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“Google can make or break my business, so I have to do whatever they say.” I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard similar things from small business owners and webmasters. Do you know what I say to them?

“Then you don’t know enough about running a website to be making this your business.”

Why so harsh? Because I’m tired of the “Google God” nonsense, where people truly believe Google is the be all and end all for any site on the Web. It’s not. It’s a search engine. More importantly, Google is a tool — a tool for finding websites and a tool for helping people find your website.

There’s nothing wrong with Google on the surface (okay, so that’s a bit debatable), and there’s nothing wrong with making reasonable efforts to rank well for truly relevant terms. Still, that’s a far cry from Google making or breaking a business. And if you know what you’re doing, neither Google , nor any other third party will have that much control over your project. Why? You’ll diversify.

Website Survival With or Without Big G

There are other traffic sources out there; some are much better than search engines when it comes to bringing targeted traffic. Even if your Google traffic disappeared tomorrow, you could still run a highly successful site or online business.

“But where would my traffic come from?” you might ask. Here’s a quick list with some ideas to get you started. All of these things can help you attract targeted visitors to your website, without worrying about SEO and potential Google bans if you happen to do something they don’t approve of:

• Run a Blog – If your site already has some traffic, add a blog. The subscribers will keep coming back regardless of search engine rankings.
• Issue Press Releases – If you’re doing something newsworthy in your niche or industry, put out a press release / news release. They’re a great way to build relevant links and traffic not only directly but through your pick-ups (each time the release is republished or used as a source for a story in the media or on other blogs). If you don’t have anything release-worthy, come up with ideas. Release a new tool. Publish a free report. No matter what industry you’re in, you can be newsworthy with your audience with just a little bit of effort.
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  Use Social media – Social networks, social bookmarking, Twitter, etc. can be fantastic sources of traffic that by-pass the whims of search engines. You’ll want to spend a bit of time building your network with these social media tools. The bigger your audience there, the more traffic those tools can bring.
• Advertise - If you have an advertising budget, use it! If not, maybe it’s time to consider one. Sure, free traffic can seem more appealing than paid traffic, but advertising has its benefits. It might save time (and let’s face it, time really is money) when compared to things like maintaining a strong social media presence. It allows you to target very specific audiences as well, by picking and choosing which sites you want to advertise on. Of course, if you’d rather not bother with manually choosing publishers to advertise with, there’s always the option of going with ad networks.

Those are just a few of the most popular and effective ways to get traffic to your website without having to rely on search engines. Can you think of any others? Leave a comment and share your tips with other readers.

The fact that Google is really just a single tool in a much bigger toolbox of smart webmasters everywhere is just one thing site owners seem to forget. Just for fun, here are a few other helpful “reminders.”

• No, industry jargon is not cool. Lose the buzzwords already. If your neighbor’s kid in the 8th grade couldn’t understand your site, it’s time to re-work things. If you cater to the small group that understands and actually likes to talk that way, you’re missing out on a potentially huge market segment that doesn’t.
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  That splash page you think is really sweet, really isn’t. People don’t want to wait for your page to load. They click a link or type in your URL and they expect the information they want to appear… like magic… yeah, that quick. If yours doesn’t, optimize. Trying to be “with it” creatively can really piss off your visitors who frankly couldn’t care less. Unless your site exists specifically to show off such designs or it’s absolutely necessary, don’t. You can be stylish without being slow.
• Your site might be online all the time, but your audience is not. If you’re neglecting offline marketing tactics for your website, you’re losing out on visitors (and potentially buyers). Don’t assume Internet marketing is the only way to market your website or online business.

Have you made these mistakes? Have you made others you’d like to share? Leave us a comment and let us know what else website owners sometimes forget when it comes to managing and marketing their sites.

Facebook is the currently the darling of all social media sites. Now that MySpace has been branded “low-class,” Facebook has surged in popularity, and the member status updates help the site function like one big conversation. But Facebook is not a tool to be used lightly. The status updates you post are little insights into your day and your mind, and posting the wrong one is just…wrong.  So here’s a helpful guide to assist you in avoiding annoying me…er…committing a Facebook faux pas.

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1. Never post about what you are eating for breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner, dessert or any other meal. Remember when your teacher caught you sneaking food during school and asked you if you had enough to share with the rest of the class? Well, she (or he) did that because it is rude to flaunt your tasty cookies, soups, meats, cheeses and other divine edibles in front of people who don’t have access to them. Some of you like to really rub our noses in your happy palate and upload a picture of your food—that is really taking it too far. I don’t know about you but, because of these updates, I spend about 90% of my day hungry for crap I can’t even get.

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2. Never post about the games you are playing. The other day, I was struck and saddened by a friend of mine who I assumed had been laid off. I assumed this because she posted a status update asking for laundry supplies. Fearing the worst, I was about to start a relief fund for her when a few hours later I saw she had updated her status to say, “Thanks” to all the members who had given her supplies and that now she needed help fighting the Russian Mafia. It took me a while to try and understand how my friend, who is an accountant, could have gone from reconciling columns of numbers to fighting the Russian mafia. As I reassessed my life, wondering how there could be so much I didn’t know about her, she posted another update that begged for help with, “a bunch of illegal transaction records” in New York. This was it. Now she’d gone too far. Over the course of 8 hours my friend had progressed from law-abiding accountant, to pauper, to Russian crime fighter, to New York crime-committer. It turns out she was actually posting these updates as part of some online Mafia game she was playing. Unbeknownst to her, I went on a massive emotional roller coaster over her game. Not cool. Not cool at all. If you are using Facebook for professional contacts, this type of update is even worse.

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3. Stop making everyone feel guilty. Just about everyone has some cause that really means something to them. Whether it’s prostate cancer, diabetes or curing Alzheimer’s there is probably a pre-written status update that you can paste into your page to show everyone how much you care. The problem with this pre-written message is that it always includes this manipulative, guilt-inducing clause to try and get your friends to post the same message — “93% won’t Copy and Paste this, will YOU make this your status for at least ……one hour?” Way to make them hate your cause, manipulator.

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4. Don’t talk about the underwear you are wearing… no matter what. One day this week, I was confused as I read my friends’ seemingly cryptic updates about colors. I spent the day reading updates like, “Purple with leather straps,” and “White with lace.” I thought everyone was just posting nonsensical color and material combinations until I found that some genius told women to post the color of their bra for breast cancer awareness. While this helped me better understand my mother’s brazen, “None! Let the puppies breath!” update, it did little to help me understand WHY people were doing it. After all, is there anyone who isn’t aware of breast cancer? And since there was no donation accompanying these updates, who exactly did they help?

Remember, your Facebook updates are supposed to be insights into your day that either friends or other professionals will enjoy reading. Talk about what’s going on in your life, what you are excited about, what you are concerned about, and what you are working on. They can be fun, funny and clever, deep and meaningful, or run-of-the-mill. Oh, and if your kids are on Facebook, never, ever, ever, ever talk about your underwear.

Twitter is such an innocent little tool, isn’t it? After all, how much harm can you do in 140 characters? Actually, plenty! It’s remarkably easy to piss off your Twitter followers, and you might not even realize you’re doing it. No worries. I’m going to share some of the top ways you might be pissing off your Twitter followers here, so you can decide if certain kinds of tweets are really worth it. But first….

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Why You Shouldn’t Piss Off Your Followers

“If they don’t like what I tweet, they can just un-follow me, so I can do whatever I want,” you might be thinking. Bullshit. I mean, okay, you can do whatever you want. But that doesn’t mean you should.

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Your Twitter followers really do matter. They’ve invested themselves into mini-relationships with you on that platform. You’ve basically invited them to do so. How would you like it if your best friend called and asked you to come over, only to ignore you from the moment you got there? You’d probably be pretty pissed off. It was implied that your friend actually wanted to spend time with you. Instead, your time was wasted. It works the same way with Twitter.

Pissing off your Twitter followers can be a particularly bad thing if you’re using Twitter for business. After all, you want your target audience to connect with you there, right? Pissing them off shows them that A) you don’t know what the hell you’re doing and your business probably isn’t ready to use social media to connect with them and B) you don’t really give a damn about them at all — you’re there solely for you. Neither is something you want your audience (and potential customers) thinking about your company.

Now let’s get right down to it. Here are some of the easiest ways you can piss off your Twitter followers, whether you really mean to or not:

1. Constantly post self-promotional links. — You wrote an e-book. Fabulous. Tell us about it once. Tell us about it once a day if you want to. But tell us about it once an hour or so and we’re probably going to start seeing you for the Twitter spammer you really are.
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   Link to every single blog post you publish. – This is one of my biggest pet peeves. If I want to follow your company’s blog, I’ll subscribe to the friggin’ RSS feed. Twitter is supposed to be about personal updates — not a feed substitute (Don’t believe me? Read the Twitter Rules.) If you really must use those ridiculous automated tweets of all of your blog posts, then setup a separate Twitter account for people who want to use it to subscribe to your blog. Newsflash: not every one does, and those who follow it elsewhere probably don’t want to be inundated with your post links in multiple places.
3. Post FourSquare updates to your Twitter feed. – Look. This might be fun if you’re using Twitter for more personal connections, but frankly I think it makes a lot of my colleagues look like complete jokes. It’s just another case of “oh my god, there’s another nifty tool I have to play with because I have no ability to distinguish the important from the useless.” Your followers likely don’t care where you are if it has nothing to do with them, and frankly I don’t care if you’re the “mayor” of Timbuk-friggin’-tu. One of my favorite PR colleagues, Judy Gombita, covered the FourSquare issue (@boresquare as she puts it) in much more detail over at the MediaStyle blog.
4. Ask everyone to retweet your tweets. – Unless you’re trying to get more exposure for some noble charity or cause, asking people to RT your tweets just makes you look pathetic. Enough said on that front.
5. Never respond to your followers. – Why is your business using Twitter (a “social” media tool) if you’re not going to be social at all? That’s just stupid. Sure, no one expects you to be able to respond to every tweet from every follower that’s directed at you, but make some effort to reach out. One of the easiest ways to alienate your followers (remember: they might be your customers) is to pretend they don’t exist. You probably did that just fine without joining Twitter.

Are these the only ways you might be pissing off your Twitter followers? Of course not. What’s considered acceptable will vary depending on how you use Twitter and what kind of followers you solicit.

For me (@queryfreewriter), Twitter is a way to give the readers of my freelance writing blogs a more personal glimpse of who I am. I’ll share post links if it’s something I think is worth featuring (and if it’s relevant to writers), but I don’t come close to sharing every post on my blog. I’ll talk about what I’m doing, but I’m not the type who’s going to ramble on about what I’m having for lunch every day. I respond to my readers. I ask them questions when I want input (about the blog, about writing, about freelancing, or about where I can buy something I can’t seem to find on my own). I share opinions, even sometimes harsh ones. But I’m not tweeting to try to attract clients or to try to attract new blog readers (although I do attract plenty of new blog readers through those more personal updates — for some reason it works well in my niche).

You have to figure out what is and isn’t appropriate for your audience. Go ahead and piss them off if you think social media is all about you. But when you finally get a clue, keep these tips in mind and you’ll improve your odds of forming truly meaningful Twitter relationships (if such things exist).

As a Twitter follower, what kinds of things do businesses do that really get under your skin? Do they post too much? Not enough? Do they ignore you? Do they send link after link about their products? On the other hand, what things have businesses done right on Twitter that have made you want to learn more about them (or spend money with them)?

Are you still trying to decide if your company should jump on the Twitter bandwagon? You’ve heard of other companies doing it…some successfully, some without much success.

To help you decide if Twitter is right for your brand, I’ve come up with a list of 5 companies that are using Twitter right. Use these examples as guidelines for creating and growing your own professional Twitter presence.

1. JetBlue—The team behind this affordable airline service uses Twitter to provide the best customer service possible. From providing instant updates about flight cancellations or delays to answering questions from current and potential customers, JetBlue maintains an active Twitter presence that allows them to create a positive image of their brand. The airline company also uses scanning tools that instantly update them any time their brand is mentioned by another Tweeter. They can then quickly respond to customer complaints, concerns, questions, and other brand mentions.
2. Zappos—When it comes to companies using Twitter to bolster their brand, Zappos practically wrote the book on the subject. With nearly 200 employees Tweeting away, Zappos uses Twitter to keep their brand profile high as well as to establish personal relationships with their customers. This helps add a human element to an online retailer that customers don’t deal with face to face. Zappos even has a dedicated page on their website that pulls the latest feeds from all of their employees, titling the page “What are Zappos employees doing right now?”
3. Comcast—I’m not going to lie. My past experiences with Comcast have been less than pleasant. That’s why I’m now with DirecTV. However, Comcast seems to realize that improving their customer service is absolutely vital to their reputation and their future success. That’s why they’ve created a Twitter profile that responds to questions, complaints, and other mentions related to their brand. I do like the fact that their Twitter avatar is a picture of their Senior director of National Customer Service; it gives the profile a more personal, friendly feel.
4. H&R Block—Let’s face it: Filing tax returns is a total pain in the @$$. H&R Block realizes that this isn’t most people’s favorite activity. That’s why they maintain a Twitter account that allows their followers to ask tax filing questions and to keep everyone up to date about upcoming deadlines and legal changes. It’s all about showing how easy it is to file your returns through H&R Block.
5. Dell—Dell seems to be one of the few companies that really “gets” social media (take a look at their IdeaStorm website). As it relates to their Twitter presence, Dell has created multiple Twitter profiles that each serves a specific purpose. For example, the DellOutlet Twitter account posts the latest deals on refurbished Dell computers. Likewise, @DellSmBizOffers updates small business owners with the latest exclusive deals for small businesses.

Which companies have you seen that are using Twitter right? Leave your favorites in the comments.

If you work as a freelancer or other type of solopreneur where you market your products and services based on your name (rather than a company name), your name is your brand. What people think when they see or hear your name will influence whether or not they do business with you. That’s why independent professionals need to be aware of brand marketing as it applies not just to products or corporate images, but as it applies to them. We call it “personal branding.”

Why is Personal Branding Important?

Personal branding is especially important for the solopreneurs of the world because their name conjures up a certain image with customers or prospective customers. That means every time you post to a blog, interact with others on a social network, contribute to a forum, or even send an email, people are going to form an opinion about you and associate your name with that image. If you fall into that group, you want your name to convey a positive image — to generate immediate trust. Does yours? Let’s look at an example.

Let’s say you’re a writer and you specialize in writing online sales letters. How you choose to promote your brand (your name) can have serious implications for your career. For example, you might decide to charge $50 per sales letter (knowing that good sales letter writers usually charge several hundred to several thousand). You’ve basically chosen to market your services primarily on price (never a good idea for service marketing, but that’s another topic for another time).

By promoting your services in that way, your personal brand becomes one of “the cheap guy.” That’s not a great image to build in any kind of business writing. “Cheap” in that market comes with a built in lack of trust (not to mention that it hinders your ability to earn anywhere near an industry standard income).

Becoming “the cheap guy” could lead to worse branding issues down the road. People who undercharge for services generally take on a lot of projects. They have to if they want to earn enough to get by comfortably. That, in turn, often leads to burnout. The person (in this case a writer) has to overload their schedule. If that’s done consistently for a while, they’ll start to miss all of their deadlines, forget about projects altogether, or run into other problems. That “cheap guy” brand image might just become “the unreliable guy.” Remember, word spreads.

On the other hand, you could build an image for yourself (and your name) as a responsible and respectable professional who commands higher rates. Ask yourself “if I could afford to hire any copywriter to write my sales letter, who would it be?” The name you answered (assuming you’ve heard of any sales copywriters) has a strong personal brand. How did they build it?

Brand Marketing Tips for Building a Strong Personal Brand

That writer you thought of is probably pretty successful. Most of the top sales letter writers probably don’t even have an opening to take on new work right away because the demand is so great. Wouldn’t you love to be in their shoes, able to pick and choose your projects, have waiting lists, be able to turn down work regularly, etc.? It’s a nice feeling. But how do you get there?

You build your personal brand, and you become a trusted name in your industry!

In this example, the writer may have done any number of things. Chances are good that they have their own website (after all, if they can’t sell themselves online, why would anyone hire them to sell their products and services for them?). Maybe they have a blog where they position themselves as a thought leader in the copywriting field. It’s also likely that they’ve published at least one book. They probably have one or more mailing lists and newsletters. They might even have a subscription site, speak at seminars, or offer online courses.

They go beyond practicing their craft — they also teach it. They become authorities in the field.

Education as a Personal Brand Builder

People love it when you share your knowledge and teach them more about what you do. It shows them that you know what you’re talking about. It gives them a better feel for your style. It also makes them respect your work a little more. Let me explain.

I used to be a PR consultant before becoming a full-time writer. I specialized in online PR. A service with a quickly growing demand at the time was press release writing for online syndication (combining good old PR with SEO benefits). While demand was growing, I found that a lot of online business owners really didn’t understand news releases and how to use them. So I taught them. When they had questions, I answered them. I blogged about them. I wrote and sold an e-book teaching them how to write their own.

Over time I released another version of that e-book — this time for free. It included a marketing message (similar to marketing white papers) promoting my services. Essentially, I was teaching my prospective clients the basics of doing what I do for them. People downloaded it, and better yet they put it to use.

“Why is that good?” you might be wondering. “Didn’t you lose money?” Actually I made more money! Here’s why:

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The people who downloaded my e-book broke into three primary categories: those who wrote their own press releases and were satisfied, those who wrote their own press releases but weren’t satisfied, and those who either tried or just read about writing their own press releases but decided there was more to it than they originally thought.

Members of group one may not have ultimately hired me to write their press releases. But they did remember me when they needed other PR consulting or writing work done. They also passed my name along to others who did hire me (referrals are the lifeblood of many successful solopreneurs).

Several people in group two decided that since they weren’t happy with the results from their own press release, they’d hire a pro next time (me in this case) and compare the results. Several of them have turned into long-term clients.

Those in group three should be your favorite. They’re the ones who originally might have thought your work was easy. After they learn more about it, they have a new appreciation for what you do, and that’s a great start to any business relationship. They’ll be the most likely group to hire you. Basically, your free information reminds them that time is money and that their time is better spent on something other than trying to master your job.

Giving away knowledge doesn’t make you less marketable. If anything, the opposite is true. And it works for any type of independent professional! Give it a try. Share your knowledge openly in online communities or in consultations. Release informational products in your niche or industry (free or paid). Show people that they can trust you, that you’re worth hiring, and that you can get the job done!  Those are the things you want associated with your personal brand as a solopreneur. If you need help coming up with specific ideas for how you can showcase your industry knowledge when marketing your personal brand, check out our article on how business freebies can help you land more sales for more examples of information-sharing tactics.

Beyond the Basics of Personal Branding

Personal branding goes far beyond your selling points. It’s not just about putting information out there that you want to be associated with your professional brand. It’s also about keeping other, less appropriate, information at bay. Remember that your name is probably associated with more than just your business on the Web.

If you have personal social networking accounts, you might want to consider keeping that information private if the personal information you talk about could tarnish your personal brand (for instance, if you like to brag about your drunken flings on Facebook, you probably don’t want your potential clients seeing that).

Think about personal branding this way: When someone searches for you online, what will they find? What does it say about you? By all means, be authentic. It’s a part of building trust with your target market. But there’s a difference between being authentic and leaving yourself completely exposed. Know your limits. Know your comfort level. And most importantly, know what is and isn’t “TMI” for your own target market.

Now get out there and start building your personal brand!

A few things have been ingrained into the minds’ of business owners over the past 18 months. Things like:

• You have to engage in social media.
• You have to listen to your customers.
• Always protect your brand.

But sometimes before you can even act, your customers are out there beating you to the punch. They’re engaging and protecting your brand for you. And as this whole social media thing has developed, we’ve been able to see both the positives and negatives that occur when a company leaves their brand to chance. Is it possible that all you have to do to be successful in social media is to sit back and let your customers do your work for you?

Let’s take a look at some of the Pros and Cons involved with leaving your social media efforts up your customers.

The Pros

1. Your customers are better at social media than you are.

Don’t get all defensive, it’s true. Your customers are social media pros because they’re ringers. Social media was designed with them in mind. It’s about empowering them, letting them get loud and giving them a platform (and soapbox) to stand on. When they create your account for you, it can explode.

Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski love Coca-Cola. They love it so much that they created the official Coke Facebook Fan page where more than 3.6 MILLION fans come to comment and engage every day. That’s right. 3.6 million fans and Coke had absolutely nothing to do with it. Dusty and Michael wanted a place to talk about their favorite carbonated beverage so they got their hands dirty and created one themselves. And though Coke didn’t create it, they have embraced it. And the result has been one of the most well known social media love stories on the Web.

2. It’s more authentic.

When you create a site dedicated to your greatness, it’s “marketing”, it’s self-serving and it’s a little dirty. When a fan does it for you, its gospel, it’s real, and it’s authentic. Your customers have an easier time relating to it. They want to get involved and become part of the “cool kids” helping to sing your praises across the Internet. And really, is there anything cooler on the Internet than Chuck Norris? Of course not. America isn’t a democracy, it’s a Chucktatorship.

The Chuck Norris Facts Web site was created in 2005 and contains satirical facts about actor, martial artist and legend Chuck Norris. It’s entirely run, maintained, and promoted by fans. The result? It’s become a cult phenomenon, transforming Mr. Norris into one of the biggest celebrities on the Web. It’s earned mentions on all the nighttime talk shows, has been spoofed in songs and was even turned into a Facebook application. It has empowered the Chuck Norris brand so much that Chuck Norris himself has begun contributing to the site, picking his favorites and sharing in the fun. Had Chuck Norris tried to create a site dedicated to faux facts about himself it would have been mocked. But because his fans did it and he supported it, It’s beloved.

3. It makes you look oh-so-cool when you empower them:

Pulling a Chuck Norris and supporting the people who support you makes you relatable. It makes you appear humble and friendly and like your fans. People like people who like them back. When you support your fans, it makes them want to keep supporting you.

Stephen Colbert. You know him. You love him. And he had nothing to do with the Twitter account that was created in his name (there’s actually a few these days). But he has vocally supported it. He’s empowered the person behind it to keep at it, to keep building the Colbert brand and to continue making people laugh in his name. And with over 350,000 followers, one could say it’s taken off and become pretty successful. Stephen does have a real account at @stephenathome but, frankly, it’s not nearly as entertaining.  And it’s not as powerful as the account created by one his fans. That’s the one people relate to.

The Cons.

1. Even the well-intentioned can do harm.

No good deed goes unpunished and often just because someone meant to give you a hand, doesn’t mean they won’t accidentally torch the place. Do you really want to give a stranger that much power with your brand?

Exxon Mobile had a problem last summer when Janet created the ExxonMobileCorp Twitter account and began fielding questions, talking about how money was being spent and dishing about the Exxon Valdez. Seemed neat enough, until we all learned that “Janet” didn’t actually work for Exxon. She just registered the account and pretended she did. Fail.

Seth Godin had a similar issue when the @SethGodin Twitter account (which once had 5,000+ fans) started getting called out for angering fans.  There were complaints that Seth didn’t value his followers because he refused to follow them back or engage with them. Of course, “Seth Godin” wasn’t actually the real Seth. It was just a fan trying to pay homage. What he did, however, was cause a mess that the real Seth had to clean up.

2. Sometimes “fans” like to exploit you.

Of course, not everyone is well-intentioned. When you fail to get active on social media, you give those with an ax to grind a chance to brandjack your name to embarrass you, vilify you, or most often, simply exploit you.

As you read this, someone is holding the Walt Disney World Twitter account hostage. The resource site Startup Nation had a college student attempt to extort them for $15,000. And these situations are only becoming more prominent and damaging. Brands who were late to get involved are now spending thousands seeking ways to protect their brands and prevent cases of brandjacking and “twitterjacking”. And the bigger the brand, the higher the bounty on your username. By not getting involved in social media, unless you take steps to prevent it, you often leave your brand open to attack.

3. You fracture your community.

People yearn to talk about the brands they love. And if you don’t create a centralized place for them to do that, you leave room for dozens of splinter accounts to sprout up in your name. It may seem like an okay idea, but all it really does is dilute the efforts of your fans. It spreads out conversations. It makes it harder for people to engage. And it severely weakens the accounts they create.

Take Miller Lite. If you’re a fan, do you join @millerliteiowa, @genbev or one of the many other accounts? Likely, you join none. They’re not legitimate looking and the followers are too spread out to be effective. If you want to support the Library of Congress, fans are divided across three Fan pages and more than a handful Facebook groups. Which is legit? Which can people trust? If you don’t tell them, they don’t know and they’re less likely to engage on a regular basis. You fracture the community before you even have one.

It’s possible that your fans will do your social media work while you sit back and do nothing, but it’s just as likely that being passive will come back to haunt you.  Instead, find ways to work with your audience and to empower them to get loud on your behalf. Work together to combine their passion and realness with your goals for your company.  If that doesn’t work. Call Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris is suing MySpace for taking the name of what he calls everything around him. True fact.

Social media marketing. It’s the buzz phrase of the moment right now in marketing circles. Everyone from local mom and pop businesses to massive corporations are getting social, trying to capture the many benefits it can entail.

If you’re uncertain if social media marketing is right for your small business, consider these reasons you need to jump on the bandwagon now.

1.    It makes you relevant—There’s nothing worse than an out of touch company stuck in the past. Building an active social media presence shows your target audience that you’re relevant and that you’re on the cutting edge. As a consumer, I’d have a lot more confidence buying from a company who is easy to get in touch with and has a strong online presence than from a company whose online presence consists of a static website that looks like it was designed in 1998.

2.    Social media increases your exposure—Here’s a fun exercise: Ask any small business owner what their biggest challenge is. The majority of them will answer: getting exposure. See, if your target audience doesn’t even know you exist, it’s going to be pretty hard to grow your business. Through blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media outlets, you can put your small business front and center for your target audience.

3.    You can learn more about your target audience—One benefit of social media that many people overlook is the insight you can gain into your target audience. Just interacting with them on Twitter can help you better understand how they think, what their likes and dislikes are, how they talk, where they hang out, and so much more. This can help you refine your marketing campaign to better connect with your target audience.

4.    Use social media to monitor your brand’s reputation—The great thing about the Internet and social media is that everyone has a voice. Consumers now get to sound off about products they like and products they think suck. Through social media, you can monitor what others are saying about your company, and respond more quickly to diffuse damaging situations. Just make sure you don’t get overly defensive and unprofessional when someone says something you don’t like.

5.    Establish yourself as an authority through social media—From Q&A websites to your company blog, social media provides an excellent medium for establishing yourself as an expert. By providing quality, accurate information, people will respect you and look to you for answers. In turn, this will give credibility to your company.

6.    It’s free—Anyone can start a blog, sign up for a Twitter account, post videos on YouTube, answer questions on Yahoo! Answers, etc. for free. Social media is a no-cost way to promote your brand.

7.    You can achieve higher search engine rankings—Social media and SEO go hand in hand. First, social media is a powerful tool for link building. And as you earn more inbound links to your website, Google will put more trust in your website, leading to higher search engine rankings. Furthermore, social media profiles tend to rank highly for your brand. This helps you control the search results people see when they search for your company.

Does your small business use social media marketing?

The Twitter bandwagon is taking on new passengers every day. Many of these new Twitter users are businesses trying to grow their brand through social media. Unfortunately, they often flame out quickly because they don’t understand how to properly leverage Twitter for their business and they ignore social networking etiquette.

If you’re new to Twitter, here are 5 mistakes you should avoid at all costs.

1.    Only tweeting self-promotional content—It’s called “social networking” not “social advertising.” Even if the goal of signing up for a Twitter account is to somehow further your business, sending out a flurry of self-promotional tweets isn’t going to do you any good. No on wants to be advertised on Twitter, so any followers you might have will drop you. Instead, focus on adding value to the follower-experience. Provide your unique insight on topics, link out to quality sources, and interact with your followers.

2.    Not interacting with your followers—Speaking of interacting with your followers, failing to do so will get you nowhere fast on Twitter. The whole point of social networking is to be, well, social. This means spending time growing your relationships with your followers, not just sending out one-way tweets all day.

3.    Tweeting on rare occasions—If you want to build a strong Twitter presence, you need to consistently provide quality content to your followers. At the very least, you should be tweeting a few times each day. Tweeting once or twice a week is an easy way for your followers to forget you and eventually stop following you altogether.

4.    Getting overly defensive—When you put yourself out there on Twitter, someone is going to eventually disagree with something you say or even say something negative about your company. When this happens, take a step back and breathe for a second. Don’t instantly get combative by arguing back with them. Nothing will get accomplished this way. Either engage in a respectful debate with them or if they’re just a keyboard gangster looking to start trouble, ignore them.

5.    Focusing on quantity of followers—I always find it funny whenever someone brags to me about how many followers they have. Or even better is when they tell me about some shady technique they use to instantly gain thousands of followers. Who cares? The number of followers you have means nothing if they aren’t engaged. Engaged followers are likelier to take action on your behalf (whether that be spreading your message online or buying your products). Give me 100 followers who are truly interested in what I have to say over 1,000 disinterested followers any day.

What other mistakes do you see new Twitter users make? Share them in the replies.

In addition to providing a way to keep in touch with your friends and to grow your network, Twitter can also be a powerful educational tool. Follow the right people, and you’ll pick up valuable tips and information from the experts themselves. If you’re interested in learning more about SEO, here are 25 people to follow on Twitter. I’ve included their bio excerpt to help you learn a little more about them.

1. Danny Sullivan— Editor of SearchEngineLand.com, covering Google, SEO, PPC & all aspects of search engines and search marketing.
2. Lee Odden— Traveler, foodie, dad & CEO @TopRank. I tweet mostly about Digital Public Relations, Social Media and SEO.
3. Ann Smarty — Owner SEOSmarty.com and contributor to Search Engine Journal
4. Matt Cutts — Head of webspam team at Google.
5. Thomson Chemmanoor— Search Engine Marketing Expert & Social Media Consultant, Blogger, CEO/Founder of Digital Labz
6. Gerald Weber — I’m the kinda guy that shoots from the hip if ya know what I mean. I’m Also the head janitor and toilet cleaner guy for search engine marketing group in Houston
7. Derek Edmond — Director of SEM and Managing Partner: KoMarketing Associates, B2B SEO, PPC and Social Media. Blog at Cape Cod SEO
8. Rand Fishkin — SEOmoz CEO, Pesky Blogger, Constantly on the Road, Adorned w/ Yellow Footwear
9. Michael Gray — Is a general all around trouble maker
10. Brian Carter — Keynote Speaker, Comedian, Ad agency Director of PPC, SEO, Social Media at Fuel Interactive
11. Aaron Wall — SEO + U = Win!!!
12. Search Engine Land — News and information about search engine marketing, optimization and how search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live.com and Ask.com work for searchers
13. Barry Schwartz — Search Geek
14. Travis Wright — Interactive Media Smart Ass. CrowdSourcerer. SEO Jedi. Part Skeptic / Optimist. Über Bullshittapotomus. ENTP. Evil Genius. Mad Scientist. I’m kind of a big deal
15. Brent D. Payne — Tribune’s Bald In-house SEO Director that also likes to get a little crazy at times.
16. Atniz — Full time work at home mum into blogging, High PR Dofollow Link Building, Increase SERP Ranking, Increase Page Rank, etc
17. Christoph Gold — Business: SEO/SEM Pro, Founder (1999), Marketing & Monetizing, Social Media | Private: Family & Friends, Personal Development, Learning, Reading, 1860, Fitness
18. Rishi Lakhani — I am just your average guy interested in SEO and knowing people. This twitter a/c is purely me and only me.
19. Shark SEO — I go up and down stairs 2 at a time
20. Dave Naylor — Head of Search Marketing – Bronco.co.uk – Speak at lots of conferences on SEO. Bronco is a leading SEO, Web Dev & Design Agency which I run with @BeckyNaylo
21. Matt Siltala — Owner of Dream Systems Media, Blogger, Speaker, SEO, Internet Marketer including Social Media, Viral Marketing, Branding and Rep. Management
22. Todd Mintz — E-Kleck-Tik SEO / PPC / SEM / Internet Marketer
23. Stoney deGeyter — All-around nice guy.
24. Dave Snyder — Co-Founder of Search and Social and IMBroadcast.com
25. Page One Results — Internet Marketing Consultant Since 1995.

Any SEO experts you feel were left of the list? Add their Twitter links as well as your own in the replies!

Is there any industry more likely to benefit from engaging the tools of social media than the restaurant industry? Most people would likely rebut this question with the comment that the technology industry is particularly suited to benefit from social media. But restaurants have a unique connection to social media that transcends the technological connection between social media and the technology industry.

Restaurants are, after all, social meeting places. It is where we go to meet friends, family, and loved ones, in order to connect with them, offline. Patronizing restaurants is in some ways the fullest expression of socialization. In a world where more of our socializing is performed online, meaningful real world social interactions are becoming rarer. The social aspect of eating out remains one of the few arenas where we are literally forced out into the open, to engage with the physical world.

With this in mind, I would like to examine how restaurants are making use of social media. I spoke with Chef Ryan Parrot (@ChefRP on Twitter) of the restaurants Table ONE and Iguana, both in Oklahoma City. Chef Ryan “gets” social media; he understands, unlike many other businesses, that social media is a two-way street. Because of the rapid growth of sites like Twitter, Facebook and Yelp, many restaurants have jumped into the social media space without a deliberate strategy or understanding of social media. Restaurants see these mediums as just another advertising opportunity. So we see lots of “one-way” messages: menu postings, daily specials, special events, theme dinners and the like. And while that is certainly an appropriate use of these new venues, it misses perhaps the most valuable aspect of social media: dialogue.

The great power of Facebook and Twitter is in its conversational capability. This is what we mean when we talk about a “two-way street.” Potential patrons do not simply want to be informed about restaurants’ operations. They want to participate. They want to talk to the chef or the managers. They may want to make suggestions or offer criticism, as well as let a restaurant know when they are doing something right. But most of all, patrons and users of social networking sites want to know that they are being listened to, that their concerns are being heard and considered, and this is why conversations are so important. It’s pretty hard to have a conversation with an entity afraid or unwilling to engage their audience.

Chef Ryan told me that his two restaurants regularly use Facebook and Twitter. They collect emails for their subscription list; they post events and specials, and photos of their food. He also told me very clearly that his online work and that of his team, regularly translates into increased “covers” at their restaurants. People are only too happy to come in and mention a special they saw advertised. But Chef Ryan also takes time out of his day to respond to questions, to engage in conversations on Twitter and to learn from both his followers and those he follows.

Similarly, Linda Fondulas of Hemingway’s Restaurant in Killington, Vermont, told me about a particularly positive experience she had with the restaurant’s blog. The chef went foraging in the Vermont woods, and then designed a menu based around the products he was able to gather such as wild ramps and dandelion. They wrote about the experience on their blog, and it attracted a lot of attention from the community. To me, this is the perfect example of a restaurant leveraging its unique knowledge, its knowledge of food, and sharing it with their customers as a way to generate interest and increase their business.

But there are limitations that, for the time being, restaurants will have to negotiate. Time is perhaps the biggest of these. Chef Ryan told me that he has wanted to write long-form blog posts as a way to talk about his business, the inspiration for his menus and as a way to promote the farmers he buys from. But he doesn’t have the time. While he enjoys engaging his audience and the wider world through social media, he still has to plan menus, place orders, manage a kitchen, prep and finally, cook. There simply isn’t enough time. Most restaurants cannot afford to hire a dedicated social media coordinator. In the near future though, this will be a necessity not a choice.

Finally, I spoke with Shari Bayer, who does PR for the hospitality business in the New York area. Shari acknowledged that social media held great promise for restaurants. But she also cautioned that the players were still actively trying to figure out how best to leverage social media to their advantage while not abandoning their core mission of serving customers and maintaining their business, especially during this recession. According to Shari, “we are all learning together,” regarding best practices, but she is optimistic that as social media moves more into the mainstream, restaurants will innovate and experiment with social media and obvious winners and losers will start to appear. What restaurants do you know that actively use social media? What do you think are the most effective ways that restaurants can employ the two-way paradigm I described above? I’d love to hear your thoughts, as well as any success or horror stories you’ve heard of.