When I started my weekly blog almost two years ago now, I had two reasons: 1. I just like technology. The commitment I made to post weekly keeps me always on the lookout for helpful tools or tips that I think the small businessperson will benefit from. It also keeps me ‘sharp’ (well, that’s debatable), by trying to be current on the new tools. 2. I was told it would drive traffic to my website, and I wanted that to help me in establishing my VA business.

So here’s a definition of Social Media from the Ebook: Let’s Talk Social Media For Small Business by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing.

Social media is the use of technology combined with social interaction to create or co-create value.

John was sponsored by Microsoft Small Business Live in the writing of this book, and is free for the downloading. It’s a great basic book for those of us getting started with blogging for business, and trying to understand how this ‘social media’ revolution works.

He begins by contrasting how we might find in our dusty Marketing textbooks the four P’s of Marketing vs. today’s four C’s of Marketing:

When most of us hear all these new terms about social networking and what services we should be signing up for, our heads spin. So he presents this graphic to guide us in our progression down the social media highway beginning with blogging and ending up with the micro, i.e. edgier tools like Twitter.

The book has several case studies where he makes the point that any business can distinguish themselves from their competition with their blogs, interactions with their community and the resulting establishment of trust among that community.

It’s a good read for those of us who see others talking about the above buzz words and wondering, “what does that mean”.

Below are links to some of the various social media sites as well as the sites that help manage our social media. Some are from the book (and a few of my own), along with their definitions you might find helpful:

Social & Business Networking:

LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com

Plurk – http://www.plurk.com

Tools to Manage your Social Networks & Other Sharing Sites

Delicious http://www.delicious.com this is a bookmarking service that allows you to tag any page with a category and then share it publicly

PingFm: http://www.ping.fm This is a tool that will broadcast your blog, doings, etc. across multiple platforms

StumbleUpon - http://stumbleupon.com/
Flickr – http://www.flickr.com
YouTube – http://youtube.com
Slideshare – http://www.slideshare.net
Digg – http://digg.com
Friend Feed – http://friendfeed.com

Twitter and Twitter tools:

Twitter – http://www.twitter.com

Twellow, http://www.twellow.com/, is like a Twitter phone directory that sorts people by industry. This can be a great way to find people in your industry.

Twitterrific: http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific/

Twitter Search: http://search.twitter.com/

Twhirl: http://www.twhirl.org/

Twitterfeed: http://twitterfeed.com/

The book by Jantsch is a great starting place if you’ve just begun experimenting with social media marketing. His Duct Tape Marketing Website could be helpful to you. Another site I subscribe to is the ProBlogger.

I know following these suggestions work because after I set up my Facebook and LinkedIn pages and took advantage of the tools from within these apps to publicize my blog, my readership increased by five to six times. It does take time and effort and the content you publish definitely matters.

If any of you want to share your blogging stories or have tips, please leave a comment!

I blogged a couple of weeks ago on how Facebook added a chat feature where you can see how many of your friends are on-line from within Facebook and initiate a chat with them.

Just recently, I saw that Digsby (a chat aggregator, along the lines of Meebo), has a feature where you can chat with your Facebook friends without being logged into Facebook! Check out the screenshot below. Not only can you use Digsby as a chat aggregator, you can also add Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to Digsby to consolidate and manage most of your social networking sites in one place! They say other social networking sites are coming soon.

Here are the social networking features Digsby offers:

• Stay up to date with everything happening on your Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace account (other network support coming soon).
• Receive alerts of events such as new friend requests, messages, group invites, etc.
• The social network InfoBox gives you a real time NewsFeed of what your friends are up to. Everything from new photos, to status updates, to upcoming birthdays is just a click away.
• Set your Facebook and Twitter status right from Digsby.

Go to the web site and and download to your desktop. Digsby also has some other cool features that we will explore at a later time. Enjoy!

Those are tasks you can do that show up in the ‘casual’ part of Facebook. BUT – did you know you can also set up a Business Page, or section of your Facebook and from there, there are many viral things you can do to promote your business.

Log in and page down to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Advertising’. That will bring up a form you can start filling out to create and customize your business page. Put some time and thought into this. You want it to be engaging and inviting–you want people to read it!

After you create your page, Facebook will automatically adds the ‘Page Manager’ application to the top of your application list (right at the top and left side of your log in page). Click this to enter your business page to manage, edit and create more content.

What can you do with a Business Page?

• Advertise any events or accomplishments
• Post pictures relevant to your business
• Start and be a host of a Discussion Forum from within your page. Get it started by posting a thoughtful question or comment regarding your business or industry that will generate discussion
• Post a Video. It doesn’t even have to be one you made. Find something of general interest to your audience…for example a video on time management (who doesn’t need that). Just make sure it’s worthy
• Reviews – this is a default application that allows people to comment on yours or someone else’s page or business. Each user can write only one review (although they can come back and edit it). Also, anyone can write a review on your business page, not just a ‘fan’, or someone who has subscribed to your page.
• Wall – a feature of every user’s profile, it appears here as well. Only your fans can write on your wall

If you have a small OR large business, set up your Facebook Business page, it’s free! More information can be found here.