• More than 800 million active users
• More than 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• Average user has 130 friends

• There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
• Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
• More than 2 billion posts are liked and commented on per day

• On average, more than 250 million photos are uploaded per day
• More than 75% of users are outside of the United States
• There are more than 350 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices

And how long does it take to become “an expert” in social media if we’re all still nurturing it in its infancy?

Facebook – 2004
YouTube – 2005
Twitter – 2006

Get my point?

If the word “expert” means that I know a lot more about social media than the average business owner, then… well, let’s just say I’m certainly qualified to help establish social media strategies and put social media plans into action. And I have created my own formula to measure the results of our social media efforts.

Let’s have coffee and talk about your social media strategy and plans.

1) Place your QR code in a place where your audience needs more information or wants to connect with you. You may need to educate your audience on how to use the QR code and what will happen when they do. Tell your audience to download a QR code reader near the QR code.

2) Once your audience scans the QR code and lands on your page, make sure you have a call to action. Essentially, tell your audience what you want them to do from there.

4) Create a relevant landing page. Make sure you provide information on your landing page that is relevant to your audience’s location or need.

5) Make sure your QR code remains on a flat surface for ease of scanning. Your audience might have problems scanning the QR code if it is smeared, wrinkled or folded.

Now you try it… download a QR code reader, scan the code below and Like us on Facebook.

Rather than do outbound marketing to the masses of people who are trying to block you out, let’s do “inbound marketing” where you help yourself “get found” by people already learning about and shopping in your industry.  In order to do this, make your website a hub for your industry that attracts visitors naturally through the search engines, through blogs, and through social media sites.

I believe most marketers today spend 90% of their efforts on outbound marketing and 10% on inbound marketing. What if we flipped those efforts?

Maybe you’re ready for a more professional presence on the world wide web?

If you want your website to work for you, here are some points to think about:

- Keep your website fresh.
- Monitor the effectiveness of your website.
- Collect analytics to see if you need to change what you’re doing.
- Re-evaluate your goals for your website.
- Listen to your customers that go to your website.
- Keep new products / services in front of your website visitors.
- Have your website re-designed by professionals.

It’s time. The new year is right around the corner.

Prior to the advent of the social web, you would have had to rely on advice from knowledgeable friends, or consulted trade magazines.  But now, social media allows consumers to tap into feedback from others who have already tried your offering.

This should send an important message to marketers:  Don’t forget about the needs of your existing customers after they have purchased a product because they are influencing the decisions of others who are considering it.

• If you don’t have a social media platform for your company, create one! Start with the basics: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and a blog.
• Gather up content that you already have, chop it up into small bites, then develop a publishing schedule. Add a little spice to your content to make it relevant and fun… things that your target audience would find interesting.
• Your Facebook page is a microsite; your YouTube Channel is a video microsite; and your Twitter account is your micro-blog. Driving visits to these pages can drive engagement and create lifelong connections with consumers when they “friend” or “follow” you. Think of fans and friends as people opting into your database.
• Post your YouTube channel’s videos and include them on your site.
• Promote your social media assets like crazy. Post them on your site, drop press releases about them in the wire services, and link to them from your site and in e-mail signatures.
• Track traffic and actions in general using Google Analytics.

I’m thinking this is the same scenario for social media.

Has anybody else noticed the social media ‘experts’ and the social media sites are the only ones making money on social media?

I’m not downplaying the effects social media has in our society. Facebook has made an undeniable impact on the way people interact. Twitter… well, it’s fun, but most people don’t really understand what use it has. LinkedIn is really helpful as a business connection tool.

Social media is an important piece of the pie in advertising… but remember, it’s just a small ‘piece’ of the pie, not the whole pie. Traditional advertising (direct mail, television, radio, newspaper, etc.) still works better than social media.

As I was thinking about my role with our clients in social media and other services, the word “shepherd” jumped out at me. My job is to protect, guide and watch over our clients… whether it’s with social media or any other area of services we offer to our clients.

If the opportunity at hand is not a good move for the client, I say no.

So, there you have it. I am officially a Social Media Shepherd for our clients, a Direct Mail Shepherd… okay, you get the idea.

Useful content that cannot be found through search engines is a lost opportunity to reach an audience that is looking.

A basic blog optimization effort leveraging keywords and other minor adjustments can improve search traffic substantially – without any compromise in content quality or user experience.

On the other hand, implementing SEO programs without leveraging the content distribution and linking benefits of social web participation makes link building for SEO an uphill battle.

The nature of the social web encourages participation: sharing, voting, commenting & linking. Popular social content gets exposure and traffic and can result in a substantial number of relevant inbound links.

Social interactions and media sharing among social network participants create the kind of content that can improve a brand’s visibility within search results through profiles, videos, blog posts, or other media.