{"id":553,"date":"2009-08-19T14:50:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-19T14:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brainlitter.itgroove.net\/2009\/08\/19\/my-approach-to-social-networkingone-small-it-business-spreading-out-online-and-spending-very-little-doing-it\/"},"modified":"2009-08-19T14:50:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-19T14:50:00","slug":"my-approach-to-social-networkingone-small-it-business-spreading-out-online-and-spending-very-little-doing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/brainlitter\/2009\/08\/19\/my-approach-to-social-networkingone-small-it-business-spreading-out-online-and-spending-very-little-doing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"My Approach to Social Networking \u2013 One Small IT Business spreading out online and spending very little doing it"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ExternalClass2E9993573B7949BB8AFC252DDD8A802B\">\n<p>A customer asked me to summarize my approach to helping people find my business (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.itgroove.net\/\">www.itgroove.net<\/a>) online. <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I used to do a fair amount of print advertising to build &#8216;brand&#8217;. But it was extremely expensive and had a short shelf life (before it hit the recycle bin). So, over the years, I&#8217;ve been bulking up on Social Network\/Media outlets like Facebook, Linked In \u2026 and most importantly, for me, my blog (<a href=\"\/\">http:\/\/www.brainlitter.com<\/a>). In fact, my Blog seems to generate more interest in our company than our corporate website does \u2026 and as my passion grew for blogging, it seems Microsoft learned to appreciate what I had to say, and awarded me with the MVP in SharePoint (my true love, besides Wendy and the kids, of course). <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Anyways \u2026 babbling over. Here&#8217;s a short list of suggestions I had for the client. It is by no means comprehensive, but it is original (not just a cut and paste from other blogs out there) and may offer a short perspective on how one small IT business is reaching out to a larger (the Internet!) audience and using this as our sole marketing vehicle (ok, I lied, we have a very small yellow pages listing which next year we&#8217;ll be shrinking again and we have our name splashed on a giant sign outside of the hockey arena we work in \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sofmc.com\/\">www.sofmc.com<\/a> \u2013 but that is free too \u2013 only costs me my soul\u2026 :-). <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h1>Social Networking \u2013 Sean Style <\/h1>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color:#943634\">Some Great Reference Material <\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>10 Benefits of Blogging &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hosting-netexplorers.co.uk\/blog\/web-marketing\/the-10-business-benefits-of-blogging\">http:\/\/www.hosting-netexplorers.co.uk\/blog\/web-marketing\/the-10-business-benefits-of-blogging<\/a>, with #8 being the one I swear by \u2026 but all are valid <\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Two books I just bought that are getting great reviews: <\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div><span style=\"color:black\">33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking<\/span> <\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Million-People-Room-Successful-Networking\/dp\/0137154356\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1250714866&amp;sr=8-1\">http:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Million-People-Room-Successful-Networking\/dp\/0137154356\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1250714866&amp;sr=8-1<\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Social Networking \u2013 An Hour A Day <\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Social-Media-Marketing-Hour-Day\/dp\/0470344024\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1250714958&amp;sr=8-1\">http:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Social-Media-Marketing-Hour-Day\/dp\/0470344024\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1250714958&amp;sr=8-1<\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color:#943634\">First Steps\u2026 <\/span><\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/brainlitterarchive\/Lists\/Photos\/081909_2150_MyApproacht1.png\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Before you start, make sure you have the &#8216;basics&#8217;: <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>A short description of who you are and\/or what your business does<\/strong>. I have 3 different paragraphs I keep on hand (so I don&#8217;t have to dream it up, each time \u2013 thus they are free of typos and ready to use when I am). I&#8217;ve included what I have (in SharePoint of course) in the screenshot below, in a list, so I can simply cut and paste from there, into whatever medium I am using (Face book, Linked In, or some new service that comes along \u2013 the crux being that I&#8217;m *<strong>consistent<\/strong>*)<span style=\"color:black\"> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Short description \u2013 140 characters or less <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Medium description \u2013 1 paragraph <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Long description \u2013 whatever describes the whole business best <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>A place to store all of the Social Networking Media login info<\/strong> \u2013 if you are going to create accounts that you visit seldom (or often), have a place to put this info, as they all may have different rules for password lengths, etc. and you won&#8217;t remember 6 days from now, much less 6 months from now\u2026 <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>Have your logo handy, in various sizes, ready to upload <\/strong>\u2013 most sites will allow you to attach your logo (brand!) and you should do it, everywhere you can \u2013 so have it on hand, in a quality representation, raring to go, in various web friendly sizes (I keep a thumbnail, small, medium and large logo, ready to roll) <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/brainlitterarchive\/Lists\/Photos\/081909_2150_MyApproacht2.png\"><span style=\"color:black\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color:#943634\">Avenues\u2026 <\/span><\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:black\">One size doesn&#8217;t fit all, but this is what I do, and for now, and it is enough for me. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h1>Blogging <\/h1>\n<p style=\"margin-left:18pt\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Share opinions and value, but don&#8217;t turn people off <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Set yourself up (and your content) as the local expert on your topic (business) \u2013 people will be drawn to you (plus all it costs you is time, to push out your brand) <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">If you don&#8217;t yet have a blog, consider Blogger.com as it is owned by Google (thus I suspect has a higher weight for being indexed). But Microsoft has some great\/integrated social features too \u2013 never hurts to do both <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Make sure your company URL and your content includes ways for you to be found, if even just a footer <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Blog as often as you can. Sometimes it will be lengthy, sometimes it will be short and sweet. Whatever it is, keep doing it <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Link your blog to your website and vice versa <\/span><\/li>\n<li>\n<div><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Provide expert comments on other blogs of similar content, and be sure to provide a link\/URL back to your blog, so others can find you <\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin-left:18pt\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Other Social Networking Outlets <\/h1>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There are so many \u2013 below are the few I care about, so far. The more you are out there, the more you will be found. But one thing is clear, create an account everywhere, so nobody else grabs your *alias*.\u00a0 Because someone else could choose to create a CompanyX account at Face Book and then make you look bad \u2013 get it before someone else does, even if you just sit on it. <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size:14pt\"><span style=\"color:#365f91\">Face Book<\/span> <\/span>\u2013 Create a &#8216;group&#8217; for your business and invite others to join it. Try and add content now and then<span style=\"color:black\">. Consider Face Book Ads as well \u2013 I pay $30 a week, to reach 43,000 people in a demographic I dictate (certain age group, 25 miles from my postal code, etc.)<\/span> <\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#365f91;font-size:14pt\">Twitter<\/span> \u2013 Create an alias. I&#8217;m not big on Twitter and I hope it is a passing fad, but get your Twitter ID before someone else does <\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#365f91;font-size:14pt\">Linked In<\/span> \u2013 Business to Business Social Networking \u2013 I like this better than most other Business to Business social tools<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Others include Plaxo, MySpace, etc.\u00a0 But for me, and my time, business wise, I don&#8217;t find much value in those (or more accurately, I haven&#8217;t spent much time with them, nor do I feel I&#8217;m missing out). <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hope this helps someone\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A customer asked me to summarize my approach to helping people find my business (www.itgroove.net) online. \u00a0 I used to do a fair amount of print advertising to build &#8216;brand&#8217;. But it was extremely expensive and had a short shelf life (before it hit the recycle bin). So, over the years, I&#8217;ve been bulking up &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/brainlitter\/2009\/08\/19\/my-approach-to-social-networkingone-small-it-business-spreading-out-online-and-spending-very-little-doing-it\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[76,189,5,14,334,429],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>My Approach to Social Networking \u2013 One Small IT Business spreading out online and spending very little doing it - Brainlitter - Inside the mind of Sean Wallbridge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/regroove.ca\/brainlitter\/2009\/08\/19\/my-approach-to-social-networkingone-small-it-business-spreading-out-online-and-spending-very-little-doing-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Approach to Social Networking \u2013 One Small IT Business spreading out online and spending very little doing it - Brainlitter - Inside the mind of Sean Wallbridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A customer asked me to summarize my approach to helping people find my business (www.itgroove.net) online. \u00a0 I used to do a fair amount of print advertising to build &#8216;brand&#8217;. 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