Social media marketing is going to be HUGE in 2010 and we are finally seeing some decent budgets being formulated. We started out the first 2 quarters of 2009 helping the small business community mostly, but have realized that mid-size firms have demonstrated to us the budgets are now there and they are seeing the value more and more (which is a very good sign for the economy too). We will continue to help our small businesses of course, and are still finalizing the coaching and subscription services we have been discussing (I know well over-due) but things have been very busy in the trenches.

I wanted to share with you some frequently asked questions we ask prospects before engaging in a social media marketing engagement:

1.  Is your business involved in social media yet?

2.  What’s working / Not Working?

3.  Why do you think your company is ready to engage in social media?

4.  Do you have a social media plan for 2010?

5.  Are you measuring your results?

6.  Are you keeping an eye on your competitors online?

7.  What is your differentiation factor?

8.  Is your website web 2.0 friendly?

9.  On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your customer service?

10.  On a scale of 1-10 how would your customers rate your customer service?

11.  Do you have staff members who can commit the time to training?

12.  Are you breaking the news first for your industry and developing yourself or your firm as a thought leader for your consulting or legal practice?

Well, this is EXACLTY what we help our clients do everyday; prepare them to listen, teach them to engage, and change their mindset into the 21^st century digital economy. But I must warn you that if you think everything is perfect when it comes to social media marketing your wrong. There is NO one tactic you will try that will get you 2 million views to your you tube channel (unless you are using Scott Stratten or better known as @UnMarketing on Twitter- make sure you follow this Jedi Marketer for some un-believable insight.)

Just like traditional marketing, you have a lot of options (tools) to consider. I know your boss is telling you to stretch your dollars as much as possible, BUT at the same time get the most effective response from your audience while not trying to sound to “spammy” right? Well then social media marketing may be the answer you’re looking for. Remember, marketing is getting the horse to the pond, and a sale is getting the horse to drink.

I know marketing is more complex than that, but you get the idea. It’s all about the marketing message you portray and the call to action that’s key. With some heavy research from our research team, we may be able to offer you the “fast track to social media for business” which many of our clients have experienced.

What topics would you be interested in hearing more about for 2010? We are preparing some turn-key products and essential social media tools as resources to our clients that are going to really help the business community so stay tuned. If you’re a marketing firm looking to offer social media marketing and consulting services to your clients, send our CEO Justin R French an email at snsdjf@gmail.com and put in the subject “affiliate program” and request more information.

Look forward to hearing more from our growing business community.

The Social Networking San Diego Team

1. Product & service improvement

2. Company reputation improvement

3. Sales people cost nothing (for now) Social Media helps identify new sales people for FREE!!!! These brand influencers and brand ambassadors will help strengthen your brand by telling real life stories of how your products and services have helped them professionally or personally and this is critical for sustained growth over the next 5 years- this I can guarantee. Reach out to them before they go to you competitors.

4. Old Sales Tactics are replaced by Social Selling – We now tell our friends/ colleagues/ partners whom we are connected with online about our experiences (good and bad) and depending on your “social influence” this affects the buying decisions of products & services of your firm.

5. Transparency, Truth, and Timing Are now embedded in model companies and aren’t just terms companies throw around anymore, but actually reflect on their culture. (i.e. Zappos, whole foods, Gary-Vee (Wine Library TV) etc. Either you are in or out, no 1 foot in half @#$ stuff! And if you try to be in when your out, you will be labeled as OUT!

6. Everyone has a voice– Media outlets fear the truth because everyone has a voice now, & this is growing exponentially.  Is about giving the power back to the people or consumers who have been advertised and marketed to all the time and have pushed them to the limit.  People and consumers want to be engaged or recommended a solution or product from their peers now NOT advertised to.

7. Competitive Advantage, First Mover, and Business Strategy All tie into Social Media Marketing (If you don’t know what these terms mean look them up or go to business school)

8. Change is no longer talked about, its now about ACTION-great leaders will surface in organizations who are embracing this opportunity to get ahead and develop their circle of influence to promote this change, plan, execute, train, and track (ask us for details on these services- we have a proven system)

9. Google pay per click declines, email marketing declines, and Social Media takes over (I now check twitter more than my email- much quicker for me to say less but still have more of an impact than writing a huge email) Plus- this forces creativity and improved communication (learning to communicate with “less” is the new “more”.)

10. Communication is still the key– Social Media is just a new form of communication that businesses are now accepting as part of their marketing mix. Companies wanting to get involved with social media, be prepared, you will need a budget. When you get one, talk to me or one of our team members.

Anything you’d like to add? Agree/ Disagree?  Would you mind leaving your insight on this post below? I’m interested in hearing from you.

Please re-tweet this post, share, and let other business professionals know about this top ten list. This is extremely useful for the business community in which we are educating, training, and consulting on the business application of Social Media. We have been for almost 1 year now. Thank you

Justin R French

CEO Social Networking San Diego

GaryVee, Me, and Robert @ Syrah in San Diego- book signing of CrushIt (Still finishing up)

Buy it here discounted:

In case you haven’t noticed, Entrepreneurship is on the rise. Especially what I call “Social Entrepreneurship”. Why? I will give you 3 simple reasons:

1. No such thing as job security anymore
2. Average employee tenure at a firm is only 2 years and a few months
3. People are tired of doing things they are not passionate about, and are seeing new opportunities and accepting more risk to do something they love and follow their passion (especially Generation Y)

What are your thoughts about the current trend in Entrepreneurship & Entrepreneurship being taught in business school? Agree or disagree? IBM embraces entrepreneurial minded people and formulates mini entrepreneurial teams to innovate, collaborate, and demonstrate products/ projects that create change and improvement over existing technologies. If there is one model company to follow its IBM. I have studied them for years, and they truly are an industry leader and we aspire to run our start-up the same way. For more on Entrepreneurship, please visit my blog “An Entrepreneurs Journey” here: The Journey Of An Entrepreneur Any comments? Do you agree/ disagree with my opinions? Let me know,

Thanks
Justin CEO Social Networking San Diego

What desktop tool do you use to manage your twitter account? Probably you are using TweetDeck or Seismic Desktop. They are fascinating tools, and love them for multiple account management and multi-column look.

Something I miss is the SPAM control features. Always thought if I could get a tool where I can hide the tweets from people whom I cannot unfollow. I finally got one.

These days I have been using a new Desktop App, Buzzom Desktop developed by InRev Systems. InRev has good web based account management service, Buzzom.com , particularly famous for its people search feature.
I had huge issues with other Twitter Clients particularly while posting Picture and videos, now Buzzom Desktop provides a cool drag and drop.
Next big thing I like about this tool is the cool Twitter Elite groups like Celebrity, Economy, Entrepreneur, Social Media, and Technology etc. These groups have all major Tweeters, and the groups are configurable to fit own interest. Best, you don’t need to follow these folks to get their update 

This Desktop Tool has some really great features, some of them include:
1. Hide users who are spamming with too many or useless tweets without unfollowing them.
2. Get updates on what the twitter elites like GuyKawasaki, BBC etc. are saying without following them.
3. Configure your buddy list and be in touch with them by viewing only their tweets.
4. Find news and people using keyword Search for tweets, location and biography.
5. Auto shorten your long URLs when they’re sent using http://nxy.in.
6. Drag-drop video and pictures to auto upload and tweet about them.
7. Choose how you want to see your tweets, by auto refresh or manual refresh.

I love this tool for its wonderful features. It’s a great time saver. Can’t say if it can compete with TweetDeck and Seismic yet, and establish itself in the elite category, but it deserves a try.

This tool is in its alpha version now, and is available for download . You can try it FREE here:

Social media makes business development fun again! No I’m serious! Our VP Keith Tacla (Follow him here on twitter) used to dread telemarketing, door to door sales, direct mail, sending out newsletters, etc. and I could see that the minimal results he was achieving from these traditional styles of marketing and business development was discouraging to him. But then last year around this time, he and I figured out a better way and we had an “ah ha” moment. Using social media tools and social networking for relationship selling.

This is the current trend of our clients, and our own business model and the results we are achieving to fill our pipeline has been amazing and sometimes even overwhelming to keep up with the amount of interest in these types of services. Social media goes hand in hand with social networking. The networking part is the same as in the off-line approach, except when networking online with other business professionals, this allows you to scale and allows global opportunities. You also get word of mouth generated online about your products, services, and customer feedback real-time. Business development now is about connecting with old customers, new customers, existing customers, getting referrals, sharing stories, and delivering results and value. If a company is going to spend on your product or service during these tough times, you can bet there going to want to measure every dollar spent and what that ROI is. This might be difficult to do with social media and social networking, but at the end of the day, social media selling is all about developing TRUST with your prospects first because in business, if someone becomes to know you, like you and trust you, they are more inclined to do business with you or most importantly buy from you. We are in the process of coming out with trusted products and services (systems) we use as well as our customers that we have tested, confirmed deliver value and achieve results. At the end of the day, its all about selling YOURSELF because if you can sell yourself, you can sell products, services and solutions to those who trust you. Be on the look out and stay tuned. Are there any products or services that you recommend we should add to our suite of recommended products or services?

This video which describes Top 4 Reasons Why Small Business Should Use Google Products should give your business a good start:

My colleagues, partners, customers and friends always wonder, “So Justin, you’re a social media strategist huh, then what is a typical day like for a social media strategist? What do you actually DO?” It’s also important to know that as an Entrepreneur running another start-up and consulting on a regular basis for a few clients, many wonder what a typical day looks like. Here is a detailed breakdown of a typical day in the life as a social media strategist (play by play)

I hope this is beneficial and eye opening to those business professionals considering using social media marketing to assist in growing their personal brand or company brand online. Be prepared- you are investing time, money, and sometimes countless hours of sweat equity but at the end of the day I must caution you- be prepared for a exciting and sometimes overwhelming and draining journey

6:30AM Wake up to a fair and balanced news station on TV

7:30AM Check twitter stream (latest news) listen to voicemails and check emails/ follow up (Google alerts) from the night before (usually competition and industry trends) on the G1

7:45AM Check Google Reader on some of my favorite Blogs

7:55AM Listen to what some authorities are doing (usually my custom twitter accounts I set up for filtering) to try and continually better myself, I study the best

8:15AM Check linked-in and Facebook (my business account) and maybe E-Cademy if time

8:30AM Client call backs, follow ups, then get on the clock (consulting)

9:30AM brainstorming session with executives on current month’s promos

10:30AM check some Google analytic stats, keyword performance, verify content postings (measuring campaign success and ROI for SNSD and clients)

11:30AM check in/ focus group with key TEAM members, progress and status check on projects

12:30PM Lunch

1:45PM watch a couple you-tube videos on industry items (social networking, social media, tech, entrepreneurship, leadership, or sales)

2:15PM Engage in twitter with prospects, friends, clients, etc. send out a newsletter or two, read some headlines on twitter, delegate some tasks to my assistant

3:15PM Billing, banking, and where I am with latest projects / products in development for social media and social networking for business

4:30PM Conduct a webinar on twitter, linked-in or maybe my online psychology class. Also, prepare next week’s curriculum for Mira Costa College social networking class. Maybe prepare for an online interview or Press Release or prepare talking points for a speaking engagement (power point slides using 10X20X30 Formula- thanks Guy Kawasaki)

5:00PM Record a you-tube video or two, prepare tomorrows blog post, check in with key contacts/ circle of influence

6:00PM Gym / or Soccer

9:00PM Dinner, another you-tube video (Always learning)

10:00PM Check twitter, thank followers, interacting, engaging, learning

11:00PM Call it a day

I’m interested in what your day looks like. Would you mind sharing what your typical day looks like? Is it a little similar/ different? I look forward to hearing from you-
Justin R French

I hope everyone is having a great week. This has been one of the busiest weeks for us in a few months, and we are working on some VERY exciting products and services (systems) that are going to revolutionize social networking and social media for business. As you know, Social Networking San Diego has been taking you though the social media and social networking FOR BUSINESS journey since January 2008 when we started our first Squido lens (HERE) to setting up our website/ blog on word press. Don’t forget our CEO Justin R French on twitter, who has been paying it forward since Day 1.

The reason for this blog post is to let you know what a typical day is like for a Social Media Strategist to see if you may be ready for this type of position OR even have the business background and the technical know how to provide such services to clients.

If you are a business considering using a social media strategist or a social media consultant, please watch this video FIRST that will clarify some Frequently Asked Questions about The Top 5 Questions when considering Social Networking & Social Media For Business

I am NOT saying you have to be a programmer with a computer science degree OR be an MBA graduate from Harvard (Cal State San Marcos is just as good and cheaper in my opinion but I digress)

All I AM saying is that to be a Social Media Strategist or a Social Media Consultant, you must have a certain level of education, experience, and technical understanding to be able to provide such comprehensive and holistic solutions. As our CEO Justin R French quotes “It is extremely rare these days to find a web design company who can handle ALL areas of development, content writing, training, marketing, strategy, integration, system implementation, and measuring who have a full understanding of business as well. I remember in my old It consulting firm Perfect Integration that I founded, many technicians just were not business savy. I focused on being business savy FIRST, then technical. It has paid off for me big time, and that is why our team is currently able to help many small and medium sized businesses with social media consulting through my hands on coaching and training program which I provide to our team members.”

My apologies but I will continue tomorrow with the post on the typical day of a social media strategist because I am just soooooo burnt out from the long day. My brain is fried, so thank you for your patience and please check back tomorrow for A Day In The Field As A Social Media Strategist For Small Business

Any comments for us? See below and leave a message- thanks
Social Networking San Diego

Have you heard of the new reality business show Shark Tank? If you haven’t, It is created by Mark Burnett and for those of you that don’t know he was the one who helped create The Apprentice and Survivor. It is by far one the best shows I’ve seen on TV in years. What you might not also know is that I actually applied for the very 1st season of The Apprentice and sent in my video but obviously didn’t make it onto the show, but it was a fun an exciting experience to partake in none the less. (Maybe i will put the footage on you tube soon for you)

The Shark Tank is by far the BEST reality show to come onto the mainstream since The Apprentice in my opinion. I watched the first series of the apprentice, and after starting to watch further seasons, it really lost the touch in which the first season had (which was my favorite). The reason i bring up the Shark Tank is i am tired of seeing all these reality TV series that don’t necessary appeal to me- The Entrepreneur, Business Professional, and real-world small business advocate. I could care less about the Kardasians, Tool Academy, or Making the Band. Those appeal to teens or young adults who need to get their priorities straight. What about the late 20 year old generation Y who are the future leaders of this country? That’s why we are flocking to the internet and social networking because there is so much crap on TV. I mean, my point is we need more shows like Shark Tank on the mainstream because our country is built on small businesses. So I say to all the major TV networks, start putting out more reality shows about business and I know this will add to brining us out of this recession.

Here is a clip from the new reality show Shark Tank

What are your thoughts on the show? Do you watch it? What other shows do you watch that are around business? Do we need to have a reality show called the Entrepreneur? Hey Mark Burnett- let me know if you’d like to discuss this format, I have plenty of ideas on a REAL Reality TV show called the Entrepreneur
Cheers
Justin R French
CEO Social Networking San Diego

p.s. Check out this show called “The Entrepreneur Hour” I am starting to do. This stuff is the REAL deal. What do you think? Here is a sample: The Entrepreneur Hour- First Show- How To Start A New Business

Social marketing campaigns are the current trend but what are some key points your business can follow?

Social media and social marketing campaigns have become the norm today. Social marketing campaigns such as Twitter, linked-in, and Facebook and have given people the chance to communicate with family, friends and colleagues too without spending a single penny. Individuals are also making use of social marketing campaigns for business and to make new friends who are like minded and share the same information as them.

Online marketing and social media have come along a long way. Industry professionals have come to realize this potential and social media agencies are now targeting certain sections of individuals to market products, services and even clients to various people who do show some interest.

The whole idea behind social marketing campaigns is that an effective social marketing campaign should give the individual users the resources so that they can share topics or any related data and information with other like minded people. Blogs, videos and even images are some of the ways to use the social media to get the interest of the targeted individuals.

If you have made up your mind to start a social marketing campaign, then here are a few points that you should note beforehand:

Key Point #1
Sit peacefully and decide the purpose of your social marketing campaign. What is the scope of this particular social marketing campaign? Do you want to change the attitudes or beliefs of a certain group of people? Does your campaign affect the masses or does it target specific group of people?

Key Point #2
Make a team and set your target and goal. Assign responsibilities right in the beginning and clearly define your goals. You have to do a bit of research even though you are not trying to sell a tangible product or belief. Statistics and facts have to be gathered and try to talk with industry experts so that you get valuable information that will help you later on.

Key Point #3
Product, price, place and promotion are 4 “P’s” that will go a long way in making this social marketing campaign a grand success. You should first target the required population for a successful social marketing campaign. The social marketing campaign should be highly personal. The message should be effective and target the required audience. Identify the key gatekeepers and stake holders who will partner with you this campaign. Position the product effectively i.e. understand the target audience’s views in order to maximize benefits. If the product is properly positioned the correct awareness in created and the desired message is sent across effectively. It should of course have a direct call to action.

Key Point #4
Last but not the least you have to get financial support for your social marketing campaign. You can take the help of an ad agency, a social media marketing team of consultants, or a government organization and sell your social marketing campaign concept to them and hope to raise the sufficient funds. Getting the funding these days to run a successful campaign are most seen with the big brands like university of phoenix, whole foods, jet blue, zappos, etc. But for small and mid-sized business which we focus on helping with social media, we continue to work on campaigns and are developing and improving upon our turn key systems for this market, so please stay tuned.

Is there anything that you are currently doing in your social media campaign that you need help with? Contact us today HERE and let us know any struggles you are having. We have been in the trenches consulting on these projects now for 9 months.

P.S. here is some feedback on a “Social Networking 101 for Colleges” workshop i did through Mira Costa College and the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations (You Can click Here for a copy of the Brochure)

Any Feedback, just drop us a line below, thanks- Justin R French

Are you keeping an eye on your competitors? What are people saying about your company? Do you keep up-to-date on the latest news on your industry? Are you getting constant feedback on your products and services form your existing and potential customers?

Here are 3 Simple ways to set-up a Business Intelligence System using social media.

1. Set-up Google Alerts to notify you of any activity on keywords you are following. For example, i have a keyword alert set-up for social media because i want to know the latest happening in this market because this is my current focus.

Here’s a quick how to video for you:

2. Set-up an RSS Reader (or i prefer Google Reader) to keep you up to date on the most influential blogs in your industry. The quicker you can read the news for your industry and respnd with your knowledge and insight will help build up your authority (this will not happen overnight i assure you)

here’s a video on how to set up Google Reader (and filters which are EXTREMELY helpful):

3. Set-up a twitter account (to aggregate) dedicated to just your competitors so you can keep an eye on them (video to come)

What else would you like to see me demonstrate? Please let me know, i am here to help, thanks
Justin