A recent article by Ashley Zeckman, 20 Social Media Marketing Do’s and Don’ts  sparked some thoughts on my end of what we need to do and avoid in the world of social media.

Here are my thoughts and I would love to hear what you would add to the lists:

DO’S

1. Interaction - Take the time to comment and interact. If you’re always trying to sell, sell, sell, it becomes hard to have a two-way conversation.
2. Re-purpose content - If you have different audiences, slant the message to each one. Also use content on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic to your blog.
3. Take advantage of SEO - Make sure what you do is searchable so it can be optimized.
4. Have one voice – Someone has to be responsible both in delivering the message, but also in responding to comments.
5. Test and measure - Make sure you have the tools in place to see what’s working best for you and your audience.

DON’TS

1. Don’t ignore people - Especially negative comments. There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing,  but do so in a polite way.
2. Don’t use automated responses - It defeats the purpose of trying to start a meaningful dialog. When was the last time you tried to have a conversation with a robot?
3. Don’t overcommit - Yes, you’ll find numerous accounts or groups that you should be in. If you can’t commit to utilizing a platform on a regular basis, what’s the point? More is not better.
4. It’s not about you - Instead of telling them how great you are, ask them how you might help them solve a problem.
5. What are you doing with all these relationships - You’ve spent lots of time and effort to engage prospects. What’s the plan to take it to the next level?

Let’s hear your ideas.

Using a CRM service like Emma, Exact Target or Constant Contact it will give you access to templates to use for formatting, and more importantly, it will give you tracking data on who opened the email and where they spent time. The metrics will also tell you where and on what subjects people are attracted to. They also give you room for special messaging and links to appropriate sites.

Here are 4 reasons why you should consider a newsletter:

1. Helps you stay in front of customers and potentials.
2. Helps you establish thought  leadership in your area of expertise.
3. Helps identify potentials who sign up for and keep coming back to your newsletter. Maybe someone should call on them?
4. Build a mailing list. Use it as one touch point to get your brand in front of your audience.

Frequency will depend on a few things. If you do a blog, I’d suggest you do it monthly and highlight the top 5 posts of the month. Most templates give you room for a customized message, like look for a new product launch coming next month or promotion of a webinar. 

If you don’t do a blog, assembly of info for the newsletter may be a little more time-consuming and I would suggest doing it at least quarterly. You could assign responsibilities to various people within your company. Customer service, sales and marketing. The key is to give the reader relevent and timely info.

I recently read a post by Ekaterina Walter  in Social Media Examiner called 15 Ways to Bring Social Media to Events that I thought was really good. Even though some of her points were more for a retail/consumer approach, here are four of her tips that I thought would be applicable to this audience.

• Create pre-event buzz - Start early with registration. Encourage attendees to share details. If you’re having speakers, make sure to include their Bios and Twitter handles.
• Keep attendees informed – Use QR codes to access presentations if it’s being done outside. Collect your speaker’s blogs all in one place and create a dashboard of their latest posts.
• Help them share information - Use Twitter back channels so you can get questions and feedback. Share images and presentations. Open your event to virtual attendees.
• Post event - Publish your Twitter wall and give all access to your talks with links to videos.

I’m sure there are other ways to use social media for events, and I’d like to hear ways you’ve used it.

So here are some of my favorite ones:

• Interview an expert or industry leader in your field and then post it on your blog.
• Guest posts, there are certainly others in your space. Talk to them and see if they would be willing to do a post. Who knows, they may ask you to reciprocate.
• Find interesting posts others have done and write a post about it and link to their site.
• Go to YouTube and find relevant videos and make comments on with a link back to your blog.
• Build a Wiki page for your blog using a non-promoting post.
• Write list posts like this one. People seem to like them.
• Publish your posts on Wikipedia.
• Make sure you post on your social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn) a brief description and link to your site.

I have found that Twitter and the groups that I belong to on LinkedIn generate more traffic to my blog than any other source.

 A suggestion would be to take a few of these, implement them and see how they work for you.

So whether you’re a manufacturer, distributor or a contractor, what are you doing to play it forward to make sure we have skilled people ready for the work force? Might I suggest you get involved especially on a local level.

• Talk to high school students and show them that there are options to a 4-year college degree.
• Let them know that technicians in the electrical, HVAC or plumbing fields use sophisticated equipment in doing their jobs.
• Let them know they can’t export those kinds of jobs and the rest of us depend on them on a daily basis.
• And oh, by the way, they can make a damn fine living.

For those who want to work in a manufacturing facility, they may be running machining cells worth millions of dollars. In order to compete for those kinds of jobs, you need to be trained and must come to the table with skills like math.

So what are options if we want to be good corporate citizens? There are local trade schools, technical and community colleges that either have or could initiate programs to train future workers. One such program is Skills America which is a regional program that can be taken and adapted to your needs.

More importantly, you can support the schools by giving away scholarships to students in need. Financial help via government loans are drying up. For those who want to improve themselves and contribute to society, what better way of supporting them. Now I’m not talking thousands of dollars in scholarships. What if you could give a few $500-a-year ones? It would help with books and tuition. More importantly, it will send a message to the community about who you are.

Most of you belong to national trades associations and some might have local programs you could participate in. If you can’t find a local source, there are always places like Mike Rowe’s foundation that supports the trades.

The key is now that the economy is starting to turn around, let’s do something that will improve the workforce and eventually come back to help each and every one of us. The key is DO SOMETHING.

Did you set goals when you first went on, but as time has passed you kind of let it slip a little? You and 131 million of your possible friends are on this site. How many are you connected with?

Let’s review some basics and make sure we’re all on track.

• Profile page - Great place to make a good impression. Have you updated your photo or are you using one from 10 years ago? How about your accomplishments? I’m sure if you haven’t touched it for a while, something good must have happened at work that you could highlight. Have any other things changed like you started a Twitter account, a blog or new website? Be sure to include links.
• Key words - SEO is king. When was the last time you looked at key words within your profile? The best place to do this is on the summary section.
• Adding to your network - It was easy when you just started to get a list of contacts linked in. But what about all those grandiose plans of adding so many new contacts each week? I’m sure you haven’t stopped taking phone calls or going to meetings? What ever happened to asking them to link in with you? At least then when you do a posting, you’ll be getting it in front of them. I admit I’m as guilty as everyone else, but I’m back on track now to add at least 3 contacts a week. What’s your goal?
• Status updates - So what good is 500 connections if you never connect? You need to be active and say something. It doesn’t have to be something original. It could be something as simple as  a comment and link to a morning news story that might have some impact on your industry. Try to do at least one a day. Lunchtime is LinkedIn’s prime time.
• Groups - This is the “holy grail” as far as I’m concerned. 80% of members belong to at least one group. Search and join relevant groups. They allow you to join as many as 50. Talk about shooting fish in a barrel…where else can you find a group of like-minded individuals to hold a conversation with? A great place to build relationships and also build your visibility and credibility as an expert in the field.

Those are some of my thoughts on recommitting to using a great networking site. What are you doing to capitalize on LinkedIn?

We hope you have a good show and enjoy Chicago.

Renewable Energy Consumption in the Nation’s Energy Supply, 2008

This overview covers the following portions of the Alternative Energy market:

•BioMass/BioFuels/BioProducts

•Geothermal

•Hydropower

•Solar

•Wind

For those of you who might want to look at this market, the 54-page report highlights the industry, trends and issues. We also touch on associations, training, codes, trade shows and publications that cover this market. You can sign up to receive a copy here.

Content like white papers, fact sheets, case histories and webinars are just a few examples and might be used at different stages of the sales funnel. Online content is the fuel for new leads in the B2B arena.

It stands to reason that if people see that you both identify problems/issues and address possible solutions, that you not only will accomplish the first goal, but they might even identify themselves as a possible new lead.

A recent survey from MarketingSherpa was highlighted in a post in eMarketer.com that highlighted the kind of content customers are looking for. Highlights include:

• Why content marketing is essential to B2B leads.
• How B2B buyers use content.
• What type of content is best for generating leads.
• How marketers can leverage content marketing formats.

Sonnhalter is partnering with Joe Pulizzi, a nationally-known content marketing expert and founder of the Content Marketing Institute, in hosting a webinar on the growing area of content marketing for B2B. This free, one-hour webinar will be Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. EST. Participants can click here to register for the “8 Content Initiatives You Need to Seriously Consider for 2012” webinar.

Joe is a leading author, speaker and strategist for content marketing. Joe is the founder of the Content Marketing Institute and the CEO of SocialTract. He’s also co-authored Get Content Get Customers and Managing Content Marketing: The Real World Guide for Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand.

I’ve heard Joe present before, and you are in for a real treat. Please join us on February 2nd at 1 PM EST for this free, informative presentation. You can sign up here. Joe will also be taking questions at the end.