Don't Waste Your Weekend Business! Get Social...with Social Media

The weekend can be one of the most beneficial times for businesses and organizations of all types to impact their followers and friends via Social Media. Yet, since Friday, Saturday & Sunday often degrades into chaos for many of us, we neglect to do so.

That translates to a wasted opportunity as the consumers who are most likely to roll into your restaurant, shop, bar, festival, showing, concert or event are at their most active (and open to influence) when you just don't have the time to update your status on Facebook or Twitter. Bummer.

So what do you do? Make the time.

It's not enough to pre-promote your event thru the week and hope they'll remember to show. The beauty of Social Media is in it's immediacy! (I bet there's a pretty good reason that the word "media" is the primary root of the word "immediacy.")

If you're a real estate agent, make sure you're tweeting reminders about your open house on Saturday morning. If you're handling marketing for a festival throughout the weekend, gosh darn it, get those status updates and new pictures up on Facebook with regularity. Don't wait until the weekend is over! Showcase the fun everyone's having at your party and do it WHILE the fun is ongoing. Yes, believe it or not, there are plenty of people sitting at home on Facebook or cruising around looking for a good time, their cell phone anxiously ready for your tweet.

While post-promoting the event is fine (and something you should do) wouldn't it be all the better if those friends and followers were making your cash register sing and tickets sell?

If you're a nightclub anxious to get some more booties shakin' on the dance floor, a well-timed tweet at 11pm on Saturday night can do the trick.

If you're a retailer disappointed with a slow weekend, then crank up the Facebook and Twitter charm on Sunday at noon and roll out an impromptu "Friends & Followers" sale or sweet discount. But c'mon now. Make it interesting. That whole "10% off" thing is SO boring.


Yeah, I know, this is all pretty much common sense. But many of us forget to do it. The weekend is busy. But make it even busier by staying in touch and relevant at the exact time your followers and friends are most open to your message. In other words...Get SOCIAL on the weekend!

How to Steal From Intel: Inside...Their Social Media Policy

No, really. Go ahead. Steal it. You should.

We have all kinds of readers, users & members at the International Social Media Chamber of Commerce. Home-based entrepreneurs, restaurant owners, enterprise CEO's, digital media strategists, Social Media directors, non-profit marketing directors...you get the idea. Every one of you a different kind of business and organization with many different goals and levels of social media comprehension.

If you're a small business owner or a one-man/woman shop you may not think an established "Social Media policy" is one of your most pressing concerns. And, it's probably not. But, the cool thing about the Social Media policy outlined for employees of Intel is that it makes sense for pretty much any organization or business galloping through the Social Media forest.

For a large corporation or any business with multiple employees...it works.

For an individual or entrepreneur trying to utilize the medium...it works.

So, if you're new to Social Media, or a small business, imagine the Intel policy as a guideline for how to best function & interact in this incredibly rewarding environment.

If you're a larger entity that lacks a clearly defined policy for your employees/volunteers (and don't forget sub-contractors & vendors!) then you can't go wrong by stealing a lot or a little from the Intel dictates.

Seriously, even if you're something like a mom-and-pop restaurant chain with a couple of locations and 15 or 20 employees, that's potentially 20 people with blogs, Facebook & Twitter profiles that represent your business and image. Make sure they understand both the benefits & the pitfalls available with Social Media.

Here's the Intel Social Media policy. Think about making it your own.

http://www.intel.com/sites/sitewide/en_US/social-media.htm

Are You Like a Used Car Salesman with your Twitter Welcome DM's?

The controversy over how to best utilize welcome messages with Twitter Direct Messages (DM's) will likely always continue to rage. For those of you relatively new to Twitterland it's a definite conundrum. How should one best respond to an individual nice enough to follow your tweets? Of course, the best answer is the simplest; a nice, personal message that doesn't attempt to sell or move someone to another list or page. After all, that's why we call it SOCIAL media and SOCIAL networking. It's supposed to be about building relationships and friendship. But, what if you're picking up so many follows that personalization becomes difficult or impossible?

Should you use auto-DM's? Or, Oh my God!...should you not? Are "free gifts" OK? The schools of thought on what's acceptable and what's not or as diverse as Twitter utilizers themselves.

If you're attempting to build relationships with prospective clients and customers do you really want to come off like a used-car salesman? One who jumps on a customer as soon as they walk in the showroom and twists your ear with an immediate pitch?

DM etiquette with a new follower demands the same sort of manners and respect that you'd offer any new acquaintance strolling across your path in person.

Melissa Walters is an Ohio blogger who makes this point very well on her site "The Melissa Mission." Her advice?

Make it from your heart
Make it about them
Bless their life in some way
Be REAL, fakers need not follow back.

Read Melissa's entire Blog post: http://www.melissasmission.com/blog/2009/07/dear-twitters-auto-direct-messages-weak-unfollow/