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Are You the Real Deal?

January 6, 2012 By 2 Comments

“There are a lot of people out there that line dance, wear a big hat and lead a cowboy lifestyle, but this dude is the real thing.”

Admit it, at one point or another in your personal or professional life you’ve embellished a bit on your job title, status, height, weight, age, etc.  Who hasn’t?  Many times it seems harmless, but you should be careful, especially with regards to your career or your business.

Have you ever reviewed a resume and been confused at the seemingly made-up titles the applicant has given themselves on past jobs?

How about attending a seminar being given by an industry ‘Expert’ and you walk away not having learned anything, and in fact know more than the presenter.

And worst is when you spend money for an item or service only to not get what you expected.

Customers and clients want businesses they can trust, both in the retail and service sectors.  Gaining that trust can often be hard.  It is easier if you are honest right from the beginning, even if it means admitting your mistakes along the way.  It shows you’re human, which is one of the key components in Social Networking ;-)

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Supporting Small Businesses on Facebook & Twitter

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A large part of what we do at the Social Networking Nanny is to help businesses get Social on Facebook and Twitter.  We support your Social Media efforts with posts, training, information and guidance.

But did you know you don’t have to be in a business like ours to support Small Businesses on Facebook and Twitter?  There are a number of easy ways to show your support of a business you are a customer of, or perhaps owned by a friend or colleague.

*Like their Facebook Fan Page

*Follow their Twitter business ID

*Engage with them thru posts, replies, Likes and Retweets

*Suggest FB Fan pages and Twitter accounts to friends

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The Nanny Nine: Vistaprint

November 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Chances are if you are a small business owner, you have heard of Vistaprint.   This also means you have most likely used them at least once, if not multiple times for your business needs – business cards, letterhead, pens, postcards, t-shirts, car door magnets, logos, and much more.  However, Vistaprint is really much more than a company that only caters to your business needs.  They are also a great company to help with your party & holiday needs – invites, announcements, lawn signs, giveaways, etc.  The ideas are limitless, and the company continues to expand their product line each year.  Professionally and personally I love using Vista Print!  They have a great variety of quality products, often run ‘Free with paid shipping’ offers, and the site is easy to use.

I recently met Jeff Esposito, Manager Public Relations & Social Media at Vistaprint, during an organized Twitter discussion about Social Media with eBay Ink Blog.  I was impressed with the dialogue and Q&A Vistaprint representatives were having with other people engaging in the conversation.  In The Nanny Nine Jeff shares the organization and thought processes of how Vistaprint utilizes Social Networking, and how they measure their ROI, including direct revenue from their social networks.

1. How long have you been using Social Networking for your business?

In late May of 2008 our former Vice President of Public Relations gave us a BusinessWeek article with the Beyond Blogs cover story. The article discussed an up-and-coming social network called Twitter and how Facebook was going to give access to anyone looking to join the network.  Our team was tasked in figuring out these networks and how we could use them for Vistaprint.

Before we jumped into the conversation that was happening around our brand on Twitter, we listened for six months and studied how users on the platform communicated. When we started out, we were told by the community that, “we were doing it wrong.” So we asked how we could improve our Tweeting and modeled our initial efforts around the knowledge of the community. After establishing our business on Twitter, our team added Facebook to our arsenal of social networks. Over the past three plus years, we have also added presences on Flickr, YouTube and Google+.

2. Is your business using Facebook &/or Twitter?

We use both Facebook and Twitter.

3. Facebook vs Twitter – do you like one better? If yes, why?

Picking a favorite social network is a lot like picking a favorite child, but at the end of the day it is something that is difficult to pick one. Both networks are very powerful and have specific, but different, uses for businesses. For example, Twitter is more real-time and direct response. Facebook on the other hand is great for building up a community and generating a closer bond with companies in conversations that are longer than 140 characters.

4. Do you post daily?

Our team staffs our social media profiles from Monday-Friday. We interact with everyone who has a question or has mentioned the brand. On a typical day, we’ll host anywhere from 60-100 interactions with our social community. We also do a weekly crowdsourced blog post for micro business owners that we call Micro Business Tips Thursday. We ask a business-related question to our Facebook community and then post the top answer as a blog post on http://microbusiness.vistaprint.com.

5. What is your favorite thing about Social Networking?

Social networks allow companies to humanize their brand. In the past many communications with customers were through press releases or email newsletters that really were not overly personal. Sites like Twitter and Facebook make communications in real time and can build a stronger bond with the company.

6. What do you think is the biggest benefit of Social Networking?

The biggest benefit of social networks for companies is building a better relationship with customers. These relationships will not only show companies what they are doing well but also give an insight into areas that companies can improve on to make a better overall customer experience.

7. How do you measure Social Networking, and explain.

At Vistaprint we measure a lot of things including direct revenue from our social networks, equated Net Promoter Score, Razorfish’s SIM score and conversation share. For a full breakdown and examples, below is a presentation that goes through our measurement: http://slidesha.re/r7yk3t

8. What is the best moment you’ve had on a Social Networking site?

My favorite social media moments come when our team turns a brand detractor into a promoter. At times we have customers have had a bad experience with Vistaprint and voice their displeasure with the company on a social network. When we reach out and assist them, many of them say how happy they are that the company reached out and fixed their problem. A good number of these customers have come back and assisted other customers who may have questions, concerns, or an issue that is posted to a social network.

9. What is your best piece of advice to other businesses about Social Networking?

While there are tons of social networks out there, the only ones that should matter to your company are the ones where your customers are actively participating.

 

Vistaprint

Facebook: Vistaprint

Twitter: @Vistaprint

The Nanny Nine brought to you by the Social Networking Nanny

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The Nanny Nine & Perfect Fit By Clinton Kelly

November 8, 2011 By 7 Comments

I had the honor and pleasure of sitting down with Clinton Kelly recently to discuss the Grand Opening of his new tailoring shop The Perfect Fit By Clinton Kelly at the Mall of America.  I also took this opportunity to do a new version of The Nanny Nine – a video interview with questions created just for Clinton.

First off…the Clinton you see on television is the same Clinton in person.  He is charming, sincere, stylish and has a great sense of humor!  I have been a fan of his for years, watching him as a Co-Host Style Consultant on TLC’s What Not To Wear and also now enjoying his new show The Chew on ABC daytime, where he is a Co-Host and Entertainment Expert.  This was the perfect opportunity to meet him, and find out more about his latest business venture, and discuss his Social Networking habits.

Part 1: Perfect Fit By Clinton Kelly

We devoted the first portion of our interview to the Perfect Fit By Clinton Kelly.  Perfect fit is a combination of style consultants and tailoring, all to fit your busy lifestyle.  Tailoring can be done on new clothes or used, and ready to be picked up within 24 hours, often same day service.  They are located at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN and Orland Square in Chicago, IL.

I was invited back to ‘Perfect Fit By Clinton Kelly’ to meet with Stylist Sasha Westin for a 15 minute Consultation.  This was my first style consult so I was a bit nervous, but ended up loving it!  First I filled out a brief information sheet, & answered a few questions including “Why was I there”, and “What do I want my clothes to say about me?”

Sasha then discussed what I was wearing, gave suggestions of clothing styles that are good for my body type.  A couple of these I was aware of, but others were new ideas I will use.  She also showed me an example alteration they would do on the jeans I was wearing.  She said their goal is to help you “look and feel better.”

Consults are done by appointment, in 15 minute intervals, for just $15!  In this time frame 2-3 items can be evaluated.

Sasha gave some great examples of why fashion consults are done:

  • Interview outfit – helping you decide what looks/fits best
  • Bridal parties – Bride & Bridesmaids make an event for fittings
  • Special events – bring in 2-3 dresses to choose for event

To give you an example of the pricing…Jeans shortened (with a variety of hemming options available – samples shown to you) range from just $8.99 – $16.98!   Trust me, if you ever tried to hem your own jeans, it is not easy…especially trying to get the seam and stitching to look like you didn’t hem them yourself ;-)   I’ll be bringing my jeans back soon.

Part 2: The Nanny Nine

The Nanny Nine for this week is in a new format – video and Live!  The questions were tweaked a little, but the overall message is the same.  As you can tell from the video, Clinton really enjoys the community that has been created on his Facebook page!

Store: ‘Perfect Fit By Clinton Kelly’ @ Mall of America

1st floor by East entrance

952-854-5723

Website: Clinton Kelly

Facebook: Clinton Kelly Official

Twitter: @perfectfitbyck

The Nanny Nine brought to you by the Social Networking Nanny

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The Nanny Nine: CaringBridge

October 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Chances are high that you have used CaringBridge, either as a way to keep current with a relative or friend’s medical condition, or had your own page at one time.  My first use was when a neighbor’s very young son was diagnosed with cancer.  I was amazed at the technology – a great way to keep everyone up to date without the need for all of the phone calls or emails back and forth.  The outcome was twofold: the young boy became cancer free, and I became an instant fan of CaringBridge!

Sona Mehring is the Founder and CEO of CaringBridge, a Minnesota based organization.  CaringBridge provides free websites that connect people experiencing a significant health challenge to family and friends, making each health journey easier.  Sona created CaringBridge in 1997, as a website, to keep family and friends informed about the critical situation of a close friend who suffered a life-threatening pregnancy. CaringBridge is named after Brighid, the baby who lost her battle after a nine–day struggle against tremendous odds.  Through tragedy came the positive realization of the communication and support the new website had offered, to both the family and those reading.  In 14 years it has gone from one family to a user base of millions!

1. How long have you been using Social Networking for your business?

CaringBridge was the pioneer of Social Networking. The first CaringBridge site was created in 1997 – years before the word ‘social networking’ was even used – even a year before Google was founded. CaringBridge, as a social network, focuses on connecting patients and caregivers to their friends and family during a health event.

As social networking has exploded in the past 3-5 years, CaringBridge continues to stay true to its mission to amplify the love, hope and compassion in the world, making each health journey easier.  CaringBridge offers an unique ‘sharing’ space for connecting to friends and family without the invasion of advertising or the fear and annoyance of their data being sold/shared with other parties.

2. Is your business using Facebook &/or Twitter?

Yes – the CaringBridge organization has a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

Each CaringBridge site also has the capability to interact with other social networks –by posting notifications to their wall or sending a tweet that updates friends and family of their CaringBridge site and activity.

3. Facebook vs Twitter – do you like one better? If yes, why?

They each are fairly different environments.  We use them to talk with different groups of people.

On Facebook, our authors and visitors can connect with each other and share their very personal experiences. Our fans leave incredibly touching and inspiring messages.

Twitter is a place to connect with other industry leaders, with our healthcare and nonprofit partners, and keep up to date on trends and the latest news.

4. Do you post daily?

The CaringBridge organization posts on Facebook 2 – 3 times a week, but we have a very active fan base who are posting messages daily, and we always take the time to read and respond to our fans.

On Twitter, our frequency varies, but again, we’re reading and responding to our users and partners every day.

Our families that use CaringBridge do post notifications on both Facebook and Twitter – resulting in a high volume of posts to Facebook and Twitter.

5. What is your favorite thing about Social Networking?

The underlying human interaction of social networking is not new —  People connect with each other, share their experiences, engage with each other.

What the 21st century has added to social networking is the technology to be able to make those connections almost anywhere, anytime, with almost anybody.

My favorite thing about social networking is the underlying ‘goodness’ of having people connected to each other.

6. What do you think is the biggest benefit of Social Networking?

The more people are connected, the more understanding and knowledge is shared.  For someone going through a tough emotional/mental/physical time,  having your loved ones there to support you is vital.   Social networking can bring that to people like never before.

7. How do you measure Social Networking, and explain.

ROI – Return on Investment
ROR – Return on Relationship
ROE – Return on Engagement
ROL – Return on Loyalty
ROK – Return on Knowledge

Technology provides a pretty amazing way to connect and share. Personal relationships are foundational to the mission of CaringBridge to amplify love, hope and compassion in the world. We use Facebook and Twitter to reach more families. Return on knowledge to me means spreading awareness about our service and our mission, so no one ever has to say, “We wish we would’ve known CaringBridge existed when we needed it.”

CaringBridge sites show that social networking provides an ROI on Love!

8. What is the best moment you’ve had on a Social Networking site?

All my best moments have been on CaringBridge sites – being able to harness the love, hope and compassion from one’s circle of friends and family – to make someone’s health journey be more positive and help them get better!

9. What is your best piece of advice to other businesses about Social Networking?

Social networking, for an organization or business, provides a great opportunity to have an interactive relationship with people – not just a ‘push’ relationship.  The immediacy, phenomenal reach and ease in which to actually engage with people has never been better.

That engagement, however, must be authentic and consistent.

 

CaringBridge

Facebook: CaringBridge

Twitter: @CaringBridge

The Nanny Nine brought to you by the Social Networking Nanny

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Contemplating Life & Your List of Goals

October 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I am about to enter the last year of my mid-40′s. You know, where you aren’t yet in the last part of the 40′s (47, 48, 49), but will admit you’re beyond the early part (41, 42, 43). You can figure it out from there, right?

It’s not often that I have serious contemplation about my age, and life in general. Who has time for serious contemplation? With a husband, three kids in college, three dogs, and two businesses…seriously, who has time? I have spurts of wonderment. More like what-if’s.

The other night my husband and I were watching a television show, and a discussion ensued about going back in your life and changing a mistake you made. Did you ever do something you questioned yourself about later…did you do the right thing? He asked me if it were possible to undo anything that I’ve done wrong in the past, would I? To his astonishment, my answer was no. If I were to change any one thing in my past, it could completely change where I am today.

Early in our married life we created a list of goals. As I recall, there were about 10-12 attainable goals on our list, and some in particular order: Good jobs, nice house, kids, etc. And there were some that took many years for us to achieve, but we were thrilled when we did. The list was completed three years ago, after 22 years of marriage. If we had changed one thing along the way, it could have possibly disrupted the chain of events that led us to our goals.

Yes, some things in life are hard, sad, shocking, and terrifying. We must learn to adapt, ask for help, change our course and move on. These moments may come into our memories from time to time, and cause us to ask “what if”, but remember you cannot change them. You can sometimes use them to help make future decisions and actions.

Ten years ago I never dreamed I would be an Entrepreneur / Mompreneur. I was happy to have found something I could do from my home (selling items on eBay) to help bring in some money, while raising our children. Five years ago I never dreamed I’d have my own website (Old World Limited) & be an independent seller. Three years ago I never dreamed I would have a second business (Social Networking Nanny), be interviewed by a local network (KARE11) and be featured in a Good Morning America segment. I never dreamed of all the wonderful Friends, Clients, Fans and Followers I would meet online via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and all of the people I’ve been able to meet in real life, locally and on business trips!

Somewhere inside me these things were on my newest list of goals. I hadn’t written them down, but every decision I made, including mistakes, led me to where I am. I’m very happy where I am, and look forward to seeing what life has in store for me, both personally and professionally.

Yes, my hubby and I do have new lists of goals – his, mine, and ours. We won’t give up on them, no matter how out-there they may seem. ;-)

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The Nanny Nine: Great Clips

October 5, 2011 By 2 Comments

In business since 1982, founded right here in Minneapolis, Great Clips has over 3,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada and continues to grow, including it’s Social Media presence. Their Facebook fan page has over 43,000 Fans, with significant dialogue from those fans…which as we know, isn’t always easy to get. While some topics are company-wide, they also do dedicated posts related to Great Clips managers, stylists and salon owners.

Kasey Skala, Great Clips Communications Specialist, is attuned to the appropriate venue when posting other key topics, focusing on retaining customers’ attention. Topics can range from the company’s interest in charitable giving, new salon openings, customer service, to NASCAR. Just as important, he realizes the brands who understand social (connecting with their customers) and do it “right” are benefiting greatly.

1. How long have you been using Social Networking for your business?

Great Clips began its involvement with social networking in late 2008, about a year before I started.

My involvement with social networking from a business standpoint started in 2005 when I began blogging for a financial company I worked for at the time. While blogging was still somewhat new, it became apparent very quickly that people were seeking information, especially about topics they were unfamiliar with such as finance.

2. Is your business using Facebook &/or Twitter?

We’re using both Facebook (www.facebook.com/GreatClips) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/GreatClips) from a corporate standpoint. We’re a 100% franchise-based company (we don’t own any of our salons – they are all our locally owned), so there are some salons that have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts as well, but we strongly recommend that they don’t create their own salon-level accounts.

3. Facebook vs Twitter – do you like one better? If yes, why?

It depends. I like both better than the other for different reasons.

The beauty of Facebook is it allows me to tell a story and truly engage with my audience. It allows me to find what they’re interested in and what’s important to them. Facebook is a true connection point, in my opinion.

Twitter, on the other hand, is great to gauge real-time opinion and generate immediate feedback. With Twitter, I can have a true dialogue with a customer in an atmosphere that feels a lot more intimate. To me, Twitter feels more 1:1 where Facebook is 1:50,000. I can interact with a wider variety of information to a larger audience. Facebook doesn’t allow me to post about NASCAR, charitable giving, new salon openings, customer service, etc. all in 1 day without turning people away. Twitter does.

4. Do you post daily?

Yes and no. On the surface, I post daily on Facebook. But I use a lot of targeted posts, so it might not come off as daily to some users. I tend to post, on average, 3-4 times a week to the entire following. However, I do respond to questions and address service issues multiple times throughout the day, 7 days a week.

On Twitter, I post daily (see my response above in regards to variety of topics to a variety of people). It’s easier to post daily on Twitter and a lot of our customer service is done via Twitter.

5. What is your favorite thing about Social Networking?

The connection it provides. Social networking allows Great Clips to truly connect with our customers. Our entire business is based off forming relationships and providing a relaxing and enjoyable experience to every customer who steps foot into one of our salons. Social networking takes that one step further and allows us to truly connect with our customers, get to know what they like/dislike, how we can make their experience more enjoyable; and most importantly, it allows us to allow our customers to feel like we truly care about them. Human beings are an interesting creature – it’s fascinating to get to know people and witness their actions and behaviors.

6. What do you think is the biggest benefit of Social Networking?

It allows us to be a better business and allows me to be a better person. There’s no more excuses, there’s no more hiding. Never before has the consumer had as much power and influence as they do now. Consumers are dictating business. The brands who understand social and do it “right” are benefiting greatly.

7. How do you measure Social Networking, and explain.

Anything that has a call-to-action, I can measure. My number one goal is to get “more butts in more seats” and our social efforts need to be driving that mindset. So to that extent, it’s simple ROI – are my activities increasing sales?

There are also metrics that are equally as valuable, and sometimes more valuable, that aren’t sales-driven. Reducing organizational expenses is one example. Social has allowed us to streamline our customer service efforts and has allowed us to make our customer service efforts more personal – I’d say that’s just as valuable as increasing sales.

Then there’s activities that aren’t quite as easy to measure – though we do as best as we can. A lot of our efforts aren’t directly related to getting a haircut. One of our biggest investments is NASCAR. It’s a huge driver of conversation for us, but can we tie our involvement in NASCAR directly to an increase in sales? Again, we can in a way (we have measured certain campaigns/promotions/efforts), but it’s a lot harder to measure. And to be honest, it doesn’t take a piece of data for me to know that our NASCAR involvement is a major reason some of our customers choose us over the competition.

8. What is the best moment you’ve had on a Social Networking site?

It’s a moment that I’ve had in the past and continue to have on a daily basis – helping customers. Nothing is more gratifying to me, than simply saying thank you to a customer and letting him/her know that Great Clips appreciates their business. There isn’t a better and more rewarding story than that.

9. What is your best piece of advice to other businesses about Social Networking?

Find an approach that works for you and run with it. What works for one business might now work for your business. The only template to social networking is to be human. Find a way that you can add value to your customer base.

 

Great Clips

Everything Great

Facebook: Great Clips

Twitter: @GreatClips

The Nanny Nine brought to you by the Social Networking Nanny

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The Nanny Nine: Halo, Purely For Pets

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

With over 20,000 Facebook Fans, and 25,000 followers on Twitter, I’d say Halo, Purely For Pets is doing Social Networking right!  They are informative as well as engaging.

Halo has a holistic pet care approach that drives them to develop all-natural products with ingredients chosen to give your pet a happier, healthier life.

David Yaskulka, Vice President, Marketing Communications points out the important connection they have with Free Kibble in distributing thousands of free meals for dogs and cats at shelters.  They put philanthropy over advertising, and in return get something even better than paid-ads…real customer kudos for their quality product.

Ellen DeGeneres believes in Halo so much, she became part owner after purchasing the brand for a dog with severe allergies.  If you know anything about Ellen, you know she loves animals, and says “if you’re going to have pets you should treat them like you’d treat yourself.”

1. How long have you been using Social Networking for your business?

HALO started using social media in 2008.

2. Is your business using Facebook &/or Twitter?

Yes, both.

3. Facebook vs Twitter – do you like one better? If yes, why?

We actually love both. They’re very different communications channels, but we get extraordinary engagement and word-of-mouth in both.

4. Do you post daily?

Yes, usually multiple times.

5. What is your favorite thing about Social Networking?

The chance to communicate with our customers — some of the most amazing, passionate pet parents and animal advocates you will ever find.

6. What do you think is the biggest benefit of Social Networking?

From a societal perspective, it’s a place where genuine dialog can occur with less financial influence than elsewhere. In advertising, the more you can pay, the more nice things are published about your brand.  Public relations (“earned media”) is less influenced by brand spending, but it still is.  Social media is truly consumers talking about their experiences. It’s real, and consumers trust it most for that reason.

So as a brand with an exemplary product, and one that donates most of its marketing budget, Halo needs to find communications channels not influenced by ad spend. So social media is great for us!

7. How do you measure Social Networking, and explain.

We really use all of these, however, at the end of the day, it’s ROI just like any other effort. The trick is measuring ROI well.

8. What is the best moment you’ve had on a Social Networking site?

My favorite moments — and they happen weekly for us — is when a nonprofit partner such as Freekibble.com posts about one of our donations, and people start singing the praises about our brand. I’m very proud that we value philanthropy over advertising, and that animal shelters (as well as consumers) place so much value on the quality of our ingredients.

9. What is your best piece of advice to other businesses about Social Networking?

The formula for social media success is very simple:
Be good.
Do good.
Listen.
Talk.
(in that order)
Folks like me can easily do the “talking” part well. The trick is the other three.
Also — I know that some of your readers are eBay sellers — they should know that eBay Giving Works makes the “Do Good” part exceedingly easy (and profitable, BTW).

 

Halo Pets

Facebook: Halo Pets

Twitter:  @HaloPets

The Nanny Nine brought to you by the Social Networking Nanny

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Facebook Changes & Your Ticker Privacy: Check Your Privacy Settings

September 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

With the recent changes rolled out to everyone by Facebook, and the even more recent changes announced at the f8, many people are concerned about their privacy on Facebook, especially on the new Facebook Ticker.  Yes, it’s an ongoing concern on all Social Networking sites, but let’s take a breath, step back, and talk about it.

From Facebook Q&A:
Q:Am I seeing posts in ticker that I don’t have permission to see?
A: No. Commenting or liking a post doesn’t change its privacy settings. If you can’t see a post because of its privacy settings, it won’t show up to you anywhere on Facebook, including in your News Feed or in your ticker.

Action items to check your Privacy settings:

*When you do a status update, look at the drop-down box next to the ‘Share’ button – if it says Public, change it if you don’t want the Public seeing it.

Select ‘Update Status’ – look in menu next to ‘Post’ to see who will see it.

Open the drop-down menu if you want to select a change to who sees it.

 

*You can make a Custom change to this in your Privacy Settings. Exa: set to Friends and not Friends of Friends.  If you need more step-by-step directions, see below.

To check &/or change your Privacy Settings:

From your drop-down menu next to ‘Home’ button, select ‘Privacy Settings’

Customizing your Facebook Privacy settings


Open the drop-down menu if you want to select a different list to make things Visible


And finally, check how you Connect with people you know.  In the Privacy Settings area click on ‘Edit Settings’ next to ‘How You Connect’

From the drop-down menu select your preference.


 

 


 

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The Nanny Nine: Canadian Artist Julia Trops

September 21, 2011 By 1 Comment

Julia and I go way back, to our days of selling on eBay.  I could tell right from the beginning that she was a go-getter, and full of positive energy!  Her art portrays that, and her free-spirit of expressing ones self.  Her passion comes thru in her art work, no matter what the medium.  And this is also portrayed in her Social Networking used for her website Julia Trops.

And the phrase ‘what you see is what you get’ rings true as well.  We finally got the chance to meet in real life a few years ago.  Besides being a very gifted artist, Julia is a loving, caring wife & Mom….that was evident when I watched the dynamics of her with her family.  She has great people skills, and they are genuine and evident when you talk to her in person, as well as online.

1. How long have you been using Social Networking for your business?

I’ve been using social networking since about 2003 when I started posting on forums for artists. It wasn’t called Social Networking back then, but I consider any interaction online as social networking. LinkedIn is another way to interact and Google groups as well as blogs for comments and news articles. Facebook and Twitter, I’ve been using since they became accessible to the general public. I am an artist, and back then, web interaction was frowned upon as frivolous but now is regarded as a requirement. Just goes to show you to follow your own path, and mind.

2. Is your business using Facebook &/or Twitter?

Both. I have a Facebook page for myself Artist Julia Trops http://www.facebook.com/ArtistJuliaTrops, one for my art show that I organize and manage http://www.facebook.com/EroticArtShow. Twitter is http://www.twitter.com/juliatrops – I have one twitter account and feed all my actions through the one account. I am a big hashtag user – I consider them similar to webpage metatags.

3. Facebook vs Twitter – do you like one better? If yes, why?

Currently fb is more interesting to me because there is much more diversity. One thing that bugs me though about fb is that businesses who use fb for interaction and promotion are making personal profiles rather than pages – that shows me they don’t really know what they are doing.

Twitter is useful – as mentioned all my fb posts from my two pages are fed automatically to twitter with appropriate hashtags, as well as my webpage, which I have turned in to a blog format – plus if you set your twitter feeds to before 7 am, you are more likely to get picked up by those paper.ly feeds which pull hashtags, and get featured in them, and you get double exposure.

Find out which papers are running in your area or your area of expertise and use the tags that they pull. Connect with the paper owner and maybe talk strategy. The thing about SN is we are all in this together.

4. Do you post daily?

Most of the time. On fb, I try to post relative content on my business pages. I post every day on my personal one, and if I say or see something that relates to my business then I will carry that over to my business pages. The art show fb page is strictly art show. It takes me a year to do the art show, (Call to Artists to show completion) so when it is up, I feed one or two artists into the fb/twitter machine, so there is content every day the show is up.

My blog(s) are also fed in to twitter and fb – and if NetworkedBlogs does not pull the feed, then I post them manually.

5. What is your favorite thing about Social Networking?

Interacting with people. Testing ideas, and thoughts and perceptions. I get great feedback that teaches and informs me, which in turn I give back to others.

6. What do you think is the biggest benefit of Social Networking?

Understanding my fellow man and consequently, myself.

7. How do you measure Social Networking, and explain.

If I am still interested in doing it, then the interaction is successful. If it becomes a chore, there is a problem – and some days it becomes a chore. I use SN as a way of discovery in to myself. If it is a chore, I examine why, and change up my strategy so it becomes exciting for me again.

8. What is the best moment you’ve had on a Social Networking site?

Seeing reactions to my work by people I admire, and them loving it so much they want to purchase. I only do original artwork, and it is nice to see that a select few people out there really do value and understand the concept of original artwork. As an artist, the mass print market seems to have taken over the world and there are times when I think everyone is a neanderthal without the ability to understand original art…. then someone comes along and says hey I get it. They have my loyalty for life!

9. What is your best piece of advice to other businesses about Social Networking?

Be consistent with your name… dont have one name on Twitter and another on Facebook and another for the webpage.

And finally…Screw what anyone else says. Do what you want and feel comfortable with. If you are going to use a tool, take the time to learn the tools and their proper use. Don’t be afraid to do something new. If you are afraid, good, do it anyway. “Where you stumble, there your treasure is….” Joseph Campbell

 

Julia Trops

Facebook: JuliaTrops

Twitter:  @JuliaTrops

LinkedIn: Julia Trops

 

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