So you’ve set up your social media accounts, you’ve got them optimized, you’re starting to develop relationships with people online, you’re checking your metrics and making adjustments where necessary. Have you set up your monitoring tools?

Social media monitoring is an automated search process that scours the internet for mentions of words, phrases or symbols that you’ve identified.  It’s all done by computers and when a match is found between your search terms (the words you’ve set up to be monitored) and content that appears on the internet, you will be notified by email (either immediately, as mentions occur, or in digest form).

What Should be Monitored?

The name of your company would likely be the #1 phrase you should monitor, and your personal name might be second. You should also monitor your keywords, the titles of your programs, names of your products, and the names of your competitors, as a start.

Why Monitor?

It’s always good to be alerted to the fact that other people are mentioning you, your Company, or your products online. You can only respond if you know about it, right?

If the sentiment is positive you’ll want to take certain action (offer a thank you, ask for a testimonial, print and add to a file, gather customer insight) and if the sentiment is negative, you’ll want to take a different kind of action, both external (seek to understand the problem, offer an apology, offer remediation) and internal (alert your suppliers or other team members, halt production, speak with staff, check procedures).

However, you can’t take any action, you can’t even defend yourself, unless you know that people are talking about you.

It’s also important for you to know if the airwaves are silent. If there are no mentions of you or your business, AND social media is an important part of your marketing mix, then you have some work to do.

What Monitoring Tools Can We Use?

Google Alerts used to be my favourite monitoring tool, but over time, I wasn’t getting the results I knew were out there. There’s talk about it not being supported beyond the summer and also how it’s changed its algorithm to show only alerts that make it to the top of search engine results. My advice for now, is to seek an alternative.

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For now, I’d suggest TalkWalker Alerts. Click on “Create Free Alert” at the top of the page (I love the word FREE, don’t you?), and fill in the form on the following page:

Another important monitoring tool is Twilert which scours Twitter for mentions of words you want monitored.  Both these monitoring tools are simple and free. And both have little movies to watch if demos are your thing.

Another tool that’s far more powerful is Mention. I’ve only been using it for a few weeks now, so can’t give a whole lot of feedback, but it is working better than Google Alerts! The free plan gives you 3 alerts and 500 mentions per month which is likely enough to get you started, but you don’t have access to your statistics. The Pro Plan is only $19.99, likely well worth the investment for what you get. Check it out!

Are you currently using monitoring tools to listen in on what others are saying about you, your Company, and your products and services? Let me know in the comments below.

If you are the only person using social media on behalf of your business, you might not need a social media policy, but if you have employees, consultants or volunteers who are posting on your behalf, you’re strongly advised to have a number of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place.

I’m not a Human Resource expert, but I am a proponent of fairness in the workplace AND brand protection, and a robust social media policy will start to give you both. The policy protects you in that it gives you something to fall back on should you need to challenge an employee in court; it also protects your staff and volunteers so they know what’s expected of them, and where the boundaries are.  Boundaries become more and more relevant as our private lives blend in with our professional lives.

If you think you might need a policy, then you probably do. Check out this online database maintained by Chris Boudreaux. There are links to several hundred online examples. Click on the ones that sound similar to your industry, and begin to model your own policy.

Finally, be sure to run your draft by your HR consultant so that you can skillfully introduce it to your organization.

Do you have a social media policy in place? Tell me about it in the comments below.

Coming up with original content that keeps audiences interested and taking action is perhaps the most intimidating aspect of maintaining a social media presence.

We know we have to post at least daily – sometimes multiple times a day – but with everything else we have to do to run our businesses, we often stumble and fall when it comes to posting consistently valuable content.

We also know we should mix it up when it comes to the medium we choose to convey our message. Video is one of the more engaging media, but is still underutilized. Did you know that according to comScore, Canadians rank second in worldwide online video viewership and engagement? Our audiences are hungry for video, so let’s give it to them!

If you’re struggling for video content inspiration, consider the ideas below. Not every one of them will work for your business, but some of them will!

• A two-minute video of you walking your viewers through a 3- or 5-step process in your business.
• A one-minute video walking your viewers through a Tip of the Week.
• A two-minute video of an interview with a local thought leader.
• A 30-second video testimonial from a satisfied client or customer.
• A two-minute tutorial in front of a white-board or flip chart explaining a process in your business.
• Using screen capture software, demo a process that you teach in your business (perhaps using computer software)
• Using screen capture software, show a brief PowerPoint  presentation that explains some part of your proprietary process.
• A two-minute video of you outside (walking, sitting in the shade, etc) answering a question sent in by one of your clients. If your clients send in enough questions, you could have a supply for several months – nice!

You don’t have to hire a professional videographer to get started. Just make sure the audio is clear and you use a tripod. This blog post will provide you with additional advice, tips, and tricks.

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What’s holding you back from using video to reach your audience? Or, if you’re already using it, which of your videos gets the greatest response from your audience? Let me know in the comments below.

You’ve accepted LinkedIn connections, now it’s time to think strategically about how you can be of value to those connections.

Perhaps you can introduce a connection of yours to another connection in need of his skillset? Or, perhaps your favourite speaker is in town and you’d like to recommend her to segments of your network who you think might attend her event.

In each case, sharing a connection’s profile with someone else focuses attention away from you and your organization, and demonstrates your supportive, community-building side. Actions like these are like deposits in the bank, which you’ll need to draw from later when it’s time for you to promote.

The Share Profile Utility

The “Share Profile” utility is a wonderful replacement of the ‘introductory email’ that we’ve all sent or received. I find this to be one of the more under-used functions, so take advantage of its novelty to garner your readers’ attention. It also automates what can be an onerous task.

How to Share a Profile

Go to the full Profile of the thought-leader or expert whose profile you want to share with your connections.  Click on the drop-down arrow beside the “Send a Message” option, and click on “Share Profile”.

This opens the Mail view, where you can type the name of the connection with whom you’d like to share the profile.

If you’d like to share the profile with a number of your connections, access your address book by clicking on the LinkedIn icon, to the right of the “To:” text box. In this view you can choose to filter the recipients by Locations, Industry, or simply check the box next to individual names.  As noted, you can send only 50 at a time.

In our example above, perhaps you’d only want to Share the speaker’s profile with your Connections who lived in close proximity of the event. Simply filter by Location to include say, everyone from Halifax Nova Scotia, and then from those names, choose individuals to share the profile with.

Remember to customize the Subject line and the body of the message before clicking on Send Message.

What will your Connection See?

LinkedIn will provide the recipient(s) of your message with a link to your connection’s full profile:

Then your recipients can make a decision on whether and what action to take (attend the event, for example).

By using the share profile utility you don’t have to decide what’s relevant about a person and what’s not. LinkedIn takes care of this by giving access to the entire profile.

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Are you using this feature yet? Do you think you’ll have an opportunity to use it in the near future? Let me know in the comments below!

If you’ve heard yourself saying this phrase, you’re not alone. Of the top four social media platforms, this one causes the most frustration.

Some relate Twitter’s perplexity to the rapid and constant influx of new tweets; others can’t get past the jargon; still others deplore its reputation for foolish content.

There are any number of reasons why you might not ‘get’ Twitter. Would it help if I told you that using Twitter is a lot like a typical Sunday morning routine?

That’s right, accessing your Twitter account is a little like opening your favourite newspaper. Only this newspaper is customized to your liking. You see only the content that you’ve asked for, and you can add or discard whole sections of your paper, as you wish. Instead of entire articles, your newspaper delivers only short opening sentences with the occasional photo or instructions on where to read the rest of the article.

At first your content arrives unorganized and so quickly that you can’t read it all, let alone respond to it. A little like having your mouth to a firehose! Then you learn how to categorize your content, perhaps by topic or author or industry, and now you read at a more relaxed pace, one category at a time. You have the opportunity to read, look at any attached photos, reply or “forward” the content to your friends.

Take Tom. He’s an automobile fanatic. His ‘newspaper’ includes content from Jaguar USA, Automobile magazine, Motor Authority, and Fernando Alonso. It also includes 5 or 6 of his friends from the local motor club, a few dealerships, and an online auto accessory store. His custom newspaper keeps him up to date on his favourite topics and it flows to him in an organized and timely fashion. He doesn’t read any celebrity gossip because he hasn’t asked for it; ditto for movie reviews, stock trading, and gardening tips. He sees only what interests him. Who wouldn’t love that experience?

Well, here’s how to get it:

Your newspaper delivery boy is Twitter.com where you’ll open your account, and if you choose, personalize it with your photo and a little bio sketch.

The way you determine your ‘newspaper’ content is by Following other Twitter accounts. Use the search function in the upper right corner to find people (@NancyDuarte, @ChefCraigFlinn), schools (@AcadiaU, @BerekeleyHaas), not-for-profits (@ArtGalleryNS, @AlFrescoFilm), government organizations (@Innovacorp, @CanadaBusiness), industry leaders  (@JasonFalls, @AndreaVahl), news sources (@InfoMorning, @GlobeandMail, @HuffingtonPost), celebrities (@MickJagger, @TheEllenShow), retail stores (@WilliamsSonoma, @GarrisonBrewing), and everything in-between.

How to Unfollow

If you realize later that you have made a mistake in following an account – perhaps the content isn’t as valuable as you thought it would be – you simply Unfollow it: click on the offending account name or photo to bring up the profile summary, hover over the ‘Following’ button, and when it  turns to ‘Unfollow’, click on it.

How to Add Accounts to a List

Your newspaper ‘sections’ are created in Twitter using Lists. As you discover valuable content, you’ll add accounts to various lists. Then instead of reading your news randomly, in the order it arrives in your feed, you simply click on each list to read only a particular type of content in a customized feed.

Here’s how to add an account to a list: From the profile summary or full profile, click on the head and shoulders icon and choose ‘Add or remove from lists…’. This pops up a little window showing you all the lists you’ve created. Simply check off the list you want to add this account to. At any time you can always choose to ‘Create a list’ but you can have only 20 lists at a time. (This video provides more information on list building, although Twitter’s user interface has changed since then.)

One very considerable difference between Twitter and our printed newspaper analogy is that Twitter conversations are instantaneous, they happen in real time. When we hear something happening via Twitter there’s no publication delay that we grew used to in the print world. Twitter content can be fresh and immediate. Of course this doesn’t necessarily mean reliable so always consider your source.

It really is, in the words of Twitter itself, the fastest, simplest way to stay close to everything you care about.

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What’s been holding you back from joining the Twitter revolution? Does this analogy bring you a little closer to opening an account? Let me know in the Comments below.

I continuously grow my LinkedIn network so I see a lot of profiles in the run of a day. And I bet you do too. I’m always surprised by the number of people who are using their logo (save this for your Company profile) or even worse, no photo at all.

Of course this is a personal choice, but think of how this omission could be perceived by your readers:

• She’s not putting much effort into her profile, so likely isn’t planning to invest a lot of time or effort in this network. She’s probably not a great contact.
• She doesn’t know how to use LinkedIn very well, I wonder if the same is true for her business? Maybe not a great contact.
• Without a picture I have no human means of connection. Not a great contact for me.

They say the eyes are the window to the soul. Let us connect with you on a human level, through your personal photo.

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Add an up close and personal picture to all your social media profiles. For LinkedIn I’d advise you to invest in a professional headshot. Yes, this is a consideration, but if you take your business seriously, it will pay off by boosting your credibility and legitimacy.

For those of you in the helping professions, it’s critical that you give your prospective clients a literal view to working with you. Before they can pick up the phone or send you an email they’ll make an almost-instantaneous judgement as to your likeability, trustworthiness, and personality ‘fit’ through your photo (or better yet, video).  If they can’t get this from you, they’ll move on to someone else.

When you add your profile photo to the more social networks you can opt for a relaxed presentation, but remember you’re still branding your business, so ensure there’s no one else in the photo (kids, pets) and it’s not taken in front of that recliner that you’ve been meaning to replace.

How do you feel when you encounter someone online who has no personal photo? Let me know in the comments below.

Ava Diamond’s newsletter arrived in my inbox last week with this little jewel that she’s allowed me to share with you. If you’d like to follow her, check out the links at the bottom:

My gym has a coffee shop in it. It’s a separate business with its own entrance, but it resides within the Raintree Athletic Club. To make sure people know they can come in and enjoy the coffee shop without being a gym member, they have this sign in the window.

Monday morning, as I arrived at 6:10 for spin class, I noticed the sign, and began thinking about how this relates to entrepreneurs. So I pulled out my phone, snapped this photo, and decided to write this article.

Hanging out an “Open: Everyone Welcome” sign is a big mistake for a heart-centered, service-based entrepreneur.

And sometimes it’s tempting. After all, we have a message we’re passionate about. We know we can help people. And we want to have clients we can help.

So we create a message with broad appeal, not wanting to leave anyone out. And that’s a big fail. Marketing to everyone is marketing to no one.

No one will see your message and say, “That’s perfect for me!” No one will hear you speak and be hungry to work with you beyond the speech. You will put in Herculean effort, and be frustrated because you are not bringing clients and cash into your business.

The bottom line is that you want to make sure that you are crystal clear about your ideal client. This will then help you develop the messaging and content that will help you build and serve your tribe.

Who is Your Ideal Client or Target Market?

Your ideal client is the person you most want to work with, the one who energizes you, the one you can help the most. Working with your ideal clients allows you to be at the top of your game, to do your best work, and to zero in on their struggles and how you can help them. This ideal client is the basis of your business.

Many of you have already identified your “niche,” your tribe, your peeps. I’d encourage you to see if you can get it a little tighter, a little more focused, a little more specific. See if you can’t find some ways to make your messaging even more targeted. Time and energy invested here will pay off big as you develop and grow your business.

What is Your Niche?

So who are these peeps, your tribe? It’s a specific group of people with an urgent, specific problem or need that they are absolutely willing to spend money on. They’ll either spend money to alleviate the problem, or to get something they desire strongly.

There are two parts to this… they have a problem, struggle, or desire… and they’re willing to spend money on it!

And the way you attract them is to have a message that is so targeted, so specific, that your tribe will feel like you got inside their heads, read their minds, and are speaking directly to them.

The more focused in and targeted you are, the more you’ll sell. It’s a simple truth.

And it’s counter intuitive. Clients ask me all the time, “But Ava, if I focus in on a narrow niche, aren’t I excluding people?” And my answer is no, absolutely not. You are including the people you can help the most, who will benefit most from what you have to offer, and they will feel like you’re a match made in heaven.

I had a client who was a wellness coach. When she came to me for her VIP intensive where we looked at her message and her perfect audience, she said she had her niche–that it was women. So, she really hadn’t identified her tribe yet.

We used a series of questions and exercises where we found that she was most passionate about working with women over 50 who want to have more energy and get more fit so they can thrive in the second half of their lives. Now that was specific enough to develop a targeted message.

It doesn’t matter that she’s excluding men and women under 50. There are enough women in her target market to fill her bank account.

So here are two questions to help you get closer to identifying your perfect clients and your perfect audiences:

• What’s your sweet spot? What’s the perfect intersection of your talents, your passions, who you’d love to work with, and a market need?

• Who would you love to work with? What clients have you had that seemed like the “perfect match” for you? Who energizes you and gets you excited at the thought of working with them?

Focus your message, get super clear about your ideal client and audience, and watch your business take off!

Have you discovered your ideal client or are you still narrowing your niche? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

Ava Diamond is a speaking mentor and messaging strategist, and is the founder of Big Impact Speaking. She has created such programs as Speak Your Way to Clients and Cash, and the Rock Your Speaking Academy. A professional speaker for seventeen years, she helps entrepreneurs rock their speaking so they expand their influence and reach, become known as the “go-to” expert in their field, and get all the clients they want.

Download the complementary Rock Your Speaking Power Pack at http://BigImpactSpeaking.com. Contact Ava at ava@bigimpactspeaking.com or at 970-224-3015.

Up until a few days ago, Facebook had fairly strict rules governing what we could and could not include in the Cover Photo of our business Page.

You might recall, in part:

(I remember they even forbid arrows pointing at our “Like” buttons!)

Part of this was an effort to downplay salesy self-promotion in favour of a more artful, engaging approach.

Well, no more! It seems to be open season on Cover Photos. The only “rule” per se, is that the photo cannot contain more than 20% text:

I caution you not to go hog wild, and create a garish image that looks like a billboard on the side of the highway. You might want to experiment with calls-to-action and see what response you get. Keep experimenting until you find that sweet spot where you achieve your objectives without compromising your brand.

Do you have plans to change your cover photo? Please share them in the comments below!

This is a common question – one I hear at least monthly. It strikes fear into the hearts of privacy advocates (who aren’t on Facebook in great numbers anyway) and others who make their living from their Intellectual Property.

I’m no IP lawyer, so if your livelihood is hanging in the balance, please consult one for an unequivocal answer. My answer to the title question however, is No, Facebook does not own your IP content, such as photos and videos, as it says here in Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities:

HOWEVER, Facebook does go on to say:

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

Basically, for any content you upload, you are giving Facebook permission to use it, and for them to allow others to use it, without compensating you.

My advice?

• Read the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, and the Facebook Principles so you have a better understanding of why the Company acts as it does. I see Facebook using photos in examples to show us what’s possible, or in compilations, like this and this.

• If you are a photographer, videographer, writer, artist, or otherwise make your living from intellectual property, consider watermarking all of your photos and clearly stating your copyright. Understand that this is not a guarantee that your property will not be misused.

• Decide if the level of risk associated with this loss of control is outweighed by the advantages of having a Facebook presence, and if it is not, delete your Facebook Page and be mindful of the photos you upload to your personal profile, if you have one.

• Finally, be thankful you are not this little guy:

Are you a photographer or someone who is concerned about their intellectual property? I’d love to hear your concerns and any actions you’ve taken to protect yourself, so please leave a Comment below.

When others connect with you on LinkedIn, they’ll often take time to get to know you by reading your profile summary and scan your employment history. Sometimes they’ll even want to click over to your websites, which they’ll look for under Contact Info:

Be sure you aren’t using the ubiquitous “Company Website” or “Personal Website” titles. To build trust with your connections you should show the name of the website where clicking takes them. When we don’t feel secure about links, we simply don’t click on them.

This how-to video will show you a simple method of customizing your LinkedIn website listing so that you start to get more people clicking over to where you’d like them to go (your Facebook page, website, blog, etc.).

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