the sephone blog

I remember that a friend was making fun of a mutual acquaintance a few months ago.  (Not uncommon in my world.)  “Can you believe ’so-and-so’ Google’s himself?”

Well normally I would chime right in and say something like, “Well you know him, he thinks he is ‘all that and a bag of chips!’ “  BUT I actually was on the other side this time.

Google-ing yourself, your name and your company is what people do all the time.  You need to know what Google thinks of you, how it ranks you, I Googled myself one day and to my surprise Google found a white paper I co-authored back in the early 90’s!  Hey that was even before Al Gore invented the internet, right?

If you are looking for a job or your business is looking for customers, you want to make sure that you know what Google finds.  Large portal sites like Facebook, Linked-In and even Twitter can possibly be higher on the list than your own business website.  Why?  Because they get LOTS and LOTS of traffic from LOTS and LOTS of people and Google LOVES to “hang-out” with the popular gang, just like we do.

If you have a Facebook page, you’ll want to make sure that your privacy settings are set the way you want them to be, so you aren’t sharing information to people that you don’t know or don’t know you.  If your business has a Facebook FAN page,  you will want to make sure there are new posts about your business and that it presents your business just like it would if you put a new coat of paint on the outside of your building.

If you have a Linked In Page, make sure that is accurate and up to date.  Personally I don’t really use all the features that Linked In has, but I do have a profile and I do keep it as up to date as I can.

So dont think that Google-ing yourself or your business is vain.  It is the way people find people and people find businesses.  Shouldn’t you want to know what they are looking at?

You, your friends, your kids, pretty much everybody you know has a cell phone. There are 500 million users on FB and a bunch on Twitter and endless other social networks that can all post in multiple places at once.  So what you may be sharing to your FRIENDS on Facebook may cross over to other accounts that you may not realize, showing your personal business to the internet audience.  Or more importantly, your kids may be doing it.

We are big proponents of Social Media and cell phones and we have posted many things on this blog that encourages people to use these tools.  We tell people to “Try it, you’ll like it.” How you can build your business, reconnect with friends, stuff like that.  Maybe you haven’t started, maybe your kids have-so please listen to this.

Whether you know it or not, a cell phone can be a “spy” and can track your every move if you let it.  I am not going to repeat all the great posts I have read about this, but I will link a few here so you can read what they have said better than I can. From the Daily Beast,  I LOVED this post! It tells it all.

If you are telling people where you are and what you are doing using applications like foursquare or twitter others can know where you are or where you are NOT.  Like you aren’t at home and you are taking a family vacation — this is a great way to get your home broken into -did you know your phone may tag a location where you took the picture if you have the right (or wrong) setting?

I Can Stalk U really is a wake up call and it has very helpful tips with multiple cell phone interfaces so you can disable the most often default geotagging features.

We aren’t saying don’t use social media sites or your cell phone, we aren’t saying be AFRAID of social media sites.  Heck, we use them all the time, but just keep in mind what you provide and that you may be providing it to more people than you thought you were – and if you have kids at home, they maybe providing information to a predator.  Predators know how to use these tools better than you do and certainly bring a whole new level to “stranger danger.”

Somebody told you, “You need to make a Facebook Fan Page, for your business, they are really easy to make and they are FREE!”

That is true and if you have made your own facebook fan page, then you know just how easy it is. (We are making the assumption here that you have your own personal Facebook page, because you need one in order to make a Fan Page.)  Here is a direct link to Facebook’s explanation on how to do it.  It is listed under “Advertising” so many people get spooked and don’t bother to go there.  If you are more of a video watcher here is a good one (they are talking about restaurants, but it fits for anyone).  It is well worth the 10 minutes to see the step by step using screenshots – so you can see exactly what to do!

Why should my business have a Facebook Fan Page?

Marketers are talkers and of course they are all talking about why your business should have one, it is the RAGE!  Here is  a great post about it, there are tons of great posts about it, but I like this one because it is concise and doesn’t use a lot of $10 words. The meat and potatoes of this post is this and I quote: *

• Facebook has more than 350 million active users
• 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook

*numbers as of 2/10

Your business wants to have as much “eye” time and be “top of mind” to as many people/perspective or current clients as possible.

Why you don’t want a FACEBOOK Fan Page?

Just because it is free doesn’t mean it is right for you, right now.  When a “FAN” opens up their Facebook account in their “News Feed” section, there is the latest news from their friends, the causes they follow, and POOF! there you are with your latest special event or feature that you want to share with the world – unless of course you haven’t updated your page for 6 months and therefore it doesn’t post anywhere.

When people plan to come to visit your store, restaurant or whatever, if they look thru Facebook they can find you, but they also find that your last post was from December 2009.  They figure you don’t think it’s important, so neither do they and perhaps they don’t search for you at all, they choose to do business with the business that is in their “News Feed” once or twice a week.

Managing Facebook Fan Pages is bigger than just making one.  They don’t take long, but they do take doing. Make somebody accountable for doing it, just like you do when you have someone answer your business phone.  There are many companies out there (Sephone included), that can help you do this.  It doesn’t have to be expensive, once you see how it goes for a few months you can decide if you would like to take over the reigns!

The world of social media and the web is always changing, and sometimes it can be hard to keep up. All these new tools really can help your business, though, and we want to help you make the most of them.

Is there something you’ve heard about lately that’s piqued your interest? How about something you’ve always wondered about the web or social media but haven’t had the chance to ask? Here’s your chance. We’re going to start a series of posts with answers about using the web and social media in business, and we want your questions!

It’s simple. Just add a comment to this blog post or mention @Sephone on Twitter with a question about the web, social media, search, or anything else, really. We’ll do our best to answer right here on the blog. We’d love to hear all kinds of questions, from the very basic (”why is Twitter important for a business?”) to the more technical (”how can I add my Facebook page’s updates to my site?”).

Let the questions begin!

Was a comment on one of my report cards in 1st grade.  It was also followed up with something like,  “…but sometimes her concern for others getting along and cooperating interferes with her own work.”

Who’da thunk it?

My friends, family and business partners can attest for it, but what about in Social Media areas?  How do people know that you REALLY CARE?

Or better yet, “How  do you know who doesn’t and is just pretending to care?”  It seems like these days 60-75% of my work time is dedicated to doing something in Social Media and it is increasing every week.

Social Media brings us together and yet distances us all at the same time. Periodic non-visible online interactions take longer to sort out who is real and who isn’t.

I recently attended a conference where Chris Brogan spoke (it was my first time meeting him and I was sooo excited)  Mike Volpe also made a great presentation.  If you don’t know Chris, he is amazing you should follow him.  He is as real as they come and in person, he can make you laugh so hard that your sides split.

Mike Volpe of Hubspot fame was a lot different than I thought he would be.  I watch their podcasts religiously and read their blogs and I would recommend anyone feeling intimidated about social media and applications you can lurk around on any of these sites and learn a ton.

What did I mean when I said Mike Volpe was different than I thought?  I knew he was smart, I knew he knew his stuff.  His podcast partner Karen Rubin, is mega bubbly.   When I met Mike at the conference, what I met was a kind of shy guy.  Not what I expected.  He puts forth so much confidence on his sites and podcasts, I was a bit intimidated at the idea at the face-to-face.

Chris Brogan has this message that he calls “Be Human”, he has a great post here outlining what this means.  In fact, when you Google the term “be human” his blog entry comes up in the first 5 searches.  Rather than to reiterate what these captains of industry have to say, I included several links here so you can easily find them.

Clients will ask me, “Why do I care if someone’s eating high fibre cereal for breakfast?’ or “That their kids soccer game was a blow out?” Truth is YOU may not care, but one of the thousands of other readers may. If you were one of the people in the battle to fight cancer, you could provide support to many in different situations and stages just by seeing these buzz words.

This makes a “human” connection that is important to an often hard to connect with medium.  Some of us don’t use real photos as profile shots all the time.  Some of us are vague about how to find us.  Maybe our user names aren’t exactly intuitive. The internet is full of great people as well as weirdos.  That doesn’t necessarily make you a “Nervous Nellie,” but if someone is trying to learn about you or your business, you may seem a little less “human.”  What you have to deliver and say becomes that much more important.

First impressions can be misleading.  Establish yourself or your business as the someone you ARE.  Stick with it on blog comments, blog posts, other platforms.  Because after all, the keyboard doesn’t type itself. A HUMAN does!

I was one of those kids that ate one thing at a time on my plate – in fact I still am kinda like that now!  (I am weird that way I guess).  I certainly seemed to not have changed, when it comes to my grasping technology.

I know I have mentioned before, my old boss used to say, “You can eat an elephant one bite at a time.”  And though often I failed to see eye to eye with him on many occasions, now that I am older I can really see his wisdom in so many things I thought before as crazy, misguided prattle.  (Jeez – I hope he doesn’t read this blog!  AH!)

But he was THE GUY that told me in the early 90’s that the internet was a fad.  And to his defense, he held on to fundamentals.  Sales and Marketing as a plan not as a lark and certainly the internet to him, was “a Lark” back then. WHO KNEW back then what the internet would be today?  So thanks Phil, for making me work harder and understand the world I was in, while allowing me to reach into the fire and find out which time I would get burned.  I love him for that, truly.

So here we are again.  The NEW lark -  “Social Media” – Wow!  There are so many!  But which one to try first?  I say, try one that works for YOU FIRST – PERSONALLY. Then you will feel more confident about trying something or appreciating the web for your business promotion.  If you have a TWITTER account, start looking for people that are interested in the same things you find interesting.  If you have a FACEBOOK account, start REALLY reading what the folks are doing and engaging to a point that you feel comfortable.  If you don’t have one, then start one, you wont be sorry. It is easy to use and you can connect with family, friends and even business contacts.

I have to admit, I have tons of social media outposts and some I use all the time and some I haven’t had time to use at all.  But I do try to make an effort to play with a new toy at least twice a month.  But that is ME.  Doesn’t mean it is YOU.

Not forgetting to “eat your peas” or “eating an elephant one bite at a time” is a recognition that it is OK, NOT to take the plunge, but to just stick your toe in the water and find your way at your own pace.  Don’t be overwhelmed my the technology, just try it, it is FREE and if you don’t like a certain one, dump it and move on.

The appreciation of all of it, is really useful in making your own decisions in trying to navigate the new way to promote and connect!

Over the weekend, on Facebook, there was a post from a peer.  I have never done business with this person, but I do know them.  The post was in regard to how to use certain things tools with social media, I gotta say, the post left me shocked. The tone was just wrong to me (and it was not directed toward me.)

Look, social media is changing every second and I am a believer of trying things out – even if you do them WRONG as this person’s post indicated, relax -you can always fix it.

OBJECTIVE is key if you decide to use Facebook, Twitter or if you decide you want to blog (or to pay someone else to do it), on your behalf.  A PLAN is important too and a stash of content, stuff you read, links, etc. for when you are in the mood to write.  Frequency in posts makes you interesting and lets face it, it is like a re-run of Seinfeld.  You may love Seinfeld, but you will find yourself surfing off the channel because you know what is coming up… new posts regularly is always a good thing.

To say that we, (Sephone) haven’t had the challenges you may have, would not be truthful.  We get busy, customers need jobs done and our Sephone Blog may become stale.  My own personal blog has fallen victim of that.  Sometimes, I just don’t feel the urge or sometimes I just don’t feel interesting enough to post anything.

I look to people that I only know online to encourage me.  I call Chris Brogan my online therapist! (We have never met in person.)  Here is a post he wrote two weeks ago that really hits the nail on the head for me. Brogan helps, he doesn’t scold.  You are an adult you don’t need scolding, when you are trying to learn something new. Generally, you are trying to teach yourself – in between work, home, kids, etc. Chris Brogan has a book.  Yeah a hard cover book, an old-fashioned printed on paper BOOK!  It is called “Trust Agents,” VERY easy to read and to understand and not intimidating.

So what is my point?

Learning is GREAT.
Learning about Social Media and how it can work to promote your business is GREATER.

Don’t feel guilty, if you don’t get it right the first time.  Some “EXPERTS“  can be arrogant, generally, they are the same in person and it takes a bit longer to recognize it online.

Reaching out and asking for help from someone that understands that you are finding your way is the GREATEST!

So don’t be discouraged or embarrassed. Don’t feel intimidated enough to turn away.  You can do it and there are so many people to help that don’t “ball you out “ when it isn’t perfect.

Most people aren’t trying to “cheat,” they are just doing something that is familiar to them and within some of the social media platforms-Facebook for example, are rigid.  These aren’t bad, but you need to learn them and sometimes you make mistakes.

NEWS FLASH you are human.

“Hmmmmm, click, click, click, hmmmmmm, click, click, click…” repeat.  That is the sound of an over excited Marketing person in 2009.

Marketers have always had a tendency to jump on the bandwagon of some latest craze and pound it to death.  I can say that because I am one to the core and with the advent of social media the buzz is louder and the clicking sound is that of a smoking keyboard or cell phone with all of “those people” talking to each other agreeing and singing the praises of the ideas that are exchanged between them.

Sound familiar?  But are the Marketing people the only people “getting it?”  Is this all a fad that will fade away like the Cabbage Patch Doll?

Being from Maine, Maine folks are known for not appreciating a lot of “fluff,” also we adapt to things that most need attending to, like shoveling the driveway, taking a friend to a doctor’s appointment, making sure the bills are being paid.  IMPORTANT stuff.

Right now Social Media, just may not seem that important and it is okay to feel like that, but it is July (almost) and the snow shoveling is a few months away, make part of your summer reading articles in periodicals that can give you the quick info you really need to know!

First take a quick 3 minute look at this video.

Then here are 3 quick things to read that may help you make sense of it:

1. Twitter a 140 character exchange between people from the mundane to the very important.  This article is from the periodical “The Week.”
2. Something  from a “traditional” type media about Twitter is an article in Business Week and its effect on recent events in Iran, certainly one type of media did not change life in Iran, but the fact when used along with “the old fashioned way” of doing things it helps support what was all ready happening.
3. Facebook isn’t necessarily only something your kids use to keep track of their friends whereabouts, it is really creating some unique opportunities for businesses to advertise to “specific” demographics at very reasonable costs.  Business Week has an interesting article here.

We know you don’t have time for this.
We hear this all the time.

If you want to promote your business yourself and not pay for yellow page ads (which are becoming dinosaurs) and daily news papers, (depending on which one you read, readership has declined in some cases nearly 75%).  How do you know someone, the RIGHT someone even sees your ad?  Cash a bit tight these days? Think again about Social Media.

If you have a rainy day (which so far this summer, it seems like all we have had is rainy days), go to YouTube.COM and search for “How To” or use other keywords to learn about things you may have questions about.  YouTube isn’t just a collection of senseless videos, there really are great things there – and if your business wants to produce something that you want the world to know about, here is your free way to promote it.

Also, looking for something to talk about with your nieces and nephews, or grandchildren?  Ask them about their facebook page or about how they text to keep in touch with their friends.  You may be surprised what you can learn and where you can learn it!