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CONTENTS vi The Social Media Advantage: An essential handbook for small business Reaching Your Goals With Twitter 25 Who's on Facebook? 26 Getting to Know Generation Y (Your Future Employees/Clients/Vendors) 28 Why Blog? 28 Differentiate Your Social Strategies 31 3 Amplifying Your Communication Efforts 33 Practice Patience When Starting Your Social Media Campaign 35 Participate Unselfishly 36 Make the Most of Your Offline Assets 42 How Often Should You Tweet, Post, Comment...? 45 Consider the Benefit Social Media Plays Into Your Google Ranking 46 A Look At Amplification Strategies By Social Network 48 Facebook 48 LinkedIn 55 Twitter 57 YouTube 59 Blogging 60 Google+ 62 Yelp 63 4 Engaging Your Most Valuable Asset: The Role Employees and Customers Play in Your Social Media Strategy 65 Identifying Internal Social Media Collaborators 66 Strength in Numbers 70 Keep Marketing Goals in the Forefront 72 Employee Training 74 Choosing the Right Employees to Carry the Company Voice 76 Recommended Employee Guidelines 77 Contents vii 5 Expert Positioning 81 Investing in Multiple Thought Leadership Roles Within Your Company 82 Become a Part of the Conversation 83 Building Your Fan Base 88 Using a Blog for Expert Positioning 89 Leverage Existing Thought Leaders' Blogs, to Promote Your Own Ideas 89 Get Conversations Going on Your Own Blog 90 Optimizing Your Blog for the Search Engines 91 Promoting Your Blog post on Other Social Networks 92 Self-promotion on Facebook and LinkedIn 93 Ideas for Saving Time on Content Creation 95 6 Building and Nurturing Communities 99 Key Benefits of Building an Online Community 101 Building Your Own Social Networking Site 101 Designating a Community Manager 103 Online Communities Need Loyal Members 107 7 Evaluation Strategies 117 Defining the Health of Your Online Community 118 Tracking Social Listening 119 Google Analytics 121 Measuring Search Engine Optimization 122 Tracking Through URL Shorteners 123 Facebook Insights 123 8 The Future of Social Media 125 Growth of Location-Based Social Networking 126 The Reputation Economy is Coming 128 The Critical Role of Influencers in Your Social Media Strategy 129 viii The Social Media Advantage: An essential handbook for small business How Social Media Will Impact Journalism 130 Further Customization of Social Networks and Tools 130 More Connected Buildings and Spaces in the Future 131 Glossary 133 About The Author 141