Looking to increase traffic to your business? Well, Summer is over and school is back in session meaning a gargantuan amount of opportunity to appeal to a massive audience for your business through social networking websites. While Twitter and Google+ present great opportunities for reaching your customers directly, Facebook is still king when it comes to social networking. Establishing and maintaining your own Facebook page will lure and inform more consumers about your business. While Facebook should not be your only outlet to customers, it is a great way to attract the interest of new clients from all walks of life. With the collegiate back in session, students are looking for your business to deviate the stress of being back in the grind of school/work.

Why market to college students through Facebook? istrategylabs.com concocted a report about the growth of users on Facebook from 2010-2011. The most significant statistic is the growth in college students (or those who network through their university’s title), an influx of about 234% (from 3.5 million to 11.7 million). If this trend continues, Facebook can become a frontier for your business. College students are the fastest growing users on social networking sites which yields a plethora of potential customers/clients for the remainder of this year and beyond.

Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ present an infinite amount of opportunity for your business to connect directly to customers old and new. These sites are constantly growing, adding hundreds to thousands of new members per day making it a prime opportunity for businesses willing to keep up appearances. Promote towards the college student by updating your status (or “tweeting”) regularly about news regarding something new at the company. This is also a prime venue for advertisement. With the “like” feature on Facebook and the “reTweet” on Twitter , customers are able to publicly show their interest in your business. Once they do this, your business can be seen by all their friends, a kind of “word-of-mouth” scenario. Since the average Facebook user has around 130 friends and most people check their profile daily, your business can expand significantly through a simple “like.” If social networking seems daunting, just think of it as an email with personality and watch your profile flourish.

In a November 2010 issue of Working Mother magazine, Linkedin was sited as a “top tool” for working moms:

“The ability to multitask is a must for the working mom. LinkedIn is one of the tools you can use to maintain your work-life balance while also gleaning key insights from other career minded professionals. The site is also a fantastic way to establish your professional identity online, let other professionals know about your recent career accomplishments and even nab your dream job.”

The Web in general can be used in wise ways to make a professional woman’s life more efficient.  I believe that Linkedin is a strong contender because of its concentration on a business environment; unlike Facebook, Linkedin is solely focused on harboring and maintaining only business contacts.

Your website should also be used as a “top tool” in your work strategy.  Websites are really a multi-tool, and like a Swiss Army knife, they can be a “life saver”.  Your custom website will serve as a marketing device, a reputation manager, a sales generator, and an efficiency tool.  Imagine how much more time a working mother can save by offering information, downloadable forms, and product ordering on your website – rather than being constantly tied down by the telephone.  Plus, make sure your Linkedin and other community profile links are present on the website, so people really get several touch points.

A tip for Linkedin: if you have had an active profile for a while, remember to log in periodically and review your entire list of contacts.  Have you communicated with these people in any other way?  Do you see any opportunities to reach out to someone either in another online medium or offline with a personal note or networking engagement?

I surprised myself one day when reviewing my list of contacts at Linkedin, realizing that I had nearly 100 untapped people in my database who I had not talked with in a long while.  I took the opportunity to locate some of them on Facebook and help boost our profile there.

Love it or hate it, social networking is an essential aspect of business in the 21st century.  Social networking not only keeps you informed with regards to what your customers and competition are up to, but it is also one of the easiest ways to enhance brand awareness and credibility… or hurt it.  Pay attention to these tips that will help business owners obtain all the advantages social networks have to offer, while avoiding the potential hazards.

• We have two ears and one mouth for a reason… be sure to do more “listening” through your social networks than you do “speaking.”
• Keep it fresh.  Be sure to always have new and interesting content to keep your online audience engaged.  Try creating a routine, i.e. three facebook wall posts, three tweets, and three blog articles per week.
• Continuously build your social network by adding fans, customers, colleagues, networking partners, and other industry professionals.
• Maintain the same level of professionalism online as you do offline.
• Get involved in forums and discussions; if you read a comment about your business, respond!  Take this unique opportunity to directly interact with your customers and see what they have to say!

The following are social networks you and your employees should be utilizing:

-Your company should have a facebook fan page and a twitter account that are updated every couple of days.

-Create a LinkedIn profile for your business and encourage your employees to set up accounts to network with one another and other professionals.

-Blog, Blog, Blog.  You are an expert in your industry, right?  Well, share your expertise with the rest of us!

-Upload infomercials, promotions, or viral videos to YouTube.

-Create a Wiki for your business.

-List your business in local reviews/guides/forums.

-Add “share” links and badges to your website.

There are literally countless ways to interact via social networks.  If you haven’t already hopped on the social networking bandwagon, it’s not too late… but hurry!  As always, if you find yourself overwhelmed and in need of professional help, the experts here at WEBii are always happy to assist!

Fads of the decades:

1960′s: tie-dye, lava lamps, and ouija boards
1970′s: tetherball, pet rocks, and Farrah Faucet hair
1980′s: parachute pants, Rubik’s cube, and Jazzercise
1990′s: Tamagotchi, chat rooms, and spandex
2000′s: Crocs, Hannah Montana, and… social media??

Consider the following (adapted from Erik Qualman’s article, Social Media: Fad or Revolution?):

• By 2010, Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers — 96 percent of them have joined a social network.
• One out of eight couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media.
• Eighty percent of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime. Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences!
• What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content (Web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook daily.
• Wikipedia has more than 13 million articles. Some studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica.
• There are more than 200,000,000 blogs.  Fifty-four percent of bloggers post content or tweet daily.
• Years to reach 50 million users: Radio, 38 years; TV, 13 years; Internet, 4 years; iPod, 3 years. Facebook added 100 million users in less than nine months; iPhone applications hit 1 billion in nine months.

So… you decide.  Is social media just another fad, or has it completely revolutionized the way people across the globe do business, connect with loved ones, share information, and live their everyday lives?

Need help revving up your company’s presence in the social media world?  WEBii can help!  Contact one of our specialists today to talk about starting a customized social media plan for your business.

We all have a designated contact sphere that we constantly pull from to refer ourselves, friends and colleagues to when they are in need of a specific service.  I know if I need promotional products, I call Linda. If I need my car fixed, I call Dell. You get the idea. They aren’t just another card in my Rolodex, or shoved in my desk drawer, they are part of my trusted network. Did they become that way over night? Of course not. Building trust takes time and effort.

Over the past year, I have spent a great deal of time building a professional network for myself and the company I work for. I want to share a few of the tips that I’ve learned over the last year that have helped me greatly.

• Be patient: Building a strong network isn’t easy and it does not happen overnight. You have to spend the time getting to know people and building the relationships. Until that trust is established, you can’t truly add that person to your network. They are just another contact in the never-ending pile of business cards. Often times when people join networking groups they expect immediate results. They want referrals now and are sometimes bummed (to the point of being discouraged and wanting to quit) when it doesn’t click instantly. It simply doesn’t work like that. You have to be patient and give it time. Your referral partners need to trust you and you need to trust them. Once they do, and the relationship is solid, you will see the benefits come to life.
• Stand strong: Don’t stop building your network. It’s like quitting the game in the middle of the fourth quarter and your up by seven. You constantly need to be growing and marketing within your network. If you keep constantly building, you won’t lose steam. It can be so easy (particularly in networking groups) to get discouraged. For example, you belong to a networking of about 18 people and one person drops off. Everyone is disappointed, but they are handling it. Then two more people drop out. People are starting to get discouraged and are not actively working to grow their (and the groups) network. They are just coasting by. Then three more people drop because they are discouraged by your numbers. Before you know it, everyone is down and out. No one has been actively building onto the network, and the group is about to crumble. It’s almost too late to start building now because your numbers are so small. However, the situation could have been completely different if everyone has stayed strong and been building all along. The moral is never stop building your network.
• Specifics are key: When you are asking for referrals, you must be specific. The more specific you are, the easier it will be for your networking partners to answer your call for a referral. If you say you want a small business owner, what does that mean? 100 employees or less … 20 employees or less. What is a small business owner? You need to narrow it down. The more narrow the better (in most cases). For example, a very narrow referral request would be, “A great referral for me this week would be the owner of XZY off Mopac in South Austin.” A slightly more broad (but still narrow) referral would be, I’d like a dentist office who would like to add patient forms to their website. Still specific but slightly broader. Try it next time you ask for a referral and see what a difference it makes.
• Don’t forget to give: Sure it is great to get referrals that turn into more business and money for you. But that isn’t what it’s all about. You also have to be willing to give and share with others. The only way to get highly qualified referrals is to give them. If you don’t, after awhile people will stop passing them your way because it’s not all about you. To help you do this, make sure to take notes when people in your network ask for specific referrals or connections they’d like to make. This gives you a solid, written place to go back to when you hear of something that works for them OR are just looking to generate ideas on how to help your partners out. Either way, make sure to give back. How’s that old saying go … what comes around goes around!

It is important to take time and put a great deal of effort into your network. The only way to cultivate and grow it is through hard work. The more you put in, the more you are likely to gain.