2012 is here and many of you have resolved to make it the best year ever. I just thought I might add a few social & mobile media marketing suggestions that will help you to do just that (and in record time). A "to-do" list for serious marketers!

1. Upgrade Your Social WOW Factor

Finally, businesses have begun to stop asking, “is this going to last”. They have stopped sitting on the sidelines and watching the social train blow right by them. Hats off to all brands that have joined the biggest marketing movement since television. BUT…now it’s time to take your brand to the next level and add the WOW factor. Not only to the people who visit your social site but also to Google as well as all the other search engines.

Here are a few things you can do to WOW up your social sites:

• Add matching background graphics on Facebook, Twitter & YouTube

• Add a tab on Facebook for Twitter as well as YouTube

• Make sure you have lots of keywords throughout your social profiles (including fan page title and username)

• Add a landing/welcome page on Facebook with a call to action to like your page

• Add relevant Facebook tabs for your industry

• Optimize your thumbnail image on all sites for best exposure

• Secure your unique URL for your Facebook page

Just to name a few… 

Adding Social WOW is my specialty. Click on the image to the right to see details on the WOW ATI can offer your brand. Special Social Launch Package Pricing

2. Optimize Your Site for Mobile Users and Implement Mobile Marketing Strategies

Did you know that ½ of all local searches are performed on mobile devices? That is a BIG deal especially if your site is not mobile friendly. What a shame to get people visiting your site and leaving as soon as they get there because they can’t read the small print. So, get your site mobile ready as soon as you can. This needs to be a top priority for you in 2012.

With that said…2012 will be a gigantic year for mobile media marketing, namely QR Code & Text Message Marketing. It’s time to take a look at both of these avenues. I have had the pleasure of working with dozens of brands on strategizing their mobile plans. When campaigns are properly implemented, I am absolutely stunned by the successful, fast, measurable results these tools are providing. Don’t put these on the back burner…you will miss the boat!

I use Hootster Mobile for all of my QR Code marketing, they have tracking and analytics that no one else has!

3. Build Stronger Relationships with Your Social & Mobile Networks

As my mentor Gary Vaynerchuk says…. “The business with the most real relationships wins” in social & mobile media. Too many businesses have jumped into these channels with only 1 goal in mind, to get more followers and fans than everyone else. That my friends is not how you should be approaching social and mobile media. Approach it with a “we care and want to add value” mentality and you will WIN big. Become a resource to your audience. Passion + Intent = Success

In addition, no interaction should ever go unanswered. Let every person who interacts with your brand know you are listening and acknowledge all conversations. This takes some time but it’s the little stuff that will go a long way in this type of marketing.  Build the relationship now that keeps them coming back and loyal forever.

4. On Site Social & Mobile Signage

How many of you have signage on site announcing you are a social brand?  Here are some simple ideas you could and should implement right away:

• Check in on Facebook or 4-Square
• Social sites on front door (like the credit card stickers)
• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• Subscribe to us on YouTube
• Sign up for our VIP mobile club
• Scan this QR code
• Social sites on business cards

Make it very apparent that you are a social brand and you want them to join you. Give them as many ways to do so as you possibly can.

5. Take Advantage of Your Business Blog

I call blogs the epicenter of your social world. Social media is spectacular at driving traffic, but if you don’t have somewhere to drive the traffic that’s new and fresh, people will stop clicking. A blog will be fresh and useful for your ideal customers and keep them coming back.

Your blog is the first and best place to begin conversion with your online audience. By that I mean…getting them to take the first step towards doing business with you. Capture them with a strong call to action to take the next step.

6. Add Call to Actions Everywhere

One thing I have learned by marketing online is the fact that people are typically very simple and are looking to you for guidance on what to do next. By guiding them to the next step you will be able to keep them in your “funnel” longer and have a much better chance of retaining them as a customer or getting them to do business with you for the very first time.

Do not forget to add call to actions on site as well as online. People are getting very used to seeing a CTA online such as “add to cart” and are basically trained to do as told. By incorporating CTA’s onsite you will be appealing to a habit they already are comfortable with and chances are they will act.

Click here for 90+ Call To Action Ideas

7. Analytics… Use, Track, Analyze and Adjust

I am always amazed when I ask a businessperson if they use analytics and they don’t have any idea what I am talking about.  All I can say to that is…check it out! There is so much you can learn (directly from the horses mouth) about your customer’s habits.

Study the analytics, learn what your customer wants and then dial it in. By using analytics you can measure the success of a social or mobile media campaign in real time and adjust as necessary instead of guessing. This will make for highly effective marketing campaigns with a much better ROI.

There are so many free analytics that you can implement in your business right now. Check out this article for a more extensive look at analytics What Are the Benefits of Using Analytics in Business?

So there you have it…a to-do list for 2012! I wouldn’t wait on any of this; I guarantee your competition won’t.

2012 is YOUR year…Let me know if I can help you in any way! 

Michelle Corteggiano

Want to stay updates on the latest in social and mobile media marketing...SOMO? Click NOW to get access to The SOMO Journal

Analytics are everywhere for your use for free! Google Analytics, QR Code Analytics, Facebook Insights, YouTube Analytics and so many more. Are you using them… or are you like many business owners I meet that just haven’t been exposed to the benefits of analytics? Well read on, then you tell me if you think analytics would help your business...

In a nutshell, analytics is “insider knowledge” of your marketing efforts. A, shall we say…legitimate ”crystal ball” for your business’s marketing campaigns. I don’t know about you but I certainly welcome a legit crystal ball into my business with open arms.

Here are some starter benefits that analytics can and will provide. Remember, this data is coming from your “real live, interactive & engaged” audience. In other words…right from the horses mouth.

Habits - Where Did Your Visitor Come From?

• Social Media
• Web
• Print Media

Gauge Response – Are You Sending the Message Your Audience Wants to Hear?

• How many visits is it getting?
• Is it grabbing attention?
• How long did they stay on their visit?
• Is it persuasive enough?
• How many times did they come back?
• Did conversion begin- did you get them in your sales funnel somehow?
• Was a sale made?

Gather Your Audience’s Demographics

• Age, sex, location

Where they were when they interacted – right down to street level

• What time of day was it?
• What day of the week was it?
• What day of the month was it?
• Where are your best/most visitors located?
• What kind of device did they visit from – mobile

Quickly Determine Which Marketing Campaigns Work – Split Testing

• Which ones are creating the most traffic?
• Which ones are creating the most conversions/sales?

Quickly Determine Which Campaigns a Are Ineffective

• Remove and improve!

Just imagine having all of this valuable data that can help you make sure each and every marketing campaign maximizes at every level.

Bottom Line: Your audience will tell you exactly what they want…do a bunch more of that.

Welcome to analytics!

Michelle Corteggiano

Want to stay updates on the latest in social and mobile media marketing...SOMO? Click NOW to get access to The SOMO Journal

I get the question all the time…"How do I Market on Facebook" and, hats off to the people who are actually asking. 

Times have changed, a new economy has emerged before our eyes and we must adapt to what attracts our customer in a new social world. All businesses marketing on Facebook (and all other social networks for that matter) must become “social businesses” on the web. Just a little hint…the “socialization of your brand” needs to happen internally, on site, as well as on the web!

With that said, here are a couple of golden rules when marketing socially

1. Do Not Spam – Duh…seems like a no-brainer but, I see it every day. Remember, the audience you are marketing to in the social world is not there to see your message, they are there to be social. Interrupting them with your stinky spam will not work…okay?
2. Add Value – Make sure that the mass majority of content you post is valuable to your audience. Think of it like this…if your message were a text message and all your customers or potential customers are going to see it, will they want to opt out or will they be glad they got the message. Is your message valuable?
3. Look, Listen and Engage (Monitor) – Watch what people are saying, make sure you acknowledge every comment or question and act on what they are telling or asking you. After all, what could possibly work better than giving them exactly what they told you they wanted?
4. Be Consistent – Once you are there, they will expect you to be there all the time. If your audience returns to see no new engagement, it will be difficult to keep them coming back.
5. Be Patient • Be Warm & Fuzzy to Gain Their Business – Ultimately, we are marketing on Facebook to increase sales but, remember back to the day you opened your doors for the first time…did they knock down your door with credit card in hand or did you have to caress relationships and go the extra mile to capture their business? Of course you had to work at it. Social media is not turnkey marketing, it is relationship marketing and the better you become at adding value, giving people what they want, making them feel good and becoming a resource…the more business you will create via Facebook.
6. Appreciate Each & Every Follower – I keep hearing things like “I only have 900 fans”. To that I say CONGRATS! You must have done something right … now go make every one of those 900 feel like they are sitting in first class! Remember, this is not a numbers game, it is a relationship game. The business with the most real relationships wins in this new economy.

Stat by implementing these six marketing techniques on Facebook and I promise the seas will part and you will see the way. Next, get and read the book The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk…he flat out nails it in this book.

Before I sign off, I wanted to share an excerpt from an article I read that does a great job summarizing the philosophy of marketing on Facebook…Enjoy!

“Social Media is not a broadcast medium, it’s not a platform for interrupting people. It’s an interactive medium. In fact, the social web is very close to offline interaction. You wouldn’t interrupt people in the middle of a telephone conversation with an ad, so why do the same thing on Facebook? If you saw two people having an intimate chat at a party, you wouldn’t go over and suddenly interrupt them, to tell them something that is not related to their conversation. The social web requires marketers to build relationships with customers. This requires one to one attention. It requires responding to every post or comment that people leave you. More importantly, people are looking for short-term wins on a platform built for long-term relationships. Relationships take time, and are formed from many sequential interactions. Too many marketers are currently approaching Facebook by trying to close on the first date. And even if they succeed, it’s unlikely to be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

What you know about advertising on TV, or in print, does not apply on Facebook. It’s a completely new, and transformational medium. It took our ancestors many years, at times decades, to understand the new technology that faced them. Let’s not make the same mistake. Don’t apply how you work with existing media to a new transformational medium. “ Full article here: Why Marketers Misunderstand Facebook 

Want to stay updates on the latest in social and mobile media marketing...SOMO? Click NOW to get access to The SOMO Journal

Michelle Corteggiano

The days of leaving social & mobile media out of your marketing budget are OVER! It’s not free and it can’t be ignored. Check this out…

Did you know that in 2011, 24% of overall marketing budgets were allocated to social media? That is expected to increase in 2012 to an average of 40% (with leading brands upwards of 60%) of total budget. In addition to social, 23% of overall budget is expected to be allocated towards mobile media.

I find this fact interesting (only because most think Facebook generates the most business) when polled, 57% of companies that used social media in 2011 named their company blog as the source for generating the most customers (like I always say, your blog is the epicenter of your social presence). 57% also named LinkedIn as generating the most business for their companies. 48% named Twitter, and 42% named Facebook.

One more stat that cannot be ignored…in 2012, more than half of social networking sites’ usage will be on mobile devices. Are you listening? This is kind of a big deal!

So, here are a few things you need to consider when creating your social & mobile media marketing budget for 2012?

Social Media Budget Considerations

• Setup – If you are not in social media...GET THERE! If you are there but have put minimal focus on optimizing your different social channels, add some setup (rebranding) to your budget. As a guideline, I charge $2497 to do a fully optimized setup of Facebook, Twitter & YouTube (including backgrounds), please contact me if you need help with this!
• Image Branding – Make sure your brand pops when people stop by your social sites by utilizing the background areas in FB, Twitter & YouTube including a custom landing page on Facebook. Contact me if you need help with image branding. What looks better to you?

• Technical – there will be coding and graphics needed for additional tabs added on Facebook. For instance, you are a restaurant and want your menu pulled over to Facebook on a tab.
• Social SEO – Did you know Facebook gets more searches daily than Google? Search engines LOVE social sites when searching for keywords. Make sure you do some research on the top keywords for your brand and begin using them in all the right areas right away!
• Social Analytics – Knowing what I have learned from my analytics, I am continually shocked at how many businesses don’t even know what analytics are. If you aren’t using analytics for your business…you are missing a HUGE opportunity to discover your buyer’s habits, trends etc. Let your end consumer show you what they want more of and what they want less of. Facebook fan pages offer analytics for your page called insights. Even though they have that, I recommend adding Google Analytics to your site, blog and Facebook right away. You may need to take a class on how to utilize the data but it will be priceless priceless.  TIP: use static html app to add Google Analytics to your Facebook fan page I addition to the insights they provide, it’s much more comprehensive.
• Apps – Anybody who is anybody is having an app created for their business. Figure out something that will add value to your end consumer and off it for free. You will need to budget for app creation here.
• Blog – I can’t believe in this day and age I have to even mention this but, if you do not have an active blog for your business, you are really missing the boat here! This is the epicenter of your social presence and as the stats prove, it is the #1 social channel creating conversion (sales) for businesses using social media.
• Video – Add some budget for video creation and SEO. Video gets 7 times the response of written content. Don’t miss this opportunity
• Conversion Strategies – Ultimately we use social media to create business/sales right? So many companies have no plan on capturing the sale. Add some budget for creating a conversion strategy within all of your social channels as well as with your website right away!
• Social Media Participation – Who is going to be the face of your brand? Once there, you cannot dabble, your network will expect you to be there. You HAVE to allocate a decent amount of your budget towards your social participation. Building relationships is they majority of the battle in social media and you must focus here.
• Content Creation – Every good social presence has a lot of valuable information to share with their network. You will need to have this content created whether it’s done in house or outsourced; it will quickly become a topic of conversation between you and your social media manager.
• Brand Monitoring – Whether you are going to monitor in-house or hire a monitoring service for your brand, there is nothing more necessary than having a monitoring system in place. Monitoring brings awareness to bad situations as well as good situations in your social brand. Monitoring is your gift…it will give you the opportunity to say You’re Welcome, I’m Sorry, Is that how you really feel? Tell me what happened? How can I fix it OR Thank You!
• Post Purchase Support – Customer service departments are embracing social media all over the world. In fact, Zappos runs the majority of their customer service department via Twitter.

Mobile Media Budget Considerations

• QR Code Generator and Strategy – Quick Response codes or QR codes are taking the US by storm as we speak. You WILL need a strategy for this as soon as possible. I have been seeing some absolutely brilliant ways of utilizing these codes.
• Mobile Analytics – Just like site traffic analytics, what could tell you with more accuracy what your potential customers habits are better that QR Code analytics? I know of only 1 company that offers an extensive analytics tracking on their code scans right down to pulling demographics from the scanner’s Facebook profile. This to me is a MUST! Try Hootster Mobile for the best tracking and analytics ever for QR. Yes, there is a cost but it is so minimal ($19.99 a month for 25 codes) you would have to be absolutely nuts to not track your codes if you are using them!! This is a NO BRAINER to me.
• Mobile SEO – Put a plan in place to capitalize on organic search anytime you have a chance with mobile media. Keywords, keywords, keywords! Again, you must know your top hitting keywords and/or words you want to be found for.
• Text Message Marketing – 97% of test messages get delivered. Now, it’s your job to make sure the info you deliver to your text campaigns adds tremendous value so you can ultimately convert them. Mobile VIP clubs are a great idea. Put some money aside to work with a company that offers consulting on how to best make a text message campaign work for you. I also recommend Hootster Mobile for this.
• Mobile Ready Site – 50% of all local searches are performed on a mobile device. Is your site mobile ready? If not, you stand a great chance of losing the visitor because they can’t see it. Your job is to make it as easy as possible for people to do business with you. Put some money in your budget RIGHT NOW to get your site mobile ready. Contact me if you want a quote on making your site mobile ready.

Bottom Line: Make sure to put social & mobile at the forefront of your budget, you’ll thank me later : )

Want to stay updates on the latest in social and mobile media marketing...SOMO? Click NOW to get access to The SOMO Journal

All I can say to this latest Facebook rumor (again) is ...

Bwahahahahaha!!!!

Come on people...they don't need to charge us. They have such an amazing business model as it is that they would never mess with it and chance a big uproar. I mean...just look at what this small, untrue rumor is creating, then look at the picture below (by the way, this message is not new, it has been on their login page for over a year). Mark Zuckerberg is WAY too smart to mess with his HUGE network!

"It's Free and Always Will Be"

So, if you see the latest "Facebook is going to charge" rumor pop up on your facebook page you might want to share this photo with the person who posted it without doing their research. Here is the post circulating:

"FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO...IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU"

What they meant to say was:

"On September 30th, 2011 Facebook will start charging you for your account. To avoid this, you MUST get NAKED, stand on your dining room table and do the Macarena, all the while singing ”I Will Survive”. After filming and posting it to your Facebook wall and YouTube, then, and only then, will Mark Zuckerberg come down your chimney to tell you that your account will stay free. Pass it on, it must be true because someone on Facebook I hardly know told me.." (thanks Dave Ulloa for the humor)

Who knows what prompts a rumor like this to go viral . Maybe all of the new and upcoming changes Facebook is rolling out.

By the way... the new Facebook timeline is OUTSTANDING!!!! Check it out

Thoughts?

Michelle Corteggiano

Want to stay updates on the latest in social and mobile media marketing...SOMO? Click NOW to get access to The SOMO Journal

I LOVE the new Facebook Timeline! Basically it's a scrapbook of your entire facebook account since the day you joined.

Today is BIG!! I just got access to the new Facebook Timeline. Most of you will have this soon as Facebook plans to roll it out beginning Sept 30th. If you don't have it and want it now you can follow the instructions in the following link and have it up and running in about 3 minutes!

How to Enable the New Facebook Timeline NOW

In this article, I am going to cover the tour you get when you acquire the new timeline:

Step 1: Cover - Your cover appears above your profile picture, and it's the first thing people see when they visit your timeline (sunset in pic below). You can choose a unique photo to feature on your cover and change it as often as you like.

Basically, in website terminology, this is the header for your profile page. Sizing is: 851W X 315H (pixels). If your image is too big you will be able to drag it and choose the perfect cropping of the image. If your image is too small there will be borders placed around it.

Step 2: Views - See everything in one place. This is where you'll find your info, photos, likes, apps and other stuff all in one central place.

Friends and photos are self explanatory. The "map" section basically shows where your posts occurred. Such as life events, photos, public places, restaurants and entertainment. The "likes" section hosts your hobbies & interests along with the pages you have liked.

Step 3: Activity Log - View all of your activity. Your activity log lists all your posts and activity, from today back to the beginning. Go here to change the privacy for individual stories, delete posts and more. This is YOUR private resource - no one else can see YOUR activity log.

Your activity will be organized by year and month. You also have multiple choices of how you view the activity such as photos, posts, comments etc...

Step 4: Stories - Rediscover your top stories. This is your timeline. It shows all of your top photos, stories and life events, from the little things you do each day to your most important moments. Scroll back to the beginning or jump to a specific time by clicking the dates along the right side of your timeline.

Notice that the timeline alters back and forth from left to right as new posts occur.

Step 5: Star or Hide - Highlight what's important. Hover over a story and click the star to expand it to widescreen. Or click the pencil to hide or delete the post.

When you choose to "star" a post, it will show up widescreen in your timeline:

Step 6: Life Events - Click on the life events menu to add missing stories

1. Work & Education

2. Family and Relationships

3. Living

4. Health & Wellness

5. Milestones & Experiences

That's it for a beginners tour. Stay tuned as more and more updates will be posted!

PLEASE let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. Let's blow this up!

Want to stay updates on the latest in social and mobile media marketing...SOMO? Click NOW to get access to The SOMO Journal

A Facebook account without lists is like a filing cabinet with no folders in it…a BIG mess! Let's fix that

You may or may not already be using Facebook lists. If you have not, it’s time to begin, if you have…there are a few changes happening. Is this Facebook’s answer to Google + circles? The buzz is, there are going to be some amazing things happening with lists so pay attention to them.

Smart Lists are here! So, what’s a smart list? Here is Facebook’s definition:

Facebook says: “Smart lists use the information you’ve added to the Education and Work and Current City sections of your profile. So if you list San Francisco as your current city, you’ll have a list with all of your friends who also list San Francisco as their current city. Smart lists update for you based on what your friends put on their profiles. You can also edit smart lists.

Note: Smart lists respect your privacy settings, so if you only have your current city visible to a few friends, those are the only friends who can have you listed on their current city list. Use the audience selector to choose who you share your profile information with.”

In addition to the lists Facebook creates with their smart lists, you can pretty much add a friend to a list any time. The 3 places I will discuss are; when you friend request them, when they friend request you and adding friends you already have to a list.

When someone adds you as a friend:

In the quick friend request section once you accept the new friend you have the option to add to a list. By accepting them, it will automatically show friend with a checkmark next to it. Hover over that and your lists will pop up.

Please note 3 things:

1. You may have to click show more to see all of your lists
2. If the list isn’t there that you want this person in scroll all the way to the bottom of your lists and a “new list”
3. You can add people to multiple lists!

Notice the first 2 in the drop down, close friends and acquaintances. Even this small organizational skill will help you clean things up a bit in your friends lists.

 When you friend request someone:

As soon as you hit the friend request button the friends list will show and they can be added then. This way, as soon as they accept your request they will be placed in the proper lists. Side note: At the time of this post, I also noticed that you cannot add a message with friend requests anymore. I do recommend reaching over and clicking the message button when you friend request so they know why you want to be friends if they won’t readily recognize you.

 Adding to or changing a list after you are already friends:

On your personal profile page you can click the friends link below your profile picture. This will pull all of your friends, and each one will have the lists options to the right.

 Also, you can go directly to their profile and add them to a list now (new feature)

There you have it! an organizational tool that can not be ignored. Have fun listing!! Let me know your thoughts or questions in the comment section below

Michelle Corteggiano

HINT: To manage your lists click here: Facebook Lists

Facebook just launched a new feature called “Subscribe”. In a nutshell, it is designed to allow Facebook users to subscribe to the updates of a specific person whether you are friends or not. It also allows you to choose which types of updates you want to show up in your newsfeed from these subscriptions, such as posts, photos, games, other activities etc…

Possible “subscription” usage:

• Subscribe to a user that you are not, or don’t want to be, friends with but still want some sort of info they share
• Subscribe to a user who has too many friends to accept more
• Subscribe to someone and only see photos, games or updates etc…
• Or, in a situation where your are already friends with a user, you can choose not to receive any of their updates. Use this when you want to physically visit their page to see what they have been up to

Where to Begin: You can only subscribe to users who allow subscriptions (you are automatically subscribed to anyone you are friends with). In addition, you need to turn your subscription access on in order for others to be able to subscribe. To do so you can simply click on the option that should be showing at the top of your news feed on your home page that looks like this:

If for some reason this is not showing on the top of your home page feed, go to the info page on Facebook about Facebook Subscribe and you will see an option in the top right corner to activate it.

When you choose to allow subscribers to your account you will be asked 2 things:

1. Comments: On or Off – This will allow people who are subscribed (friends or not) to comment on your updates. If you have this turned off, only friends & friends of friends can comment. If you have it on, anyone subscribed can comment. The default Facebook setting for this is “off” - change if you want others to comment.
2. Notifications: This is where you decide which subscriptions you will be notified of via email or text (however you have your notifications set up). If you choose no one, you will still be able to see who has subscribed another way. I will touch on this later

When you subscribe to someone else’s profile you will be able to choose which updates you want (also note that you will be able to edit subscription settings for every friend you are already connected with). Default settings shown here:

To customize subscription settings with your current friends go to their profile page and click on the subscribed button. You can also unsubscribe here

Once you have all of your personal subscription settings just how you want them, you can click on the “subscribers” button to see who is subscribed as a friend (friend subscribers) or subscribed as a non-friend (public subscribers).  

Also, on the subscribers tab, you will have an edit settings button on the top right where you can go in to change your personal subscription settings whenever you want.

Here is a helpful Facebook link to the “about page” for subscriptions if you want more info: http://www.facebook.com/about/subscribe 

Hope this helps! I am excited about this new feature…what do you think? Feel free to ask questions below or let us know what you think of this new feature.

Michelle Corteggiano

It’s no secret, you have to be social these days! My travels have taken me down the path of analyzing many sites for their social potential and I must say…there are a lot of you out there that are going to ove this post.

I have put together a list of things you can do right now to help your site become more social today…enjoy!

• Call to Action to Join the Conversation – Simple, very effective but widely forgotten. Just ask…people love to be guided to the next step. Make sure you have a strong call to action in a highly visible area of your site asking your visitors to join you in the social world.

• Icons Linking to Main Social Sites – Facebook, Twitter & YouTube icons that link directly to its perspective social site are a must. Quick note on the Facebook url…make sure you use the unique username you have created for you Facebook page. If you use the short unique url and someone clicks it, it will go directly to your fan page without asking them to join or login. If you use the long url Facebook provided, they will be asked to login or join and you will most likely lose that person. Go here to claim your url if you haven’t yet: Facebook Unique URL (must have 25 likes to get your url)

• Social Badges/Plugins – Facebook has some amazing free tools to help you promote your fan page. The perfect gateway from site to social! These may require a very simple coding that your web team can handle in a matter of minutes. Go here to check out all of the free plugins Facebook offers: Facebook Social Plugins

• Like, Retweet, +1, LinkedIn Buttons for Blog Posts – These buttons make it effortless for the reader to share your blog post. If they share you win with mass exposure. YES, you do want as many people as you can sharing your content. Raving fans will help grow your business faster that you could ever imaging…make it easy for them!

For Wordpress users: Re-Tweet by Tweetmeme – Like by Bottomless - Google 'Plus One' Button by KMS – LinkedIn Share Button by John Blackbourn & Frank Prendergast

• Facebook, Twitter & Google+ Live Feeds – You can run a widget on your site that will show all of the action on your social sites. There are feeds available for Facebook, Twitter and Google+. They serve 3 purposes:

1. Let’s your visitors see what you have going socially right from your site
2. Allows visitors to like, follow or add you to their circle right from the widget without leaving your site
3. SEO! (search engine optimization) All of the feeds are searched for relevant keywords to your site. Big help for getting the search engines noticing you and growing your page rank with Google. 

• Wibiya – This company offers a free option for a bar at the bottom of your page that has connections to all of your social sites. Look to the bottom of this page right now and you will see it! Click here to get the free bar: Wibiya

• RSS Feed – Again simple but highly forgotten! If you offer blog posts you have to have an RSS feed so your readers can subscribe to your content and be made aware when there is new content to read. This IS a BIG deal. Check out this article on RSS feeds for more info: What is an RSS or RSS Feed? 

• QR Codes – A quick scan of your code can send your reader directly to the area where they can become a fan, follow you or subscribe to your channel. You can also pre populate a text message in their phone to like or follow you on Facebook or Twitter. Check these codes out!

If you need help with QR codes get in touch with me! I have access to the most comprehensive QR code generator, tracking and analytics EVER! It will blow your mind

• Outstanding Bio/Profile Page – Our new economy has created a world full of people that LOVE to “know” the face of the brand. Consistently, my profile page is the second most visited part of my blog. This tells me what I have expected…you must have a kickin’ bio and you must not be scared to put it out there, let people “peek behind the curtains”. Here are some tips on how to write your bio: How to Write a Wicked Good Social Bio Profile
  

• Photos – Statistics show that the number one reason come to Facebook is to see pictures. With that said, wouldn’t it make sense to have a photo section on your site? Let me help you…YES it would! Add one right away if you don’t already have one.

• Social Bookmarking – Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon etc…Make it simple for people to bookmark your blog post. This will add it to a massive directory of good content and people will be able to access it there too. Also, in some cases, you will get an incoming link to your site that counts for SEO. If you look just below this article you will see a share button if you want to check it out.

• Solicit Comments – At the end of your blog post, ask the readers to engage. Ask them how this pertains to them? What do you think? Have you ever experience this etc… You want to get them talking for 2 reasons.

1. To get the conversation started
2. For SEO – search engines will view the content more relevant for the keywords of that post if it gets lots of comments and will move it up in the rankings

There you have it! A great place to begin…please feel free to ask any questions in the comment section and I will try to help. Also, if you have ideas on how to get social on your site feel free to add them in the comments also.

Thanks for reading : )

Michelle Corteggiano

Want to stay updates on the latest in social and mobile media marketing...SOMO? Click NOW to get access to The SOMO Journal

Things are changing in Facebook and I keep getting questions on how this picture tagging and photo bar works... so here goes:

If you have more questions about photos and tagging please post questions and comments below : )

Michelle Corteggiano