room For Hypocrisy

While many of us may be able to relate to the lame meetings and presentations our so-called friends trap us into, the analogy to Social Media relationships is not too far from the chest. You be-friend our known associates, co-workers, old college and high school buddies, and you end up sorting through junk messages, trashy posts, and a barrage of social media invites to Mafia Wars or Farmville.

You want relevant information from companies and news outlets while maintaining a decent social life by getting a good joke every once in awhile. So if that is what we want, why is it that we can often be hypocritical with what we give into the arena of Social Media. So we collaborated our Five Social Media for Business Professionals Tips For This Week (tried to make it longer):

• Nobody wants to know you finally showered today… Do not post intimate information
• Everyone can see that you decided to use 10 different social media apps today… Keep your app connections organized so that your posts, tweets, and diggs are not sent 10 times to each outlet
• While you may suffer from ADD, your social media does not have to… Create a social media plan so that people can trust where you are coming from and the info you are providing
• While quoting your favorite movie lines are good for inspiration… Nothing good to say? Say Nothing At All!
• Most of America does not like over-zealous rants from the Jerry Springer Show… Keep your rants whether political or ideological to yourself and provide a platform for discussion not torture.