To discover who your competition is in a web business, be sure that you’re always actually using the right keywords you find and search for others businesses using them. By understanding your competition, you can begin to understand what separate your business from the pack. Then by tweaking your web site, its message and your on-line marketing campaign it is possible to avoid directly competing for rankings.

You may need to offer your customers free products or special prices for referring others to your website, but obviously you must provide to validate a limited-time offer. People are more likely to trust a business which their friends or co-workers recommend, and the increased sales will more than compensate for the cost of the free products. Even in the cyber-world word of mouth referrals are vitally important this is one of the reasons people are involved in building networks on Social media sites, like Facebook. Ultimately the information people obtain from their cyber-friends can be the deciding factor when choosing between two competing products.

If you want to achieve a great following, try using Twitter to generate a buzz. This tool is fantastic, as it allows you to upgrade your presence in the industry and communicate important promotions and products that you may initiate. One key aspect is that Twitter is also free, eliminating excess costs on marketing plans. One of the key aspects of business is to stay as professional as possible at all times in order to separate your company from competitors.

Be honest about the product. Your readers are not stupid. If you know of a product that has a flaw in it, but would still like to promote that product, tell your audience. Make sure you explain the difficulty you had, and why you still enjoy the product. Your customers will appreciate your honesty, as not to many corporations are prepared to do this.

If your e-newsletters aren’t driving the traffic you want, take the time to learn how to develop an engaging blog. Look at the successful blogs for your competing brands then try to cherry pick some of the better ideas that you see in them and leverage them for your business. You can then develop those ideas into your own voice. This is a winning strategy.

For the majority of businesses they do not have the power of a famous name to propel traffic to their website and they have therefore to leverage other tactics to build popularity. All businesses have to build relationships in order to build sales revenue; the same is true when it comes to managing your brand’s social media presence, it is a key part of relationship building, yet it is not in the sole domain of the sales force. The value of your brand having an independent presence on certain social networks cannot be understated; yet in order to drive the right value it is often important to build a partnership with an Internet publicity firm, such as P3 Social Media, which the author Peter Giblett works with, in order to maximise your presence.

Which social media tools to use is a vital question and will largely depend on the industry your business is in. Twitter, Google Plus, Facebook etc do take different approaches and it is not necessarily that a global presence on all networks is right for your industry.

Managing your brand’s social media presence takes ongoing effort. It is not like creating an advertising campaign, where once launched you can expect to reap the rewards of extra sales. Leveraging the power of Social Media takes a persistent and consistent presence. Social media tools can be a constant source of customer service enquiries, those ‘how to’ questions which need to be answered to the customer’s satisfaction yet it can also be used to discover how customers wish to see your product be developed. Customers are always prepared to critique and offer suggestions, which may benefit product development teams. An holistic approach should be taken in respect of your corporate social media presence.

Monitoring is important! Responses do not have to be made the split second after an another person’s post is published, but they do need to be timely and reasoned.

The first element here is about setting up a monitoring or listening station. How you do this can be as simple as a keyword search in Twitter or it can employ more complex monitoring software. Your Internet publicity partner should be able to guide you to cost effectively monitoring the buzz about your brand or product and advise on how to respond in each circumstance.

The right response is crucial in all circumstances. Generally people do not want is smooth marketing talk. If they have a problem then it is better to have a product specialist respond with information on how to make the product work again; this is about being seen as providing the solution. Most responses can be made by the right expert within the business responding, yet knowing how busy people are it is often best to have someone independent monitor interactions and ensure that the right person responds in a timely fashion.

Much of this interaction is about being involved in an on-going conversation that is happening on-line. It is developing in all sorts of directions, only very few of which any corporation need concern themselves with. It is important to be focused and targeted in all communications. Ultimately each brand needs to exude its personality to the outside world through its social networking interactions.

• Friends
• Family
• College/university alumni
• Work colleagues
• People in my work field
• Interesting people I meet on-line, or perhaps
• Anyone who is interested

Of course there are those who have quite extensive networks of friends and family. But who you connect with will depend on what you want out of your social network connections. Yes, it is true that you have to think about what you want out of each the on-line relationships! Each of these categories can be important to parts of your life and you have to decide how you will be leveraging each network.

To some people the friendship aspect is most important to others it is business relationships that are important. We each probably need a little of both if truth be told, but it is important not to mix how you use each network as that may give inconsistent results to you. To guide you here are brief thoughts on each of the major networks:

Facebook – Most often used for personal relationships, yet it is possible to make business connections as well. Best to have separate accounts for personal and business.

LinkedIn – Primarily used for business relationships and building business connections.

Google + – New! Used for both social and business connections. Probably slightly more business focused, but time will tell.

Windows Live – used for both social and business connections.

Twitter – A general messaging service. Good for making announcements; news; business; personal or friend messaging.

YouTube – Primarily for posting videos, but remember it has many business uses, including training videos.

This is a simple list of the most popular networks that exist today, yet the truth is that there is plenty of space for more social media sites and you may already be a member of many others – for your social club.

This article is entitled “Why be an Open Networker?” and with good reason. Who do you network with? Is it just the people that you know, or have known in the past? No! You will use social networks to build your set of connections in order to help you achieve specific goals e.g. finding that next job. This is an important reason for being on a social site, and there are plenty of others.

The truth is that is we live within the circle of people that we already know and limit who we connect with then life ends up being very limiting. You go to a meeting and get introduced to someone new to the group chances are you will exchange business cards. Is there any reason why Sunny Halani cannot help you with something you need to complete your next project? If you need professional printing then the answer is likely to be “Yes”, but is that the limit of how he could assist you? Probably not. If you are facing a problem in a project that you are working on then could you give him a call and ask him if he knows of someone local who could assist resolving that specific issue. That is the power of networking.

Being an open networker simply means you are prepared to be more open with those you connect to. One thing to note is that most open networkers are actually looking for business connections rather than social ones. Without wanting to build your list of followers on Twitter you will see new people following you on a daily basis. They will have seen something of interest in one of your recent posts to make them want to follow you. It is safe to follow back. That said you should make sure that you do not put personal information like your address or phone number into any social profile.

Even being an open networker there are rules that you should follow. Invitations from users that are not in-line with your reason for being a member of the site, such as “Sexy Ladyz”, should be ignored. Many open networkers will not connect with any person that does not have even the shortest biography information and prefers that contacts have a photograph included in their bio. Ironically sites such as Triond also provide networking opportunities; it provides the opportunity to become a fan of other writers, once a fan then it is possible to communicate with fellow writers.

Communication is of-course one to the primary reasons to be involved in any sort of network. We look to assist others, by providing helpful content (not necessarily our own) and in return they will assist us in achieving our goals. Part of the art of networking is telling others how they can best assist us without advertising – this is an art-form that would take several articles in their own right so will not be expanded upon here. The open networker will make a large number of connections, yet how they manage each individual connection is important and that is what will achieve lasting success.

You will never know who may be able to assist you in achieving your goals so building relationships may get you closer to the next person who may be the connection you always needed to make. That is why it is important to build your network, irrespective of whether or not you are an open networker.

Sadly this is a case of misunderstanding how to use Twitter and the value that can be added to any business through Social Media. I have commented before about the danger of advertising based posts on Social Media and this is a specific example of doing just that. To publish your business telephone number, or links to the company web-site alone on Twitter is not how to leverage the channel properly.

People who use Twitter every day do so as a part of ongoing conversations. Yet each of these conversations have relevance for business if you tap into them correctly. Twitter (and for that matter other Social Media channels) are all about communications, and most especially joining the conversation. Notice I said conversation. So for this hotel they should be searching for people who want information about their town and be involved in the conversation about visitors and their local city. Everyone knows who they are because their Twitter account will give all the relevant contact information.

What is there to see? Where should I go? How do I get to? Tell me about this local attraction? These are all topics that are open for discussion and it is important that this business be involved in that discussion. They should be providing valuable information that will entice a potential visitor to make the trip to their city. For the person to decide to stay at their hotel they must become the trusted expert.

Having a Blog is also another vital component of attaining success on Twitter. The blog gives you an opportunity to write beyond Twitter’s 140 character limit. You can write an article about each of the local attractions and who might enjoy them. Have the blog showing clearly the name of the business and contact points (eventhough the blog’s web site may have a name that does not directly relate to the business name). This way the blog will in and of itself build a following, in fact it may also be references as a local expert resource by other hotels. Have blog posts sent to Twitter and other Social Media channels automatically and you will be seen as contributing to the body of knowledge about your business.

For the hotel this provides them an opportunity to give local knowledge of some of the town’s attractions, which will help people decide to come to their town as well as their hotel. It proves they are local experts and have the visitor in mind when they come to the town. This is all about demonstrating expertise and building trust, which in the long run contributes to the revenue stream.

There are many similarities in how any business will use social platforms, yet there are many businesses that fail to understand how to interact on these social environments. All too many think of it as an instant opportunity for free advertising, yet this is possibly the last thing you should think about doing to improve the on-line visibility of your business. Sure you can give information about deals and discounts on a regular basis the way one of our local shopping malls does. Having a Social Media following is a critical part of having a successful on-line presence.

Social media environments are a place to discuss and inform, not to advertise. The distinction may seem like a fine line, but it is very real. It is acceptable for a shopping mall to tell its contacts about bargains being offered by stores through FourSquare but it is not appropriate for individual stores to be advertising their wares through Social Media. So what is a store permitted to contribute?

For a store selling leather goods they should give information about leather quality and what to look for in a good leather jacket. This information assists the customer in any choices they are thinking of making.

So how does a store provide information to its customers? Well a blog can certainly assist. So what information should be provided? Blogs should be informative and helpful in nature, whatever your line of business. If your marketplace is casual styled then the blog should follow suit. With a financial services type organisation then articles are likely to need to be more serious in nature. Therefore you should make your brand’s blog relevant to your audience.

In using Twitter the marketing executive from one of our local wineries suggested that there should be a ratio of eight general informative messages to one advertising styled message. General informative messages for this winery include discussions about what makes a good Pinot Noir or the floral design for a memorable corporate dinner. With such a contribution they relate generally to the area of expertise of the business or brand.

This ratio of informative messages to advertising communications of 8 to 1 is generally appropriate. I advise my clients that a ratio of 10 to 1 is what they should aim for and that it is better to give information than to advertise at any time, but ten to one is a convenient number to remember. and of course this excludes any ‘ReTweeting’ of information or replying to messages.

Becoming a social business is about being a business that cares about its clients even before they become customers. It is one of being seen as the people to trust in the marketplace and that relates to the quality of information being provided in the on-line world. Having a blog is a part of this effort, but not the whole of it – this must be combined with a Social Media presence. For a shopping mall then a location sensitive platform, like FourSquare, may be the best approach to publicise this, whereas other businesses are not so location sensitive and should therefor consider using platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, depending on the type of people that you need to connect with.

In respect of social media implementation then each corporation will have different goals. Some will see the power of leveraging social networks in being able to drive value from customer engagement as of vital importance while others do not. That is a distinct differentiation that needs to be understood.

As discussed before certain information should never be made public. It would be a serious breach of medical ethics for a doctor to discuss specific patient details on any on-line forum. Yet ironically they should be encouraged to publish professional material on blogs, e.g. papers, or discussion articles, that would normally be published in a medical journal, this contributes to improving their own professional standing. indeed such items should be published when they are only a collection of thoughts about a particular topic; this provides the opportunity for professional discussion and a broadening of understanding of the problem at hand.

Employee use of social networks should be consistent with acceptable use policies for the Internet as a whole, yet much will depend on the employee’s role within the organisation. The customer service agent now needs to be able to connect with customers on the sites they congregate at and be responsive to problems they are discussed.

The availability of easy publication mechanisms has led to some employees taking a rather laissez-faire attitude to the confidentiality of the information they have access to. Pre-existing employee guidelines normally prohibit distribution of this information. This should not change because of the addition of Social Media into the corporate tool-set. However corporate management should re-examine their policies and ensure all employees are aware of their duties in this respect.

Education is another important aspect here. All too often policies are presented to new staff upon arrival in their new job, then never referred to again except in cases of a serious breach. This often triggers an unwelcome discussion across the organisation. Education acts as a reinforcement to the policy and should be mandatory.

Protecting company secrets has always been high on the priority list for business. Just because it is now easy to publish something on the web does not mean we should. Confidence is always a key factor in any business. Risks to be considered include personal data, customer data, and business reputation.

I am not saying that she is wrong about the importance of web video, but I have always been a firm believer that each corporation will make the steps necessary to become involved in the social web at their own pace. Much of the urgency will depend on the type of industry that you are in; the more consumer facing you are the more likely it is necessary for your business to have a video presence on the web. If your business manufactures gas turbines for the oil industry then the need for video is not so urgent. Everything must be put into perspective, yet one thing is true each corporation should be considering using the social web in order to demonstrate their expertise and build trust in their eyes of there perspective customer.

That said the availability of web video as a marketing and educational tool is something every business should look at. On the whole though, to the uninitiated, web video sounds like another opportunity to post advertising for free, yet this is one idea you should remove  immediately from your mind. Whilst there is a place for advertising on the social web, video is not it (unless you intend to provide s sneak preview before it hits the TV screens).

Social video allows you to go beyond the advert; provide educational material for customers, explore the lives of the characters within your advert; provide an industrial insight about the processes you use; etc, etc.

Video clearly has a place as an educational tool. YouTube, with 1 billion videos viewed each month, is no longer the only source of video on the web. Facebook has recently added a video engine and the new Twitter interface also allows direct access to video. Vimeo is another video engine that is focused towards the needs of business.

Web video presence needs as much thought and planning as does defining a social media presence. Whilst it is important to be ahead of the competition, knowing that others in your industry are already using web video is no reason to panic and put amateurish video onto the web, after-all any fool can pick up a video camera and start shooting. What is important is understanding the process and giving due diligence to the process of building this presence.

One aspect that most marketing people will agree on us that most brands have a personality of their own; in this regard it is this personality that can come to life through the blog and all of the posts associated with it, just as it does with TV and radio advertisements. Most corporations own more than one brand or product, even for the  littlest of businesses. A key aspect of any business is the expression of personality through the brands it owns. Each brand name will tend to develop its own personality that can often be distinct from the overall image of the business. Here is an example:

* The corporation’s reputation is for building professional quality products at a cost effective price that the home enthusiast can enjoy, usually aimed at older professionals.

* For a new product line focused on teens and twenties needs to emphasise the fun aspects of the product without detracting from the company’s traditional values.

We can see that the focus is slightly modified for the new product which is focused on a slightly different marketplace. It becomes a sub-market all of its own. This new product needs a separate identity, indeed each brand should have a distinct look and feel. How this relates to blogging is a part of activating the personality on behalf of the product’s marketplace and the prospects who will buy the product. Advertising through media like TV, radio, and magazines also acts to build that personality, so what is said on a blog should always be consistent with it. Each product will have its own personality and should appeal to a specific audience and it is important to know that audience.

Having a blog gives the opportunity to go beyond the limits of traditional advertising; it allows us, the public, to know more or indeed to “live the adventure” associated with the brand image. Stories that help build that personality are an important part of the blog. Content can include any of:

* Behind the scenes looks or insider information.
* General stories of interest to this specific market.
* Adventures of… type stories
* How to articles.
* Best practices
* Competitive analysis
* Success stories
* Installation tips.
* Customer feedback
* Local interest.
* Personal views
* Food and drink reviews.

In fact what is most important is having a continuing flow of content. In the last paragraph the word ‘stories’ was chosen deliberately because not everything published on a blog has to be written, it can include pictures, video, audio clips, cartoons, and indeed anything that can be shown on the web. The key is providing regular and interesting material; all with well indexed keywords that allows your information to be accessed through search engines, like Google. When properly managed a blog can improve the ranking of your primary web site.

A local winery uses a blog to write a variety of articles about food and drink, which wines to use with which meal choices and other items of this nature. Most relate to the use of reds or whites, or review the essence of a good wine, few are specifically about their product, most are of general interest and promote the region’s wine offerings. Most  contributions come from employees across the company. Items from wine-makers, marketing people, and others in the organisation may all have some interest to the general public. They consider it important to educate the local community about wines in general. Through this work they are building a reputation as an expert in the industry and a company to trust.

Trust is an important aspect here; when looking at a web-site alone it is hard to distinguish between product offerings, with little to highlight the contribution that organisation makes to the community at large; this is where the business blog van make a huge difference. One significant role of having a blog is about building trust by the regular contributions made.

The other aspect that should be considered here is the brand having a Social Media presence which can bring visitors to your site. When used alongside a blog it becomes an important focus point for future articles; indeed the modern intervention is very multi-media in dimension

The speaker was referring to the fact that in her business there was no need to wait for their marketing communications to be approved. Large corporations often need to decide everything by committee, which can certainly make them seem less responsive in any situation. Small business can often seem more agile or responsive in a lot of areas, in particular publicity and customer communications. This usually shows as a friendlier face to the customer, indeed it is more likely to engender trust within any relationship. However the relationship is also more likely to be a face-to-face one rather than an on-line one.

The net effect tends to be that the customer will envision small business as been best at championing their requirements and dealing with their issues. However when small business grows to a certain size there is a danger that its people will forget their prior approach and start acting the same as traditional big business. At the same time there is a distinct danger of losing a personal and caring touch that was a key part of their growth.

Can we define a general rule of that as business grows they must change the way they act to the customer? Corporations such as Amazon and Ebay were all once small businesses with an excellent customer service reputation, yet today each has been accused of not caring about their customer, indeed speaking to a person can often be a challenge. On the social media front many large corporations are not active, or merely have a presence that is about pushing advertising messages and have no interest in listening to customers or prospects and their problems. Despite this it is certainly possible to see examples of large corporations that proudly demonstrate a caring attitude, this can be seen in corporations like Apple, Jet Blue, and Dell. So clearly large businesses can be responsive to their customer needs as well, if they choose to be; it is a matter of strategy.

Social media, when used for any business, largely relates to building a relationship that is based on trust. This is one area that can be quite complex. We have seen many fly-by-night plumbers that act unprofessionally, provide no guarantees, and just patch a problem, lasting just long enough for them to disappear into the sunset. Yet in many countries legal rules have clamped down on this type of behaviour, and have introduced professional standards. Yet professionalism goes beyond the work dome for money, sometimes it involves solving a customer’s problem without generating an income. Implicitly Small business seems to recognise that not everything is about money, yet they have more to lose from doing free work. This media makes it possible to solve another person’s problem without too much thought; answer a question asked may take the business person five minutes but this contribution can resolve many other peoples problems at the same time.

Twitter Tip:

With Twitter it is possible to answer a question in 140 characters if words are carefully chosen. Often more detail is required though. This is where it is recommended that you write a blog post that responds to the question. You may be addressing one problem, yet generalize the answer and others can then make use of it in the future, and can provide you with a link to use when answering future questions. Also blog posts like ‘101 alternative ways to use widget X’ grab more people’s attention because it keeps a well known product in the public eye.

LinkedIn Tip:

Questions and answers as a key aspect of the LinkedIn network and will certainly endear you to other members of the site. You should answer questions in your field of expertise, be frank and honest and base your answers on your own experience. You have significantly more room here to develop a line of thought than with Twitter, but again links out to blog posts are often useful in adding value to the reader.

Generally all businesses should have a blog linked to their web site as it will add extra depth to their brand and professional image. Most web sites tends to remain static and factual about the products or services offered – after-all the site is there to directly or indirectly sell a product or service. The blog can offer so much more. It is a dynamic view, providing new information and will generally be based on personal experiences and how particular problems were solved. This is important, because individual viewpoints add credence to the corporate position on any subject

Having recently talked to a guest house owner about blogging they were naturally curious about how often they should post new material. Overall there is no particular limit, generally once a week is a good minimum standard. Remember though that the quality of the material posted is perhaps more important than frequency. The guest house has a problem in that the very time he needs to be writing posts is the very time that he needs to be attending to his customer needs; e.g. during the holiday season. They can perhaps use the lean periods of the year to write their material, leave it unpublished, then publish it at the appropriate time (with a quick check to ensure the content is still relevant).

With any blog the article writer is best advised to write articles of general interest to their area of expertise, for the guest house owner this is likely to be a review of local arts festivals, the local sights and museums, all of which can add relevance to any visitors stay. Further information will be added about blogging for corporations in a future

Here is one example of just such a site:

The content may be vital to the reader, but it is obliterated, in part, by the new social widget that sits on the left hand side of the page. It is a common sense design criteria that it is possible to use spare ‘white space’ (or indeed the background) that exists on any website. However there are two cardinal sins on this particular website:

◊ Covering the site banner, and

◊ Overlaying text

It is possible that the site owners have not tested the widget on all browsers, as this writer is currently using a new update of Firefox, yet the end result is not pleasing and destroys the reader’s ‘customer experience’. Instead of commenting on the article through one of the links provided it brings up a site design issue and hence the comment here.

It is true that another person can go to the same site and not experience the same issue, yet it remains true that there is no substitute for testing. Most of these glitches are also ironed out very soon as in a week’s time even this writer will not find the same issue upon returning to the page. The fact remains that however temporary the effect is unprofessional.