We’re excited to note that Design Edge Canada, one of Canada’s most well-read graphic design magazines, has featured an article on their web site about the launch of BOOST Social Media in the Vancouver and Burnaby, BC area.

Design Edge Canada is known for having its finger on the pulse of the Canadian design community, so we’re grateful to make the cut to grace their virtual pages.

To read the full article, visit the Design Edge Canada web site.

Begin with the end in mind.
What do you hope to achieve with social media marketing? Increase traffic to your web site? That’s a given. But, what do you want people to do once they get there? Contact your company for more information? Subscribe to a free newsletter? Register for a webinar or workshop? Be specific and tailor your efforts to support those goals.

Looking for “love” in all the right places.
Each social media site and platform has a different demographic, so make sure you’re speaking to the right audience. Figure out which sites make most sense for your business based on age, lifestyle, income, interests, type of business you’re promoting, etc. MySpace has a younger audience, LinkedIn subscribers are often higher-income earners, Twitter’s user base is generally more net-savvy and Facebook a mix of everyone.

Honest to blog.
Having a blog on your site can be a great tool for boosting search engine rankings. It’s also effective at establishing you as an expert in your field and showing that you have a good handle on what’s going on in your industry and the local business community. Not all blog content has to be original writing. Share articles or web sites that your audience may find interesting and insert some comments on what you liked about those resources.

The operative word in social media is “social”.
Be prepared to engage your audience in a two-way dialogue. It’s a conversation, not a broadcast. Constantly tooting your own horn or selling aggressively will result in your audience tuning out your message or, worse, un-following you.

Get creative with your social media strategy.
There are infinite possibilities on how you can gain interest from followers. Once you have their attention, engage and reward them for their time. Offer a free whitepaper on a subject of interest to your customers. Run a contest or a special giveaway. Give a discount for customers mentioning a special coupon code so you can track the source of traffic.

Get real.
Don’t expect to be an overnight Internet sensation. Be realistic in your goal-setting. Like any marketing or branding campaign, it takes time to build a quality audience and establish your company in their minds.

Consistency is key.
Be sure to keep your blog updated regularly with fresh content, post new tweets on Twitter, added new information to your Facebook page and tweak your LinkedIn profile from time to time. This keeps your name in your audience’s social media streams – and in their mind.

Measure twice, cut once.
Track your efforts. There are myriad tools to help you track who’s visiting your site, reading your blog and forwarding your tweets. Use these tools to your advantage. Figure out what’s working and focus your efforts there. Is one site not performing well? Cut it from your list and make way for others that give a better return on your time.

Adapt or die.
Social media is constantly evolving. Keep your eyes and ears open for new trends and add those to your mix if the fit is right.

Since a lot of social media users are using Smartphones – and the iPhone in particular – to keep in touch with their social circles and network contacts, we thought it would be useful for people to have a list of the new and upgraded features in the newest version of the iPhone operating system: iPhone OS4.

In addition to some eagerly-anticipated features like multi-tasking, home screen wallpaper and folders for organizing app icons, there are a host of other changes that aim to make iPhone more user-friendly.

Here’s a list of changes/additions copied from the installation screen when upgrading to OS4:

This update contains over 100 new features, including the following:

• Multitasking support for third-party apps*
- Multitasking user interface to quickly move between apps
- Support for audio apps to play in the background
- VoIP apps can receive and maintain calls in the background or when device is asleep
- Apps can monitor location and take action while running in the background
- Alerts and messages can be pushed to apps using push and local notifications
- Apps can complete tasks in the background

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Always wanted to know what people are saying about you when you’re not around? Then, this is the site for you – or at least for your web site. BackTweets lets you enter a URL and see the mentions other people have made for that site. Vewwwy interesting!

Click here to visit the BackTweets site.

I was at a presentation on Thursday at the Yaletown Rotary Club being given by Kemp Edmonds (@KempEdmonds), a social media educator at BCIT. One of the topics he discussed was cross-posting on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking web sites. Cross-posting – posting the same information on multiple sites at once – makes it easier to keep all your social media profile up to date, but there are also potential downfalls.

Kemp discussed the idea that using tags and symbols in your messages – particularly those employed by seasoned Twitter users – on sites where they’re not typically used can result in alienation of the audience on other sites. In this case, cross-posting would negate your efforts to reach more audience in less time.

Have you ever seen an @ or # symbol in someone’s Facebook or LinkedIn status? What does RT mean anyway? Kemp had a great point in stating that not everyone is familiar with these symbols and abbreviations. Furthermore, no one likes to feel like they’re out of the loop. So, in the interest of education, let’s examine what these cryptic Twitter symbols and terms mean:

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Mashable wrote a great article on how small businesses can take advantage of some new features being offered on the LinkedIn site. With the addition of a number of Facebook-like features for more easily sharing content, LinkedIn adds more value than ever for its users.

READ THE FULL POST

So, you’ve signed up for Twitter and have a few friends on your followers list. Now what? How do you get the word out and build a bigger following? As with any web site, building a following on Twitter takes time – and effort! Part of that effort is getting your site listed on as many other sites as possible to increase your reach and link popularity. There are scores of free directory sites that offer free inclusion for your business or organization.

In this instance, we’re focusing on building a larger following for your Twitter profile. To help you along, we’ve compiled a list of 24 free Twitter directory sites where you can add a free profile or listing.

Check out the Design Groupies web site to read the full article and get the list!

Related Reading:

Twitter Tips, Tricks and Tweets

Social Media Explorer has written a great article on the basics of how to start marketing your business using social media. Which sites should you join? How do you keep track of it all? Check out the

full article at the Social Media Explorer web site to learn how to hit the ground running.