Tim and I volunteer with an organization called The Pixel Project.  It’s a global, online non-profit that is working hard to eradicate violence against women.  We do what we can, when we can by volunteering our writing, editing, blogging, and PR skills.  We do it because I was in a marriage of domestic violence.  I was sleeping with fear, hate, and injustice.

I was physically, financially, and emotionally abused until about eight years ago when I left when my son was 5 and my daughter 1. My son is also a survivor of his mother’s domestic abuse and overall horrible relationship conditions. He’s now an eternal advocate (he’s grown to age 12) of women’s rights.  He champions women as being leaders and role model and treasures them. I hope that continues as he ages, but I’m pretty sure it will.  It’s all about breaking the cycle and educating the next generation of girls AND boys. So, my children are bathed in “purple.”

It’s been a very long battle for me. I am still living with the repercussions of this life, far more than anyone knows or a I dare to write yet. I am anxious, paranoid, untrusting, have panic attacks and I’ve had many, many health problems stemming from it. I have chronic pain and fatigue, fibromyalgia, and stress-induced sickness. Over the last 2 years, I’ve finally been able to find enough peace to begin to be well again. Through all this I started to become very accomplished at work, but I couldn’t continue at the level I was, with a fast-paced, stressful job. I wasn’t healed enough to continue and since leaving my job over 2 years ago, I’ve also had to cut down my hours at home freelancing and with volunteer organizations. I’ve put my energy into healing and into my children.

Domestic violence can rip you apart inside and you have to fight to ever be the same, but with my children’s help and the love of my boyfriend of 7 years (whose been the best husband I’ve ever had) I’ve learned how it feels to have someone love you unconditionally. Due to domestic violence, I struggle with ever marrying again, though Tim and I and the kids are a family and we live as husband and wife. The level of fear that consumes you from being imprisoned in the hell of domestic violence is something that many people cannot being to understand, but once you remove yourself from the situation (and thank the Lord for those that get to escape, instead of being murdered or who stay and endure) you have to almost learn who you are again. It isn’t easy. You’ve lost your family and your friends and you have to try to rebuild your credit, your health, your self-esteem. You have to shed that shell of yourself and be reborn in love.

It’s hard to speak out because people judge you and don’t understand, but now is the time for me to speak up. If you’re in an abusive relationship, it’s time for you to get assistance.  If you are in a healthy relationship, support me and all women and speak-up about women’s rights.  Now is the time to help us spread the word about this cause, to stop violence against women and make this world a better place.

If you have a moment, please visit:  http://paintitpurple.thepixelproject.net to learn about the “Paint It Purple” campaign, which helps to spread the word and create awareness across the Internet, of violence against women and humanity. And uses a lot of purple to do it.

Throughout the rest of the year, follow The Pixel Project and see how you can help. There are many campaigns and fund-raisers, educational and informative news, and volunteer opportunities.

Go to http://thepixelproject.net, follow them on Twitter and Facebook, and read the awesome blogs!

My family and I are SPEAKING OUT and spreading the word. I hope you’ll join us, it would mean so much.

Peace to all and this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for a new start, for an amazing partner in Tim, and for the blessing of my three beautiful children who have endured so much and become the most precious little people I’ve ever met.

 Erin and family

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That is not an original thought, by any means, but it often is true. Just look at politics. No matter who is in office or which party has control, the status quo remains largely unchanged. Or how about sports. Every year we can count on the Yankees, Lakers and Patriots to be amont the top teams. And in the world of advertising and marketing, it also holds true.

Recently, I’ve been doing some research into the history of one of our area’s oldest businesses that closed three years ago. As part of my research, I’ve been scanning through microfilms from 1966, looking for articles about this business and its sale to a major corporation. I’ve found many interesting things while spending hours searching through old newspapers. People were obsessed with UFOs. We were worried about the “national menace” of computer dating. It was OK to refer to the Vietnamese Communists as Reds. Daylight Savings Time was a choice, not a requirement. But the one point that struck home was the saying I shared at the top of this blog post: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

It was interesting to see all the businesses that advertised in the Ashland Times-Gazette in 1966. Most of them are no longer in business 45 years later. But at that time, they faced the same challenges that businesses face today. They had a product or service and they needed to reach the right people with the message that their business was here and ready to serve them. Sounds a lot like the same equation we have to deal with today. The products or services may be different and we definitely have different ways of reaching people, but businesses still need a well-crafted, well-planned marketing strategy to succeed.

The equation has worked for as long as we have had commerce. If you have a product or service, but on one knows that you offer that product or service, you can’t expect them to magically appear at your doorstep looking to spend money. You need to let people know about yourself in whatever way you can afford and is appropriate for your type of business. In 1966, newspaper and radio were the media of choice for local advertisers. Today, thanks to computers and the Internet, we have email, websites, blogs, text messaging and social media as new avenues for our marketing messages.

Is your company still conducting business like its 1966? If you haven’t started using the myriad of new marketing tools at your disposal, why not? To stay competitive in the 21st Century, every business needs to take advantage of the technological wonders that the 21st Century has given us. Even the Pope sent his first tweet this week, announcing a new website that would serve as an aggregate for all of the Vatican’s digital messages. If the Catholic Church and the Pope can use these technological tools to reach the masses, so can you.

At Addison’s Compass, we love helping companies discover how they can use digital marketing to help their businesses grow. We can help you create a plan and then implement that plan with creative, attention-getting writing. Check out our website to see more details on how we can help your business take advantage of all the benefits of digital marketing.

We all know YouTube was responsible for introducing the world to the phenomenon that is Justin Bieber. Without YouTube, the world would have never heard of Rebecca Black and her ubiquitous tune proclaiming the joys of “Friday.” And we’ve all seen the hilarious videos of babies laughing or kids dancing or dogs doing tricks. While the video sharing site is great for entertainment, it also can be a valuable marketing tool for businesses.

With digital video cameras and easy-to-use video editing software, creating simple videos to help promote your business is relatively easy for most computer-savvy business owners. Or if it is beyond your area of expertise and you have some marketing budget to work with, there are plenty of businesses that can help. Once you have created videos, YouTube is the perfect place to post them. The site is free to use, is easy to use and has a massive audience.

A recent study found that 77 percent of users come to YouTube expecting to watch only one video but end up watching more. The average YouTube user spends 15 to 25 minutes a day on the site. As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who rack up an estimated 92 billion page views each month. More video content is uploaded to YouTube in a 60 day period than the three major U.S. television networks created in 60 years.

Those numbers are staggering and show the vast potential YouTube offers business owners. Just like any marketing tool, you need to find the best ways to use YouTube to maximize your results. Here are 5 tips for small business owners to get the most out of YouTube:

1) Create and customize your channel

Setting up a channel on YouTube is simple, and customizing it is important. You should add your company’s branding, customize the colors to compliment your company’s look, and add relevant information and links. Your channel serves as your company’s homepage on YouTube. Make sure you take the time to make sure it looks the way it should.

2) Keep up with comments

Once you have videos posted on YouTube, people will be able to make comments about them. You should do your best to respond to any comments that are left, even if it’s just a simple “Thank you.” Be sure to respond to negative comments, too, especially if they are relevant and non-offensive. However, if there are comments which contain offensive language or are spam, you should delete those comments. YouTube does give you the option of moderating comments before they go live, so you can catch any offensive posts before they go live. You may want to use this option, especially if you start receiving a lot of comments that need to be deleted. But if you do, you need to keep up with moderating the comments. Otherwise, you will just end up with a backlog of submitted comments that never actually make it on your channel.

3) Engage your fellow YouTube users

Like any other social media site, the key to thriving on YouTube is interacting with other YouTube users. You should check out content on the site, comment on appropriate videos and add them as your favorites and make “friends” with relevant YouTube users. People will see you commenting on other videos and will check out your channel to see what you have to offer. And anyone who checks out your content is another potential customer.

4) Tag, you’re it

The key to letting people find your videos is tagging them appropriately. For example, if you are a dog groomer, you may tag your videos with “dog” and “dog grooming” and “grooming” and “pets” and many other related words – anything that may help people find your videos. Don’t be afraid to use too many tags. The more relevant tag words you use, the more likely your video will be found when people search on YouTube.

5) Promote your YouTube videos elsewhere

Like all your marketing tools, it’s important that you make them all work together whenever possible. When you post a new video on YouTube, let people know about it. On social media sites, on your website, on your blog, in an email blast. There’s no point in having a video up there if you aren’t going to let people know about it. Every video view is another potential lead for your business. Don’t let any opportunity pass you by.

At Addison’s Compass Public Relations, we can offer assistance to any business needing consultation to get started using YouTube. We can help you create promotional ideas and content that will engage your customers. If you are local to us in Ohio, we do house (business) calls too!

There is no denying that we are a society of consumption. In America, we consume well over $100 billion of fast food each year, 156 pounds of added sugar, almost 600 cans of pop per person on average, and 375 million gallons of gas per day. We consume things quickly, leaving no second to spare.

Just as we consume fast food in our car on the way to our next scheduled appointment, we also consume information at what seems like the speed of light. We consume articles online via our smart phones and check out breaking news on Twitter before it even gets to the nightly news or before we can turn on CNN.

In a matter of minutes, we read breaking news, check our email, respond to a text message, scroll through our Facebook newsfeed, and schedule a meeting in our calendar.

As social networking and the use of social media has developed, our skills sometimes haven’t been able to catch up. We have more and more friends and followers, as well as fan pages, to view information on. We scroll and scroll through the feeds, consuming as much information as we can. We begin to read it as if it were a book, forgetting the entire human element that is so integrated into the success use of it.

That’s right, we forget that most of the feeds are written by people in our lives who have taken a minute out of their time to inform us about their lives, recommend a product, or share a link with great information. We forget it is not just a computer, and then we forget to respond.

The premise of social networking is just that — “being social with other people (social) in order to get to know them, their lives, their charities, their services and connect and support one another (networking).”

Keeping that in mind, that means that we shouldn’t just scroll and read without ever offering back a word of encouragement, recommendation, dialogue, or testimonial. We should take the time on product or business fan pages to say what we like and what we don’t like (just make sure it is constructive criticism) and use it as a platform to connect with brands and businesses we like. We should be an active player in the process, not just consumers who throw away information like we throw away Big Mac wrappers.

Here are a few tips to assist you with your interpersonal skills on social media:

1. Respond to people’s comments. Whether on your own personal page, a fan page or to a tweet, please respond to the comments that people take the time to make. For businesses, respond whether they are positive or negative. Responding to negative comments can turn the situation into a positive because it shows you care about your customer and finding solutions to their issues. Don’t ever delete their comments or block your wall so customers can’t write to you.

 2. Start conversations. Ask your friends or fans questions about themselves or about something that relates to your brand or product. Initiate dialogue with them and don’t be shy. Being open and aware makes you trustworthy. On Twitter, start chats and use a #hashtag to talk about subjects that interest you.

3. Ask a question or post a poll. Facebook just made it even more fun and engaging to do this. On a personal level, it is fun to ask your friend’s favorite 80’s movie and from a business perspective, you may be able to garner the interests of you clients to help you better sell your services or products. Either way, it engages your audience.

There are many more keys and skills to utilizing social media networking and marketing in a more successful manner. Seek out information and remember to not just consume it, but put it to use.

We’d love to have you initiate conversations with us: www.facebook.com/addisons.compass, www.twitter.com/ErinAlMehairi, www.twitter.com/tbusbey, www.linkedin.com/in/erinalmehairi, www.linkedin/in/timbusbey.

In marketing, as in life, the only constant is change. Thanks to the constant technological advances our society produces, there is an endless array of new tools that we as marketers have at our disposal. In the last half decade, we’ve seen Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, text messaging and location-based apps flourish and grow as avenues for businesses to market their products. One avenue that has grown in popularity in other countries but has been slow to catch on here in America is Quick Response codes, also known as QR codes.

What is a QR code?

A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode, (pictured at left), similar to the barcodes businesses use to track their inventory and price their products. However, QR codes have one big advantage over a barcode – the amount of information they can hold. Regular barcodes are linear one-dimensional codes that can only hold up to 20 numerical digits, while QR codes are two-dimensional matrix codes that can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters. That means you can embed numbers AND words into QR codes. This is a huge advantage and makes QR codes a powerful tool for small businesses. Businesses can use QR codes to promote coupons, special offers or discounts. They can also use them to build a mobile list of subscribers or to direct people to their website, online video or Facebook Fan page. The possibilities for using QR codes to market your business are nearly unlimited.

How do QR codes work?

First, a business owner goes to one of the many web sites that are called QR code generators. At these web sites, you can enter in the information that you want included in your QR code. Your QR code can be used to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the telephone’s browser. Once you enter the information, the QR code generator will then create a QR code which you can download and use wherever you want. Most businesses use them in print advertisements, flyers or signs. You also can use them on business cards, brochures, product tags, menus or receipts.

There are many sites online that will allow you to create QR codes. Just do a search for “QR code generator” and browse through the results to find one that works for you and your needs.

Smartphone owners can download an app which allows them to scan the QR codes in your advertisement. Once scanned, the information you put in the QR code will be on the user’s phone. With more than one-third of cell phone users now carrying smartphones, QR codes can be a powerful tool for any business.

Example of QR codes

Here is one example of an ad containing a QR code from the July 2011 issue of Woman’s Day magazine. This ad for DERMAdoctor KP Duty. Scanning the QR code from the lower right corner of this ad will take the user to a web page where they can instantly order the product. Once there, even if they don’t want to order the product, they can easily follow links to get more information about the product or other similar products.

Benefits to using QR codes.

1) Tracking. When you use a QR code, intricate details on each access of your QR code can be compiled. Some QR code generating sites offer analytics to let you track usage of your code. There are both free and paid options depending on the site you use. This gives you valuable information about who is interested in your product – information that can be used to refine your message and methods. Be sure to explore the options each site offers when choosing a QR code generator. Another way to track QR code usage is to use the QR code to lead people to a website. Your current analytics will allow you to keep track of the number of people who visit the URL you embed in the QR code.

2) Save money. One of the biggest disadvantages to any form of print marketing is the cost. Billboards and brochures can be cost-prohibitive, especially for small businesses. However, most businesses already have a website. With a QR code on a flyer or a small newspaper ad, you can embed a link to a webpage or a downloadable ebook/brochure. That way, people can still receive the information about your business without you incurring the cost of printing. Also, if some information in the brochure or book needs to change, you can easily make the change online without having to reprint hundreds or thousands of copies.

3) Ease of storage/transportation. If someone likes or wants to keep some information about your business, instead of finding a pen and paper, all they have to do is use their smartphone to scan the QR code. The information from the code will be saved on their phone if they want to retrieve it again later or share it with someone else.

4) Build customer excitement. People are curious. People who know what QR codes are will want to know what information you have stored in your company’s QR code. They can quickly and easily scan your code and find out more information about your business or find a special offer or coupon you may offer exclusively through the QR code.

No matter what kind of business you have, there are many ways to utilize QR codes to help grow your business. At Addison’s Compass Public Relations, we can offer assistance to any business needing consultation to get started using QR codes. We can help you create promotional ideas and content that will engage your customers. If you are local to us in Ohio, we do house (business) calls too! Scan our QR code at the left to visit our website.

Everyone is blogging these days. OK, maybe not everyone, but the world of Cyberspace certainly is full of people using blogs as their sounding board. According to The Nielsen Company, there are more than 160 million blogs with more than 71,000 new blogs popping up in the last 24 hours.

Besides this blog for our business, Erin and I also have personal blogs. Mine features a mix of book reviews, comments on pop culture and a look at the process of writing my first novel. Erin has two – one about books and one about photography and art. We both enjoy the opportunity to write about subjects we enjoy and are passionate about and interacting with other people who are interested in similar topics.

A blog (a blend of the term “web log”) is also a great way to market your business. Maybe you don’t think you have anything to say or you don’t have the time or you aren’t sure how to start. But if you have a business, you probably do have something to say about your product or service, and you should make the time to use this valuable marketing tool.

Here are the top 5 reasons your business should have a blog:

1) Blogs are very easy to set-up and use. If you’re a small business, you probably don’t have a whole department for your computer and Internet needs. If you aren’t skilled in website design and can’t spend a lot of money on a website, a blog is a great way to get started. Just type your thoughts for the day, include a few photos or videos, hit the “publish” button, and instantly, your thoughts are posted for the whole world to see.

2) Blogs are the perfect place to post news and announcements about your business, as well as to share your thoughts on subjects relevant to your business. The former gives you an opportunity for free advertising, and the latter gets you noticed and allows you to position yourself as an expert and a leader in your field. This will make people more likely to buy from you.

3) Blogs are a great way to put a personal face and voice on your business. As you write about your business or share your thoughts, this allows your customers to see who you really are, which is really the purpose of any blog or social media marketing tool. Customers love to see “behind the curtain” and get a glimpse at the people who make a business tick. This is another way to build trust with your customers.

4) Blogs are great for SEO. Search engines love pages that are regularly updated. Posting regularly and filling your blog posts with relevant keywords is a great way to build traffic on your blog.

5) Blogs can help you generate leads. Most blogs offer readers the chance to comment on your posts. You can use these comments as a great opportunity to build a relationship with someone who may not be a customer. Also, if you are sharing relevant information and posting about your business on a regular basis, this will help move your customers to that conversion point, where they trust you enough and believe in your product enough that they decide to make the purchase.

There are many opportunities and many ways to use a blog that can help your business as more customers are looking online when making their purchasing decisions. At Addison’s Compass Public Relations, we can offer assistance to any business needing consultation to get set-up with a blog, or would like to have the set-up done for them and/or managed as well. We can help with writing your blog posts in a way that will engage readers and keep them coming back for more. If you are local to us in Ohio, we do house (business) calls too!

A common joust in our household between Tim and I is this: “Darn it! You stole my ‘Mayorship’ again!” I just love getting an email in the morning that reads “Sorry, but Tim Busbey is now Mayor of (any given place), but a few more check-ins and you could be on top again!”

What is foursquare exactly?

Light-hearted fun or not at home, the application foursquare already has grown to more than 6.5 million users. Anyone with GPS-enabled mobile devices can “check-in” at venues by running an app on their phone and choosing from a list of venues that the application locates nearby (or add one in if it is not already in the list). Each check-in awards the user points, can make them a “Mayor,” and assist them in working toward “badges.” Users can choose to have their check-ins posted to their Twitter and Facebook accounts so their friends can see where they are, have been, what venues they like, and even get tips for certain locations. If a person frequents an establishment often enough they will become “Mayor” or oust someone who is a current “Mayor.”

Register Your Business and Offer Specials!

As a business owner, you want to make sure you register your business on foursquare. Users can “check-in” at your business, whether you are registered or not, giving you free advertising. However, having a registered business is more advantageous because it allows you to interact with your customer base.

For instance, you can monitor the reactions and tips posted about your business. You are able to offer coupons to anyone who checks-in and you can offer royal deals to those who frequent enough to be your “Mayor,” which we recommend doing since they are your best customers!

Examples of How to Offer Specials on foursquare

It doesn’t matter what size your business is, you can attract new customers or reward loyal ones by offering these foursquare specials – mobile coupons, prizes or discounts – to users when they check-in at or near your venue. Everyone likes a deal right? Why not reward your most loyal customers or get more traffic on a slow day?

1.) Offer 25 percent off a meal, a BOGO (buy one get one) coffee, or maybe even roll out the red carpet (literally) once your “Mayor” steps in the door. Specials can be tailored to fit the needs of your business.

2.) Just like reward programs offered across the nation utilizing a reward card, you can use the same concept for your loyal customers who use foursqare. For example, check-in 10 times, get a free product, gift, or prize at your 11th visit.

3.) Use it to increase traffic on a slow day by offering a buy one, get one half-off lunch special for one day only, or between certain hours. Offer happy hour or early dinner deals on certain days for those that check-in at certain times.

For instance, near where we live in Ashland, Ohio, where small business abounds, College Hills Honda in Wooster, Ohio gives a free Honda hat to you on your third check-in. Harry and David chain store at the Lodi Outlet Mall in Burbank, Ohio (near Lodi and Wooster) offers $10 off your purchase $50 with foursquare check-in (for which if you show retailer, they will put in a code at check-out). Also at the Lodi Outlet Mall they give a special exclusively for foursquare users: a free lunch at Steam Cafe for every 10th check-in and for the “Mayor,” a free Lodi Station Outlets hoodie and a FREE lunch at Steam Cafe.

What foursquare Customers Can Do for You with Social Media

They can offer much more in return to you as their check-ins post to their followers on Facebook and Twitter, as well as to their friends on foursqare, giving you a wealth of free advertising and testimonials. If they have their foursquare set-up to post to social media (they can post all or choose which), their check-ins, Mayorships, and badges will post each time to Facebook and Twitter alerting even more people to your business. If they leave a great tip about your business, even better! Monitor your Twitter stream for your brand or business, and send a tweet to those who have their foursquare use sent out into Twitterverse. I loved when I became Mayor of my local Drug Mart one day and the Drug Mart Twitter account thanked me for my patronage and started to follow me!

Free Venue Statistics

Having a registered business also allows you to also use the merchant tool called venue stats. foursquare offers these free of charge to registered businesses and the stats will give you a great deal of information on your visitors, including what time of day they most generally arrived, a break-down by gender, and even which portion of your visitors’ check-ins were posted to Facebook and Twitter! This is a great tool to use after launching a special to see what kind of activity and return you received.

Need Assistance?

There is a lot more to using this marketing tool than you may think that can be quite good for your business as the world turns more to online marketing, mobile use, and digital media. At Addison’s Compass Public Relations, we can offer assistance to any business needing consultation to get set-up on foursquare, or would like to have the set-up done for them and/or managed as well. If you are local to us in Ohio, we do house (business) calls too!

You can find both Tim and I on foursquare as avid users and would be happy to be your friend on foursquare and frequent your business!

If you haven’t signed-up yet for Twitter, it might be because you are wondering how it really works beyond someone posting the proverbial “Made corn dogs for dinner” or are having trouble getting past a certain stigma (I really don’t care when someone has to pee type of statement) that comes from not understanding or using it to its full potential.

Obviously there is more to it, as it has established itself as one of the top three ways for people to network and talk about their business, their cause, their passion, and educate each other on top topics and news. Just a few weeks ago, the news broke of Osama bin Laden’s death on Twitter! I admit I was watching the live Andy Cohen show on Bravo following a Housewife episode. He started the show by excusing one of his guests who works for a newschannel because the news of bin Laden’s death had broke. I immediatly opened TweetDeck, one of the programs I use to manage my Twitter account, to get the scoop! I knew it would be there and that it would be correct! On that Sunday night, there were more than 5,000 tweets per second being shared. That’s 300,000 tweets per minute.

Twitter has an estimated 190 million users with more than 65 million tweets sent each day. Twitter is what they call a microblog. The website lets you share your message with the world, 140 characters at a time. There are many basics to Twitter, and if you’ve never signed-up or don’t understand the basic, feel free contact us and we can walk you through it. If you have yours set up and want to get started, here are several tips we promoted in our lastest social media seminar we put on in our area with the Ashland Area Council for Economic Development.

1) Listen to the Conversation
Starting to Tweet without first listening and observing what others are doing is like jumping into the deep end of the ocean without knowing how to swim. If you are new to Twitter, take some time to watch and see what other people are saying. Using Twitter is different than any other kind of writing you’ve ever done. There is a technique to being able to get your message across in 140 characters or less. The mechanics of tweeting will become more obvious as you watch the stream of tweets other people are writing.

2) Follow the Right People
With Twitter, the people who you follow may be the most important part of your experience. There are many Top 100 Twitter lists out there that let you know who the most influential tweeters are. A great way to build your Twitter network of valuable contacts is to find people in your industry. They will prove to be a valuable resource. They can offer support, be a valuable networking tool and maybe even serve as a business partner for you someday. Twitter will offer you “people you may know” or “people like you” options also that can help you to find people you know or have similar interests with. I’ve found the people I follow offer me a wealth of help, support, news, education, and friendships. People I follow on Twitter are very well-educated, interested in what others have to say, tweet great links to articles I’m interested in, and share with one another.

3) Plan ahead – Craft a Twitter Strategy
Make sure you know what kind of tweets you want to send before you get started. This will make it much easier to figure out what you should be writing each day. You can even spend time at the beginning of the week planning your tweets (copywrite them ahead of time, choose articles, etc.). That way if you get busy one day, you can pull from that planned sheet. Other days you can spend additional time having dialogue with others, networking, and researching followers and who you’d like to follow.

4) Create a Dialogue
You can’t just tweet about your business or what you sell constantly. If all you do is talk AT people, you will never build relationships, and building relationships is the KEY to social media. You need to comment on other people’s tweets and try to engage them in conversation. You should try to thank people when they share your tweets or links. Another great way to create a dialogue is to retweet tweets that interest you. If it is of interest to you, it likely will be of interest to the people following you.

5) Send out Interesting Tweets
Think before you send out a tweet. Don’t just send out tweets that could be easy to ignore, don’t help or inform people, or are straight spam. Make sure your tweets include useful, relevant information. With millions of tweets posted each day, it is easy for yours to get lost amid the thousands of tweets uploading.
Make sure your tweets use keywords that someone may be using to search for your type of business and use hashtags (hashtag=#) to filter subjects or conversations.

Twitter is a great place to be and certainly is its own universe. With a little help, and even more dedication, the use of it could really pay off for your business. I’m a huge fan of Twitter and I’ve been using it for a long time, so please don’t hesitate to drop me a line at erin@addisonscompass.com if you or your business needs assistance in making it work for you.

Oh, and if you get started follow us on Twitter!! @ErinAlMehairi and @tbusbey. We look forward to Tweeting with you!!

Today, we presented a seminar on Social Media Marketing in conjunction with the Ashland Area Council on Economic Development. This was the third seminar in a series on digital marketing in the 21st Century. The first seminar served as an overview to digital marketing, offering a quick summary of the options available, including websites, blogs, email, QR codes and social media. The second seminar focused on websites and how to better use them in marketing. Today’s seminar focused on using Facebook and Twitter to market your business.

As part of today’s seminar, I presented 10 tips for building your fanbase in Facebook and converting those fans into customers. I’m going to share the first five with you. If you’d like to read the other five, you can email me at tim@addisonscompass.com and I’ll be happy to share them with you.

Facebook is closing in on 700 million members. In just 5 short years, the site has become a phenomenon that has totally changed our culture and how we share information and interact with people. It is up to us as marketers to tap into that energy, that power, and discover the best ways that we can use it to market our businesses.

Here are 5 of my 10 tips for building a fanbase and converting those fans into satisfied customers.

1) Spread the word – everywhere!
Every chance you get, let people know about your Facebook page. If your customers don’t know that your page exists, they don’t have the opportunity to “like” it. So put the word out about your page everywhere.

In newspaper ads. On radio ads. On flyers. In your store. On your website. In an e-mail to your mailing list. In your e-mail signature. On your business cards. In your blog. On your Twitter account.

Anywhere someone might read about your business, include the link to your Facebook page, too. And the best part – all these ways are free or very low cost.

This is a great way to let your existing customers know about your page. But it also gives them a way to share the news with their friends who aren’t customers.

In a fan survey by the DDB Worldwide, a global marketing firm, they found the No. 1 reason people become fans of a brand is because someone invited them to the page. Either the company told them about the page or one of their friends told them about it. If you invite them, they will come. But if you never let people know about your page, there is no point even being on Facebook.

2) Be consistent
Once you set up and start your Facebook page, don’t be a stranger. If your page becomes a ghost town, that is a major turn-off to any customers or potential customers. Posting something on your page once every three months is no way to build your fanbase and build relationships with those fans. Just like a face-to-face relationship, it takes time and effort to build online relationships and trust.

There is no magic answer to how many times you should post on your page. You want to make sure your message stands out and doesn’t get lost, but you don’t want to annoy people, either. So you have to work to find a balance.

Most experts suggest posting at least once a day, but no more than three times a day. If you don’t feel you have the time to keep up with that, at least be sure to post several times a week. Trial and error will help you determine what frequency of posts works best for you and your business.

But no matter how many times you end up deciding to post, be sure you keep up with it and be active with your fanpage.

3) Interact with your fans
If someone takes the time to leave a comment for you on your page, the least you can do is take the time to respond. If you don’t, it sends the message that you don’t care about your customers. You should consider your social media sites as an extension of your customer service efforts, as much as they are part of your advertising or marketing efforts.

As part of this effort, you must make sure to respond to negative comments as well as positive ones. Research shows that 64% of people have a more favorable opinion of a brand if they respond to both positive and negative comments.

Besides, most people who take the time to become a fan of your page probably are not going to blast you on your page. And if someone does, many of your true fans likely will jump to your defense.

When you interact with your fans, it’s important to find the right tone. With social media, you can write in a slightly more conversational tone than most of your business writing. Your fans want to feel that there is a human being on the other side of the computer.

4) Share valuable content
Content is king in social media. People love to devour information. Just this week, a study came out showing that Facebook is the second leading driver of traffic to news sites, following only Google. That means people are clicking on links in their Facebook news feed to get to major news sites.

As marketers, we have to take advantage of people’s desire to consume mass amounts of information. How do we do that? By sharing content on your Facebook page. Whether it’s a link to a blog or article you wrote, or a link to a blog or article you read on someone else’s page, these links will engage your fans and also help drive traffic to your blog or website.

Make sure the content is interesting, useful and relevant. Don’t damage your company’s online reputation by posting irrelevant spam.

5) Add photos and videos
People love to see other people’s photos. Nothing catches the eye when glancing through your newsfeed that a photo. But what people love even more than other people’s photos is pictures of themselves. Posting photos you have taken at an event is a great way to get people’s attention. Encourage your fans to look for themselves in the photos and tag themselves. This engages your fans, and also spreads the word about your business through their newsfeed. Each of their friends will see that they tagged themselves in a picture on your fanpage.

If you enjoyed these first 5 tips and thought they were useful, please email me at tim@addisoncompass.com and I’d be happy to share the whole presentation with you.

If you need some help with social media and using them to help your business, ask us how we can help.

Social media is the fastest growing section of the Internet. In 2010, Facebook’s 600 million users spent more than 49 billion minutes on the social networking site. This was an increase of 80 percent, according to comScore’s “The 2010 Digital Year in Review” report. Experts are predicting a similar spike this year. Twitter has grown to an estimated 190 million users in less than five years. The latest social media trendsetter, Foursquare, boasts nearly 7 million users after less than two years.

In spite of this exponential growth in social media usage, many businesses have been slow to incorporate social media into their marketing plans. The reasons often have to do with lack of staff or budget issues, or concerns about how social media can benefit their business. However, using social media to effectively get the word out about your business and build relationships with potential customers doesn’t have to be cost-prohibitive or take a whole team of marketers.

Social media marketing is about building relationships with your customers and potential customers. A professional writer can help you reach out to cyberspace and convey your company’s message in a clever, unique, memorable way that will keep people coming back for more, and help build a level of trust with them – a key factor in driving sales.

At Addison’s Compass, we offer 3 social media packages, tailored to fit the social media marketing needs of any business. We will help your business get moving in the right direction.

Our 3 packages are:

The Straight and Narrow 
The Scenic Route
The Super Highway

Call us or email us to find out how we can put our collective 25 years of writing and marketing experience to work for your business. You can reach Tim at tim@addisonscompass.com or 419-565-5823, and Erin at erin@addisonscompass.com or 419-651-7934.