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Half of Canadian businesses believe that social media has the potential to increase their profitability, according to a new BMO Bank of Montreal survey. However, while social media tools such as podcasts and social networking sites present significant, cost-effective opportunities for businesses to engage customers, only 29 per cent of Canadian small business owners are taking advantage.
The survey, conducted by Leger Marketing, found that those who think social media can increase their profit believe it can do so through:

promoting their company’s brand or reputation (64 per cent)
providing broader access to …

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They said that 2010 would be the year that social media went maintream, and they were right.  It was the year where we saw droves of ‘special consultants’ start up social media management services to cash in on the trend.

But I always advise companies not to outsource this important aspect of their communications and marketing functions. To me, it makes no sense to hand over important relationships to outsiders.
My approach to social media consulting is to help companies get to grips with the new tools and help integrate them into …

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Image via CrunchBase

Foursquare, the location-based social networking service, is targeting brands and local businesses by revamping its business pages; this step will help it face formidable competition from Facebook Places.
The New York-based social networking company, which launched in 2009, was a pioneer in location-based “checking-in” to receive rewards and deals, but lately it seems to have lost momentum, partly because of the Facebook location initative.
The idea is to make Foursquare a whole lot easier for businesses to understand and use.  The company has launched new Foursquare for Business pages which …

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Image via Wikipedia

Companies blocking competitors from following a Twitter feed in the hopes of gaining a commercial edge are kidding themselves.  And it’s clear that the company doesn’t really ‘get; the whole ethos of  social networks, so one might wonder why it bothers at all.
Let me explain.  In terms of Twitter’s site features and functions, blocking an individual follower does very little to stop him from seeing your updates.  From Twitter’s FAQs:
Blocked users are unable to add your Twitter account to their lists, and we will not deliver any …

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A few years ago I had the very good fortune to work with Susan Getgood, a true internet marketing innovator.  America was in the thoes of the dotcom boom and  Susan was working  hard to educate people about the importance of  managing  internet risks at home, at work, in schools…everywhere; I was lucky enough to be part of her team.
Since that time, Susan’s become a recognised leader in social media marketing.  Her blog, Marketing Roadmaps is a popular resource for marketers and she’s a co-founder of Blog with Integrity, an …

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Would you walk into a pub full of people you don’t know, sit down at a crowded table and blurt out, “Buy my stuff!  I’m brilliant and I’ll do you a good deal!  Call me! Email me! Buy my stuff!”
No?  So why then would you go into a LinkedIn group and start spamming it with your sales and marketing bumpf?  Why would you go to someone’s blog and spam with comments with links to your own site and Sell Sell Sell! messages? Or why would you auto reply to new …

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Image via CrunchBase

A beauty salon owner I met last week was telling me about how she uses Facebook to offer special rates on services.  Curious, I checked it out and was surprised to see her business was set up as a group instead of as a page.  Turns out, she is unaware of the difference and a friend had set up the group for her.
Then, a couple a days ago, I discovered  that a friend of mine has just set up his company on Facebook, but I was surprised to …

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To be successful in social media you need to have the right resources.  You need skilled people, time and technology and each of these has a specific cost. If you want to measure social media ROI you need to be able to quantify these costs from the outset.
Accountants and successful business managers measure things in terms of hard cash.  Are sales up? Are profits good?  Are costs limited?
Other organisations have similar ‘hard goals’…votes tallied, behaviours changed, individuals recruited.
The finance director doesn’t tend to care about clicks, …

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Image by BrittneyBush via Flickr

Seventy per cent of public relations and communications agencies cite social media as a major cause of communications crises, according to a survey conducted by Dynamic Markets, a research consulting firm.  A hundred senior PR professionals took part in the survey early this year which revealed:

24% said traditional media had ignited crisis situations
34% said bloggers had been to blame
24% said crises had started in online social networks
8% said discussions in online forums had been the root of crises

Half of all agencies had had client crisis management …

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The folks over at TheBestOf have asked me to run a social media workshop exclusively for  their  members.  I’ve put together a special programme to meet the specific needs of their members who:

Might have a Facebook profile, but don’t realise much benefit
Don’t have the time to Tweet or update Facebook
Think they can’t sell via Twitter
Think blogging is only for kids on MySpace
Don’t understand the rules of the road in social media
Are starting to get curious about how social media can help their business

Participants will learn:

Facebook’s primary features and functions
How Twitter …