Businesses today must be more “social” when to comes to doing business. Customers want to interact with people and they want to get to know the businesses that they are dealing with on a social level. Any business who does not do this is only hurting themselves at the end of the day. This is a vital part of doing business today in an era of technology.

Mark Zuckerberg,CEO of Facebook explained it best in this video clip:

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We all want to feel connected to someone and something. So it’s only natural that this is spilling over into the business world. Why do you think more and more businesses are creating pages on Facebook, Google+ and other platforms? It’s because there is something very powerful about being social.

Ask yourself how social you are with your target audience and current customers? What can you do to become more social?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Kim Beasley

One of the things that I realize about social media, that I wished more people would figure out, is that it’s about being social.  When I was growing up, I was taught that social meant being respectful of others and their opinion even if I disagreed with them. However, I have noticed that some people choose to be argumentative in all cases.

It doesn’t help to argue with someone or stating the obvious over and over to someone who is stuck on the fact that their opinion is right and nothing else matters. I’ve found that when I choose to not argue a matter, then eyes are opened which means either the other person’s eyes are opened or sometimes even mine are open. In the end, arguing doesn’t get you anywhere but stuck.

Below are the thoughts from some of my social media friends and how they deal with “discussions” via social media:

• David D. Stanton - Arguing is pointless however, a good debate can be fun. Exactly, I do so enjoy those I tend to like to take up the side of devils advocate on many topics regardless of how I truely feel about the issue at hand, this gives all those involved usualy a new perspective that they may not have considered before. (But it also risks setting off those who have a hard time balancing Debate with argument.)
• Shawn Allen - So true…the “Booberday” controversy (that I believe should have never became that big of a deal myself though I was not involved in it) is a good example. There was one woman who took up an extreme hostile position against it. After trying to get my point across via 3 different post I muted the thread and left it alone. I made my point and there was no need for me to go on debating with them. That thread was at 160 comments by time I left.
• Cora Triton - I try to be in the first three parts of the argumentation pyramid that you can find here: http://bit.ly/pMY5RV otherwise it is no discussion and pointless. And it is possible to agree, that we disagree and discuss on a meta-level. My motto: be polite and respectful, stay to the facts, be able to change your opinion and always realize that the rating of the facts may be quite different.
• Rebecca Besbris - Yup yup. It’s not really worth the time spent arguing, especially with people you really don’t know lol

When building your business online, don’t overlook the power of Social Media. You can start by including social media in your internet marketing campaigns. There’s a revolution taking place in the way people communicate with each other and Social Media Marketing simply reflects that change.

It allows us to communicate with our peers directly, build a long term relationship with customers and potential clients. With recent statistic showing that Internet users spend more time on social media networks, business owners are starting to using it more. Keep in mind, if your clients are on the Internet, then that’s where your business should be in order to communicate and in order to market effectively.

There are many social media platforms where you can grow your business online. Every business is unique so you need to determine which platform will work best for your business. Social Media is indeed an effective way for marketing your business and a powerful method that will maximize your profits.

To see how one small business has effectively used it, please watch the video below.
It is a great example of how Social Media made a burrito business a phenomenon.

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I recently came across a new Facebook application cal Post Planner which allows you to post date your fanpage post. You can post to any of your fanpage and even setup repeat post. It’s almost hands-free content management for your fanpage.

Some of the things that you can do with Post Planner are:

• schedule future posts without leaving Facebook
• schedule posts for multiple pages at once
• schedule posts that repeat at specified intervals
• choose different time zones for different posts
• get email notifications when your posts publish

Watch the video below for more details regarding Post Planner.

Have you been looking for an event that will stimulate your brain, stretch your social media efforts, and strenghten your online presence? Then you definitely should checkout unGeeked e’lite that is coming up in Chicago (May 12-14, 2011) and is hosted by Cd Vann a.k.a. @thatwoman_is. Also, I will be doing a live interview with CD, via BlogTalkRadio.com where she will further share her passion about social media, marketing, and branding for businesses.

unGeeked invites attendees to learn how to leverage their internal and external marketing and branding campaigns. Our Discussion Leaders cover topics that will assist departments such as Marketing, Public Relations, Advertising, Customer Service, Sales, Human Resources and Legal with engaging, storytelling and conveying the authenticity of the brand, whether it be to your customers (Product to Consumer) or to your clients (B2B) or to members (not-for-profits).

For special discount use the code unGeeked Retreat (case sensitive) and SAVE 10% or less than $195.00 to attend unGeeked e’lite at the early bird 3-day (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) ticket price.

I recently interviewed CD regarding unGeeked and below is the results of this interview:

What is unGeeked and why the new format?

The format is intimate less than 125 attendees and we are formatting a new style of engaging with attendees called the Socratic style of presenting.

What is the Socratic style of teaching?

The Socratic style of presenting is a spin on the Socratic style of teaching. It’s said that students learn best when they are given an opportunity to really engage in a back-and-forth style of conversation not only with other students and peers, but also with their teacher. Teachers are encourage to spend less time using presentation tools and chalkboards and more time sharing their knowledge and expertise on a topic with the students.

Why the need for the Socratic style of presenting?

unGeeked uses this same principal for unGeeked attendees. Our attendees are all Owners, CEO’s, Directors or Managers. Our attendees are well beyond the basics of understanding how to use digital tools. They are interested in strategies, case studies, best practices. And more importantly they want to share what they are doing and why it works. They want to go beyond the constraints of a 10 minute Q&A session.

Attendees walk away with more, learn more and are able to back to their desk and apply immediately what they’ve learned. But it also provides those attendees who are doing it right with a feeling of affirmation and the encouragement to move forward successfully with their projects.

How do you select your Discussion Leaders?

I approached potential Discussion Leaders by asking them are they willing to use the presentation style I am trying to implement. Most “speakers,” don’t want to go beyond the traditions of using Power Points and 10 minute Q&A sessions. These are the Discussion Leaders I don’t want at unGeeked. They are not engaging the audience in conversation — they want the audience to listen as they drone on about their latest book, clients and other accomplishments. That is not what the attendee has paid to come see. Well, at least not at unGeeked.

Why don’t you care for Power Points or Prezi tools?

They are crutches. They limit audience participation. They place a time limit on engaging via Q&A. And more importantly, they are chocked full of bullet points that are often confusing and lead to no real solution.

How new is unGeeked Retreat?

We will be one year old in June. We are a true non-funded start-up.

What are your goals?

To change what we expect from conference and events where thoughts are shared. Also to initiate the need to create better communication between attendee and Discussion Leader and Discussion Leader and attendee.

Why attend unGeeked?

To learn. To affirm and share best practices. To engage with Discussion Leaders who are also authors, thought leaders, internationally, nationally and regionally recognized consultants with proven best practices and strategies. To create future alliances. To absorb knowledge.

Think about the last time you were consciously influenced by a television commercial to buy something. Maybe when you were hungry and saw a pizza commercial so you ordered one right then. Many may have not purchased a product because of a commercial but rather because they have heard about a product via word of mouth.

Not when you compare it to the number of times you have been influenced by a neighbor telling you that the recipe she just gave you won’t come out right unless you add Campbell soup. Or your brother-in-law saying he has found the best mechanic. Or your best friend scolding that she would never give her kids that flu medicine. You are much more powerfully influenced by the spontaneous product recommendations and reviews of your own social circle than by a million-dollar commercial.

Businessmen have known this for years and have been longing to harness the power of peer pressure and channel this mighty force to their own gain. Finally, less than a decade ago, the Internet gave rise to the world’s largest virtual social network, Facebook and then others such as Twitter, Myspace, etc.

It is amazing that it took so long for the business world to realize the potential here. Facebook is a secret weapon for small businesses owners who can use it to grow their business. It is inexpensive to join and maintain a fan page that can reach unlimited number of customers. But how to do this successfully? Check out the tips below to get an idea of how you can do this:

• Offer coupons to customers that purchase your product or services on a particular day.
• Create a special landing page that includes a sign-up form to grow your database.
• One thing such firms do not do is help you measure the return on your investment – your ROI.

In fact, many successful big businesses still practice marketing without strategy and do not measure ROI. They advertise on the shotgun principle by sending out a lot of messages by various media like the pellets from buckshot and hope something hits. When their sales start to rise, they have no idea which advertising strategy paid off. Many have added social media marketing to the mix but the venue is still experimental and no definite model is in place to measure its effectiveness.

A small business cannot afford such carelessness. In order to measure the ROI in social media, you must first decide what you want to measure. It is certainly easier to see how many Facebook friends you have following your coffee shop than how many sales have resulted from this activity. Even businesses that rely on online sales don’t necessarily know what brought customers to them. Was it that e-mail campaign, or the daily Twitter, or the blog from an affiliated site?

One easy way to track the ROI in social media is to do a survey at the time of the sale and ask customers what brought them to you. The drawback there is that if you are using several advertising media, even the customer might not know. A growing awareness of your product or service might have gradually reached a tipping point.  If you are using a social media marketing firm, ask them about the feasibility of putting some type of tracking into place.

You should also watch for comments and reviews on your social media sites. These often indicate the popularity of the site and might be an indication of its role in boosting your sales. Finally, You might also try advertising a sale or product on only one venue. Don’t mention the sale of Green Bean Tea on any site except Facebook or Twitter and count how many people come into your shop to ask for it. The drawback here, too, is that the power of cumulative affect is negated, so sales might be less for that item than that particular social site can usually generate if it is assisted by other media.

Finally, keep in mind that when you are determining the method you want to use to measure your social media marketing ROI, have an open-mind to the results. If something isn’t working, then either revamp what you are doing or try something new. Your ROI is important to your success in social media marketing so monitoring your efforts should be part of your online business model.

Stalking someone via social media has become an all to common situation and is know as cyber stalking. Many social media users don’t even know that they are being stalked until it’s too late.  Understanding the difference between stalking and simply following someone for educational reasons is something that this article will share.

Understanding social media or cyber stalking is important and the list below will help you become more familiar which how social media or cyber stalkers behave:

• Follows everything and/or documents everything that a particular person does or says online
• Can’t go a day without contact with a particular person
• Makes sure that you are in constant contact with a particular person
• Gets upset if this particular person shows any favoritism to another person online or offline
• Posts information or spread rumors about a particular person on the internet, in a public place, or by word of mouth
• Gives unwanted gifts to a particular person
• Makes frequent unrequited contact with a particular person and gets upset when they don’t respond

The list could go on and on but this gives you a general idea about stalking and can help you identify if you are being stalked or if you are a stalker. Identifying either is important and if you realize that you are being stalked or that you are a stalker, GET HELP.

For those being stalked, you can contact your local police enforcement unit to alert them to the fact that you are being stalked. Make sure that you have documentation about being stalked. Also make sure that you confide in a close friend that you trust so that you can have a supporter through the entire process. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, regarding stalking laws…

While the federal government, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. Territories have enacted criminal laws to address stalking, the legal definition for stalking varies across jurisdictions. State laws vary regarding the element of victim fear and emotional distress, as well as the requisite intent of the stalker. Some state laws specify that the victim must have been frightened by the stalking, while others require only that the stalking behavior would have caused a reasonable person to experience fear. In addition states vary regarding what level of fear is required. Some state laws require prosecutors to establish fear of death or serious bodily harm, while others require only that prosecutors establish that the victim suffered emotional distress. Interstate stalking is defined by federal law 18 U.S.C. § 2261A.

For those who are the stalker, know that it is wrong and that laws are in place or being put in place to deal with those who stalk others via social media. Whether you think it is all innocent or not, cyber stalking or social media stalking is wrong.

Resources:

• Article: Are You Being Stalked?
• Article: Cyberstalking
• PDF: Stalking Victimization in the United States
• Article: Facebook Testing a “Stalker Button”

SPECIAL QUESTION: Is social media making it easier for cyber stalkers to stalk someone (i.e., Foursquare of Facebook checkins)? Please share your thoughts.

Washington, DC, August 14, 2010 — Registration is in progress for the nation’s #1 Conference for Writers, Authors, and Speakers. The National Christian Writers Conference is scheduled for Washington DC, at Howard University in the Benjamin E. Mays Hall building, on Saturday, August 14, 2010 from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

The conference presents a number of renowned experts who provide solutions, innovative strategies and knowledge on how to write, publish and promote books or brand names in the Christian marketplace. Do you have an idea for a terrific story? Do you need help transferring your ideas into book format? Have you written a manuscript but don’t know where to go to publish it? Come to the National Christian Writers Conference and listen to award winning authors, publishers, editors, publicists, speakers, internet marketers and wealth building coaches share their secrets on how to succeed in the literary industry.

Click here for more details

The workshop leaders include: Antonio L. Crawford, Pam Perry, Michelle McKinney Hammond, Stacy Hawkins Adams, Karen Hunter, William R. Patterson, Cassandra Walton, Eugene Williams, Jewel Williams, Pam Osbey, Sean Isaacs and other top selling writers, authors, and infopreneurs. Panelists include Rev. Dr. Barbara A. Reynolds, Kim Beasley and leading industry professionals.

The National Christian Writers Conference provides information, training and resources to people who want to publish stories that heal, inspire and speak to the hearts of readers around the world. NCWC is committed to building an academic platform to encourage people who are ready to take charge to accelerate their talent in the marketplace.

Click here for more details

Registration is required to attend the conference. Special two for one price and $127 early registration is extended to August 1st, 2010. General registration ends August 7th. Discounted lodging rates provided by the Kellogg Conference Hotel and Holiday Inn Washington-Central/White House group code: EG4. 877.786.9480. Click here for more details

Just as so many people around the world do, I enjoy connecting with others via social networks like Facebook or Twitter. Sharing about my latest projects or great news that’s happening in my life are a couple of the things that I have in common with many other social media users. One great question I have is, “How much is too much sharing on social media?”

SPOILER ALERT: A lot of information is shared about a recent “Criminal Minds” episode entitled “It’s Out There”.

Recently, I watched a TV show called “Criminal Minds” and it had an episode about a stalker/killer who was stalking women who shared many personal details about their lives online using various social media websites. He would initially offer to install high-speed Internet access and at the same time he would install a single small camera that would allow him to monitor their activities. Then he would take his time getting to know them and breaking into their homes when they weren’t there to install more small cameras. He would also follow them online to see what they were sharing about their lives and he eventually started following them around until he entered their homes one final time and killed them.

I know this is a TV show and that this is somewhat extreme, but I view it as a very cautionary tale for “how much is too much sharing on social media”? I’m not trying to scare anyone about sharing information on social media websites, I just want to inform you about the dangers of sharing too much information. The video below is about 5 minutes from the episode that is very detailed and should only be watched by adults due to the nature of the video. I am so adamant about informing others about this issue that I felt it necessary to share this video. Please feel free to share your own views by leaving a comment below.

SPOILER ALERT: this shares about 5 minutes from the “Criminal Minds” show and is very detailed. Only suitable for adult audiences.

Recently, I’ve been sharing about a new business tool on Twitter called Blellow.com which is a business social media website where you can connect, collaborate and communicate with other business people. Listen as the CEO, Mandi Leman shares about Blellow and how it can be very beneficial for business people.