Social Media Starter Guide

Social Media
Starter Guide

Brought to You By

Social Media Starter Guide is Brought to By SpotZero

-BLOG-

Definition & Function
The word "blog" is derived from the term "web log," and is a type of website similar to an online journal. A
blog can serve as an informative or personal outlet to the Internet; thoughts, ideas, news, photos and
videos can be a part of a blog post. Each entry, or blog post, is dated and listed in reverse chronological
order (the most recent on top).

Benefits
Search Ranking: A blog can help increase your presence on search engines helping your company climb
in rank, especially when it's keyword-oriented, well-written and regularly updated. Search engines such
as Google (the biggest) love blogs, and through their secret algorithm rank blogs very well.
Well Archived: When keyword-optimized and well-written blogs can be easily searchable in search
engines regardless of how old the post is, which means your posts can be relevant and found years
down the road.
Brand Building: A blog serves as another platform to promote your product/service/company.
Differentiation: The blog is where you can elaborate on what truly separates you from your competitors.
Low-Cost Alternative for Web Presence: Requires little technical knowledge and easy to maintain as
oppose to a website.
Engage with Clients/Customers: Readers can leave comments on blog posts and you can respond, this
leads to conversations and builds a relationship between blogger and readers. When a reader feels like
he is cared for then the odds are he'll buy what you're selling when the time comes.
Demonstrate Expertise: Telling clients/customers what you can do is good, but explaining how you do it is
even better. This way, you can position yourself as an expert. When established, you'll be the go-to
person in the field your readers will turn to for help.
Update Clients/Customers Easily: A blog requires little technical knowledge and is easy to maintain as
compared to a website. So, if you're unfamiliar with HTML coding then you may want to opt for a blog
as your website.
Personify Your Company: Giving your company a human voice makes your company more relatable. This
makes it easier for clients/customers to connect with you, and can help establish brand loyalty.
Sharable: An informative and useful blog can encourage readers to pass your post along extending your
network and reach, and this is also free promotion.

Getting Started
-Create your company's blog on WordPress.com, Blogger.com or thoughts.com, among others, for free.
Decide carefully on the name and URL, as it'll represent your company.
 It is highly recommended that you own the domain name, otherwise the host can delete your blog
for any reason because technically, the host owns your blog. Owning the domain name also allows
your URL to read www.yourblogname.com instead of www.blogspot.yourblogname.com, which is
not very professional. There's usually a small monthly or yearly fee, but well worth it, as your blog
name will be easier to remember and you'll have complete control.
-Browse through the template designs and find one that best suits you (you can change it later if you like).
-Start writing!
-Explore the settings and choose those that best fit.

 For a more step-by-step video tutorial visit http://www.becomeablogger.com (it's a slightly
outdated, but still covers all the necessary points).

www.spotzero.com Online Video & Social Media Marketing 1-800-881-5657


Suggestions, Notes and Tips
 Write, write, write and write some more. The most important thing about your blog is the content.
 Write about what you know and research what you don't.
 Always cite your sources, and provide a link when possible.
 Examine popular blogs and see what they're doing.
 Include a picture or video with every post as this makes it more eye-catching and serves as a
more noticeable break between posts.
 Always tag your posts. Helps greatly with search.
 Have an About page. This may be the deciding factor for a visitor who stumbled upon your blog.
 Create a page listing your services.
 Pages and Categories are two separate things.
 If your blog supports banner ads, create one for your website. Search for banner ads plugins, if
not.
 Link to your website and vice versa.
 A blog requires a lot of hard-work, patience and dedication, so don't expect hordes of visitors to
your blog initially.
 There are millions of blogs in the blogosphere, so duration and consistency is vital. The longer you
keep at it the more popular your blog will become.
 Do not be discouraged by the lack of visitors, for a blog is not a sprint, but a marathon.
 Get help; allow employees, colleagues and guest writers to contribute to your blog, so you don't
have to shoulder the entire workload.
 Have weekly brainstorm sessions to plan the topics you'll write about for the week instead of
doing so on a whim. i.e. If you plan to update your blog every Tuesday and Friday, don't start
writing Tuesday's post on Tuesday morning. Start earlier in case something comes up.
 Quality content gives readers a reason to subscribe and come back.
 You don't always have to write about your business, industry or niche. Occasionally write a quick
post on something that interests/annoys you as this helps connect with your readers.
 Get a comment spam blocker plugin to regulate soliciting comments.
 Get a statistics analytic plugin and/or register your blog with Google Analytics (will require a Gmail
account).
 Get a 'related articles' plugin to suggest other posts for your blog that your readers may also enjoy
based on the post they are currently reading.
 Write with a distinct voice and afﬁrmation.
 State your opinions! It is your blog after all.
 Don't be afraid to be controversial as this opens up room for discussion and debate.
 Engage your readers by asking them questions.
 Encourage readers to comment, subscribe and share your blog.
 Respond to comments.
 Eventually, you're going to want to learn a bit about HTML, CSS and PHP coding to have your
blog look and function exactly the way you want it to.
 Be sure to spell check and proofread every post as it serves as a reﬂection of you and your
company.
 If writing isn't your strong suit then you can opt for video blogs (vlogs).



Promoting Your Blog (After you've written 8-10 solid posts)
 Share the URL with your friends and family through social networking sites and ask them to pass it
along to their network.
 Use Twitter; develop a following and tweet every post.
 Leave genuine and engaging comments on related blogs with a link to your blog as part of your
signature. The emphasis is on leaving a relevant comment because this helps establish you as an
expert in your field, suggesting that you would have knowledgeable insight to offer on your blog.
 Find where your target readers are and engage them there.
 Submit your blog to blog directories such as Technorati.com (the biggest) and RSS directories.
 Submit your best blog posts to social bookmarking sites.
 Have social media share buttons accompanying every post to make it convenient for your readers
to share your blog. This is free promotion.
 Ask your readers to share your blog.
 Participate in blog carnival.
 Participate in forums with a link to your blog in the signature.
 Put keywords in your post to be better indexed by search engines. However, be mindful not to
sound like a robot. You are talking to human beings after all.
 Add a link to your blog in the signature of your e-mails.
 Put your blog on your business card.
 Link to other blogs, and they'll get a pingback notifying them about your blog. If they check it out
and like what they see then they may promote your blog on theirs.
 Write guest posts and link back to your blog in a byline.
 Conduct interviews with experts in your niche, preferably those with a strong following.
 DO NOT SPAM!

Terminology
Blogger - One who blogs.
Blogroll - A list of blogs (on a blog) that serves as recommendations.
Blogosphere - The blogging community.
Permalink - A contraction of permanent link. The unique URL of a single post.
Pingback - The alert in the TrackBack system that notifies the original poster of a blog post when
someone else links and writes an entry concerning the original post.
Plugin - A small piece of software created to provide additional functionality to a larger program.
Post - An entry written and published to a blog.
RSS Feed - The file containing a blog’s latest posts. It is read by an RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
aggregator/reader and shows at once when a blog has been updated.
Subscribe - The term used when a blog's feed is added to a feed reader like Bloglines or Google. Some
blogging platforms have internal subscriptions, which allow readers to receive notification when there
are new posts in a blog.
Tags - Keywords used to classify content.
TrackBack - A system that allows a blogger to see who has linked to his post. The system works by
sending a 'ping' between the blogs, and therefore providing the alert.
Widget - A mini-web application, commonly interchangeable with 'gadget,' that can be added to a blog
that can quickly and easily provide blog readers with user specific information, extra functionality, and
even a bit of fun and games.



-FACEBOOK-

Facebook is a social networking service that lets you connect and stay in touch with friends, family,
colleagues, coworkers, and others who share similar interests or have common backgrounds. You can
provide constant updates to your network of friends, leave them comments and vice versa, share content
(videos, pictures, music and links) and create or join groups/fan pages among other things. What makes
Facebook different from other social networks is its extensive privacy controls, development platform, and
its large and quickly growing user base. Facebook has been called the "thinking person's" social network.

Benefits
Reach: Facebook has over 300 million users, making it the largest social network in the world.
Reconnecting: Facebook isn't just a place to reacquaint with old high school friends, but also for previous
clients and leads. Previous clients may be ready to do business again and leads may be ready to do
business this time around, so you want to be prepared when the situation arises.
Building Relationships: Simply connecting with clients and leads is not enough, engagement is required.
Facebook allows for a more personal approach to keep in contact.
Developing New Relationships: Because your friends' activity is public along with whoever comments on
it, that gives you a foot-in with your friends' friends.
• Example: You're a mechanic and your friend John writes on his wall "I love my new Cadillac!" and
his friend, Jane, comments on the status "I love mine too, but I need to get my starter fixed." From
there, you also comment on John's status addressing Jane, "Congrats on the new car John. Jane,
I run an auto shop down on Broadway and 5th if you'd like to bring it in." Because this
conversation is happening on John's Wall he may chime in and assure Jane that you do great
work and she should definitely bring her car to your shop.
Building a Community: By creating a group or fan page you can have a community built around your
brand. From here you can mass update and communicate with your members or fans immediately.
Expanding Your Network: Being reacquainted with old friends is one thing, but making new friends is
possible too; you can search for and join groups and pages that share your business interests.
Sharing: Facebook makes sharing content very easy and convenient by notifying all of your friends on
their wall that you embedded a new video or linked to your blog.
Personifying Your Company: Because of all the interaction Facebook is capable of, this gives you and your
company a chance to be more personable and relatable.
Social Media Integration: Through apps you can automatically update other social media platforms such
as Twitter, Plaxo, and Tumblr from Facebook and vice versa, and have a RSS feed that shows your blog
posts, among other things.



Getting Started
-Sign up for free at Facebook.com.
-Flesh out your profile.
• The two main things that are important here are a personal picture and your contact information --
both of which Facebook highlights when you're first setting things up.
-Set your settings accordingly.
-Obtain a Facebook vanity URL so people can find and identify you easier.
-Add friends.
• Facebook has created some simple ways to find your friends using just your e-mail address, or the
buddy list from your AOL instant messaging account. You can also do a search by name, or pull
up listings based on your computer's address book.
• Use your most active Web mail account (say Hotmail for example), and your AIM buddy list, which
in some cases could pull up nearly everyone you know. Since everyone needs an e-mail address
to sign up with Facebook, giving Facebook permission to use your existing address books should
make it possible to track down everyone you communicate with.
-Update your status, comment on other people's status and start conversations.

Suggestions, Tips and Notes
• By default, the wall is completely public, so whatever you write there, others will be able to see it.
However, this can be adjusted through settings.
• You can leave attachments on people's walls, including photos, videos, and all sorts of rich media
items that have been integrated with Facebook applications
• There are two easy ways to share links on Facebook. One is to copy and paste a link into your
sharing page. The other is to add the "share on Facebook" bookmarklet to your browser's
bookmarks bar. If you intend on sharing things on a regular basis, we'd recommend adding the
bookmarklet, as it gives you a one-click option to share something and continue browsing. Either
way, once you put in a URL, it will scrape the page to grab any related pictures and a brief
description. You can also go in and add your own text, which will show up right underneath it.
Once you're done tweaking it to your liking, you have the option to post it to your profile, or send it
to others on or off Facebook.
• Don’t put anything on your profile that you wouldn’t display for your supervisors, co-workers and
clients to see at the office.
• Facebook also has its own e-mail service. One thing that makes this internal messaging service
attractive is its conversation threading, which shows each message sent back and forth. It's a
great way to keep track of who said what, similar to what you get with Gmail. Like Gmail, you can
just begin typing in a friend's name, or pick the "send FRIEND a message" from the list of
commands under their profile picture. This will open up the message composition page where you
can write to your heart's content, and add various attachments, similar to what you're able to do
on their walls. All of this can be managed under the inbox tab, which you'll find on the top middle
of the page.
• Combine Facebook with other social media tools like Twitter.



Your Home Page (**from Susan Ng on HubPages)

• Your home page has five major components: News Feed, Filters, Requests, Suggestions, and
Highlights. (See figure below.)

• News Feed - Here you will see all your friends' activities on Facebook: wall posts, uploaded
photos or videos, posted links, etc. Any update or activity from your friends can be found here.
• Filters - You can create filters to manage how you see your friends' activities on your News Feed.
• Requests - Any request or invitation that you receive, such as friend requests and application
invitations, will appear here (more on Facebook applications later). Clicking on an invitation gives
you the option to Accept, Ignore, or Block.
• Suggestions - Facebook suggests friends, groups or pages that it thinks you may know or be
interested in. It will appear in this space.
• Highlights - This area shows things like pictures your friends have commented on, videos they
have liked, etc. It also contains links that enable you to "join in the fun" your friends are having.



Your Profile Page (**from Susan Ng on HubPages)

• Your profile page is your own "personal space" on Facebook. It is where your friends will find your
profile picture or avatar, your friends list, applications, widgets, and your tabs. By default, there are
two tabs when you sign in: Wall and Info. Later when you start uploading photos or videos,
corresponding tabs will appear next to the Wall and Info tabs. (See figure below.)

• Wall - The wall is your main "space" on Facebook. Just like on a real wall, you and your friends (if
you choose to let them do so) can "write" on this wall by using the What's on your mind? box right
below the tabs.
• Info - The basic information you typed in when you signed up for Facebook can be found in your
Info tab. You can add or remove data at any time.
• Other Tabs - Additional tabs such as Photos, Videos, Boxes, Notes, etc. may appear once you
have used these internal applications. Once you've uploaded a profile picture, for example, the
Photos tab will already be visible.



• Just type in what you want to write on your wall and hit the Share button.

• Clicking on the What's on your mind? box reveals the buttons for posting a link, photo, video, etc.
on your wall or someone else's wall.

Your Friends Page (**from Susan Ng on HubPages)

• Clicking on Friends in the menu bar takes you to a page where you can find your other friends who
might also be on Facebook. You can choose to find people through your email address or simply
use the Search for People option also in the Friends page. Once you already have some friends,
you can see all of them by clicking on All Friends in the filter located at the upper left corner of the
page.



Facebook Group Vs. Fan Page (**from Howard Greenstein of Mashable)

• Fan Page: In their own words, “Facebook created Pages when we noticed that people were trying
to connect with brands and famous artists in ways that didn’t quite work on Facebook…Not only
can you connect with your favorite artists and businesses, but now you also can show your friends
what you care about and recommend by adding Pages to your personal profile.” So, when you
become a fan of a brand, a band, a movie, or a person, that information is posted on your wall,
and your friends might see it too. You can see which Pages your friends are fans of via the “Info”
tab on their profile.

• To create a fan page, one simply has to go to facebook.com/pages/create.php and create a new
page.
• Facebook Pages can be thought of in much the same way as normal profiles on the site – brand or
celebrity Pages have the ability to have friends, they can add pictures, and they have walls that
fans can post on. Pages communicate by “updates” which show on the update tab or a person’s
wall if they’re a fan and have allowed the page to show updates. Pages can have applications as
well.
• Pages have two walls, one of what the Page owner writes, and one just for fans to write their own
messages. Like a normal Facebook profile, Pages have tabs that uncover more information.



• Group: To create a group you go to facebook.com/groups/create.php and then fill in information
about the type of group, and decide if it is open to a particular network (such as a University
network) or all of Facebook. You can set join permissions on groups so that they are either open to
anyone, closed (where users must get administrator approval to join) or secret (invite only). Groups
have administrators that manage the group, approve applicants or invite others to join.
Administrators can also appoint “officers” who are nominally in charge – however, being an officer
doesn’t mean the person has the ability to administer the group.
• Because of these privacy settings, Facebook’s groups are analogous to clubs in the offline world.
Administrators can invite members to join via Facebook mail and email, and public groups can be
found via Facebook search.



Notable Differences (**from Howard Greenstein of Mashable)

• Personal vs. Corporate: Due to their security features, and size limitations (only groups under
5,000 members can send email blasts), Facebook Groups are set up for more personal interaction.
Groups are also directly connected to the people who administer them, meaning that activities that
go on there could reflect on you personally. Pages, on the other hand, don’t list the names of
administrators, and are thought of as a person, almost like a corporate entity is considered a
‘person’ under the law.
◦ Facebook considers groups to be an extension of your personal actions. When you post
something as a group administrator, it appears to be coming from you and is attached to your
personal profile. Alternately, Pages can create content that comes from the Page itself, so that
content doesn’t have to be linked to you personally.
◦ Pages are indexed by external search engines such as Google just like a public profile while
Groups are not.
• Email vs. Updates: As long as a group is under 5,000 members, admins can send messages to
the group members that will appear in their inboxes. Page admins can send updates to fans
through the Page, and these updates will appear in the “Updates” section of fans’ inboxes. There
is no limit on how many fans you may send an update to, or how many total fans a Page can have.
• User Control: Groups offer far more control over who gets to participate. Permissions settings
make it possible for group admins to restrict access to a group, so that new members have to be
approved. Access to a Page, however, can only be restricted by certain ages and locations. Again,
this makes groups more like a private club.
• Applications: Pages can host applications, so a Page can essentially be more personalized and
show more content. Groups can’t do this.
• Moderation: Neither Groups nor Pages have great moderation features. They can both be a little
granular as to how things get posted, who can post, and what kind of media can be posted, but
that’s about it.
◦ If someone posts spam on your Group or your Page, you have to remove it manually, and you
can also remove specific members.

Terminology
Application (app) - A program that can be added to quickly and easily provide extra functionality, and
even a bit of fun and games.
Chat - An instant messenger feature that allows you to talk with your friends who are online in Facebook.
Event - A calendar-based resource that users can add to their profiles, pages and groups that lets them
share news about upcoming affairs or social gatherings.
Marketplace - A feature that allows users to post free classified ads within the following categories: For
Sale, Housing, Jobs, and Other. Ads can be posted as either available and offered, or wanted.
News Feed - Located on your Homepage. The News Feed provides updates on statuses, wall posts,
profile information, and other data. It is constantly updating and can be filtered and categorized
according to a user’s preferences.
Poke - A simple form of saying hello.
Profile - The repository of each Facebook user’s personal information. Profiles include whatever someone
writes about him- or herself along with photos, wall posts, and other stuff to keep friends updated.
Search - Located in the upper right corner, the Search bar allows users to find friends, groups and fan
pages. Searches can be conducted strictly within Facebook or expanded to also search the Web.
Status Update - A mini blog. A way of letting people know what you are up to at that precise time. Can
be updated throughout the day.



-LINKEDIN-

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking website community that offers a way for individuals and
companies to establish a professional identity online. LinkedIn allows users to construct an in-depth
professional profile, build a network of people they know and trust and connect with people they would
like to know and add to their network. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a
connection via several different ways. LinkedIn is the leading professional networking tool and often used
by recruitment firms, hiring managers and as a sales prospecting tool.

Benefits
Reach: LinkedIn has over 50 million registered business professionals across 170+ industries.
Search: This is the ideal website to find professionals, so if you and your services want to be discovered,
put yourself where people are looking.
Search Ranking: LinkedIn ranks very well among search engines, which means your profile(s) may not just
show up in LinkedIn searches, but also Google, Bing, Yahoo and others.
Branding: Not only can you create a personal profile, but you can also create a company profile to exhibit
your work and inform.
Community: You can join business groups and participate in discussions, or post/answer questions in the
Answers section of LinkedIn. Your connection can also refer you to others as an expert in a particular
field.
Expanding Your Network: You can create a group, or a network of connections to share business advice,
talent, referrals and information.
Advice: Because you have access to over 48 million professionals this makes LinkedIn the ideal place to
ask any business-related questions in LinkedIn's Q&A section.
Research: If your business is B2B, LinkedIn is a great place to look up a company and its employees to
gather information.

Getting Started
-Sign up for free at LinkedIn.com.
-Fill out your profile as complete as you can.
• Definitely include your photo and work history. These serve to build trust and credibility.
• Link to your website and blog.
-Start inviting and connecting with people to build your network.
• LinkedIn can search and identify your contacts from your Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo and other
address books so you can invite them to join your network. You can use this tool to quickly and
easily build your connections.
-Try to get at least one connection to write a recommendation for you.
• You may also write a recommendation for any connection you think merits one.
-Browse and join groups related to your business, and participate in discussions.



• LinkedIn is a place for professionals, so act accordingly.
• As with any other social networking platform, share only the information that you are proud of and
don’t mind being shared with others.
• Thank everyone who recommends, refers or mentions you positively.
• Join groups and be part of discussions.
• If you can't find a particularly group, then create it yourself.
• Include your current title and business name with your profile so people can instantly see it when
you post answers and join discussions.
• Sign every discussion, answer or reply with your name and website.
• The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Group icons signifies what your connection is.
• 1st degree connections - These are trusted friends and colleagues who have sent / received and
accepted an 'Invitation' to connect. These people you can reach by sending a direct message
through LinkedIn. These people are known as 'My Connections' in your Account and Settings.
• 2nd degree connections - These are the trusted friends and colleagues of your 1st degree
connections.
• 3rd degree connections - These are the trusted friends and colleagues of your 2nd degree
connections
• Group - These are people you're in a group with. You can reach them by sending a message
through LinkedIn. These people are considered part of 'My Network' in your Account and Settings.

Ways To Invite A New Connection

• Connect directly using your contact’s email address.
• Send an invitation through a shared 1st to a second or third degree.
• Join a group and invite by referencing the shared group.
• IN pay service to connect directly.
• Direct message someone in a shared discussion or group to connect to you by providing them
with your email address.

A List of Useful LinkedIn Applications

• My Travel - See where your LinkedIn network is traveling and when you will be in the same city as
your colleagues.
• Reading List by Amazon - Share books you’re reading and find out what your connections are
reading. This can serve as a point of reference.
• Polls - Collect actionable data from your connections and the professional audience on LinkedIn.
• WordPress - Sync your WordPress blog posts with your LinkedIn profile.
• Google Presentation - Upload a PPT or use Google’s online application to embed a presentation
on your profile.
• Box.net Files - Share content on your profile, and collaborate with friends and colleagues.
• Huddle Workspaces - Simple yet powerful project, collaboration and sharing tools for working with
your connections.
• SlideShare Presentations - Share your SlideShare presentations on LinkedIn.
• Blog Link - Connecting your blog to your LinkedIn profile.
• Company Buzz - Shows you the Twitter activity associated with your company.



Tips From LinkedIn

• Don't cut and paste your resume
• LinkedIn hooks you into a network, not just a human resources department. You wouldn't hand
out your resume before introducing yourself, so don't do it here. Instead, describe your experience
and abilities as you would to someone you just met. Also, write for the screen, in short blocks of
copy with visual or textual signposts.
• Borrow from the best marketers.
• Write a personal tagline.
• That line of text under your name is the first thing people see in your Profile. It follows your name
in search hit lists. It's your brand. (Note: your e-mail address is not a brand!) Your company's
brand might be so strong that it and your title are sufficient. However,you might need to refine your
professional personality into a more eye-catching phrase that describes who you are at a glance.
• Imagine a conference introduction. That 30-second description, the essence of who you are and
what you do, is a personal elevator pitch. Use it in the Summary section to engage readers. You've
got 5-10 seconds to capture their attention. The more meaningful your summary is, the more time
you'll get from readers.
• Point out your skills.
• Think of the Specialties field as your personal search engine optimizer. It is an avenue to refine the
ways people find and remember you. This searchable section is where that list of industry
buzzwords from your resume belongs. This is also the place to display particular abilities and
interests, the personal values you bring to your professional performance, or even a note of humor
or passion.
• Explain your experience.
• Help the reader grasp the key points. Briefly say what the company does and what you did or do
for them. Picture yourself at that conference again. After you've introduced yourself, how do you
describe what you do, what your company does? Use those clear, succinct phrases here and
break them into visually digestible chunks.
• Distinguish yourself from the crowd.
• Use the 'Additional Information' section to round out your Profile with a few key interests. Add
websites that showcase your abilities or passions. Then edit the default 'My Website' label to
encourage click-throughs (you get Google page rankings for those, raising your visibility). Maybe
you belong to a trade association or an interest group; help other members find you by naming
those groups. If you're an award winner recognized by peers, customers or employers, add
prestige without bragging by listing them here.
• Thoughtful questions and useful answers build your credibility. The best ones give people a reason
to look at your Profile. Make a point of answering questions in your field to establish your
expertise, raise your visibility, and most important, to build social capital with people in your
network. You may need answers to a question of your own down the road.
• Improve your Google Page Rank.
• Pat your own back and others'. Get recommendations from colleagues, clients, and employers
who can speak credibly about your abilities or performance. (Think quality, not quantity.) Ask them
to focus on a specific skill or personality trait that drives their opinion of you. Make meaningful
comments when you recommend others. Also, mix it up because variety makes your
recommendations feel authentic.
• Connections are one of the most important aspects of your brand. The company you keep reflects
the quality of your brand. What happens when you view a Profile and see that you know someone
in common? That Profile's credibility increases. The value of that commonality works both ways.
So identify connections that will add to your credibility and pursue those.



Marketing Your Business with LinkedIn

POLLS
• Create a poll.
• Share poll results.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
• Answer questions in Q&A, promote yourself as an expert in your industry without being self-
promotional.
• Ask questions in Q&A, to get answers and get exposure.
• Use Status Updates. Link to new work or marketing materials.

GROUPS
• Grow your network by joining industry groups related to your business and alumni groups.
• Grow your network by joining groups related to your prospects’ businesses.
• Start your own group related to your industry/interests and invite your network and others to join.
• Start a discussion in a group.
• Join a discussion, related or unrelated to your industry or ﬁeld jut for the networking and exposure.
• Submit news articles in groups.

RECOMMENDATIONS
• Request LinkedIn recommendations from happy customers and employers.

Terminology
Connection - LinkedIn members who have accepted an invitation to connect (1st degree).
InMail - Private message that allow you to directly contact any LinkedIn member while protecting the
recipients' privacy.
InMail Feedback - Reputation system based on recipients responses to sender's messages.
Introduction - Messages that allow members to contact or be contacted through a shared or mutual
connection.
Invitation - Sent to existing member or another person not on LinkedIn to join a network.
Network - A group of users that can contact you through connections up to three degrees away.
Recommendation - Comment written to recommend a colleague, business partner, or provider of a
professional service including service providers that are not LinkedIn members.
Status Message - Update your network daily with what you are working on or information you may need
etc.

**This is from The Savvy Seller



-PLAXO-

Plaxo is an online address book and social networking service that provides automatic updates of your
friends' contact information and synchronizes important information into one single place, allowing you to
stay connected with friends, family, colleagues, co-workers, and others. Plaxo Pulse, Plaxo's social media
aggregator, automatically brings you what your contacts are sharing from all over the web, because
chances are they're using different sites to find and share content.

Benefits
Updates: When a client changes his or her e-mail, URL, phone number or location on their profile your
Plaxo account will automatically be updated.
Privacy: You have many different relationships and would share certain information with some and not with
others. Plaxo recognizes this and allows you to set what you share with whom accordingly.
Synchronization: Your Plaxo calendar syncs with Yahoo!, Google Mail, Outlook, Mac and a growing
number of sync points to make sure you don't miss anything.
Portability: Having all your contacts in one place such as Plaxo is incredibly convenient when your
computer crashes or when you're switching e-mail providers as all your contacts can be easily
transferred and stored on Plaxo.
Expanding Your Network: Make new friends and contacts; join groups that share your business interest.
Building Relationships: Comment, communicate and engage with contacts, because you want your clients
to be returning clients.
Sharable: You can share photos, videos, reviews, blogs and more thanks to Pulse's integration with
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Digg and a growing list of activity stream sites you can activate.
Premium Tools (requires membership fee):
◦ Sync with Outlook
◦ See your contacts’ Plaxo activity directly from Outlook
◦ Choose your own customized email signature
◦ Sync with WinMobile
◦ Sync cradled or over the air
◦ Works with Smartphones or PocketPCs
◦ Remove duplicates
◦ Intelligently merge similar contacts
◦ Backup contacts
◦ Roll back undesired changes to your contacts
◦ Keep a history of the last 90 days
◦ Send unlimited eCards form wide selection
◦ Send your own photos as eCards
◦ 24/7 VIP support
◦ Contact the help center through live chat



Getting Started
-Sign up for free at Plaxo.com.
-Flesh out your profile.
• Use the Profile Builder.
-Find and invite friends.
• You can do this by your e-mail, Outlook, AIM or search.
-Synchronize your address book and add contacts.
-Set your settings accordingly.
-Explore.

• For a more step-by-step approach visit Plaxo Support.
• Plaxo is a social network with a heavy focus geared towards business professionals.
• If you have any questions about Plaxo visit Plaxo's forum.
• By integrating your accounts from Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, etc. to Plaxo, it will make sharing
content with your contacts a lot easier.
• Your blog feeds can be updated to Plaxo automatically.
• You can download versions of Plaxo for Macs and/or Windows and it will synchronize your
address book, calendar, tasks, and notes with the local data across all of your computers.

Pages

• My Profile - Where you can update your status message, change your picture, share content, and
view your Pulse feed.
• Connections – Where you find your friends and colleagues on Plaxo. Import your address book to
find people you already know. Or add people through the “People You May Know” Tool.
• My Career – Nurture your Network and Career. Post job opportunities.
• Address Book – Keep track of your connections' contact info.
• Calendar – Sync with your Google, Yahoo, Outlook or Mac calendar.
• eCards – Send eCards to your connections for their birthday, job promotion, or other occasion.
• Fan Pages – A place to share content with other fans of popular TV Shows.
• Groups – A place to share content with people with similar interests.
• Jobs – View job listings.
• Photos – Upload photos from your other social networking sites.

Terminology
Your Account Information - Your name & e-mail address, as is shared in the registration process + your
password + challenge/response
Your Business Plaxo Card - Professional contact information that you entered about yourself.
Your Contact List or Address Book - The contact information you have collected or been given by
friends and/or associates.
Your Information - Your Account Information + Your Plaxo Cards + Your Contact List + Your PIM
Information.
Your Personal Plaxo Card - Personal contact information that you entered about yourself.
Your PIM Information - Your Notes, Tasks and Calendar information.
Your Plaxo Cards - Contact information that you entered about yourself.

**This is from Plaxo's Glossary



-SOCIAL BOOKMARKING-

Social bookmarking is a form of storage, organization, management and sharing of links (websites,
articles, pictures, blog posts and videos) to the Internet by a user. The links are stored to a website,
organized and managed through tags and comments/notes, and shared by allowing others to see the
links you've saved/bookmarked. This allows you to view your links from any computer with an Internet
connection, as oppose to the old way of bookmarking links to a specific web browser on one particular
computer. Some social bookmarking sites (SBS) suggest relevant links of interest based on the tags you
provide to your links.

Benefits
Targeted Search: The search engines of SBS are uniquely high-quality because they focus on the tags and
content made by the bookmarkers instead of systematic algorithms attempted by software like
traditional search engines such as Google and Bing. A search done on SBS offers a more narrow and
relevant scope.
Search Ranking: Because of the popularity of SBS they rank very well in traditional search engines.
Therefore, search results on SBS often index and show up high on traditional search engines.
Traffic Generator: SBS serve as a great resource to find popular links because most of these sites allow
ranking of links based on how many votes the link receives. The higher the rank the more notoriety the
link has allowing it to be discovered by more people. At the other end of the spectrum, there are many
people who search for new material submitted to SBS to be an early influencer - a popular link doesn't
start popular, so it has to start somewhere.
Personal Branding: Most SBS allow you to develop a profile page, which serves as another channel to
promote your business and list your websites and blogs. If you define your profile you may be
recognized as an expert in your field.
Expanding Your Network: The social portion of SBS comes in the ability to share and connect with other
social bookmarkers on the sites. If people like the links you've bookmarked they may explore your page,
add you as a friend, and you can do likewise. SBS are essentially communities and links are their
vehicles.

Getting Started
-Register at a social bookmarking site for free.
• Here's a list of 125 Social Bookmarking Sites.
-Set up and flesh out your profile page.
-Submit links of your website, videos and best blog posts.
• Add a description to every submission when applicable. Tag your submissions properly.
-Explore the site to really understand how SBS work and how useful it is to discover content.



• Trying to manage too many SBS can be overwhelming, so you may want to start with Digg,
Reddit, Mixx, StumbleUpon and whichever one that may be related to your business speciﬁcally,
just to get a feel for it ﬁrst. However, the more SBS you submit your links the more exposure you'll
get.
• If your company gets written about you should promote the article by submitting it through SBS
along with all your other social media outlets.
• Tagging formats are not all the same for every site, so be sure to read carefully and tag correctly,
as tags are essential for the SBS' search engines.
• Give the link an attractive title and a concise description, because in these instances you only
have a couple of seconds to grab someone's attention to persuade them to read on.
• Bookmark other links besides your own, not to come off as a spammer.
• Submit your links yourself to SBS and ask your network of friends, family and colleagues to vote
for it.
• Add one of the "share buttons," such as AddThis and ShareThis among others, to your website
and blog to make it convenient for visitors to bookmark, share and vote for your link.
• Tell your blog readers (in the post) to bookmark the post they're reading.

Terminology
Vote - Giving your approval that the content is worth viewing and sharing. Depending on the SBS
synonyms include Digg it, Prop it, Buzz it, give it a thumbs up and so on.



-TWITTER-

Twitter is a micro-blogging service used to communicate with other users through the exchange of quick,
frequent messages referred to as "tweets." These tweets are posted to your profile page, posted to your
followers' feed, and are searchable on Twitter search. Another way to look at Twitter is it's much like a
giant online bulletin board, and tweets are the post.

Benefits
Quick Updates: If you have an update to announce to people that doesn't garner an entire blog post then
Twitter is the perfect place for it.
Brand Building: Twitter serves as another platform to promote your product/service/company.
Personal Branding: You can position yourself as an expert and be a direct resource for your industry's
information.
Engagement: Readers can leave comments on blog posts and you can respond, this builds a relationship
between blogger and readers.
Traffic Generator: With a loyal following you can have them click just about any link you suggest. Twitter
serves as a great resource for information because users are heavily sharing links.
Expanding Your Network: Because Twitter is so public you can easily connect with thousands of people
and start a conversation with someone just by @replying him or her.
Sharable: Twitter is arguably the best platform to share links (of websites, blog post, articles and so on)
because of how easily it can be done. Also, with the retweet option a link can easily be passed on to
tens, hundreds and thousands of people in a matter of minutes.
• Example: You tweet a link to 50 followers, those 50 then retweet the link to their own 50 followers
and that's already 2,550 people.

Getting Started
-Sign up for free at Twitter.com .
• Choose a username that is unique, your real name works too. Try to make it short, so when people
refer to you in a tweet, you don’t use up too many characters.
-Fill in your profile completely with a bio, link to your website or blog and add a picture. A profile without a
picture is often seen as a spammer and ignored.
-Start tweeting. Highlight your interests by tweeting about them or linking to blog posts and videos you'd
like to share.
-After a few solid tweets search for your friends by clicking the "Find People" link at the top.
-Search for topics that interest you and follow those interesting people.
• The reason to make a few solid tweets before following people is because when you follow
someone Twitter notifies that user and very often that user will check out your profile and tweets to
determine if you're worth following back.
• Do not be discouraged if people you follow don't follow you back. You should be following them
because you're interested in what they have to say and not so you can bump your followers count.
-Don't just take in other users' tweets. Engage them and start a conversation. @reply them.



• Tweets are limited to 140 characters.
• When it comes to following/followers choose quality over quantity. It's better to have 100 followers
who care for your tweets than have 10,000 followers ignore them.
• Don’t just follow people just because they will follow you back. Keep your feed free from useless
chatter. If you’re not interested in what they have to say, don’t follow them. Only follow people you
are interested in and would like to learn more about, such as business leads, industry experts or
entertainment tweeters.
• You are not obligated to follow anyone who is following you, and vice versa.
• Twitter is a social media tool, and the social part means engagement and interaction. Don't make
all your tweets about you, you and you.
• Keep the useless chatter to an absolute minimum, because more often than not, no one cares for
tweets like "Eating a bowl of cereal" or "I can't find my pen cap."
• Your number of followers will grow as you post more useful, interesting tweets frequently.
• There is a sort of subculture on Twitter that likes to add “Tw” to words, i.e. twapplications, twalking
and tweetheart among others.
• Tweets are shown in real-time, meaning the moment you tweet something it will immediately show
up on your followers' feeds.
• You can set your account to private so only those who follow you can read your tweets and you
get to screen users who want to follow you.
• Twitter offers many ways to post updates: from the web in the Twitter update box, your phone,
your mobile web browser using m.twitter.com and Facebook among others.
• Once you hit the "update" button your tweet can no longer be edited. However, you can delete a
tweet by clicking the trash icon on the right end of your tweet.
• If you hover your mouse over the right end of a user's tweets there will be a reply arrow and a
favorite star. By clicking the reply arrow Twitter will automatically @reply that user in your update
box. By clicking the star Twitter will add that tweet to your Favorites.
• Twitter doesn't offer an official picture posting feature of its own, however, most people use a third
party application (a popular one is TwitPic) to post pictures to Twitter accounts.
• If you're following too many people and find keeping up with their tweets to be exhausting, there
are Twitter apps such as TweetDeck that can help you categorize and manage Tweeters.
• You can have multiple accounts and use them differently. TweetDeck even allows you to manage
multiple accounts.
• Sharing a link can be difficult since it can easily exceed the 140-character limit, so there are URL
shorteners such as http://bit.ly and http://is.gd for exactly this.
• Twitter search is a great way to find out what people are saying about your company or
product/service, as Twitter indexes every tweet.
• Searching for a few keywords can turn Twitter into a great barometer for a product’s impact. And
since Twitter is in real time, users can get feedback right away.
• Some businesses use Twitter as a means for customer support; addressing any question or
concern a user may have, in the open public, which is great PR. @JetBlue and @comcastcares are
two companies that do this well.
• Twitter is a simple tool, but there are plenty of ways to use it. Explore it and really get into it, then
adjust accordingly to best optimize it.



Terminology (or Twerminology)
@Reply - A direct way to comment or reply to another user. By placing @ before their username, that user
will be notified that you have mentioned them in your tweet.
@YourUserName - A list of tweets that has mentioned you.
DM/Direct Message - A private message sent from one Twitter user to another. You can only send a
direct message to a user who is following you.
Favorites - A list of tweets that you have favorited.
Feed - The stream of tweets from people you are following on your Homepage.
Followers - Users that have subscribed to have your tweets show on their feed; these people are
following you.
Following - Users that you have subscribed to have their tweets show on your feed; you are following
these people.
Follow Friday - A weekly keyword occurrence when a Twitter user mentions other users worth following.
This can usually be spotted on the Trending Topics on Fridays, and occasionally spelled differently.
• Example: #FollowFriday @spotzero @gettingspotted.
Hashtags (#) - Hashtags are used to categorize tweets. You can add keywords to your tweets to make it
easier for search. Simply add a hash (#) to your keyword in your tweet.
• Example: #LosAngeles The traffic is terrible, but at least I get a good view of the Hollywood sign.
Home Page - The main page of Twitter and where you'll find your feed and Trending Topics.
Profile Page - The page listing all of the tweets you have posted. It is what other users see when they
click on your username.
RT/Retweet - Sharing a tweet you saw with all of your followers. If a user tweets something interesting
that you want to share with your followers, you copy and paste their tweet and put RT and the @user in
front of the tweet. This way you cite your source and give credit where credit is due.
• Example: RT @spotzero Have your own business video for as little as $599.
Trending Topics - A list of the ten most used keywords at that moment on Twitter as discussion points.
Tweeple - A combination of Twitter and People, referring to Twitter users. Synonyms: Twitterers, Tweeters
and Twitizens among others.
Tweeps - Your Twitter friends.
Tweets (aka updates) - Content (message, links, pictures, etc.) that you post onto Twitter for your
followers to see. A tweet can also be used as a verb. Example: I will tweet about that event later. I just
tweeted you an hour ago.
Twitterverse (aka Twitosphere)- The Twitter community.
Twoosh - A perfect 140 character tweet.



-YOUTUBE-

YouTube is the largest video sharing website on the Internet and the second largest search engine, next to
Google. YouTube is also a valuable social networking website for businesses looking to increase their
brand awareness, website traffic and overall sales through video and social media (viral) marketing.
YouTube enables users to upload and share videos, create channels for their videos and view statistics
surrounding their videos.

Benefits
Reach: YouTube has over 40 percent of the online video market serving nearly 7 billion videos as of April,
2009 according to comScore.
Free: YouTube provides video hosting, embed codes and statistics for $0.
Search Ranking: Properly tagged and titled YouTube videos receive high placement on search engines,
especially on Google, as YouTube is owned by Google.
Search: YouTube is the second largest search engine, but it only indexes video, so you do not want to
miss out.
Sharable: With links and embed codes you can let your viewers do some of the work for you by letting
them share with their own network.
Viral Potential: With the right video and proper promotion your video can be seen by millions. The more the
video gets shared the more free promotion you'll get.
Hi-Def: YouTube HD is very high quality. You can also append links and embed extensions to force
browsers to play HD automatically (see below).
Community: YouTube is also a social network. Users have profiles, friends list, can leave each other
comments and join groups.
Branding: Another place to link back to your website and blog. Each video you upload gets its own page,
which means you can link to your website in the description.
Exposure: You can display your product to millions across the world, turning your local business
international.
Feedback: Through comments, ratings and YouTube's back end statistics you can gauge how well
received your video is. This way you can know which videos work and which don't.
Traffic Generator: If your video is usefully informative or entertaining, people will want to see or learn more,
which means video is great bait. So, be sure to have a watermark link in the video and a link in the
description.

Getting Started
-Set up your free account at YouTube.com .
-Set up your channel profile including profile photo, color design, layout and preferences. You can also go
with preset or default options until you are more comfortable with the platform.
-Upload your video(s).
-Share your video.
• Beneath your profile pic and video description on the video page are two boxes with "URL" and
"EMBED." Here, you'll find the link (URL) to share with people via email, IM, Facebook etc. as well
as the embed code to "embed" the video on your website or blog. Simply click on the code inside
each box and when it turns blue "copy" it. and paste it where you want it to show.
• Customize your embedded video: Click the gear icon to the right of the embed code to reveal
customization options including video border. color, size and an HD option.



• Make your videos play in high quality and HD. If your video has the High Quality (HQ) or High
Definition (HD) option, you can make sure that your viewers watch your video in that quality
automatically by altering the URL (link) and the embed code.
• For the URL, simply add &fmt=18 to the end of the link for HQ and &fmt=22 for HD.
• For the embed code for HD, click the HD option when grabbing the code (see “Getting Started”).
For HQ, append the code &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 to the end of video clip’s URL specified in
“param value” and “embed src”. For example, add the code here, illustrated in red:
◦ <object width="853" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/
_rzaiIj-DOc&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&hd=1&ap=%2526fmt%3D18"></param><param
name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess"
value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_rzaiIj-
DOc&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&hd=1&ap=%2526fmt%3D18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="853"
height="505"></embed></object>
• Include a website, blog, watermark logo or "bug" on the video as a form of contact information.
• Be a part of the community by commenting, favoriting and rating videos you come across.
• Be sure to share your video with your network and encourage them to share it with their network.
• If you want to add a note to the video you uploaded to YouTube you can use annotations. You can
also link to other YouTube videos through annotations.

Uploading A Video

• Encoding – video export settings can vary from simple presets to more complex configurations
depending on the editing tools you are using like Final Cut, Avid Compressor, iMovie, Vegas,
Movie Maker; the system you are on, Mac, PC; and the desired aspect ratio and quality of your
video, HD, standard. The best thing to do is try the presets first. If that doesn’t work, look up the
proper settings for your editing setup on Google.
• The default video title is the same as your file title. Therefore, pick a title that matches what your
viewers will search for and not simply what the video is about or your company name.
• For the description, write a concise narrative of the video's content and anything else that may
interest a viewer as well as words that will be searchable.
• Be sure to tag the video properly, as this helps make your video more searchable.
• Select which category your video belongs in. For example: Comedy, Entertainment, News and
Politics etc.

Building your YouTube Network

• Invite friends.
• Direct message.
• Invite users to subscribe to your channel.
• Thank users for subscribing.
• Subscribe to channels you like.
• Favorite videos you like.
• Leave comments.
• Post a video response.
• Share, share, share!



Terminology
Channel - A page viewable by the general public containing a user's profile information, videos, favorites,
etc. To view your own Channel, log in and click on your username, displayed at the top-right of any
page. The Account link, which is located to the right of your username, will allow you to manage your
account and channel. To view another user's Channel, simply click on their username.
Comment - A section of text for users to provide messages related to a video, profile or another user's
comment. Comments which address a particular video can be posted on the video's watch page
whereas comments which address particular users, can either be posted on a particular video or on the
user's channel page.
Embedding / Embeddable Player - You can have YouTube videos appear inside other web pages and
blogs. Simply copy the code in the field marked "Embed", located to the right of the video (Note: If the
video owner has disabled embedding, the "Embed" field will not be displayed and you will not be
allowed to embed their video). You may also customize your own embeddable player by clicking on the
Account link located at the top-right of every page, and clicking the Custom Video Players link within the
"More" section. After filling out your player information, picking a theme, selecting a layout, choosing
your content, and finally, generating the embed code, you can then use the code to display your
YouTube videos on your own site or blog.
Favorites, favoriting, favorited - Videos which you can add to a list and keep track of from within your
own account and channel. To add a video to your list of favorites, visit the watch page of the video you'd
like to favorite and click the link below the video labeled "Favorite". To manage your favorites, simply
visit your Account page (via the Account link located at the top-right of any page) and click on the link
labeled Favorites from within the "My Videos" section.
Friends, Friend Invites - A contact list named "Friends" is automatically included with every YouTube
account. To see your contact list, visit your account page by clicking the Account link located at the top-
right of any page. Then click Contacts, under the "My Network" section. Select any of your Contacts
that you would like to put on your "Friends" list, then click the "Add to Friends" button to confirm.
Groups - Joining groups allows you to share videos and have discussions on a common theme. You can
find groups the quickest by visiting the Community tab located near the top of every page. You can
create your own group (with you as the owner/moderator of the group) by clicking the Account link,
located at the top-right of any page, and then clicking the Groups link located within the "More" section.
Invite - To send a "Friend" invite to another YouTube user, click the "Add as Friend" link located in the
"Connect With..." section of their channel page. After the other person accepts your invite, their channel
will display in the "Friends" list on your Contacts list.
Rating, Ratings, Rated - While watching a video, you can see the overall rating which other users have
given the video and also add your own rating. The rating information is located to the bottom-left of the
video. You can click on one of the stars next to "Rate" (5 being the highest/best rating, 1 being the
worst). The average number of stars which users have given the video will be displayed.
Responses or Video Responses - A video which is posted in response to another video. If the owner of a
video has allowed video responses, you can post a video response by clicking the "Post a Video
Response" button, located under the video on its watch page.
Seeding, seeded - Seeding is the process of identifying and “planting” a video on relevant blogs, forums,
social bookmarking, social networking and video sharing sites in addition to contacting direct and
tangential influencers online.
Subscribe, Subscribers - Subscribing to a user's videos or favorites will allow YouTube to notify you
through e-mail whenever that user posts new content to their channel. To manage subscriptions, visit
your account page (via the Account link located at the top-right of every page) and click the
Subscriptions link from within the "My Videos" section.
Views - The number of times the video has been seen.



MORE!

We, SpotZero, will be updating this Social Media Starter Guide (SMSG) regularly. If you would like to
contribute and add information to the SMSG or want us to cover a particular social media platform for our
next update, feel free to contact us.

SpotZero helps Small to Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs) get noticed! We specialize in online video
concepts, production and social media marketing via YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, forums, blog
outreach, local targeting and more!

CONTACT
SpotZero
1556 N. La Brea Ave. Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90028
1-800-881-5657

Website: SpotZero.com
Blog: GettingSpotted
Email: SpotZero@SpotZero.com
Facebook: SpotZero Fan Page
LinkedIn: SpotZero Business Proﬁle
Twitter: @spotzero / @gettingspotted
YouTube: SpotZeroDotCom


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