Everyone’s been talking about what 2012 will be “the year of” in social networking. Will it be the year of Google Plus, the year of monetization, the year of authenticity?

In all likelihood, 2012 will have all sorts of interesting new networks, developments and changes to social marketing. But if I had to choose one thing to keep an eye on this year, I’d choose Pinterest.

If you haven’t heard of the new darling social network of the moment, Pinterest describes itself as a visual pinboard. I  like to think of it as a visual bookmarks list: it’s made up of images which, for whatever reason, I want to remember. That could be recipes, craft ideas, new logos you love, pictures of places you want to visit or stuff you want to own. It even comes with a handy little plug-in that lets you “pin” images from anywhere on the Internet and post them to the site with just two clicks.

Looking at Pinterest is like taking a mini-vacation. It’s full of beautiful pictures of beautiful things. It lets you engage in escapism and fantasy, while also letting you create a concrete to-do list: recipes to make, things to buy, places to go .

Pinterest is experiencing explosive growth–a 4,000% increase in web traffic in the past 6 months. And its growth is very different from other social networks in two ways. First, its early adopters are women. As of December 2011, 58% of all Pinterest users are female. Why? There’s a heavy emphasis on fashion, cooking and crafts on the website. They lend themselves well to pictures, and the organized nature of pinboards makes it easy to compartmentalize. But there’s still lots for guys to love: check out the technology or science and nature categories for some more manly pins.

So what’s the applications for marketers? This is a B2C marketer’s dream. Sharing pictures of your product, both shiny showroom snaps and pictures of your customers using it. Have a restaurant? Pin swoon-worthy pictures of your food. Travel agent? Share photos of the fabulous locations you’ve sent clients to. Marketing company? Pin your newest logo designs or pictures of a great event you threw. To see some great examples of how brands are using Pinterest right, check out Whole Foods and Nordstrom.

The interface is buggy, and there are still a lot of growing pains. But Pinterest’s bold design and beautiful conceptualization of the web make me think it’s going to stick around for quite some time. This is one to watch this year.

Are you on Pinterest yet?

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Roundpeg, an Indianapolis Social Media firm routinely explores  new tools, platforms and social networks.

As a confirmed networking junkie, I was always looking for my next fix. When I found LinkedIn, several years ago, with it’s emphasis on career history, educational background and association membership it seemed like a great fit.   It is a supercharged version of my address book, but by itself it isn’t interactive enough to feed my need to connect.

I always believed the real power of LinkedIn is in the ability to see who knows who, but it wasn’t much of a conversation tool.  I could introduce people or exchange an email, but it wasn’t convenient to keep logging in, so I quickly moved conversations elsewhere.

Then Amber Naslund, who I follow on Twitter, posted her LinkedIn profile and invited her followers to connect, and it all made sense.  Combining the platforms makes each more valuable.  Twitter allows me to chat with people efficiently.  As long as I keep it to 140 characters, I can share information, humor, insights and ideas.    Adding the connection via LinkedIn gives me a broader more detailed introduction.

I still don’t think it will replace face-to-face interaction, but it can give traditional networking an extra buzz.  The key is cross pollination. Bring your contacts across platforms, using the best tool for the best purpose.  Interested in testing the idea?  I am on Twitter as @lorraineball and you can find me on LinkedIn too.

Roundpeg, an Indianapolis social media firm helps our clients develop strategies to use LinkedIn as part of their marketing mix.

Restaurant Social Media

Today’s guest post is from Lauren Fiedler, the Director of Promotions and Marketing for A Pots and Pans Production. In it, she talks about what’s made Scotty’s so successful leveraging social media, and shares tips on how other restaurants can follow suit.

How To Build A Successful Social Network For Your Restaurant

Working in the food industry gives you the ability to come in contact with a variety of people and delicious food daily. It is an ever changing industry and every consumer has a large variety of choices. What makes you stand out? Effectively communicating with your customers and potential customers.

When starting your social network marketing efforts for your restaurant, you should follow some simple tips:

1. Two-Way Communication is key. Everyone likes having a voice. When you are communicating with your customers you want to make it conservative. Make them feel comfortable talking to you about their experience at your restaurant. People are more comfortable talking to someone they consider a friend then a business. If they have a bad experience ask them about it, if they had a wonderful experience thank them for the praise.
2. Make it Fun. Just purely marketing to people day in and day out will not keep their attention. You can’t just shoot off messages day in and day out with marketing messages. You have to engage the customers whether it be through contests you run or simply giving them a glimpse into your personal life. If you follow my boss Scott Wise, @brewhouse, you know what I mean when it comes to sharing the personal side of things. Once you give your Facebook page, Twitter handle, etc. a personality, people are more likely to become interested in what you are saying.
3. Keep up with it. Trust me from experience, once you start interacting people they expect it and get upset when you don’t respond in what they consider an ample amount of time. You can’t only dedicate time to this for one week and then let it go, this is something you have to be willing to monitor and interact with daily, yes even weekends, on a continuous basis. Being in the restaurant business a majority of your business is usually done on the weekends, meaning there is more of a chance people are trying to interact with you via social media. Connect your accounts directly to you smart phone allowing you to be connected with your guests 24/7.
4. Take criticism in stride. Restaurant social media is not for the weak at heart, people are going to criticize certain things you do and you have to be able to handle them professionally. With social media comes the chance for people to express their every thought with you and you have to know how to respond properly, if you upset one person they will share with their network and so on and so forth until you have a real problem on your hands and a large clean up job. The best thing to do is stay ahead of them by responding in a calm and respectful manner, take the ‘customer is always right’ stance even if they’re not.

Overall, my biggest advice is to go into restaurant social media with a plan of action, this is an ever-changing environment and you have to be able to adapt and change with it as necessary.

Have questions or comments? Feel free to e-mail me at lfiedler@scottysbrewhouse.com

Lauren Fiedler is the Director of Promotions and Marketing for A Pots and Pans Production, the parent company of Scotty’s Brewhouse, Scotty’s Lakehouse and Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Company. You can follow her on twitter at @brewhouseprlou.

Want to know how to leverage your social media? Roundpeg, an Indianapolis social media company, can help. To find out more, contact us here.

In a blog post a few weeks ago, Chris Brogran admitted, that despite his best intentions, he was not staying in touch with people as well as he would like. He pledged to try to make his business more human in the year to come.  His comments made me think about my own business.

Roundpeg has been around nine years, so it predates many of the popular social media tools.  My relationship building routine, today relies heavily on social media, but has other legs as well.   A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system  has been a part of my business since the beginning. Starting with a data base I built myself in Access, along with their contact information, I tracked, where I met someone and key details about their business and personal life.

I added custom fields filled with information that was relevant to me and the details of every conversation.  ( In the beginning I had a lot of spare time at Roundpeg.)  Over the years I  have tried a number of tools including  Act and Outlook.  Each had pros and cons, but today I use AddressTwo , developed by a good friend Nick Carter.  I like the task features, and the ability to update via email or text.   But most of all, I like it because it helps me strengthen Relationships.

From my perspective, the “R” is the most important part of a good CRM tool.   I can put addresses in a spreadsheet. I can keep job records and communications in client files, but the integrated nature of a good CRM tool, allows me to pull it all together, and create a snapshot of the relationship I have with that person.  In addition, the task feature, helps me remember to reconnect on a regular basis, and the history shows me how long it has been since we chatted.

I think too many people go to networking events collect business cards, dump people in their newsletter database and forget about them.  That is just not enough to build a relationship.  And as a matter of fact, these days, people get so many newsletters, adding someone to your list may actually have a negative effect.

To build relationships takes work.  Staying in touch on social media is fun, but not enough.  So this week, I am going to pull a list of people in my data base I haven’t chatted with in the last six months.  I am going to give them a call.  It may not necessarily lead to a business opportunity, but I find whenever I do that something fun occurs.

What about you?  What will you do this week to strengthen your relationships?

Recently, I was invited by my alma mater’s placement office to attend an career connections fair. Being back on campus for the first time since graduation gave me a chance to reflect on just how far I’ve come in the last 12 months; what I had learned about myself and my industry.

The event provided students with an opportunity to talk to alumni about their careers and respective industry.  I enjoyed sharing my experiences with  students who were where I was just a year ago.

The most surprising thing about the experience was how easy it was for me to answer most of the questions the students had about the marketing industry. I told them when I graduated I was excited to jump into the field I had studied. I thought I knew what I was getting into and didn’t think I would learn as much as I did in just one year.

Here are just a few of the things I told them about my first year as a business professional:

1. Realize you know nothing-I started January 10th, 2010. In the11 months since then, I have realized all the theory in the world means nothing if you can’t follow through with execution. Web design, writing for search engine optimization, and crafting press releases are just a few of aspects of my job, I had studied in theory, but had no real experience with till I came to Roundpeg. My degree may have gotten me in the door, but my willingness to keep learning is the reason I’m still here.

2. Build a network-Getting out and meeting people isn’t just beneficial on a professional level, but also helps personal development. Creating connections leads to valuable relationships, and these relationships will benefit you for the rest of your career. Many new grads probably don’t realize, their first job, next may not come from filling out an application. It may come from an introduction and a handshake. ( This is also true after you land the job, as you look for your next sale, customer or project.)

3. Surround yourself with passionate people-Passion creates an energy which can’t be replicated. When I come to work every day, I feel that passion. It drives us to be better than we were yesterday. Start-Up Weekend was a great example of how groups of passionate people can turn the wheels of innovation.

4. Value culture-A company culture can make a job tedious or something so much fun you look forward to it on Sunday night. Adventures in Dining, Photo Shoots, RoundpegRadio, Beer-Thirty….over the last 12 months, the people in this office have created a company culture, influenced by our unique personalities.  And while I appreciate my time off, I really look forward to being at Roundpeg.

5. Speak Up-Don’t be afraid to give your opinion. The good bosses and coworkers will value it. Give it humbly, but don’t discount your own viewpoint. Speaking up and seeing your ideas integrated into a project, program or company policy or system,  invests you in the company, giving you a sense of ownership, which can be hugely motivating.

6. Play to your strengths-It would be easy to spend all my time focused on improving my weaknesses, but that’s not the best way for me to benefit the company. It’s good to work on weaknesses, but you should always focus on your strengths. Odds are if you’re great at something, you enjoy doing it. And, believe me, it makes you a much more valuable employee.

In life it is about showing up; being there when someone is ready to talk. Social media makes it easier to show up, but the real fundamentals of building a relationship extend beyond the occasional tweet.As a small business owner it is easy to feel like an island.  When you establish a network and power team, and work on regular basis to stay in touch, and bring something of value to the interactions, you will find others begin to do the same for your.

Liz Strauss has written a terrfic post about Powering Up Your Network by Bringing it Closer.  In it she suggests:

1. Be a good surprise. Take time every day to reach out with letters, emails and phone calls to a few people in your network
2. Be a new encounter of the very best kind. Make time to ask others about what is going on in their world. When you do, they are more likely to want to know what you are doing.
3. Be a sincere fan. Email someone you respect and admire, but don’t know well.(What a nice way to get introduced! )
4. Be on a quest. Make it a quest to request help from someone you’ve never worked with.This is a great way to learn something new.
5. Be an idea explorer. Never stop learning, and share what you know freely!

Liz never ceases to surprise me with her blog.  For more inspiration check it out.

No today’s post is not about makeovers or dating advice.  It is about being attractive on line!

About a year ago, I read a post by  Jim Connolly.  In it he talked about Equality and Attraction. Essentially he was talking about what makes people attractive.  While he was focused on internet marketing, I think his comments are relevant in many areas of marketing.  He said:

You attract sales, leads and referrals by being attractive. In the online world, this means making your site or blog as valuable to your ideal profile of client / customer as possible. You do this by focusing on delivering quality and quantity.

What do you think?  I think many of the same qualities which make people attractive off line make them attractive on line as well.  For example -When you go to a cocktail  party or networking event, take a minute and look around the room.  The interesting, confident people are usually the center of attention. How does this translate to your on-line? Write interesting content and share it with confidence. – A simple post on Twitter or FriendFeed to let your followers know you have something new, then let your readers find you.

In addition to really dynamic and  interesting people, the other very popular folks at any party are the good listeners. So spend some time listening as well by asking good questions if you want to be more attractive on line!

My good friend Dave Anderson has asked me to be part of his Lunch and Learn program next week.   The topic is social media, and I will be sharing the panel with some of my favorite local social media experts; Colin Clark, Dave Anderson and Michael Reynolds.

The event will be from 11:30 – 1:00 on December 2nd, at the Fox and Hound on 82nd Street in the Castleton Area. There is no cost to attend the informal event, but RSVP’s are requested since space is limited.

Hope to see you there, for what is sure to be a lively conversation!

When I worked in retail, we always looked at the traffic in the store as the first sign of what kind of day lay ahead.   Lots of people, usually meant someone would be buying something!

As I work with clients, many who are not in retail businesses, I can use the measures from their  internet marketing to get a feel for the “traffic” to their business.

I  review with them raw traffic, page views and time on site. I can point to the number of people who viewed a particular page or blog post, track where they came from and identify the most effective ads.

The numbers are fascinating, but with all this tracking and viewing it is easy to lose track of the real object … CUSTOMERS!

Back in my retail life, there were days the store was filled with browsers who didn’t buy; sometimes the same thing happens on a website.  The trick is to convert window shoppers to buyers.

Now, not every business can ” sell ” products on-line.  However, every business can use their website to create leads and move prospects along the sales process.

One strategy is to offer free reports, white papers or other resources.  Instead of a simple download, require visitors to provide at least an email address to receive the information.   Sometimes, people will give you a bogus email address, but most people who are interested in the content provide real contact information.  Now you have permission to reconnect and send follow up information to move the prospect closer to a purchase.

We have always had a sign up form for our newsletter on our website but these free offers, like the one below have been much more effective in generating interest.

If you have any additional questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Roundpeg, an Indianapolis web design firm.

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Written by Melinda Cooper

So before bed I always read over the news that I didn’t have time to read during the day and I came across this

Being a HUGE Facebook user for pure social reasons and still unhappy with the FB chat feature – I find myself excited yet nervous.

I was really excited when FB put the chat feature up because I could shorten all contact with relatives and people I went to high school with to even LESS than 140 words. Ha. But… when I went to use FB chat, it seems filled with gliches. It’s always sloooooow and always ‘sending my message’ and then randomly signs me offline.

For small businesses, it seems that the fastest and most reliable plug-ins, applications and software usually come out on top. Facebook chat is nice – sometimes – but for business people, it’s much easier to just open your BB or iPhone and send a text or e-mail.

And even if it gets around the connection problem by going through this other company (as the article says) – what will make it different from Skype – which is easy to use for quick video chats? Small businesses don’t have the time to deal with unreliable add-ons like Facebook chat and (probably) Facebook video chat.

So whereas I am thrilled at the IDEA of a FB video chat… seeing the disaster that is FB regular chat makes me want to just run back to Skype and AIM.

Ahhh good ol’ AOL instant messenger. Maybe I’ll even go way back and rejoin ICQ. They say all trends repeat themselves right… or is that just fashion?

What do you think? Do you think Facebook is just shooting itself in the foot? Also, on the subject on Facebook – what do you think of the new status tags?