PitBullMarketing's Weblog

Social Media Tip of the Day – Your Purpose

Jim Turner — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:11:24 +0000

Does your social networking experience feel as if you’re on a treadmill?

It could be that you’re operating without a goal and purpose in mind. Take Twitter for example – what is your strategy? What are you trying to accomplish on Twitter.

Some people are there strictly for entertainment and conversation. They would be repulsed if you tried to engage them in a business conversation. They strictly want to have fun and operate Twitter as more of an IM service.

If you’re looking to build your brand and gain clients from your Twitter activity, this is not someone you would want to follow and engage in conversation with very much. This is not to say that you can’t have fun on Twitter if you’re there for business purposes.

I’ve found that Twitter works best when you use it as if you were at a networking function. This means you have a diverse conversation, not just business only; because your prospects won’t get to know you as a person.

Thanks for listening in.

Jim Turner
http://unhub.com/e16u
http://twitter.com/jim_turner

Tagged: social media, Twitter

A Cool Way to Post Tweets To Your Facebook Status

Jim Turner — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 03:23:07 +0000

I’ve often wanted to post some of my tweets onto my Facebook Fan Page and Profile Walls, but just wasn’t comfortable with all of those conversations showing up on my Walls. A lot of my activities on Twitter are conversations. If most of what I did was post links, I would have been a little more comfortable with the idea.

The other thing to consider is that each time your tweets land in your Status line it travels throughout your Friends’ News Feeds. Imagine what that looks like to them… broken conversations. So, I’ve stayed away from posting my tweets to my Facebook status line.

However, today I came across a solution to my concern… it’s a Facebook app developed by Andy Young. His app is appropriately called the “Selective Twitter.” It allows you to send select tweets to your Facebook Wall by placing “#fb” at the END of your tweet. How neat is that? You can find the app here!

Credits should also go to Nancy Perez. I found this app referenced in a comment by Ian Chapman to her post about Facebook’s new and improved Fan/Brand Pages.

CAUTION: If you’re currently using the regular Facebook Twitter app or some other app to update your Status, remember to remove or disable it so you’re not making double posts of your tweets.

Try out “Selective Twitter” and let me know what you think.

http://facebook.dj/smmnetwork

http://profile.to/jimturner

http://twitter.com/jim_turner

Tagged: Etiquette, social media, Social Media Marketing

Who Should Decide Your Social Media Strategy

Jim Turner — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:46:07 +0000

Over the last two weeks there has been a lot of chatter going on around the social media circles concerning whether you should follow everyone who follows you on twitter; or should you just follow a few close friends.

One can argue both ways on this topic. There is a case for following everyone who follows you and likewise, you can only follow a close circle of friends or related people.

In the final analysis the choice is up to you and no one else. It all depends on why you’re using the various social media platforms – in this case it happens to be Twitter.

If Twitter could only be used for one single purpose, then you could argue that there is only one single strategy for using it. But that is far from the truth. There are almost as many uses for Twitter as there are people using it. We all use it a little different than the next person.

If you’re using it for a specific narrow purpose, such as staying with your group of 12 coaching clients, then surely, you don’t want to connect with anyone other than that group of people. In this case, I recommend you set up a separate Twitter account to be used with this group.

But if you’re tweeting with the hopes of attracting and finding new clients, I don’t suggest you be so narrow in your approach. However, you should follow those who appear to be in your target market based upon the content of their profile and what they Tweet about.

With that being said you can still follow everyone who follows you because you’re not sure who those folks are connected to that could become a client. I’ve had that happen to me.

So take a good look at why you’re on Twitter and any other social media site and determine what your follow strategy should be… because it IS your decision.

What is your follow strategy? Please share your comments below.

Tagged: social networking, Twitter

Digital Media Marketing Summit discussion

Jim Turner — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:44:09 +0000

Readers,

I’ve been invited to participate in the upcoming Digital Media Marketing Summit on February 19th. Based upon the topics you see below being discussed by other panelists and what you know about me – what would you like to hear me share information about?

7-7:45am Sundeep Kapur, Online Marketing Strategist, NCR – “One Web, Seven Sub-Channels”

8-8:45am Jim Turner!?

9-9:45am Chris Heuer, Co-Founder, Social Media Club – “Digital Marketing: Then & Now”

10-10:45am Denise Shiffman, CEO, Venture Essentials – “Proven Ways to Create Engaging Online Customer Experiences”

12-12:45pm Rodney Rumford , CEO, Gravitational Media – “Twitter as a Marketing, Communication & Branding Tool”

2-2:45pm Dean Westervelt, Social Media Analytics, Collective Intellect – “Digital Media Analytics and Trends”

Please post your comments below! Thank you in advance!

Best to you!

Jim

Are You Insulting Your Tweeple?

Jim Turner — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:37:09 +0000

Have you ever gotten one of those instant DM responses from someone that you asked to connect with on Twitter? Aren’t you amazed at how so many people are up at 3:00 a.m. in the morning waiting to respond to your request?

Well, actually they aren’t. They’re using one of the autoresponder services, such as Tweetlater, that are alerted each time they get a friend request. The autoresponder then sends you a DM containing a message written by the subscriber.

How do you feel about those auto-DMs? You might even use them yourself?

Are the too impersonal?Especially the ones asking you to click on a link and visit their blog. Or they might say something like: “click on this link for a special gift that I have for new Twitterbuds.”

I posed this question to my Twitterbuds recently and the response was overwhelmingly against auto-DMs. But a small few said that if used properly, they didn’t mind getting them.

What are your thoughts? How should they be used?

Please leave your comments along with your Twitter link.

Thanks…. Jim

http://twitter.com/jim_turner

Tagged: Etiquette, social networking, Twitter

Two Great Places to Find New Twitter Buds – Pt. 1

Jim Turner — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 02:09:50 +0000

Whether you’re new to Twitter or you’ve been using Twitter for a long time… there’s always one standing question – “Where do I find more people to connect with who are interested in what I’m interested in?”

I have the same question myself, even though I have over 3,900 4,000 followers. Recently, I came across two sites that have lead me to at least a couple hundred new followers within the last two weeks.

Hot Spot #1 – http://mrtweet.net
Here’s how MrTweet works. First you go and sign up and they tell you they’ll get back to you shortly with recommendations on whom to follow and who’s most likely to follow you back. Sure enough in a couple of days I received an email with a link to a page with two links:

Link #1 – directs you to tweeple that are outside you current network and are good prospects to connect with. My link directed me to 200 potential connections.

You get a ton of info about each person that helps you decide if it’s even worth connecting with the person, including: who in your network are following that person, their bio, # of followers/following, # of tweets/day and where they’re located.

Link #2 – directs you to a list of tweeple who are following you, but you’re not following them. In my opinion you should always follow folks who follow you – otherwise, how can you strike up a dialog with them. And if you’re not interested in having a conversation, then why are you on Twitter? I’ll talk more about this in a future post.

This is one of the best resources I’ve come across for finding new tweeple. They do a lot of the hard work for you.

Go check it out.

Best to you – Jim
http://twitter.com/jim_turner

Tagged: Twitter

Social Networking Strategic Move

Jim Turner — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:52:40 +0000

As you’re well aware, I’m a BIG fan of Facebook. I’ve built strong brand recognition and have established a loyal following of friends on FB. Over the last few weeks and days I’ve come to recognize some limitations in Facebooks platform.

I’ve found it to be great place to meet like-minded people, but have found it to be somewhat limited in it’s ability to allow one to build a highly interactive community. I love building communities and allowing people to get together and share ideas and solutions with each other.

Recently, several of my friends have either lost their accounts or gotten ‘scary’ warnings messages for being too active and appearing to be spammers… myself included.

So rather than risk going through the hassle of begging for mercy from Facebook I decided to setup my own social network… one that allows folks the freedom to interact and post quality messages and content w/out the fear of losing their account.

You can find my network at: http://ping.fm/GOrhO

I’m inviting all of my contacts to at least visit and check out the site and if you feel that you can either add value or receive value from being a member; by all means, please join. I’d love to see each of you there.

Thank you for being a great friend and networker.

Cheers!
~Jim

WARNING: Facebook Has Gone Cuckoo!

Jim Turner — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:44:59 +0000

About a month ago I hit the 5,000 friends plateau on Facebook, which means I can’t add or accept anymore requests for friends. Occasionally someone will drop out of my network for whatever reason.

When that occurs I accept some of the requests setting in my inbox… which could be 8 – 10 per day. But, mind you, I have over 70 waiting in the que. So over the last couple of hours I got this ‘brilliant’ idea…

“Why not click on the ‘send message’ link next to the person’s name and invite them to join my FB Fan Page to connect with me, since I’m maxed out with Friends?”

I was offering them the opportunity to network with me at my Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.dj/smmnetwork

Made a lot of sense to me!

After I sent out about six of these ‘brilliant’ invitations I got the WARNING from FB that if I continued to send those message I would risk having my account shut down for spamming.

Needless to say, I was shocked! People are requesting to connect with me. Facebook is saying I can’t have anymore friends. I offer them an alternative. Facebook says, “I dare you to keep sending those ‘brilliant’ messages!”

Can someone help me out here? What’s wrong with this picture. I know I’ve been a little stressed out recently and maybe my gray matter is a little foggy and I can’t think straight.

What are your thoughts on FB’s response? Thoughts please.

Cheers!
Jim

Testing the Ping Blog Posting Service

Jim Turner — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:08:51 +0000

Assuming this process works, this will make posting my short, top-of-the-head blogs a snap to post. There have been many times I wanted to post an idea or thought but didn’t want to go through the lengthy process of a normal post.

So, let’s see how this works.

Cheers!
~Jim

Follow-up to: Using Social Networking for a Worthy Cause

Jim Turner — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:20:04 +0000

A huge thank you goes out to all of you that have reached out to Monikah and Sarah by responding to my blog post from a few days ago. Many of you have left very kind and encouraging words that have been a real boost them.

Through the process of concerned and interested folks contacting Monikah and me, about how else can they participate if they don’t have $97 to purchase the “fire sale” package. Many wanted to know if they could possibly donate a smaller amount of money. And if so, how could they make a donation.

One person in particular, Reggie Baker, sent me this message:

“I have just talked to paypal and they are sending me an email with instructions on how to set up a donation button to Monikah. There are probably many that won’t or can’t buy Monikah’s course for $97.00 — altho it is a SERIOUS value. When i sort how to set the button up I will be in touch about how to advertise it.” Reggie Baker (inthistogether)

This helped to explain why after several hundred unique visitors had come to the page, less than 10 sales had been made so far. Those sales are very much appreciated.

During my conversation with Monikah on Thursday she was really struggling with accepting straight donations. She was very concerned about accepting help from others without them receiving something back in return.

That is a real and valid concern. I can appreciate her not wanting to develop a reputation as a ‘taker.’

But I explained to her that it is a myth that you can give without getting something back. When a person gives to someone in need there is a big gain on the part of the giver, even if there is no equal physical exchange transacted.

When decent people help others who are in need, they are supercharged with energy generated by the power of making a difference.

I can remember my years of living in the Midwest and terrible floods would hit certain areas, threatening people’s lives. Folks from all over would come to help secure those people’s homes and property while getting nothing back in return.

In fact, they would risk their own lives to help others. But at the same time, inside they felt like a million dollars – because they made a difference.

So, after sharing that story with Monikah she agreed that if there are people who want to help the cause by making donation, she would make that opportunity available.

So, she now has a way for anyone who wants to participate, to do so as there means allows them. Here’s how: http://tinyurl.com/getwellsarah

Thank each of you for participating and caring.

Social Networking ROCKS!

Cheers!
Jim