Bright Social Media » How To

How to Start in Social Media – Choose Your Objectives

Bright Social Media — Mon, 03 May 2010 19:12:17 +0000

When you are just starting out in social media and discover the amount of tools there are available, it can be quite daunting. However CMO created a fantastic cross reference grid that makes it easy to grasp the benefits of each tool for your business.

The sections are broken down into customer communication, brand exposure, traffic to your site and SEO. These are social media objectives. Choose one or two that you would like to focus on, then study the grid to identify which tools will assist your business most.

You can download and print the Social Media Landscape PDF here.

Did you find this useful?

How to Integrate Social Media into your Email Signature

Bright Social Media — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 07:43:28 +0000

Im often asked ‘How can I generate more fans? How can I let people know Im using social media for my business?’

One way to approach this is to integrate social media into your email signature, a free marketing tool which is often underutilized.

1. Set your Objectives

What call to action do you want the person to do when they read your emails signature?

By incorporating your social media sites to your emails you can:

• Drive more traffic to your website

• Increase the subscription feed to your blog and

• Increase your followers/fanbase on Twitter and Facebook

If you are a large organisation sending a large volume of emails you can even create separate landing pages for your sites to track how much traffic is generated from email signatures.

2. Choose Social Media Icons

There are thousands of beautiful and creative social media icons sets out there that are free to download. Choose icons that suit your brand, website or blog. I use Icon Finder as it houses all icons without you having to search around. Search, choose, download….simple.

3. Change Your Signature

If you use Outlook 2007 there is a great video from Your Virtual Assistant which is a step by step guide on how to add social media icons to your email signature.

Alternatively if you use Gmail ,Yahoo Mail ,AOL, Hotmail then you can create an email signature with WiseStamp. Its easy to customize, include IM & Social profiles, share your Blog posts, bookmarks and so on.

How to Integrate Social Media Into Your Business Cards

Bright Social Media — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:53:17 +0000

How many times have you went to a meeting or a network and left with a pile of business cards and you couldn’t remember which card went with which person? What use is it if you can’t remember who it belongs to? Will anyone remember who your card belongs to?

It’s your job to make the right first impression…you want to make it easy for the person you are meeting to remember you. Your business card is your introduction to potential clients and prospects.

The Creative Business Card

There are many creative designers that can create an exceptional card that will set you apart from the crowd. Check out the 10 Cool Social Media Business Cards from Penn Olsen to get your creative juices flowing. However if you don’t have the money for a professional designer, you can save money by creating it yourself with a little help from The Pro Designer and ‘how to make a great print ready business card in Photoshop‘.

The New Essentials on a Business Card

1. Include a photo

Why have we not done this before, surely it’s just common sense? Having your photo on your business card is an easy way to spark memory and saves people from the dilemma of ‘trying to put a name to a face’.

This was my first business card…

2. Include Social Networking Sites

By integrating your business card with your social media accounts, you are creating more opportunities for potential customers and contacts to find and converse with you.

Your current business card is likely to contain your website, email and telephone number. All well and good assuming they want to do business with you immediately and want to contact you. However people like to do their homework before committing to the sale. By providing details of your social networks (such as twitter.com/katrindegruchy) you are offering your potential client the opportunity to see how you operate online and the chance to showcase your work.

3. Set Objectives

Your business card should be an effective marketing tool so set your objectives, for example:

So take five minutes and think about what you would like someone to do next with your business card. Remember to be memorable!

What do you think should be included on the new business card? Have you got a cool business card you would like to share with us?