Photo Credit: Scott Bratt

So, I am browsing my Facebook Newsfeed, commenting on others updates, giving out some “Like” love and posting status updates when I happened to notice a picture that came up in my Newsfeed from my nephew!

It was a bag of Doritos that had been opened from the side of the bag vs. the top.  He included this phrase:

“We’re Rebels”

It immediately inspired this blog post … BTW, he was at school when he posted the photo – don’t worry, I doubled check he was on lunch break!

I have never been considered a “Rebel” by my family or friends! I’m a rule follower for the most part. Just ask my clients that want to have a Facebook Contest that breaks their Terms of Service or my mom who has accused me all my life of “starching my underwear”.

There is one thing I always do rebelliously – I tell it like it is! No ifs, ands or buts! I am a bit more tactful then I was in my early twenties. Thank goodness!  You want the truth – ask Lissa. I don’t worry with what people want to hear, but rather what they may need to hear! This is how I live my life and manage my business!  People trust me because I am bluntly honest!

Find the rebel in you and capitalize on it … a little bit of rebellion can go a long way in achieving success.

Here are 5 things you can do ONLINE to “Be a Rebel” and get social media results:

- Take up a cause. Not a cause that everyone else is doing, but something that is perhaps a little different, but has meaning for you.

Blog about your cause and ask others to comment and share about their cause on the post. The more interaction you get on your blog post, the more people that will share the post on their social media profiles, which will mean, more people will see, read and comment on your blog. (Just look at RedHead Writing. It worked for her.)

- Give your opinion. Share the good, the bad and the ugly. People want feedback.  Do it nicely though!

When you share your opinion with others they usually appreciate it, thank you, ask you for future opinions, plus when others want an opinion, you’ll get recommended.

- Ask for feedback. Take a poll, ask others what they think! People want to share and help you. It’s in their nature.

When they comment / interact with you providing their feedback others will see it, wonder what they are commenting about, click to go read and usually comment also. Now you have made a new connection.

- Share photos that make people think. Don’t post the same photo that everyone else does. Be unusual.

Take photos of stuff around your office / in your home. Weird things you see at places when you are out and about. Example: Post a photo of a USB cable that you took with your iPhone and add the caption “Name 10 things you can do with this cable besides hook up your printer”.  You’ll get comments back like hook up the scanner, take photos off your phone, tie myself to the desk, strangle the UPS guy if that package doesn’t arrive, etc.

When you post something different than every one you get comments and shares! Comments / shares equal interaction, which means higher preference in the Newsfeed of your friends / those that “Like” your page, which gets you a further reach on Facebook.

- Stand out in the crowd. Easier said than done? Not really. All you have to do to be different is BE YOURSELF.

No one person is alike. We all think somewhat different and look somewhat different. Stop worrying so much about what everyone else thinks and be who you are! I practice this day in and day out and it has got me to where I am today. The more you are unique the more friends you will attract. They will have conversation with you / about you that their friends will see / hear about and want to know YOU!

“Be A Rebel” and start a cycle which goes viral for you, which will in turn go viral for your business!

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts,  but one last thing first:

If you live in / near Dallas, Texas – Check out the DFW Rocks Social Media Day Conference on June 30^th. Some of the who’s who in Social Media is speaking, which includes Andrea Vahl aka Grandma Mary, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies, myself of course – Lissa Duty, Robin Moss, Patty Farmer, J.R. Atkins, Fred Campos, and to end the day – a Social Media Q & A Panel featuring Giovanni Gallucci, Neil Lemons and Mike Merrill. Social Media Day Conference is $30. Register NOW!

This all day social media event will be followed immediately after with a Mashable community event – Social Media Day Happy Hour at 4 pm in Addison, Texas. Social Media Day Meetup is FREE! RSVP Now!

It’s your Turn … tell us about the “Rebel” inside you! Comment below.

Social media marketing is an important part of a successful book launch.

Authors that don’t know how to use social media need to either hire someone to help them define a social media strategy for them to implement or hire someone to implement a successful social media strategy on their behalf.
I have had the privilege of managing social media marketing campaigns for several book launches, training and define marketing strategies for authors to implement themselves.  You could say I have some experience in this area. I don’t recommend to anyone that you jump into a social media campaign to launch a book, or any other product or services without a plan, but hopefully this blog post will give you some ideas where to start.

In the past, authors would simply write the book and the publishing company would do all the work in making sure it was well known and a top seller.  In today’s world, as an author you need to not only write a top notch book that meets an important need / trend, but you must be savvy in social media. It’s just as much your responsibility to promote your book and make it a success, as the publishing company. Think of you and the publishing company as a team in the book launch. The success depends on both of you doing your part. You have stiff competition from other authors that are promoting their books – the cream of the crop rises to the top! Help your book to be the cream!

10 Social Media Tips for Authors

1. Optimize your Amazon Author Profile. This includes uploading a professional headshot, adding your bio (don’t forget your SEO keywords), adding your website blog feed, Twitter account, adding videos and don’t forget to customize your Author Profile link for easy sharing on social networks. You can even include events that you are appearing at to promote your book. I recommend completing the event section if you are having a physical / blog radio book tour. (Also, while you are on Amazon, sign up to be an affiliate. You might as well make a little commission when promoting  your book.)
2. Create a Facebook Author Page. You can use this Facebook Page to promote your current book, but also use it to promote future books.  You’ll want to make sure and create a great Facebook Cover Photo to market your book. Create a custom tab where you can include your author bio, headshot and also include a Buy Now button, which will drive the user to either purchase your book via your website or Amazon, etc. Import your Tweets into a custom tab and your blog posts in another custom tab. (Also, you can use the Facebook YouTube app and a video tab to your Facebook Page.)
3. Register a Twitter account. Put this Twitter account in your name, not necessarily the name of your book, because you’ll want to use this account to promote future books and business endeavors, not just this one book. Write 100 character tips that relate to your book to tweet. Tweet book reviews, blog post links and other content that your reader would want to follow.
4. Blog about your book. That is right – I just said blog about the book on your website. I am not talking about pitching repeatedly on your blog over and over, buy my book, buy my book, etc! What I am talking about is share stories, excerpts, tips that relate to the content in your book. Of course, you always want to include in the blog that it was an excerpt from [book title] with a link to purchase your book from Amazon or your website.
5. Guest blog on other websites. Ask other websites that have a large reader audience that would be the ideal reader of your book  if you can guest blog fro them. Write an important article that ties to your book focus and book title that links to a location to read more, purchase the book, etc.  Also, make sure and include in the bio that you are author of [book title] and link to the place to purchase your book. Give the owner of the blog a copy of your book for them or to giveaway to a random winner who comments / shares the post with their network.
6. Blog talk radio. Seek out opportunities to appear on blog talk radio shows as a guest. Discuss important topics that relate to your book. Of course, you always want to make sure you are adding value for the listener – this isn’t about selling books, it is about validating yourself as an expert to the ears of the listener, so they want to go to your website to read more about you and buy your book.
7. Video campaign. Make a few short videos – no more than three minutes that the viewer would find of value that relates to your book.  A quick tip that is discussed in the book perhaps. These videos don’t have to be perfect, they need to be real. Make sure and include in the description of the video your name, keywords, book title and link to the book information on your website.
8. Ask for reviews. People want to help people, it is part of their DNA. However, they don’t always think to help.  You have to give them the idea.  Ask your readers that give you feedback via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. to give you a review on the different review websites.  Make it easy – give them direct links to where you would like the review to be. Ask permission to post the review on  your Review page for the website, Facebook Page, tweet about it, etc.
9. Social Bookmarking. Register accounts on social bookmarking sites, such as StumbleUpon, Digg and Posterous.  Make friends with others that use these sites and social bookmark their content, so they will want to social bookmark your blog posts. The purpose is to drive traffic to your website where people can read more about your book / purchase the book.
10. Have Contests and Giveaways. Encourage your Twitter followers, Facebook Page “Likes” etc. to contact you if they would like a book to giveaway in one of their contests, in a blog they are publishing that is a review of your book, etc.  Donate books to events that have your ideal reader in attendance for giveaways in exchange for a mention, sponsorship, etc.

When I started writing this post I thought “10 Tips on Social Media for Authors – Can I come up with 10?” Wow! I surprised myself.  These tips came easy to me once I started. I have one more tip I can’t end this post without sharing!

BONUS TIP:  In the tips above I discussed ways for you to promote your book with social media. The most important thing for you to remember with your Facebook Page Status Updates, Tweets, Videos and Blog posts is that you are adding value! Selling is ok, but you need to do it in a way that is tactful, strategic and from the perspective of branding yourself as an authority on the topic that is the main focus in your book. The hard sell will only get you unfriended, unfollowed, unliked, bad reviews and no sales! Don’t forget this final tip! It’s very important!

It’s your turn …. What tip did you come up with that I didn’t mention above? I am sure ideas started popping into your head as you were reading along.

Need help with creating / optimizing these accounts, or learning how to manage them! That’s ok … you are not alone. I’m your Online Social Coach and I’m here to help you! Read more about my social media coaching services  or perhaps you would prefer social media maintenance services.

I know how it is, you are busy busy working away and don’t always have time to make some changes. Well here are some great tips to make some little tweaks that can give you big results.

Use Your Apps Wisely

With the new Timeline you have 12 apps available to showcase but only the first 4 show on the first line. One of those Apps has to be the Photos App. Take a look at what EasyLunchBoxes has done with their Apps! Fantastic!

Powerful stuff to make you stand out from the crowd. Also make sure you have your website address in the About section. The About section is now very prominent on your Timeline and can have a call to action in it (unlike the Cover photo which can’t have a call to action)

These custom images for Apps are easy to add (just click the down arrow to show all your Apps, click on the pencil in the upper right corner of the App, then click Edit Settings – you’ll see the place where you can add the image)  Designing these App images doesn’t have to be hard either.  Use a tool like Paint, or Photoshop if you are handy with those.  Even take a look at how I created my Cover photo using PowerPoint in this tutorial:  https://andreavahl.com/facebook/hot-tips-on-facebook-timeline-for-pages.php

Or, if you are working with a graphics designer, use their services to have a cohesive branded look across your website and other social media sites.  But don’t let budget stop you from getting a new graphics.  There are designers that do a decent job on www.fiverr.com for just $5!  Such a deal.

Highlight Posts

Use your new Timeline to tell your Story. Now that Timelines are here, use this valuable real estate to showcase good things that have happened or products that you want to draw attention to. All you need to do is click on the little star in the upper right corner and the post will be bigger.

Talk to Other Pages

If you are having some trouble getting engagement on your Page, go out and talk to other Pages as your Page. Be social, people! All you need to do is Like their Page as your Page, then watch your Page News Feed and comment. See how social Professional Carpet Systems is? Very nice! And it only takes a few minutes a day to connect.

Post More

Are you just posting once a day? Once a week? Well I have some news for you, more is better. Studies have shown that posting 2-5 times a day is ideal. But it may depend on your audience. You need to vary your posts to appeal to different segments of your market. Some people like videos, some like photos, others want links to articles. Now it sounds like a lot of work, but it really doesn’t have to be bad. Remember those other Pages you Liked as your Page? Share some of their posts. Don’t be stingy. Spread the love.

Find articles on Twitter or post some of your best blog posts from time to time. It’s ok that some people have seen those posts. If it’s evergreen content it’s still relevant! Have an editorial calendar so that you know what you are posting when. Post a question or something fun and random. Mix it up. You will be surprised with your results. More engagement, more Likes, and more fun!

If you want to take your Facebook Page to the next level and use it to get leads for your business, you might be interested in my new product How to Use Facebook to Get Leads for Your Business.

Special thanks to Grandma Mary for this guest post contribution! (The 2nd guest blogger I have had on my blog – I’m flattered and honored to have made such great connections and Twitter friends. As I say and teach “Ask for what you want – all they can say is NO!” This thinking has paid off for me over and over again. This is absolutely one of those times. ~ Lissa

Grandma Mary is a slightly cranky Social Media Edutainer, helping small businesses leverage the power of social media. She provides entertaining how-to videos on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and more. Her alter ego, Andrea Vahl, is the co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies. You can find Grandma and Andrea at www.AndreaVahl.com.

Grandma Mary says “I know how it is, you are busy busy working away and don’t always have time to make some changes. Well here are some great tips to make some little tweaks that can give you big results.”

In light of the recent changes with the Facebook Timeline for Facebook Pages this blog post as been removed. Grandma Mary is fine tuning an awesome post for us so stay tuned!

Grandma Mary is a slightly cranky Social Media Edutainer, helping small businesses leverage the power of social media. She provides entertaining how-to videos on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and more. Her alter ego, Andrea Vahl, is the co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies. You can find Grandma and Andrea at www.AndreaVahl.com.

Have you taken the Social Media LEAP? Taking a LEAP is sometimes what using social media is all about.

Are you LEAPING today? Have you taken the big LEAP? What’s LEAPING for you? What is the big LEAPING deal? I can sit around all day thinking of LEAPING puns (ahhh! There was another one!), but what would be the good in that? Waste of time perhaps …. Wrong… you need to be different … stand out from everyone else ONLINE!

Taking a LEAP, otherwise referred to as being creative, entrepreneurial, inventive, etc… with WHAT you say and HOW you say it, is exactly what you need to be remembered by your prospective clients and current clients ONLINE and OFF!

Using Social Media when you first start out is about taking a LEAP of faith. There is so much out there about ROI – Return on Investment. Let’s call it Return on Influence for the sake of this blog post!

I tell all prospective clients your ROI is going to be new friends, followers, connections initially when using social media. There are not any promises or golden ticket to success as some social media professionals promise.  Social media is about branding yourself ONLINE. (I am not going to go into this topic more at this time – been there, done that! Read it here. )

Before I go forward on LEAPING Social Media, I must mention the importance it is to have your ONLINE and OFFLINE presence in sync from your logo, your business card to your website design and layout. The image you present to your customers needs to say Who You Are and Give them a Message that will help them to remember you! See my friend Robin’s blog post - 7 Marketing Tips for Leaping into your Customers Hearts and Minds for more on this important part of branding yourself and your business.

The questions I get most often from someone using or considering use social media are:

1. Where should I be? i.e. Should I be on all the social networking websites
2. What do I post?
3. Why would someone want to Follow, Subscribe, Friend, Like or Connect with me?
4. How can I do it easiest?
5. When should I post?

I am going to give you the quick self promoting answer first! Yep! I am getting straight to it – Hire me – I do social media coaching and I will answer all these questions and more in a private training hands-on!

Now for the long answer, that I will try and make not to confusing!

1. Where should I be? — What social networking sites do your customers use most often? That is where I would start out. I can’t answer this for you as I don’t know your product/service.

2. What do I post? Content that would interest your ideal client (usually that means it interests you also). Use Alltop.com as a resource to find content that would interest  your audience.

3. Why would someone want to Follow, Subscribe, Friend, Like or Connect with me? Because people are hesitant to say right off they are interested in your services/products. They are concerned you’ll try and sell to them. They want to get to know you, your products and services before they put themselves out there with the “I am in interested in knowing more commitment.”

4. How can I do it easiest? First, I must say here “You only get out of social media what you put in to it, the less you put, the less you get”. With that being said, using a social media tool such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to update your Facebook Profile, Facebook Page, LinkedIn and Twitter is the easiest method. (This blog post links you to social media tool reviews for doing this easier.)

I actually recommend in my social media coaching sessions, that you do a little of both.  You definitely want to use a social media tool to monitor Twitter all the time, but because Facebook groups updates from other 3^rd party tools together during high volume times, I recommend you post directly on Facebook when you can from your computer or Smartphone with the Facebook App. LinkedIn doesn’t do this grouping yet, but I just think it looks better for people to see you care enough about LinkedIn to actually log in and post a physical update now and again.  Using Hootsuite to post in your LinkedIn groups is just awesome and easy!  Ask my dear friend, Ana, if you don’t believe me. She loves it.

5. When should I post? That is always a difficult question to answer quickly. It depends on who your audience is and when are online. With Facebook I post at random times and see which posts gets more comments/likes and interactions. With Twitter the best time is usually between 10 am EST and 12 pm EST from my experience.  There are 3^rd party tools you can purchase to optimize this for you. I recommend checking out the free ones first – Tweriod is a Twitter tool and Buffer is another tool you can use to do this analyzing for Twitter, Facebook and more.

Now that I have given you the Where, What, Why, How and When to get you moving forward successfully I am going to close with some advice I gave in a blog post - Is your Social Media in the RED or the BLACK? I published almost two years ago!

Learn the best way!
Increase your followers/friends/connections!
Stop with the obligatory updates!
Share tips, content and resources!
Ask for help!

It has stuck with me, but perhaps that is because it spells my name L – I – S – S – A! LOL!

It’s your turn … Let me know what you are going to do on this LEAPING day, tomorrow and every other day to keep you LEAPING forward for social media success!

How do you love yourself? Do you give yourself permission to seek training, education and resources to expand your knowledge base and online presence?

As a social media coach that has trained privately and in groups’ adults since 2009 on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, I’ve been told over and over how the style of my social media coaching, the patience and focus I extend to the participant during the training pays off in dividends. Unfortunately, many have spent countless hours in time, and often financial investment before they ask for help! Are you one of these individuals / small business owners?

So many adults in today’s world know they need to be online, but don’t give themselves a chance to learn before diving in full force. You wouldn’t jump in a lake without swimming lessons would you? What about skiing? Lessons for that too … right!

Often times, you dive in unprepared and become overwhelmed, discouraged and intimidated. You spend day after day using social networking sites, getting limited or no results and all they are getting is nowhere fast!

This is where loving yourself comes into play! You need to give yourself permission to not be perfect in everything. You worry about what other professionals think if you don’t have all the answers, so they don’t seek out the training, education, information and ask questions to help you succeed online.

You can’t be all things at all times – at least not without some training to get you started. Perhaps the investment isn’t monetary. It’s an investment of your time.

• Reading blog posts is a great way to learn more about the power of social media. I recommend Social Media Examiner, Social Media Today, Windmill Networking and of course my own blog, LissaDuty.com, to get you started.  There are countless other ones out there that I love and read.
• Google – use Google and search out your questions! Seriously, I use Google all the time and ask it questions like “HTML Code to change Link Color”. Google will come back with tons of references that I can review on how to complete this action.
• Follow Other Social Media Influencers and see what they are doing online. I have to add here, realistically, you are not going to be one of these influencers anytime soon, just follow them and learn.  You will get ideas to incorporate into your social media strategy.
• Seek out a Social Media Coach. This is where I come into play.  I teach individuals and small business owners step by step hands-on how to use and understand these social networking sites. The 1^st part of each one of my trainings focuses on understanding what each aspect, link, word, etc. means to the individual / small business owner. To effectively use a social networking site, you need to understand what everything means and does – no assumptions! The 2^nd piece of that is teaching them how to use the site for their purpose.

So do you LOVE YOURSELF enough to INVEST in yourself?

If you need some social media coaching and have decided to invest in yourself I can help and have just a few spots left available at my 2011 pricing – $100.00 per two hour session. The rate will be $150.00 per two hour session, after these spots sell out. Not sure, I can help you, feel free to email me.

Your turn …. What steps are you taking / have taken in your business and online to expand your knowledge. What kind of training have you taken?

PS. Those that follow my blog know that stuff that happens in my day to day life is my inspiration … a friend (a guy – not a date, but kinda, maybe a date – if that’s possible) cancelled on me for tonight – Valentine’s Day of all days! He had a last minute business trip – duty calls – I guess! I must thank him since he inspired this blog post – he’ll remain anonymous at this point. I knew I wanted to write a Valentine’s Day post, but wasn’t quite sure how to spin it.  When he cancelled – I loved myself enough to tell him “Ok. Be safe” and move on. I didn’t spout off any tacky comments to guilt him. (Notice, I didn’t say I didn’t think any tacky comments! I came up with a few! LOL!) Hence, the title of this post, “Do You Love Yourself Enough”!

But small businesses are often left by the wayside since the case studies are typically focused on companies that invest thousands of dollars into their social media livelihoods. Still, the big companies can offer lots of ideas and even corollary examples for the small- and medium-sized business in this realm.

Most of the customer service models in social media (Comcast, Dell, etc.) were not started with great budgets or sizable teams. Instead, it was typically one person responding to individual Tweets. Sure, the companies quickly scaled upward once they realized how much of an impact social media customer service could make, but small businesses can still do it. And for not much more than time invested.

The revenue-driving case studies we’ve seen to date, like Dell’s $6.5 million in sales from its @delloutlet Twitter account (As of December of 2009, by the way. They haven’t updated the figure since.) or even Cold Stone Creamery’s $10,000 monthly sales increases (per store) thanks to eGifting on Facebook, are inspirations as well. No, not all small businesses have insatiable products with fans lined up out the doors to buy, but understanding the mechanisms used to track and credit sales to social channels is good learning for any business.

When you’re looking at case studies from existing businesses, even large ones, ask yourself a few questions to help understand what you can take from their learnings. Questions like:

1. What channel or communications method did they use to engage their customers? Can I use that same channel and replicate that type of method without adding a lot of time or cost to my marketing?
2. What mechanism did they use the measure their success? Can I use that same mechanism without adding at lot of time or cost. How easy will it be for me to capture that information?
3. Take away the fancy design, fact they probably used an agency or two and had a big budget. Do the tools exist to help me do this on a budget? Google the functionality to see if something exists (e.g. — “free Facebook contest application”).

We can emulate the big businesses out there, often times for a lot less investment than we think. It just takes seeing how other’s success is working and finding more efficient ways to produce it.

Of course, there’s a big advantage small businesses often have over large businesses, too. They’re more in tune with location and a local audience than larger ones. That means they have easier access and more relevant messaging for the end consumer than larger brands. That’s probably the one area of social media that empowers small businesses most.

You and your small business can learn how you can attack the advantages of small business at Explore Dallas-Fort Worth on Feb. 17 at Union Station Dallas. Mike Merrill will be talking about that exact topic. Not to mention, you’ll have lots of exposure to ideas and inspiration from some larger brands and exposure to some high-level strategic learning from national speakers and experts.

Join me, Brian Clark from Copyblogger, Tom Webster from Edison Research, Zena Weist of Edelman Digital, Chris Baccus of AT&T and more at Explore Dallas-Fort Worth. The day includes breakfast, lunch and a cocktail reception, great learning and networking and a one-month free trial of ExploringSocialMedia.com, a question-answer site and learning community. Next Friday will rock. I want you to be there.

Head on over to register. Just make sure to use the code LISSASVIPS to get $150 off the full ticket price. (Lissa’s cool like that … takin’ care of y’all and such.) We’ll see you on Feb. 17!

Special thanks to Jason Falls for this guest post contribution! (The first guest blogger I have had on my blog – not to shabby, if I say so myself! Next guest blogger – who knows! You better stay tuned! You never now what rabbit I will pull out of my hat next. ~ Lissa

Jason Falls is the CEO of Social Media Explorer, host of Explore social media marketing events and author of the book No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing. Follow him on Twitter at @JasonFalls.

Hey you, small business owner, sole proprietor, one-person business do you have a plan if / when something happens to you? This backup plan and a succession plan are essential and your responsibility as a small business owner. If you are like me, you have your plan all thought up in your head, but nothing documented. It’s time to get busy typing.

First, I want to share a little background on why I am saying this to all of you right now. Recently a young God fearing, beautiful, energetic, successful business woman, Denai Downs Vaughn was in a fatal car accident.  She not only left behind a beautiful little girl and a husband, but a business, a successful BlogTalkRadio show and had an Online Radio Summit planned out and starting very shortly with a colleague, Dale Little. It was a slap in the face for me and many of my friends, which are also many of hers! She was the exact same age as me.

I know, because I am there with you, something happening to you that makes it so you can no longer do business as usual, is a topic no one wants to talk about, think about, etc. However we have to do it! It’s ugly, scary and unpleasant, but it must be do anyway. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a death, as it was in Denai’s case, that makes it so you can no longer work. It can be a heart attack, stroke, or even a loss of limb. As much as we all would like to think we are in control of our fate, we are not.  We can control how we act, drive, the risks we take, etc., but we can’t control weather, tornados, Acts of God, or the actions of others.

I am a small business owner, a sole proprietorship and in many cases, a one-person shop. I do have a team that I bring in on a project-by- project basis, but in general it’s all on me. Every single Tweet, LinkedIn and Faceboook Page update for a client is completed by me.  The blog posts are put up on their websites and published by me. Their email newsletters are drafted and finalized by me.  The logins, passwords and the flow for these accounts are known only by me in most cases.

So what is my plan:

1.  After I complete the setup for a social media client on their accounts I will make sure I give them immediately the websites, logins and passwords for the accounts I created. Print off the logins and passwords and put in my lock box.

2. Backup plan – keep a close friend or relative (my sister in this case) updated on the background about my business. Where it is at growth wise and what kind of services I am doing. She doesn’t necessarily need every detail about who my clients are (she can get this from the lock box and computer records if the times comes where it is necessary), but she needs an understanding of how many clients I have / project scope etc.  (Sis, we are going to need to schedule a monthly meeting I think.)

3. Your team – document who your team is, what kind of information you trust/share with each one, their contact information, what your payment agreement is and the scope of work they complete for you. Print it off and put it in the lock box.

4. Outline – What you do for each client and when do you do it.  Of course I have this and you do to when you submit a proposal to them and get a signed contract back from the client, however you need this accessible easily in case something happens to you.

5. Colleague - You must talk with and designate a trusted professional in your industry with your skills set who can / will finish up the projects for your clients if something was to happen to you.

6. Successor – Is your business going to continue on with another owner if something was to happen to you. Do you want it to continue on? Do you want someone else to use your business name?  You need to document this information carefully and share with the person you designate in item #2.

The person you designate to know your backup plan – item #2 and item #5 the colleague can be the same person, but I don’t necessarily recommend that. You want someone #2 to make sure the colleague #5 is finishing the projects and keeping their commitments.  You might decide two have to colleagues that you designate. One to complete some of the tasks and one to complete the others, or the primary person and the backup person, who knows, something could happen to the first person at the same time as you.

7. Business Records - Document your system for how you keep account of your business expenses. Your spouse or backup plan person, as designated in item #2, will need to be able to organize these records for tax purposes, etc.

8. Business Debts – Document your monthly business expenses, who you pay what and when. Automatic drafts, etc. Your backup plan person will need to get these accounts closed and the automatic drafts turned off or determine if your colleague mentioned in item #5 has these same accounts, so she can finish the scope of work. Obviously, your colleague wouldn’t be able to keep all of the money made from the clients for the projects they complete if your business is still paying for the expenses attached to the individual clients.

Keep your business debts paid current. Try not to have any IOUs out there. If you pay your team flat rates per project, pay them promptly when they complete the project. If you pay monthly, document each occasion for each team member you owe them – a monthly history.

9. Keep your hard drive (yes, a techy word) organized – I know this one might throw you for a loop, but seriously, you know where and how you save your documents and records, but will someone else be able to make sense of it if they need to access the records later.

Make sure you have printed details on how you organize your computer files in the lock box. (For the non-techy, a hard drive is where are you files are saved are your computer.)

10. Passwords - If you are like me all of your clients’ logins and passwords are written down and documented, but all your login and passwords to your accounts (social media, bills, bank, etc) are in your memory. You don’t write them down because you are protecting yourself from getting hacked and someone stealing the file.

Write them down anyway, you may be protecting yourself by not documenting them, but that is the only person. You are not protecting your spouse, team, debtors, etc. when you don’t. If no one can access your accounts, how in the heck can they close them, pay anyone, etc.

Wow – what a TO DO list! I just shared 10 things with you to check out and act on, and in the process gave me many things I have to go do right now. I already have my #2 person picked out and designated, Jimi Bratt, and my #5, two people actually, Web Designer / Graphic Artist / Marketing Authority – Robin Moss and Social Media Marketing Consultant / Online Marketing Extraordinaire - Ana Lucia Novak, they already know – aren’t they lucky! LOL! Between the three of them, I know they will get my clients fixed up and finished out if an emergency was to happen.

What about you? Do you have a plan? It’s time for you to get busy and do some serious thinking?

It’s your turn … comment below the other steps you thought of that I need to do and the other steps everyone reading this post needs to do. Please comment away and remember, we are only as good as the friends and team we surround ourselves with.

P.S. This blog post is dedicated in Loving Memory to Denai Downs Vaughn. She was an inspiration to many. Please do keep her family and friends in your thoughts, say a quick prayer and end it with a WOOHOO for Denai, as she is with her maker now.

Why are you reading this post – did one of your friends shared it via Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter? Are you subscribed to my blog via email or RSS (f you aren’t certainly click & do so now! LOL!)  Perhaps the title of this post caught your attention, you are curious about My Twenty Twitter Success Tips!

As you may already know I love talking Twitter, teaching Twitter and playing on Twitter. My passion is helping small business owners and individuals use social media marketing sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and now adding Google+ to the mix!

If you missed Tip #1 – “Register your account, SEO Optimize your Twitter Bio, and Upload a Profile Picture” you can read it here.

2^nd tip to achieving Twitter success:

Send your 1^st Tweet: Welcome your new friends – Don’t SELL in the tweet

What exactly do I mean? Often someone will register a Twitter account and wait to send their first tweet. They will go out and start following others, which is an invitation for them to follow back, but they don’t send any tweets out for the potential follower to judge who they are and what they are about. When you follow someone they look at your Twitter stream and see what you are tweeting to determine if they want to follow back. If you haven’t tweeted they have nothing to look at to help them to make their decision.

If you are tweeting and it is all self-promoting, they will decide not to follow you and perhaps even block you so you can’t even follow them. Here are a few samples of these no-no first tweets:

• Check out my website http://websiteurl.com! (If they want your website url it’s included with your profile information.)
• Follow me on Facebook http://facebook.com/IAmVain. (If they want you on Facebook that bad right away – they will go find you & ask for the link connect with you on Facebook.)
• Let’s connect on LinkedIn http://linkedin.com/in/MoreVanity. (Same as above – they will go find you or ask.)
• I need a job in the _________ industry. Can you help me? (They might really know someone or have a good lead for you, but if you seem too pushy before they even get to know you it will scare them off.)

Quick add: It is ok to send the above tweets out occasionally after you have grown your following and developed a relationship with your followers.

The first tweets you send need to be worthy of a read.  When I am setting up a new Twitter account or teaching one of my social media coaching clients how to use Twitter I tell them the first tweet needs to be something sincere. Don’t use any links at all. Give them a welcome, what you stand for …something that will help them decide to follow you.  This is the tweet I use or something similar:

Welcome! Thank you for checking out my stream. I’ll be sharing __________ information with you. I am passionate about ____________.

You have sent the first tweet, the tweet that lets them know who you are!  Now, go out and find some content that backs up this tweet and tweet it. Content that you can share that is information related to your business, what you’ll be sharing and what you are passionate about.  Make sure and send out at least three others tweets. I realize you might be new to Twitter and you will not be tweeting as much as an experienced user, that’s ok, but do make sure and check your Twitter daily and tweet.

Realistically, you probably have already sent your first tweet and unfortunately you can’t undo that! Are you proud of what you sent? Maybe not ….

You can make up for it.  Send out a few tweets on different days at different times letting those already following you know why they did – who you are and what you are passionate about.  Luckily, Twitter is a timeline and those self-promoting tweets won’t be as visible after you have tweeted awhile.

Make sure you are tweeting to a theme. If you are using Twitter for business you would tweet stuff related to your industry. (i.e. If you are a web designer tweet articles and content related to design, graphic arts, technology trends, SEO related content).

Do mix it up a little and tweet some content about things you are passionate about also! Remember though when you tweet to avoid topics like politics, religion and profanity. When you are growing your following on Twitter you don’t want to tweet stuff that would make your potential follower decide not to follow or something that would make a follower unfollow!

That’s it for Twitter Business Success Tip #2. What I thought was going to be a very short blog post ended up a very long blog post.  Hope you don’t mind!

It’s your turn – share your first Tweet success stories and horror stories. We all learn from each others’ mistakes after all!

(P.S.: People really don’t want to know what you are eating – keep those tweets to yourself, unless of course you consider yourself a foodie and want to share a great place you just checked out.)

Want to know the secret to my Twitter success, so you can apply it to your Twitter business marketing strategy?

You are not alone in the quest to learn how to use Twitter in business better and more effectively to succeed in marketing your business. Several weeks ago, Fred Campos of Fun City Social Media and I got together to honor Social Media Day and presented a joint presentation, Facebook vs. Twitter.  The attendees gave us excellent feedback and really seemed to enjoy learning about both Facebook and Twitter, how they work together and separately in marketing your business.

The presentation flowed quite well, I gave a brief overview of the different types of Online Marketing and when you might want to use of them. I then dove right into My Twenty Tips for Twitter Success.  Each tip I shared included an explanation of how businesses could apply it to their social media marketing campaign and how I applied it to achieve my Twitter success.  In August of 2009, I had about 200 Twitter followers. By October of 2009, I had built this up to around 4000 and now I have over 18,000.  It is important that I tell you I grew my following using organic tactics only, being real, having genuine conversation with my followers (I really consider them my friends). The 20 tips I am going to share over the next series of blog posts will help you achieve this same Twitter success if you apply them effectively.

First, I want to share with you a little about Fred’s presentation on Facebook Marketing. Most of the tips I shared in My Twenty Tips to Twitter Success can be applied to your social networking strategy on multiple platforms, so it played well into the kind of content you would share on your Facebook Business Page also.

One of the tips Fred shared that really got my attention was a strategy to grow the “Likes” on your Facebook Business Page. He said “While logged in as your page, go to other Facebook Business Pages that would compliment your services and strategic partners and post messages on their wall. Also, go to pages that your ideal customer would frequent and post wall messages there too.” He advised “be sincere in the messages you post, don’t’ try to sell, or be spam like, give them a compliment so the page will leave your comment on their wall”.  The fans that frequent their page will see your wall post, most likely click on it, and go “Like” your page.  I started using Fred’s strategy to grow some of my pages and my clients’ pages. It works. To read more about this tactic, Fred’s business partner, @FunCityGal, wrote a blog post. Check it out!

I know … I know …. You are reading this post because you want My Twenty Tips for Twitter Success and you want all 20 tips right now.  You want Twitter success now … Patience, my friend, I am writing an eBook with all twenty tips for Twitter business success and how to apply each one.  It will be available for download shortly and you can have all 20 Tips pronto.  In the meantime, it will be a blog post at a time …

1^st tip to achieving Twitter success:

Register your account, SEO Optimize your Twitter Bio, and Upload a Profile Picture

What name should you use to register your Twitter username? If you are your business, i.e. coach, speaker, etc. register your Twitter id in your name.  If your business provides a service such as dry cleaners, jewelry store, restaurant, etc. register the Twitter id in the business name. 

Still need help deciding? Answer this question – What do you want to brand? You or your business? You can always take a poll and ask your friends how they would look for your particular service online.  You can always register multiple Twitter ids. I would suggest if you are new to Twitter to master its use with one Twitter id, before making it more complicated by managing more however.

How do you SEO Optimize your Twitter Bio? Use keywords to describe you or your business. Think of this as a short bio using the keywords in your industry that others would search for to find you or your service. If you have room include the state you live in if your service is for a particular area only (i.e. serving Texas.).

I don’t like my headshot and am still waiting on the company logo. You would like to use a picture of something else temporarily, perhaps a default Twitter avatar or picture taken of you from a distance.  Don’t make this mistake! If you use a default Twitter avatar people that are considering following you will not take you seriously. They will decide you are a spammer and either decide not to follow you or unfollow you if they already have.  I personally don’t follow/unfollow anyone who doesn’t have a real picture for their Twitter avatar.

Should you use your picture or your company logo? That depends on what your Twitter id is that you registered. If you registered the Twitter username as your name, use your headshot, if you registered under the business name use your company logo.

That’s it for Twitter Business Success Tip #1. Now go out and check to make sure you are following these suggestions closely.

It’s your turn … Don’t forget to comment below about what you have learned about this part of the process. Your thoughts and feedback are just as important as mine!