Giving you an in-depth look at social media along with understanding the myriad of choices on what to use and how to use social media is beyond the scope of this article. We will however, offer you a very brief overview of three of the most popular social media platforms. With this overview, you will hopefully gain the motivation to investigate your options even further, begin realizing the full potential of these platforms, and ultimately broaden the reach of your own voice.

Facebook

• TOS (Terms of Service) states users of Facebook must be 13 years or older
• Objectionable material (nudity, adult language, hatred, etc.) is rarely found and can be reported
• Post messages on your “wall” containing text and multimedia
• Privacy of your messages is controllable in multiple ways (groups, friends only, friends of friends only, etc.)
• Create business pages
• Create multiple “tabs” for business pages (i.e., Welcome, Photos, Videos, Store, Specials, etc)
• Customize business pages to fit your own unique branding
• Create contests
• Post links to other web pages or event announcements
• Create news stories and event announcements
• Post pictures and videos within posts or albums
• People “Like” or “Recommend” you via direct invitation, ad campaigns, and sharing via your friends
• Marketing is accomplished by building a network of “friends” or “fans” (used interchangeably)
• Viral content is created by posting compelling content that is shared by your friends/fans to their friends, and so on.

Twitter

• TOS does not state a minimum age requirement
• Objectionable material is often found, and can be searched for
• Messages are posted as text only on a public feed, called “tweets”
• Multimedia can be added to one’s account profile and linked to
• Web pages and multimedia can be linked to within posts but not seen directly within post.
• Marketing is accomplished by building a network of “Followers”
• Viral content is created by posting compelling tweets that are subsequently “retweeted” to their followers, and so on.

Blogs

• TOS varies, but usually states users must be 13 years of age and prohibits objectionable material
• There are a number of blogging services, the most popular of which include WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr
• All blogging services allow you to create posts and link them together in a variety of ways, most popular of which simulates an interactive magazine
• All blogging services allow pages to be any length, along with having a variety of multimedia embedded within pages
• All blogging services provide a variety of ready-made templates, along with the ability to create one’s own, or customize existing templates
• Blogs are “subscribed to” via RSS or Atom feeds
• Marketing and viral content are both created much like a standard web page via promotion, word of mouth, ad campaigns and search engine optimization; there are no internal ways within blogging services to create traffic.

How do you use social media as a marketing tool? What is your favorite social media platform?

If you are a part of Facebook and Twitter, then you should have a widget on your blog as well. These allow your visitors to be even more engaged in your site and it gives an insight to who you are as a social networker. Adding a badge is as easy as four steps.

Facebook Badge for WordPress

There are different directions to take to place a Facebook widget on your site, but here is the most common way.

1. Log into Facebook and go to the link “Add a Badge to Your Site” at the bottom of your profile page (mine displays left under my friend list)
2. Go to Badges Home and there is a list for you to choose a template.  The most common that I use on sites are the Like, Activity Feed, and the Live Stream, but you can choose whichever template suits your fancy.
3. After choosing a template, you can make several edits to the badge {colors, fonts, size etc}.  Note:  the default is set at 300 for the width, so be sure to change the width for your site.
4. When you have the desired template set, click on “Get Code” and copy/paste the code into your Text Widget in WordPress.

Twitter Feed for WordPress

1. After you have logged into Twitter, scroll on down to the bottom of the page and hit “Resources”
2. Click on the “Widgets” option and then the desired template {most choose Profile Widget}. Note: Some on you may have a page in between Widget and the templates that gives the option of choosing between website and Facebook. Just choose website.
3. After you have chosen your template, customize to your creative heart’s desire.
4. When you are satisfied with your look, you can give it a “Test” run or click “Finish & Grab Code” and then copy/paste into your Text Widget in WordPress.

To read more blogging tips, be sure to check out the following pages:

• Blogging Tips: Top 6 WordPress Plugins
• Blogging Tips: Creating a “Grab My Button”

Do you have a Facebook and Twitter feed on your blog site? Why do you think it is important to engage with your visitors through social media?

Mariah Humphries is a wife, mother to three handfuls, graphic designer, blogger, photographer, and addicted to all things Starbucks. She blogs at Humphries Nation where you can find her talking about faith, kids, and the randomness of life. When she is not watching a kids game or reading her Nook, she gets lost in social networking. She is also the one woman show over at Jula Studio as a print and WordPress designer.

1. Logo as Profile Picture
People connect with people, not logos. Your logo doesn’t mean anything to me, even if it’s a gorgeous avatar. It doesn’t build connections or make you seem real.

2. Location as the “World or Online”
Even in social media, people make connections with you based upon where you live. So, if your profile actually says that you lived in Ann Arbor Michigan, where the University of Michigan resides, do you think this could bring about conversations and connections? The more specific the better! Type out your full city and state or city, province, and “Canada.”

3. Links Going to Nowhere or No Link
Put a link to your website or blog in the link area. You can even change what page you send them to each week or eac day of a promo. This field should not be left empty. Advanced Tip: If you are super savvy, turn your link into a shortened bit.ly link and track how many people click through on your website everyday.

4. A Twitter Bio that Doesn’t Share About You or What You Do
You have 160 characters to play with for your bio. Tell me something personal first, like your hobbies or interests, then what you do as a business next. Third, tell me what makes your business special. This will help me connect with you as a person.

5. Never changing your Twitter Bio or Profile
Life changes. Business changes. Update your Twitter Bio! Here’s my bio of the week right now: ♥Momof3.Kids12.9.3.Woman39.BeginningRunner.♥ Mommy Blogger helping Moms to Maximize their Time. Social Media Manager+Consultant for @MomItForward

6. All Business All the Time
There is no bigger turn-off in social media than someone only talking about and promoting their business. This is not what social media is about. It is not a place for you to keep pushing your message until someone buys. Social media is about making connections, getting engaged, and giving people a chance to know, like, and trust you. Purchasing comes after that.

7. All Personal all the Time
Some people worry that about talking too much about their blog or their business. You can get over it easily by beginning to talk indirectly about the baby products you have or the gorgeous necklaces you make. Express your  excitement about a new color or getting your first order. You’re not saying “buy this” outright, but at least you’re talking about your business occasionally.

In a future post, I will define content marketing and talk specifically about what to tweet and how to find your target market on Twitter. For now, look over your profile in the next 24 hours and make some changes and adjustments. Ask a fellow blogger to look at your profile and tell you what they think it says about you.

Melissa Lierman loves Social Media and travels across the United States and Canada speaking and training on Social Media. She specializes in doing workshops on Social Media for Business. The online world is constantly changing and growing and Melissa has found it to be THE single most powerful and wonderful place for making friends, meeting moms, and connecting with clients all over the world! Melissa is a night owl and you can often find her tweeting on twitter late into the night – send her a tweet and say hello http://www.twitter.com/TimeOutMom.

Whether you are connected with 100 people, 1000 people, or 10,000 people on Twitter – Twitter Lists can help you organize and manage your Twitter experience. You get to create up to 20 lists with up to 500 people on each list. You are able to group people together by similar interests or purposes. You can make these lists either Public for everyone to see or Private that only you can see. Here are some suggested ideas of what type of lists you could create.

Connecting to Like-Minded Individuals

I wanted to get back into running for exercise in 2009 so I created a twitter hashtag #momsrunning to use every time I ran and invited other moms who ran to use it also. Now, we use that hashtag to communicate with each other about our runs, our struggles, our questions, or frustrations, and to share tips. Shortly, after this hashtag took off, I created a list of everyone that used that hashtag so we could all follow each other outside of our running endeavors.

Clients

I have a private client list on my account. I make sure that I am on top of what is going on with my clients and connecting with them on a daily basis. “Business is about building relationships, Make building them your business!” ~Scott Stratten @unmarketing.

#FollowFriday (#FF) this Week

I have great conversations everyday and come Friday I want to highlight a few people I connected with and used to write down these twitter handles in my planner for Fridays. Now, throughout the week, I just pop a person of interest into my Twitter List called “Follow Friday THIS week”. Then come Friday, I have a list all ready to go of who I would like to feature and introduce to my Twitter community. Once I have featured that person on a Friday, I remove them from the list.

Target Markets

I suggest that businesses create lists of their specific target markets as to easily observe, communicate, and get engaged with various groups. So, if your target market is something like: mommy bloggers, eco green moms, breastfeeding moms, cloth diapering moms, Michigan moms -then create a list for each of your main target markets.

People You Know in Real Life or Local Peeps

My first twitter list was of my friends that I knew in real life. I kept getting them lost in all of my followers and wanted to click on one place to connect with my friends fast vs. trying to remember all of their individual handles and typing those in. When I moved to a new community where I did not know very many people , I created  a Local List. So, whenever I found someone on Twitter from my new town, I popped them into a list named after the city in which I live. I started building on these connections online and now have met many of these people in person!

Look, Listen and be a Voyeur

I have a list of people, companies, and brands that I have identified as potential and prospective clients. This allows me to click on this list and listen, observe, and watch what is going on. I love the absolute openness of Twitter! You can be a complete voyeur and watch, listen, and learn about potential clients and even competitors.  There has never been anything else on the internet that is this open and is essentially a stream of consciousness of people and what is going on right that minute!

Bonus/Advanced

You can create a Twitter widget for one of your lists and then load that widget onto your website or blog. So, I could take all the tweets from everyone in the #momsrunning list and feed them right into my blog. To create these free widgets, go to http://twitter.com/about/resources. You can also customize this widget to exactly match your web colors too!

Twitter Lists are a wonderful and very powerful tool to better manage your Twitter experience. Don’t ignore this awesome enhancement. Go ahead and create a list today and see how it will change your time on Twitter for the better!

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MELISSA LIERMAN loves Social Media and travels across the United States and Canada speaking and training on Social Media. She specializes in doing workshops on Social Media for Business. The online world is constantly changing and growing and Melissa has found it to be THE single most powerful and wonderful place for making friends, meeting moms, and connecting with clients all over the world! Melissa is a night owl and you can often find her tweeting on twitter late into the night – send her a tweet and say hello http://www.twitter.com/TimeOutMom.

Twitter Home Stream
New Twitter users may be confused right now. Well, what you are reading when you log into Twitter or when you hit HOME at the top is called your Home Stream. This is information from all of the people listed under FOLLOWING. You have chosen to follow these people, which means that their tweets and content show up in your HOME stream. Only YOU can see all of these tweets. This is personal and specific to just you and seen only by you. If you would like to share a tweet with your Twitter community [all the people that are your FOLLOWERS], then you need to RETWEET it so it shows up in THEIR Twitter Home Stream. Clear as mud now?

Why ReTweet?
“ReTweeting is common, and it’s a form of conversation on Twitter. It’s also a powerful way to spread messages and ideas across Twitter quickly. So when you do it, you’re engaging in a way people recognize and usually like—making it a good way to connect.” ReTweeting allows you to provide valuable information that is of interest to your community from someone other than yourself. The very nature of Twitter is all about promoting other people and paying it forward. Twitter is such a collaborative community that it’s users started this whole ReTweeting process. The users of Twitter wanted to come up with a way to share and promote others.

When speaking and teaching about social media and Twitter, I often say “ReTweeting Makes the Twitter World Go ‘Round”. ReTweeting changes the whole Twitter environment from a flat 2-way communication to a round three dimensional synergistic environment. Better than just comment back “Great Article Melissa!” is for you to ReTweet that article to your community. It is sharing great information with your community, and it is also promoting and introducing someone else to your community that they may want to get to know.

What do I ReTweet?
Quotes, Bits of Humor, Great Ideas, Advice, Great Articles, Interesting Stories, Helpful Information for my Twitter Community. I love a good laugh to share with moms about crazy days with our kids and the adorable things they say or do. I love things I can relate to like being home for today with all my children and husband for the 3rd snow day in a row with 4 feet of snow and it’s still coming down. I love sharing stories about other mom entrepreneurs – especially ones with valuable information and advice. I love to share interesting, entertaining, and valuable information, plus I love to promote great social causes and great things that people in my twitter community are doing!

Show the Love and ReTweet Today! Make it a habit to ReTweet every day on Twitter. I never go a day without sharing and promoting others! Join me in making The Twitter World Go ‘Round!

SOURCES quoted in this article and great RESOURCES for more information about Twitter:
[from Twitter's User Guide: http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/learning]
[from Mashable's Twitter ReTweet Guide: http://mashable.com/2009/04/16/retweet-guide/]

MELISSA LIERMAN loves Twitter and is called the Twitter Wonder Woman! She travels across the United States and Canada speaking and training on Social Media. She specializes in doing workshops on Twitter – anywhere from 3 hours to a full day. Melissa used to be a Twitter Qwitter and now 18 months after coming back to Twitter she has found it to be THE single most powerful and wonderful place for making friends, meeting moms, and connecting with clients all over the world! Melissa is a night owl and you can often find her tweeting on twitter late into the night – send her a tweet and say hello http://www.twitter.com/TimeOutMom.