Login to your Facebook Fan Page. On the left, look for the link “Add A Fan Box”.  Now you simply copy the code and insert it into your blog.  If you are using WordPress, here is how you do that.

Login to the wp-admin of your blog.  Using version 2.7 and up, on the left, click on Appearance. Underneath, click on widget. Next, you have to decide which sidebar you wish to place a new text box, left or right. Some blog themes only have one sidebar so you won’t be worrying over this choice.  See below.

Using the text box

Once you have selected the sidebar you want, then you are going to either drag and drop your text box from the left, or just click Add next to  your text box on the left. This depends on which version of Wordpress you are using.  Once done, you must click SAVE before we go further.

Adding Text Box

Now, on the right side where you see the new Text box, click to open it.  Inside, you have an option to add a title, so go ahead and add that if you want one.   Below this area, you will copy and paste the html code you found on your Facebook Fan Page.  Once done, you click Save at the bottom.   After this, you are going to Visit Site to see how it all looks.   You can tweak the size of this new text box if it is running off the screen, see instructions below.

Text Box

Of course, you can use this same method to insert all kinds of html objects into your sidebars.   Most social media allow you to copy the html and use it on your blog, and this is the method you could follow. Also, please see the post on facebook and local business marketing.

“When money is tight, consumers are constantly looking for deals. And, today, that means they are going online to search for better prices, selection and services. If they find them—forget brand loyalty—they will switch to new products or vendors in a clickbeat.

Marketers have four basic search options: paid search, contextual advertising, paid inclusion—all three are types of advertising—and search engine optimization (SEO).

While paid search gets most of the attention and money, marketers are increasingly turning to SEO to acquire new customers.

All four options will experience increased spending through 2013. By then total US search marketing outlays will reach nearly $23.4 billion, and marketers will be spending more on SEO than on contextual advertising. ”

First, if you do not have a personal account or a business account, please go to twitter.com and create one. If you have a business, it would be best if you had a separate account just for it, to keep your online marketing tighter to your audience. And, once you have those accounts, you will want to spice up your background page so more of your message gets told about your business, or, give more info on who you are for your friends.

Here are some great links for twitter background pages. Please try them out, and, feel free to follow me on twitter also!

13 tutorials on twitter backgrounds has awesome examples to get your creativity flowing, and, for those who need help with the graphics part,
twitter backgrounds created for you with templates

And for maximum exposure, tweak out your profile on twitter. Make sure to add keywords there which are searchable on twitter search, so others can find you and possibly follow you. The profile can be updated multiple times, so take your time and edit it as you go.

If you simply have a personal account, you can add in items like your hometown, state, high school, college, etc., if you wish to. Also, in my opinion, it is not a good idea to include your home phone number, and, you may wish to create a new email account just for twitter usage, in case you have problems and want to delete that email account later.

Moms and Dads will want to check out their kid’s profiles to make sure personal info given out is only safe info.

Business users can really optimize the profile to include helpful social media marketing information. Also, don’t forget, what you can’t fit in your profile, you can fit onto a customized twitter background. Since backgrounds are only graphic in nature, though, those keywords cannot be searched by twitter or google, so add those important keywords directly into your profile in addition. Take a look at the backgrounds others have, and you will get great ideas on what is possible.

More to come on twitter soon.

Apparently two workers (who have since been fired and arrested) decided to video a bad prank this past week on Monday, and the wildfire spread without a fast enough check by the company spokespeople.   Dominos has responded by creating a Twitter account two days after the incident, and put up a youtube video, but it was estimated by survey that in those two days their reputation went from positive to negative by the public. Check out the comments for the company video. And, there are already spin off videos on youtube discussing the event.

Other incidents of this type have occurred, and surely will occur again.

For those who are in business, it might be a big clue to realize that the marketing world has changed a whole lot in the last few years. If you are not on top of your brand reputation and able to react immediately, you might want to heed the warning that this most recent event is giving:  follow your brand reputation in social media starting today.

There are some very simple and free methods to do this , which is great for those of you with small companies who cannot afford to hire a full time social media marketing maven. 

1. google alerts.  This free tool sends you an email alert anytime any phrase you specify is mentioned after being tracked by google. The problem with google is the time element for news to be digested then reported,though.  Helpful none the less!  To set this up, go to google alerts and try it out.   I have used this to track reports of company mergers, my name, and all of my websites.  When you tire of it, but cancel it.  However, if you are checking for brand reputation, you may wish to keep it on at all times.

2.tweetbeep.  Another free tool which sends you an email alert, but this time it is direct from twitter, live and  ontime.  Check it out.

Others? Feel free to drop a comment on methods that you use with social media.

Yah. It is so hard to determine if the IBM and MIT study only looked at males, who definately make more cash than females for the same $, or what. However, people, isn’t this just reason enough?

The study is trying to put a financial value on “new types of friendships” online. And yes, they are trying to introduce “friends” you may like based on a formula after snooping watching what you do online.  SO shades of Facebook.

My thought on this says once they put a value on it, some companies who don’t get social media will now find ways to entice you to stop it by rewarding you some other way, or, they can just make sure you won’t get x amount of raise next time.   Blame this on my corporate bitterness?   However, I am all about social networking in our lives, and it just makes sense that the corporations would do their best to use this to some advantage.  If it works on the friend level, if you will, it must also work on the work level they might be thinking.  

Another  issue I can see is, you know you can never be 100% real with social “work” tools.  It is already well known that you have to watch what you say in your off hours on your own wall in Facebook,or watch what you say on Twitter about that job you just got hired for but already dread, for a few examples.  Will there be some sort of economic penalty if an employee avoids  social media sponsored by the company, due to not trusting the system?  That person will already be suffering a lower pay check, as per the study results.

So, are companies just fooling themselves thinking this benefits them somehow?   Not if the actual value of each friendship is calculated out, which is what this study is working hard to define.  A new formula to put in the MBA studies : ROFI ( return on friendship investment ).  Will the corporate budgets start to include ROFI dollars?  Will each employee have to enter into their annual performance plan how they developed “friends”, which in turn increased their performance for the year?  Will they have to name said friends?  Will they have to limit the names to three, or five, of the most “socially valuable” friends who could enhance their careers?!   Could an employee get a fail on being socially inept?  Is this what social media is coming to?