Twitter Names: @GiniDietrich,  @AngieSwartz

Twitter Talk Radio, hosted by Angie Swartz, is recorded live in the WSRadio studios in sunny San Diego! You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the links below and sign up for our RSS feed at the bottom of the page.

Each week on Twitter Talk Radio, we spend an hour broken up into four segments when we cover:

• Guests Offering Great Case Studies and Examples of How People and Businesses are Using Twitter and Social Media for Business
• Useful Tips for Listeners on Twitter for Business
• Twitter and Social Media Happenings in the News

Gini Dietrich on Why Spin Sucks

Host Angie Swartz interviews Gini Dietrich, founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, Inc. Gini shares the different ways she utilizes social media. Listen in to learn more about her blog at spinsucks and how she quadruples traffic every time she posts a video!

Gini Dietrich and Is Twitter Dead and Over?

Host Angie Swartz talks to Gini Dietrich about making Twitter work for business. Gini answers the looming question, “Is Twitter dead?!” Tune into this segment to hear experiences with winning a twitter contest and her critiques of the process.

Gini Dietrich Asks How to Manage Rapid Client Growth

Host Angie Swartz and Gini Dietrich discuss how to manage a large customer base without resorting to automated responses. How do business owners maintain their personal philosophy without drowning in clients’ needs? Angie gives great advice on how to reach multiple clients at once without losing the personal impact.

Attention! Business Owners: Make Life Simpler with RSS

Host Angie Swartz and Gini Dietrich talk about how to be a great CEO. Gini reveals some of her own success secrets on how to manage content and coach her team. Listen in to learn more about how an RSS reader could simplify your business.

Check out Gini’s video blogs and tell us what you think! Post links of your own blogs to share with us, too!

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Everybody else is doing it, right?  All types of companies are turning to Social Media.  Large fortune 100 companies, big local companies, all the way down to your favorite coffee shop down the street.  Is everyone just jumping on the band wagon or is this social media stuff really working?

Is it because you do not want to be left behind?  The companies that are building their social media presence now, creating great content online, and attracting an online following, are the ones that will continue to grow at a rapid pace.  Those companies starting now will be far ahead of anyone jumping into the social media pool a year from now.

Maybe there are other reasons?  Maybe its because you see your competitors using social media.  Maybe you are interested in social media because it is all the rage…  Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and blogging are the current buzz words and you want to be a part of that buzz.

The reason why you see big brands using Facebook instead of their website is they want to create a presence where their customers are spending their time.   Everyone is doing it because social media works.  The companies with a strategy are attracting new business using social media as you are reading this.

The reasons why your business should get started with social media are endless.  The most important thing is to get started and figure out how social media can work for you and your business.  Take the time to listen to what is being said on Facebook and Twitter about your business, brand, or industry.  Research the web and read blogs that mention your business name.  Find out what your customers are saying about you and your brand online.  Use Facebook, Twitter, and blogs learn before you jump in!  And most importantly… get started now!

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Twitter Names: @DeniseWakeman,  @AngieSwartz

Twitter Talk Radio, hosted by Angie Swartz, is recorded live in the WSRadio studios in sunny San Diego! You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the links below and sign up for our RSS feed at the bottom of the page.

Each week on Twitter Talk Radio, we spend an hour broken up into four segments when we cover:

• Guests Offering Great Case Studies and Examples of How People and Businesses are Using Twitter and Social Media for Business
• Useful Tips for Listeners on Twitter for Business
• Twitter and Social Media Happenings in the News

The Blog Squad’s Denise Wakeman on Web Visibility

Host Angie Swartz has a second interview with Denise Wakeman, a marketing advisor who has been online for fourteen years. She specializes in optimizing blog and web visibility for small businesses. Denise started blogging in 2004 and has completely changed her business by writing about the solutions her customers seek. Listen in to learn what to look for when hiring a social media consultant and how to spot a phony!

Best Blog Tips for Increasing Web Visibility

Host Angie Swartz welcomes back Denise Wakeman. Small-business owners should listen in for advice about the difference between free and professional blogging tools. Denise suggests that all business owners should blog. Tune in to hear how your blog can work for you 24/7.

Business Bloggers: “There Are No Problems, Only Solutions.”

Host Angie Swartz and guest Denise Wakeman discuss how websites are quickly merging into blog platforms. Denise mentions that there are up to 88 billion searches on Google daily so SEO is the key to making your company visible. She also talks about email campaigns and encourages listeners not to abandon this method of marketing in an era of emerging social network sites. Check out this segment to hear how email marketing can work for you.

Follow Denise Wakeman on Twitter for Great Marketing Tips!

Host Angie Swartz asks Denise Wakeman to give listeners advice on using multiple platforms for online marketing. Denise suggests linking your different sites by layering the content. This segment will teach you how to reach different groups of people on various sites without overwhelming them. Her final words: get more leverage out of your content by spreading the message across multiple platforms. For more information, click on the weblink below to hear Denise’s show from last August!

Comment below and tell us what you think about how Artistic Hub used social media to find customers and ask questions you may have about running your own online contest!

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This is a question I answer almost every day.

Photo Credit Chris Baker

Whether you are creating content for your blog, your facebook page, twitter updates, linkedin profile, a forum or any other social media site, the easiest place to find content is in your daily routine.  People want to know about you, your life and your business.  Remember, we all (well, most of us) want to do business with people we know, like and trust.

So, think, “How can I make this SUPER EASY for myself?”

You can use material from things you already do and write posts from any of the following:

1. After a customer calls or emails to ask a question and gets a great answer,
2. After providing a quote for new business,
3. After solving a customer service issue or turning an unhappy customer into a happy one,
4. After landing new business,
5. After a live networking meeting,
6. After meeting a business contact for coffee,
7. After commending employees for good work or other employee related events,
8. After meeting with a power partner or referring them business or receiving business from them.
9. After applying for, being nominated for, becoming a finalist or receiving an award.
10. After taking training to stay current on trends.

Now that I’ve offered some ideas, I hope I’ve gotten you thinking about others.  I’d love to hear from you about what they might be.  Comment or tweet me! Remember, it’s about about making it easy!

Happy Monday!

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If you take a moment and ask your customers what they use their smart phone for you will hear all kind of answers.  Some may surprise you but many of these customers will say things like browsing the internet, sending tweets on twitter, and checking facebook.  You will receive similar answers when you ask what they are doing on the computer when they are not working.

With all of this focus on Social Media from your customers it creates a great opportunity for you to engage them where they are spending their time.  Going back to the original question here are 5 reasons why your company should be using Social Media.

1. Top of Mind Awareness - Once you have a customer why not make sure they always think of you before anyone else?  There many ways to do this and Social Media is one way that you cannot ignore!  By connecting with your customers in Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter you maintaining top of mind awareness every time you update your status or send a tweet!
2. Creating stronger relationships - Social Media tools like facebook and twitter are used in the office as well as home.  This allows you to create stronger relationships where your customers are comfortable and where they are more likely to talk about you!  Social Media makes it really easy for your customers to give you referrals to potential new clients!
3. Listening - Your customers are most likely already talking about you, your brand, or your competitor’s brand.  Social Media allows you to listen, engage, and create conversation.  Conversation leads to new customers and new sales.  If you are actively blogging and adding content to your website as well as active on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter it will lead you and your company to new sales.
4. Building Customer Loyalty - Let’s face it people are moving so fast they forget what they did yesterday let alone who they purchased a product from last month.  Increasing customer loyalty and retention is about creating and nurturing the buying relationship.  This really gets started after the purchase has been made!  Social Media make very easy for you to keep that buying relationship going for months and years after the sale.
5. NEW FREE BUSINESS – What do I mean by new free business?  With Social Media tools you can create a base of loyal customers, users, and fans.  These customers, users, and fans will send you business.  They will think about you and talk about you!  The easiest business to receive is from prospects that have already been sold by your current and past customers or fans.  Giving your customers the tools to do this is the key and Social Media is currently one of the best tools you can use to make this happen!

Are you using Social Media in your business?  Please let us know by leaving a comment and sharing with everyone why you are and how it is working for you.

(If you found this post valuable please consider sharing it with your Facebook friends, tweeting it on Twitter, or stumbling it on StumbleUpon using the ShareThis button below as this action is one of the best compliments we receive!)

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Twitter Names:   @elizbeskin, @mayakalman, @ultimateengage,  @AngieSwartz.

Twitter Talk Radio is recorded live in the WSRadio studios in sunny San Diego! You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the links below and sign up for our RSS feed at the bottom of the page.

Each week on Twitter Talk Radio, we spend an hour broken up into four segments when we cover:

• Two Guests Offering Great Case Studies and Examples of How People and Businesses are Using Twitter for Business and Social Media
• Useful Tips for Listeners on Twitter for Business
• Twitter and Social Media Happenings in the News

Angie Swartz, Elizabeth Beskin and Maya Kalman discuss the Ultimate Engagement

Angie Swartz, Elizabeth Beskin and Maya Kalman discuss the Ultimate Engagement.  The Ultimate Engagement is a high end wedding event in New York City on March 14 where a prospective bride or groom can plan a wedding in a weekend with some of the best masters in the wedding industry.  Elizabeth and Maya have planned this industry changing event using social media in just over 2 months.

The Ultimate Engagement’s Social Media Strategy

Angie Swartz ,  Elizabeth Beskin and Maya Kalman discuss the Ultimate Engagement’s use of social media to promote their event in a short two month period, the tools that are working for them, their twitter contest, you tube video, facebook fan page, blog, etc.

Elizabeth Beskin: Changing Wedding Photography with Album Boutique

Angie Swartz and Elizabeth Beskin discuss start up company, Album Boutique, the website where you make a high end album from your hard drive after you purchase a disk from your photographer.  We discuss how Elizabeth, already very social media savvy, has worked with Square Martini Media to use social media as an integral part of her new company launch & business plan.  We cover her comprehensive social media strategy and how Album Boutique has benefited.

Album Boutique’s Social Media Strategy

Angie Swartz and Elizabeth Beskin discuss the elements of Album Boutique’s 2 month old social media strategy including blogging, facebook fan page, twitter as well as what’s to come in the next 3 months.  We also discuss how The Ultimate Engagement is related.

Leave a comment on the social media strategies for Album Boutique or The Ultimate Engagement and tell us how you think they could be doing better!

Disclosure:  Album Boutique and Elizabeth Beskin are Square Martini Media Clients

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1. Blogs Add Personality and Conversation – Let’s face it… your typical website can be pretty boring.  When you are exploring a new company to hire or buy from you are craving information.  A blog provides more information about your company and product.  This can be your best marketing tool as your potential client can read your posts and the conversations generated from these posts.
2. Blogs Help Your SEO & Google Ranking – Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines love blogs.  The main reason for this is search engines like new content.  By using a blog alone or within your website you are providing new content for search engines to explore.  This consistent added content will give you a higher authority to search engines and the content will provide many opportunities for sites to link to you therefore increasing your Google Page Rank.
3. Blogs Start a Conversation – People like to do business with people (and companies) that they know, like, and trust!  A blog gives your website visitors a platform to participate in a conversation.  It’s all about the conversation, with a blog you create conversations with your clients, prospects, and tribe.  These conversations lead to stronger relationships and stronger relationships mean more sales and referrals!  With a blog you are no longer waiting for a newspaper to spotlight your business, you can tell your own story and, you have control of the content your customers are finding about you and your company.
4. Blogs are Easily Updated – Fire your webmaster!  Ok well maybe that is not a good idea…  One of the frustrations I hear a lot with businesses of all sizes is the difficulty in making changes to their existing websites.  Making changes and adding new content is one of the most important elements of organic (non paid) search results.  With some basic training you or an employee can make simple changes to your blog and post new content with ease.  This allows retuning visitors and search engines to always have new content to explore.  In fact many businesses today don’t even have a website; their main internet presence is the blog.
5. Blogs Can be Your Social Media Hub – What is a social media hub?  It’s where all your social media efforts could link back to.  Examples of this would be the questions you answer on LinkedIn, the tweets you send out on twitter, and the posts to your facebook wall.  All of these actions will send traffic back to your blog.  This is where people go to learn more about you, your product, and your business.
6. Blogs Help You Make Friends and Create Fans – Going back to the concept of people doing business with people (and businesses) that they know, like, and trust.  A blog ignites your fan base of past customers and attracts new fans and friends to come on board.  While websites, company public relation announcements, and press releases help with this it is known that the public trusts the information from a blog more than just a website or press release.  Using blogs to attract new customers is a great strategy.  You can do this by writing on your blog consistently but you can also do this by finding blogs that may have your same ideal client.  When you find them join the conversation by leaving comments.  These comments will drive traffic back to your website and blog.
7. Blogs Allow You to Stand Out Among the Crowd – Are you in a market with lots of competition?  The reality is blogs are very popular yet many businesses have not adapted this into their marketing strategy.  The opportunity for your business to attract more clients using a blog is huge, almost endless.    Blogs can establish your company as an expert in your field or industry.  You can become the go to company for customers wanting what you are offering.  This works for all types of companies!  Blogs and Social Media are great equalizers.  If you are wanting to be an expert in wine for your town or city in Connecticut, the most well know realtor in Dallas, or the go to Social Media Company in San Diego, you can achieve this with your blog.

The bottom line?  The businesses who are blogging now, reaching out to their customers now, making an impact now, will be far ahead of their competition.  Marketing has changed!  Consumers are no longer waiting for the paper at their doorstep with your coupon inside.  Instead consumers are becoming more tech savvy and using feeds from blogs to stay current with news, trends, and businesses they are interested in.  This makes it essential for you as a business to provide information and marketing to consumers in multiple ways.

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Twitter Names: @Denisewakeman, @Blogsquad & @Aaswartz.

Each week on Twitter Talk Radio, we spend an hour broken up into four segments when we cover:

• Twitter and Social Media Happenings in the News
• A Guest Offering Great Case Studies and Examples of How People and Businesses are Using Twitter and Social Media
• Useful Tips for Listeners

Podcast One: This Week in Twitter News!

Denise and I discuss the Facebook/Twitter Denial-of-Service Attacks, The Facebook Purchase of FriendFeed for $45 Million,@EV & @Sara having a new BABY, Shout out to Mari Smith (@MariSmith) on her Birthday!, Chicago Public Schools ban communicating with Social Media.

Podcast Two:  Denise Wakeman talks about THE BLOG SQUAD!

I interview Denise about her online marketing career.  Denise, an early adopter and owner of The Blog Squad, had her first website in 1997 and started blogging in 2004. She says a blog is a social media tool that can add comments and personality to your online presence.  Denise shares how her own career changed as she integrated Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.

Podcast Three: Denise Wakeman on Marathon Running, Utterly, & Video

We discuss how Denise used Utterli to post updates about her progress while running a marathon.   Why?  Because people want to know you and allowing people to see a personal side of you opens the door to having a conversation.  Many barriers are removed because of social media tools.  We discuss how Denise’s career is at a different level because of use of social media. Lastly, use of VIDEO today is so easy.  It can be planned, produced and up on a site in 30 minutes with tools like the FLIP camera, YouTube & Vimeo.

Podcast Four:  Denise Wakeman Celebrates Her Birthday with a KIVA Challenge!

Denise and I discuss how she used Twitter to raise money for Micro loans via KIVA to support causes in many countries around the world.  You can still contribute to Denise’s $5,000 goal-contribute today at her KIVA Challenge!

MORE Twitter Talk Radio!!!!!

August 19 Co-Host Becky Carroll & Joel Price, New Media Manager, San Diego CHARGERS!

August 26 Rick Calvert and Jim Turner from Blog World Expo!

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