Recently in an article placed on Forbes Magazine titled “5 Reasons Why Your Online Presence Will Replace Your Resume in 10 years” a movement is occurring with companies looking at how you present yourself while you are off the clock. Companies want to know more than just who you are while you are there but can you carry forth their image outside of work.

The Social Media Breakdown:

1. The use of social networking sites is growing exponentially while the use of email is plummeting. Why is this important? Think about it. With the increased use of social media companies will use this as a way to communicate with you.
2. Traditional search options for jobs are just fading out. In order for people to remain a force to be considered in the world it is necessary that you have a way to draw people to you! What makes you stand apart or what accomplishments do you have that you can broadcast to the world that would make you different? Think outside the box and let others see it.
3. People aren’t sticking with the same job their entire life. It is important to treat your job as a springboard into something bigger and better. No one stays at the same company their whole life anymore. Job security is next to nothing and it has become second place for people to be laid off. So with that being said, brand yourself, stand out and use your social media to help do that.
4. Resume generators are the new cookie cutters. If you just google the phrase “Resume Generator” there are so many tools out there now that can spit out a hip, interesting, 2D piece of paper. There is nothing that it can say that can make you stand apart. I agree with this because I would rather show people my passion and experience rather than just tell them and you can do it – through a social media outlet.
5. Passion is everything to headhunters. What is your driving force? What makes you happy? What is helping you to achieve the next big thing? Think about it. No one wants a stick in the mud but people who are passionate about whatever and whoever. So make it happen. Be passionate and help yourself stand out on your facebook, twitter, or blog.

Overall, the article was great. If you are ahead of the ball and have already been doing these things and considering your online presence, kudos to you. But you haven’t yet – which is more often than not what the case is – take some time to invest in your internet presence. Just think of the nice cushy job that you could land right?

Who knew back in 2004 that Facebook would become a sweepstakers heaven and a business owners dream come true?  With the evolution of Facebook over the past few years, companies have been able to expand their business much further and faster (and for cheaper) than ever expected.  In some cases Facebook has actually saved many businesses from ultimate doom.

However there is still that lull that every business hits, which forces some to get creative. Thus, Facebook contests and sweepstakes were born.

What do Facebook contests mean for the business owner or company?

Facebook contests save companies time and money. This way companies can instantly attract new customers and connect with their current customers, without having to spend thousands (in some cases millions of dollars) on printing and mailing promotions that are just going to end up in the garbage anyhow.

People are more likely to see a promotion on Facebook versus mailings because mailings typically get buried and thrown out with the junk mail, whereas people are on Facebook all the time. How many people look at their junk mail at least five times a day?

There are all kinds of creative Facebook contest ideas. Some contests reward you for having the most friends “like” their company page, while others simply have you fill out a form with your contact info. It’s amazing how much more inclined consumers are to fill out a form when the reward is enticing enough.

My most recent favorite Facebook contests is this interactive Wendy’s “design a shirt and win $5000”. Even if you don’t win, it’s still fun to play with.

What do Facebook contests mean for the consumer? Can you make a living off of Facebook contests and Sweepstakes?

The contests allow the consumer to stay in touch with all the great deals and happenings at your leisure without feeling harassed. Besides, it can be fun.

There really are people whose full time “job” is entering contests and sweepstakes and yes, it actually puts food on the table for their families. But I wouldn’t quit your day job just yet.

With recent television shows having aired on this subject, a lot more people have jumped on the wagon and starting entering these contests. It’s good news for business owners and companies, because it gives them a larger audience, recognition and ultimately more sales. However for you and me, our odds of winning these contests decrease with the increasing volume of people that enter. So banking on making a living this way probably isn’t the smartest idea.

So the answer to the ultimate question…

Yes, business owners can certainly promote their business and make a living thanks to Facebook contests. And yes individuals can, have and do make a living off of Facebook contests and sweepstakes, but you may want to keep that one as a hobby.

This is a great idea for several reasons. First of all it’s a pretty big win for the White House that they are utilizing social media to reach out to the people.

Only a small amount of people will get to actively participate in the digital hang out, but everyone is welcome to view it. All you have to do is find the White House’s google+ or youtube page and you’re in. Sounds simple enough, right?

A Big Plus For Google+

This is also a pretty big deal for Google itself. It’s not every day a social media platform gets invited into the Presidents home. As a matter of fact, it will be the first ever completely digital interview from the White House.

So often it feels like political figures are trying to shy away from social media. It’s pretty cool to see our current President trying to embrace it.

The chat is scheduled to last for 45 minutes and starts at 5:30pm. Will you take advantage of this unique chance to hang with the President? What would you ask him?

With Yelp, Angie’s list, yahoo reviews, and other websites growing it has become apparent that business owners need to get some positive reviews in order to compete. You’ve worked very hard to provide great customer service and very loyal customers, but for some reason no one is reviewing you online. Let me introduce you to what I call “in the moment marketing” and how you can use this technique to get more stars than the latest Harry Potter movie.

An Example

In the moment marketing is pretty straight forward – all you do is market to people in the right moment. Let’s say you own a pizza shop that sells 5 Ft . Pizzas and you’ve accurately named your business “bigger is better”. You are getting some great customers and are excited to grow the business to take over the Pizza Huts and Dominoes of the world. One day you look online expecting to see hundreds of satisfied reviewers sharing their great experience at “bigger is better”. You search and search and finally conclude that no one has written you a review – even though you have happy customers.

This is where we introduce in the moment marketing to help this fantastically-named pizza café. One day you decide to buy a few ipads and let people use them while waiting for their orders. As you hand the customers ipads you simply ask if they have a spare moment to give you a review online or to tweet something to their friends. Soon enough you start seeing great reviews pop up on a few different sites. Weeks later you notice that your store is doubling in customers, because people have been talking about you on twitter and facebook. After a few years you’ve got several locations across the state.

Last Disclaimer

Now this example is extreme, but it does show how easy it is to get exposure online if you simply interrupt people having a great experience and ask them to share it. For in the moment marketing to work you also have to provide a means by which your customers can actually share their experience. This can be a laptop at the front, ipads that get passed around, a QR code for people with smart phones, etc… basically anything that gets them online and connects them with their social networks.

Once you’ve got the conversation started, you’ll be amazed at how quickly the good word spreads. If you properly use “in the moment marketing” you’ll be amazed at just how big “bigger is better” can really get.

Like this article? Read this related article: Measuring the ROI of social media

It’s 2012, and that means it’s time to allocate your budget for the year. How much do you plan to spend on marketing? Getting your business’ name out into the public eye is no small feat. And the public’s eyes are online. Make sure you are, too. But don’t be a guppy fish about it, do it right:

1. Make your site even more user friendly. Let people know what you’re all about, and don’t leave them with any questions other than “Why haven’t I done this already?”
   Ex. If it takes me even 1 whole minute for me to get from your site that you sell insurance, you may have a problem.
2. Update your local listing. Since local results are combined with regular listings, consistency is crucial. Make sure that your address, phone numbers, and website are listed identically across the web.
   Ex.  It’s either your office line or your toll-free number. You have to pick just one.
3. Let people find you through social media. If you don’t have accounts set up with all of the major social networking platforms, your company is behind the times.
   Ex. How can your passive-aggressive customers let you know what they’d like to see changed if you don’t have an account for them to complain on?
4. Refine your SEO key terms. It’s okay to sacrifice mega-volume for quality leads. Often better than okay. An accurate key term with responsible link building will get the right people looking at your site.
   Ex. Be clear but not general. (*Salute.) If you’re looking for potential customers, your key words should reflect that. Someone searching “shoes” wants a desktop background; someone searching “leather upper charcoal saddle shoes” is probably looking to buy.

User Reactions

While Mark Zuckerberg believes that this online virtual scrapbook will become “the story of your life,” there have been many mixed reactions from users. There are those who easily see the benefits of the new Facebook Timeline because of its ability to focus on a user’s entire life, not just the here and now. On the other hand, many Facebookers have become frustrated with the continual changes of their profiles, not to mention that they do not feel comfortable with sharing so much information. They also see this update as a way for the company to gain even more access to details of their personal lives, especially given the Facebook privacy issues of the past.

Your Personal Timeline

Regardless of your opinion about the new change, what should you do when you enable these new Timeline features? The first part is simple. Facebook Timeline is designed to be a visually-appealing documentary of your life. Therefore, photos, photos, photos! You are now able to create not only a profile picture, but also a larger background image. Next, work on inserting life events. The day you were born, the day you graduated, the day you were married—all of these big events can be added to your Timeline.

In addition, don’t forget to customize your page with apps, news stories, and more. You can even add the places you have traveled globally, and of course various options that were available previously, such as your current employment, universities where you have studied, and languages you know. This Timeline is all about you, so get as personal or un-personal as you want—but either way, be creative!

The “Near Future”

Facebook noted yesterday that this global rollout will reach other regions in the “near future.” There have already been reports of this feature being enabled in parts of Canada, the Netherlands, and even parts of Israel and India. So let us know when your Timeline is enabled! And if so, will you use this social media marketing upgrade?

Microsoft SkyDrive

Cloud computing is continuing to improve and it is important to now understand how cloud computing works.  To put it simply you can put these documents on the cloud, instead of it taking up space on your computer.

Microsoft Skydrive’s update now lets you share individual files instead of complete folders.  This makes it simpler to share what information you want with the right people.  You no longer need to create multiple folders to make sure everyone gets the right information and nothing more.

If you want to share a document from Microsoft Office, the person that opens it can view it either using a Microsoft app of the program that is on the internet, or by using the Microsoft program that is on your computer.

You can also let those you share your document to edit it or to make it read only, so you have full control of your documents.

With so many people using social media it makes sense that you would want to share documents using either Facebook, or LinkedIn.  SkyDrive now lets you do this making it easier to share with all of your friends.
Microsoft SkyDrive has made a lot of progress in this latest update.  What do you think is better, SkyDrive or Dropbox?  What do you use and why?

Facebook is currently having success against Google’s newest project Google+.  Not many people have switched over and it seems that Facebook is winning the Google Facebook war for now.

It is estimated that Buffy won’t be done for another year and a half.  With so many smart phones coming out now, is this the best option for Facebook?

This is especially true because by the time that the Facebook phone comes out, the iPhone 5 and more Androids will be announced and possibly finished or close to finishing.

While Facebook has 800 million users, I would say that most aren’t committed to the company.  A lot of the people I know only use it because everyone else is on it.

There are sure to be easy use of Facebook on these new phones which might be appealing to some.  Although, how many people need to check Facebook at all times and have easy access to it?

It seems Facebook seems more like something to do when you are bored and have time, not when you are on the go.  While Facebook is really big now with social media, you never know when something new will come along and take the market.

Facebook isn’t a trusted name when it comes to phones and that could hurt them.  It seems like a risky move and it is not 100% that Facebook will create Buffy, but it will be interesting to see the results if they do.

Stage 1: Launch

The objective of this stage is to establish a social media presence for your company in all the major social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. You really won’t see any major results from these efforts; they are merely executional.

Stage 2: Management

The objective of this management stage is to engage your potential customers so they will connect with your brand in a significant way. There is an emphasis on specific metrics such as Facebook “Likes,” Twitter followers, click-through rates, and inbound links. Companies may choose to start to get to know their following better by tracking responses to customer surveys and polls. Overall, many companies like to test their new ideas and track the results from potential customers.

Stage 3: Optimization

Many large companies are finally entering this phase of the social media ROI cycle. Instead of merely managing their social media platforms, they are converting their leads and reaping the results. Testing out different landing pages and seeing which one is more effective is a common practice, while analyzing the qualitative and quantitative results is a must. Thus, the objective in the optimization stage is revenue growth.

Create Your Own Formulas

A content manager for BFG Communications Hal Thomas stated, “We often approach social media like it’s the destination rather than the vehicle.” This statement speaks volumes when a company realizes, for example, that the goal is not “to be on Facebook,” but rather that Facebook is a communications tool that can be used to create an active and participative fan base (learn here how to enhance your Facebook presence).

Moving through these three stages of the social media ROI cycle effectively will increase brand awareness and loyalty not only for your potential customers, but for your own company as well. Conversations generated on these social media platforms can relate to every department. Depending on how well you listen, you will be able to create your own formulas for how you wish to track and improve your social media ROI.

While it is great that Google has made it easy to get a Google+ business page, there are flaws in it being so easy.  There are no verification requirements to create a page.

All that you need to create a Google+ business page are four things.

1. The name you want your business page to be
2. The website associated with your business
3. The category
4. Who can view your page

While it is easy to create a page, your business page can be verified by Google which will give your business page more authority over other business pages.

It is still unclear how you can verify your business page, but supposedly Google will try to get in contact with you to verify your page.

If your business page gets verified by Google then if anyone puts +YourCompanyName, they will be taken directly to your Google+ business page.  If you want to try it out you can search for “+Google” or  ”+Pepsi.”

That is very convenient so that the business doesn’t have to do a lot of work to get their company page to appear whenever a user searches for their company in a social media site.  It will be simple for potential customers to find their page.

One flaw of Google+ pages though is that they still don’t allow contests or promotions.  That means that business pages can’t have sweepstakes, coupons, or other promotions on their page.  They would be required to post a link to a site that would run their offers.

Now that Google+ business pages are up, we will see if they can compete with the already established social media sites.  Is this the next battle being fought in the Google and Facebook War?  Can Google compete or have they entered the game to late?