For the post on email marketing and social media, go here.

G’day, folks. This week’s roundup is catered to small businesses. First, we start out with some of the considerations one should take in deciding to go big or stay small, posing the question, “is small business better business?”. Then, we offer you some resources concerning location and websites. So, what do you think?

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

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21 compelling reasons to stay small. Sometimes it’s just a conversation with a big business owner that puts things into perspective for you.

6 ways to stay small and still win big. It’s worth it to consider staying small, as the above article shows. And small doesn’t mean unsuccessful. Hello, My Name is Blog (Scott Ginsberg–the guy who is never seen without a name tag) shows how to do business in a fulfilling, indie rock star sort of way without worrying about being too expansive with your company.

Small Business Guide: How to choose an incubator. Neovia recently moved into the Del Mar Small Business Incubator, and we couldn’t be happier with the move. Incubators are suites with a variety of startups, all with access to each other for advice and guidance–whoever’s willing. There are four common types, and the New York Times gives a good summary of them. Which one’s right for you?

The New About Us Page is a Social Beast. Rethink the About Us page. Now, more than ever before, it’s a valuable way not only to give people the skinny on “Us” but to give them more avenues to learn more about your company with social links, chat, tech support, and more depending on how creative you get.

6 Must-Haves for your Small Business Website. It may seem simple, but whether you’re just getting into it, or have gone through so many redesigns that you’ve forgotten the basics, this article shows you a few things that are pretty much standards on modern websites to meet user expectation.

original image courtesy matley0 on Flickr.

Get pumped, people! It’s roundup time, 2011 style, so that means we’re buckling down, walking in the nitty gritty with our game face on. And if your resolution involves being awesome, this is your week. So stick around and we’ll keep rounding up the top stories in the social media world to help you stay up to speed with trends and developments that will excite your online marketing strategy and experience.

This week it’s all about riding that new year’s energy and getting going for the new year. We’ve got tough questions from Logic+Emotion, philosophical light from Brains on Fire, a dating website that does it its own way, and what you need to know to get that twitter contest rolling. No more talk. All action. They call it ’11 because there is one and only one way to do business this year–and that’s social.

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media. Welcome to 2011, folks. It’s gonna be a good one.

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It’s Time to Move the Needle: It’s a new year but how are you going to prove it? Facebook fans and retweets aren’t enough, Logic+Emotion argues. Think bigger. What thing of value will you bring to life and how will you do it? A great set of things to think about for any time of the year, really.

Thoughts from the Brains on Fire Community Manager Team: Why do it? Why bother managing a community? Brains on Fire gets to the core of social media in revealing their personal motivation to change people’s lives and to pursue meaningful dialogue, along with other practical ideas you won’t hear in most other articles. You might want to bookmark this one.

No Need For An Agency: We don’t need no stinkin’ ad agency! Match.com recently released over 100 short self-made ads out of footage from real dates. How can you use your resources to make stellar videos? Think about it. Get back to me. Check these videos out.

How To: Launch A Successful Twitter Contest: Bet you didn’t think about using Twitter for contests. Think again. You have an opportunity for your business to shine by using this popular microblogging platform to raise interest and reward your followers. Run and tweet that.

Search Engine Optimization: Rock and roll and…search engine optimization? Well, it’s very important. If you’re interested in learning more about it, raising your SEO, finding out how it work the thing, then this article is for you.

Stoked,

Neovia.

Email, it’s easy, no?  Send out a few lines and a picture attachment and all of a sudden Aunt Susie and Uncle Bill feel as if they actually attended little Timmy’s soccer game.  As far as growing familial relationships is concerned, email is the go to platform, especially if your relatives aren’t up to speed on Facebook yet.

But interestingly enough, email also plays an important role when carefully crafting budding business relationships.  People take you seriously when they receive an email campaign that is well thought out, organized and is easy on the eyes, so to speak.  And there are plenty of ways to achieve these types of results in the new frontier of email correspondence.

Find out what you need to be doing to make your business emails dazzle your current and potential clients in the following articles.  And be sure to visit us every Friday for our Social Media Roundup!

Conquering the New Frontier of Email Correspondence

How to Identify Brand Loyalists on Your Email List This author notes that there are three types of people who receive your emails: those that love you, those that like you, and those that are sticking around just because they can.  Find out how to identify those loyal to your brand in order to craft emails to their liking.

5 Ways to Turn Email Newsletters into Valuable Customer Insights You may think sending out an email newsletter to clients is a piece of cake but you can move beyond the “simply press send” mentality and learn new ways to test how well your message is being received.

Why and How you Should be Using Triggered Email, Part 1 Sending out targeted emails to a specific consumer at a specific time has been proven to be more effective then sending out broadcast emails.  Learn how to use this tool to become an email rock star!

Online Advertising: How to do it Right Email plays an important role in your overall online marketing strategy.  Learn what a “solo” email is and how it can be effective.

Photo Credit:

Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Most people don’t question the necessity of social media in their every day lives but there are a few that are hankering for the days of family game night rather than succumbing to a riveting game of Farmville.  And this is understandable.  There are times when the online world seems vacuous or sometimes even intimidating and many would-be users are too scared to enter a space where faux paxs  are not only witnessed by millions but are never, ever forgotten.  Checkers by comparison is smooth sailing.

But have hope.  Social media doesn’t have to consume your life if you don’t let it and can be very beneficial for your business and also for your family relationships and friendships.  Would any of us be privy to the fact that our best friend from preschool is getting her second Masters degree in neuroscience if it weren’t for Facebook?  Probably not.

Let social media work for you, not against you.  Check out the links below to reignite your love for all things online and print out a copy for Aunt Mary who thinks your laptop is a giant adding machine while you’re at it.

Reignite Your Love for Social Media

Engage or Die: The Future of Social Media? Think social media is not for you?  Well, according to this video, social media is for everybody!  Learn how engaging online is important for local businesses and how social constructs are ever evolving.

The Future of Social Media is Real This author makes an interesting point: once the social media hype dies down a new future will unfold, one where online socialization will greater enforce our face to face engagements.

Donate Your Status to Show Support for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of the U.S. Think Facebook is nothing but a brain drain?  For Veteran’s Day, the social networking site is offering a special app that will allow you to turn over your status update to become part of an “online” march to support those who have fought for our country.  It’s not all about Mafia Wars.  Promise.

Facebook Encourages Americans to Vote Facebook helps you remember to do things in your day to day life, like voting.  If that’s not helpful and absolutely necessary then I don’t know what is.

Photo Credit:

Image: graur codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Make sure your business "wins" the social media game.

With businesses, small and large alike, using social media as their own personal playground, who can possibly get ahead of the pack?

The articles in this week’s round up will teach you how to play the social media game and beat out your competitors while still satisfying your customer base.

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

Game Winning Strategies

Use Social Media to Build Buzz for Your Business Initiating conversations with potential consumers can help you get a leg up on the competition.  Just remember to keep your customers happy!

How Businesses are Unleashing Their Employees’ Social Media Potential Get your employees in on the game: allow them to make use of social media to solve customer problems.

What Does Google Instant Mean for Your SEO Strategy? Don’t get discouraged by Google Instant.  Continue to focus on your SEO strategy to keep your competitors from stealing your customers.

Social Media Marketing: What Happens When the Person Doing Your Social Media is Gone? Draft up a social media policy in case your main social media person is not around. This way, the momentum you’ve already gained on different social media platforms won’t go to waste and neither will your efforts to keep ahead of your competition.

Photo Credit:

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Pleasant greetings from Neovia, everyone! We’ve rounded up some of the top stories in the social media world to help you stay up to speed with trends and developments that will enhance your online marketing strategy and experience.

This week we bring you an assortment of little stories, some of which point inward toward your business use, and some of which are helpful in your outward marketing efforts. So there you have it. Social media advice–inside out of your work bubble.

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

To Use Inside Your Company

4 Steps to Social Media SEO Success. Listening, Content, Socializing, and Measuring are the four keys to increasing your search engine optimization with social media, according to TopRank’s Lee Odden.

6 Ways to Generate and Nurture More Leads on Twitter. If you’re struggling to find ways to use Twitter in your B2B relations, struggle no longer. It’s easy and highly effective, but you have to read on…

Best Practices for a Killer Corporate Blog. It’s certainly not enough to just have a blog. The art of blogging and keeping your readers engaged is indeed an art, but an understandable one. IMedia Connection tells you what you need to know and do if you’re starting your corporate blog.

What It Takes To Discover Your Social Media Star. Whether you’re looking to hire out a social media expert or turn a current employee into one, here are the essential elements you’ll need to look for in a qualified candidate.

To Use Outside Your Company

Forrester: Why Most Marketers Should Forgo Foursquare. According to research, a very small percent of mobile users are using geolocation technology, but this doesn’t mean they won’t. Read on for what you need to know about geolocation, where it is, and where it’s going.

8 Criteria for Facebook Marketing Success: Facebook has more users than any other social media platform out there. While current trends in conversation with this platform concern what the ROI will be, this article focuses on how to use Facebook professionally and maturely to accomplish your marketing goals.

5 Qualities of Successful Online Video. Anyone can post videos of their cat falling off of a chair, but if you really want to have an impact with video, you’re going to need to start thinking more artfully about your video strategy. Here are some tips you’re going to want to take to heart.

Image Courtesy BigMouthMedia.Com via vannevar.blogspot.com

G’day, amigos. We’ve rounded up some of the top stories in the social media world to help you stay up to speed with trends and developments that will enhance your online marketing strategy and experience.

This week we bring you a group of articles on the ascending popularity of the geolocation feature present in places like FourSquare and Twitter and what it means for your business. In addition, we’ve got a bundle of articles on efficacy with small and big picture ideas of how you can get the most out of your social media.

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

Geolocation Apps

5 ways to use FourSquare to market your location based business. As with most social media, it’s not enough to be just be on it. How are you going to use a geo-location device like Foursquare to get people checking into your business? Here are some creative tips!

How to add your business to Twitter places. In addition to Foursquare, Twitter Places was recently announced. If you’re wondering how you can take advantage of the popularity of Twitter in conjunction with the geo-location trend, well here are your answers.

Foursquare vs. Gowalla vs. MyTown: Which is better for business? Here’s the match up! Foursquare is still the most popular, but how long with that be the case? And in whatever case, which one do you need to keep your eye on for business? Discussion within.

Efficiency

What to Do About Social Media Overload, or How to Network Online and Still Have Time to Run Your Business. Even if your social media campaign is successful, to be sure it’s come at some cost–time. So to give you more time to run your business, Patrice-Anne Rutledge some advice on how to lower the time you’re spending on social media while still maintaining your successful status.

5 helpful iphone apps for the office. If we’re talking efficiency, what better to talk about than the magical, all encompassing Iphones?But with so many apps to choose from, which one’s will assist your business the most? Here are five.

How to be the Life of the Social Media Party. We’ll admit, this one is less about efficiency, and more a great article on approach. This is a particularly poignant article comparing success in the social media world to success in the social living world. Social media can and should bring out a character for people to like, and it all comes back to the individual behind the screen.

photo: photo courtesy of red5standindyby

We do so all love our Facebook Events don’t we? We might never have so many mixers to attend without it. But like all good things in social media, not everyone is using Facebook Events for good. Between invites to Events in cities we’ve never heard of to Events that aren’t even Events, we’re getting a little fed up.

One of our super-fans recently asked us to do a blog post on Facebook Events do’s and don’ts. We’re always happy to oblige our fans, but in this case I happened to be inundated with tons of inappropriate Event Invitations that same week, thus compelling me to get this one out as quickly as possible.

(As a side note, it will always amaze me how many people don’t know netiquette rule #1: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.)

Events That Go On For Weeks

When It’s OK: When the Event actually goes on for weeks. For example, a community theater might have a running showings for four weeks. It’s perfectly acceptable for the administrator of the event to make it last for as long as the show is running.

When It’s Not OK: When the Event isn’t really an Event in the true sense of the word, or you’re using it for multi-level marketing. For example, an individual wants their friends to vote for them in an online contest that runs for 3 weeks. While your friends are happy to help out, your event is taking up real estate in their Upcoming Events tab. What would be the appropriate to do this is to send a message to your friends letting them know about the contest, and then follow up throughout the contest time period with regular status updates reminding people with the link. This would be far more effective, not to mention polite, than the Ongoing Event anyway.

The Multi-level Marketing Events don’t really surprise us. Scams, shams and pyramid schemes will always find a way to SPAM you in such a way they think looks credible.

Gray Area: When the Event can only loosely be categorized as an Event. For example, an organization might be holding a membership drive for the entire month of August. Or, a retail location might be having it’s annual summer sale that lasts all week. For some people, this would be acceptable use of an Ongoing Event. For others, it’s a nuisance. Think about the people you’re trying to reach and ask yourself if they might be annoyed by this method of getting their attention. In social media, the old adage “All press is good press” is not true. You run the risk of looking like you don’t know what you’re doing in social media, and worse – that you don’t care about whether you are bothering your audience. You’ve just turned an opportunity for engagement into television advertising and SPAM.

In the case of the retail sale, if it’s not very long that might be information people find useful and helpful. I would say the use of an Ongoing Event is acceptable in this case, especially since it might be something I want to share with a friend who likes that store by inviting her to the Event.

Inviting Out-of-Area People to a Local Event

When It’s OK: When there is a reason you want them to see the Event, or there’s a chance they might actually attend. For example, a local chapter of an organization is hosting a member of another chapter as their featured speaker. It would be acceptable to invite people to the local Event from the other chapter, despite the fact they’re in another city, as a way of letting them know that the Event is featuring one of their own. If the Event is notable enough to drive attendees to travel to your city, then this is acceptable as well.

When It’s Not OK: When you’re simply inviting all of your friends without discernment of their physical location. Select All is the devil in Facebook. You should never be selecting all, unless all of your friends are 100 percent local. When you Select All, you SPAM. There are just no two ways about it.

If you haven’t already, create Lists for your Facebook Friends. On your home page, click Friends on the lefthand side of the page. Then, click Create List. From there, simply select the Friends that fit that category. I have my Facebook friends on multiple lists by geography/location (Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Rio Grande Valley, etc.), relationship to myself (family, high school, college, etc.), and where I met them (bloggers, Twitter folks, clients, etc.). I send out not just Event Invitations, but also Page Suggestions, according to whether they would be interested.

Gray Area: If the Event is in a city that is close enough to another city that traveling to an Event is not a major effort. Again, ask yourself whether or not the people you’re sending the Event Invitation to are interested enough to travel. Also consider whether your idea of “close” is the same to everyone else and that the Event date and time are amenable to short travel. For example, in my city of Corpus Christi we’re willing to drive 2 hours to an event in San Antonio if it’s on the weekend since there’s literally nothing around us for a 2-hour driving radius. However, my San Antonio friends would be hard-pressed to drive 2 hours to a 6 pm weekday Event that ends at 9 pm, putting them back home at 11 pm with work the next morning.

Events That Aren’t Actually Events

When It’s OK: In our opinion, never. It’s never OK to misuse an application when you have other methods of getting the word out. For example, you’ve launched a new website or you’re transitioning from a Facebook user account for your business (which you should never have had in the first place, as it is a violation of Facebook Terms of Service) to a fan page. These things are not Events. They are not happenings that I can purchase a ticket to, walk in the door to, etc. They are SPAM.

Though it requires more effort (Gasp! You mean, don’t just do what’s easiest for me instead of what’s better for my audience?!?), what would be the appropriate to do this is to send a message to your friends letting them know about this non-event, and then follow up for an acceptable time period with regular status updates reminding people with the link. Again, as with the Ongoing Event, this would be far more effective, not to mention polite.

Gray Area: There is none. I know you wanted to be the exception to this rule, but unfortunately there aren’t any exceptions. Try thinking about a way to make your non-event more interesting to your audience and give them ways to back up your cause. If you’re introducing a new website, post screen shots of it and boast about it’s new capabilities and tell us why you launched it. If you’re transitioning to a fan page, enlist your Friends to help you spread the word by telling them how they can share it.

But, hey, if you want to create an Event Invitation to this blog post and invite all the Event offenders on your Facebook, we’ll look the other way just this once.

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The moral of the story, kids, is that just because you can do it in social media, doesn’t mean you should. Careful consideration of how your audience would like best to be reached with a particular piece of information is a good measuring stick for what tool you use to do it.

Intro photo credit: Photos by Fitsum Belay/iLLIMETER illimeter.com

Here are the slides from our Social Media for HR & Employers conference we hosted today. We hope everyone got some good information to take back to their workplaces!