CEO of Twitter, Ev Williams & Brenda Tello Horton of Hware at South By Southwest Conference in Austin Tx March 2010

Twitter is the Reason I Fell In Love with Technology

I LOVE smart men! I married one 13 years ago. We’ve been together for almost 20 years now. While at the  South By Southwest Interactive Media conference in Austin Texas, I was surrounded by thousands of cool, smart and geeky men. By far they outnumbered the female attendees. And, being that my husband is also my business partner, I felt right at home networking with these hip, creative, and gadget-loving guys. So naturally, when I saw Ev Williams, CEO of Twitter walking by me on Congress Avenue, it felt effortless for me to introduce myself to him. After all, Twitter is the reason I fell in love with technology, the internet, social media, video blogging, and the online world of social networking.  Prior to Twitter, my usage of the internet involved buying airline tickets a few times a year and an occasional book purchase from Amazon. Okay, I used my computer a bit more than that. The point is that Twitter radically changed the way I interact with technology, my computer, and the internet. One October day in 2008 I attended BizTechDay, a conference in San Francisco and everyone was talking about Twitter, blogging, WordPress, and social media. These buzz words were practically in every conversation during the break-out sessions and lectures. When I heard people talk about how they were experimenting with Twitter to grow their business, I focused in more intently. The ease and simplicity of it immediately intrigued me. Online business networking was something I could definitely wrap my brain around and Twitter seemed to be the technology tool to help me get started.

Top 7 Reasons why I LOVE Twitter

Fast-forward eighteen months later and here I am, a social media power user, small business blogger, technophobe-turned-technolovah! It was great chatting with Ev. I thanked him for bringing Twitter to market. I use it everyday for business and cannot imagine working without it. Here our my TOP 7 reasons why I LOVE Twitter so much:

1. I can link my favorite blogger’s posts to Twitter and share it with my followers. I use a tool called Twitterfeed
2. Anyone can easily find me on Twitter and instantly get a sense if they want to follow me or not and vice-versa
3. Real time updates and trending topics (faster than Google)
4. Can tweet from my SmartPhone
5. Share photos
6. Brevity (only 140 characters)
7. Have access to brilliant people from all over the world

Twitter is a very powerful tool. It can be used as a marketing tool, a relationship builder, and connector tool. There were business tools before Twitter and there will be business tools after Twitter. Chuck, my biz partner likes to remind me that before Twitter, there were Bulletin Boards. Any Geeks out there remember the Bulletin Boards in the 80s? How about you? If you are a Twitter Lover, what are some of your favorite reasons for using Twitter? How are you using Twitter to grow your business? If you are not using Twitter for business, why not?  Please share your comments. In my next post, I will write about my full experience at South By Southwest.

Getting Started with Social Media for Small Business

As a courtesy to Hware’s blog readers, we want to hip you to our popular online self-paced video training series called, Getting Started with Social Media for Small Business. Go ahead and try the Demo! It’s FREE!

Get Started Now with Free Demo!

No software to download. No Dvd to install.

5 Reasons You Should Check Out Hware’s FREE DEMO on Social Media:

1. You cannot afford to waste another moment while your competitors are using social media to grow their business.

2. You are frustrated and overwhelmed with understanding how to use social media to grow your business.

3. You want to learn specific key strategies and methods to using social media to sell more of your products and services online.

4. You want to harness the power of Twitter (fastest growing social networking site), Facebook (400 million users), and Blogging (powerful tool to communicate with your customers) to generate more sales and revenue.

5. Social media is the cheapest and fastest way to connect with your customers online and you want to learn the tools, tactics, and strategies to build a trusting long-term loyal customer base who refer more customers to you.

Are you already using social media to grow your online presence? Feel free to share with us how you are using it to grow your business online.

Not having a Social Media Plan is like going for a long Hike in the Mountains without any Food and Water.

The point is that you may survive, but it will be a very challenging and frustrating experience that could have otherwise been avoided. In my last post, I wrote about how planning starts with a VISION. In this post, I want to emphasize the importance of PLANNING. When most people think of planning, they yawn, BORING! Who wants to get boggled down with details?! “Let’s just go for it, make it happen and we will adjust along the way. Besides, it’s more fun and adventurous to have some spontaneity in our lives!” I swear, I used to say that and believe that with all my heart, and I still do in some areas of my life, but NOT when it comes to business. Unfortunately, I have had to learn through too many failures to understand why PLANNING is key to a successful business. So let’s dive into some key factors that are fundamental to having a solid social media plan. For the purpose of this blog post, I will be referring to small businesses:

• Know your target audience – Who are you selling to? Who’s attention do you want? Let’s narrow it down further. What  is your buyer persona?  That means, what are your buyers’ preferences, tastes, likes and dislikes. For example, my company, Hware sells software tools that help small businesses. Therefore, I look for entrepreneurs, and Work-at-Home folks to connect with online and try to make myself useful to them. I am laser-focused on the kind of person I want to interact with online. It’s  not that I don’t or won’t engage with anyone other than my ideal client, it’s just that I am very specific and clear about who I need to be talking to online for my business. More importantly, if your target audience is not online, then you are wasting your time being online. You need to be where they are. That’s where market research comes in.
• Spend some time doing some Market Research – It is crucial to find out where your customers hang out. Are they on Twitter or LinkedIn? Are most of them not using social networking sites and still prefer e-mail? The point is that you need to have a clear understanding of where they are so that you can communicate with them.  Occasionally, I enroll my online audience in surveys, which gives me insight into what they need. I then provide them with the results of the polls. By engaging my audience and asking for feedback, I gain tremendous knowledge on who they are, what their challenges are, and how I may better serve them. Here are a few online survey tools: Poll Daddy,  Survey Monkey and Twtpoll (for Twitter). The surveys need to be short, simple and convenient for the participant, otherwise, they will be reluctant fill it out.

• Know your online STAG: I call these your Strengths, Talents, Attributes, and Gifts. You must find and own your STAG and become like the beautiful statuesque male deer I live with here in the foothills of Northern California. They know their own power and beauty.  They grace the land with great ease and confidence. When you know your STAG, you will attract, engage, and be like a magnet to your online Fans, Friends, and Followers. When you are clear about your STAG, it will show in your energy, your presence. We all feed off of each other’s energy and your customers are no different. They will know if you are moving with ease and confidence and when you are putting their best interests first and foremost. (I will write more about STAG in future blog posts.) An example of using your STAG is let’s say that you are better at talking than writing; then perhaps you may want do more vlogging (video blogs) than blogging. The point is that you are playing to your strengths and when you work from a place of strengths, it always much easier.
• Remember that your Social Media Plan - should come under the umbrella of your marketing plan and your marketing plan falls under your business plan and your business plan should be part of your long-term strategic plan, (which I will write about in more detail another time.) So many people get overwhelmed with social media, but it is important to keep things in perspective. Social media is just one aspect of your overall business and as an entrepreneur/self-employed, you wear many different hats – social media is your marketing hat.

On my next blog post, I will delve into more detail about social media planning. I will be writing about some specific automation tools to help systematize and simplify your online presence.

Brenda Horton is Co-owner of Hware, a software company that designs business planning tools for small businesses. She will be hosting a FREE and LIVE Webinar on Social Media STRATEGIES for beginners on September 2nd.

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Brenda’s Social Media 101 Slideshow from the Lunch & Learn Series sponsored by the Nevada County Association of Realtors.

How Social Media and Twitter are changing the way we connect online

Last week I was dining at Centros in Sacramento with my 60+ year old friend. We talked quite a bit about social media. She works in the fund development department for a non-profit. She asked me to explain to her what all the fuss is about with regards to social media. She said that she did not understand why anyone would waste their day in front of a computer talking to people on line when relationships are most powerfully built in person. She felt overwhelmed with all the different online communities and she was clearly having a hard time wrapping her brain around Twitter. “I just don’t get it,” she kept saying. So, I gave her the highlights of how social media and Twitter are changing the way we connect online.

A brief history of Social Media

On a very basic fundamental level, humans have a great desire to connect and share with one another. When you understand that, then you will understand the power of social networking sites. It’s also important to understand that social media evolved from the early 80′s. People were connecting online via bulletin boards, forums and general chat rooms. My business partner built one of the first IBM PC bulletin boards which the Sacramento PC User group later adopted. The bulletin board (platform) allowed the users to share files, upload and download files, create forums and manage user registration.  Keep in mind there was no Internet at the time. Back then everyone had to dial in to him to connect. He was the “platform.” He was to the users of the PC user group what Twitter is to its users today. Later, came the live chat rooms where like-minded people connected via the Internet to discuss a specific subject matter, i.e.,politics, dogs, motorcycles, etc.

Make social media part of your marketing plan

Today, people are connecting online through platforms like Face Book, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter. These platforms facilitate getting a message, product, idea out to the masses in seconds. So, instead of having one person as the hub or platform that allow people to connect, we now have online platforms called social networking sites, which brings us to my friend’s question. “Why would anyone want to connect online when face-to-face is much more powerful?” Here is where the power of social networking sites like Twitter and Face Book are often misunderstood. Just because you are connecting with people online does not mean that you stop using the telephone and other means of communication tools. While having a face-to-face interaction with someone is absolutely the most powerful way to build, nurture, and cultivate relationships, it is also the most time and labor intensive.

With social networking sites, you are no longer limited to your local outreach marketing efforts, which are often expensive. Moreover, your online marketing strategies should not replace your face-to-face efforts of building relationships with your customers. It should be complementary and supplemental. Think of social media as a marketing strategy incorporated into your overall marketing plan and in today’s business environment it is vital to have a PLAN for your business.

Brenda Horton owns Hware, a software company that develops business tools for small businesses, entrepreneurs, non-profits, and start-ups. She is the membership co-chair of the Sacramento Social Media Club.

Brenda Horton will be teaching a beginners class on Social Media at the Nevada County Association of Realtors on Friday May 29th from 11:30 am-1:00 pm. For more information and registration call 530-272-2627.