11 Out Of 10 Blog

Social Media is becoming more and more a part of day to day life. This is true for Social Media within business. Businesses are now finding more and more ways to make social media work for them.

Over the next 10 blog posts we will outline what we believe are the top 10 social media networks for businesses (in no particular order).
For any questions about how you can use social media for your business feel free to get in touch with us- marketing@11outof10.com

1. WordPress

2. Twitter

3. Technorati

4. Skype

5. LinkedIn

6. Foursquare

7. Flickr

8. Facebook

9. Delicious

10. Digg

WordPress is an open source content management system that specialises in blogs. WordPress allows the easy installation of blogs onto sites that allow users to change the theme and look of the blog easily. WordPress includes a tagging system also that allows blog posts to be easily categorised. WordPress also provides a selection of installable widgets that can be used within the blog to add some variety and interactivity within the blog.

WordPress can bring many benefits to a business, one of these being the SEO benefits. By including key words and writing about the content that is on the site the website can become more visible on a search engine. As with a lot of the social media tools WordPress also allows the business to show a more personal side to their business by allowing them to talk about things that are important to them within the business and industry.

Our tip when using WordPress is to ensure that it matches the rest of the site that you are integrating it to. This will allow seamless transition between the main site and the blog making the user feel the two are related. Also, as with Flickr try to keep the content interesting so the user enjoys reading it and will continue to read your blog.

Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging service that allows its users to send and read other short messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page. Users can ‘follow’ each other to see what the other user is tweeting about if they find what they have to say particularly interesting. Users often include links in their tweets to pages or articles they find interesting, but they may also include links to pictures they have taken and wish to share with people. Twitter has a feature on it called Hashtags. Hashtags allow the user to put there Tweet into a category along with other Tweets that contain that hashtag. For example: if a user were to tweet saying “I like cake #food@”, there Tweet would be shown in a category with other tweets that contain the food hashtags. If a hashtag or phrase is used often enough then it starts to ‘trend’. This means that it will be shown to all users of Twitter as a popular topic, encouraging other Twitter users to contribute to it.

Twitter is useful for a business as it allows them to appeal to another platform. They can use Twitter to post news and updates about their business that they wish to share with others, getting maximum exposure using hashtags. Hashtags can be particularly useful for a business who wishes to appeal to a certain location, for example a business who sells brushes to people from Stockport may include the hashtag #Stockport, to ensure that it directly appeals to people who are interested in Stockport. Businesses on Twitter can also follow other businesses in order to get information about them and how they deal, but also to show clearly what industry they are in. This can mean that the company that sells brushes will follow other Twitter users that make brushes or Twitterers that give advice on using brushes.

Our tip when using Twitter for your business is to use hashtags as often as possible to get more exposure. Also try following people that will follow you back, this will also help to boost the number of followers and therefore the amount of exposure your Twitter feed gets.

Technorati is a relatively unknown tool however it should not be overlooked. Technorati is a search engine for blogs and posts that allows the users to find all blog posts based on a certain subject they may wish to search for. It also ranks blogs from 1-100 meaning that you can see the blogs that are rated highest by Technorati Authority (Technorati’s method of rating blogs).

For a business Technorati can be a useful tool to find out how your blog is doing and also to see if there is any talk in other blogs about your brand.
Our tip when using Technorati, is to use it as a monitoring tool, try to check relatively often to see if there is any talk of your brand or business in there, this will allow you to find out any bad reviews or opinions but also if there is positive things being said that you might wish to make more of.

Skype is a software application that allows the user to make voice calls and video calls over the internet. Using Skype to call other Skype users is a free service making it useful for businesses that need to make a lot of international calls. Skype is different to a lot of other VOIP software that uses external servers as it uses background processes on the user’s machine. Skype’s other features include instant messaging and file exchange.

Skype is extremely useful, as stated before, for companies that may need to communicate internationally on a regular basis, helping to save them money in terms of phone calls. Skype could also be used in business to help provide a more personal interaction between two people that have never met each other face to face. If people can see each other they may be able to develop more of a rapport then just by phone or email. Businesses may also find Skype useful to perform distance learning. Skype allows the use of tools like whiteboards and other visual implements that wouldn’t be available simply over the phone.

Our tip when using Skype is that any long distance calls should try to be made over Skype (where possible). This may mean that if you are in constant discussion with an office in America and your business is based in the UK, using Skype would be a massive money saver.

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site; much like Facebook but the primary target is for businesses. It allows businesses to keep in contact with other businesses that they may find useful or keep up to date with other companies in their field of work. LinkedIn allows its users to create a list of connection from people they know within business, these people are called connections. On LinkedIn there is second degree and third degree connections also, these allow people to meet through mutual connections. LinkedIn can be used for people to find jobs, find people and find business opportunities that may not have been found without it.

Businesses can use LinkedIn as a basic virtual shop front for their business. This allows people to find them and get in touch to get more information and possibly do business. Businesses can also take advantage of LinkedIn by using it to advertise for jobs. This can be done by going to relevant groups of professionals and advertising specifically to them.

As mentioned before, LinkedIn can be thought of as a shop front for your business; our tip therefore is to treat it as such. This means that the same way how you would not leave your shop front looking untidy, you shouldn’t leave your LinkedIn profile untidy and incomplete. Try to ensure you have all details filled in and a high quality image of your logo to give the best first impression possible. See more tips on LinkedIn

Foursquare is a location based social media network. Foursquare allows users to ‘check in’ to various locations, this can then be linked to Twitter or Facebook to post an update saying where the user currently is.  Users can be awarded ‘badges’ for checking in to place a certain number of times, these badges can range from the ‘local’ badge for checking into a location 3 times to the ‘mayorship’ badge for checking in to this location more times than anyone else. Foursquare allows users to get notifications when their friends on foursquare check in to a location nearby or even when they check into any location.

Businesses can use foursquare as a method of encouraging users to visit their business (only really applicable with physical businesses), this could be by offering prizes or special offers to people that are regular check-ins or to people who have are the Mayor of that location. This will encourage users to come and visit the location but will also help to spread the word of your business, as other foursquare users will see this check-in.

Flickr is a different type of social network again compared to the previous platforms. Flickr is based around the submission of photographs and viewing other users. These photographs can be entered by users into groups that contain other people’s photos relating to the same topic, for example a picture of a flower could be uploaded into a group based on the garden. Flickr also allows other users to be added as contacts. This means that if a photographer has a set of pictures that you particularly like you can become a contact of theirs and get to see their new photos easily whilst being able to message them asking questions about them. Flickr also has the capability to allow a user to upload pictures and then get them professionally printed or put onto canvas.

For a business Flickr brings the advantage that it allows the business to show a different side of their business than they may be able to on their website. Like Facebook, Flickr is more informal so businesses can use it as a way to show examples of the staff enjoying themselves or pictures from around the office. Again, like Facebook, this can show a personal side of the business that customers will appreciate.

Our tips when using Flickr is to ensure that pictures you upload are interesting and will want to be looked at by the customer. If they are pictures of just your products that they can see on the website, they won’t want to spend their time looking at them.

Facebook is a completely different social network compared to Digg and delicious.
Facebook is based around social interaction between users. Digg and delicious will both work and be functional without interacting with other users, Facebook on the however is pointless without interaction.
Facebook allows users to create a personal profile that they can use to represent themselves by adding their interests and pictures. Users can then add other Facebook users as friends and exchange messages, share pictures and videos, instant message and more.
Groups and ‘fanpages’ can also be joined to talk to and show support of a cause, business or charity.
Facebook also provides an advertising service, Facebook Ads, that allows businesses to advertise to their chosen demographic based on Age, Education, location and other factors.

Facebook is a social media that businesses are starting to invest in heavily as it can bring many advantages.
Firstly, Facebook is free; this means all of the advantages that it brings only have to be paid for in terms of hours spent.
The main advantage for a business using Facebook is that if they create a Facebook fan page for their business it allows the fans to ‘like’ and join their network. This means the business can keep them updated with any relevant news and can communicate with the user easily and quickly. Facebook fan pages are also a great way to offer support. Users may feel that the process to email a company or get in touch by phone is too much hassle and might prefer to do it simply over Facebook.
Facebook also allows business to communicate more informally with their customers. A Facebook user won’t go onto Facebook to communicate formally with a business and will prefer to be spoke to on a more personal level.

Our tips for using Facebook successfully for your business is to ensure that you are engaging the user rather than just using it as a sales pitch. Use your Facebook fan page to ask questions and promote discussion and users will grow to trust and like your brand.

Delicious is similar to Digg, however it is more basic and is a straight forward social bookmarking site. This allows a user to bookmark their favourite sites online and under a number of different categories or ‘tags’. This allows the user to access their bookmarks from anywhere, on any computer, making it useful for a member who uses multiple workstations. Delicious also brings the advantage that it shows the most popular bookmarks and also the newest bookmarks on the site.

Much like Digg, delicious allows businesses to get more interest by bookmarking their site. They can also get similar SEO benefits, creating links whenever a site is bookmarked. It is also useful for businesses, especially if they operate multiple workstation systems that they can keep their important bookmarks whatever machine they use.

Our tip for using delicious is the same as for Digg. Ensure not to spam using multiple accounts as this will just result in the accounts being removed and time wasted.