Are you stuck when it comes to writing status updates,  publishing blog posts or shooting videos for youtube?

Creating good content (useful, valuable content) for social media (blogs, Facebook, twitter, Linked, Youtube) can be a daunting task.

A great exercise to get your content flowing is to identify the common questions that prospects ask about your industry, expertise, products or services.

Goals and Objectives.

Strategy.  Tactics.  Logisitics.

All of the above are essential for business growth.

Take a quick assessment:

• 1. Have you written your goals for 2012?
• 2. Developed your marketing strategy?
• 3. Defined the tactics?
• 4. Mapped the logistics?

If you answered no to any (or all) of the questions, don’t be discouraged.
You can start preparing for 2012 business growth right now.

Let’s keep it simple. The most common goal among professional service providers is this:

Increase my client base.

Is this one of your goals for 2012? If so, right or type it right now in a place that will be visible to you daily.
Your strategy will need to be unique but the tactics don’t have to be.

Here are 5 tactics you don’t want to leave out of your 2012 online marketing strategy:

1. Build and nurture your email list (client and prospect base) by providing timely answers to problems they face. Email has been around since the early 90’s but it is still the hub of business communications.

Daystar New Media Client Example: Last year, a decades old insurance provider entered the email marketing arena by compiling an email client list.  The second email newsletter they sent out to the list contained info on how to protect property with adequate flood insurance coverage.  They were careful to include a call to action: Buy a new flood policy or increase flood coverage. The results were immediate. They received 15 calls resulting in 7 new policies from a single email.  Have you emailed your clients lately?

2. Commit to blogging your expertise. Unlike PPC, print ads and in-person networking, the value of the blog investment grows exponentially over time.

Daystar New Media Client Example:  Two years ago, one of my clients, a law firm, committed to blogging for the purpose of building visibility and credibility with a very targeted commercial audience in the legal industry.  The pay off for the more than 200 posts, has been an increase in visits from 800+ in year 1 to 8000+ in year 2. Unique visitors are up from 300+ in year 1 to 5000+ in year 2. ROI has also come in the form of conversation and feedback about the blog from important stakeholders and industry leaders. You can’t buy that with ads. Have you increased your traffic and your credibility strategically?

3. Create short, passionate video messages that contain content to HELP your audience accomplish their goals and overcome their challenges.

Daystar New Media Client Example: A commercial real estate company plans to provide informational videos to introduce not only the unique client workspace available at his location but also become the resource about how to utilize commercial tax credits, a complicated but very valuable opportunity for businesses. What content could you offer in video format that would HELP your clients/prospects?

4. Communicate with your clients & followers regularly using status updates. Use this space to offer quick actionable content such as tips and best practices. Make it worth their time to read what you post.

Daystar New Media Client Example: A real estate company maintains statistics on local home price trends and publishes them on the company web site.  Using social media status updates, this info is streamed out across social networks increasing the company’s visibility and driving traffic back to the website.  What content is sitting on your web site that is under-utilized?

5. Create a core message that you deliver in person to quickly communicate the value you offer on your blog, email list and/or social media spaces.

Daystar New Media Client Example: A CPA Firm partner regularly attends networking events.  He plans and practices his 30-second introduction. In 2012, after clearly stating the firm name and website, he’ll invite small business owners to subscribe to the firm blog so they can learn how to increase their profits by earning and keeping more money.  Let the people you meet in person know what’s in it for them to subscribe your blog, visit your facebook page or follow you on twitter.

To learn how we can help with your 2012 online marketing plan, contact us at info@daystarnewmedia.com or call 504-210-7690.

About Michelle Cullison: Michelle is an acclaimed professional speaker, author, and the President of Daystar New Media, Inc.  Since 1993, she has helped hundreds of clients expand their businesses from web site to the web presence.   Michelle knows how to leverage the power of the social web with tools like WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   Today, through her speaking, training and consulting services, she equips companies to expand from web site to web presence by developing and implementing effective social media strategies.

“They’re not responding to my emails!”

Believe it or not, the quote above is from a managing attorney of a successful law firm about his experience trying to reach recent law school graduates for recruitment. The potential candidates weren’t spurning him or the firm. The problem was simple. The candidates weren’t checking their email. They were oblivious to the opportunity. The hiring attorney assumed email was a primary communication tool for the new graduates because it is a primary hub in his firm and for business in general. In the end, the hiring attorney took the high road, adapted to his audience, established a facebook account and proceeded to successfully connect with the candidates.

Have you thought about your audience?

What communication channels do your prospects and clients use most? How about your colleagues? Do they regularly use text messaging, blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn Groups or Facebook Walls? Do they call or email regularly? What communication channels work best for them? Give it some thought. You may want to ask them in a variety of ways across multiple channels. You want to be sure they get the survey.

Since business success is dependent on successful communications, take time to identify who needs to receive your communications and which channel is best suited to them. As the number of options for reaching our audience continues to increase, this is no small task to assess. But, considering the cost of lost or incomplete communication to your business, it is worth the effort.

Invest time to identify which channel of communication will best serve each of your target audiences. They will appreciate getting information in a way that is convenient for them. And, you will be assured that information is reaching its intended audience positioning you to receive timely feedback and stay engaged throughout the sales cycle and into the on-going business relationship.

About the Author:
Michelle Cullison, consultant and professional speaker, equips businesses and organizations to expand from web site to web presence to achieve REAL business objectives. Learn more about her company at DaystarNewMedia.com. Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn.com/in/michellecullison or send an email to michelle@daystarnewmedia.com.

These word sets, saving time and social media, don’t often go together. Oh, but they do!!!

Let me tell you how.  You’ve probably heard of RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Perhaps, you’ve subscribed to a couple of blogs using this technology. But, you probably don’t know that this techie tool can save you loads of time.  Many of today’s web-based tools and social media sites support RSS technology, so you can simply post content once and stream it across the social web to multiple sites. Storing content once saves time on updates and reduces storage costs and expands the influence of each communication without expanding the workload.

So, how can businesses benefit from RSS technology? Here’s how: Businesses must keep the communication lines open with both clients and customers. Creating a communication piece (text, audio, video, print, web, etc.) takes a lot of time. Using a communication piece once (email news, single blog post, print letter) is beneficial but using it across multiple networks greatly increase the influence of that one article.   This system can be set up EASILY with a blog and the built in feature, RSS.

Getting started requires that you first have a blog such as the free blogs offered at WordPress.com. This will be the communication hub for your social web presence. The goal is that all content posted on the blog will automatically stream to the social web onto sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

To set up your own automated system, a system that feeds Facebook pages, LinkedIn Personal Profiles, LinkedIn Company profiles and Twitter profiles, do the following:

1.      Identify your blog sites RSS Feed address. If you are using wordpress, it is typically the URL of the website. (Example, my blog is http://socialmediaexplained.com .  Many of the RSS feed apps can use the plain URL, some may require the feed URL that looks something like this: http://www.socialmediaexplained.com/feed/rss/ (In your browser, find the subscribe to feed link or icon and you will find your feed URL.)

2.      To stream your blog posts automatically into your LinkedIn profile, set up the LinkedIn app, BlogLink on your personal profile. (This is found in the apps section of LinkedIn.)

3.      To stream your blog posts into your LinkedIn Company profile, edit the RSS Feed field in your company profile. (You must be the admin of the Company profile.)

4.      To add the feed to your Facebook page, use one of the RSS Facebook apps such as Social RSS, http://apps.facebook.com/social-rss/tabsettings.php.

5.      To add the feed to your Twitter profile, use one of the Twitter apps such as Twitterfeed.com.

6.      RSS feed management also be done with an account on Hootsuite.com. To use this tool, create a hootsuite account and then configure the RSS Feeds settings for each profile: LinkedIn Personal, Facebook Pages and Twitter Profiles. LinkedIn Companies must be configured on LinkedIn.

Please note that the above procedure doesn’t mention every single app available to feed RSS around the web. I’ve just shared with you some of the tools I’ve used on different projects in recent months to get the job done.

The set up I recommended should take approximately 15-30 minutes for 3 profiles. Once the set up is done, your business blog will extend across the web EVERY time you post a new article on it! If you have a staff, you can set up the feed to go into every staff member profile. RSS Feeds can extend your communications and save you time and money. Stay tuned for other ways to save time with social media! And, if you don’t want to do the set up yourself, hire Daystar New Media, Inc. to do it for you.

Michelle Cullison, consultant and professional speaker, equips businesses and organizations to expand from website to web presence to achieve REAL business objectives. Learn more about her company at DaystarNewMedia.com. Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn.com/in/michellecullison or send an email to michelle@daystarnewmedia.com.

I want a fancy, schmancy email signature.
How did you do that?

Since I recently updated my outlook signature file to include 5 social media icons (see image below), people keep saying,  ”I want one of those!” and asking, ”How did you do that?”

Today, I’ll show you how to make your email signature look like this:
 

Before heading over to Outlook to edit your signature, perform a search for social media icons. There are literally thousands of styles to choose from grunge to glowing neon to everything in-between.  Search for “Free social media icons” on a search site like google.com or bing.com.  

Or, you may want to check out this simple set of vector icons called buddycons located here: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/08/buddycons-vector-social-media-icons/.  Click the Download File button at the bottom of the page and unzip the images to a folder on your computer.

Next, make a list of the social profile or page URLs (web addresses) that you want to link to from the new icons.

Like this:
http://facebook.com/socialmediaexplained.com
http://LinkedIn.com/in/michellecullison
http://www.SocialMediaExplained.com
http://twitter.com/mcullison
http://youtube.com/mcullison
   and    

Now it is time to head over to Outlook and customize your signature.  Here’s how:

1. Open a New Mail Message.
2. Click the Signature icon and then select Signatures, the last menu option on drop-down menu.
3. Type in the signature text.
4. Then, click the Picture icon (the left icon highlighted in yellow below) and insert the icons.
5. Next, while the image file is selected, click the Hyperlink icon (the right icon highlighted in yellow below) and enter the URL/address of your social profile or page. You can copy and paste the URL/address from the list you made earlier.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have added all desired images (in this case social media icons) and links.
7. Once the signature is complete, click OK to save it.

Enjoy your own FANCY, SCHMANCY email signature!  Now you have it!

 
If your social media profiles/pages aren’t helping you accomplish business objectives, contact Michelle Cullison for a phone consult today at 504-324-1058 or michelle@daystarnewmedia.com. 

Visit DaystarNewMedia.com to learn more about our programs and services.

We don’t need a map.  That’s what my van full of friends told me as we left Erie, PA and headed to Niagara Falls, Canada for a Christmas shopping extravaganza on a cold December evening in 1996. I ALWAYS travel with a map. I almost spoke up, but, I thought, “These ladies are locals and they’ve made this trip before.” Three hours later, we were circling a Canadian lake in a small, unknown town laughing all the way but without a clue how to get to our hotel. Soon, a Canadian policeman graciously came to our rescue and escorted us–with lights twirling–back to a major road that my friends recognized!

We did make it to the hotel without a map, but I ask you, Did we need a map?

How about your facebook page visitors? Do they need a map to do business with you on Facebook?  If you ask them, they would say, “We know how to get around facebook, write a comment on a wall, Like a page or post a status update.” But, do they know how to do business with you on Facebook?

Facebook, by default, lands your visitors on the Wall tab. While everyone knows how to read a wall and make comments, it isn’t always easy to drive business from there. In fact, your business is going to be influenced by the last comment posted. Even if it is a positive comment, it is typically a supporting business message rather than a core business message.  And, worse, it could be a negative comment that is viewed before you post a business-building positive response! 

The solution is to drive the user experience (and first impressions) with a custom landing page. Don’t leave your visitors circling the FB wall unsure of how you serve them. Show them the way. Change your default landing page from the Wall to a custom tab.

I’ve changed my landing page on facebook.com/socialmediaexplained to the Welcome tab. 

On the Welcome tab, I:

1. Welcome visitors!

2. Share my core message, the mission of Daystar New Media, Inc.

3. And, provide information with links on how I can be of service to my FB guests.

Visitors will still make it to the wall to read the comments and interact with you which is a valuable experience for them.  But, that experience will come after you’ve provided them a map on how your business can serve them.  

Page visitors might eventually get this information without a custom Welcome tab, but providing one will save them time and the need for a police escort!  

You can do this too.  Here’s how:

1. Go to your facebook page and click the Edit Page link on the top left column. (Page Admins only will have the Edit Page link.)

2. Click Wall Settings to expand options

3. Under Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else, select the landing page.

Next week, I’m heading to Cleveland, OH to meet up with the Erie, PA friends who took me on my most memorable shopping trip ever.  I’m bringing the map!

You may think reading about facebook page tabs is boring but after reading this,  you will see that tabs can lead to beau coup (French for many) opportunities for business growth. And, THAT is anything but boring!

Here we go! I’m going to share 5 ways to use Facebook tabs to drive business:

1. Put YOUR BEST website page—the one with a strong call to action– on the most visited site on the internet. 
Facebook surpassed Google as THE MOST VISITED site on the internet this year. With this statistic in mind, it behooves businesses to take their website content to Facebook like we’ve been doing with Google for years! I’ve done it and you can too!  Using the Facebook app, FBML, I’ve created a new wall tab, Daystar New Media,  and I’ve copied the HTML code from my website to the app so my facebook page visitors can follow my “calls to action” without leaving Facebook.  Think about this: ANY webpage on your company site can be “installed” on facebook by using the FMBL app. Which page on your site drives the most business? Get more out of it by moving it on facebook!

2. Introduce a new product or service with a special offer.   You can use an app called Promotion-there are many others-or you can copy html from your product page on your website and use the FMBL app again.  Think creatively and strategically and these tools will become a profit center rather than a time drain or cost to your business.

3. Build trust and strengthen client and prospect relationships by consistently offering valuable content to your target audience. Do this on Facebook  by flowing your blog content into your Facebook page with the app, Social RSS.  Your blog will have a tab AND every article you add to your blog will be posted to your facebook wall and included in the Blog tab. See the Social Media Explained Blog on flowing onto my facebook page.

4. Grow your email listfrom within Facebook. Add a tab for your email list sign up form. There are many ways to do this.  I’ll show two examples. I use MailChimp.com so I have installed the MailChimp App. I have client who uses ConstantContact.com so I’ve installed the Constant Contact app on the client’s Facebook page.  Because most email list management systems provide the form code in HTML, you can also use the FBML app to grow your email list on Facebook.  Search FB App directory or visit your email list provider website to find the best choice for your company.

5. Get your FB community engaged and viral by sharing your latest video.Using the Youtube for Pages app from Involver.com, you can load your Youtube Channel into your page as a tab and offer your latest business video to your audience. What’s great about this app is that it makes it easy for your community to share it with their friends. Think viral exposure.  Here is an example of this app in action on the  HomeCare Association of Louisiana facebook page. HCLA keeps membership informed about events, homecare industry news, healthcare reform issues (ie. report from Capitol Hill) and more using Youtube and the Facebook page.

 Now, I’ve just scraped the surface of the beau coupways you can use fb page tabs to drive business. I hope these ideas have inspired you to think of some new ways you can use facebook for your business.  Next week, I’m going to show you how to get even more action from tabs by making one of your new tabs your landing page on Facebook.  Stay tuned next week for Driving the Facebook User Experience.

This question was raised today at online bootcamp: Does CoTweet.com have Facebook integration like Tweetdeck?

The answer: Kind of…

Ping.fm integration is available –very new since Oct 23— so that what you tweet on co-tweet can flow to your ping.fm account which of course flows to all of your accounts configured there.

Stay tuned for a detailed blog post on this subject.

You may also want to check out http://www.HootSuite.com for similar capabilities.

On Tuesday, August 25, 2009, Plan Your Meetings, sponsored a webinar, hosted by David Nour with Michelle Cullison and Nhat Pham. These questions were asked by the meeting planners:

1. Can a group created by an individual be moved to a public business page?

Moving from a group to a company page is a manual process. Create the page and then invite all group members to become a Fan of the new page. Some Group admins put a deadline on the move and close the group. You may also provide some new content on the page as an incentive to make the move.

2. How are people using Facebook to find potential partners/vendors?

You may find vendors/partners using the advanced search page on Facebook. It allows you to search for people, pages and groups by keywords. You can get to the advanced search page by typing search in the Search field. (Currently, there isn’t a link to advanced search on the menu.)

Another great way to find potential partners and vendors is groups. Join industry specific groups where your partners and vendors are spending time. Need to find the groups, search for them with the advanced search page.

Are they searching like on Google? Yes. Business pages on Facebook are public so googling the company name and the term facebook as search words is a good way to see if a potential vendor has a facebook presence.
How does Facebook rank pages when a search is done?
Facebook doesn’t disclose how it ranks pages on its search results page.  However, this page about the new Facebook Search may be helpful to you: http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=923

3. I get feeds on my home page from groups/pages that I am member/fan of, what do we need to do as a company to get our updates to post to our friends pages?


4. Can you create an event for a Cause FB account?
A cause is an FB application. Anyone with an FB profile may create an event.

5. What is the difference between a group and a fan page – benefits of both?
Groups gather people around a topic of discussion and can be a good place for collaboration. FB fan or business pages are like personal profiles but for businesses.  They have all the power of personal profiles including the ability to publish a lot of company info, install apps, communicate with and build a fan base.

6. Is it advisable to keep a “personal” Facebook page versus a “professional” page?

Having both kinds of presence on Facebook is important.  You develop business relationships personally using your personal profile and as a brand using your (professional) company page.

7. If you post a blog to the notes section how do your friends see it?

Under the Settings menu, Choose Application Settings and then Notes under the Wall tab click on: Allow Notes to publish to Streams.

8. I am the director of communication for a small trade association – we have created a group on Facebook – so are you saying we should create a profile – if so, for me or for biz? How would you do this?

Groups are good for collaboration but do not have as many features a public profiles (business pages) have.  As an association, you could benefit from the added features that public profiles have. To create a public profile for your association, go to Facebook.com and click this link: Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business.  Having a personal and a business presence on Facebook is helpful as business relationships can be formed personally and organizationally.

9. How can Facebook give an incentive travel company an edge on the competition? Create a content-rich public profile for your company on Facebook Business pages.  Make it a page that adds value to your audience and includes links to your website and industry specific keywords for Google. Invite your target audience to become fans.  Engage your audience in conversation.   

10. I’m looking for a job – any suggestions on how to use Facebook for that? Many times job leads come through the people you know.  Make sure you’ve entered all your education and work history info in your personal profile. Communicate confidence and the value you bring to employers in your status updates. Do communicate that you are looking for opportunity. Don’t convey desperation in your updates.

11. How can you use Facebook for education/learning?

12. How can my company keep negative comments off our Twitter account? Controlling negative comments is a common concern across social networking platforms.  Some of the blogging/microblogging tools allow you to turn off commenting but then you’ve shut down communication with the exact audience you want to build relationship with.  Responding positively to the negative comments may indeed give you an opportunity to build repo ire with your audience and show how you are handling the issues that occur. Google the words “Transparency in blogging” to learn more about how companies are dealing with negative comments in the blogosphere.

13. How secure is Facebook?

I will talk about 3 common ways that FB accounts are compromised and how to prevent it from happening to you.

1. Phishing: Do not give you account information to someone who claims to be an FB rep via email. FB will not ask you to update your account info via email ever.
2. Hacking via email access. You can reduce your chances of having your account hacked by using a password on your FB account that is DIFFERENT than the password on the email account that you have associated with your FB account. If a hacker gets your FB password and it is the same as your email password, they can then take over your email account that manages your FB account and lock you out of your account.
3. Applications are another door hackers use to compromise your account. Facebook is an open development platform meaning applications can be submitted by anyone. One way to reduce your vulnerability is by installing only verified applications. Read more about verified apps here: http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=247

14. Looking to extend company community aspects while differentiating content on Facebook so it is not a duplication of efforts. With this type of strategy, you will need to communicate what type of content will be unique in the FB arena. I saw a site that week that gives tips on their FB page that they do not post anywhere else.

And, if the company doesn’t have a blog where interaction occurs, then of course, the FB page can be the place for customers to provide feedback and enter discussions with you. Open up your FB page wall for community interaction.

15. How do you get over the legal hump within a corporation to allow use of Facebook for the company and employees? Developing a policy and making sure all parties understand the rules is key to social networking success in a corporate setting. Here is a GREAT site, the Social Media Blog Council, to use a resource in the process of policy development: http://www.socialmedia.org/

16. As a non-profit with few resources, how do we figure out what the best use of Facebook for our situation is? If you have a small budget for education, invest that in learning social media strategy. Then, perhaps you can utilize volunteers or college students for implementation. The leaders must understand WHAT the goals are and who the audience is on these social sites. Social Media Strategy programs are offered by David Nour, Nhat Pham and Michelle Cullison.

17. How do you keep you personal Facebook and business Facebook separate?  I don’t want to personally become a fan of a vendor but want to professionally become a fan. Only people (personal profiles) can become fans of pages. However, you can tag another page as Favorite page of your Business page.  Go to the Vendor page on FB that you want to support as a business. Then, click the Add to MyPage’s Favorites and select your business page from the list. You won’t be a fan but you will be showing support business to business.

18. What’s the quickest way to add value to the lives of those we contact with in Facebook and to monetize opportunities for all parties involved? To add value, think about what tip you can give your audience today that will help them in business. Monetizing many times comes when a client trusts your business enough to close the deal, buy the product.  What can you say today to build trust in your product or service?

19. What is the balance between being effective at promoting events vs. spending all of your time on social media sites?

It is best to determine 2 things before you login to social sites:
1. How much time do I have to give to this social media session?
2. What specifically do I need to accomplish when I login?

I would suggest allowing time to create the event in the FB events app and promoting it on your page and to your targeted friends list. You may also promote the event to select groups on FB that have the targeted audience on FB.

20. How do you show the value and utility of Facebook and social media when executive management doesn’t even understand social media? Case studies are really helpful to show what others are doing that is working. Mashable.com is a good site for breaking info on social media and web 2.0. Here is an article that highlights some big business success stories that you may want to share with your executive management: http://mashable.com/2009/02/06/social-media-smartest-brands/

21. Facebook comes across as a social site – how do you make messages more “business like”? In your status updates, answer questions like these, “What would add value to my audience today? What can I share that will help them professionally?

22. How do I  get folks to register for my online training?

You may want to familiarize yourself with FB events. Another great way to get the word out on FB about products and services is to join groups with members who are in your target audience.  Start discussions in the FB groups and offer the group members free pre-training teleseminars or webinars so you add value first and then plug the training on the call. You wouldn’t want to join a group and then start selling your training services.

23. How can I advertise my business on FB but not have it so “In Your Face” to my friends. You may want to consider a paid FB ad. You can get significant exposure for $30 a month. Or, segment your friends using Friend Lists and send targeted advertising messages to select groups. However, remember that social networking culture is somewhat averse to advertising. Try soft marketing value add messages that also include links to learn more about a product or service.

24. To me, Facebook is merely a social tool.  I want to be convinced of it’s usefulness as a business tool. I’ll give you 3 reasons:

First is location, location, location. Facebook allows you to put your business where the traffic is flowing. There are many people you can touch in FB that will never come to your website. Secondly, google loves high traffic sites and a link to your website from within FB increases your findability on google and other search engines. Finally, on FB pages you are allowed the chance to have people build a relationship with your company or brand.

Are you on Twitter?  Are you tweeting? Who are you following? Have you been re-tweeted?  How often do you get DMs? 

These are the questions floating around business networking conversations these days. Newbies to social networking are nervous because Twitter is an unknown territory— a very strange one at that!  Who speaks in 140 character snippets? It takes some getting used to.  At first glance, it makes no sense. A glimpse at a home page on Twitter shows fragmented, one-sided conversations happening now. You may wonder, “How can this be useful?” But, with all the success stories on Twitter, many are considering a move to this unique new communication platform. How about you?

To get started, create a personal profile and connect with a few trusted people that you know in real life. Practice on each other.  Post some updates to your profile. Ask a friend to @ message you. To @message is to reply publicly to a tweet (a status update on Twitter.) To reply privately or send a message privately is DM or Direct Message. Send your trusted friends a DM – a direct message (the Twitter version of email). Get your feet wet with this new tool. Don’t be afraid. Remember that EVERYONE is fairly new to this and even the “experts” will make a “mistake” every now and then.

When you sign up on Twitter, try to secure your first and last name as your username. This will help you establish your personal brand and build your personal online reputation. And, it is cheap (free) insurance to protect you from someone who may want to masquerade as you on Twitter. (If you have a business name, go ahead and create an account for your business also to secure the username even though you may not be ready to use it.  Getting started personally will familiarize you with the tools so that you can better understand how to use this tool for your greater business purposes.

Like most things in life, experience is the BEST teacher. Join the Twitter crowd today.

Feel free to post Twitter questions as comments to this post on my blog. Or, better yet, Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcullison and send me a DM!