Why are companies not found on LinkedIn or Facebook?

We have been working with multiple companies developing social media profiles lately. In the efforts of building a branding and consistent character basis for companies, we have seen more and more that there are too many companies without a presence on LinkedIn. Not talking about an individual profile - which is very concerning that over 3.5 million users are on the site, but yet millions more haven't ventured into building a profile is overwhelming. To start there, if you don't have a presence on this site as an individual, you are telling the world that either you don't want to be connected to, you aren't savvy with the Internet, or you would rather spamming sites publish information about you instead. One of the most beautiful things about LinkedIn is the searchability factor through google. 4 out of 5 customers will search LinkedIn for their potential vendor representative (or potential new hire) to gain character perspective and knowledge about this person. If you don't choose to put information about your history that you want people to see, they will find out information about you on sites that pay a lot of money to Google to post personal things such as pictures of your home, family members & so on (an example of this is 123people & there are many other sites out there who "phish" for your information & post it freely online). Should you ever find something like this - you can contact the publisher for it to be removed. Know that the most important piece of us mentioning this - is the fact that THE INFORMATION YOU WANT POSTED ON THE INTERNET - SHOULD BE THE INFORMATION THAT YOU CHOOSE TO BE POSTED - NOT WHAT SOMEONE ELSE DECIDES FOR YOU!

This holds true about information for your company. If you don't have a website - how will your customers know what you offer & if you are a real business person? Same with social media. If you are not "out there" and "current" how will people know how to do business with you, connect with you, follow you and want to maintain relationship with you????

With that being said, as a business owner you have thought about a few things:

(1) what is my logo?
(2) what is my brand?
(3) where will I market?
(4) how will I market?
(5) who will I market to?
(6) build a website

Will all of these things in place, there is still a laundry list of things that need to happen as well.

FACTS:
(1) If you have a website, it will have either detailed - or not as detailed - information about your products/services
(2) You may be choosing some print marketing or mailers for your potential or existing customers

These are important - but what should go in hand with this?

***SOCIAL MEDIA***

If you have a personal presence on Facebook, you should NOT be marketing your company on your "personal" page, rather you should have a business page where people can "like" your company and follow your updates.

If you have a personal profile on LinkedIn, you need to be sure your company profile is established as well so people can easily find you through your company or your personal profile. Individuals can also "like" your company page for updates. You should also have recommendations of your work that your customers, vendors or staff can post about you - this is a great character building piece and can also encourage a history of your experience.

A newer feature of LinkedIn is posting products & services. The great thing about this is you can get recommendations for these products or services right on the company page - a great marketing tool.

My challenge for you - If you have a personal presence on FaceBook or LinkedIn - then create a company profile for them both. It will increase visibility, credibility & ownership of your brand.

Time Management for Social Media – Part 1

You have created your social media presence, your branding is consistent and you find yourself spending hours each day on any given social media site scrolling, searching, reading and posting for hours on end. But the question begs to be asked, is this how the social media world was intended or is there a better way to coordinate your time in these spaces?


Check out my post on the topic here:

http://www.integratedalliances.com/social-media/winning-with-social-media/time-management-for-social-media-part-1

Hollie Clere, The Social Pro is a social media manager, trainer and author in the LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog and social media world.

Sneak Peek at the book “Social Media in Telecommunications”

I have found that with Telecom; there are specific social media spaces that were more effective than others. I felt the strong desire to help those in the Telecom Industry develop their branding, find useful tools and sites where other Telecom businesses are present and utilize tools that will help them market their companies in a new way. The process can be rewarding and fruitful, but has taken me time to determine which sites my clients or prospects may be visiting, how to best contact them, and which sites would become home to personal contacts vs. business contacts.

“Social Media in Telecommunications” is a guide to help Telecommunications companies sift through the grey and become successful in Social Media.

CHAPTERS & TOPICS:

► SUMMARY OF SOCIAL MEDIA

✔ WHAT IS SOCIAL NETWORKING?
✔ THINGS TO CONSIDER IN TODAY’S MARKET
✔ WHAT IS BRANDING?



► INS AND OUTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR TELECOM

✔ WHAT DOES SOCIAL NETWORKING LOOK LIKE IN TELECOM?
✔ WHY SHOULD YOU CONNECT?
✔ WHERE DO YOU CONNECT?



► CONNECTING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

✔ HOW DO I SECURE MY USERNAME ON MULTIPLE SITES?
✔ WHAT DO YOU DO AFTER YOU CONNECT?
✔ HOW DO YOU MEET OTHERS?
✔ WHAT IS THE BEST ETIQUETTE FOR ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS?



► TOOLS AND BUILDING PROFILE CONNECTIONS

✔ HOW DO I MANAGE SEARCHES AND MULTIPLE SOCIAL NETWORKING PLATFORMS?
✔ HOW DO I FIND CUSTOMERS?
✔ HOW DO YOU ADVERTISE TO YOUR CONNECTIONS?
✔ HOW DO I GET RECOMMENDATIONS?



► DEFINING YOUR SCOPE AND BUSINESS PLAN

✔ IMPORTANT TIPS ABOUT YOUR LISTINGS
✔ HOW DO I KNOW THIS IS RIGHT FOR ME?
✔ HOW CAN YOU TRACK OF BUSINESS DERIVED FROM SOCIAL NETWORKING?
✔ HOW CAN YOU PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA POLICIES FOR YOUR COMPANY?
✔ MILESTONES



► LOOKING AT SOCIAL NETWORKING PLATFORMS AND TOOLS

✔ LINKED IN
✔ TWITTER
✔ BLOGGING
✔ FACEBOOK
✔ MYSPACE
✔ PARTNERPEDIA
✔ YOUTUBE
✔ XEESM
✔ GOOGLE ALERT
✔ SLIDESHARE



► KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER

A few brief Tips from the book:

 Always take time to think through your marketing and goals

 Discover what social media sites your customers have presence

 Never bash a competitor, vendor, partner or individual

 Stay consistent with your profile language, images, colors and logos

 Utilize tools to help you manage these sites

 Develop a daily schedule to manage these tools, and fulfill your marketing and prospecting goals

 Be aware of who is presenting information about your company online

 Establish and utilize keywords to maximize functionality and visibility on all sites

. . . You will need to read the book to get the rest of the information . . .



We are open to comments, so please let us know if you are interested in writing a recommendation for us to post on the website.

Xeesm™ Building Momentum With Indirect Channel Partners

New business opportunity for entrepreneurs building a profitable social medium business

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Palo Alto, CA Apr 28, 2010 – Xeequa Corp. a provider of social business applications with over 30,000 users in 24 countries announced today that it will sell its solutions through business partners worldwide.

The company’s Social Relationship Management systems will continue to be supported by the company, training, consulting services and solution implementation will be provided by trained business partners.

“Since the launch of our Social Relationship Manager, Xeesm™ (pronounce ‘see sum’), in summer 2009, we rapidly grew our user base worldwide,” said Xeequa CEO, Axel Schultze who explained the reason for building a partner network.

The decision to build a partner channel was based on three objectives:

• To provide localized support wherever our users are located

• To be able to scale at the speed of social media growth

• To use the most cost-efficient sales model.

“In addition to our strategic objectives, we understand that collaborating with others is a cornerstone to success and to a large degree what social media is all about,” Schultze added.

Xeesm™ Business Partners from the US, Europe, Latin America, Australia and Singapore have been trained by the company in three major areas including product knowledge, sales strategies, and business planning.

“In helping Telecommunications Agents grow their business with Social Media, we have found that the Xeesm social relationship management tool can help organizations through their entire social selling process from initial engagement to the final sale and service” said Hollie Clere Project Manager / Auditor, Clere Communications, LLC, Colorado, USA. “We are excited to Partner with Xeesm to better enhance the social media support services we offer to our clients.”

View the full article here: http://xeesm.com/_/site/index.php/2010/04/28/xeesm-business-partner/

Follow Feature on LinkedIn

Have you logged into LinkedIn lately? There is a feature on there where you can "Follow" a company. Find your company on there & be sure to "Follow" it.

Here is the URL for our company site:

http://www.linkedin.com/companies/301194

If you don't have the "Follow" option on your page yet, keep checking back in because they are updating the access on profiles constantly.

The image looks like this:

Information on the book: "Social Media in Telecommunications"

Check out this SlideShare Presentation about our book:

Social media in telecommunications

View more presentations from Clere Communications, LLC .

"Guide to help Telecommunications companies sift through the grey and become successful in Social Media." by: Hollie Clere

ISBN: 978-0-557-43768-9

Only $29.95

Announcing Book Release “Social Media in Telecommunications”

Clere Communications is announcing Book Release of “Social Media in Telecommunications” by Hollie Clere:

It is a guide to help Telecommunications companies sift through the grey and become successful in Social Media.

"Guide to help Telecommunications companies sift through the grey and become successful in Social Media." by: Hollie Clere

ISBN: 978-0-557-43768-9

Only $29.95

How can you get connected in Social Media specifically for Telecom?

I wanted to let you know about a new package we are offering to Agents. There are 2 variations.

Social Media Ramp-Up & Social Networking Support

Social Media Ramp-Up includes setting up & developing your Social Media Sites to promote your branded individual & your branded company to your connections & future prospects. We will get your profiles developed with essential keyword searches, content & stamp your company in the social media markets. We will also setup for you & teach you how to use all of these sites via a free online portal that will optimize your productivity. We will consult you on the best practices in marketing specific for Telecom, Telecom prospects & build your following quickly.

Social Networking Support is a service we offer to monitor these platforms for you with reporting on a weekly, bi-monthly or monthly basis. It is important to have current visibility on these platforms with consistent activity to build trust, relationships & knowledge of your services. You can have access to the media platform at any time to view productivity in addition to the reporting options we will provide to you. You will be able to target specific prospects via the social networking tools & market your business in a way that you haven’t been able to do before.

Fact: Qwest developed a team of social media experts to support existing customers. What they found is when people would complain about their services online, there was no visibility to help them & they were losing business. 7 out of 10 of complaints on Twitter about Qwest were responded positively by the end user & customers were retained. In the last 6 months, large companies including Qwest and Cisco have not only branded but perfected the customer experience by helping the customers real time with their issues.

Fact: Customers will research your branding/profile prior to calling you back on a cold call. How do I know this? Many of you did the same with us before calling us for support services. Where are they looking? LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google. If you don’t have a website, you may be overlooked. In addition, Google pulls feeds from LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter for specific keyword searches. If you aren’t on active with a broad profile on these sites – you may be overlooked because they won’t know much about you.

Fact: By allowing us to manage these services for you – on a flat rate basis each month – you know the following:
(1) You won’t have to learn the specifics about Social Networking ins & outs
(2) You will be in the field more – instead of trying to figure out how to connect & maintain your profile
(3) All direct messages or inquiries will be filtered to you immediately with the option for you to personally respond

If you are interested in letting us help you grow your business through this new technology, let me know. The tools we use are completely free, the only cost to you is our flat rate.

Don’t be left behind because of a lack of online presence.

Don’t let your customers feel neglected if they contact you online & you infrequently login.