Take some time today to watch this video. In 4 min it sums up completely why your business needs to be creating and running a social media strategy. It’s so vital that you create a presence online where users can have real interaction with your company rather than only using advertisements as a one way messages.

The ROI of Social Media is That Your Business Will Still Exist in 5 Years

If you have any questions about getting started with a social media campaign call us at 978-774-4444. Our Neal Interactive team is ready to help you today.

I can reach in to a proverbial “hat” of web posts and pull out dozens about Twitter Best Practices. In an effort to prevent from having to repeat myself, I’ve linked to a few below written by trusted industry leaders (linkbait anyone). The idea behind using Twitter best practices is that you are a business or person who wants to create a community to share and improve your brand. Before you can do this you have to figure out who you are; The Leader, The Follower or The Zombie.

• The Art of Writing an Effective Twitter Profile by Zach Braiker
• Guy Kawasaki: Twitter As a Tool for Social Media by Lisa Barone
• How To Manage Twitter by Chris Brogan
• 20 Must Read Beginner Twitter Tips for Small Business Owners by Mark Hayward

A common question that always seems to come up among friends or colleagues is “You’re surrounded by zombies and you can choose only one weapon, what is it?” A lot of people go for the shotgun but you have to realize that you’re eventually going to run out of ammo. The next choice is usually a sword or machete. How does this apply to Twitter? Well…

In any chaotic post-apocalyptic world where citizens are threatened by brain eating zombies (social network), you have individuals who set themselves apart as authorities. These people lead us and motivate us to keep the community alive. Everyone else are followers or zombies. The follower should not carry a negative stereotype, however. Followers are good, with out followers we wouldn’t have leaders. Followers are the backbone of any community and should be considered extremely important. Zombies on the other hand are lifeless beings existing only to feed off everyone else. This is especially true on Twitter.

Let’s start by asking: “Why Are You On Twitter”. The answer is usually one of the following five answers.

1. Your friends, family or celebrity crush is on Twitter and you need to know what it’s all about
2. You’ve been on Twitter for a while, tweet about being bored in a doctor’s office or what crazy thing your kid is doing but haven’t really figured it all out yet
3. You’re a business owner or representative and are on Twitter to deliver important content, answer questions and increase reach to your customers or clients
4. You’re a professional and have something to offer to the world (or at least you think you do) and you want to be apart of a community of like minded tweeps
5. You’re a spammer and want to sell, drive traffic or eat brains

You’re probably not a 5 because I don’t think Zombies can read.

1′s and 2′s welcome to Twitter, I hope you enjoy your stay.

3′s and 4′s I want to tell you a secret. Being on Twitter or any social network isn’t about gaining as many followers, fans or friends as possible. It’s about creating a community where active users can be engaged and gain something of value you from you, share that information with their community and create advocates of your brand. I would choose to have a small number of active users with strength and authority in their community over 10′s of thousands of zombies following me.

This is a point I try to make to all my clients and students. Tweeps who are desperate to increase their followers by any means possible aren’t providing any value or substance to you or anyone else. They’re greedy and eager to reach a rather pointless goal, because they believe this is what makes you an authority. The truth is that anything worth doing is done over time with a lot of effort. These Zombies only act to create more zombies. By following them and countless others you lose sense of what’s real, start aimlessly wondering the universe and gain and give nothing.

There are of course exceptions to any rule. However I fear a Twitterverse where everyone is speaking and no one is listening.

So what’s your favorite Zombie weapon? I like http://topify.com they make it easy to kill zombie followers right from your email account. If @topify isn’t available for some reason I’m a big fan of a riding mower!

We all know that Twitter has a ton of uses whether it’s an RSS Feed, IM client, Email Service, or a Chat Room. Recently I was able to use Twitter to take out a Classified to fill a position at Neal Advertising.

@professor – Looking for a strong designer with a good flash background. If you live in RI you’ll be able to telecommute. Great opportunity great Co. 8:14 PM Sep 10th, 2008 from web

6 minutes later…

@jasonnarciso – @professor This is interesting… care to elaborate? 8:20 PM Sep 10th, 2008 from web in reply to professor

20 minutes later…

@professor – @jasonnarciso My company is looking for a designer w/ flash experience To design sites and develop monthly flash sites. Great co to work for 8:39 PM Sep 10th, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to jasonnarciso

2 days later…

@professor – On my way to conduct an interview and then teach my night class. 3:39 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

@professor – I’m at Blakes in downtown Providence waiting for a 5:30 appointment if you are near by come join me for a beer. 4:31 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

After 2 weeks notice…

@jasonnarciso – Just returned from an Apple store trip for new home office accessories. As if I really needed an excuse. 3:57 PM Sep 27th, 2008 from web

Neal Advertising is located in Danvers, MA about 2 hours away from my home office in Warwick, RI. I was looking for someone to fill a web designer position. If they lived near Danvers they’d work in the office other wise I wanted that person close to me in RI to work from home. Jason Narciso a.k.a. @jasonnarciso was the first response I received about the position. I had received a few others and my original tweet had been RT’d a few times as well. Jason was the perfect fit for the job and it didn’t take long to figure that out.

Jason and I knew each other from mutual friends but never had the pleasure to work together. We met for our Interview at a bar in Providence, RI. After seeing Jason’s work I knew he was the right guy for the job but I had to make sure he would fit into the Neal Advertising culture. Soon after our interview he went up to Danvers to meet the rest of the crew and have an additional interview. I joined the meeting via Skype. Jason was hired with in days and joined us after his 2 weeks notice. Jason has made a great addition to the team and continues to do great work.

Thanks Twitter!!!

The iPhone is great for those who enjoy the overly priced service of AT&T, but for the rest of the geek-techie world who wants the fun without the lame service plans, the new iPod touch is today’s sliced bread. With all the same application downloads of the iPhone, the new generation iPod is high on the “must have list”.
Built-in speakers (that are pretty dope sounding) and wi-fi capability (no extra cost of monthly internet charges like the iPhone) makes this iPod great for the everyday techie who needs a quick-fix update to twitter or facebook. Only drawback- not being able to use the internet anywhere like the iPhone.
All the likes and gripes aside, having social media, music, a BMI calculator, a racing game and a fart machine at your fingertips on a iPod or iPhone is amazing and a perfect distraction to continue life away from the desktop. In this world’s fast paced NOW society, news bulletins and the latest Tweet about the hottest new tutorial in Photoshop (while sitting in traffic on the mass pike) is changing the way the world thinks and reacts. Being able to Tweet a natural disaster while running away from a mudslide is not only disturbing (the fact that you can take the time to twit it on your iPhone) it is faster to communicate than calling the local paper. Watching the daily news on TV, sitting lazily in front of facebook on a desktop or reading a $4.97 copy of the New York Times has become a thing of the past. The iPod and the iPhone is the RIGHT NOW.