A growing number of businesses are making Facebook an indispensible part of hanging out their shingles. Small businesses are using it to find new customers, build online communities of fans and dig into gold mines of demographic information.

For most businesses, Facebook Pages (distinct from individual profiles and Facebook groups) are the best place to start. Pages allow businesses to collect “fans” the way celebrities, sports teams, musicians and politicians do. There are now 1.4 million Facebook Pages and they collect more than 10 million fans every day, according to the site.

Some basic rules: Buy-buy-buy messages won’t fly. The best practitioners make Facebook less about selling and more about interacting. Engage with fans and critics. Listen to what people are saying, good and bad. You may even pick up ideas for how to improve your business. Keep content fresh. Use status updates and newsfeeds to tell fans about specials, events, contests or anything of interest.

Facebook enables small businesses to engage in targeted marketing that they only could have dreamed about a few years ago. Facebook users fill out profiles with information like hometown, employer, religious beliefs, interests, education and favorite books, movies and TV shows — all of which can help advertisers deliver messages to specific demographic slices.

Read full New York Times article >

The feature is now available to all of our users on LinkedIn to integrate a twitter account.

On LinkedIn
When you are signed in, check the Twitter box under your Network Updates box on the homepage and follow a few simple steps.

Clicking through the setup process will allow you to specify the Twitter account that you’d like to sync and/or display on your LinkedIn profile.

On Twitter
As part of the setup process, you can choose to either send all your tweets or select tweets from Twitter back to LinkedIn as a status update.

You can choose to share all or just tweets that you tag with #in at the end (similar to #fb for facebook)

© 2009 LaChapelle Design

Study warns that companies should watch out for related security and productivity issues

The use of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to promote businesses has exploded over the past six months, according to the results of a study that were released today.

People using Twitter to get the word out about their company, sales and promotions jumped more than 250% from this past spring, according to a study done by Palo Alto Networks, a maker of firewall technology. The number of companies using facebook for such tasks grew by 192%, the sudy found. The report said that workers are using social networks as promotional vehicles both with and without management knowledge.

But while the two social networking sites have been dramatic upswings in usage, companies have been moving to cut off access to them in the workplace.

Early in October, a study commissioned by Robert Half Technology, an IT staffing firm, 54% of U.S. companies say that they have banned workers from using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace while on the job. The study also found that 19% of companies allow social networking use only for business purposes, while 16% allow limited personal use.

And executives may have good reason to ban employees from using the social networking sites during business hours.

This summer, Nucleus Research, an IT research company, reported that companies that allow users to access Facebook in the workplace lose an average of 1.5% in total employee productivity.

Read full article >

LinkedIn, which recently reached the 50 million user milestone, has long been considered the social networking site for professionals. If you’re in business, it is basically expected that you have a profile there.

But with the more mainstream platforms like Twitter and Facebook being used for business purposes, some professionals are neglecting their LinkedIn profiles. While LinkedIn is certainly not as dynamic as other social media sites, it still provides a lot of value — if you use it correctly. So whether you’re new to LinkedIn or a veteran, here are some of the things you should consider incorporating into your LinkedIn strategy.

1. Include a Photo Avatar
2. Build Your Network of Connections
3. Use Status Updates to Your Advantage
4. Seek Meaningful Recommendations
5. Optimize Your Profile
6. Use Groups to Expand Your Reach
7. Consider Whether to Link Your Profiles

Read full Mashable article >

Though Twitter Lists are new to most users, some news organizations are trying to stay ahead of the curve by taking advantage of the new feature and implementing it quickly.

1. Staff Directory

2.Recommended people to follow

3. Real-time curation

4. Follow events

Read full Mashable story >

94% of the respondents said that they plan to maintain or increase their investments in social media tools and online communities, while only 6% said they plan to decrease such investments.

The study found that as social media efforts mature, companies are turning their attention to “lurkers” — people who observe a community but don’t participate. Twenty percent of the respondents said that their companies have set up formal “ambassador” programs, which give lurkers special treatment to encourage them to become more active.

Read full article >

View full Deloitte report >

Whether your company is just starting out, just starting to turn a profit or already on the verge of an acquisition, as an entrepreneur you’ll be constantly evaluating the tools that will help get your business to the next stage.

Some of the tools in this list will be familiar, but it’s worth taking a moment to reframe how they might become power tools in a business context.

10. Monitter

9. YouTube

8. UserVoice

7. MailChimp

6. Get Satisfaction

5. Twitter

4. Facebook

3. Basecamp

2. LinkedIn

1. Google Apps for Domains

Read full article  from Mashable >

Word of mouth has long been a priceless asset to any business, and technology has expanded the playing field in a whole new way with mobile messaging and social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more. Every day, it seems hard to avoid the buzz about social media — who’s on it, what they’re doing and what the latest trend is.

Read full story and full report >

Here’s a look at some of the hot colors for Spring/Summer 2010, according to Pantone’s most recent fashion report.

Aurora
Coming on the heels of Pantone’s 2009 color of the year “mimosa yellow,” Aurora is a yellow tinted with green that gives off a burst of energy.

Tomato purée
This season’s classic red can be paired with turquoise, another Pantone hot hue, for a retro look.

Eucalyptus
For the ever-practical, Pantone says this hue is cool and classic. To pump it up a bit, throw on some bright shoes and grab a vibrant handbag.

Read more >

Sites like Facebook and Twitter have taken off among individuals for personal use. But what about the use of social networking at small businesses?

Few U.S. small businessess have adopted social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter for business uses, according to research released Thursday.

Three-quarters of small businesses say they have not found sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn helpful for generating business leads or expanding business in the past year, according to a survey conducted for Citibank Small Business of 500 U.S. businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

Also, 86 percent said they have not used social networking sites for information or business advice. Ten percent said they have sought business advice and information on expert blogs.

The survey found 42 percent of small businesses have made greater use of their company websites to generate business leads and sales.

Nineteen percent were doing more advertising to attract new customers in the economic downturn, 38 percent said they were doing less and 41 percent were doing the same, it found.

Also, 28 percent were using more email marketing and 25 percent using more online advertising to generate business leads and sales, it found.

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