(Source) Consider setting up a second profile with an alias known only to your closest confidantes. Then dump all the good stuff there. (Sorry, “Philip McGroin” is already taken.)

This is probably the best advice I’ve ever heard regarding Facebook. Most people use Facebook to connect with their friends, but you can use it for business networking too. I would not do both through the same profile.

If you plan to use Facebook for business, don’t put those college photos of you drinking at that party up there. And don’t let your guard down. You could be putting more at risk than a simple dig on your reputation. Your entire reputation (and your business) could be at stake. If you really want to show your wild and crazy side, set up a profile for your personal shenanigans and let it all hang out there. Use your Facebook business profile only for networking with others who share similar interests within your niche. I promise, you’ll be glad you did it this way.

A new website has entered the social networking space for small businesses. The name is Briz.com.

After playing around with this website for a little bit I’ve discovered that there is much more to it than one might expect simply by the brief description above. There are some unique features to Briz.com that make it stand out above other social networking sites. The obvious comparisons are MySpace, Facebook, and LinkIn. But Briz.com is nothing like any of these, but it does provide some of the same features as each.

For instance, like Facebook, you can open a profile and network with other local businesses, but unlike Facebook, Briz.com is organized so that consumers can have an account and save their favorite local businesses into a group called My Briz while the business owners themselves can establish a profile that gives a complete description of their business and allows them to network with consumers, other businesses, and suppliers.

One unique feature that I like about Briz.com is that you add other businesses to your profile. If you own a chain of stores, for instance, you can add a profile for each location and choose to put them under the same profile heading or create a separate profile page for each business. You can do this all through one account. Briz.com also allows marketing companies to create a marketing account and manage the business profiles of their clients, another feature that I find to be extremely helpful (wink wink).

Briz.com is not intuitive until you start setting up your business account. I did have a little difficulty figuring out how to navigate from setting up a personal account to getting the business profile started. But once I figured that out, setting up the business profile was easy.

If you are a local business and you are looking for a way to network with other local businesses and consumers in your area then Briz.com looks like a good resource.

As a consumer, you can send messages to businesses, add them as favorites and friends, visit websites, vote on your favorite businesses, and post feedback about businesses. Briz.com offers businesses an opportunity to connect to consumers, suppliers and other businesses and provides consumers a way to rate their favorite businesses. Not a bad system at all.

Would you like Small Business Mavericks to set you up a business profile at Briz.com? We can.

An article at Inside CRM lists 15 websites that can influence your business for good or bad, but the article is rather flawed. Here are the 15 sites the article lists that are influential enough to make or break your company:

• Google
• YouTube
• Amazon.com
• Wikipedia
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Digg
• TechCrunch
• Colbert Nation
• Valleywag
• Twitter
• The Smoking Gun
• Oprah
• The Consumerist
• The Huffington Post

The problem with this list is that most of these websites don’t give a hoot about your small business enough to pay it one iota of attention, let alone boost it on a pedestal or drag it through the mud. Of this list, most small business owners need only consider 4 of them, maybe 5, as potential websites to concern themselves with in protecting their brand.

Those 5 sites are:

• Google
• YouTube
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter (wild card)

Google, of course, is the most popular search engine today. They really don’t care about your site. An impartial source, Google algorithms do all the work. It’s up to you really how well, or how poorly, you are perceived through Google’s lenses. Google does nothing; you do everything. They catalog information; you present it. But you can build a solid business online without being listed in Google (though I wouldn’t recommend it).

YouTube is a video sharing site. Yes, you can have videos go viral. Many have. But look at the odds. Seriously, millions of videos uploaded, only thousands with a record of success. Possible, but don’t bet money on it. Just build your brand honestly, create and upload videos if they’ll benefit you, and just do good business. To be honest, YouTube isn’t for everyone, but for those that it will benefit it has potential.

Facebook is one of the best ways you can build your brand. Like Google, it does nothing. You do everything. These sites provide the opportunity; it’s up to you to take advantage of it. Network, network, network.

MySpace is for teens. Does your business cater to teens? Use it. If not, forget about it.

Twitter, I’ve never used it. I’ve heard it’s great. It probably is. Many people use it and say sweet things. If you want to give it a go I see no reason why you shouldn’t.

But what about the rest of these sites? Amazon.com is an online book store and product retailer. Do you sell through them? Is it a place that you could sell through? Then by all means it could help you. If you’re not a retailer then Amazon likely won’t be much good for you.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. Most of us don’t need to be listed there. Have you made any significant accomplishments? Maybe they deserve a mention. But don’t expect a flood of business just because your friend Biff went up and told the world that you won the Blue Ribbon Award for Dog Grooming in Nantucket, Illinois (Is there a Nantucket in Illinois?).

TechCrunch, Valleywag, The Smoking Gun, The Consumerist, and The Huffington Post are all news sites. If you aren’t newsworthy then you likely won’t be mentioned on any of these. TechCrunch and Valleywag only deal with technology so if you aren’t a technology company then don’t count on it. The Smoking Gun destroys reputations. Sound inviting? The Huffington Post is a political site. The Consumerist is The Smoking Gun of the marketplace, but if you aren’t a big brand worth talking about then they likely won’t care that you ticked off Bongo the Clown because you didn’t have any red balloons.

That leaves Oprah, Colbert Nation, and Digg. Oprah is very influential. But you have to work your soles off to get on her show and it’s a task. Unless you have something that has a very wide and potentially popular appeal, don’t waste a lot of time chasing Oprah.

Stephen Colbert is a funny guy. Why would he care about your small business? Only Colbert knows.

And Digg, hmmm. Interesting site. Can help you get a lot of traffic. But if you look like you are trying to get publicity through Digg then you’ll get blasted by the in crowd at Digg. They either like you or they don’t and they generally don’t like marketers. But you can get some traffic here. Personally, I think you’re better off with StumbleUpon and a few other social sites. The most popular isn’t always the best.

Honestly, Yahoo and MSN Live can do you better service than some of these sites. As a small business, just stick to the basics and you’ll do fine.

Do you have a small business Internet marketing blueprint?

Carl Ocab is 13 years old. He’s got to know what he’s doing then, right? You would think so. And, actually, you’d be right. He’s one savvy kid. Here’s his advice about the best way to go about social media marketing:

• Write a top list
• Blog on topic
• Provocative blogging
• Reduce advertisements
• Spell check
• Self submit - don’t do it, he says!
• Write back
• Show statistics

Some of the examples Carl gives regarding these points are a little bit out there. For instance, he points to John Chow as the example for why you should show your statistics. But John Chow makes $20,000 a month. He’s got a good reason to brag. If you only make $50 per month from your blog then that might not be a reason to brag, unless your audience is people who don’t make any money. But even then it might not draw new readers to your blog.

The point is to be careful about how much you disclose. If you brag about your accomplishments, do in a non-braggadocios way. And don’t say too much. You don’t want a reputation as a blabber. Just stick to the sketch, don’t draw a whole portrait.

I do agree with reducing advertisements and spell checking. And don’t submit your own stuff. That’s not good. He’s right that social media people don’t like that.

On blogging, provocative blogging can be good but don’t get too provocative too often. Keep it restrained. And when blogging “on topic” make sure that you are blogging relevant to your audience. Don’t just blog about something because it’s popular. Blog about it because your audience is interested. And most importantly, play by the KISS rules. People don’t like long, drawn out posts that use complex sentence structures. You aren’t Hemingway, and even if you are, pare it down some. It’s the social media way.

OK, you may not think of yourself as a little guy and maybe I’m being a little bit condescending, but let’s face it - small business owners need every little edge we can get. Can’t we?

There are a ton of social media tools out there that can help you make the most of your online marketing efforts. Some are worth it and some aren’t. Erica DeWolf has put together a little blog post highlighting a few of the tools that you can find useful. Among them are:

• Facebook
• Blog
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Videocasts
• Twitter

I can vouch for most of these myself. For business social networking I like LinkedIn, but I’ve heard that many marketers have been successful with Facebook (it’s probably a generational thing). But I highly recommend blogs and RSS feeds. What Erica says about RSS feeds, that you can use them for anything, not just blogs, is true.

Two things that work really well with RSS feeds are podcasting and videos. Two very powerful methods of marketing that allow you to communicate with your customers as if they were right in front of you.

I don’t have any personal experience with Twitter, but it is a hot item right now. I highly recommend that you include some form of social media marketing into your mix of marketing strategies. For a consultation on which methods might work for your situation, contact Small Business Mavericks today.

Yesterday I commented on Brian Clark’s observations on Social Media, but in thinking about it there’s another piece of conversational marketing that I didn’t address - let me explain.

Just as in real live conversations you need to pay attention not only to the words someone uses, but also their actions - known as body language - online conversational marketing has it’s body language equivalents as well. Not every customer wants to have a discussion with you - some just want to use your product or service. So you might have a blog on your site, for example, where your customers could comment - but many don’t. They may read your blog, but never comment, thereby never initiating a conversation.

But the way you make your products and services available - the way you interact with your customers online, is a part of conversational marketing as well.

An example that comes to mind is the little local shop where I get my hair cut. I’m not the type of person who really enjoys getting my hair cut, it’s a chore - something to check off the list (No offense to my stylist - she’s terrific!) But I’ve noticed that since they implemented an online scheduling tool, I’m much more regular about getting my hair cuts scheduled. It’s not that I want to have a conversation with my stylist - but the control that she’s given me in the way I can interact and schedule my appointments (getting to see all of her available slots and allowing me to choose what works best for me) has increased the number of times shes sees me each year. And I’m not alone; my stylist shared with me that the online scheduling tool has had the same effect for a lot of her clients.

So when you think about conversational marketing - don’t forget that it includes all the ways you offer your customers to interact with you - giving them choices, allowing them to have the control in how they engage your services - having an interactive rather than a static website, this is the true “magic” behind the social media phenomenon.

From Brian Clark:

I’d say most people do not want to converse with companies, and if a bunch of people desire to tell a corporation something, it likely has a public relations disaster brewing.

But the people who do want to interact with your company are important despite their relative tiny numbers. You can glean potential buying objections from their questions, and consider changing practices based on complaints (but be careful there—the vocal minority often fails to reflect the views of the rest of the audience).

Brilliant insight, but what are we to make of it?

Brian Clark’s insights into social media marketing are important for a number of reasons:

1. He’s Brian Clark - If you don’t know who he is then you do read many blogs. Copyblogger is one of the most popular blogs online, meaning he is a social media maven.
2. Social Media Marketing is still new - There are no rules yet, which means they are still in development; that means there can hardly be said to be right and wrong ways of doing it (effective and ineffective, yes)
3. The future is bright - The best social media marketers have yet to arrive
4. The conversation is just getting started - Conversational marketing is really nothing new, but not all conversations have been going for any length of time

Seth Godin is the most prominent person to have discussed conversational marketing at any length. Back when the Web was in its commercial infancy it seemed that conversational marketing was on its way in and traditional marketing was outbound. But as Brian Clark says, you can’t change human nature.

Not everyone will engage with you about your products and services. They don’t want to talk, the just want to use. If you have a product worth buying, they’ll buy it. And they’ll happily (and quietly) use it. Some people will never let you know what they think until something goes wrong. Id’ imagine that Coca Cola didn’t hear much from many of its customers until it changed its formula - then all you-know-what broke loose!

The take away from this: Listen to those few voices who are telling you what they think about it all, but don’t take their opinions as gospel. They don’t talk for all of your customers. And sometimes you have to go out into the marketplace and mingle.

If you have a blog and you are wondering what you can do to increase its effectiveness without breaking your budget then take a look at these five free Internet marketing strategies that compliment blogging well:

• Article Marketing - Article marketing has been around for a long time. You can write an article and distribute it online quickly and easily. Totally free unless you use a ghostwriter or hire someone to do the distribution. Even then it’s relatively inexpensive compared to other forms of marketing. It requires consistency and you can use your author resource box to drive traffic to your blog.
• Social Bookmarking - Social bookmarking is the natural sister to blogging. If you have a blog, promote it through social bookmarking. Very easy and free if you do it yourself.
• Press Release Distribution - Press release distribution is more expensive than any of the others on this list. To be most effective, you’ll have to pay something for the best distribution. But if you do this only when you have a great promotion then you’ll get a good response from your efforts.
• Podcasting - To do podcasting correctly you’ll have to spend some time on it, but you can do it yourself for no money. And it does drive traffic right where you want it to go.
• Video Marketing - Many bloggers use videos on their blogs. It’s called video blogging and it’s very effective. If you can speak into a camera you can do this. YouTube makes it very easy to upload your photos and it has a huge traffic base from which to draw.

These five Internet marketing methods are great compliments to your blog and easy to incorporate into your daily routine.

Here was a great article on ways to make social media content pay. For the record, I’d like to say that I totally agree with these three principles:

• Get quality links to your social media site profile
• Use highly targeted categorization
• Build relationships

That last one, I think, is self explanatory. But what about the other two?

Note that building quality links is about building them to your social media profile, not using the social media site itself to spam your own website. This is an important distinction and it’s a good one to highlight. Many new social media users will try to add all of their URLs to the social site itself, watering down the effectiveness of the site and not really helping their own website. Instead, build links to the social media site, which helps its search ranking, and then add one or two sites from there to your most important website pages.

The highly targeted categorization is such an important principle I don’t know why it’s not a no-brainer. But, evidently, it isn’t. I see people just going in and sending friends requests and approving friends requests for anyone and everyone. This type of social promiscuity isn’t helping you. It means you have no standards. What you should focus on is building relationships with people who have the same interests as you and targeting them specifically. They are most likely to want what you have to offer.

I hope these two points give something to think about when you set up your next social media site profile. Learn more about small business marketing at Small Business Mavericks.

A couple of days ago I discussed two social networking applications that local business owners might consider for turning their local website into a social community for their users. Facebook Connect and Google FriendConnect both look to be promising tools. But there has been a change in one of them.

Facebook has decided not to let Google FriendConnect use its API unless the search engine decides to protect Facebook users’ privacy. Good move on Facebook’s part.

What this means for local business owners is you now have two equally considerable options. Facebook Connect will allow you to give your local website access to Facebook profiles and allow your site users the ability to network with others through Facebook - privacy and all. Google FriendConnect will still be a bit more flexible, but there will be less privacy and no Facebook.

Why are these choices equal? Because Facebook has a lot of useful applications and options for you, but it currently is limited in its interface capability with other networking applications. The Google FriendConnect will allow you to interface with a broad array of social applications even if Facebook isn’t involved. It will essentially mean that Facebook Connect and Google FriendConnect will be direct competitors with Facebook offering privacy as a selling point and Google FriendConnect offering flexibility as a selling point. The question for local businesses to answer for themselves and their users will be which benefit is more valuable to them.

Learn more about website design and development for social connectivity.