Most of the messages that come from Twitter don’t need you to respond right away. You will receive notifications from Twitter when:

• Someone retweets you, “if you checked the box in your Twitter account”,
• Some favorites one you your tweets, “if you checked the box in your Twitter account”,
• Someone replies or mentions you, “if you checked the box in your Twitter account”,
• Someone new follows you, “if you checked the box in your Twitter account”,
• And if someone Direct Messages you, “if you checked the box in your Twitter account”.

I have all the above selected, except for the “When someone follows you” option. Needless to say, I get a few Emails from Twitter. After my main Inbox was filling up with Twitter notifications, I quickly realized that they were causing great congestion. My main actionable Emails were getting harder to see quickly. That’s when I had a revelation, and created a new Email account for the Twitter notifications. Now I can go and check them at anytime; but my main Email Inbox is much more manageable.

So here’s our walk-a-way lesson for you: create a separate Email account for your Twitter. You will love you main Inbox much more if you do.

There is nothing like a picture to connect people together. People can identify better with you when they see you in a place or situation they may have been in already. Just think in this case, who can’t identify with a good cup of coffee? Maybe the tea drinkers

People love to share photos. Just think of all those photo sharing sites online.

Photos can help you make top stories on Facebook. This will increase your visibility in the New Feeds of others. If you have a Facebook Page, make sure you add photos for the fans. They will find them interesting and appreciate seeing a part of you and your business that they might not otherwise see.

So what’s our walk-a-way for today? Include pictures/photos in your social media.People like them. They might get shared more than your regular posts. This could help with your online visibility. So let’s get out there and share some photos.

Twylah and Buffer working hand in hand on Twitter

Here’s why Twylah and Buffer matters to you:

Twylah takes my tweets and automatically puts them into a blog; a Twitter blog to be exact. Twylah allows my tweets to hang around long enough to be found by Google and people searching. Instead of my tweets drifting down the river and being forgotten, my tweets can live longer on the Internet.

Twylah is a great help in the area of SEO. I have set up a sub-domain off my main website called tweets.alphacomputer.ca. All the traffic that comes to my Twylah also comes to my website.

What I really like about Twylah is the ability to go past the 140 limitation on Twitter. I can add the extra info I wanted to share in what is called a “Power Tweet”. Now my tweet still has to follow the 140 character limit. But there is a link that peeps can click on for the extended text; on my Twylah page. See the screen shot above for a look at the process. Notice the “Send Now” and “Add to Buffer” buttons.

Now here comes the important part. BufferApp has been around for a while. Ever since Eric Kim told me that Buffer was coming to Twylah, I have been waiting. Now that it has arrived, Now I am taking full advantage of what it offers me:

• I can now schedule some of my tweets, short or long, throughout the day – This helps me stay present throughout the day on Twitter.
• I can tweet more characters – This allows me to say more and make more meaningful posts on Twitter.
• I can build a better Twylah page on tweets.alphacomputer.ca – This helps me create a more engaging page.

So what’s our walk-a-way for today? You may be already using Buffer for scheduling your tweets. But now that Twylah has Buffer built in, you can do more with the tweets that are going out throughout the day. You can make them more interesting. You know; all those words you had to cut out. You no longer have to do that. You are able to type more and create create content on your Twylah page.

There is so much more to say about Twylah and what it can do. But for now, let’s look at these few things and get you thinking.

Eric and Kelly Kim @Twylah have truly made a great tool for Twitter and social media. I want to recommend Twylah to you. Please take a look at Twylah and see what it can do for you.

This is Samantha Brown, and I will be writing a few articles here and there for my dad’s business that I’m now employed to. I want to speak on a topic for this article, about youth and social media.

Sam Brown

I am young and my thoughts on social media are quite different then perhaps many of yours; but no worries needed! I am here to help you understand and gain knowledge of my generation’s thoughts and development with social media.

I’ve been raised on social media and computer life since I was young; thus my dad being the “Computer Guy”. I’ve learned a lot of ins and outs and hope to show you all how much my generation now knows about what’s out there. My generation is who you want to start bringing into your business.

Say you’re a realtor, I one day will be buying a house. How am I going to know what house I want and what company I want to work with to find this house of mine? My first reaction is to go to Google. Why is this my first choice? This is my first choice because this is where I do all my research and searching. I rarely use a phone book anymore. If it isn’t on a screen don’t count on me looking at it, sorry for the hard truth.

I hope that my insight does help many of you business owners develop relations with your younger customers and show you how necessary social media is now for your business to bring in revenue.

Now, a topic my father, Jeff Brown, always tries to bring up is that if you are not on first page Google, many people will not find you. I myself do not go to second page Google. I barely scroll down to the bottom. How can you make your business accessible and on first page Google so your younger customers will see it? The answer is easy. Gain social media awareness.

I want you all to be able to grow and bring income to your business. I want you to be proud of it! This will all happen when you’re bringing in customers and with social media, you WILL bring in business; especially among this generation growing. Follow my boss, A.K.A my dad, and gain your social media awareness. He wants to help you.

Your friend,

Samantha Brown

Make Social Media Conversations Happen

First of all, “Don’t Panic” Halifax, Dartmouth, Truro or where ever you may be. Take a deep breath. Most of the Twitter accounts compromised were suspended spam accounts and celebrity accounts. Here’s a short piece of what Mashable.com wrote:

• “Hackers claiming to be affiliated with the hacktivist group Anonymous claimed this week to have accessed and published the details of about 55,000 Twitter accounts.”
• “But Twitter said Tuesday those claims are largely bogus, and that the group mostly posted duplicate information or username and password information for suspended spam accounts.”

As you can see, it’s not the end of the world. This is stuff that we have to live with on a daily basis. Remember the “Someone is saying bad things about you” Twitter virus that was spreading around? I even wrote a blog post on what to do when “Your Twitter account gets hacked“.

Regardless of what is going on out there in the world, what should you be doing to make your social media accounts safe? Here are a few suggestions that you can do:

• Change your passwords on a regular basis.
• Create strong passwords.
• Don’t sent your passwords in an Email.
• Don’t click on hyperlinks in your Email asking you to verify your password and username.

Now I can hear you complaining that this is to hard to do and keep up with. If you do it smartly, it’s not that bad. Well how can I do this and not cause myself a lot of pain? Here’s some ideas for the above suggestions:

• Have a password keeper system to store your passwords. One password gets you into all your passwords. When you change your password, you make the change here. You could even use a password manager like lastpass.com for example. I have not used it yet, but I hear good things about it.
• Use the Microsoft Password checker to create strong passwords. You should use (1) a lower case letter, (2) an uppercase letter, (3) a number and (4) a character like the * symbol or the # sign.
• Email is visible on servers. Your Email could be intercepted and viewed. If you ever get a password recovery via Email, get into your account and change the password immediately.
• Those Emails with blue hyperlinks and threats that your account will be suspended if you don’t verify it now by entering your username and password; it’s a scam. Social media networks use web pages to reset your password; usually with the secret question you set up before hand. So think before you click.

So what’s our walk-a-way for today? Changing your passwords on a regular basis will help keep your social media safe and operational. Your accounts will be that much more protected. Now nothing is 100% bullet-proof. Stuff can happen. At least you will be doing your part to protect what you have. Be safe out there.

If you want to have my blog posts delivered to your Email, please subscribe to the RSS Email feed in the top right of this page. You can enjoy all the information right in your Email. See you soon.

I sometimes wonder if people are afraid to share their thoughts and comments on Twitter, or if they are not really sure what to write there. Of all the social media applications that I focus on in my social media training workshops, Twitter is the one that seems to be the hardest to use.

I must say that Twitter is my favorite social media application. It has gotten me more visibility and has helped my business more than any other application. Twitter is just so viral. It’s short and sweet. You can connect at the speed of light it seems.

But why is it so challenging? Maybe because Twitter is so functional. You can use Twitter:

• To say “Hi”,
• To engage others in a quick conversation,
• To send a quick message,
• To share valuable information to your community
• To feed Google,
• To strategically create visibility online.

What I am trying to say is that you can use Twitter to do a lot. So what does one say then? In my last Twitter class yesterday, I taught the class what each different type of tweet does and who can see them. Yes, there are different types and each type has a strategic purpose.

We looked at Twitter for prospecting. I showed them how to start using Twitter search to find people and information. There really is a lot you can do with Twitter. We also looked at what would make a Twitter account more interesting; hint, no broadcasting please.

With all this in mind, it does take a while to get used to using Twitter. It’s not just a white box and a button. Twitter is the door way to opportunity for many. And when one discovers this, it’s humbling. Twitter is something you grow with. It is not something you master.

It’s going to take time to get better at Twitter. But the first thing you have to do is tweet. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Now, I do encourage my clients to proof read their tweets before they send them out. But don’t wait for the perfect tweet. Start getting your tweets out there so that your tweets can get you discovered.

So what is our walk-a-way for today? Don’t be surprised if Twitter takes you a while to understand. There are a lot of things you can do on Twitter. It’s going to take time to get good at Twitter. So start using Twitter. Start with simple messages, say “Hi” and have fun. As you continue to use Twitter for business, it will create opportunity. Just be patient. It’s takes a little time to get some momentum happening.

Want some more info on my social media training? Send me a message on my Contact page. I would love to hear from you.

There’s a lot of buzz about social media these days, especially when it comes to business in the Halifax and Dartmouth area. Many claims are made about what social media can do. But what is the realistic view of social media for business?

To be right to the point, if your business is not doing well, social media is probably not going to be the one thing that saves your business. You should look at your business model and examine where the problem might be. Social media is not meant to be your saviour.

If you are not working your business smartly, then social media won’t help either. Business requires work period. That’s why there will always be top producers and those who just get by. But if you are a goal orientated hard working business owner, social media can magnify what you are doing to the masses. And that is good news.

So if you are not doing anything in your business, this will show in your social media. If you are a going concern in business, your social media will reflect that and create new opportunities. Social media is not magic. It’s a marketing tool that often allows you direct access to your customer.

I am often asked how much time it takes to do social media during the day. When I get this question, I try to give the person asking a realistic answer. Social media is not something that you put on auto-pilot and forget about it. There are real people on the other end and they need your attention.

With that last thought in mind, social media takes as long as it takes to get the job done. I think of my social media as my customer phone line. It’s open all day long, when possible. Now I am not on social media all the time. I have to provide customer training sessions. But I use social media when ever I get the chance.

I tell my clients I would like them to spend at least 1 hour a day, spread out in several intervals. Social media is not something you monitor all day long. As a business owner, you don’t have the time. You take advantage of social media when you get the chance; especially when you have access to a smart phone. I might also add that there should be some thought as to when you will do your social media. You should have a plan.

Your social media should also be enhancing what you are doing face to face with your customers. Sure social media is a great way to keep in touch online. It can help you stay top of mind with your customers.

So what’s our walk-a-way for today? Social media requires effort. It will enhance or magnify what you are doing. If you are not prepared to put some work into your social media, don’t bother with it. It will make you look bad. If you are prepared to work it, you can create lots of opportunity. I am cheering you on today. Go make something happen.

A friend of mine, Steve Peifer, runs a series of computer labs in Kenya for kids. Steve works hard to help feed kids and give them essential computer skills. He works his butt off to make sure the kids get a least one meal per day and a good education. A few years ago, Steve was awarded a CNN Hero of the Year award for all his work. Steve is the real deal folks.

Just a little while ago, thieves broke into one of the computer labs and stole all the laptops. They smashed through the locked door and broke into the safe that the laptops where stored in.

When I shared this story with some of my Facebook friends, they responded and gave generously. Their response renewed my belief that together we can matter, and make a difference. Right now, as a result, computers are on the way to finding their spot in Steve Peifer’s computer lab. I can see the kids smiling right now Now that’s something that money can’t buy.

My friend, Chuck Blakeman, says this all the time…”Live well by doing good”. The Steve Peifer opportunity came with the chance to make kids in the country of Kenya smile. I can’t think of any greater reward than knowing that those thieves did not ruin the kids day.

My Grandfather used to say to me…”You’ll get your reward in Heaven”. I don’t think my Facebook friends will have to wait that long. Opportunity is like a freight train that comes your way and runs you over with goodness. I look forward to seeing all the great things coming their way.

Now I know my friends did not give expecting to be praised or rewarded. They are great people. But when they sowed seed into the ground of Kenya, there is always a harvest that comes. When you open your hand to give, your hand remains open to receive.

So what is our walk-a-way for today? Social media can make your efforts go viral. You story can spread quickly and to a lot of people. I shared the story with my friends and they acted. And now, the story continues to have a life of its own.

I hope and trust that more help is heading towards Steve Peifer and the kids of Kenya. This truly is a worthy cause. The kids we are helping could become the leaders of tomorrow in Kenya.

So don’t wait for opportunity to come knocking. When it comes, take advantage of it. When that call comes for work, jump on board. But don’t ignore the opportunity to give either. It can open doors for you.

If you want to help Steve Peifer, here’s the link to help. Thanks to all of you for your kindness.

Social media should be about being social. You connect regularly on Twitter, Facebook or many other social media application. The expected outcome, when possible, should be to meet up with others. It’s about taking it offline and meeting face to face.

I spent some time this morning on Twitter engaging a few friends in chit chat. As a result, I managed to make a new connection via a trusted friend. This person was not even on my radar, nor I his. Opportunity comes to those who will seize the moment.

If you are only putting your social media out in one direction – broadcasting, you are missing out of the bigger picture. Social media for business is about building advocates and referrers of what you do. In many cases, conversations are a big part of building trust with those around you.

There a a lot of great people using social media in the Halifax Dartmouth area. I want to encourage them to make a greater effort to connect and engage with each other more and more. Opportunity can pop up out of no where when conversations happen.

Now I know this will take some time. But think of this as out reach time. Think of it as planting seed for a future harvest. You are going farming. When you connect with others, you could be opening the door of opportunity big time. I encourage you to make conversation a regular part of your social media efforts. I know you will be glad you did.

So what is our walk-a-way for today? If you will reach out to others on social media, you can open the door for opportunity. Opportunity comes in many forms. Don’t judge too quickly. Make an effort to be proactive in your prospecting. Don’t wait for them to come to you. Conversations can open doors for you.

Sam Brown

I have been a one man show for a long time. Now it’s time to hire someone so that Alpha Social Media Inc can help more businesses create visibility and opportunity.

I am pleased to announce to you that my daughter Samantha “Sam” Brown will be joining me in the business. Sam will be working with me in the office, and on the road.

Sam is a natural when it comes to social media. In all I have seen so far, Sam has a great feel for social media and business. It’s just awesome to travel with her and listen to what she has to say. It makes a father proud

As I spoke today at a social media event in New Glasgow, I got a chance to hear her thoughts on things like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and social media in general. I look forward to sharing my wisdom with Sam and helping her gain more business and social media skills.

Sam will be helping me tweet and comment on Facebook. She will be using the “^SB” signature when she posts and comments, so that you will know it is her. So look for her on the @AlphaSMInc Twitter account and the Alpha Social Media Facebook Page.

When you get a chance, please drop by on social media and say “Hi”. Thanks everyone for all your support.