P2 is a great new Wordpress theme that masters the micro-blogging art on your blog. It allows you to post on the page itself, comment, up-load photos and videos, and interact the way micro-blogging should be. I see this becoming a standard for the type of interaction we will be seeing on on-line forums; moving away from what we have been seeing since the 90’s. It will change the way communities interact with each other. It is quite familiar if you are use to Facebook – but this is for your blog.

Disqus 3 – the latest commenting system from Disqus, is coming next week.  This is the second real-time commenting system to come out, the other being JS-Kit’s Echo which I am still on the waiting list for… looks like Disqus 3 will be my choice.  I have been really happy with my current version of Disqus and look forward to next week!

Since the announcement on Monday that Facebook has bought Friendfeed I have noticed a large jump in the number of people subscribing to my feed on Friendfeed.  My feeling, backed by no statistics, is that there has been an increase in the number of people joining Friendfeed, due to the announcement, to check it out – and the reason my subscribers have jumped is due to people coming over from Twitter that follow me there (when you join Friendfeed it gives you the option to subscribe to those you follow on Twitter and Facebook).  I took a look at some of my new Friendfeed subscribers and sure enough most are coming from Twitter.  There was even one that commented on joining Friendfeed after hearing the announcement on Monday.  I did not expect this result – it is interesting.

In today’s web, one full of blogs, tweets, and social networking sites it is more and more important to monitor your brand.  Your brand could be anything from your own name and reputation to big corporations.

Here are just a few of the reasons why you should monitor your brand:

1. People are “talking” – Social media has created an outlet that empowers consumers to discuss their relationships and encounters with different brands.  They are sharing anything from what they had for lunch (what they had to where and to how much they liked it) to personal reviews on products or services.
2. To understand your market – Monitoring your brand will also empower you with a better understanding of your target audience.  As you discover what they are discussing about you, you can also glean what else they are interested in, where they are on-line and perhaps where you should be on line.
3. Containment – Because social media allows anyone and everyone to say whatever they want, true or not, you need to know as quickly as possible when something negative is being shared about your brand.  Regular monitoring is key to containment.  You want to know and respond as quick as possible.
4. Self promotion – Opposite of containment, hopefully they majority of what people are saying about your brand is positive.  You also want to know this as soon as possible so you can capitalize on what is being shared.

There are a lot of different tools out there that can be used to help you monitor your brand from the very simple, regular Google searches or even Google Alerts, to contracting out monitoring services, and everything in between.  The important thing is that you have some sort of plan and you get out there and interact with the web community.

If you have questions on how you can to monitor your brand feel free to contact me, I am always open to discussing ways you can empower yourself or ways I can help you.

This post was originally posted on Family Nester – my family life and parenting blog.

Facebook is now a big part of society. It has been around for a few years now and has changed the way we interact with friends and keep connected. It is also a big way for our kids to connect and share with their friends. So the question comes up, should parents get on Facebook? My answer is most defiantly yes, for several reasons… none of which are to spy on your kids.

First of all, some of the rules, Facebook is set up for users 13 and older. You should make sure your kids are not on Facebook until they are 13. Also under the Facebook Privacy Policy they recommend that minors (13-18) get permission before they send any information to anyone over the Internet.

From it’s terms of use:

Registration and Account Security

Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Here are some commitments you make to us relating to registering and maintaining the security of your account:

1. You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.
2. You will not use Facebook if you are under 13.

From it’s privacy policy:

Children Under Age 13

Facebook does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 13, please do not attempt to register for Facebook or send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under age 13 may provide any personal information to or on Facebook. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us through the form on our privacy help page.

Children Between the Ages of 13 and 18

We recommend that minors 13 years of age or older ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet.

With that aside we can get into the fun.

Reason 1: Facebook and social media as a whole is about connecting with people. With those you know and those you have not met yet. It is a way to get to know your friends and family better along with a way to get to know new people who, perhaps share a common interest or experience. With Facebook as a parent we have the opportunity in basking in all the social media fun, connecting with past friends and family. Meeting new friends and sharing in common experiences. It does not have to be just about being a parent… In fact I think the best way for you and your kids to be comfortable with your use of Facebook is for you to primarily use it for this reason – just to socially interact on line with your friends, old and new.

Reason 2: As a kid I was always curious about my parents and what they were like, who they know and what they did when they were my age. As parents use Facebook more and more they open up a window for their kids to better understand them and where they come from. There is a lot they Can learn about you by how you interact with your friends on Facebook – it gives your kids a new window into your life they would not have had otherwise. Also, if you are a parent with older children who are at collage, or on their own, it gives your kids a place to go to see what is going on at home and in your life. I personally love that my parents are on Facebook and have yet to catch up to my mom in the number of friends she has.

Reason 3: Just as our kids have a chance to connect with us we have the chance to connect with them more through their Facebook profiles. Now I know the question is coming up, “What if your kids will not accept you as a friend on Facebook?” I would not push it – it really depends though on your relationship with your kids. The reason they may not want you as a friend may be that they are more afraid of being embarrassed by you then being spy-ed on. In an article on Facebook and parenting on the Facebook blog by Kathy H. Chan where she interviewed BJ Fogg and Linda Fogg Phillips about Facebook for Parents, Kathy asked them about just this subject – I liked the answers they gave:

We’ve heard that some kids are uncomfortable “friending” their parents on the site.
Linda: I am friends with each of my children. The reaction was mixed. I found that it depended on the age and maturity level of my child and to some degree, the relationship I have with that particular child. I will admit that one of my daughters got mad at me and blocked me for a period of time, but then we worked out our differences and she added me back as a friend.

Are you friends with your kids’ friends, as well?
Linda: Yes, quite a few of them. It really helps bridge the gap as far as communication and for me to be comfortable with their friends, too. I don’t request them, they request me. I’m not going to intrude on their lives.

Any other ground rules?
Linda: Depends on the child. That’s also what we talked about with the parents in our class. If your child doesn’t want to “friend” you, don’t worry about it. We found that the No. 1 reason most kids don’t want their parents to be their friend on Facebook is that they’re afraid their parents will embarrass them — more so than being exposed and letting parents know what they’re doing.

BJ: In some cases, that means, “Don’t ever post on my wall,” and in almost all cases, it means, “Don’t post baby photos of me naked in the tub and tag me.” The more the parents in our class learned about Facebook, the more their kids seemed to relax.

Linda: I try to respect my kids’ space, but at the same time, I try to be a responsible parent who is involved in their lives. In turn, they actually enjoy interacting with me on Facebook.

Reason 4: This reason applies to everyone – social media is a part of our society. I am still surprised at some of my friends who are afraid of being on line and do not have a facebook account. I use Facebook as my rolodex – the method I find and connect with my friends. If you are not on yet, it is time, not just as a parent; people are looking for you to organize the next high school reunion, to find out what’s up in your life, or to find out where you are.

In short, Facebook is where your kids are going to be and where your should also. As you use it to connect with your friends your relationship with your kids will also reap the benefits. So get on line and sigh up if you have not already.

Social media is becoming more and more part of the way we interact on line.  It is also becoming a great source for breaking news and communication.  With recent examples like the conflict over the Iranian Election results to YouTube being awarded a Peabody award for promoting democracy.  I have put together the following presentation intended to highlight some of these neat facts on how social media is changing the world.  Enjoy and share:

One of the great things about social media is that it gives anyone the opportunity to have powerful marketing tools at their fingers and many of the best ones are free.  Free, at least monetarily, there is still the cost of time and effort.

This post is prompted by a request I received today from one of my twitter followers, California Tea & Coffee Brewery.  They have a small company, have been set up on twitter, have a blog, and have started doing the basics of of social media.  It’s a start.

Here are some tips on getting started on using social media for your small business, and all for free:

1. Have a plan – Social Media, when used by businesses, is marketing.  When you get started it is ok to look around a bit, test it out, learn how it works, but to make it effective you need to have a plan.  Answer the questions:
   
   • Who is the target audience and where are they now on line?
   • What do you want out of using social media?
   • What can you do and learn to do on your own, or who can you lean on to help you?
   • What resources do you have?

   Use the answers to these questions to create a plan. The plan should be layed out to get you what you want out of social media.  Keep this all in mind as I present the rest of these tips – they should help you answer the question on what you can do or learn.

2. Blog – Your blog is the base for your social media.  Even if you have a huge on-line web presence that is not a blog – to do social media right you need a blog.  Social media is about interaction with your community, audience, fans, subscribers, friends, partners, customers, or consumers.  The blog provides a format for you to interact with them.  Tell them what you are doing, provide tips, answer concerns, even to discuss where the company/business should go.  When you start listening to what your audience has to say you will better understand them and they will feel the love.
   
   Now this is all fine and dandy, but how do you blog for free? Here are a the two most common options:
   
   • Blogger – This is a widely used blogging service owned by Google.  It is simple to use and free if you use their URL, blogspot.com, with your sub-domain (ie. yourblog.blogspot.com).  It is a great way to start for a small business.
   • Wordpress.com – Wordpress.org is the most used blogging platform for businesses, it is not self hosted, though free to use and open-source, web-hosting is not free.  Wordpress.com is the thinned down version and is self hosted.  Similar to Blogger your URL is yourblog.wordpress.com.

   A third option is a little less traditional, but I feel will become more and more common and I feel is a great way to start blogging on a small free level:

   • Facebook – latter I will talk about having a Facebook Fan page, this blog would be part of that fan page.  If the majority of your audience is on Facebook and not on twitter then this option might just be for you – no need for cross content… and it’s free.  The simplest way to do this is to use the notes section of your fan page.  When you create a new note it will then post to your fan page wall, you can also set it to post to your personal wall.  Then any likes and comments from anywhere on Facebook on your note will show up linked with your fan page note.
3. Twitter – Twitter is also a must.  See my post, Why Your Business Needs to Twitter, for reasons why.  As to how to use it people write books like crazy on this.  For a business it’s all about the followers you have; who you want them to be, who they are, how they follow you, and how you interact with them.
   
   • Followers come from all over, typically you want your followers to be your captive audience – people interested in your business.  To get these types of followers, they could join you because you let them know you are on Twitter (from a link on your blog or web site, a sign in your store or whatever).  You can also do searches for Twitter users using key words related to your business and then follow those people, tweet about them and then hope they follow you.  You can also actively follow up to 1000 users a day (after you follow 2000, you can only follow 10% more then are following you).  Getting over the 2000 mark can be difficult for some (this is one of the things I do for businesses).  The more followers you have though, the more reach you have with both your target followers and all the rest that have come for the show.  I recommend, while following those who are interested in your niche, to also try to grow your followers in general.
   • How do they follow you is also important to understand.  When you tweet a link only about 1-5% of your followers will even see the tweet (it really depends though on who is following you) and if you are lucky 1-2% will click on it (around 2% of my followers that will click on a good link I post).  Now consider, if you just have 400 followers, then you could get 4-8 people to click on the link.  If you had 10,000 followers; that’s 100-200 – at 100000 followers then your looking at 1000-2000.
   • How you interact will greatly effect who and how many people follow you, and your links.  If you listen and interact with your Twitter followers the more they will pay attention – perhaps even follow your Twitter’s RSS feed.
4. Facebook – Set up a Facebook fan page.  There are over 250 million active users on Facebook and almost half of those visit Facebook at least once a day.  On your fan page you can set up your blog RSS feed to pull to the notes or you can also add third party apps such as Networked Blogs to pull in your feed.  Facebook will also give you a location where people can interact with you.  For ideas on how to engage people on Facebook I recommend looking at the following two Facebook resources:
   
   • Facebook Marketing Solutions
   • Facebook for Influencers

   Both these sites provide tools, tips and examples of what you can do with Facebook.  Check out some of the examples if you are looking for ideas on how things can be set up and how they interact with their fans.

These 4 points are just the beginning, but for a small business this might be all you can handle without hiring someone part-full time – in fact it could be more than enough to keep you occupied.  Then you can call someone like me and I can help you take it to the next level or just help you get through these.  With consistent effort and skill you can do a lot on your own to promote and build your business using social media.  Enjoy it too.

Vann’s, a Montana based home electronic and appliance store, is looking for someone to manager their on-line community through social media sites. The way they are doing this is forward web 2.0 thinking and part of a good social media marketing plan. I’ll describe just what they are doing:

• They are advertising the position through social media sites.  I came across the job posting on Mashable.
• They have set up a Ning social networking group just for the hunt called, Vann’s Community Manager, at community.vanns.com.  The site is set up for applicants to join, share about themselves (like their qualifications).  This is also where the full job description is and instructions on how to apply.
• As part of the application for the position Vann’s has also asked the applicants to create a 60 second video to, “Show us and tell us why you’re the best candidate for this job. Entertain us.”
• The next part of the application process is for the applicants to use their social media skills to spread the word about their video and get people to watch and vote for their video.
• Later, in September, they will be choosing someone for the position.

If the plan works as they have laid it out, the exposure from the applicants should help spread the word and advertise for Vann’s.  Such as this post.  You see, I have applied for the job.  I think it is a fun social media strategy and one that I think is perfect for such a job.

So in my own shameless self promotion, check out my video and vote – I would love all the votes possible.  Also feel free to share it as much as possible.  Thanks!

Today, while checking out all the fun on Facebook, I noticed an ad on the sidebar, “TJ Boise City Council.”  The use of Facebook for a city election is a great way to get the word out to your constituents.  On Facebook, most people belong to a local network – I am sure this is how TJ’s ad was targeted at me – I belong to the Boise network.

Small targeted ad placement on Facebook could bring your site the traffic you need to get the word out, rally the troops, or get people in your doors.  Social media advertising is all about targeting your audience – the exact demographic you are trying to reach.

Here is a little video I got from TJ’s site – after I followed the link in the ad – it worked on me…

Old Navy has one of the most creative social media business plans I have seen.  I have been intrigued at how they have rallied their customers to their social media sites web page and stores.  They have also incorporated their traditional marketing to blend with their social media campaign.

The reason I am aware of their campaign is mainly due to my wife who is part of Old Navy’s target audience.  They have done such a good job at getting to her that we just bought most of our kids back to school clothes at Old Navy.  You see my wife is an avid couponer; she reads coupon blogs like they are a hot and steamy romance novel – looking for the next best deal and best sale.

Let me describe the main gist of what I see of Old Navy’s marketing plan:

• Their marketing plan is centered around their “Supermodelquins,” a group of Old Navy mannequins.
• The Supermodelquins are then used in all the advertisements; TV commercials, on-line videos, and print and website ads.
• The Supermodelquins also have their own YouTube Channel The Supermodelquins. Here you can see all the ads, in addition to web only ones that tell more of their stories like the ones in this video:
  
  

• Once a week Old Navy also has a special promotion for the latest clothes and specials.  On the day the new promotion starts they reset their weekly promotion website www.oldnavyweekly.com with the latest information along with several embedded on-line printable coupons.  The majority of these coupons are for small savings, but each week there are several $75 off purchases of $100 or more, and similar coupons (this changes though from week to week). There are limited numbers of the big coupons, and they are hidden throughout the site.
• Also on the day OldNavyWeekly.com is reset the fresh TV ads come out, corresponding to the coupon site.  Often this is when my wife is reminded it is time to check their site.  By the time you see the commercial though it is typically to late for the big coupons… I will explain why later.
• Along with these typical advertising methods Old Navy uses Twitter and Facebook – but not the way other companies do.  They have their fan pages and corporate Twitter accounts but they also have personal fan pages and Twitter accounts for each Supermodelquin.  With these accounts the Supermodelquins interact with eachother, creating a type of soap-opera between themselves while also interacing with their fans and followers.
• Beyond this Old Navy also has the Supermodelquins interacting in the blogosphere.  Commenting on coupon sites and more – even personal blogs.  I saw one blog post on a personal blog where someone took a picture of herself with one of the male Supermodelquins – there were comments and tweets from the supermodelquin’s supermodelquin girlfriend.  They seem to be having a lot of fun with it, and it’s working.

This is the gerneral structure of the marketing plan – how it works is the beautiful thing.  On the couponing sites, where my wife has seen the effect of this marketing plan, is where the real juice happens.  You see each week there are coupon blogs that wait for the OldNavyWeekly.com site to be reset.  They know exactly when this will happen and sit in the comment section of the latest blog post about the new sale, refreshing the page over and over while they chat where the best coupons are. You can only get one coupon so once someone has the best one they share where it is found (they really need to get the new JS-Kit Echo commenting system on these blogs).  Several of these blogs get thousands of comments from hundreds of women during the first few hours after the new promotion starts.  Some make a party of it and get together with their friends and their laptops as they do it.  Old Navy has caught on to this happening and now the Supermodequins also join in on the fun, dropping hints from time on the blogs as to the location of the different coupons.  What a great way to build loyal customers.

In all, I have been greatly impressed with Old Navy’s use of social media to promote their brand.  It is fun, cute, and viral while at the same time creating a customer driven interaction between Old Navy and their customers.  Great job Old Navy!