This summer we have been spotlighting social media here on our web site, blog, and of course on facebook, google plus, Linkedin and  twitter  – all to help you grow your online presence with great tips, strategies and concepts that work on social media and beyond.  We set a goal for our selves to double our followers in the most popular social media forums, and to help our clients, readers and followers learn the ways to do the same and of course benefit from those increased social circles.   It turned out to be a lot more than just adding followers and ‘likes’ for us, and our clients – we found new opportunities, new ways to communicate, and yes we have actually seen a direct increase in sales just due to the awareness of people’s social circles .  We more than doubled our followers, but more than that – we’ve started to communicate through social media in conversations, not just talking to or posting to an audience – but talking back and forth and really listening.  The social media challenge so far this summer has helped us to open new channels to communicate with both current and potential clients.

Part of this social media focus this summer revolved across a national social media challenge sponsored by American City Business Journals in 42 Cities, including here in our home town of Albany, New York.  We competed against 100+ other companies here in our City, and lead the pack almost since day 1 with our “3 C” approach (Content, Communication and Contests!). In fact, our contest to win a free iPad and Visa Gift Cards continues- and we continue new social media related content to bring you the very strategies and tips we have been using our selves.  You can view the competition here, and if you haven’t already shown your support or voted, we would appreciate a vote!  You can vote, and view that competition at http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/exclusives/socialmadness

So a number of people keep calling, emailing and replying to us on twitter and facebook asking for that secret tip that has had us in the #1 seat for over a month, and put us now in the final round against OverIT Media (final round ends July 17th, so if you haven’t voted you still have time!) .  While there is no silver bullet – it is hard work, with real people who create content, intersting conversations, and meaningful information to get people’s attention.  But there is one little secret tip we didn’t mention until now, what we call our Social Media Secret Weapon!  OverIt Media  is a great bunch of people here locally in Albany, and fantastic at the marketing and design work they do – and we feel honored to be among them in the final round of the competition.   While we may not of known we would be competing with OverIT Media in the final round, we didn’t blink when the chance to hire some of their great tallent came upon us!  This summer a new addition to our team, Jared R.,  formerly one of OverIT Media’s team mates the past 2 summers has now taken up the flag of TurnKey, and helped us launch and maintain our entire Social Media Challenge program this summer.   We call Jared, our Social Media Challenge Secret Weapon!  Jared works in our marketing department and fully focuses on the social media platforms.  Jared brings great creativity and ideas to the table, and his previous experience at OverIT Media couldn’t of served him (or us!) better.  And it doesn’t hurt being a little bit lucky either – we are quite fortunate  having a new team member that knows the other team’s play book!  We sure are glad he is on our side as our Social Media Secret Weapon!

Please be sure to give a shout out on our Facebook wall, twitter, google plus or Linkedin to welcome Jared to the TurnKey Family!   In Jared’s own words:

Jared R: I’ve been active on social media websites for years, and I always knew businesses had accounts where you can like their pages, follow them on twitter, subscribe to emailing lists, etc. but I always thought their followers and likes were just for show; like they just want to say “we’re the best company because 5,000 people say they care about our status updates.”  It wasn’t until I started in the design and marketing field that I realized there’s an entire underground (or rather digital) realm of marketing, where these numbers become a matter of life and death.

My first exposure to the business end of social media was right out of my freshman year of college.  With a major in New Media Interactive Development at the Rochester Institute of Technology, I was never really able to learn too much about marketing because of the intensive focus on programming and graphic design.  Before TurnKey Internet, I had my first internship at Overit Media in Albany, NY, where I was able to put my skills from school to use in a business environment.  The experience I gained there has helped me succeed here at TurnKey, where I continue to advance my marketing experience.  The work I do now involves working the Social Media platforms for TurnKey Internet to help amplify its online presence.

So welcome to the TurnKey family Jared, and look for more from Jared in the next few months!

Is Linkedin Really Social Media?

Most businesses that promote social media on their websites usually include links to their Facebook, Twitter and yes Linkedin pages. Many question if they should be used in the same context. Facebook and Twitter are used by people of all ages to keep up with and communicate what is going on in their daily lives, postings most of the time that you would never see on Linkedin. . Most postings on Facebook and Twitter are personal in nature where postings in linkedin are more pointed at promoting either a business or a person’s professional career. Yes there are business and professional pages on both Facebook and Linkedin that would be considered similar but that is where the similarities end.

If you were to make a study of the three social media sites I mentioned you will find that most business people and professionals that have a presence on all three mediums would never post some of the things they do on Facebook and Twitter to their Linkedin profile. Linkedin has always been and will continue to be more of a professional and business oriented site in comparison to the anything goes attitude of posts to most other social media platforms.

I think everyone would agree Linkedin is not viewed in the same vein as Twitter and Facebook but I say yes it is still a social media platform. If you understand how linkedin works and use it to your advantage it could be a much more powerful tool to promote your business than most of the other social media options now being used for the same purpose. The concept of social media is to connect with others you know or don’t know to share either personal or professional information. The difference with Linkedin is that postings are almost always business related versus personal.

If you are not presently using Linkedin I highly recommend you begin building a profile. Linkedin is actually very easy to get started with.  After you build a bit of a presence
with a full professional profile of your own personal career you would then reach out to those you know and make a connection. The more connections you have the more opportunity you will have to promote yourself and your business. Depending on the profession you are in join as many groups as you feel are pertinent to promote yourself and follow others to keep up on information relative to your interests.

Last but not least if this is your own personal business you should create a company page and link yourself to it along with some information to promote your company. If you are not self-employed your company should still have a page and of course you should have a connection to it as well. One of the search options to find people and companies is to search by the company name so it is important that you are visible in that manner.

Now that you have a profile page and have begun building your connections how can you take advantage of all this? Here is list of options now available to you through Linkedin.

• Post news and information about events in your business
• Post links to Blog articles you or someone in your company has written
• Post personal opinions about business that invoke credibility to you as a professional
• Join groups to post all of the above so others that don’t know you or your business take notice
• Use Linkedin as a directory to find prospects for business or information about what your competition is doing
• Promote your business with an ad campaign directed towards the industries of your choice
• Stay current by reading postings within the groups you join.
• Reach out to your connections for a warm introduction to someone that they are connected to

These are just a few of the ways Linkedin can assist you and your business. This platform will only be worth the effort by continually participating. The more connections you obtain, the more times you post articles and information the more credibility and recognition you will attain from others within the linkedin community. Also as a side bonus Linkedin pages are very highly ranked on Google and other search engines so you will also be found outside the Linkedin platform throughout the internet!

It used to be the case that a company had to have its own website to be on the cutting edge of promoting their business online. You not only had to have a website you had to promote the site through paying for expensive SEO fees or participate in the many pay per click advertising platforms to drive traffic. The tide has once again turned and all of those expensive methods of promotion are no longer a necessity to succeed online.

Numerous companies and organizations are having great success online with or without a website by promoting their name, brand, products and services through various social media marketing campaigns. Each social media platform has its own method of participation and in many cases the audience you are trying to reach will work better on one platform then it will on another. Some companies will have separate campaigns on several social media sites while others concentrate on one particular platform. Regardless of how many and which sites you promote with, the key to success is having a strategic plan in place. Marketing your business through social media is no different than any other promotional campaign; you need to clearly spell out goals and objectives prior to spending any serious time, energy or funding.

Remember as I stated earlier by participating in a well planned social media marketing plan, you may no longer need to fund the traditional methods of driving traffic to your website. Social media campaigns run by most company’s can be handled internally with their own staff and resources, which will usually be less costly then out sourcing. Additionally as your campaign moves forward you will likely be spending less time and resources while achieving more success as your popularity grows.

Any company can have success with social media. If you don’t know where to get started look at what others are doing in your particular industry with social media and put together a campaign similar to theirs. Much company’s put a lot of effort into this type of promotion for a reason, because it works.

TurnKey Internet just recently launched an aggressive social media campaign to gain followers on several of the most popular social platforms. The campaign revolves around some fairly aggressive marketing tactics to attract visitors to their numerous websites . Once a new visitor lands on one of the Turnkey pages they are prompted by a popup offer to join one, any or all of the social media vehicles Turnkey uses to promote their business. The caveat is a discount offer tied to each social media outlet that will only be provided to the visitor when they become a follower of Turnkey on any of the social media platforms. This is a great example of a very in depth and well thought out strategy with clear goals and objectives in place.

There is no reason any company can’t take advantage of the FREE promotional opportunities that social media platforms offer. This is like anything else in life, your results will be dependent on the thought and effort you put forth.

If you were to type “Social Media and your business” into any search engine, you would most likely receive countless pages and numerous ideas, on how your company can benefit by the utilization of such tools.  Every link you can click on, each person’s different views on the subject, a different rendition however all the same points.

Yes, we all know Social Media can help your business in a multitude of ways.  So let’s be different, let’s take a minute or two to talk about what you’re going to see, upcoming on Turnkey’s social media.

As you know, we are currently running a summer long Social Media contest. Well, contests to be exact. This is your change to take part in daily, weekly and monthly contests, drawings and games. This is your chance to interact with the Turnkey Staff like never before.  Say, maybe games where you win a free month of hosting by contacting a certain staff member and revealing “the secret code”.  Who can get us the most likes on Facebook?  You just never know what that specific day can bring, however I can guarantee you, following us on our social media pages will be without a doubt, worth your while.

So be sure to like us on Facebook, friend us on Twitter, give us a quick + on Google and be sure to find us on Linkedin.

A new study has come out about adult use of social networks. Like with every other demographic, it’s going up. Though adults still rank well below youngsters, the late adopters are still adopting as the human race moves closer and closer to 100% virtual living. Okay, so maybe that’s a little grandiose. Just because something continues to grow now, doesn’t mean it is never going to stop. Still, there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight, according to the numbers.

89% of users still consider social networks to be primarily social, but business use is growing. The majority of social networkers have multiple accounts, some for business some for personal. Of course, younger adults have the highest percentage of use:

75% of 18-24
57% of 25-34
30% of 35-44
19% 45-54
10% 55-64
7% 65+

I was surprised to see that Myspace still ranks highest for usage, with 50% of all social network users. Facebook has 22% and LinkedIn has 6%, with 1% left over for YouTube. Among older users, privacy was of the greatest concern, but wasn’t keeping them from setting up profiles like it used to.