Which social networking sites should I use – Google Buzz?

A lot of my consulting, talks and general meetings now are focused more and more on social media and how to go about utilizing social networks as a means to promote the brand of a business or individual a brief intro I wrote recently for Startup Donut can be found here.

The most common question I get asked is WHICH SOCIAL NETWORK SHOULD I USE?

The answer is simple – ALL OF THEM being at least a presence on them all is important maybe you dont focus all of your energy into all of these networks but having a presence there is important as your target niche isn’t in just one place – they are spread across facebook, twitter, myspace, bebo, flickr, hi5, tagged, tuenti and the thousands of other social networks out there.

So whats the Buzz in the social networking plane lately?

Well Google in their infinite efforts to monetize, improve search and improve the way we communicate have released BUZZ.

Google Buzz has gained a lot of attention since its release only days ago bringing approximately nine million posts and tens of millions of views in its first two days alone! Many people especially those on networks such as Twitter and Facebook slated Google for its efforts with Buzz for its lateness to the game and lack of privacy features.

We are still only in the first few days of Google Buzz but without a doubt its going to be a very important part of the Google plan as it ties in with mobile, email and desktop very tightly – mobile being the key part of Buzz which allows you to post updates just like other social networks to all your friends only this time your network expands A LOT quicker and is built on so much more importance the contact and communication between the entities of your network.

Every single person who has a Google Mail / Gmail address  with their Google Profile automatically has a Buzz account now that is a HUGE start to a social network to have that many registered users from the start with a system that integrates so tightly with your own email inbox!

What are your thoughts on Google Buzz? Friend me up on Google Buzz http://google.com/buzz/seanpriceiboxsecurity

Wired Weston II at the Weston-super-Mare Chamber of Trade & Commerce

Last year in October I made delivered a talk for Weston Super Mare’s Chamber of Trade and Commerce on the benefits of social media by introducing the basics and how to use it in a business environment; the talk which lasted approximately 45 minutes followed by 20 mins Q&A was a success and lead to several businesses in the area taking to the social network arena and trying it out for themselves.

The event held last year aptly named “Wired Weston” at The Royal Hotel in Weston-super-Mare had a great turn out and proved to be a great chance to network with like minded people and talk about business moving online in a town which is very much sat in its old ways.

This February 17th at the Royal Hotel sees the Chamber of Trade and Commerce come back with their 2nd part of the event with “Wired Weston II” – (I wish they would call it “Revenge of the tweets”) where by this time the event will touch on content from the previous event briefly and then move deeper into how you can benefit greatly from using Social Media on both a personal and business branding level.

My talk this year will be approximately 30 minutes followed by Q&A and I would love to answer as many questions as possible. If you are interested in coming along to the event please visit the Weston chamber of Trade & Commerce website, a buffet and refreshments will be provided, no pushy selling to join the Chamber, come along and learn, ask questions and network.

Personal & business branding 2010

We are in 2010 – that’s twenty ten – where this year we should be coming out of the recession and we need to do it with a bang.

There has never been a more important time to get it right, your business brand and your personal brand. This is the year that social media will really dominate for a lot of businesses. Last year non tech people just found out about Twitter and the side of facebook above that of teenagers thanks to a vast number on celebs jumping on the social media bandwagon.

It’s not sufficient that you grab a Twitter/facebook account put up a message here and there in order to promote your business or personal brand. As with any kind of marketing, branding both online and off takes time and effort which is the key to the success effort and passion. It’s no good putting effort in if you have no passion and caring for your audience.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to release a few posts about branding online and how to do better.

But first of all determine the following

• who is your target audience – not necessarily for selling to but your current client base and in people a similar niche
• Are you promoting you as a brand, your company or both?
• What is your overall goal – sell more? drive traffic? provide better customer service? improve brand awareness? Other???
• How are you going to put your message across without annoying people or being pushy?
• Are you dedicated enough to follow through and keep on top of this?
• How are you going to track all of your efforts?

Tips, in-depth look at various tools, sites and how to’s to come soon. How do you manage your social networking efforts to promote your brand?

Importance of honesty in social media

Building a brand is difficult at the best of times and in 2010 where many businesses are going to focus time and energy on building their brand with social Media. There has never been a better time to focus on building a brand now with the existence of easy to use tools like Twitter and facebook being honest and clear to your audience is extremely important.

If you offer a service or product don’t hard sell people will not follow you to hear you rant about how great your product is all day that said if your product/service is something they may be looking for then at that point in time by all means suggest it.

Be honest and true to your audience because if you don’t you will not only hurt your brand but you could damage others. If you have competitors don’t bash them with comments or tweets, don’t actively promote the fact that the competition have not got the reach you do and so belittle them it’s just not professional.

Something that has annoyed me slightly recently is an action @bradburton has just started which is a hashtag of #RTbomb whereby in his own words “Doing really offensive tweets and then put and RT @ofsomeudon‘t like b4 #RTBomb” something that I personally think is very unprofessional – the idea of a RT (rewteet) is sending a message someone posted on their Twitter stream and displaying it to your followers. Now if you are (even jokingly) editing and posting an offensive tweet by pretending its from the original person then this is hurting brands the examples Brad did were not particularly harmful but misleading non the less and could damage brands.

RT @dannyrowe Apple Taxi’s of WSM announce FREE piece of fruit with every trip. To help with the 5 aday. #RTBomb

RT @noredbraces Can you help? I’m actively looking for a #socialmedia expert to help my business #RTBomb

@lanternphoto: RT @BradBurton just joined BNI, looking forward to my first meeting Tuesday. #RTBomb

RT @Tesco due to lower footfall due to weather we are discounting 25% off all items on purchases over £30 plz RT #RTBomb

You can see some of the #rtbomb / #rtbombing going on here

Im all for fun and joking on twitter but retweeting users with these changes could well be damaging and hope that professionals do not attempt to take on this unprofessional hashtag.