Due to time constraints to blogging everyday, I am starting my Social Media 60 Second MBA Video Series. Its all about results from Justin “Results” French. Have a listen to my new video series and I look forward to your feedback-

Justin

Please don’t forget to lave your comments, feedback, questions, and what topics you’d like me to cover in my video series- thx!

p.s. Be sure you download our FREE Social Networking 101 for business e-book in the upper right hand corner! 500+ people already have! Look to the right ————————>

In this short post, I take you behind the scenes in the classroom of what it’s like to teach social networking, internet marketing, and social media to fellow business professionals in San Diego County. Teaching is another passion of mine (I know I spread myself thin sometimes) but I think educating the small business community is something I have always done and will continue to do especially during these times. Enjoy the behind the scenes look at me teaching social media for business at Mira Costa College San Elijo campus. Cheers,

Justin

p.s. If you are in San Diego County and would like to be part of my VIP Social Media Mastermind group then take this quick 20 second poll on social media for business, give your feedback, and join the group. I look forward to meeting you-

Justin

poll: http://www.meetup.com/Social-Media-Mastermind-Group-San-Diego/polls/231719/

Gotta love that catchy headline right? Ok so yesterday when I logged into my personal Gmail account (I have about 30 Gmail accounts by the way all for a different business purpose because you know I’m all about business and occasionally having fun) and I happen to see a landing page come up introducing me to Google Buzz. I watched a quick video, got versed on it, and began exploring. After you watch the video I would advise you to play around with it a little bit. Do you think Twitter may be worried? My personal opinion is just like Linked-in, Facebook and Twitter. Google buzz will be just another means of me communicating to another online community of those I am connected with. (it just happens to be my contacts in my Gmail account and on my phone- the G1 Android). Buy one here and I’ll teach you how to set up a special proprietary workflow system I have created to streamline email and increase productivity

As the lines become more and more blurry between my professional life and personal life, I started out having two separate accounts but quickly realized how non time efficient this was. I am slowing trying to migrate to just 1 user account per social network, but we will see where that takes me. Right now I am more into twitter and Linked-In (obviously) but it depends on my goals.

What are you thoughts on the new Google Buzz? Should Twitter be afraid? I don’t think so, not for now anyway, BUT who knows what will happen in the next year. The world of social media and social networking for business changes every day. It is so hard to keep up BUT if this is your passion, you never consider it work. Its part of your life. It consumes you. You are addicted. But there are many other worse things you could be addicted to so until then, go get your Buzz on with Google and Tweet it up on Twitter. Cheers,

Justin R French

As businesses constantly struggle to get leads, some companies have embraced Social Networking, SEO, and Social Media to assist with lead generation. This is something we stumbled upon over a year and a half ago and have been helping businesses develop their own online lead generation system or workflow to embrace this cost effective strategy. We have helped numerous companies develop a strategy around creating value for the community, building relationships, all while collecting information to maintain communication about helpful products and services. This enables prospects to do business with them or purchase from them when THEY are ready. This is the less obtrusive approach that is continually being embraced by the companies that are getting ahead.

The 3 model companies using social media for business development include Zappos, Dell, and Whole Foods.

Here is The Top 10 Ways to Use Social Networking and Social Media for Business Development:

1. Be where the People Are

2. Focus on Customer Service

3. Be Helpful

4. Be Courteous

5. Be Kind

6. Demonstrate your product/ service knowledge or expertise

7. Share a current customer’s story that relates

8. Kindly ask for referrals when appropriate

9. Connect with them everywhere to stay on top of mind

10. Online business development makes lead generation fun

Any tips you’d like to offer that we may have forgotten? Also please remember to subscribe to our blog (top right where it says subscribe to our feed) and Re-tweet this post for those in your network that might find these quick tips helpful. I’m sure they would appreciate it.

Here is a Top 8 list of our Most Popular Posts for 2009 according to our tracking statistics on Hootsuite. You the community, clicked on these posts the most, so I put together a list of the most popular ones just in case you wanted to bookmark it or share it with your contacts (always appreciated)

Please help share these with the Business Community as I’m sure they will find these extremely valuable in preparing their strategy for 2010. This is in order of oldest post to the newest.

1. Top 5 Lessons Learned about Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, and Business”

This is the post that really kick-started our renewed passion for consulting, except instead of providing trusted IT consulting, our TEAM shifted into providing trusted Social Media Consulting because we identified the trends of businesses needing a team of consultants to help guide them on this new medium which should now be part of their marketing mix. Social media has been added to the equation of all marketing departments, or at least should be and the budgets will finally be there for 2010.

2. 10 Keys for Small Business Success Using Social Networking

This post gave actual tips small businesses can implement right away and gained much popularity among the small business community.

3. How CEO’s Can Create A Blue Ocean Strategy And Save The Company Using Social Media

As we know, good leadership starts from the top and works its way down, yet now we have seen a more bottom up approach thanks to social media. I would suggest any executives still trying to wrap their head around social media, you may want to read this popular post I did and the video explaining how to create a blue ocean strategy using social media with some examples in layman’s terms.

4. Top 5 lessons learned in the trenches of social networking for business and social media consulting

This post discussed what life has been like in the trenches of providing social media consulting and strategies for companies to leverage with even some lessons we learned early on. A good refresher like this is much needed for the New Year.

5. Top 5 Lessons in Trust relating to Social Media and Social Networking

Especially in today’s economic climate, we are extremely reliant upon the trust we have built with our network and community, and we must constantly be cultivating these relationships. The book I would recommend you read is by a fellow social media evangelist Chris Brogan. The title of his book Trust Agents speaks for itself. Here is where you can get your copy: Remember- leaders are readers!

6. San Diego Small Business Fair- Social Networking 101 Slides

This post gives the actual presentation I did at the local San Diego business fair. We received some very good feedback on the content presented so I encourage you to view this post just in case you missed the live event.

7. Top 10 Reasons Businesses Should Embrace Social Media and Twitter To Survive in 2010

Here was another Top 10 list I had put together explaining why businesses will should be embracing social media more as part of their business strategy for 2010. It received over 800 hits so there should be at least a few good points that you may find beneficial.

8. What are the ABC’s of Social Media For Business?

It is important to know the foundation of social media for business development purposes, so these ABC’s explain some of our processes we use (transparency) in working with clients to establish principles to ensure a solid foundation.

Here is to a great 2010 and we at the SNSD team wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Justin R French

P.S. As your trusted advisor, In case you were looking for a cost effective tool to stay in touch with your customers, prospects, and community, you may want to consider starting 2010 off with a tool we use at SNSD called Aweber. You can sign up here for a FREE test drive:

Can You Have More Sales, Too?

Helping over 65,000 businesses like yours raise profits and build customer relationships using AWeber’s opt-in email marketing software for over 10 years.

Take a Free Test Drive today!

We are often asked by prospective clients what is involved with social media for business?  We decided to write up a basic ABC’s of Social Media to help give you a inside peak into our process and methodology (with-out giving away to much proprietary information) in how we work with clients.  Hope this helps clarify.

A- Assessment (Basic or In-Depth analysis of your current online marketing strategy, SEO, competitive analysis, SWOT, keyword research, etc.)
B- Budget established (Our starting monthly subscription package right now based on supply and demand is 1,000$/ month)
C- Construct a Social Media Plan or Social Media Strategy (This is setting your business up for success and we do these often for our clients)
D- Delegate (we then execute the strategy by consulting, coaching and training your appropriate staff members on their integrated efforts)
E- Evaluate results, tweek strategy, and adjust tactics or tools used as needed to achieve maximum ROI
F- Functional Dashboard for measurements and decision making of executives

Video to follow on further explanation of these items. Do you have any questions we can answer? Submit us a comment below or email our CEO Justin R French at snsdjf@gmail.com he’s known to be very personal and responds quickly.

The Social Networking San Diego TEAM

p.s. We recommend this tool we use to follow up with our clients and you should definitely try it out

Can You Have More Sales, Too?

Helping over 65,000 businesses like yours raise profits and build customer relationships using AWeber’s opt-in email marketing software for over 10 years.

Take a Free Test Drive today!

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

Free? There is nothing FREE in this world as we know BUT if you don’t mind rolling up your sleeves, taking some notes, and working long hours then this may be the right opportunity for you to earn a FREE PhD using these FREE online tools and all your investing is your time. Not a penny more (except if you want to pay for some premium subscription services on some of these tools that help you listen better and teach you how to build systems) Times may be tough, but as business leaders and business professionals, we need to stay on top of education because at the end of the day, customers pay for our knowledge, experience and education and as consultants, we must stay up-to-date and constantly be learning.

I hear so often, “I don’t have time to do Twitter Justin, I have to run my business. Or I love this one,” My customers aren’t on twitter or social networking sites so we don’t need to get involved with that stuff.” Well ok, so I won’t sell you on the power of Twitter for your business anymore, or how building relationships in a virtual setting is just like networking at the local chamber. What I will try to sell you on is the importance of educating yourself on a new world- The Online world and how business has changed. If you don’t see that by now, I hope your still in business next year when we launch some new products that may help you stay ahead of your competitors online.

I can confidently say that with all the knowledge I have gained over the last 10 years of being an Entrepreneur and getting a degree while running small businesses, id like to give you a taste for the online education I received. This isn’t spending thousands of dollars with University of Phoenix or FullSail (Though Mira Costa College and the business program at Cal State San Marcos were hidden Jewels) for education, its just knowing where to look for the thought leaders, technology, listening, strategic thinking, and studying case studies.

Here are some of the listening tools I used to receive my PHD in online marketing for business over the last 4 years:

You Tube– I have watched hundreds of business videos on leadership, sales, marketing, CEO keynote speeches, Webinars, How To videos, technology conferences, start-up companies, etc. The point is YouTube can be used for educational purposes as well as entertainment, and there is plenty of great content out there which saves on gas and hotel expenses. Don’t forget savings from those pricey course fees. I can honestly say that a good portion of my learning relevant information to my industry (Business & High Tech) has been done using video and Google.

Small Business Trends– I have been subscribed to this site for longer than I can remember. Anita and her team have given me extremely valuable information in my journey as a small business owner over the years, and I continue to read the articles from this wealth of information. (Big thank you to Anita) Here is the link to this site (Click Here): Small Business Trends

Google Reader– I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used Google to find relevant information on a topic I was researching (I love to research, as we know, Leaders are Readers right?) Read a headline from one of my blog subscriptions, and was informed. As we know, knowledge is power and there is no better free tool than Google Reader (Google Alerts too)

Linked-In– At first I was skeptical about Linked-in (just like everything about on-line) but then I started engaging in the group discussions and realized how much valuable information you can receive from extremely successful people who have been in the trenches and have years of experience. I then would add my insights and the sharing of business experiences can help shape better decision making. 10 minds discussing an issue on business are better than 1 right? Linked-In was where I was introduced to the “Thought Leader” term online. If you have a passion about a particular area of business (find that group on linked-in), you want to demonstrate your expertise in your particular industry by sharing your insights and be the first to put out relevant information (first mover advantage) on a topic. Here is my Linked-in if you’d like to connect with me (but do me a favor when connecting, can you please mention what made you want to connect and how you see it being a mutually beneficial connection. This would help me out a great deal.

More topics to come tomorrow, I have been consulting for clients around the clock and am beat…..

What types of sites do you use to keep informed? What are some of your favorites? I’m interested in hearing your feedback- talk soon

Justin

P.S. We are launching a social media for business product soon so be on the look out

(Click Picture For Large View)

Today was an exciting day for me and I wanted to share my experience with my readers, colleagues, customers, partners, and friends. I started out doing some consulting for a client in the morning, then went to the Handlery Hotel in San Diego where I was speaking on behalf of the Small Business Development Center (or the SBDC) on Social Networking 101 for Business. This is a subject I have been helping the small business community on for quite some time now, and this was probably my seventh speaking engagement on social media so I am becoming less nervous each time. Once I found my groove though, It was all good.

I am extremely passionate about helping small businesses as I have for the last 10 years of my consulting career. Selling your time is not easy to do, and if you ask any consultant (myself included), they will probably say the same. But with social media and social networking this makes selling YOURSELF and your products, services, & company a little easier with what I call “relationship and educational selling” but more on that topic later…..

As promised to the many small businesses that attended today’s Social Networking 101 for Business workshop, I have attached the slides (see below)

I hope today’s session was informative and you learned something to take back and execute in the trenches. If you wouldn’t mind sharing below in the comments section, what is the #1 thing you took away from today’s presentation? If I could get your feedback on this so we can share with other small businesses it would be great. Remember, its all about engaging!

P.S. If youd like FREE Access to Our Beta “Social Media For Business Coaching Program” please send me an email at snsdjf@gmail.com with the subject line “coaching” and I will send you the exclusive invite.