1) Tweet Your Email Newsletters

It seems obvious, doesn’t it? Once you’ve created an e-newsletter or other email message, Tweet a link to a web-page version. You’ll expand your reach and get extra mileage out of your content. Include an email sign-up box on the landing page so you can get new subscribers.

2) Send Blog Posts to Email Subscribers

Sure, some of your blog readers subscribe via email. But why stop there? Include a link to your latest blog post, along with a teaser, in your next e-newsletter.

3) Add Email Sign-Ups Forms to Social Sites

Your fans on your social media sites are ideal candidates to for your email list. Constant Contact has a Facebook app that lets you add a “Join My Mailing List” tab to your Facebook Page. Other email marketing vendors give you HTML code to add a sign-up form to any website.

4) Include a “Follow Us” Link in Email

Do you include Facebook, Twitter and other icons in your email newsletters? Links to your social sites encourage email subscribers to extend their relationship with you. Plus, emails that include social links have 30% higher click-thru rates, according to one study.

5) Archive Past E-Blasts on Your Social Pages

Using FBML, you can create a custom tab on your Facebook Wall with images, text and links. Use this to create an archive of past email newsletters and other email messages.

6) Include a “Share This” Button in Emails

A majority of email marketers overlook the option of letting email subscribers share content with others via a “Share This” button. Adding a simple bit of code lets you turn your email readers into a message-spreading army.

Additional Resources

Need more ideas? Check out Donna Maria’s post 4 Ways Your Email Newsletter Can Drive Traffic to Your Blog, Facebook and Twitter Pages (Disclosure: Donna Maria is an occasional client and full-time friend, and smart as a whip!).

Have other ideas? Leave a comment!

Here are answers to several questions franchises encounter as they embrace social media.

Who will be responsible for monitoring the social web, the franchisor or the franchisees?

The answer depends on several factors: What is the goal of your monitoring program? How much autonomy do franchisees have? Are you only monitoring brand mentions, or do you monitor relevant keyword conversations?

In most cases, I believe corporate should run point. HQ should also have a response strategy in place. Engagement can come from a franchisor employee or a franchisee could be tapped to respond.

Smart companies monitor conversations on topics of interest to customers, too, not just brand mentions. This is one area where franchisees could be involved in monitoring. It opens the door to trust-building and relationship-building around a “bigger idea” than yourself.

How do franchisees maintain brand standards in social media?

A brand standards policy helps. Just as McDonald’s franchisees are given specs on signage, dress, greetings, etc., franchisees need guidelines for usernames, bios/profiles, avatars, blog designs, Facebook Fan Pages, etc.

Most franchises find they trail franchisees when it comes to social media adoption. Before you rap franchisees on their knuckles for “rogue” Facebook Pages, give them guidance and explain how consistent branding protects the value of their investment in the brand.

A corporate social media policy (“guidelines” may be a better term) might help you, too. Remember, it’s all about educating and showing best practices.

What social media tools and tactics should franchisees use?

This will vary from company to company, franchisee to franchisee, and objective to objective. The short answer: Whichever tools work. If one franchisee finds success participating in niche communities, and another by networking via LinkedIn, great. As long as they’re using tools effectively to meet business goals, let ‘em rock ‘n’ roll.

Should the franchisor oversee franchisees’ social media efforts?

The franchisor has a valuable opportunity to provide value to franchisees by offering training and guidance. Let’s face it: Franchisees are rarely satisfied with the level of support from the franchisor. Training them on how to grow their business with these new-to-them tools is one way to build whuffie.

What can a franchise use social media for?

Everyone wants to use social media for marketing. Yes, you can attract new business — although I recommend studying the art of “selling without selling.”

Franchises can use social media for more than driving traffic, though. Think about identifying potential franchisees, researching new markets, listening to customers to develop new products or services, providing “anytime/anywhere” customer service, recruiting employees, and participating in communities.

Where can franchises get advice on social media?

Check out Joel Libava, The Franchise King or Sean Kelly of Franchise Pick. Both share useful social media advice for franchisees and franchisors. Find Joel and Sean on Twitter, too.

Is it possible to pull out of social media?

Put another way, can you put the genie back in the bottle after you’ve become a hyperconnect, smartphone-wielding update junkie?

One takeaway stood out: Charlotte’s B2B marketers are hungry to learn more about social media.

Here are several B2B social media resources to sate that hunger. It’s far from an exhaustive list, but it’s a start.

B2B Social Media Case Studies

• Interview with Aneta Hall of Pitney Bowes
• Interview with Kyle Flaherty of BreakingPoint
• Interview with Scott Townsend of United Linen
• Slideshare presentation on Intuit Small Business

B2B Social Media Success Metrics

A 2009 Business.com study asked B2B companies how they evaluate their social media efforts. Here are their top success metrics:

Winners of the 2009 Forrester Groundswell Awards (B2B Division)

Complete list of winners and finalists

• B2B Listening – CDW Advisory Board/Communispace
• B2B Talking – The Conversation/Eloqua
• B2B Energizing – UNLEASH 2009, The Mediasite User Conference/Sonic Foundry
• B2B Spreading – MetricStream Community/Regalix
• B2B Supporting – commonground Global Community for Environmental Professionals/EDR
• B2B Embracing – The Archer E-GRC Ecosystem/Archer Technologies

B2B Facebook Pages

• Salesforce
• CDW
• Cintas
• Cisco

B2B Resources on Twitter

• @B2BOnlineMktg
• @B2BTOTY
• @SMB2B
• B2B Twitterer of the Year

Social Media Policies and Guidelines

• Online Database of Social Media Policies
• How to Create a Corporate Social Media Policy

Other B2B Social Media Resources

• So You Don’t Think Twitter is for B2B?
• Hey B2B Marketers: It’s Okay to Have Fun!
• How to Make Social Media Work for Non-Consumer Brands
• B2B Buyers Have Very High Social Media Participation
• What If Your B2B Corporate Website Were a Social Network
• Social Media Will Force B2B Integrated Marketing
• Reality Check for B2B Leaders
• 9 Objections to Social Media…And How to Overcome Them
• Roadmap for Social Media in a Regulated Industry
• Social Networking Sites as a Personal CRM
• How a 40,000+ Employee Company Trains Its Employees on Social Media
• Study: How B2Bs Are Using Social Media
• 5 Ways to Expand B2B Blogging Beyond the Marketing Staff
• Key Trends in B2B E-Commerce (presentation, with audio)
• Key Trends in B2B E-Commerce (recap)

Social Media News Release

• Example of a B2B Social Media Release on Pitch Engine

Create a Marketing Calendar

Remember “Failure to plan is planning to fail?” Yep, still true. Bust out a calendar. Map out a marketing schedule. Paste it over your spouse’s photo. Hold yourself accountable.

Think thoroughly: Who will create the marketing pieces? What deadlines will I face? How much lead time is needed? What information/materials do I need to gather? Keep these question in mind as you flesh out your calendar.

Segment Your Audience

Marketing to an audience that’s too broad is suicide. Be targeted! Subdivide into smaller niches and craft a specific message for each. Consider age, gender, geography, business size (for B2B), industry, position/rank, etc. Or use a survey or sign-up form to create lists built around commonalities.

Start Blogging

Not sure how to start? Follow these three simple steps: 1) Identify a problem that’s kicking your customer in the nuts. 2) Write 300 words illuminating a solution to the problem. 3) Repeat. Still stuck on the technology part? Contact me.

Whip Your Website Into Shape

You’ve had the same site since 2001…right? It’s time to update it. Get a more user-friendly design. Dump the jargon and self praise. Replace it with customer-centered words. Add content that solves customer problems.

Make Employees Social

Ask employees to share their expertise — be it knowledge, skill, or personality — via a blog, Twitter, a podcast, participating in a community, or teaching a class. Drag them kicking and screaming if you have to. Look at what Aaron Strout did to get Powered, Inc. employees to participate in conversations relevant to their industry (see, even social media employees struggle to emerge from hiding). “I’m shy” and “I don’t write well” are no longer valid excuses. Fear kills companies. Give employees the freedom, safety and tools to overcome fear. That’s leadership.

Organize an Event

Skip the Chamber of Commerce meeting…fishing is inefficient. Instead, create a killer draw — an “I don’t wanna miss this” event. Let the fish come to you. Don’t make it a selling-fest…make it about connecting people to each other, creating a community. Check out these 13 event planning tools.

Hire a Sniper

Maybe you laid off your Marketing Director. Maybe you are your Marketing Director. Maybe you don’t need 40 hours per week of marketing help. Consider an independent PR or marketing consultant. From “big picture” strategy and execution to laser-focused tactical specialists, you have options. In Charlotte, folks like Harry Hoover, Corey Creed, Nathan Richie, Donna Maria Coles Johnson, and Brandon Uttley do good work within their niches. I’m impressed with up-and-comers like Becca Bernstein and Dani Burns, too.

To borrow from physics, if conversations are the motion (kinetics) of social media, content is surely the “stuff” in motion — the substance that propels conversation.

As a business owner, you can create this substance. It’s called content marketing, and it’s a smart, effective strategy, especially when paired with social media.

What Is Content Marketing, Exactly?

Content marketing is simply the creation and sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential customers in conversation. Content can take any form — text, photo, video, audio, etc. — and can be distributed via any channel you choose. You can create content yourself of distribute someone else’s content (with appropriate attribution, of course).

The trick is knowing how to create content that is relevant and valuable to your audience while also achieving a marketing goal. You won’t be able to increase sales or brand awareness by pumping out drivel your audience doesn’t care about.

So what is relevant? What is valuable? Content should cater to your audience’s primal needs. Here are examples:

• Simplify something complicated
• Demonstrate how to do something
• Answer a perplexing question
• Entertain
• Provide VIP information
• Fix a problem

There’s Always a Catch…

Here’s the catch: Don’t make it about you. Resist the urge. Squish. Think like your customer…heck, pretend your own company doesn’t exist. Then, create.

Sound illogical? It is. Until you realize this isn’t direct selling. This is building trust, inch by inch. This is becoming invaluable. Do that and you won’t have to advertise as much — your customer will come to you.

And she’ll use social media to share your killer content with her friends.

P.S. It doesn’t hurt to have a good list to distribute your content to. Sure, your Twitter and Facebook followers are a start…what other lists can you use?

To summarize, Foursquare users “check in” when they visit locations around town. Points are awarded for various activities — checking in, making multiple stops in a day, adding a new venue, making a repeat visit, or checking in on consecutive days. The points have no value (yet), badges (mostly frivolous) are awarded for achieving certain goals (also mostly frivolous), and “Mayorships” are awarded to the most frequent visitor at any location.

It’s a game, an experiment, and mostly silly fun at this point. But that will change. Here are some ways Foursquare could emerge as a meaningful marketing channel:

Location-Based Offers

Imagine checking in at Starbucks and receiving an offer for a free coffee with purchase of a scone, or a coupon for 10% off at the neighboring bookstore. As a marketer, Foursquare could let you hyper-target your message to consumers at the precise moment they’re in your proximity.

Behavior-Based Offers

If you check in five times a week at McHooligan’s Neighborhood Pub, you provide valuable behavioral data to marketers. Expect a message (Promotion? Thank you note?) from Mr. McHooligan, and maybe an ad from Alcoholics Anonymous.

Shareable Promotions

This isn’t just mobile media — it’s social media, too. Foursquare could offer advertisers the option of letting you share a promotion with your friends. Think of it as a reward you can pass along, making your friends love you even more.

Loyalty Rewards

It’s nice to imagine all customers are equal. They’re not. Not to marketers, anyway. The customer who checks in from my place of business (and presumably spends money) most will be rewarded with better offers. Being Mayor has its perks.

Influence-Based Perks

Remember when the FTC imposed disclosure regulations on bloggers? Wait ’til they get their hands on Foursquare. Companies already want to give prominent bloggers and Twitterers perks in hopes of generating cheap, powerful publicity. It’ll happen on Foursquare, too. Let’s be honest: Somebody will check in daily from some location in exchange for gifts or cash, and those with the largest Foursquare networks will be the first targets for marketers.

Checklist-Based Marketing

Foursquare also lets you create “To-Do” lists, so it’s conceivable that a business could create a series of tasks for players to complete. Their could be rewards (coupons, upgrades, etc.) based on completion of certain tasks.

These are just a few ideas. There are plenty of ways businesses can benefit from mobile social networks. Check out Jason Keath’s post Foursquare Goes to College to see how UNC Charlotte is using Foursquare.

Where do you see this sort of geo-based social network heading? How would you use Foursquare with your business?

When Twitter rolled out its Lists feature a month ago, I wasn’t excited: One more place to sort and categorize people, no added value. But when Tweetdeck (my Twitter client of choice) integrated Twitter Lists recently, that changed.

Tweetdeck Groups: A Helpful But Imperfect Filter

Until now, I’ve used Tweetdeck’s “Groups” feature as a filter. I have a column for Charlotte-area folks, one for “A-Listers” (I hate that term), a few industry-specific Groups, and several search columns.

But adding someone to a group required that I follow that person. As a result, my “Following” count kept climbing, and despite my filters, it got harder and harder to find, observe and join conversations relevant to me. It also meant more auto-DMs and Twitter spam.

Tweetdeck’s integration of Twitter Lists changes that. You can add someone to a Twitter List without following them. Their Tweets appear in the corresponding Tweetdeck column, so you’ll still see their conversations.

To Unfollow or Not to Unfollow?

Crass as it sounds, I’m unfollowing some people. Aaron Strout, whom I respect very much, uses a different strategy. There’s no right or wrong — use the strategy that fits you. My own strategy continues to change, but I stick to a few core principles to decide who to follow on Twitter.

Here’s my Charlotte Twitter List, in case you’re curious.

I hope that by unfollowing some people, I’ll actually be able to listen to them better — indeed, listen to everyone better. It means I’ll need to filter more intelligently. It also means I’ll have to pay better attention to each stream…and make decisions about how to allocate a finite amount of time to each stream.

If I’m not following you — or if I’ve unfollowed you — don’t be afraid to @reply me. Help me get to know you! Intelligent conversation about what’s relevant to me (PR, media, publishing, marketing, journalism, politics, etc.) is the best way to engage me.

Feedback

How has your follow strategy evolved since Twitter rolled out Lists? If you’re a Tweetdeck user, has the integration of Twitter Lists changed your strategy at all? What’s more important to you — observing/joining a conversation that’s relevant to you, or following someone based on courtesy, acquaintance, locality, or another factor?

Will my new follow strategy work? Would it work for you? Do the new features from Twitter and Tweetdeck make it any easier to filter the information coming out of the firehose?

I’d love to hear your comments.

Two word clouds — one from CNN, one created by PR Professor Barbara Nixon using Wordle — show very different interpretations of the speech.

Here’s the word cloud Professor Nixon created using the full transcript of the president’s speech (click the image to see it larger):

Here’s the word cloud from CNN.com. The graphic links to video of post-speech commentary from their political team:

Notice any differences?

Granted, CNN doesn’t claim this word cloud is based on the complete transcript, nor that it’s a factual reporting of the speech. Still, it definitely borrows from the speech and serves as a selective interpretation.

What are your thoughts?