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How can small businesses use GroupMe?

March 5, 2011 By 2 Comments

groupme.jpg

Real-time Interaction and Collaboration has become the latest buzz in the world of social media. If you have used Twitter or FaceBook you’ll know that they can easily sink your time. It’s hard to keep up with your 300+ friends on FaceBook and your 3000+ followers on Twitter. The noise created by today’s social media is a big challenge for businesses to overcome.

While FaceBook and Twitter are great platforms to promote your business they do not give you the best experience when it comes to managing more intimate collaboration and communication with your employees. This is where GroupMe comes into play.

GroupMe is a free service that allows you to simultaneously communicate with a number of mobile devices using either text messaging or conference calling. The best part of GroupMe is that it can work on any mobile device that has support for SMS.

With GroupMe you can create private groups. For example, you can create a group for all your field workers who are on the go. When you create a group, you are given a unique number, that you can use to communicate and collaborate with the whole group.

Currently GroupMe supports a maximum of 25 people per group. This should be more than enough for most small businesses to keep in touch with their employees. While GroupMe is free, the standard SMS rates from your mobile carrier will still apply. GroupMe is currently only available in the United States.

Do you find GroupMe an attractive Social Media tool for your small business? In what other ways can you use GroupMe for your Small Business.

For more information on GroupMe, please visit GroupMe.com

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TechThinker Facebook Fan Page

March 20, 2010 By 1 Comment

I have been using Twitter as the primary social media platform to promote my blog. Awhile ago I wrote a post titled 5 Social Media Tips and in that post I indicated the importance of using more than one social media network to promote your website. It is important not to put all of our social media efforts into a single platform because no one is sure which network is going to be the dominant player in the future. As stated in my post, do not put all of your eggs into one basket.

It looks like I was not following my own advice! So far most of my social media efforts have gone into Twitter and it is high time that I get into Facebook as well.

TechThinkerPuzzle

I am happy to let you know that my Facebook fan page is up and running. I hope this fan page will allow me to communicate with my followers and peers on a more personal way.

As you may be aware you need at least 25 members in your face book fan page to qualify for a custom URL (earlier this number was 100 but now Facebook has reduced it to 25). Right now I have only 15 followers and by getting 10 more followers, I will be able to secure my custom URL.If you are a regular reader of TechThinker, please join my fan page.

If you do not know how to secure a custom URL (also know as vanity URL) for your own fan page, you can read this informative article at TechHamlet.com.

You may have also noticed that TechThinker.com now has a new logo and tagline. I’ll write about these changes and my recent efforts in rebranding this blog in another post.

See you on Facebook. Thank You!

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Flavors.Me – Consolidated your Social Media Services

March 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Flavors.me is a simple site that pulls all your social media content into a single location. To use flavors.me you simply signup for an account and start importing your content from other services into flavors.me. The social media sites and services supported in flavors.me include Twitter, FaceBook, Tumblr, Posterous, Blogger, WordPress, LinkedIn, GoodReads, NetFlix, last.fm, YouTube, flickr, Four Square, Etsy and your blog’s RSS feed.

I like this service because it is very simple to use. Keeping track of a person across a number of social medial sites and services can be overwhelming. Flavors.me allows you to share all of your social content in a single location. The site has a minimalist and intuitive design.

You can check out my flavors.me page at http://flavors.me/techthinker

While flavors.me is free to use, the company provides a premium service for $20 a year. The premium service offers Custom Domain name support, web statistics and a contact form for your readers to contact you.

Check out this cool flavors.me video. I hope you like it.

Flavors.me from Jack Zerby on Vimeo.

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No Social Media Saturdays

March 2, 2010 By 4 Comments

The following is a guest post by Zack Shapiro.

Zack Shapiro is an entrepreneur, tech blogger, journalist and world traveler. You can find him on Twitter @ZackShapiro and on his blog at ZackShapiro.com.

Over to you Zack:

Humankind has never been more linked together than we are today. And tomorrow, we’ll be even more connected.

With the increasing levels of connectivity, we became slaves to our means of digital outreach. Facebook, blogging, Twitter, email, Skype and the list goes on and on.

Chances are you suffer from being incredibly over-connected to at least one of the tools listed above.

It’s time to begin to break away. If it sounds scary, don’t worry. We’ll take baby steps.

As with any change in habits small steps are important towards reaching your goal of being digitally free. Jumping into things cold turkey often leads to a relapse because we can’t mentally commit.

My foray into digital relaxation began with No Email Saturdays, where, as the name suggests, I take a break from email for one-seventh of the week.

At first it was harder than I imagined it would be. I had no problem leaving Mail alone on my laptop but I forgot to turn off the email on my iPhone. That meant I was constantly checking my phone not to see what the email was but to see if I had gotten anymore. As the day went on and the number of unread emails climbed higher I was no better off than digging into the actual emails themselves.

There was still digital weight on my mind. This you do not want.

If you’re apprehensive about cutting the cord remember this: unless you work for an organization that requires you to be connected all the time, you don’t need to be.

Sure an email on Wednesday morning about Friday’s meeting may be an important one but ask yourself this, “What could I possibly get on Saturday that can’t be taken care of on Sunday?

Leave the Mail our Outlook icon alone, don’t go to your webmail and turn all email on your phone off. Every phone has a way to switch it off without deleting precious accounts or stored email. Leave it all alone.

If you find yourself itching to see what’s waiting in your inbox remember this: You have to physically allow yourself to check your email. Be strong. I believe in you.

It has been a little over a month now with No Email Saturdays and I love the concept. It frees my mind from whatever’s coming up and I trust that whatever I get on Saturday can be dealt with later. It’s unrealistic to expect yourself to be connected at all times.

Now I’m ready to take the next step: No SocMed (Social Media) Saturdays.

You may not be able to get to me by email on Saturdays but you can still get my attention through my blog, an @reply on my Twitter account, a comment on Flickr, etc. So I’m still connected; I’m still checking.

Next Saturday I plan to cut out the blogging. The following week, Twitter. Those are my big two. Identify yours and make a plan. Set goals based on your level of comfort after realizing what the extra free time means.

Go outside. Spend time with friends. Watch TV without your computer around. Read a book. Go for a run. Have some fun.

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Following, the most neglected aspect of Twitter!

October 21, 2009 By 7 Comments

If you are on Twitter the most common question that your friends ask is probably “How many followers do you have?”. Everyone seems to be obsessed with this number. In order to create a large number of followers, most of us Auto Follow anyone who follows us. While Auto Following has its own merits, following a large number of users will reduce the quality of your incoming Twitter feed.

Imagine only following the people you are really interested in! How great it would be to follow the top 100 bloggers in your niche. Having fewer followings mean you will pay more attention to your feed. This gives you a better opportunity to interact and mingle with the people you follow. When people notice that you are in conversation with high profile users, they think high of you as well, and they want to follow you too!

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5 Social Media Tips

October 9, 2009 By 1 Comment

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In recent years Social Media services such as Twitter and FaceBook have seen unprecedented growth. Everyone is jumping on the Social Media bandwagon to make use of this new and powerful medium of communication. In this quick post, I look at some very basic Social Media principles that you have to follow in order to get the maximum out of this medium.

1. Consistent User Names

It is very important that you have consistent user names (or logins) across all Social Media networks. For example, if your Twitter Id is called “VeryCoolGuy” it is good to have the same user name on FaceBook (i.e FaceBook.com/VeryCoolGuy). Using consistent user names will allow people to easily find you. It is also important that you have consistent profile images across all Social Media sites that you participate. A consistent profile picture will allow people to easily recognize you or your brand. Most Social Media sites also allow you to write a few lines of information about you. Make use of these profile description to tell your audience who you are and how you can help them.

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Thinking in Tweets!

May 16, 2008 By 6 Comments

Image Source : South_Roger’s Photostream

I have been using Twitter for a couple of weeks. Here are some of my thoughts about Twitter. Each thought is written as a Tweet. If you do not know what Twitter is, please checkout the this video that provides a good introduction to Twitter. After viewing the video please come back to read my post. You will understand what I am talking about.

Introduction

  • Twitter is awfully simple to use, but “How to use Twitter” is a highly debated topic.
  • This suggests there are many ways to use Twitter.
  • There is no one best way to use Twitter.
  • Some use Twitter to spread their message.
  • Some use it to get help.
  • Some use it to provide help.
  • Some use it for fun.
  • Some use it as a communication and collaboration tool.
  • Some use it as a fountain of free flowing knowledge, a source of new ideas (my favorite use).

Different Types of Users

  • A person with few Following and a large number of Followers is a Leader.
  • A person who has roughly the same number of Following and Followers is a Friend.
  • A person with few Followers and a very large Following is a Newbie or Learner.
  • A person with a large Following and zero Tweets may be a Spammer.
  • A person who provides completely irrelevant replies and talks nonsense is a TweetBait er or TweetStalk er, or Spammer.

Following:Followers Ratio (F:F)

  • Judging a person purely on the “Following:Followers” ratio (F:F) is not a good idea.
  • But many folks only use the F:F ratio as measure to judge a person.
  • Instead look at what that person has to offer. Checkout his/her website. You may want to follow that person.
  • A person with 9999:0 F:F is getting the same number of Tweets as a person with F:F of 9999:9999.

Mass Following

  • Mass following a niche is very different from randomly mass following every one you come across.
  • If mass following is spamming, why has not Twitter taken any action?
  • Putting a cap on the F:F ratio can stop mass followers. This is not rocket science.
  • If a cap is introduced, will it go against the concept upon which Twitter was built?
  • Even after Following 1000s of people, Twitter still says “Invite More!”.
  • Therefore mass following a niche is not spamming, as Scott Sweeney says it is Promotion.

Ideal Followers

  • It’s better to have followers with few Following because you get more attention.
  • It’s better to have followers with more Followers, because your message spreads quickly (Re-Tweet).

Some Problems

  • Many Tweets disappear unnoticed.
  • Twitter.com is very slow at many occasions; Twhirl (Twitter Desktop Client) hangs my PC.

Recommendations

  • Twitter emails you when a person joins, but, wouldn’t it be nice to get an email when they leave too?

What does Twitter means?

  • “Twitter” refers to the high frequency sounds some birds make.
  • Don’t confuse the Twitter with Tweeter. Tweeter refers to a high frequency loud speaker.

Building Your Follower Base

  • Darren Rowse suggests building a follower base by adding value to Twitter conversations.
  • DoshDosh suggests building a follower base by promoting your Twitter profile.
  • Scott Sweeney’s bold approach is to mass following people in your niche with the hope that some will follow you back.

Conclusion

After careful consideration I am inclined more towards the DoshDosh approach.

Are you thinking in Tweets? Please feel to leave a comment as you wish.

I am new to Twitter. My thinking is continuously evolving on this topic. So my views can change as I learn more about this powerful tool for social networking.

Follow me on Twitter!

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