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scoe|Seattle Design

twitter.com/seattle_design

Bio: Home to 17,000 unique products and design ideas. The first stop for local interior designers and open to the public. Your style is in here.

Location: Georgetown, WA

Followers: 501

Following: 523

Tweeting Since: 2008-10-20 15:29:35 (2 years, 24 days) [tweet this]

adviceRegularly peruse the online community. There are gazillions of new social media users getting

online monthly and they’re not all kids; they’re Fortune 500 companies, your competitors and

potential clients. Not participating in this massive communication wave is your only potential

weakness. When exploring social media, look for influencers in the design community, leading

product manufacturers and professional organizations you feel passionate about.

Learn about the hot topics of conversation and choose your favorites wisely. Social media is about

people and conversations, so keep it real and honest and those relationships will flourish.

Listening is good. There is no right or wrong way to start using social media platforms – you can

be a listener and pull information from people and sources you trust or you can push information

out and share your personal brand story. A balance of both will result in positive online rapport.

tools

Twitterfall – geo-targeting tool. Helpful in pinpointing business opportunities and trends by

specific location.

Hootsuite – free social media dashboard. If you are interested in adding structure and support to

your social media efforts, try this dashboard. It offers team collaboration, monitoring of mentions

and keyword tracking. The individual message statics and real-time reporting is a Hoot!

SocialOomph – this free service offers organizational and tracking tools to help you stay on top

of your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Favorite features: send direct messages to new followers

and the integration of blogs and social media accounts. Get OOMPH’ED!

Looking to jumpstart your social media reach in 2011? Here are some helpful tools

we have tried, tested and find valuable in creating a positive, engaged audience.

There are many online tactics to try, which require an investment of your time – be sure

to use what maximizes your efforts.

entrepreneur toolkit

people on Facebook

• More than 500 million active users

• 50 percent of our active users log on to

Facebook on any given day

• People spend more than 700 billion

minutes per month on Facebook

social media activity

• People interact with more than 900

million objects (pages, groups, events and

community pages)

• Average user is connected to 80

community pages, groups and events

• More than 30 billion pieces of content

(web links, news stories, blog posts, notes,

photo albums, etc.) shared each month