Entrepreneur Magazine, in conjunction with Sprint and Deluxe For Business hosted the Online Marketing & Social Media Crash Course today at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Atlanta. Starr Hall, a world-renowned social media guru and speaker provided over 2 hours of social media training and tips on how to grow your business using social media.

I received an overwhelming response to people who were not able to attend, but because I love you, I wanted to share with you some of the tips she provided to participants. 🙂
Disclaimer: All of the information below was created and presented by Starr Hall, not me. She deserves the credit for this brilliant material! Visit her website at http://www.StarrHall.com. Let’s go! 

1. There is a distinct difference between advertising, promotion, publicity, public relations, and marketing.
Marketing is the “mama” that births all the other things.

2. Most people use Social Media (SM) like a shiny red corvette in your garage. You take it out the garage, drive around your neighborhood, and  bring it back home and tuck it safely in your garage. SM is intended to get you OUT of your neighborhood and driving up and down the west coast… east coast… around the globe!

3. You can make the most of SM by using the advanced search options on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc by searching terms related to your business. For example, I would search for “copy writers”, “copy editors”, “freelance writers”, etc. when I want to meet people outside of my “neighborhood” who could use my services.

4. Your website is your foundation. Most websites are one-way. You provide the information, you tell them about you, you tell them what you do, you show pictures of you…you…you…you. Two-way websites engage the consumer, provide testimonials from other consumers like them, show pictures, and videos, and tweets from consumers like them. The website isn’t about you. It’s about how that consumer can get what they want. And in return, you get what you want: exposure and sales.

5. Another thing about websites: people don’t want to think. If you have too much copy (text) on your website, coupled with tons of colors, fonts, and the like, you’re going to push people away. They want their visit to your site to be easy. Don’t require a Ph.D. to decipher what your website is trying to portray. Make it easy so they’ll come back to your site again and again.
PS: if you need assistance with copy writing web content for your site, provide your info at the bottom of this blog post and I’ll get back to you.

6. Last thing about websites (since that is your foundation): you should “reinvent” your site every 3-6 months. NO this is not a brand new design, colors, and logos but updating testimonials, pictures, videos etc to keep the content fresh. Also your website should have NO MORE than 3 calls to action. In Starr Hall’s case, her three calls to action from her site were to “Book Starr Hall”, “Read Column”, “Download Tips”. Easy.

7. Essentially, building your business is about building the public’s trust in you. Engage people on social media by finding a balance between business and the personal, or what Starr Hall calls BizPer. In the session she gave the example of: “I’m in Starbucks drinking a latte working on my presentation for Microsoft.” Perfect blend of personal touch with business intentions. This is how we use SM effectively.

8. Intergrate video into your website. Use the 60-Minute interview style of video. Have someone interview you off camera (like the show 60 Minutes) and answer the questions to the person, versus looking directly in the camera.

9. Keywords, keywords, keywords. The number one goal of any business is to have their name or brand pop up on the first page of Google or Bing. Using specific keywords like “Cheap short sale homes in Phoenix, Arizona” will bring up your website first versus simply using keywords like “real estate in Arizona”.

Starr Hall is a great resource on using social media (as you can see!) and provided us with some great websites to check out:

http://www.hootsuite.com
socialsafe.net
mediaontwitter.com
smallbiztrends.com
partnerup.com
businessonmain.msn.com
deluxesmallbizblog.com

Here are some keywords to search on Google to help as well:

Google Analytics
Viddler
Screencast
TubeMogul
WordTracker

That’s all folks! Be sure to fill out the form below if you need assistance with copy writing/editing for your website!

On the Chase,

Alisha L.