I saw an interesting post in a forum the other day – the original poster was complaining that one of his suppliers hadn’t been able to complete his work, but was blogging every day, was posting on Facebook, tweeting etc, so they couldn’t be too busy, could they?

The reason I found the post interesting, even amusing, was because the person being complained about is one of my clients, and I know how busy she is. So busy that she pays me to do her blogging, tweeting and Facebooking while she gets on with the work in hand. She also hires a VA to deal with her email, and accounts, so she’s not ‘wasting time’ there either.

I think it’s easy to look at someone’s Facebook page or blog and presume that they’re wasting all their time on their own business and perhaps not supplying your service quickly enough, and of course there are extremes, but don’t presume that because you’re seeing activity from someone, they’re wasting time.

For example, I wrote this blog while I was on holiday – I had no internet connection, so I saved it and a few others as there was nothing else workwise I could do with my time. I scheduled it when I got back, so I’m not actually in front of my PC while you read it – I’m probably on a conference call or working on someone’s site.

I schedule a lot of tweets too (@nikkipilkington) – so just because you see me on Twitter doesn’t mean I’m there right at that moment.

Our NikkiPilkington Facebook page is administered by 3 different people, as is my personal account on occasion.

Of course, I keep a check on things and any replies or interactions you see are from me personally, but I don’t spend my life hovering over FB, Twitter and my blog, and neither does my client – something worth thinking about when you see someone Tweet and wonder why they haven’t yet replied to an email you sent yesterday

The Twitter list feature is great, and finding out that you’re on a few lists is a real ego booster – findinoug out which lists is even more interesting at times! But how do you find out which lists you’ve been added to?

You can of course go to your profile and click on the ‘lists’ link as shown here:

This will give you a list of all the lists you’re .. erm.. listed in Like so:

Which is nice, and you can spend a good amount of time going through them.

But how do you find out about NEW lists you get added to, so you can check them out, thank the person adding you, and generally have an idea of what’s going on?

Simply follow @listwatcher !

That’s right – if you follow @listwatcher, whenever you’re added to a new Twitter list, he’ll send you a direct message to let you know. He’ll also let you know if a list you’re a member of is deleted or renamed. It’s the brainchild of @ibobrik according to the description, but that account didn’t exist when I checked

I’ve been following for a few weeks now and it really is nice to get alerts when you’re added to a list, and to be able to say thank you to the list owner and strike up a dialogue if you haven’t already.

Fab idea – I love it – if you do too, please spread the word!

First off, an admission – this isn't MY post. It's from the fab Chris Brogan, and he's said that it can be reposted as long as he's given credit. Here's the original post: 50 Power Twitter Tips

Rather than just repost his thread, I've picked out my favourite of his tips from each section  – please do read his original post to get all 50!

Intent (Human Artist)

• Don’t read EVERY tweet. It’s perfectly okay. You have permission.
• Promote other people 12x to every 1 self-promotional tweet.
• A lot of @replies shows a lot of humanity/engagement.
• Promote the new/less followed more than the “names.”
• Everyone does it their own way. You’re doing it wrong, too- to someone.

Technical

• Leave 20 characters or more space in each tweet to improve retweeting.
• Make hashtags small and simple. We need room to tweet.
• If software allows you to “post updates to Twitter” as well as to the app, don’t do that. We rarely want to see them.
• If you develop software that pushes updates to Twitter, be VERY explicit how that works.
• Every time you use OAUTH to give apps permission to use your account, you open a potential security hole. Check your permissions monthly.

Business

• Spamming us repeatedly is okay. We just unfollow you.
• Finding people who need what you’re selling trumps advertising to us.
• Your customers might not be on Twitter. Use rapleaf to find them.
• Invite your customers to Twitter, then make it worth it for them.
• Use Twitter as a personalized communication tool, not another blast.
• Just make money and then the boss won’t ask about ROI any more.

Integrated Usage

• Apps like TweetChat.com make following event chats really easy. Put in a hashtag and go.
• Tweeting the content of events is nice, but so is occasionally making a real live connection with the speaker.
• It’s okay to tweet your blog posts, but try asking a question that leads readers into the post.
• Can you invite Twitter followers to your other social platforms, like LinkedIn or Facebook? Sure you can.
• Tweets that point us to photos and/or video and/or music, etc, are always a great way to enhance the experience.

Off-Twitter

• Are your tweets really what you want to show in your sidebar? Doesn’t that direct people away from your site?
• Apps like VisibleTweets.com are neat, but can be very distracting at events.
• Don’t forget to invite people from off-Twitter to follow you on Twitter. Include your actual Twitter ID (I see lots of “follow me on Twitter” with no details).
• Asking questions on Twitter makes for very interesting commentary and opinions for blog posts.
• If your only marketing efforts are on Twitter, start building an email marketing list. Never put your eggs in one basket.
• Start thinking in 120 characters (remember? save 20). Every bit of this advice is tweetable.

As always, fab points from Chris – be sure to visit his original post and let others know about it!

We love a good top ten post here at NP, and as we've recently found a fab social media t-shirt for Baby O (see if you can guess which one it is!) were inspired to bring you:

10 Facebook, Twitter & Social Media Tshirts for Kids & Adults

1) I'm not a blogger, I just Tweet a lot

Perfect to make a point – not everyone is a blogger, of course. Available from Twitter's Threadless page

2) They're not my parents, we met on Facebook

A great statement for kids, can we have another that says 'They're not my kids, I found them on eBay' please? Available in ages 4-9 from Little Sunflowers

3) You 'Like' this

Using the Facebook thumbs up to promote an air of narcissism – nice… Found over at NerdyShirts

4) 140 is the new 420

Subtle – we like this one – either people will get it or they won't, but it won't be 'in your face'. Another one from the Twitter Threadless store.

5) Digg & Reddit & Stumbleupon & Delicious

Perfect for all you Social Bookmarking addicts out there. Another one from Nerdy Shirts.

6) Twittering blue bird for kids

A variation on the Twitter bird, this can be customised to include a Twitter name. Found over at Spreadshirt

7) There's a Facebook group for people like you

The ultimate insult from Facebook tshirts?

Connect with me … Linkedin

Even Linked in are jumping on the apparel bandwagon – quite subtle though! Available direct from Linkedin

9) YouTwittFace

Maybe this says it all?!? From CafePress

10) Social Networking Killed My Social Life

I know how the designer of this one feels Another Cafepress find.

So there you have it, ten Facebook, Twitter and Social Media T-shiorts for kids and adults alike – if you've found any other Social Media tshirts, let me know in the comments below!

I bet you're not

Thanks to Hongkiat.com for the heads up on this fab infographic, from their article 50 Informative and well designed infographics, and thanks to sergeesteves for designing it! How many places have YOU heard of /listed on? Bear in mind that this is the German version. Click on the graphic to see a bigger version.

(This is not a post to say 'get listed on everything', it's just to give kudos to a great infographic)

It's pretty annoying when you register with Twitter and find out that the username you really want has gone. I'm lucky, there aren't many Nikki Pilkingtons around who want a Twitter account, but if your, or your company name is more common, then you may have had a problem getting the Twitter username you wanted.

Back in January Twitter let it be known that they would be releasing old unused names back into the wild as it were – so if someone had registered the name you wanted, but hadn't logged in for a certain amount of time, and the account was obviously unused, then it would be possible to clim the name – IF you were quick enough.

But what if you weren't quick enough? You could miss the name AGAIN, and how frustrating would that be?

The fantastic TwitterCounter have come to the rescue with a Username Alert – so all you have to do is register the Twitter name you would like, and your email address, and they'll let you know when it becomes available. The service is free, and they won't share your email details with anyone else.

Sounds like a great idea to us, as there are a few Twitter names we wished we'd registered, so we've signed up!

It’s all very well frantically beavering away: Facebooking this, Tweeting that, Blogging here, Commenting there, updating your YouTube Channel and spending an age answering questions on LinkedIn – but  are you tracking and measuring the results of all this activity?

I know that if you do all of this work yourself, in theory it costs you nothing, but your time still has a value, right? Even if you don’t always charge your hourly rate, you must have one in mind, so for every hour you spend on your Social Media and Internet Marketing efforts, that’s how much it’s cost you. OK not in cold hard cash, but that’s an hour / a day / a week you haven’t billed out your time, so for the sake of this example let’s say that’s what you’re spending on your online marketing.

So, what’s your ROI? Are you measuring it? Are you tracking leads that come in because of your efforts, working out how many of them convert to sales, looking at the lifetime value of the client and working out whether your efforts are well spent?

If your time is worth £65 an hour, and you spend 10 hours a week on your online marketing efforts, then you need to be making a profit of MORE THAN £650 a week FROM YOUR EFFORTS ALONE for it to be worthwhile.

10 hours sounds a lot, doesn’t it? But it’s not really – it’s easy to spend an hour or so a day messing around on Twitter, chatting to people and answering queries. Then half an hour a day updating the Facebook fan page and replying to people on there (ooh, don’t forget to tend to your Farm and Cafe while you’re there!). Then an hour or so a week blogging, ten minutes a day replying to other people’s blogs. It all adds up.

Don’t believe me? Download and install RescueTime - it tracks the amount of time you spend on each website or activity. It’s a fab piece of software as it tracks without you having to do anything, and gives you a lovely report at the end. Find out EXACTLY how much time you spend on Facebook / Twitter et al.

Then look at the leads and clients that you can track back to your online marketing efforts – ask everyone who contacts you where they heard of you, whether they get in touch by email, phone, or call by your shop / office.

For a month, keep a log of all of this info – and at the end of it work out whether your efforts are well spent or not.

Because let’s face it, it’s easy to let Internet Marketing and Social Media descend into the realms of ego – how many times you’re retweeted, where you’re mentioned, whether someone replies to your blogs. But at the end of the day we’re all here for the same thing – we want to promote our businesses and make money. It’s great if my latest Tweet is retweeted 56 times – but if I’ve spent 15 hours promoting my company in the last week and had no sales or leads, then those retweets aren’t going to put food in the mouths of my kids.

Leave the ego behind and find the facts – are YOUR efforts online paying off?

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photo credit: Doublep1

When marketing your website online through social media channels you need to do things a certain way. It’s a bit like redecorating your house; you could do it quickly and as cheaply as possible. But will it look good, and will it last?

In this article we’ll cover 7 things you can do to make your website content social media friendly. If you follow all the steps listed below you should stand a great chance of scoring highly with social media sites as well as effective search engine optimisation.

Let’s get started:

1. Include a picture

If you’re going to post a link to your blog or content on sites such as Facebook, but it doesn’t have an associated picture with it, it’s not as attention grabbing. Think about it; when you’re on a social website and you see a picture next to text; you’re drawn to it.

2. Title tag

If you bookmark your content to a social site; your pages title tag is often used as the title. If your website has the title “My Amazing Blog | Updating daily with super cool content” it’s not going to grab the attention of others. Give each page on your website a unique and grabbing title.

3. Social media buttons

They’re so simple to install and most blogs come with them pre-installed! The buttons next to a blog that allow users to instantly add your website to their favourite social media sites are a great way to help your visitors help your online marketing.

4. Allow comments

Many website owners disable commenting on their blog posts. However, it makes your site interactive. It allows your visitors to talk to you personally. Even more so; it adds more unique content to your website. By enabling comments on your website you might get more people returning to check if their comments have been replied to.

5. Controversial comments

If you do enable comments, do you allow the negative ones? Not everyone is going to agree with what you say and debate sparks interest. If people disagree or even get angry over your content, allow others to read. You’ll soon have many comments and conversations going on.

6. Title too long for tweets

If you’re tweeting your updates; make sure your titles aren’t too long. Twitter has a 140 character limit on its tweets so just keep an eye out for titles that are too long. Sometimes you can still have an effective, attention grabbing title but without the length.

7. Easy to read

With modern communication channels such as Twitter and FaceBook people don’t always have enough time to read a long article. By making some of your content short but sweet you may engage more readers

If you can implement all of the above tips into your website or blog you’ll be well on your way to social media friendly content. You can expect to see more visitors to your website and an increased client database too.

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photo credit: woodleywonderworks

The Tweetvine is abuzz today with the story of Michael Werch and his experience of ‘twitter-squatting’. Michael took on the persona of Heinz, and tweeted as them for a short while, to see how many followers he could build up, and what the consequences could be.

As it happens, he only managed to build up 300 or so followers (rising now!) and a couple of weeks before Heinz jumped on him and complained to Twitter, who changed his profile to make it clear that he wasn’t an official representative.

The interesting part, to me, is this quote:

The experiment also yielded some important findings that should be recognized by all major brands with little social-media presence. For two weeks I spoke unrestricted as the company. This in its own right is a potential PR nightmare. It should also be noted that Twitter is a low-cost marketing and communication mechanism for large brands; no more than the salary of someone currently working for them or someone they hire to tweet.

For two weeks, Michael tweeted as if he were Heinz. The people following him thought he was Heinz. It took Heinz that long to do anything about it.

Now let’s not forget that Michael wasn’t out to do harm. He tweeted only positive things, was a good ambassador for the brand, and probably did them no harm.

But let’s imagine for a moment that he hadn’t set out with quite so altruistic intentions. Two weeks is a long time to have someone you don’t know and have no control over representing your brand on any Social Media platform.

This ‘experiment’, to my mind’ brings to the fore a whole lot of questions:

• Why did Heinz not have the twitter name registered anyway?
• Why did it take them solong to realise he was doing this?
• Why didn’t they get in touch with him direct?
• Why are they not embracing what he’s done and using him as an advocate?
• Why have they STILL not done anything with the profile they had taken away from him?

Right now, you may not think Twitter is important to you or for your brand online. And that’s fine – I’m not here to argue that point.

But how important would Twitter become to you if someone with negative intentions towards you decided to ‘hijack’ your name and tweet as if they were you? How important will it be when you decide to give it a go and can’t get your brand as your Twitter name? How important is it going to become when an account purporting to be you builds up thousands of followers that you have no control over?

Now extrapolate that out to Facebook, You Tube, Google Buzz, and any one of many other Social Media platforms. How much damage could be done to your brand before you even noticed?

Seriously people, even if you have no interest in these platforms right now, you should be monitoring and checking to make sure they’re not being used against you.

Are you monitoring?

It’s easy to start a Facebook Fan Page, post a few things, get a few fans and then run out of steam. I wonder how many Fan pages are languishing in Facebook hell with only one fan and a few blog updates, or even worse, all automated updates and no interaction?

Here are 5 things you can do right now to help your Fan Page along:

1) Hook it up to your twitter account – this means that when you add things to your FB page, they will be automatically tweeted out – you can do this at www.facebook.com/twitter

We’re not suggesting that you automate EVERYTHING to go out on Twitter – after all they’re two very different beasts. Choose carefully what you allow to go out on twitter direct from Facebook – your twitter followers will be pretty annoyed if every link you send them goes via your FB fan page, especially if they’re not Facebook members! Don’t automatically tick every box and post everything to your twitter profile, but maybe status updates and new photos is a good start.

2) Invite all your contacts to become fans. You can do this in 2 ways. Firstly by clicking on the ’suggest to friends’ button on the page – top left. Secondly with the ‘Share’ button on the page, bottom left. The first allows you to choose friends to invite to become a fan. The second posts details of the page to your profile.

3) Become a fan of your own page by clicking on the ‘become a fan’ button! I’m always surprised by people who come to us for Facebook management and aren’t fans of their own page!

4) Once you have 25 fans, go to www.facebook.com/username and choose a ‘vanity url’ for your page. It makes it easier to remember and linking to it is easier

5) Put a ‘become a fan’ widget on your website. Details of how to do this, and other ways to promote the page are here http://www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets/

There are many more things you can do to enhance your Facebook Fan Page, and we’ll be posting about them in the future. Be sure to subscribe to this blog (Feedburner subscription, top right) to be sure you don’t miss out!

And if you need Facebook fan page ongoing management, check out our Facebook Management Service.