Professional Social Media Accounts: The Essential Secret

When I started out as a writer/contributor for Comic Booked.com, I was briefed on the importance of social media networks for online businesses. We needed to publicize ourselves, our articles, and the site as a whole--and the more sharing, the better. We had to build our follower bases as much as possible and then tweet/share/+1 everything we wrote on as many platforms as possible. That makes sense, of course... but then people lost interest in everything I had to say. I started losing friends and followers that were people I knew and cared about, because as far as they were concerned I was just spamming them with the latest comic book news. Ouch.

I've mentioned this before on this blog, and I have to say that it's one of the trickier dilemmas I've had to face as an online professional. I found a solution to the social media problem soon after I started writing this blog by opening up a separate Twitter account for E.O.I.P. (@onlineincome19), where I focus exclusively on tips relevant to my business and this blog. My followers here are not my personal friends, and neither are those I follow. Instead, I use this account as a way to connect solely with professionals and information sources who can help me and/or hopefully benefit from what I have to say. I have only experienced growth from this account, and only positive reactions from others who have found it. Why? It's targeted. I'm sharing information with people who actually want to hear it, while at the same time preserving my other social accounts for my personal life.

Three questions that come up regarding professional social media accounts are when, why and how. I've already tackled a lot of the why. The timing depends on your business. You should open new social media accounts as soon as you're ready to start seriously promoting whatever you have to offer. "How" is a bit trickier. I want to stay as far from spamming others as I can, and I also want my updates to be regular and consistent. There's a super easy way to manage a professional Twitter account: find good sources of information and subscribe to them. Every blog has an RSS feed that you can find if you look around a bit, and if you go to your new Twitter account information, you'll find a place where you can input the RSS feed. That way, whenever the blog updates, the new article will show up on your Twitter account without your having to do anything. This has helped build my following and establish my reputation even though it took only a few minutes to set up.

If you run or are heavily involved with an online business, a professional social media account is essential to your success. It's also something that takes only moments to start on and no time at all to monitor, and will bring you traffic and popularity in a way that nothing else can.

Wealthy Affiliate: The Good, The Bad, and The Unfair

First, an update: looks like blogging take #3 isn't going to happen. Ugh. Maybe I should try PPC ads again?

I was messing around the other day and came across a program called "Wealthy Affiliate." It wasn't like other affiliate programs--instead of just trying to sell the same site you just joined, WA equips people to start their own home business based on anything they like. And a starter account is free.

How could I resist? I looked around the site and joined up, and in the next couple days had watched all ten of the starter videos. They were very well done. WA is built around a strong community atmosphere, and you can work alongside other people in your same position as you get step-by-step help setting up your own Wordpress website. I was loving it... and then the free lessons ended. They had covered basic setup of the website and everything was all set to happen, but then what? There were no instructions on where to go from there, other than to sign up for a premium account to learn just how to publicize your site and how to profit from it. Basically, you're just left with an empty shell of a website with an "about me" and a "privacy policy" page, with no traffic, no domain, and no profits. Ugh... foiled again.

I'm trying to patch it up and get it set up to actually make a profit, but it's hard without everything they had implied they would provide as needed. I can scope out the WA site to find conversations, but I can't ask questions without a premium account and I can't access any new "classrooms" to learn about a topic.

Yep, I feel pretty cheated. Google Adwords won't even accept the new site because it's using a subdomain, and I'm really reluctant to go back to Bidvertiser after what happened last time.

So for now I'm going to skulk back to paid surveys and article writing and keep my eyes peeled for something that could actually help. I'll keep you posted as to my results!

Day 11.3: Social Media: Acceptable for Business?

My most recent entrepreneurial endeavor was joining an interesting service I just learned about that uses Facebook and Twitter to advertise. You don't advertise your own link--you go with someone else's instead, and then someone else will advertise yours. I'm curious to see how it works out in a while. I'm using my personal Twitter account, which has a bit over 300 followers, almost all of whom are total strangers. I feel kind of bad about it, though. When I first got Twitter about a year ago, I posted tiny short stories on it or cheerful thoughts. After I joined Comic Booked, I used Twitter almost exclusively to advertise for it, and then now I'm using it to advertise some links. I still post something more personal once in a while, but there's no question that my personal Twitter feed is nothing fun to read. Just a list of ads. Is that ok?

One of my big fears about running an online business is that I'll start abusing social media. I've said before that I hate spam and I don't want any association with it. I've also said that I'm a horrible advertiser, and so anything I post promoting anything winds up just like an annoying ad. How far is too far?

One of the most common advice given to those who want to promote anything, online or offline, is to tell friends and family! Get the word out! Post about it on Facebook or Twitter! My big question is... will anyone still want to be friends with me if I do?

I don't know the answer. My current views are that if you're going to use social media for business, then get a separate business account for it, just as I've done with Twitter. But I don't want to have a dozen Twitter accounts and five Facebook accounts just to get my point across to the right audience. I want to advertise, but not spam. How can I do that? How can I get my notices to people who actually want to sign up instead of just shouting out to everyone? I guess I still have a lot to learn.