How Important is Social Media?

July 25, 2010 by dawn billings · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business for Women, Social Media

Survey Shows Social Media Matters, and It’s Here to Stay

Hey Women Entrepreneurs. If you are not receiving emails from Hub Spot, you need to. They are my personal favorite source for social media up-to-date information. We can’t be experts on everything, so we have to rely on experts on various subjects. Hub Spot is our favorite for social media.

We are experts on face to face marketing with The Heart Link Women’s Network and we are truly excited about how we can help small businesses optimize their presence on the Internet with Trova Business Directories, Trova Small Business Directory and Trova Women Small Business Directory, but social media is a complex beast and we want to provide you with information from many sources to help you keep the business you love in front of your customers. So enjoy the information below.

The fastest-growing private U.S. companies have discovered something that’s taking larger, more traditional companies some time to figure out – social media matters.

Research conducted by the Center for Marketing Research , shows that the Inc. 500 recognizes the critical role social media plays in an online world. One hundred forty-eight companies responded to the late 2009 survey of companies named by Inc. Magazine to their list.

In fact, an incredible 79% of respondents to the nationwide telephone survey indicated social media was very or somewhat important to their business and marketing strategy. Indeed, 43% ranked social media as very important, compared with only 26% two years earlier, a 65% increase.

Clearly, these successful, smaller companies have discovered that leveraging social media tools and technologies plays a valuable role in their business and marketing strategies.

How about your business? Do you consider social media important? What results have you seen from using it?

Dawn is also the architect of the Primary Colors Personality Test

Check out our women networking events and find a networking gathering near you! You will be so glad you did. Also check out - TROVA NOW Women Business Directory, and TROVA Business Directory for all small businesses. TROVA in Italian means “Find”. Would you like for your business to be found easily both locally and nationally? For more information about how to get your women owned business listed for FREE visit: TrovaNow

Tags: hub spot, networking group, Social Media, social media business, women networking, women networking group

Everybody reading this blog can write a blog. Or can they? Or should they?

July 10, 2010 by dawn billings · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business for Women, HLN Spotlights, Inspiring Articles, Marketing Tips

Hey women entrepreneurs. It’s Dawn Billings with The Heart Link women’s Network. So many of us have heard how important blogging is and that we should all write a blog, but should ALL of us write a blog? Maybe not.

This is a guest post written by Dave Clarke, editorial director for Hologram Publishing. Dave is an award-winning writer and editor with more than 25 years of experience writing consumer and marketing content. He also does business blog-writing projects.

Everybody reading this blog can write a blog. Or can they? Or should they?

As social media marketing proliferates and permeates consumers’ consciousness, marketers, business owners, and tech-savvy entrepreneurs wrestle with the ‘content thing‘ more and more each day.

C’mon, everyone can string together a few coherent sentences, right? We’ve all been writing since kindergarten; by now it should come as easy and natural as, say, sitting on the ‘throne.’ So, how come it’s not?

The Write Stuff

Asked if good writing skills can be taught, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and Stanford University creative writing professor, Wallace Stegner replied, “Yes, but not to everyone.”

Some folks can write stuff people want to read, and some can’t.

Sometimes your business needs a professional writer, other times it doesn’t. How do you know which is which? Equally important, how do you know a good writer from a bad one?

Consider hiring a writer if:

You just don’t like to write. Some people shun exercise, some the dentist, others writing. For them, it’s tedious, troublesome.
Time is money. Yes, you have the skills and knowledge to pull together a blog post, but it may take you hours to do it and you’re already pressed for time. What’s your time worth?
It’s all Greek to you. People who are multilingual rock. But even the most fluent speakers of foreign tongues often have difficulty writing in them well enough to be clearly understood.
Your writing skills are so-so. You could do a serviceable job, but business circumstances dictate that “so-so” doesn’t cut it. You’re not just competing for readers’ time and attention against your competitors, but against thousands of other media trying to do the same thing with the same people. Your stuff better be good enough to grab their attention, hold it, and get them to act on what they’ve read.

Consider writing it yourself if:

You know the topic inside and out. You’ll have no trouble coming up with blog article ideas on a regular basis — weekly, biweekly — for as long as you intend to maintain the blog.
Spelling counts. Grammar too. Your knowledge of spelling, punctuation and grammar are good enough that you won’t embarrass yourself or tarnish your organization’s reputation by appearing amateurish due to misspelled words or grammatical errors.
You can step away from the story. You can distance yourself from your writing to critique and edit it objectively or you have a friend or colleague who can.
Good job! People comment favorably on your writing or you have been published (and not just on your own website).

How to recognize good writing and good writers:

Beyond looking at a writer’s technical skills — spelling, punctuation, grammar — also look at whether their thoughts follow a logical progression in telling the story. Look at the softer, yet in every sense more important, skills a writer demonstrates.

Does the writer’s writing engage you? Good writers know they have but a few, scant seconds to grab your attention. If you’re hooked from the first sentence and you’re not tempted by distractions along the way, the writer is doing their job. If the writing bores you, it will bore your audience, and they will click to another site in a nanosecond.
Experience counts. Does the writer have experience in the subject matter and type of writing you need? Writing effective marketing collateral is not the same thing as writing a press release; writing advertising copy is not the same as writing a white paper or a product page. Good writers, like good singers or dancers, are versatile in numerous topics, formats and genres, and are not just one-trick ponies.
Less is more. Good writing isn’t written, it’s rewritten. More specifically, it’s edited. Good writers prune their prose to be sure there are no extra words or phrases; that two words aren’t used when one will do; that redundancy, other than, say, product names or search keywords, doesn’t exist in the document.
Success breeds success. One way to gauge a writer’s success is the number of clients they work with. See how many companies are using any writer you consider. There’s a reason some writers have many clients: They consistently do a better job.
Good writers are invited back. One of the best measures of successful writers is whether or not they are hired back. If you see someone whose work consists of one or two assignments at dozens of clients, walk away. If a firm likes a writer’s work and working with that writer, they’ll invite them back time and again.

Dawn L Billings is an ardent advocate for women’s and children’s issues, the author of over 20 books and hundreds of articles on parenting, relationships, entitlement and networking. Dawn is the CEO and Founder of The Heart Link Womens Network, Trova Women Business Directory and Trova Small Business Directory and The Heart Alliance.com international women’s networking organizations and communities.

Dawn is the creator of the NEW Parenting Tool called Capables, a revolutionary parenting tool and Toddler toy that ends whining and tantrums for good. In 2008 Dawn was selected by Oprah Magazine and The White House project as one of 80 emerging women leaders in the nation. Find out more and buy Dawn’s books, Women Lifting the World inspirational videos to uplift the hearts of those you love, and the NEW Toddler Teaching Toys called CAPABLES Dawn is also the architect of the Primary Colors Personality Test

[Offtopic: by the way, have you had the opportunity to attend a local Heart Link Women's Network networking event? If not, check out our locations and find a gathering near you! You will be so glad you did. Also coming soon - TROVA NOW Women Business Directory, and TROVA Business Directory for all small businesses. TROVA in Italian means "Find". Would you like for your business to be found easily both locally and nationally? That is what our new business directories TrovaBusinessDirecory.com and TrovaWomenBusinessDirectory.com (launched April 1, 2010) are all about. For more information about how to get your women owned business listed for FREE visit: TrovaNow]

Tags: blogging tips, business directory, Dawn Billings, inbound marketing, Social Media, The Heart Link Network, Trova business directory, Trova Women business directory, women entrepreneurs, women networking, womens network

The Myth of Social Media Success

June 24, 2010 by dawn billings · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business for Women, Marketing Tips, Networking, Social Media

Hey Women Entrepreneurs, Have you ever wondered, “ Why do people think I need a Facebook presence, or a Twitter account or LinkedIn account? I know people who have been doing the crazy social media thing for months – with not much to show for it.”

There is definitely a great deal of chatter and confusion around social media.

There is no question social media really can help you build your business, and increase your income. We have all witnessed how connections can be formed for joint ventures and collaborative projects, and how customers find businesses through social networking. So we know income can be generated as a direct result of social media. But it doesn’t happen instantly.

Anyone who thinks that Social Media is a Quick-Fix, or immediate marketing magic bullet, needs to clean and reload their gun. Social media isn’t about creating a few accounts on various social media sites and then sitting back to watch the customers you are looking for, race to spend money in your business. Social media isn’t that simplistic.

Social media is an investment in a process that works over time. All marketing is about consistency. Marketing focuses on “marketing touches”. This is how many businesses used to design their marketing campaigns with repetitive commercials. There is no question that the Internet is taking over where commercials are leaving off. Even Pepsi gave up their advertising coveted spot on the Super Bowl, in favor of a new social media campaign.

So how do businesses use social media in more productive systematic ways?

First, businesses not only need to create a myriad of ways to stay front of the people they are looking to do business with, they need to optimize their time and link their social media. Each business needs to find ways that they can get in the middle of the Internet traffic highway inexpensively, but effectively.

One effective way is to make sure their websites are linked and optimized. There are two new online business directories that can help for just pennies a day. Trova Business Directory and Trova Women Business Directory provide their Platinum and Elite members with optimized mini-sites on their directories. When you are looking for business and type in women business directory it is important that you are connected with a small business directory that shows up on the first or second page of a search engine. Trova Business directories are there.

Social media and social networking, like face to face networking, is not only about marketing touches, it is about building relationships, finding ways to give back and developing trust. Customers don’t choose to do business with people they do not trust. Earning trust and building trusting relationships take time.

Social media isn’t a magic bullet, instead think of social media as practice at the firing range. It is in the shooting repetitively that you become an excellent shot.

Social media is a process. It is a tool that only works when you use it consistently and participate.

Social media works because you plant the seeds. It works because you show up and participate. It works because you take the steps to build relationships and trust. It works because you optimize your time and your links. It works because even when it looks like nothing is happening, you trust the process and continue building relationships.

Join. Build relationships. Link. Establish trust. Contribute your expertise. Trust the process. Your efforts will have you consistently hitting the mark.

Dawn L Billings is an the author of hundreds of articles on parenting, relationships, entitlement and networking, and over 20 books Dawn is an active advocate for children’s issues. As the CEO and Founder of The Heart Link Women’s Network, Trova Women Business Directory and Trova Small Business Directory and The Heart Alliance.com international women’s networking organizations , Dawn is a great supporter of women in business.

Dawn is the architect of the Primary Colors Personality Test

Check out our women networking events and find a gathering near you! You will be so glad you did. Also check out - TROVA NOW Women Business Directory, and TROVA Business Directory for all small businesses. TROVA in Italian means “Find”. Would you like for your business to be found easily both locally and nationally? That is what our new business directories TrovaBusinessDirectory.com and TrovaWomenBusinessDirectory.com are all about. For more information about how to get your women owned business listed for FREE visit: TrovaNow

Tags: Free business listing, FREE online listing, Online business directory, small business directory, Social Media, social media advertising, social networking, Women business directory, women networking, women networking events, women networking group

8 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Social Media for YOUR Business

May 27, 2010 by dawn billings · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business for Women, Networking, Social Media

Hey Women Entrepreneurs, This is an article by my good friend Brenda Thompson, with Smart Business Networking. Enjoy

May 27th, 2010 |

Author: Brenda Thomson

8 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Social Media for YOUR Business

I was talking to a business coach the other day and the conversation turned to social media. He made the comment that he really couldn’t see why any business owner would want to waste their time chattering on Facebook or Twitter.

Mmmm perhaps not the business coach to have in age of the social media revolution.
A couple of years ago hardly anyone had heard of social media, at least in a business context. Even a year ago most businesses were uncertain about whether they should be latest marketing strategy. However now more and more small businesses are realising the enormous opportunities social media presents. Just as email and websites turned marketing upside down a few years ago social media is the next marketing wave. But at the end of the day , the million-dollar question is: can social media help small business owners make more money?

Well here are 8 reasons why you might want to make sure that you are using social media in YOUR business.

1. Brand recognition/exposure

Social Media is a great equaliser. You don’t need huge budgets to participate in social media. (Although if you put a dollar value on your time, and you should, it certainly isn’t free!) However Social Media opens up the possibility for small business with small budgets to build big brand awareness practically overnight.
A recent study of over 1800 social media marketers showed that the number-one benefit of social media marketing is building brand awareness. A significant 85% of all marketers surveyed indicated that their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses. (2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. www.socialmediaexaminer.com)
In fact a staggering 89.2% of the small business owners (0 -100 employees) surveyed reported that social media had resulted in greater exposure for their business.

2. Customer Service
Customer relations and customer service are an excellent use of social
media. Companies that are good at customer service know that a well handled complaint can turn a problem customer into a raving fan literally overnight. Unfortunately most unhappy customers don’t complain, they just vote with their feet and you never see them again. But what are they saying about you on Twitter? Keep track of the negative Tweets about your company and deal with them and you have the opportunity to turn a bad situation into a good one literally with 140 characters.
If you are not on social media for any other reasons then this one, it’s the biggie! If you are not on social media your customers almost certainly are. And if they aren’t yet, they soon will be and your competitors and suppliers almost certainly are.
Make sure that you know what they are saying about you and be prepared to act appropriately and FAST! Here’s a great example of customer service at work on social media the Delhi Traffic Police has created a fan page on Facebook. At the time of writing this post it had only been around for about a week and already had 2816 “likes” . Not sure what it will do to solve Delhi traffic congestion which I have personally seen in action, but could be good PR for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games.

3. Networking Opportunities
Social media, particularly channels such as Facebook and Linked In are the ultimate Networking event…and suddenly you have the opportunity to network with whoever you want to, not just the people who happen to show up at your local Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Want to connect with someone in particular?
You can search all of your friends and contacts to see who is already connected to them and ask for an introduction.
Alternatively you can start to follow them on Twitter or become a Fan on Facebook then start to add value to the conversation, comment intelligently on their posts and Tweets (make sure you add value). Once you have done your groundwork you will be in a position to connect.
Looking for people to create a strategic alliance or joint venture with?
Social media allows you to thoroughly research potential partners, get insights into the values and philosophies, see what their followers and fans think of them, BEFORE you make an approach.
Obviously I’m not suggesting for a moment that social media should replace live networking in your networking plan.. but make sure you add it to your networking mix.

4. Community Building/loyalty
My apologies to whoever said this as I can’t recall the source, but it went something like this:
“The job of a business is to create customers… the job of a business in the social media age is to create customers who create customers!”
Community building is growing an audience of consumers or customers.
Social media is the ultimate referral engine. Consumers are sick and tired of being manipulated by advertising, they are 75% more likely to buy something referred by a friend or trusted associate than by an advertiser. By building a community of fans and followers on social media you are building a community of raving fans who will be the trusted referrers for you company and products.
If your customers or potential customers are using social media to make buying decisions (and the probability is that they are) can you afford not to be there building your team of “raving fans”?

5. Backlink/SEORanking
Google hates being manipulated by SEO experts – that’s why they are constantly changing and updating their algorithms. (The calculations they use to determine which site ranks higher in the search results).
But it’s harder to manipulate popular opinion. Google is wise to this and therefore social media links, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, etc all show up in search engines. Higher ranked, shared, and retweeted posts and articles and Your Tube videos can all result in more traffic to your website..
Plus social media can easily go viral. I was listening to a webinar the other day about spinning an article – that basically means changing enough words in the article so that Google no longer recognises it as the same article, and then sending it out to 50 or more article directories in order to get backlinks to your site. Clearly an arduous, time consuming and boring process. (And I’m pretty sure if I was Google I’d see that as a bit manipulative.) On the other hand using social media you can write one really good article, post it on your blog and share it across all the social media sites, and it gets shared 50 or so times by friends, and contacts and their friends and contacts. Which would you rather do? Write one high quality article that gets shared 50 times on social media sites? Or write 50 different articles or even just one article and spend hours spinning it into 50 variations in order to submit it to 50 directories. I know what I’d rather do!

6. Market Intelligence
Market intelligence is typically something that small business hasn’t been that good at collecting. Focus groups, massive surveys, hiring market research firms all cost money. Not usually in the budget of the average small business owner. Social Media changes all that. Even the smallest business with absolutely no market research budget can interact with clients and potential clients to
• Generate new product ideas.
• Improve current product features.
• Improve service lines.
Then there is the other side of market intelligence. What are your competitors up to? What are your clients saying about you and about your competitors. Using simple low cost/no cost social media tools you can keep track on what is being said about you and your competitors and about what your target market are looking for, complaining about, discussing and commenting on.
Then all you need to do is respond appropriately

7. Making Sales
For all those sceptics out there who want to see a return on investment from social media and who only measure ROI on the dollar value sale: Yes social media does drive sales for both online and offline businesses. And it’s easy to track – simply use different web-links or create special offers that are unique to a particular social media channel and track the results. One particularly powerful example comes from Dell who have sold $6.5 million of overstocked, discounted hardware via ONE Twitter account in less than two years. And the great thing about social media is that small business has just as much access to it as big business.
Still I think Erik Qualman says it so much better than I can…

8. Continuing Professional Education
With information changing at an increasingly rapid pace.. how do you keep up to date with the latest trends, changes and information in your industry and profession? Universities and business schools struggle to keep up to date. Text and reference books are out of date often literally before they go to publication.
For an overview of the changes that have taken place in the way we share information over the past 200 years check out this article by Thomas Baekdal
Social Media gives you the opportunity to identify the thought leaders, gurus and innovators in your industry or profession and find out what they are thinking and doing, almost literally as they think it and do it, and when they Tweet, Blog or Status Update it to let their followers and fans know about it on Social Media. Better still you have the opportunity to enter into the conversation, comment, ask questions and add ideas of your own. An opportunity to become seen as a thought leader, innovator and guru yourself.

So there you have it 8 great reasons why you should be using Social Media in your business. If at least one of them doesn’t make you sit up and take notice then perhaps it’s time to shut up shop and retire before social media does it for you!

Like to add your views – either for or against using social media for small business owners. Please join in the conversation and let us know what you think!

Tags: business networking, networking for women, networking groups, Social Media, women and social media, women networking, women networking groups

Are we addicted to social media?

April 20, 2010 by dawn billings · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business for Women, Funny, Marketing Tips, Networking, News & Events

Are We Addicted to Social Media?

Hey women entrepreneurs. It’s Dawn Billings and I just stumbled upon an interesting recent independent study by Retrevo Gadgetology revealed some interesting stats about our love for social media sites. Now being 56 years-old, I found the results of this study to be true because my sons (30 and 21) are never far from their iPhone’s even when they go to bed.

The study asked 1,000 users the “when, where and what” regarding social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. It is interesting because their are friends who are either addicted to Facebook or Twitter and not that many who are addicted to both. The stats suggest we just might be completely addicted to social networking (they said people actually tweet from the bathroom!). Okay, I may not have tweeted in the bathroom but there have been times when I have taken my computer with me to the “resting” room when I have been working hard to write a book or article. No, I am not there now!

Social Media All Through the Night

It comes as no surprise that the “under age 25″ users were more active during off hours. Here’s a breakdown of nighttime and morning activity:

Do you check/update Facebook and Twitter after you go to bed?

Yes, anytime I wake up during the night.

Under 25: 19%
Over 25: 11%

Yes, sometimes when I wake up during the night.

Under 25: 27%
Over 25: 20%

Yes, as soon as I wake up in the morning.

Under 25: 32%
Over 25: 21%

Will Twitter and Facebook take over the morning news show?

Maybe not anytime soon, but 16% of those under age 25 and 15% of those over 25 turn to their social sites for their morning news. If this trend continues, the morning news as we know it today could see some major changes. How many of you rely on your computer for the majority of your news? I do.

Are iPhone users more addicted to social media sites?

iPhone users were extremely active on social sites at all hours of the day. The study does not give solid reasons for this, but speculates, “We don’t know if it’s the device making it so easy to do social media things or the personality of an iPhone owner, but iPhone owners stand out in this study as more involved with social media; they use Facebook and Twitter more often and in more places.” It may not be scientific but I can attest to the iPhone addiction in my house.

Here are some other stats worth checking out:

56%: Social media users check Facebook at least once a day. I may not check Facebook that often but I know that I check my email multiple times a day.
12%: Social media users check Facebook every couple of hours.
40%: Respondents who said they didn’t mind being interrupted for a message.
32%: Respondents who said using the sites was not off limits while eating a meal.
7%: Respondents who said they’d check out a message during an intimate moment. C’mon, seriously. How intimate can their moments be if they are willing to check their phone for a message? I may be too old to truly understand the significance of a text, but I am not too old to understand the significance of an intimate moment : )

When asked about being interrupted by an electronic message, here’s what respondents said:

With the growing popularity of social media, there’s no doubt we’ll continue to see a rise in many of these (sometimes strange) behaviors. Perhaps we should be asking ourselves, when is it all too much?

Dawn L Billings is an ardent advocate for women’s and children’s issues, the author of over 20 books and hundreds of articles on parenting, relationships, entitlement and networking. Dawn is the CEO and Founder of The Heart Link Women’s Network,women networking in US, Canada and Australia, Trova Women Business Directory and Trova Small Business Directory and The Heart Alliance.com international women’s networking organizations and communities.