HOW TO Measure Your Social Media ROI: Part 3 (If you missed it, check out HOW TO Measure Your Social Media ROI Part 1 and Part 2)

Let’s face it, most business owners starting to utilize and leverage social media want to know what the return on investment is with social media.  Honestly, social media lacks easily and clearly measurable characteristics of other investments, but it IS very much possible to see and track the monetized return from engaging in social media.

Tip # 3: Use Special Promotions

If you want to know just how many people really care about your products and services, try doing some free promotional giveaways!  If you sell products online try offering a discount, free shipping, or a bonus product to customers that interact with you digitally.  During the checkout process, use a promotional code like “twitter” which provides the FREE addition to the order (or discount); this will provide information about how many people that you interact with actually want/use your products.  What could make this process even better would be to restart the process using different social mediums to track your value on each of them.

In his book, Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk provides a wonderful case study about his marketing efforts.  He put up a billboard, purchased a TV spot, and tweeted about free shipping on purchases of wine from his company.  You’ll have to read the book to see how monumentally more successful his social media efforts were compared to more traditional means of marketing.  The best part of the whole case study is the amount that he spent compared to the return on each of them – needless to say, social media is FREE so the ROI on something that didn’t cost a penny is pretty colossal.

I was introduced to Pluggio.com by a good friend of mine and when I received an email from them asking for feedback, I thought I would write a blog about my thoughts and comments.

First off, I recommend this website. One of the biggest things I love about it is the ability to publish what is called “Rolling Tweets” to my networks. A rolling tweet is essentially a bunch of tweets that are titles of articles that others have written that include the link to those articles for my networks to check out. These posts are generated by the RSS feeds I choose to have pulling into my RSS section. This makes it easy for me to push valuable content out to my networks pretty much effortlessly. For me, I picked Twitter and Social Media outlets like TechCrunch and Twitter Alltop to feed into my RSS section since I’m in the social media and internet marketing world, but you can add any type of website to this section as long as they have a RSS feed.

Another thing I liked about Pluggio.com is their suggested follow and unfollow feature. Each day when I login to my account, I am given up to 20 suggestions of people to follow and unfollow based off of my bio and keywords. This makes it easy for me to clean up my followers but also add ones that are in my industry.

I also love that I can have multiple Twitter account synced to one Pluggio account. So all of the above features above, I can do to all of my personal and professional accounts, as well as my clients’ accounts which mainstreams my work and saves me time!

One thing I have come across is the downtime is a little higher than I would prefer. I’ve been on their site daily and probably at least once a day – every other day, their site is down. It is a new site and I think they are making changes daily so I’m patient with them, but it can be annoying.

For more information on Pluggio.com check out the video below are visit their website. Definitely try it out, it’s worth it!

With the growing number of users on Twitter (now at 105 million registered accounts) it’s important to treat your followers the way you would like to be treated…or tweeted J

Here are a few tips to make sure you are being respectful on Twitter:

Never Spam – Many people, especially business owners think Twitter, as well as other free social media platforms, are a place where they can sell their products or services within a week and drive instant traffic to their website. In rare cases this will happen, however if you create a Twitter account and all you do is talk about your product(s) or services, you are spamming your following. Make sure 70% of the content you are tweeting is adding value to your audience. Things like links to industry news, new laws or standards, quotes, tips and advice, and just general networking; talking to other Twitter users. 20% of your posts need to be the sharing piece meaning you are ReTweeting/RTing (reposting) other people’s post and making comments on their posts/blogs. Only 10% of your tweets will be self promotion, so make sure you start following this rule so you aren’t spamming your followers.

Be a Human, Not a Robot – The thing that is beautiful about Twitter, but also overwhelming, is how many applications there are to manage and automate your Twitter account. Even though there are many tools for automation, I strongly urge you to have human participation with your Twitter account, especially if you are using it for business. You have probably seen Twitter accounts that put out several feeds at once linking to blogs or promoting squeeze pages and that can be ok to do, however you must combine your automation with human interaction. Also, I recommend turning off auto Direct Messages (DMs). Since Twitter users have been given the ability to auto-respond to new followers via direct messages, the DM section has become complete spam and I rarely check my DMs due to this issue. I also know of people that will automatically unfollow you if you send them an auto DM. Use DM’s for private conversations, not to sell.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T and Customer Service– Hopefully as a business person, you are already treating your potential clients and peers with respect, but now with advances in technology people get to see a much more insightful look into our lives and businesses. I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter start fights and arguments and they’re business owners starting arguments under their business accounts! This behavior will put you on the fast track to damaging your credibility and reputation which can take a very long time to rebuild. Think of Twitter as a customer service tool and know that tone is very hard to read via Internet, emails and texting. Be attentive and helpful and if someone is upset with you and challenges you online, think before you type! Make sure you are handling the person with professionalism. There might also be times when it is just not necessary to respond to someone if they are intentionally starting a fight. Remember, people can see what you say and it can be saved to use as proof or to be used against you, tweet wisely.

As you tweet, remember that Twitter is a free brand management and relationship tool, don’t abuse it and always Tweet people how you want to be Tweeted! J

If you are a part of the Twitterverse then you have surely seen #FollowFriday or #FF used before, perhaps you’ve even seen it… every Friday? #Followfriday has become the most popular social convention tool used on Twitter but if you don’t know what it is or how to use it, you might feel a little out of the loop.

If you have a great #followfriday feel free to leave a comment, we’d love to pass it along to our networks!

First Edition of Happy Minutes…cause who can really be happy for an hour? Check out our Twitter Tip about #ecomonday

An easy way to spread your social media links to the world, include them in your email signatures! And don’t forget to put them on all other marketing materials.

2009 was absolutely incredible. As I look back I feel like I made things happen! I started a social media company called 3 Elements LLC in May, I lived in New York City for almost 2 months, and I traveled all over the country from Los Angeles to Dallas to Chicago to New York. I met the beautiful and wise Ellen Burstyn, the fun and energetic Linus Roache, saw the cast of Glee sing Christmas carols, listened to Jenny McCarthy announce the world’s largest Elf Festivity and partied in the streets to Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys and Michael Buble (just to name a few) as we counted down the lighting of the breath taking tree at the Rockefeller Center.

I’ve met and befriended people from Argentina, Turkey, Columbia and Tibet and have learned from them how different and diverse the world is; giving me a peek inside another culture and way of living; creating an internal craving for diversity within my life.

What my eyes have scene, my nose has smelled, my hears have heard, my mouth has tasted, my body has felt and my mind has experienced in one year is incredibly overwhelming in the most amazing way. I feel truly blessed and fortunate to have experienced what I have in 2009.

From my experiences I have learned so much about life, people and myself. I have found new passions to learn another language, travel the world and help others in need. I have learned the importance of following your heart and trusting yourself; finding love and strength from within. I have understood the importance of a good, genuine friend.  I have experienced such openness and beauty within myself and others that brings tears to my eyes and touches my soul. Words cannot explain what I have scene and experienced in 2009, but all I can say is I am extremely thankful for my life, for my family, for my friends, and for the opportunities.

For 2010, I can feel amazing things to come. I feel love, growth, strength, wealth and happiness. I’m so anxious for the next 365 days but I am trying to focus on today, and live it to the fullest both personally and professionally.

I’m excited to help conscious business owners tell their story to the online world and I’m thrilled to be a part of their businesses. I’m anxious to be a part of something larger than me, being challenged and therefore gaining insight and wisdom to pass along to someone else.

Today is the first day of 2010 but it is another day adding to my 24 years of age. It’s an addition block to the building that I have been working pretty damn hard on and it feels good to feel what I feel for the future.

So cheers! Here’s to today, here’s to tomorrow, and here’s to the opportunities that we will be presented with and hopefully take advantage of; giving us greatness. Happy 2010!

While the idea of face to face meetings is ideal for any business, the reality of global business and relationships makes that entirely impossible to have with every customer or consumer. Blogs enable people to talk to each other in a direct, informal manner. Bloggers make grammatical errors, often change their train of thought, challenge arguments, make suggestions, basically everything that would typically happen in a conversation- happens in a blog. The blog is the work of a real person, no BS, no fluff, in other words, it is- what it is. This is important and attractive to a lot of people because most people don’t trust big corporate companies because there seems to be no connection and trust, and this is exactly where and how blogs emerged. It is just a typical conversation with the idea that it is all presented on an equal level playing field.

In blogs you can loosely connect to other blogs or websites through the use of hyperlinks. The linking from blog to blog paves the way for it to become a part of the blogsphere. Even if you have 1 visitor or as many as 100,000 daily visitors with hundreds of links, your blog is a part of a huge circulation of findable information. But regardless of the circulation, the most important aspect of the blog s that it is conversational and personal.

So why do businesses have or need to have blogs as a part of their online marketing campaign? Because blogs are just another way for business to build trust, they humanize companies and give prospective customers an idea of the people who are running the business. Going back to the older blog post I wrote about Joel Comm’s 4 step sales process, know me- like me -trust me -pay me, the blogs are the perfect outlet for your potential customers to get to know you a little bit, perhaps enough to want to do business with you.

Blogs are among the most powerful two way internet communication tools thus far. They can help your company tremendously and although about one third of blogs started may be abandoned in one year, the overall growth of blogging is among the fastest of any technology.

So, if you choose to join the ongoing conversation that is taking place a great deal on the internet you should know that your company is good for it and your customers will be better-off. Also, you end up saving so much money on marketing campaigns that are really expensive, don’t work, and straight up just annoy people.

Okay, so you have signed up on numerous social media networking sites to advance your business in the world of online marketing. However, in order to increase traffic, turn visitors into consumers, get more online exposure you have to be proactive and create a valuable networking platform for your target audience to feel apart of.  Here is a potential way of looking at levels of success using Social Media Marketing based on the same grading scale you were used to when you were in grade school.

 If you are only pushing promotion or sales through your social networks you will lack credibility, you are wasting your time and annoying people… try something different because you have recieved a D+

If your only active in advertising your routine tweets- ‘had a turkey sandwich’ you have received a C. You leave your followers wondering what your purpose for using networking tools like Twitter as a part of your business plan actually is. (Where’s the useful content, did you eat it with your sandwich or did you ever have it to begin with?!)

 If you allow your customer base to care and become interested and passionate about your product or service by educating and teaching them through the use of social networking, your integrating it effectively so you recieve a B but you could push one step further (and trust us, you need that A).

A+ If you provide an online community for customers to connect and support each other using integrated social media tools you have passed the test (Congrats). As a business, you want to have customer voices speak about your product or service so you know what works and what doesn’t work. Once you have provided a place for them to do so, you have received an A in integrated Social Media Marketing (yes, you get a star on your chart).

There you have it. It is so important to establish a strategic method for consumers to engage in online conversation because it can be used as the most efficient and effective approach to have your marketing plan support the notion of social media aka future marketing. We suggest that you go ahead and make mistakes (I’m still learning) because there is no cookie cutter recipe for how to use social media, but the fact that have an online presence will benefit you and your company  in the future. Go ahead, get creative, get followers and get active because there are over 300 million people active in online media, is your business involved in this conversation?