Here is an oldy but a goody  (and even voted best Australasian commercial of the 80s), with our hero receiving the traditional ‘dear John’ message via a cassette tape message (which seems positively archaic now) , rather than the traditional letter… which begs the question – in a 2011 remake of the commercial how would John get the message; via a Tweet?

Here’s a clever ad for Earth Hour…

As more businesses start to think about using social media, a common question (especially for the already busy small business owner) is: How much of their social media can they outsource or delegate?

Some businesses don’t have the time to manage their social media or just not sure how to manage it all efficiently.

So what social media can you outsource and what social media needs to stay in-house?

1: Social media set up – It can hours and hours (and hours) to set up your social media profiles and accounts. Customising that twitter background so it fits; adding in a landing page to Facebook, adding the right plugins to your blog… Never mind setting up some automation, adding in ‘like’ buttons, and tools like Tweetdeck. Figuring out all this takes time.

Answer – yes outsource setting up your social media – save yourself time, frustrations and get set up properly. Whoever sets up your social media accounts will need access to some of your passwords, so remember to change them later.

2: Social media monitoring and listening – Keeping an eye on conversations via twitter search or mentions via Google Alerts can be managed by others if you have chosen the right key words and have a good reporting system in place. How and when do you get notified? Right away (so you can jump into conversations); via email or report format?

But adding search feeds to a feed reader like Netvibes makes monitoring at a glance easy anyway.

Answer – possibly yes outsource or delegate to another team member.

3: Social media moderation – Moderating your Facebook pages and blogs for spam comments not filtered by your spam filters takes time and is a job someone else can do.

Answer – yes, moderation can be outsourced; if someone else manages this for you they can separate out the gems and forward them to you to reply to.

4. Social media engagement – Replying to tweets and Facebook posts and adding blog comments can really only be done by you and your team. The whole point of social media is to build relationships and trust – and you can’t outsource that.

Answer  – No you shouldn’t outsource engagement.

5. Social Media content generation – A huge part of social media is creating content; conversations, dialogue, tweets, blog posts, facebook posts…. and then there’s the ebooks, white papers, videos…

The conversations and dialogues are part of building relationships and trust and again they can’t be outsourced, while creation and production of ebooks and white papers and videos can be. Blog and facebook posts are part of the conversation – and give your business a personable ‘voice’ so these need to come from you and your team.

Answer – some of your content creation can be outsourced.

6. Social media measurement – Someone else can monitor whatever metrics fit with your goal, whether that be an increase in media mentions, an increase in leads, the number of followers and fans and subscribers and so on. This will save you time collating information.

Answer – yes you can outsource measurement. This information can be easily tracked  and presented as a report to you with recommendations, trends, summaries – whatever you need.

7. Social media optimisation – Promoting  your various social media activity, ensuring you have landing pages, repurposing content… all takes time (and know-how) and can easily be outsourced to a professional.

Answer – yes, you can outsource social media optimisation.

The final word – social media is about giving your business a real ‘voice’ and joining in and engaging in the conversations; and only you and your team can do that.

If you’re a blogger, then you’ll be hoping for comments from readers on your blog.

At least you know someone is reading your posts, right?

So it’s rather exciting when you receive a rush of comments and it can be tempting to publish them all.

But have another look at those comments. Do they mention your name at all? Does the comment actually relate directly to your post (eg they’ve agreed or disagreed on a particular point). If they don’t, then chances are the comment is spam.

As a moderator of lots of blogs and a blog community I read LOTS of spam comments. They’re unfortunately a sad fact of blogging – and now comment spammers have got smarter; they don’t pack their comment full of links anymore, they actually write a comment and get past all the spam filters.

Why do they do spam blogs with comments?

Who knows… most blog software marks comments as ‘no follows’ , meaning the link doesn’t  give the link’s owner any SEO credit to help their google rankings. Sure you can click on the link – but who would bother? So the spammers are wasting their time because they don’t receive any link juice.

How can you stop the comment spam?

Make sure you have a spam filter enabled (like Akismet ) to stop the obvious spam. Ensure your comments are held for moderation before published and that you receive an email notification of comments held in moderation. Then moderate comments quickly and ruthlessly.

But the comments look impressive on my blog.

Trust me (and I’ve seen it) 90 spam comments on one blog post doesn’t look good. One real comment is better than 90 spammy ones. And the number of comments on your blog is just one measurement of your blog’s success; track traffic, subscribers and links back to your blog.

So what do spam comments look like?

Like this;

This post doesn’t make any sense, you should add more details, it may help the readers.

(Don’t be offended – it’s spam; delete it!)

Why have you deleted my post? It was very helpful information and i guarantee at least 1 person found it helpful unlike the rest of the comments on this website. I’ll post it again. Sick and tired of getting low numbers of useless visitors for your website? Well i want to tell you about a fresh underground tactic which makes myself $900  daily on 100% AUTOPILOT.

(Again, don’t be offended or reply; it’s spam – delete it!)

Wow this was doubtlessly one of the best blurbs I have go over on the subject so far. I don’t understand where you learn all your data but keep it coming! I’m going to send some folks to this site to take a look at this post. Awesome,  totally fantastic.

(Great for the ego – but it’s spam. Where’s the direct comment to your post?)

Intimately, the article is actually the sweetest on this precious topic. I harmonize with your conclusions and will eagerly look forward to your future updates.

(yes, yes… but it’s SPAM)

I do not have time to read it all at the moment but I have bookmarked it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more,

(This adds nothing to the dialogue on your blog, it’s SPAM).

So – cull those spammy comments and let the real comments shine.

In the post ‘Why ‘being passionate’ is awful advice’ by Scott Gerber, the point is made that your work or business shouldn’t necessarily be something you’re passionate about.

I disagree  – I think you have to love what you do – here’s why.

At a time management session the other day we did that exercise where you draw a rectangle (this represents all the time in your life imagining that you’d live to the average age). You block out the time you’ve already used. So for example if the average age for a woman to live to is 85 and you’re 42, you’ve spent half your life, so you’d block out half the rectangle.

Then you block out half of what’s left – because you’ll sleep this much of your life away.

Then you block out half again of what’s left – because you’ll spend this time at work. (roughly!)

And what you have left – that very small ‘square’ – is your ‘free’ time left for your life time (holidays, weekends, retirement etc) to do other stuff. All the stuff you really want to be doing.

This hugely simplifies your life – but still it gets you thinking.

And it got me thinking why does work have to be a block that is ‘work’, something that has to be endured, and got out of the way so you can do the other stuff you want to be doing?

Why can’t work be integrated with the other stuff; so there is no strict division? If work is a place that is flexible, family friendly, you get to learn, even travel, is satisfying and fun, you spend time with fabulous people – then it wouldn’t be that block of time to ‘endure’.

You gotta love what you’re doing. Bottom line.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed in your business and swamped with tasks that you just hate to do (think – filing tax returns), maybe it’s time to audit your workload.

Create a log of all the tasks you carry out in your business… from answering email to client meetings. Everything.

Then create three columns at the end row of your list. Title one column ‘passion’, another column ‘profit’ and the last one ‘goal’.

Now go through your list of tasks and assess each one… ask yourself;

-          Do I love doing this task? (if yes, give it a tick in the passion column)

-          Is this task profitable? (If yes, give it a tick in the profit column)

-          Is this task bringing me closer to my goals? (If yes, give it a tick in the goal column)

Now look at your list. The tasks with three ticks you get to keep (they’re passion activities, they make money and are moving you toward achieving your goals). And probably for now, you keep the ones with two ticks.

Look at the tasks with no ticks, or just one tick… these are the ones to outsource. Can you delegate to someone in your team, hire a Virtual Assistant or a book-keeper part-time?

Your ultimate goal is to spend all your time on tasks that you love doing, make money and are goal orientated.

How fun would work be then, huh?!

Your intern or office junior or your PA set up your business’s Facebook Page and it’s flourishing nicely… then they leave – and suddenly no-one else in your company can access your page (and worse still, what if the departee leaves under a cloud and they close the page down or add defamatory content or responses to it?).

When we set up clients with a Facebook business page we ensure that at least two people from the business (and preferably the owner being one of them) are ‘admins’ of the page. (To assign admin roles, the person must be a friend of the page first, then the original admin person can add others as admins).

This means if one of the ‘admins’ leaves then the remaining admin still has access and can remove the departing person’s admin access to the page.

Have you considered who has access to your company blog, your twitter account, your google analytics account, your domain registry details…. in many cases it will be your staff or web developer or social media manager, or who-ever set them up  – what if they leave or move on? Do you still have access? Definitely worth some consideration (and requesting copies of access details).

Back in 1995 I started a magazine for women in business; ‘Her Business’ – it became popular and went on to win many awards and media attention.

In hindsight the magazine was successful because of the following ideas- can you integrate these concepts into your own business?;

I tapped into a niche market.

My magazine was for women in business. Not anyone in business. Not all women. Just women in business.

My market was well defined and accessible.

I could reach my market very easily – there were business women’s groups a plenty to reach out to; I offered subscriptions as prize giveaways; I was invited to speak at the groups. I could – and did – go through entire yellow page directories looking for businesses owned by women and sent them letters about the Her Business magazine and how it could help them.

I was young and had heaps of energy

I worked hard. Really hard. I was in my mid twenties so I could survive on three hours sleep for days on end. (I can’t any more).

I was in a stable relationship

I had a partner who was incredibly supportive of my entrepreneurial dream. He helped out lots, didn’t whinge when I worked crazy hours, was my biggest fan and generally wanted to see me do well. This is huge – if your partner is feeling abandoned or resentful of your success, then you could be facing an uphill battle.

I didn’t have a TV

Enough said. We can waste hours of our day doing ‘stuff’ that doesn’t bring us any closer to our goals.

I was very clear about what I did

I published a magazine for women in business.

I had a story.

My story was about having a dream to start my own magazine, start my own business even though I knew nothing about publishing or running a business. I had great examples of my journey – and people love to hear your story; your reason for doing what you’re doing. Then they can understand, be inspired, they can visualise it and they hop on board and feel connected to you.

I chose the right time

Back in 95 women were starting to launch their businesses in a big way. They wanted support, advice and role models – a magazine was perfect. A magazine that addressed their needs and offered solutions to their problems.

I had an assistant

After months of going it alone, I did get an assistant, and while we did share a computer (imagine it!) it did free me up a bit. Then I went on to have a fabulous team who all worked hard building the business.

I went on heaps of courses

If there was a course going on about any area of business – I was on it. Lots were free, and others I offered contras; like a free pass in exchange for coverage, or sponsorship, or magazines, or subscriptions – or whatever I could think of. I read lots. I didn’t stop learning.

I created a brand.

Once the magazine was established, we created an annual awards event, then a who’s who directory, then networks and clubs and then conferences – all for women in business, under the Her Business brand.

We had the audience, so we kept thinking what else can we offer them?

I had integrity

From the beginning I was adamant I wanted to be a business magazine for women not a magazine for women that had a business section. I wanted to create a magazine for its readers, not a magazine for advertisers. I did not want to sell out with fluff content on fashion and beauty products to appease advertisers.

Readers respected that I put them first – and not the advertiser first. Of course it came with a cost; I missed out on some high paying advertising.

I had multiple revenue streams

We had income from retail sales, from subscriptions – that we worked really hard at building and advertising (we believed if an advertiser wanted to be part of what we were doing then they’d join us; we didn’t do a hard sell to advertisers.)

And – I loved what I did.

Sometimes I got goose bumps from the joy of it all. I worked hard, sure. But I loved the challenge, the satisfaction of seeing another printed issue, the feedback from readers, the variety of work, working with a team and the flexibility of  being my own boss. If you work long and hard, you have to love what you do.

What do you do ‘right’ in your business?

Social media is evolving lots of ways we communicate and engage – and that even includes the innocuous press release. The new equivalent (or complement) is the ‘social media press release’ or SM release.

From my editor / publisher point of view I say about time too. This is why…

For one of my clients I edit their print magazine and blog and manage their Twitter and Facebook account. I receive a press release – a PDF – about new survey results relevant to my client’s audience.

I won’t be including this news in the magazine as it has missed deadline, or just outside the parameters of what we’d include, or we don’t have space – whatever. But still, I know my client’s audience would get lots of value from knowing about the survey results.

I ask the PR company for a SM release. I receive a word document in return. Huh?

A PDF or word document is of no use to me – I’m not going to regurgitate an article out of it (old school). What I want is an online press release – or at least one that has a URL address I can tweet or link to if I make a reference to the survey in a blog post.

I want to provide my client’s audience value by offering a snap shot of the survey – and if they want to know more they can go to the source – and click thru to the organisation’s online press release (hey… great traffic for them too!).

So this organisation misses out on a valuable PR opportunity to reach out to their target audience.

So what is a SM release?

A social media press release has the same elements as a blog post, really. It’s social and interactive. It’s not ‘broadcasting’ info (here’s our news, our comments – which is all very one-sided) but ‘pulling’ you into the conversation and spreading the conversation.

The post The Definitive Guide to Social Media Releases by Brian Solis is comprehensive and well worth checking out.

He says these are the elements of a social media release;

• Headline
• Intro paragraph, rich with key words, relevance and context (summary)
• Supporting facts
• Quote
• Embeddable Video (The new VNR)
• Embeddable Audio
• Embeddable Images
• RSS for the company news
• RSS for product info
• Post in “insert social network of choice” (Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, or a relevant social network for sharing)
• Blog this (links to blogging platforms)
• Share on Twitter, Jaikue, Pownce or Tumblr
• Bookmarks
• Relevant links
• Digg, Reddit, and other relevant news aggregators and communities.
• Comments – Maybe also include a link to a hosted network on Ning or even a discussion forum on Tangler or Google Groups
• Contact: hcard, vcard, LInkedIn, Facebook

And here’s an example of a social media release template: http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smprtemplate.pdf

Using this format makes it easy for bloggers, journos, reporters and editors like me to spread your story – on lots of different platforms – and that’s got to be a good thing.

Lastly as Brian Solis points out the SM release isn’t a silver bullet though;  “A crappy press release is still a crappy press release regardless of multimedia or social bling. Writing the news in a way that’s helpful, informative, and relative is a critical starting point for any release”

Are you sending out social media press releases yet?

Volkswagon are at it again – last time it was turning random underground station stairs into piano keys in the video I picked as a fav for last year – and now they’ve turned some stairs into a slide. Slide or the stairs?(The guy in the suit at the end is priceless)

And still not a car in sight.