No time for social media? Not interested? Overwhelmed? Think it’s a fad? Too busy? Prefer not to be “friended”? Nothin’ to tweet?

I’ve heard it all.

And I’m not here to convince you otherwise unless you ask me to…so feel free to sidestep social media if you’d like, but there’s a 3-step strategy that anyone who has a name, social security number, personal or professional interest, and a resume should know.

These are 3 simple steps that will keep you in step with “the latest technology,” even if you want to sidestep social media.

I always bring these three things up when I speak to a group about anything that’s going on online, and the pens/pencils always come out. (Oh, who am I kidding? No one uses pencils anymore.) These are pearls of Web 2.0 wisdom folks, three easy essentials that will cover you on the basics until you accept the power of social technology into your hearts and minds (and businesses).

1. MONITOR: Set up Google Alerts. This is so easy; I almost didn’t include it but for the fact that it always surprises me how many people haven’t done it. If you want to be alerted ANYTIME your name (or your family members’ names or any other keywords that are important to your personal security or professional development) is published online, anywhere in the world, set up an “alert” using Google’s FREE Google Alerts tool and you’ll get an email notification. THE QUESTION: I have been asked, “Why would I want to know when my name is published?” THE ANSWER: My response is always the same, why wouldn’t you? Always a good idea to do regular vanity searches by googling yourself so you can see what other people would see if they googled you, but even better to set up an automated system to alert you and keep you informed and aware of your digital trail. (And these days, we ALL have a digital trail.) While you’re at it, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some kind of identity fraud protection on your SSN. It would cost less per month than what you might spend at Starbucks and delivers peace of mind without the caffeine.
2. MANAGE: Set up an RSS feed reader. I’ve talked about this before. I even put together a handy “how to set up an RSS feed reader” step-by-step guide that you can download for free. Gratis. That’s how much this means to me. It’s my little gift to you. THE QUESTION: How do you get the information that interests you most? THE ANSWER: You do an online search. Everything is about SEARCH these days. THE NEXT QUESTION: Are you controlling the flow of information in your life or are you overwhelmed by noise, a slave to pages and pages of search results? THE REALLY IMPORTANT QUESTION: Do you only seek information when you need it, or have you set up an RSS feed reader so the information you desire most comes to you AUTOMATICALLY and is thus available to you to peruse or share at your convenience? THE DRIVE-MY-POINT-HOME QUESTION: In the Web 2.0 world of information overload, are you a victim of the volume or in control of your content consumption? THE EASY ANSWER TO ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS: Manage the content, kids — set up an RSS feed reader and live a happier online existence.
3. MAINTAIN: Set up your LinkedIn profile. Got a phone? Got email? How about a job or a desire to have a job? THE QUESTION: How can you have all of that and not have a LinkedIn profile set up in the year 2009? THE ANSWER: Sorry, but you’re going to have to tell me the answer because I cannot come up with one! I’m not saying LinkedIn will revolutionize your life, but gee-whiz, it sure can serve to make your life easier. (Yes, I still say “gee-whiz.”) There are lots of ways to use LinkedIn. Use it as an online, access-from-anywhere Rolodex of contacts; use it as an online resume you can refer people to quickly and simply; and use it to throw your hat in the virtual ring because people who you liked once upon a time and lost track of might love to send some business your way. You don’t have to post status updates if you don’t want to in this space. (Though it is recommended.) You don’t have to post photos of your kids. You don’t have to connect with anyone with whom you don’t wish to connect. You don’t have to post what you ate for lunch on anyone’s “wall.” You don’t have to tweet anything. But you do have to be there and properly maintain your presence and your profile. It’s your online “web cred” and, all things considered, it’s pretty low maintenance. Seriously, not being there is like going to a meeting without a business card. You can sidestep Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, YouTube, etc., but I can’t figure out why one would opt out of LinkedIn if you’re in business. IF someone looks for you there for professional purposes and you’re not there, you miss the chance to make or enhance an impression. Being there is one more way to make it easier for business contacts to reach you if they haven’t seen you in a while or refer you to people within their networks in a few simple clicks. How is this a bad idea? I don’t see LinkedIn as being about social media as much as I see it as being about good business. Furthermore, should you ever find yourself in a position of needing to change jobs, LinkedIn ensures your network is quite literally at your fingertips. The big question here is: what impression do you think it leaves on prospects if you’re not on LinkedIn?

These are technology basics that EVERYONE in these curious times should consider, IMHO.

You can snub the social media mania for a while longer, if you’d like. As it was with the telephone and email, new communication tools are scary to some folks, and I’m down with that. But I swear by my Technology 3-Step.

Monitor, Manage, Maintain. It’s the very least you can do — for you.

Every day you get dressed and consult a mirror before stepping out into the business world. But what about how you look online? Are you looking your very best, virtually speaking? Here’s a few fashionable ways to dress up your business profile style.

Email

Now, many may consider email “casual wear” as far as the look of it goes. But every email (and most of us zip through dozens every day) is an opportunity to make a statement.
•    Check Your Signature: Do you have all relevant contact info presented in an attractive format? If not, there are surely a few folks around the cubicle who are handy with a mouse. Add some color. Make your name bold. Every email leaves an impression; why not make it your electronic best?
•    HTML or Text: Most email clients can handle html code adeptly, so please don’t let yourself be seen in plain text. (It’s so ‘80’s.)
•    Accessorize: Go crazy, if your corporate culture allows, and add an image to your signature. Nothing unseemly. Ideally it’s your company logo, which, hopefully, was professionally done. If so, by all means, work it!

LinkedIn

This is solid online business networking. Don’t show up to the event with the wrong profile picture. C-level executives rub elbows in this space and people will be expecting to see professionalism. It’s like putting your resume on a runway…lots of eyes looking at your business outfit (literally) and a few curious folks watching to see if you’ll trip.
•    Portrait: One word: retouch. I’m not saying you don’t look good au naturale, I’m just saying, if you haven’t had your portrait taken professionally, at least find a Photoshopper to point and click you toward absolute perfection.
•    Resume: One more word: proofread. Seriously. A typo in an email is one thing. No excuse for it here. Have someone else look your profile over to check grammar and spelling on everything you input. No matter how far up the ladder you are, grammatical errors on your resume don’t fly and they could cost you a really good sale.
•    Groups: Two words: join some. This is where you can really show your stripes and meet some new people. Do a search for groups related to your industry. Peruse the weekly email digest. Contribute and converse. The big plus here is that you can do it all without having to wear a nametag on your suit. A note of caution however, when you decide which group logos to make visible at the bottom of your profile, consider that you are showcasing your professional associations and affiliations. Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised what some people put on.

Twitter

Imagine every business dinner you’ve ever been to…got it? Okay, now imagine them all happening at the same time. Welcome to twitter. Step lively.
•    Profile Picture: It’s okay to go casual, but remember, if you’re representing a business you want to look buttoned up, whether you’re on the deck of your fishing boat or at the megapixel mercy of your webcam. Choose wisely.
•    Bio: Be interesting. This is akin to “speed networking,” so whatever you have to say about yourself, say it succinctly and memorably. Don’t want to pressure you here, but for many, the bio decides the follow/unfollow fate of your relationship with other tweeters. Be original. Be yourself. Be smart. Be your absolute best in 160 characters or less. (And if you’re not tweeting for a business, you still should consider your “personal brand” and tweet accordingly.)
•    Site Link: Who doesn’t love a link? Twitter is a fabulous traffic generator. Drive your tweeps to your blog or your business web site…the point is, drive them somewhere. Show them the rest of your professional wardrobe.
•    Colors: I know this is subjective. But some colors have absolutely no business being on a twitter page. If it hurts your eyes in real life, imagine how it looks on the monitor in all its 1280 x 1024 glory. Sunglasses, please.
•    Background: Customize, customize, customize. Toss that old twitter template for a custom design (that you can acquire at any of the online twitter background design websites, (if you don’t have an ad agency or design firm already on retainer, that is). It’s inexpensive and the visual impression you make can go a long, long way. Even if you choose not to have a twitter profile page designed, make sure the image you use sets you apart from the masses. This is one instance where it pays to stand out in the crowd.

There you have it. A few simple tips for looking as good online as you do off…and for people like me, maybe even better!

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So, get this: the number of unique visitors to twitter jumped from 8 million in the month of February to 14 million in the month of March (Source: compete.com). If I were standing in front of you, I’d repeat that for emphasis with wide eyes, a series of explosive hand gyrations and a giant grin, blinding you with my recently whitened teeth.

While I’ve heard a bit of grumbling from long-time twitter users (using since 2007!), worried that twitter would be ruined (somehow made less useful and/or less cool) now that it’s being investigated and embraced by the mainstream, I am ECSTATIC! (I’d also love a break from the trend I’m seeing in blog posts about why you’re unfollowing people…our apologies for creating so much “noise.”)

Only in mainstream understanding and adoption will ANY type of social media gain more versatility and usability for businesses.

Think about it in terms of the introduction of email, whose mainstream and mass adoption led to exciting (and ongoing) opportunities to advance communication, productivity and content sharing on both professional and personal levels. That said, utilization by the masses always comes with a few extras we’d all prefer to do without, such as SPAM, get-rich-quick schemes and abusive/annoying marketing tactics (hence the grumbling by the early adopters)…but you have to take the good with the bad, no? That’s just how life is. Accept it. And if you feel like getting your zen on, embrace it.

I want to extend a WARM WELCOME to the masses.

Welcome to twitter. Welcome to LinkedIn. Welcome to facebook. Welcome to youtube, ning, flickr and digg. Welcome to Web 2.0. Thank you for coming. Because YOU are here, we (the collective “we”) will be able to advance the power of these platforms.

YOU are driving “traditional” businesses to shift in their seats, sit up, take notice and evolve. Thank you!

This communication evolution will…scratch that…IS creating an abundance of personal and professional opportunities for us all. Each social platform offers something unique; so come one, come all and ask for help whenever you need it. Don’t “get” something? Google it. Everything you ever wanted to know is at your fingertips, the trick is in finding the platforms and tools to navigate through all of the excitement to find what you are looking for. Don’t look for social media “experts” busy building up their egos…look for businesspeople who can help you help yourself.

The cost of entry here begins with your time.

If you’re a small business owner, you should be doing cartwheels right now (right after you make sure your LinkedIn profile is 100% complete). Spend a few minutes asking someone who is using online social tools a few questions. Educate yourself, grow your business.

In January of this year, Peter Kim asked social media thought leaders to help move us all toward tactical solutions for social businesses. So while the masses are amassing online, I want to tip my hat to all of the businesses that are busy about developing their internal social media policies, plans and guidelines to expand their methods of external outreach. I’m thrilled to be working with clients and companies who are focused on finding ways to overcome some of the actual and perceived barriers that other businesses are using as excuses to keep their heads in the social sand.

“I don’t have time for it” is simply shortsighted; successful businesses find ways to overcome barriers, of time and tactics, period.

If you want to learn more about some practical solutions for engaging in social business, Amber Naslund is doing an amazing job right now on her blog, Altitude Branding, providing blueprints for moving forward. Another practical person to tune into is Kyle Lacy, whose blogging offers post after post of socially creative insights.

Me? I’m seeing the virtual rubber hitting the road all over the place and I know EXACTLY who we have to thank for it.

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So you’re LinkedIn, facebooking and tweeting. But are you moving those connections offline? That is, when you make solid, quality connections in any of the online platforms you’re in, are you moving your conversation into a one-on-one context? A phone call? Coffee? A mini-meetup or tweetup?

If not, then why not?

When I find myself talking about why I like spending time in the online socialsphere, I always like to make the point that, for me, it’s not about sitting in front of my computer for hours on end. It’s about meeting new people and building those relationships into a quality network.

Consider your ratio of social networking to social business.

I have to credit Peter Kim for raising my awareness of the term “social business,” and his point is not lost on me. If you’ve ever had to explain “social media” to a C-level executive, I’d highly recommend the “social business” positioning. Of course I’m not saying you need to be all business all the time, but the fact is many of us have integrated social media into our workdays. We learn here. We share here. We connect here. Sure, I’m entertained in and by the process, but I also have a job to do, clients to serve and projects to complete. So I take the time I spend on the socialwebs somewhat seriously.

What’s more personal than talking or meeting offline?

Time is money. So I do my very best to put my money (and my time) where my mouth is. (Literally.) That means I want to talk with you offline. Sometimes we’ll connect on a business level and sometimes on a personal level. I’m happy either way. This post is NOT about looking at everyone with “what-can-you-do-for-me?” eyes. It’s about further personalizing your engagement, your conversations and your network. Or, as Jacob Morgan puts it, “You ARE a social network.”

Call or meet a virtual contact today. If you enjoy your time talking with people online, imagine the reward of talking with those same people offline. Go ahead, do it.  I triple dog dare you.

And now the TRANSPARENCY DISCLAIMER: I’m behind on my calls, (for obvious reasons), but I look very forward to speaking with @JoshSmith12 @ariherzog @CharityHisle @bruceyang @ApothecaryJeri @peabodytweets @mrshadeed @cirqueldesign @JohnSheridan and @GusSent. Talk to you all soon. (Well, as soon as I can!)

I’m not criticizing.

Seriously. Just asking.

• Did you set up that twitter account months ago and then never return?
• Are you on facebook but never post about your status…or never comment on others’ posts?
• Are you on LinkedIn but you don’t invite people to join your network; you just accept invites?

I’m not calling you out, here.

I’m calling you in.

I want to know what is stopping you from joining in.

I’ll go first…I’m anti-social by nature. But here I am, rallying like a lunatic for social media. What was the thing that had been stopping me from getting into it sooner? Time. I didn’t think I had the time to engage. It’s also a little scary putting yourself “out there.” Few of us are immune to the fear of criticism. (And I’m not sure I believe those who say they are.)

So, “time” and “fear” were my personal obstacles. BUT, my drive to overcome obstacles was and is stronger than the two of those “stoppers” combined.

So, tell me, what’s stopping you?

I happen to think that, together, we can overcome just about anything. But, first, you need to speak up. I’m here for ya, listening… But I’m getting old. So you’re going to need to speak louder.

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Alright people. Party’s over. Time to dig into 2009. Set the course. Adjust the steering. Power ahead.

Up until now, my posts have illustrated my obvious enthusiasm about engaging in various communication platforms which we’ll call “social media” for the time being. And doing so has made my world so much bigger, so very quickly.

Consider That Networking Now Means Getting the ‘Net Working For You

The very fact that most of my subscribers are NOT friends and family tells me (and thus, you) how much bigger a person’s world can get when you put yourself out there. This was not how I thought things would get going. Believe me, I’ve been doing virtual handstands to get my friends and family to jump on the party bus with me. I finally had to pay a few of them off, although I think they would have been willing to pay me to leave them alone…could this be a new strategy for monetizing my blog? (Hmm, may have to give that strategy some serious thought.)

You Learn Something New Every Day.

How could you not? At any given time I know that if I have a question about something, I can Tweet it to HUNDREDS of people and they will share their answers and ideas. I know that by using my RSS feed to follow the blogs of DOZENS of businesspeople, designers, artists, authors, up-and-comers, motivators and innovators, I will get the content I’m most interested in delivered right to me, automatically.

Social media is about opening the door to one-to-one conversations, but it’s also open to the masses.

If my efforts thus far have inspired you to take a new look at your LinkedIn profile, join facebook or sign up for a twitter account, then a big “Ta-Da” goes out to you, right here and now. If you’ve invested the time to understand how these platforms work, you’ll probably agree that they enable us to converge, en masse, only to organically and, rather efficiently, find other people who share common interests and can enhance your/our thinking. I mean people you really want to talk to…people who are happy to share information and expertise.

I’ve had my “Ta-Da” moment.

After much, much, much, much ado, GrayMatter Minute is designed, coded, redesigned, recoded, tweaked, recoded, tested, recoded, officially launched, live and fully functional, even in blankety-blank Internet Explorer, (hence the need for all the aforementioned recoding).

“Ta-Da!”

Now it’s time to move my conversation forward. Please join me. This is going to be fun. So…what would you like to talk about next?

Ask a question. Go ahead, I’m serious. Or am I going to have to break out that “triple dog dare” again?

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Friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer.

The countdown to the start of a new year gets all the press. But there’s another one. One that people talk about all year round. It’s the countdown to the moment you say to yourself, “I’ve been putting this off long enough, it’s time to…”

Now all of us will finish that sentence in many different ways – some personal, some professional.

If you’ve arrived at this, my own little online “Time’s Square” [sic], and are still reading this far down into the post, I’d like to think the virtual ball has dropped for you already. (Happy New Year!!!) You’ve taken another step into the sea of online social (or new) media gatherings that are happening all around us where people are communicating in dot-com venues whose best uses may have yet to be uncovered.

What matters is that you see it coming. So before you wave a dismissive hand at “all that social media stuff,” remember that a lot of other innovations began with a question mark and then evolved into indispensable tools that help us communicate more effectively and/or productively.

Remember there were telegrams before text messages, shortwaves before satellites and projectors before plasmas, to say nothing of where technology has yet to take us still.

So when it comes to social media, you can close your eyes to it. Or you can be the first one in your neighborhood to have a color TV, or a microwave, or a VCR, or surround sound, or a laser disc, or a web cam, or a blog, or a solar-paneled roof…

And the cost of “acquisition” in this case, is nothing but your time and attention (since you clearly already have the computer and the Internet connection).

So tell me, where will you take your social media question mark in 2009?

I invite you to post your Top Three Social Media Goals for the New Year right here. Whether it’s as simple as setting up a LinkedIn page or subscribing to this blog. Write it down. Make it happen. And we’ll check back in on each other next year to see how far we’ve come. (Even if I have to pick up the “oh-so-outdated” telephone to do so.)

Thank you 2008, you finally gave New Media a name

Adobe AIR Apps

17 Adobe AIR Apps That Can Save You Time by AN Jay at Smashing Apps

Alerts and Analytics for Social Media

See “Search, Monitor & Measure” further down on the list.

Blogging

AP Style Guide

Web Style Guide

htmlText Editor An Adobe AIR app that provides a shortcut to generating basic HTML code, a tool particularly valuable to those of us who should probably otherwise not be trying to generate basic HTML code.

Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally: Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved.”

200 Blog Post Ideas for Your Company Blog

101 Blog Posting Ideas from SEOblog

3 High-Powered Reader Engagement Tactics, from ProBlogger

200 Must-have Professional Blogging Tools and Services, from a 14-yr old blogger !

David Armano’s Blogging Secrets Revealed

How To Write a Backlink by Matt Waterman

Get Clicky Web Analytics: monitor, analyze & react to your blog or web site’s traffic in real time

5 Best SEO Tips for Bloggers from mintBlogger.com

FREE Online Link Checkers: W3C, Dead-Links.com, Website Goodies’ LinkCheck

Blog Uptime Monitor: via WebHostingPages

How to Blog Live Events and Publish With Lightning Speed

What you can learn from unsubscribes

How To: Blog Anonymously And Maintain Control Of Your Personal Privacy

WORDPRESS

• 10 WordPress Plugins to Help Build Community
• Top 25 Wordpress Statistics Plugins
• 35 creative and colorful wordpress themes

Blogging Communities

IMPORTANT: Be sure to register new blogs at Blog Top Sites

Blog Listings and Directories:

BlogCouncil: A community of senior executives in charge of social media at the largest corporations in the world.

Business Blogging

Corporate Blogging Policy Samples (PDF) from Altitude Branding

Why Is Your Business Afraid of Negative Blog Posts?

ProBlogger: Building an Empire Around Your Blog and Setting Up ‘Alerts’ to Monitor What is Happening in Your Niche

Business & Social Media

Starter Kit from Altitude Branding

80+ Social Media Policies from Mashable.com (Social Media Governance Database)

MASHABLE’s HOW TO 2008: How To Do Almost Anything With Social Media

MASHABLE’s 20+ Tools to Make Any Email Inbox More Sociable

12 Step Plan to Getting Started in Social Media: by Jane Hart

25 Tools and Tips for Following Your Brand Online, by Kyle Lacy

Ray Schiel’s Social Media Marketing: Resources

Social Media 404’s MONSTER Social Media List of Lists

Jane Hart’s ToolBox: 2009 Top 100 Tools for Learning. Includes the 25 FREE Tools learning professionals should have in their Toolbox. I find this to be a HIGHLY VALUABLE RESOURCE.

Jane Hart’s 25 Must-Have FREE TOOLS

GEN-Y: SmallBizBee’s 5 Low Cost Ways to Reach Gen-Y Dollars & Mashable’s Top 10 Social Networks for Gen-Y

Download this state-of-the-industry snapshot by Michael Stelzner: Social Media Marketing Industry Report You can also follow Michael Stelzner on twitter @mike_stelzner

7 Articles about Strategic Planning and Social Media

Scalable Intimacy: Branding in the Age of Social Media - presentation by Michael Troiano

Case Studies: Social Business

Corporate Social Media Marketing Programs: A List by Peter Kim

3 Social Media Case Studies for the Pharmaceutical Industry

Social Media Marketing Best Practice Articles by Kim Woodbridge

Is it customer service? Sales? PR? Or all of them? Chris Brogan takes a deeper dive here.

Overcoming The Obstacles To Social Business

Common Craft Video Shows

Short, fun, simple, video-based education in “plain English.” This free (to view and share) video library is a great place to start when tackling a new concept, IMHO.

Events

Social Media & Marketing Conferences (List from Altitude Branding)

Facebook

Starter Kit

Facebook Groups and Pages – Features, Benefits And Killer Tips

How To: Create a Facebook Fan Page

8 Essential Apps for your brand’s facebook page

The 5 Phases Of The Facebook Sales Funnel

How To by Janet Fouts: Build Your Own Facebook Page (Part I) (Part II)

HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook

HOW TO: Make A Facebook Page In Less Than Four Minutes by John Haydon

HOW TO: How to add a Facebook Page Fanbox to your website (and customize it)

Video about Facebook Public Profile Pages from Wildfire

Here’s the FACEBOOK PAGE about FACEBOOK PAGES

Interested in Advertising on Facebook Pages?

Tips and Case Studies for Brand Marketers (article) OR go right to http://www.facebook.com/marketing

Facebook Can Get You Fired, Dumped, And Yes, Evicted

5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand’s Facebook Presence

5 Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page

30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook

9 Top Companies That Provide Facebook Page Management Tools

FriendFeed

A Friendly Intro by Janet Fouts – Getting To Know FriendFeed

Gov 2.0

What’s the scoop on Government use of Web2.0 tools? Download this report from Bearing Point Consultants to learn more on the Federal, State and Local levels.

Crossing Over Technology With Government

U.S. Military Adapts Tactical Networking to Social Media

State Department Gets Hip to Social Media

WIKI: Web 2 0 Governance Policies and Best Practices

Social media policies from leading edge governments and corporations

How To Build An Online Community

Getting Started

Discover the power of NING to create your own social network online

101 Things You Should Know Before Starting Your Own Membership Website

50 simple ways to build trust online

Basic Premises For Every Community Manager

The Senior Side of Social Media: When it comes to the Web, many boomers and senior caretakers are just as tech-savvy as their younger counterparts–and senior-focused social media sites are quickly rising in response to the needs of this rapidly-growing segment of the population. This informative post is provided by Web Ad.vantage.

20 Do’s and Dont’s of successful Group Moderation

Keyword Tools & Tips

Free Keyword Research Tools (post by Kishau Rogers)

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool

PPC Web Spy: Uncover Anyone’s Google-Adword Keywords While You Browse Google In Real-Time

Linked In

Starter Kit

LinkedIn Learning Center

Personal Branding: It’s Not An Option – It’s Crucial To Success

Why LinkedIn Is Essential for Brand Marketers

10 Ways to ROCK and NOT on LinkedIn

5 ways to get more from your LinkedIn Groups

Best Practices for LinkedIn Group Management: by Janet Fouts

Expert Positioning Using LinkedIn (Slideshare that drills down into actual “settings” for 100% profile completeness)

Marketing

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work

Not-for-Profit Organizations

Social Media for Social Causes Study: The Results

Wild Apricot: Membership software that brings together all the organizing and communication tools you need to run your association, group or community.

Free SEO Helper Tool for Non-Profits

5 Events That Have Used Social Media for a Good Cause

Case Study: Goodwill of Washington, DC “Put this in your ROI pipe and smoke it!”

How To: Create A Powerful And Engaging Facebook Page

SOCIAL FUNDRAISING Tools: ChipIn & GiveZooks

Podcasts

This one is free and useful: This Week In Media

SEO: The Basics of Search Engine Optimization: Episode #35 of the Power to the Small Business podcast

Polls

LinkedIn Polls: You can view mine here…and you can create one that becomes a part of your LinkedIn Profile page.

Twtpoll.com: I’ve tried it and I like it because you can tweet it and get it ReTweeted quickly and easily. You can see my polls here.

PollDaddy: With your free account from PollDaddy you can create surveys and polls for your website, blog and social network profiles.

Presentations

Powerpoint & Twitter: FREE PowerPoint Twitter Tools… Ever wanted to make presentations a more interactive, Web 2.0 experience? The PowerPoint Twitter Tools prototypes are now available. Created using SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius (but requiring only PowerPoint for Windows and Adobe Flash to run), the twitter tools allow presenters to see and react to tweets in real-time, embedded directly within their presentations, either as a ticker or refreshable comment page.

The Two Elements of a Great Presenter from Seth Godin’s Blog

How to give a Killer Presentation

Printing (Unique and/or Discounted)

Moo cards are very cool.

Privacy in Our “Transparent” Online Web 2.0 World

FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster

Facebook: Protect Your Privacy VIDEO

Facebook: 10 ways to stay safe

Regardless of your privacy settings, your digital trail is accessible. Did you know there’s a Facebook app that makes it EASY to access public records about you?

LinkedIn: Quick Tips on Security and Privacy

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse BLOG: The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) is a nonprofit consumer organization with a two-part mission — consumer information and consumer advocacy.

Removing information from Google

Public Relations & Social Media

4 easy steps to better PR measurement

Future of PR: Future of PR: When Agencies Represent Communities –Not Brands

Top Public Relations Blogs (PDF) from Altitude Branding

Search, Monitor & Measure

Alltop: an “online magazine rack” of popular topics. The most read stories on the Internet, updated every hour. Pick a topic by searching, news category, or name, and find the Top stories, 24/7. All the topics, all the time. All-top. Alltop. Get it? (Took me awhile.)

10 ways to brand yourself with Alltop

Social Media Team Toolkit: Listening

Facebook Search Tool: Lexicon Enables you to track trends on FB using keywords. Click here to link to a post that explains how it works

Google’s Blog Search

8 Essential Free Social Media Monitoring Tools from Andy Beal at Marketing Pilgrim

3 Search Tools to find Research Data, Statistics, Answers (article from Wild Apricot blog):

1. DeepDyve delivers fast, easy access to the vast amounts of expert information hidden in the Deep Web. Beta version focuses on just a few subject areas including Medical and Life Sciences but is rapidly expanding into additional markets. Use DeepDyve search for research.
2. Find public statistical data through Google
3. Wolfram Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine

Social Media Explorer: Quick ‘n Dirty Social Media Monitoring Guide: Intermediate Edition

Trend Search: Nielsen BuzzMetrics’ BlogPulse Icerocket This is an incredibly robust – AND incredibly FREE – blog search and tracking service. Access a full suite of analytics in an easy-to-read, use-friendly format with IceRocket’s BlogTracker. Sadly, their handy-dandy toolbar add-on, which would provide one-click access to stats only works with Internet Explorer. (Every silver lining has a cloud, no?) If you can get past their affinity for IE, which is going to take me quite some time to overcome, IceRocket also offers a great link-tracking feature so you can see (and show) how many people have linked to your blog posts.

Awesome List of free Social Media Measurement Tools

Tools and Metrics to Measure and Monitor Social Media Success, by Jacob Morgan

Social Media ROI Resource List, by Colin Browning

Using Social Media to Show ROI: by Connie Bensen

Get A Yardstick by Amber Naslund: As you embark on this list, you ought to work backwards. Start with your objective in mind, and from there, work back toward the measures and metrics most likely to drive toward that goal and support the intelligence you hope to gather. Measure those. You can’t and shouldn’t measure everything. You should measure the indicators and drivers of what you want to accomplish.

Analyzing Traffic Sources: Where are your visitors coming from?

Brand Monitoring: Top 10 Free Tools for Monitoring Your Brand’s Reputation, by Dan Schawbel @ Mashable

Yahoo Pipes: Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web.

Need a robust monitoring service? Check out Radian6 (paid service).

Looking for a snapshot of someone’s “digital trail?” Go to 123people. This is proof that you can’t hide from the Internet.

Who’s Talkin’ about you or your brand on the social webs? Find out at whostalkin.com

Two steps to social media success | excerpt from Janet Fouts’ blog:

STEP 1: Set up listening tools like Techrigy’s SM2, Radian6, BuzzLogic,Trackur, Search Monitor, Backtype, Google Alerts, Monniter, Sideline and Twilerts to find out what people are talking about related to your industry and your company. Each of these tools has their strengths and you need to match the tool to your budget as well as your needs.You may want to use more than one to focus on different keywords but it can be counter-productive to have too many alerts going. If they’re all reporting the same information it can get very noisy! Most of these have trials and several are free, so don’t feel like you need to start with the most expensive package. The point is to start finding out where conversations are happening and what people are talking about. (CLICK THROUGH FOR STEP 2!)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Free SEO Tools from Webmaster Automation

SEO Marketing Tools

SoloSEO: Do-It-Yourself SEO tools

61 Pre-SEO Campaign Questions you need to answer to determine whether you should in-source or outsource your search marketing 

The Most Basic SEO Web Services Every Webmaster Should Checkout

Semantic Web

What is it? You can click thru that question for the full article, but here’s an excerpt:

In the Semantic Web data itself becomes part of the Web and is able to be processed independently of application, platform, or domain. This is in contrast to the World Wide Web as we know it today, which contains virtually boundless information in the form of documents. We can use computers to search for these documents, but they still have to be read and interpreted by humans before any useful information can be extrapolated. Computers can present you with information but can’t understand what the information is well enough to display the data that is most relevant in a given circumstance. The Semantic Web, on the other hand, is about having data as well as documents on the Web so that machines can process, transform, assemble, and even act on the data in useful ways.

Intro to WolframAlpha: This is a great visual explanation of the Semantic Web. Basically, it’s like thumbing through an encyclopedia again…but on the Web.

Small (Social) Business

Social Media for the Little Guy from SES NY: Find out how small companies with small budgets can freely tap the world of social media to improve business and increase sales.

Small Biz Twitter List

Social Media Business Team

Who Should be Involved?

Roles & Responsibilities

Building a Listening Platform

Software

Audio and Video Conversion Software (a list of many)

Subscription & Distribution Services

What is Google Feedburner? Click here Provide an Email Subscription option for readers of your blog via Feedburner: just one of the ways you can subscribe to this blog, for example… The other subscription option is an RSS feed. This is mine:

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

What’s an RSS feed? I can answer that for you:

Click here or on the image above to download the full PDF presentation, or view it online at SlideShare.

How To Embed And Display RSS Feeds On Any Web Page: Best RSS-To-HTML Publishing Tools

Fever: A very cool RSS reader if you’re into cool RSS readers

Tiny URL Creators

scrim: Use scr.im to get less email spam. Convert your email address into a short, cute and safe link you can share on the web, in Twitter, forums, Craigslist, or anywhere.

Cligs: Shorten your URLs and track the clicks they get with analytics, social media monitoring, and geotargeting

BudURL: Shrink a link. Share it. Watch it grow. (Shorten URLs and track clicks.)

Bit.ly: Track links in real time, access the complete history of your bit.ly links and store your Twitter account and other preferences

Is.gd: shorten your link and learn an interesting tidbit. Domain names that end in .gd, such as is.gd, are assigned by the island nation of Grenada, the world’s second largest producer of nutmeg. Who knew? Now you do.

Ow.ly: From the folks at HootSuite

to.ly: created by Jonas Lejon, who created lots of cool websites in the past such as BlogBackupr, TweetBackup, Download11 and TweetValue.

u.nu … Claim to offer the shortest URLs (until someone figures out how to make them even shorter)

Clickmeter: Web Marketing Tool…Click Tracking Online Service, shorten URLs, pay per click monitor…Follow them on twitter @clickmeter

Transactions

Twitter for Business

Starter Kit by Altitude Branding

101 Twitter Tools – an insane list from Marc Meyer

Get Started Guide for BusinessPeople by ComputerWorld

New To Twitter? MUST READ: The Anatomy of a Successful Tweet, a guest post on Twitip.com by Leo Dirr, a.k.a. @UtahNewsGuy

These guys (and girls) rock. Find out right from HubSpot “How to Use Twitter For Business” (Click here or on the image to the right to download their PDF.) You can also follow @HubSpot on twitter. They’re gurus and they have GREAT whitepapers, webinars and marketing resources. If you’re a professional marketer, you can join their pro marketing groups on Facebook and on LinkedIn

50 Ideas from Chris Brogan

Market Research on Twitter from Pistachio Consulting

Twitter Tools for Communications Professionals: From Brian Solis

25 Innovative Ways Companies are Using Twitter

12 Ways to Find Brands & Companies on Twitter

List of 100 Twitter Tools to help you achieve your goals.

Real-time Brand Tracker: twitter tracking, by electric artists

Twitter Keys Jazz up your twitter posts with these special characters & symbols

Twitter Productivity: How to Stop Twitter Becoming a Waste of Time

Master Twitter in 10 min or less! Get the free download from twitteroid.

TweeTube: The easiest way to share video recordings on twitter (with an even easier app download for MAC)

6 Ways to Maximize the Use of Your 140 Character Tweets

TwiTip: Tweeting for Business (includes a slideshare deck)

Check out the very cool and various twitter apps from twtapps, including:

• twtpoll – create online polls
• twtvite – event manager
• twtlong – send longer tweets
• twtBizCard – online business card
• twtQpon – create online coupons
• twtjobs – career manager
• twtBiz – business directory
• twtTRIP – travel organizer
• twtwlst – gift registry
• twtcard – greeting cards
• twtpets – game for pet lovers

iPhone apps to push video to Twitter from SocialWayne.com

The most useful marketing posts about Twitter from Who’s Blogging What

How to deal with negative comments about you on Twitter from John Haydon

Twitter Case Studies

40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them

Five reasons Twitterers make better employees

7 Impressive Twitter Customer Service/Brand Management Case Studies

A Chronology of Brands that Got Punk’d by Social Media by Jeremiah Owyang of Web Strategy

Twitter Clients

Using your web browser to tweet? Might I suggest an alternative? My favorite, mentioned in some of the lists above, is TWEETDECK. I can’t imagine my twitter life without it. To be fair, I am giving Nambu a test drive at the suggestion of a twitter pal. Other alternatives include: twhirl, twitterfox and tweetgrid. For the iPhone, I prefer tweetie to the others I’ve tried. Alternatives include: Twittelator Pro and TwitterFon.

TwitZap is a web-based Twitter client that focuses on 3 major features. It lets you slice Twitter into realtime streams of stuff that matters to you. TwitZap users can tweet each other in real-time using  Twitter accelerator technology even while Twitter is down.

Now this one just cracks me up…Spreadtweet. So, you work at a big corporate, and you’re not allowed to use Twitter…so you think to yourself, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if there were a Twitter tool that looked just like Excel?” Well, there is; and you have @elliottkember to thank.

25 Twitter Apps to Manage Multiple Accounts

Twitter Icons & Background Pages

Over 75+ Beautiful Twitter Design Icons

Twitter Background Design Specifications from TweetStyle

Twitter background page specs and sizes

Twitter Search Tools

Here’s a few tools to help you find the people and the information you need.

TweepSearch.com: Search twitter BIOs with keywords…this is a really fabulous search tool for finding people who use terms/words in their bio that connect with you and your twitter “who to follow” objectives

To search TWEETS (as opposed to BIOs in the tool above)  you can use Twitter’s own search engine

People Browser: PeopleBrowsr.com is a simple visual dashboard that adds more power to Twitter, your other online identities and those of your friends.

LOCAL DIRECTORY / BALTIMORE: 2009 Guide to Baltimore Media on Twitter, created by Sawmill Marketing Public Relations

Twibs Directory of Twitter Businesses

Twitter Directory: Just Tweet It, Find other twitter users just like you

Twitter Directory: Book Trade People (book publishers and others in the book trade)

C-Level Tweeters (Confirmed List)

WeFollow: A user-powered Twitter Directory

Who’s in Your Twitter-Neighborhood? Find out at TwellowHood.

TwitterMass: Automates the process of finding new Twitter users to follow by searching for keywords and then following the most interesting of these users. TwitterMass also automatically unfollows users who don’t follow you back within a few days. Aimed at developing “qualified followers”

TwitterHawk: Find people like you, near you. If you’re into automation (not always advised, of course, but problems of managing high volumes of followings/followers are having us test the waters), TH sends responses on your behalf to people that match your specific search criteria to help promote and market you and your brand. To do this, you simply need to enter in the words you want to search through other peoples tweets for, and up to 5 different responses you want to send them. Choose how often you want them to search, and TH does the rest.

Misc. Twitter Search Tools: Tweefind, Tweepfind, Tweetspinner, twitterHIT

Twitter: Monitoring & Analytics

SocialToo.com: manage custom twitter account settings and preferences, such as stats on new followers and unfollowers and auto-responders (although, robo-messages are frowned upon my most twitterati)

TweetBacks A WordPress Plug-in created by Dan Zarella. Allows you to add instances where your blog has been mentioned on Twitter to your blog’s comments section

TweetBeep Get email alerts when your keywords or domain name is used on Twitter. THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT!

Twendz: a keyword-based Twitter search app that highlights conversation themes and sentiment of the tweets on topics you are interested in. As the conversation changes, so does twendz by evaluating up to 70 tweets at a time. When new tweets are posted, they are dynamically updated, minute by minute.

Twinfluence Measure your “Twitter Influence”

Friend & Follow Management: Type your username in at Friend Or Follow to see who are you following that’s not following you back and who’s following you that you’re not following back.

TwitterFriends: Get a stack of interesting information on your use of Twitter (or any Twitter user). Click here for the article that explains TwitterFriends and click here to go directly to TwitterFriends.

Twitter Grader

Twitter Tricks: Top 10 Tools to Keep You Tweeting Productively

TwtPoll: Create your poll, then share it on twitter, facebook or via email

Trendrr: Track, compare and share data, free. Identify trends across social graphs and networks, realize the potential of p2p, track engagement metrics, look at what is really happening, real time.

Trackur: Online Reputation Monitoring & Social Media Monitoring Tools

4 ReTweet Tools & Trackers from twitip.com

Web Conference Services

Looking for alternatives to WebEx and Go To Meeting? Maybe a free or a pay as you go plan?

FUSE Meeting: Web Meetings in HD. Enjoy the flexibility of free, pay as you go or monthly plans

DimDim.com

Web Design

Using Click Heatmaps to Optimize Web Design: A post by Obzervant, a blog that recommends site usability and traffic quality improvements to increase conversion rates and online advertising effectiveness.

50 Excellent Corporate Website Designs a post from Webdesigner Depot

5 Best Places to Create Avatars from the 1918 blog

Need icons? Find them here: iconfinder (thanks to Jeff Chandler for the share)

35 creative and colorful wordpress themes

15 Valuable Usability PDFs: Here’s a list that you might not have heard of, but should know of and can use.

50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory: While many of us can create something that looks good in Photoshop or attractive when spliced into CSS, but do we actually understand the design theory behind what we create? Theory is the missing link for many un-trained but otherwise talented designers. Here are 50 excellent graphic design theory lessons to help you understand the ‘Whys’, not just the ‘Hows’.

Learn more about graphic design: links from Seth Godin

Useful tools for testing cross browser compatibility

Google website translator makes your website instantly available in other languages

Broken link checker from dead-links.com

W3C Link Checker – checks both links and anchors in web pages or full web sites

How much is my site worth? Best services to estimate a website value

Color Scheme Designer

The Ultimate Website Launch Checklist posted by Dan Zambonini

Web Hosting

Widgets

Attn Non-Profits & WOM Fundraisers: ChipIn offers a great way to make fundraising easy for everyone to participate in and promote on your behalf. It’s a Web-based service that simplifies the process of collecting money from groups of people, making it quick, easy and secure. Also gives organizers numerous ways to get the word out about their ChipIn event.

Wikis

What is a wiki?

Social Media Marketing Examples created by Peter Kim

Start your own wiki: pbwiki.com

Check out Google Sites for easy setup, administration and collaboration capabilities

WOM (Word of Mouth)

Andy Sernovitz: Offline WOM

4 Defenses from Negative Word of Mouth

Twitter Invites via twtvite.com

Word Clouds

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

YouTube.com

YouTube Marketing: 11 Ways to Promote Your Business on YouTube

Marketing Your Business on YouTube

Believe the Hype
Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, My Space, SlideShare, Flickr…it’s a lot, I know. And I keep hearing the same question: “But have you gotten any business out of it?” My answer: That’s not why I can be found at any of those places (at the moment). I’ve jumped in the water and I’m soaked through to the virtual skin with the possibilities of it all. I’m in a service business, but right now, these web-based social venues are not about “getting more business” online—they’re about “getting more out of my business network” online so I can build my business better offline.

Learn. Share. Link.
The truth is, I haven’t even scratched the surface of what any of these social media outlets can do for me. The untapped potential at my fingertips is enough to keep me awake at night, I tell you. Now, instead of going online to search for information that I’m interested in, the information I’m interested in comes directly to me. Once you find the global, national, regional and/or local leaders in your online community, you’ll have instant and consistent access to the content, thinking and innovation that may inspire you on the local level. In turn, you can then filter, frame and forward on content, thinking and innovation to (and for) the clients, peers or prospects who are interested in what you have to say. (HINT: This is the part where you actually DO “get business out of it.”)
So instead of looking at online social media outlets as “forced socialization” (which is how some real life networking functions can feel), think of it as “flexible socialization” that you can customize, alter, enhance, engage and disengage at a hard cost of $0. And as an added bonus, you don’t even have to dress up and put on your uncomfortable shoes. The only cost here is your time. And for that, I say input equals output.

Make Social Media Make Sense To You
If you STILL think you “don’t have time” for this stuff, consider finding a few (or even one!) good blogs to read that are put forth by someone who has invested the time to sift through the virtual layers of dialogues, chatter, posts, walls, comments, etc. (Obvious recommendation to subscribe to my posts here on GrayMatter Minute, as just one REALLY GOOD example.) And chances are you’re going to eventually find yourself wanting to join the conversation. When you do, be strategic and break it down:

ASK what this form of “socialization” is about (The Media “What”)

DEFINE how you can best use the medium (The Media “How”)

SET your personal/business usage objectives and goals (The Media “Why”)

FIND the thought leaders in your area of interest and listen to the conversation (The Media “Who”)

ENGAGE! (The NEW MEDIA YOU!)

Stop Talking Yourself Out of It and Tweet Yourself Into It, Already!
I recommend trying Twitter as a starting point if your online objectives are business oriented, as are mine. Twitter will lead you to great blogs, great thinkers, great sites, endless resources and even face-to-face meetups (or “TweetUps” as they are called) with other tweeters. Here’s a great post from Sarah Evans (a.k.a. @PRsarahevans on Twitter) that can help you get your head around the Twitter “How To’s” so you can fast track your learning curve. You’re also going to want to check out Darren Rowse’s blog: TwiTip.

Move Yourself From A Follower to A Following
Take it from someone who was never a big fan of networking events because they felt so forced. It’s the absolute and unabashed flexibility social media offers me that has me singing…er, tweeting, posting and facebooking…its praises. You’ll be amazed at what building your own little (or big) following can do for your business. You’ll probably even find yourself no longer asking if you’re “getting any business out of” social media and focusing more on the value you’re “bringing to it.” And that, folks, is the real bottom line on social media.

Find Me and Say Hello
Get to know my business better on LinkedIn: Renee Lemley
Join the conversation I’m having on Twitter: www.twitter.com/usegraymatter

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With so much information and technology available, changing and churning, it’s a challenge for any busy person to keep up with new social media outlets without feeling like you’ve been pulled into an endless “time suck.”

But don’t let the potential perception of social media (SM) as time-wasting technology override the long term benefits of keeping up with the “Joneses, Inc.”

You may not think you have the time, but your customers and clients do. And after dipping your toes in the SM water, you’ll be surprised how many of your peers are using the latest online tools to communicate, network, link, blog, SlideShare, bookmark and boost SEO. It’s not a bad idea to take a closer look at how you want to define your social spectrum.

By reading the leading bloggers or following the most twitterful tweeters, you’ll also be able to find ways SM can act as a “time saver” instead of a “time suck” when it comes to generating leads, finding resources and staying current on innovative marketing trends.

Here are a few articles that offer a few of the WHY’s of why Social Media is becoming a Social Must:

Why Social Media? Bridging the “productivity divide.”
Why Blog?
Why Twitter? How to use Twitter for Marketing & PR.
Why is it that if I’m not LinkedIn, I’ll be LeftOut?
Why should I use SlideShare? What is SlideShare?

What’s the bottom line?
The SM technology train is moving fast. Now is a good time to find out how you can enjoy the ride…