Category Archives: Social Media

A new member of the Mouse & Man team has just arrived. Everyone meet Graham Everett Sexton.

He arrived just in time to see a bit 2011. Graham has all his fingers and seems like a healthy, normal baby.

Here are some questions though going through my mind:

1. Will you learn to type the alphabet or write it first?
2. How much of your education will you receive from a LCD screen?
3. When will you make your first Facebook post?
4. How many digital photos will be taken of you this year? Looks like 375B will be taken this year.
5. How many times will your identity try to be stolen?
6. How many hours will you spend in front of a computer screen?
7. What will your first tweet look like?
8. Will you (sadly) ever use a mouse?
9. When will you get your first phone? What will it look like, the iPhone 14? And what rationale will be used to get it, safety, convenience, texting, driving your car or something else that doesn’t exist now?
10. Will your interact more with your friends in person or online?
11. Will you just bypass all this technology and go back to the olden days of wooden teeth and wigs? If you did, know that we’d support you 100%. Just want you to be healthy and happy.

Have you jumped on the bandwagon? If you have, you’ve witnessed the immense power of social media. So how do you harness social media to promote your business?

1.)Choose your social communities carefully.Online social networking can be a time consuming, (and life consuming) activity. Consider which communities you would like to join, keeping in mind reach, industry and targeted demographic. It may be more beneficial to join ActiveRain, than Facebook if you are a Realtor—so check out where your audience is.

2.)Don’t over-extend yourself. If you (or your team) has too many social networks to manage, you won’t be able to keep up. And there isn’t anything worse than out-of-date information online. Target what you can handle and do it well.

3.)Hang out for a while. Once you have joined a social network, get to know the community a while before you start posting and trying to work it. Comment or join discussions already in progress and build up a positive reputation. This will give you the chance to learn the etiquette and the audience before you dig in too deep.

4.)Tell your story. Share your business story (or that of your business). Be real. Be compelling. A good story will enamor you to your audience and create a personal connection.

5.)Don’t share too much! Just because it is easy to post pictures and inform hundreds (or thousands) of people what you are doing at any given moment, doesn’t mean you should. Create a set of guidelines for your company to follow when participating in online social communities, and follow them. Present your company policy, (in writing) to your employees for how they are to conduct themselves on their personal pages as well. This is a sketchy area, but it is better to be strict than to have your employees blogging about how they hate each other, or sharing pictures of your company holiday party with the world.

6.)Include pictures.Content is king, it will bring in the search traffic and provide a unique footprint for you online… but, the Internet is becoming, more and more, a visual media. A picture can tell your story, help create a connection and illustrate your point.

7.)Be a useful resource.Information is the capital of the Internet. If you are able to provide useful and sought-after information, you will become a popular expert resource.

8.)Reach out to others. Don’t just provide your own expert opinion; solicit interviews, feedback, comments and content from others in your industry. You will be a more well-rounded and objective resource and your online credibility will be increased!

9.)Include links. Make sure to link from keyphrases to the specific pages they reference–it is good for SEO! This will help the reader and grab potential qualified visitors to your site.

10.) Back up your opinions and cite your sources. Remember to include links to supporting documentation and cite your resources when you make your posts. This will demonstrate your professionalism and credibility, and make your page, profile, blog or site one that is considered a valuable source of information, and a popular stop on the world wide web.

So, I was walking back into my house last week after going to the grocery. I take the garage door opener with me just because it’s faster than fumbling with the keys. I pull into the garage with our fancy Jeep jogging stroller (see right) loaded with groceries. We were way over the 10 lbs carrying limit for the undercarriage part of the jogger. Anyrate, close the garage door down and hear a horrible sound when the door was about halfway down, then the door slams to the ground. My first thought, “That sounds expensive.” And yes it was…but the point of this post is to show you how my world has changed by utilizing Twitter today than what it used to have been.

In the past, I would have gone to the yellow pages (remember those big fat books with a bunch of yellow pages in them) and looked for the “best” local garage door company. I would have evaluated the best based on:

1. Size of ad
2. If it was a color ad or not

Using these two factors I would try and quickly get the number for a reputable company but not too expensive. Probably close to the the 3rd largest color ad.

However, this is what I did do and here are the results. Here is an accurate depiction of the next 3 hours and 59 minutes of April 14, 2009.

9:42 AM – Garage door dies (well it was actually the coils but whatever…the door didn’t go up when I hit the little button)

9:54 AM – I send out my tweet distress call to one of my SEO friends who I thought had a local garage door client:

@DavidKyle Did you say you have a garage door client. If so, send me the info. I’m locked in my house w/ a broken garage door.“

9:58 AM – David direct messages me back saying he doesn’t have that client anymore but referrs me to another company

9:59 AM – @NC_SEO chimes in (b/c he follows me and sees that I’m in harms way): “@FredSexton your garage door has a safety pull. it’s a small rope that hangs from the top. Pull it own, and open your garage“

10:06 AM – I tweet: “@NC_SEO I pushed and pulled on all those ropes. Nothing moving though. Thanks anywyas.“

10:08 AM – @NC_SEO quickly replies: “@FredSexton you have to pull the rope so it gets off the track. you can ONLY open the door manually when you unhooked them off the tracks“

10:14 AM – I tweet and send out my official mayday call: “Trapped in Charlotte: Talked with local garage door company (thanks @davidkyle). I’ve got a broken spring, so there’s no way to open it“. So, I’m stuck (or at least I think that I am).

10:16 AM – @NC_SEO takes a friendly jab at my manhood: “@FredSexton 2nd requirement….you have to be strong  “

10:20 AM – I call the comany @DavidKyle recommended. They send someone immediately. They’ll be here in about 1.5 hours. I think, “Wow, that’s really fast.” It usually takes me a week and a half to get a new client meeting setup.

Somewhere around 10:30 AM – @NC_SEO calls me and walks me through how to open the garage door so I could just get out. With little Ellie in my arms I try to pry the door open but can’t get it. @NC_SEO ensures that I can do but just need to give it a good heeve-hoo. Anyrate, I couldn’t get it open but was very appreciative of the phone call.

1:41 PM – I happily tweet: “Trapped in Charlotte Finale: So, I am a big wimp. Repair guy opened door in 5 secs. Fixed it 2 hrs. Thanks 4 help @NC_SEOand @davidkyle.“

The point of this story is, I love twitter for doing all kinds of non related twitter things such as:

• Keeping track of my friends and seeing if they are in trouble (and enemies if I had any…working on this though)
• Asking dumb questions…even questions about how to fix my broken garage
• Learning how much of a wimp that I am
• Seeing how nice and forthcoming people are to help a brother out when he’s down and trapped in his garage