One of my very good friends is a prominent business owner in the North East, who is just getting acclimated with using social media for business. Awesome for the company, as it obviously increases exposure. Not so awesome when he decides to have a meltdown on Facebook about the stability of the company!

Ok, ok, it wasn’t so much as a meltdown as it was a questioning of the future. Tomato. Tumato.

He uses Facebook for fun AND business, so pretty much all of his friends saw that comment. Granted, he didn’t realize that his momentary lapse in confidence would spark a 10-day whirlwind of phone calls and emails to me abotu his situation, but that’s what happened.

I can guarantee that he’ll think twice in the future, but that really could have jeopardized his credibility as a business owner. When branding is a huge aspect of your target audience’s buying style, why would you give them a reason to second guess you? Especially when there are 25 contenders waiting in the shadows for even a chance at capitalizing on reasonable doubt.

When  incorporating social media in your marketing and PR plan, it is essential you maintain the upmost positive attitude. Even if behind closed doors you’re putting out 1000 fires, don’t make public cries of despair, unless you want a handful of new issues to address. Or, if you’re at your last phase and are ready to go public with the problem.

Otherwise, you risk destroying that brand your PR and marketing team workes so hard to create.

(Image source: www.lawyermeltdown.com)

Some with whom you speak will say no. They say, once it goes viral, measuring goes out the window. See, this is a problem for me.

I can’t go to the board of a multimillion dollar company and tell them that, “Yes, we’re seeing great success with our campaign. Umm….We just don’t know how much.” Are you kidding? Ha! As a professional in the business, you’ve just committed integrity suicide. You might as well leave the room at that point and keep on walking.

Numbers matter. Evidential support of your efforts matters. Progress matters.

I do agree, on a certain level, that it’s difficult to determine every single person who’s heard your message. A book club leader may share the information with her group, but no one acts on it. And until they do, that information might as well not exist. However, you can measure the action your message inspires.

Here are a few ways, though seemingly simple, can help determine if your social media efforts are worth their weight:

• Twitter — How many additional followers do you receive every month? How many messages and mentions?
• Social platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook — Again, how many people comment on your page? How many friends do you have? Has that number changed in the last month?
• Blog — How many people are following you? How many comments are there? Do people email you with questions, concerns, proposals? What is the communication?
• Website — How many people came to your website each month? How long did they stay? How deep into the pages did they get? Did they sign up for any of the free information you offer? Did you capture their contact information?

There are a lot of programs you can use to capture this information. Sometimes, all it requires is sitting down and tallying the numbers. Other times, I like using Google Analytics, because it’s fast and easy. But whatever you end up chosing, I guarantee, your boss or clients will be happier when you can show them where their money is going and what progress you’re having.

(Image source: www.jmorganmarketing.com)

The other day, a friend of mine mentioned how interesting it is that public relations is finding its way into the social media scene. His comment was that, lately, he’s seen a lot of blogging on the marriage of the two concepts. Though seemingly becoming increasingly more popular, as the numerous budding blogs will attest, there is one truth that many seem to be overlooking: PR is the heart of social media.

Perhaps this is obvious to me, considering my experience in the field, but to others it may not seem so blatant. So, let’s break it down a bit. Here are just a few of the truths about social media that also extend to PR:

• The desire to develop and increase awareness about a company, brand, topic, idea, or person
• The willingness to reach out to others, friends, family, or potential and current clients and customers
• The ability to develop and maintain relationships that serve a mutually beneficial purpose
• The careful construction of messages that elicit response and action
• The drive to foster conversation and discussion
• The attempt to learn more about customer needs and desires.

In all elements, PR is the offline tool that drives the same goals as social media does online. It’s only natural that the two become a solid union on the internet, because they are one of the same. With each post, message, blog, advertisement, group, this medium of communication (social media) reminds us of the one truth at the heart of public relations: the people…the public.

(Image source: Bigdayplunge.com)

During a speech I gave this past weekend on PR secrets and techniques, we touched on the importance of business owners’ participation in the social media stratosphere. As we were discussing the issues with which many people are faced, one attendee brought up a different problem related to this subject. It wasn’t her ignorance or fear about using these platforms, but her inability to step away! More often than not, when she sits down in the morning to log on, hours fly by, and her husband has to send a search party to go in looking for her. The more people I talk to, I learn that many have this issue. There are endless blogs and tips on how to use these sites effectively, yet I’ve not run across too many articles concerning how to walk away in a timely manner. Thus, I thought of the following tips to help pathological users find freedom and a new world beyond their computer. Notice that I’ve kept the tips to a minimum for a reason!

1. Define Your Objective – Before jumping onto Facebook, determine what it is you wish to accomplish. Are you logging on for personal reasons or business? Do you intend simply to respond to your messages and send a few off to your friends or will you also respond or begin a thread on a specific topic? Knowing what you want makes it easy to remove your hand from the mouse once you’ve completed the task.

2. Establish a Schedule – Allotting an amount of time every day, at a specific time, will help you control how much time you spend Twittering. If you are like me and running in 20 different directions at the same time, it’s hard to get anything done without living by a daily planner. Make this tool work for you by picking some free time (what’s that? Haha) and setting half an hour to an hour aside for social media

3. Manage All Your Sites from One Platform – Scan my blog for my article on Flock, but I’ve been using this for a couple weeks now, and it saves me so much time and energy. I love (!) having everything right in front of me all at the same time

4. Set a Timer – Go to the dollar store and pick the loudest most obnoxious timer there, bring it home, and set it for the time you’ve decided in #2. It’s easy to say “Oh, I’ll just stay on for twenty minutes.” But more often than not, twenty minutes turns into thirty then an hour, and then two. The timer will remind you when to remove yourself from MySpace and serve as your source which to direct your resentment…I’m sure all loved ones will be happy to relieve themselves of this role! J (Thanks to Shelby, who suggested this one)

5. Write Down Your Plan and Stick with It – Nothing works better to ensure we follow through with a desired task or goal than to write it down. I have mine on a large Post-It in the back of my daily planner, again the keeper of my life, so I don’t lose it, and I see it every day.

Now, I understand this may be painful at first, but think of all the benefits that will come from it! Your family will revel in all this free time you have, the house won’t look like a tornado stopped by, and your skin will rejoice from being a ghostly white to slightly beige color once you reconnect with the sun. Try this for a month and see how it goes. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much you accomplish without spending days in the social media black hole!

(Image source: samerowdycrowd.wordpress.com)