Located online at www.twitter.com, Twitter stands for “Typing What I’m Thinking to Everyone Reading,” and is easily accessible from the Web or the latest generation of smart cell phones and PDAs. Twitter users compose “Tweets,” quick entries consisting of no more than 140 characters. Tweets range from talk of today’s lunch to breaking news; many forward-thinking businesses use the service to get quality content to readers and to build brand loyalty while promoting awareness.

Like many tools on the Web, Twitter began as purely social—a tool for friends to keep tabs on one another via quick updates about their days—but quick-thinking entrepreneurs and businessfolk knew a good thing when they saw it. Now many businesses are on Twitter, monitoring chatter about their brands, promoting deals, and answering customer questions. The great thing about Twitter is that it’s not a purely promotional tool—what it really promotes is good conversation.

If you’re not on Twitter, are you missing out? Wondering how to get started, and what to do once you’re on board? Take a look at our white paper, How Can Twitter Help My Business, and you’ll be setting hearts all a-Twitter in no time!

Once you’re set up, be sure to follow our Social Media Swami, Shashi Bellamkonda, @shashib.

Good luck, and happy Tweeting!

I almost never pre-scheduled these little drive-bys in advance, instead just relying on a simple calculus: I’d stick my head in, and if they weren’t busy, on the phone, or otherwise waving me off, I’d stop and chitchat for a bit, find out what was going on, gripe and get griped to, then leave.

If they were busy, I’d just wave and move on, and maybe try to catch them on the return trip.

I can’t be positive, but I don’t think I annoyed too many people with my drive-bys. A lot of times, people were surprised that someone would actually, physically, visit (some folks were very head-down, e-mail and IM-only types) — especially someone who they weren’t actively working with at the time.

So what’s the point of this story, other than to show that I was (am) a big slacker? It was all about maintaining relationships within my professional social network. And not in a coldly-calculating, Machiavellian career-advancement kind of way: These were people whom I was friendly with, yet who weren’t necessarily my “friends,” but with whom I’d worked before and might work again.

And it was often pretty useful, not just for gossip-swapping purposes: You could get a sense of how other groups worked, what challenges they faced, who was doing what; all stuff that you can’t really get from a status report (even if you’d see another groups status report, which generally, you wouldn’t.)

Now take that idea and expand it, using modern social media and online communication tools, as well as the concept of ambient intimacy. It’s not that big of a stretch — using pings, pokes, winks, and general status updates are low-cost ways (in terms of attention and interruption, not money) to seed conversations that have no set agenda, but are still valuable for maintaining relationships.

Truth to be told, though, for these purposes, I still prefer one-on-one communications like IMs, direct messages, and other targeted conversations over social broadcasts. They’re a lot warmer than just shotgun-blasting status messages out to your entire network, even if it’s just a one word “’sup?”, harassing a friend with a silly quote, or sticking an earworm in their head. (I also think privacy, or at least semi-privacy, leads to more candor and thus more valuable — or at least more interesting — conversations.)

Also, 1-to-1 drive-bys of this sort online probably work better for personal relationships — you should be more judicious in the business context, and not bother people unless you have a valid (and not just plausible) reason to say hi. At least with my in-person office drivebys, I was physically in the neighborhood, which wasn’t just a pretext — it was the truth.

If you want to be cynical about it, you could say that you’re just keeping lines of conversation open and primed, so that they’re available for when you need to use them for something substantive. One likes to think you can spot that kind of ulterior motive, though.

Do you do anything to maintain your online relationships? Are you the cold, calculating sort with calendar and stopwatch; a social spammer; or something in between? Leave a comment.

And if you’re one of the folks I used do drive-bys on, also leave a comment and let me know how you felt about them. Even if they bugged you. I can take it.

Earlier this week at The OPEN Forum Blog, there was a blog entry, “A Little March Madness Can Be Good for the Workplace,” [link via Fark] that was a refreshing change from the standard, pre-written annual “the NCAA tournament costs employers $_ billion in lost productivity” story ($4 billion, according to the linked MSNBC article, followed by the just-as-predictable counter-articles)

Not to make too big a thing of it, but I think there’s a valid point here about why office pools are good. But it’s not the point about the sketchy numbers, the value of distractions from hard times, or even the soft “good for morale” argument.

The value of things like office pools, happy hours, softball leagues, language learning lunches, and other social activities, is that they help encourage social networking among employees (that’s social networking in the traditional sense, not just online). They provide venues for social interactions among groups that might not normally mix (especially in bigger companies), where interpersonal, horizontal connections can form (no, not those kinds of interpersonal, horizontal connections), which can later help build shortcuts, get around artificial institutional barriers, and flatten hierarchies, to help people form true interdisciplinary teams.

Basically, that was a bunch of organizational jargon that means you can meet people who might be able to help you get stuff done, or who can point you to people who can answer a question, or who might be more willing to take the extra step for you because they know you.

And because these activities are at least somewhat removed from official office stuff (even if they’re sanctioned), they let people engage on a different level than they would on, say, an official “team-building exercise,” or a cringeworthy skit during an all-hands meeting.

I’m just going by my own anecdotal experiences, but I’ve found that establishing and maintaining social connections with people in unrelated groups has paid off for me many times.

Of course, office networking has been around ever since there were offices. So how’s social media fit into this?

I think that social status sharing and “ambient intimacy” tools like Twitter and IM away messages help make it easier to maintain connections that you’ve made during social activities. They’re relatively unintrusive, and even if they only give you the illusion of really “knowing” a person, they can give you context to better prepare you for professional interactions.

(Then again, if you’re a jerk, maybe you don’t want people to get to know you better. But even then, knowing that you’re a jerk can be valuable to other people, so they can either route around you, or figure out a more effective strategy of dealing with you.)

In many ways, corporate implementations of social media tools are just ways to unlock, codify, and make accessible all the personal networking information we’ve got stored in our melons. Which is why I’m interested to see how organizations adopt social media tools that go beyond just pure knowledge management and communication.

Anyway, the office tournament pool is a particularly good example of these kinds of activities — the barrier to entry is low; the skill factor is balanced by luck; the potential financial stake keeps people interested; and there’s plenty of stuff to talk about while it’s happening (and it even has a built-in expiration date).

Is this just an elaborate apologia for the office pool? Or do you think it can be a launch point for better office communication? Leave a comment below. (Heck, you can also tell us how your bracket is doing. Mine is kind of middlin’.)

• Building your Brand 101 Series
• Building Your Brand Series – Part 1 – Listening
• Building Your Brand Series – Part 2 – Responding
• Building Your Brand Series – Part 3 – Analytics
• Building Your Brand Series – Part 3 second half – Analytics

In working with those tools you’ve probably found places where your customers are interacting. You should be participating there too.

I have written about opportunities to network on social network sites like Facebook, LinkedIn & Xing (Europe’s version of LinkedIn). There are also specialty networks like Konnects. Network Solutions offer MySolutionSpot & now offers LinkTogether.

Your profile is probably the key thing. If you don’t fill it out how will people know what your company offers?

Get involved – this will help people notice you. And it also allows you to present yourself as an expert in the area. Being a leader is also a good way to position yourself. How can you help others?

How much time should you spend doing this? It can be as little as 15 minutes per day. Or if you’d prefer to do a half hour a couple of times a week, that works too. The secret is to be consistent.

Get involved in groups, meet new people & grow your network. It will pay off. At first it seems like a waste of time, but after awhile it gets easier & you’ll find that you enjoy it!

What social networks do you participate in?

This fits in perfectly with the series that I’m working on now on branding & establishing a presence for your business online. It’s imperative that others have an awareness of your site. I listed StartPR.com as a tool that you can use. This is Alex’s business venture.

Alex offers a lot of information in this interview. His suggestions in the answer to question five are excellent advice.

Connie: What motivated you to create StartPR.com?

Alex: The idea for StartPR grew out of a need for better blogger relations. About a year ago, I helped launch an online service that received hundreds of favorable mentions from bloggers and websites in the US and around the world. A few months later, my friends Brian Breslin and
Xavier Bussiere launched their own service, which was also well received. However, we noticed and commented to each other about how manually tedious it had become to manage the online conversations! In fact, we were responding to each blogger and there was no way to easily keep track of mentions or reporting on our activity. We soon decided to create StartPR, a service that would make it easier to identify the online conversations, to manage blogger relations, and to document our communications activity.

Connie: How do you see small businesses using it?

Alex: I think it’s important to realize that more and more people are expressing themselves across various social networks and blogs. Without a doubt, some of these conversations will be interesting or very relevant to your small business. Whether people mention your company’s name, products, employees, industry, or competitors, it is important to keep track of what’s being said in order to respond appropriately. Since StartPR will track any term or combination of terms across the internet (including on photo- and video-sharing sites such as Flickr and YouTube), you may easily keep up with the latest conversations that are of interest. Whether the mentions are positive or negative, you now have a way of receiving them centrally, managing the response with your colleagues, and keeping tabs on your blogger relations efforts.

Connie: What would a work flow be for using your product?

Alex: Immediately after setting up the key terms you would like to track, you will start receiving search results in your workspace. These results are drawn from a variety of blogs, social networks (including Twitter), and multimedia sharing sites. Most any online mention of your terms will appear in your workspace. The next step is to decide whether to respond to the mention, and if so, who among your team is best suited to do so. In our multi-user environment, you may post notes about each mention and delegate these mentions to your colleagues. This way, you may coordinate an appropriate and timely response with your team to respond to the people, bloggers, and websites that are talking about your company and products. After an important announcement, you may also want to visualize the number of mentions you are getting by consulting our charts. At the end of the week or month, you may print out reports on your blogger relations activity, or download it to a spreadsheet for further analysis.

Connie: What sets your product apart from others in this space?

Alex: Online brand monitoring is still a nascent field in response to companies’ efforts to engage with the growing number of people participating in various types social networks. Competing services in this space differ on focus, features, and price. Each service offers different sets of features, and many of them focus mostly on displaying metrics and charts of online mentions. We aim to provide the best user experience for engaging with bloggers, while also providing tools to facilitate intra-company collaboration and reporting.

Connie: What advice would you give small businesses as they add an online presence?

Alex: If you’re a small business, the primary strategy must be to increase your rank in Google. Too often, businesses spend too many resources on their website’s design and not enough effort on increasing the number of organic (unpaid) visits from Google searches. Choose to work with professionals who will advise you on how to build a website and online presence that will position you highly in Google. Next, think about
which social networks to join and how to participate in them. After all, people are spending their time socializing on these networks — from Twitter to Flickr to Facebook to YouTube, and many more. By maintaining an active presence on the appropriate social networks for your business, you will attract new people to your own web properties. Finally, consider maintaining a professional or business blog. A history of quality posts may turn into your most powerful asset for establishing your online presence, establishing your credibility, and gaining authority in your field. Working on these aspects should lead to increased conversions and customer retention. There is a slight learning curve to using social media, but in time, this should feel natural and something you look forward to!

Our thanks to Alex for his time & contributions to the social media world! For the last question, I consider the social networking as building community & completely agree with Alex. It takes time, starts slow & builds. But you definitely need tools to do it.

You can find Alex at:

Alexdc on Twitter

his blog – AlexDC.org

Have you tried StartPR.com? I’m sure that Alex would welcome your feedback.

Business Acquisition

Career Advancement

Competitive Advantage

Employee Satisfaction & Retention

The panel will cover how business social networking & social media are being used to leverage a competitive advantage.

WHEN Wednesday, October 1, 2008 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

WHERE The Tower Club, 8000 Towers Crescent Drive, Vienna, VA 22182

View Event Summary

RSVP here by Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Cost is $45 (which is a special rate for guests of the speakers)

The distinguished panelists for the event will be:
* Terry Hsiao, CEO of Hook Mobile. Innovative high-tech entrepreneur, with a proven track record in developing concepts into successful operations, currently leads Hook Mobile, a market leader in multimedia applications for mobile and Social Media.
* Katherine Kennedy, Owner, KMK PR. Image Consultant for Social Media and owner of PR firm that places emphasis on utilizing social media for branding of individuals and companies, both traditional brick and mortar, as well as online based entities.
* Dan Latendre, CEO of Igloo. Senior level technology executive, heading up Igloo, a Canadian firm that provides a secure online corporate social networking platform which helps organizations create more productive connections with people.
* Shashi Bellamkonda, Sr. Product Manager of Network Solutions. “Social Media Swami” for Network Solutions, leads the company’s social/new media strategy which includes brand development, online content tools, customer outreach, and blogger relations.
Our moderator for the panel discussion:
*Kim Hart, Washington Post Technology Staff Writer
Come take advantage of the opportunity to ask questions and get answers. Meet professionals for business development, partnerships and career advancement.

Enjoy a gourmet lunch at the Tower Club.

To become a member or for more information about the TelecomHUB go to www.telecomhub.org

There are so many networks that you can join! Each has it’s idiosyncracies but they all have one thing in common: It’s all about building relationships & connecting. For simplicity I’m going to talk about Twitter, but the concepts apply to all of them. (The key is to choose a network where your customers are at.)

Here is an overview of how you can use Twitter:

1. Share ideas with others in your niche

Build a network of like-minded people by noting conversations of interest. Follow the person that has caught your attention.
Participate in the conversations. Listening is good, but you need to get involved to gain the full benefit.

2. Find new customers

Make sure that your bio info describes your services
Monitor Twitter using summize.com (bookmark it & set up an RSS feed)
As you network you’ll find people interested in your services

3. Provide Customer Service

If your product is being discussed on Twitter (use Summize.com to find out) then you can respond to them. People love getting a response when they’re just venting.
There are many examples of this – I’m using @NetSolCares to assist Network Solutions customers.

4. Gather information

Creating a new product or improving on one? Twitter is a great place to ask what they think. Any social network is & what better group than people in your niche? They will tell you what they think. You simply need to ask.

5. Share product info, coupons, etc

How creative can you be? You could share pre-release info on a product, coupons, sales info, etc. What about running a contest on Twitter? I’m sure that you can come up with many more. You could even start a brainstorming session on Twitter!

Here is further reading with links to tutorials & some resources for finding new people on Twitter. If you want an idea of how many businesses are on Twitter check out this list & maybe even follow a few!

I also have written a number of articles on Twitter. Feel free to follow me @cbensen