These days, companies of all sizes are diving into the world of social media, and Misty Lackie, CEO of Go Smart Solutions, LLC, is making it easier and more affordable than ever for small businesses and individuals to create and customize their social media “brand”. Misty started Twitbacks.com, a tool that helps create free and affordable custom Twitter backgrounds. Twitbacks.com is a huge success and has been featured in BusinessWeek, CNET and PCWorld.

Misty has been involved with social media for years, and learned early on how valuable social media can be. Currently she sees how powerful and valuable Facebook is for businesses and has created FaceItPages, a do-it-yourself system that allows businesses to create a professional Facebook business page without the designer price.

Here’s what Misty had to say about social media:

What is your job/company/profession/title?

I am the CEO of Go Smart Solutions, LLC. We develop self-serve online marketing solutions for businesses.

What was the first social media technology you used?

Back in the day, I would use discussion forums. I lived and learned in forums. I know there are some who may not consider this as a type of social media, but my belief is that forums were – and still are – an aspect of social media. The technology has been around for a while; it just wasn’t always in the form we’re familiar with today. Forums, social bookmarking, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are all forms of social media technology, in my opinion.

What is your favorite social media tool?

I use a lot of them, and some more than others, but my favorite social media tool at this time is Facebook. I feel like with Facebook I can engage on a deeper level with not only our members, but my family and my friends as well.

How have you used social media for your business/company and how has it benefited?

We mainly use social media to connect with our customers. We actually end up doing a fair amount of support through social media. In fact, our customers will sometimes contact us directly through Twitter or Facebook rather than by email or phone. We see these platforms as another way to be able to provide quality support to our customers in a setting they are comfortable with. We also use many social media platforms to monitor our brands and what’s being said about them. We have received some new business through social media, but it has mostly benefited us by keeping us visible with our existing customer base.

How much time would you say you spend a day engaging social media?

I normally spend about an hour per day unless we are releasing something new or dropping a press release. In these cases, I will spend more time managing the messaging for the new release.

How do you incorporate it into your day so it’s not a time waster?

Great question! It is easy to get caught up and spend hours in the different social media platforms, which can cause you to become less productive in other business operations. I have been guilty of this. I set my schedule to check the major platforms in the morning and in late afternoon. I also have alerts set up that I monitor at least once per day. I don’t allow myself to spend more than 1/2 hour in the morning and 1/2 hour in the afternoon on these platforms (collectively). I have also trained myself not to get distracted throughout the day while working on other things. This same type of discipline can also apply to things like email or phone calls. As a small business owner, it is important to manage your time; if you are spending all of it in the social media platforms, on the phone or answering emails, you may be loosing valuable time growing your business. I have set times throughout the day where I will answer emails, take or return calls, monitor social media, and do anything else that may need my attention.

Is there a social media tool/technique that you think is underutilized that you would like people to know about?

I think Facebook business pages are underutilized. Our company uses various Facebook business pages and each send a decent amount of traffic to our sites. I also think many companies are not using social media as a support channel. Being able to support our customers through these channels has been invaluable to us.

How did you come up with TwitBacks?

TwitBacks started out as an office conversation. We were discussing how there was a new business trend with Twitter backgrounds and how designers were charging hundreds of dollars for these. I mentioned that I could create an app that would allow people to create their own Twitter backgrounds using templates and have the output save as an image. It was statement that I wasn’t really even serious about but Candis, our marketing communications rep, thought it was a great idea and hounded me for weeks about it. So I registered the domain and decided to make it a weekend side project. The very first release was very minimal, but it went totally viral. CNET and some other big sources picked us up. From there we built onto it and have just been adding more features over time.

Do you have any new services coming out?

Our latest service is FaceItPages. It is a DIY system that allows businesses to create a professional Facebook business page with your branding, links, etc.  Following are a few pages that have been created through the service.

FaceItPages.com

Estudiar Hoteleria

Shoes Online

Lauren Mcmullen – Your Social Media Marketing

Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland

We are also working on a video advertising platform, VidShout, which will allow business to create video ads (commercials) with landing pages and have those video ads published online to video portals, shopping comparison sites, directories, etc.

Where can people find you online and via social media?

http://www.gosmart4u.com

http://twitter.com/gosmart4u

http://www.facebook.com/gosmart

http://www.linkedin.com/in/gosmartsolutions

Facebook recently introduced a new feature that automatically suggests pages for new users to “Like.” This feature is placed second in the Facebook signup process, just behind the finding friends page. They’ve also added a section on the top right of your Home page where they sometimes recommend pages for you to “Like.” So how can you take advantage of these new features to help promote your page?

Facebook says the pages chosen to suggest will be based on the pages that people in the same demographic commonly “Like”, and how much the pages are updated and engage with friends.

So, if you’ve been waiting for yet another reason to frequently update your page with good content and reach out to your friends, here it is!

Before you start updating, here are few rules to keep in mind:

1. Update 1 to 3 times per day, even on weekends and holidays!

2. Update at different times of the day, and then monitor which times are most successful.

3. Ask friends to click “Like” when posting. It’s much easier to click “Like” than to actually comment.

4. Make updates conversational and casual.

5. Add in photos and videos when appropriate.

6. Respond quickly to questions and comments, within 24 hours if possible.

Now go start updating and build up your friend base! Have any more tips? Share with us here!

The Center for Women is a non-profit organization whose mission is to make personal and professional success an everyday event for women in the Lowcountry. Currently, Amanda uses Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a Lowcountry Women Blog as her social media tools, which allow to help the Center for Women to reach out to far more women than traditional advertising at a lower cost and have a larger reach, a big plus for any non-profit!

Here’s what Amanda had to say about social media:

What is your job/company/profession/title?

Program Coordinator/Webmistress, Center for Women

What was the first social media technology you used?

I hate to say it, but it was MySpace.

What is your favorite social media tool?

It’s a tie between Facebook and Twitter. They each have their own unique functions and uses for many different aspects of my life.

How have you used social media for your business/company and how has it benefited?

The Center for Women uses Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and has the Lowcountry Women Blog and it has all benefited us in so many ways. We’ve reached out to far more women via social media than traditional advertising – which for a small nonprofit the advertising budget is slim to none! Communicating with members, volunteers, speakers and reengaging with past board members are just some of the pluses.

How much time would you say you spend a day engaging social media?

A little bit here and there throughout the day probably adds up to a couple of hours.

How do you incorporate it into your day so it’s not a time waster?

I love Tweetdeck and how it combines Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc – such a time saver!

Is there a social media tool/technique that you think is underutilized that you would like people to know about?

LinkedIn doesn’t get as much attention as the others do, but I constantly meet folks that say it is all they are allowed to access at work. That is huge. I’m also frustrated with the Facebook vs. Twitter hype – use both, don’t neglect it and ENGAGE with your followers!

Where can people find you online and via social media?
http://www.c4women.org
http://twitter.com/amandabc
http://www.facebook.com/amandabc
http://www.linkedin.com/in/amandabc

Anything else?

I want to learn more about Foursquare!

The new version of TweetDeck allows users to set up columns to monitor Google Buzz and Foursquare updates and allows you to add those profiles as accounts. In the Google Buzz column, users can “like,” comment and even email contacts directly from Tweetdeck. We’re very excited about the Foursquare column, which allows users to view updates in real time, see venue information (if they have specials, who’s there now), check in from a venue, insert a shout, view user badges and more! This will make Foursquare much more useful, easy and top of mind for Twitterers.

If that wasn’t enough to get you excited about the new version of Tweetdeck, they also added global filters, video uploads and update scheduling. Global filters allow you to create a filter to hide any messages that include keywords you don’t want to see, so your columns won’t be full of Justin Bieber updates, that is, unless you have Bieber Fever You can also now take a video with your Webcam and upload directly to Twitter, as well as schedule updates. Hallelujah! While other services allow you to do that, having it on Tweetdeck will keep you from having to log in to some other program if you’ve got a quick one you don’t want to forget about.

Have you downloaded the new version of TweetDeck? If not, visit www.tweetdeck.com to download it today. Let us know what you think!

Social media tools allow businesses to respond quickly to issues and complaints, reach out directly to customers and showcase their level of support to the online community. A company that is doing a fantastic job of using Twitter as part of their customer support arsenal is Comcast Cable. In 2008, Frank Eliason, a customer service manager at Comcast decided to reach out to customers via Twitter, and the company hasn’t looked back since. Eliason’s twitter account, @comcastcares, supplies Comcast customers with the immediacy and personal attention they seek.

I experienced this phenomenal customer service first hand. Last week, after receiving my Comcast bill in the mail, I decided to shop around for prices on cable and Internet. I found a great deal with DIRECTV and called Comcast customer support to see if they could match it. They said no!

Frustrated, I turned to Twitter! Later that evening, after 9 p.m., I sent a tweet to @comcastcares, stating that I was thinking of switching to DIRECTV, but wanted to stay a Comcast customer, and could they help me out. About 10 minutes later, I received a tweet back from @comcastcares, asking me to email all the details to a Comcast customer service agent. I immediately emailed them all the details of my account and what DIRECTV would offer.

The next night a customer service agent from the local Comcast customer service office called me and offered to lower my rate even more than DIRECTV would! I was completely surprised and very happy with the news. After the phone call, I tweeted about how much I loved Comcast and how I was going to stay a loyal customer, and now a whole blog is dedicated to this short but sweet Twitter interaction.

Am I happy with Comcast? Yes. Would I have switched to DIRECTV if they hadn’t sent that tweet? Yes, I had my appointment all set up.

This just goes to show that when considering adding social media to your marketing and public relations department, don’t forget it’s a great customer service and customer retention tool, as well. Have you had any customer service interactions on Twitter?

The popular restaurant group, which owns nine local restaurants, has engaged Step Ahead Inc., a local firm that specializes in social media marketing, to launch a social media campaign.

The campaign will include a Dine With Sal Facebook page, Twitter account and Foursquare profile. Foursquare is a smart phone application that lets users “check in” at different locations to win points and see where their friends are. Users who frequent a particular spot more than anyone else in a given week become the mayor, and users also have the opportunity to earn “badges” for various activities.

Locals can soon look for specials for those who “check in” on Foursquare and for “mayors” of the group’s restaurants.

“We’ve noticed our customers are becoming more active on their smart phones, ‘tweeting,’ checking in on Foursquare and other activities,” said Sal Parco, owner of Dine With Sal Restaurant Group. “We decided it’s time to reach out to them through tools they enjoy using and feel like this is a very powerful way to directly connect with our customers and encourage new and repeat visits. We’re really excited to see the response to this campaign.”

Dine With Sal restaurants include Mustard Seed, with locations in Summerville and Mount Pleasant and on James Island; Boulevard Diner on James Island and in Mount Pleasant; and Sette, Uno Mas, Long Point Grill and the Village Bakery in Mount Pleasant.

http://www.charlestonbusiness.com/news/34174-on-the-menu-for-may-11-2010

The campaign will include a Dine With Sal Facebook page, Twitter account and Foursquare profile. Foursquare is a smart phone application that lets users “check in” at different locations to win points and see where their friends are. Users who frequent a particular spot more than anyone else in a given week become the mayor, and users also have the opportunity to earn fun “badges” for various activities. Locals can soon look for specials for those who “check in” on Foursquare and for “mayors” of the group’s restaurants.

“We’ve noticed our customers are becoming more active on their smart phones, ‘tweeting,’ checking in on Foursquare and other activities,” says Sal Parco, owner of Dine With Sal Restaurant Group. “We decided it’s time to reach out to them through tools they enjoy using and feel like this is a very powerful way to directly connect with our customers and encourage new and repeat visits. We’re really excited to see the response to this campaign!”

Dine With Sal is a local restaurant group owned and operated by Sal Parco. Restaurants include: Mustard Seed (with locations in Summerville, Mount Pleasant and James Island), Boulevard Diner (with locations in James Island and Mount Pleasant), and Sette, Uno Mas, Long Point Grill and the Village Bakery – all located in Mount Pleasant. For more information, visit www.dinewithsal.com.

About Step Ahead Inc.
Step Ahead, Inc. is a Charleston, S.C.-based company that combines the best of traditional public relations with social media and Internet marketing to help maximize visibility for clients both online and off. The company’s clients include Spirit Telecom of Columbia, Myrtle Beach National resorts, Charming Inns of Charleston, Charleston Parks Conservancy, Golf Island of Hilton Head, Sunset Rentals of Hilton Head, SpiritLine Cruises, Dine With Sal restaurant group and others. The company has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur magazine, as well as on MSNBC.com and SmartMoney.com. Visit www.stepaheadinc.com or call (843) 606-0226 for more information.

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Additional articles of interest:

Inc. Magazine: How to Make Money on Foursquare

New York Times: Linking Customer Loyalty With Social Networking

Megan Calhoun, the founder of TwitterMoms.com and master of social media, has grown this online community to 25,000 active TwitterMoms (including several of our team members here at Step Ahead!). Megan saw the importance of social media early on, and once she found Twitter, nothing could hold her back. She now spends between eight and 12 hours a day using social media to run TwitterMoms.com and scour the web for cool, exclusive opportunities for members, so we can safely say that she is one very well connected TwitterMom!

Here’s what Megan had to say about social media:

What is your job/company/profession/title?
Founder and CEO of Megan Media LLC. I started a community for moms who love Twitter called TwitterMoms.com.

What was the first social media technology you used?
Facebook, but I later found Twitter and fell in love with it. It’s a different way to keep connected with people who share your passions.

What is your favorite social media tool?
Besides TwitterMoms.com, I’d have to say Twitter and my trusty iPhone.

How did you come up with the idea for TwitterMoms?
As a stay-at-home mom, you sometimes don’t get enough grown-up interaction during the day. My husband introduced me to Twitter, and I discovered some amazing moms who I could really relate to and connect with on the service. The trouble was, there wasn’t a great way for moms to find each other and make connections. On Sept. 2, I roughed out an idea to create a moms-only directory site using Ning.com, a free “build your own social network” service. I added the URL to my Twitter.com profile and the next morning four moms had joined the site and started making themselves at home. Three weeks later, we topped 1,500 members, found ourselves featured in TechCrunch, and have been focused on serving the needs of this unique community ever since. Today, there are about 25,000 active TwitterMoms.

How have you used social media to promote your business/company and how has it benefited?
Everything about our business is social — from the members of our community to the platform we use to host our service to the communications tools we use to keep our members engaged and active. We have no engineers, no technical team, no board of directors, no investors, no marketing budget. We couldn’t build a community like this without leveraging the sort of “Web 2.0″ tools and services on the market today. While lots of businesses look at social media from a promotional angle, we view it as our DNA. It keeps our costs down so we can focus on giving our members more of what they find value in: connections, media opportunities, sponsorships for their blogs, advice from peers, tools for building their personal brands and more. Social media has allowed us to grow and offer new things.

How much time would you say you spend a day engaging social media?
I’m like a junkie who hit the jackpot: I’ve taken my passion for moms and social media and turned it into a small business. It gives me the freedom to be connected eight to 12 hours a day, although I find myself spending more time administering TwitterMoms.com and working to find cool, exclusive opportunities we can offer to our members.

How do you incorporate it into your day so it’s not a time waster?
Well, I don’t see social media as a time waster. To me, it’s a great way to network, meet amazing people, help others make great connections and discover who is really doing innovative things. Social media is a wonderful way to connect with people from all over the world you might otherwise never have met.

What’s your best tip for using social media for business?
Get to know people. Listen. Find out how you can help them. Even simply showing an interest in what people are doing is a great way to build relationships with customers. It’s a two-way street. Reciprocate. Think of social media like one big cocktail party. If you were just talking all about yourself and never showed any interest in what the other people were doing, you would be standing all alone. Same goes for social media – be social.

Is there a social media tool/technique that you think is underutilized that you would like people to know about?
There are any number of services we know, use, and love around TwitterMoms.com: Ning.com, tumblr and posterous to name a few.

Where can people find you online and via social media?
@TwitterMoms and www.twittermoms.com

Look for Step Ahead’s Lyn (the featured TwitterMoms blogger on social media), Holly and Leslie on TwitterMoms!

Holly Fisher, Lyn Mettler, Leslie Bogstad, Bud DiMaggio, Melissa DiMaggio and Laura Angermeier all raced for the Step Ahead Inc. team. What race is next for the Step Ahead Inc. team? Just wait and see! Congrats team!

Services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and Loopt are free smart phone applications enabling users to “check in” anywhere from a grocery store to a coffee shop to a restaurant. Foursquare, the current darling that is catching on fast in Charleston and across the country, lets users earn points for checking in and, if you’re the latte lover who checked in the most at the local coffee shop this week, you’re deemed the “mayor.” You can post tips, suggesting friends try a particular sandwich or stay for Friday night happy hour, see where your friends are, earn badges for your activities and share what you’re doing through Facebook and Twitter.

Businesses and organizations that have accounts on Foursquare can target users with specials, discounts or other useful information. They can reward the “mayor” with free French fries or 10% off a pair of jeans, and follow them on Twitter.

How is this any different from sending customers e-mail coupons or handing out punch cards for a free sandwich with 10 purchases? Because you’re reaching people you know like to patronize your business. This gives you a way to learn about and connect with your customers. Plus, when others see people “checking in” at your location, it’s like a free recommendation.

By monitoring these location-based tools, you can know the moment a customer walks in the door. You know if someone is eating next door at the competition, and you can offer up a special deal to entice that person to visit your restaurant next time. Foursquare is working closely with businesses and will soon be offering up demographic details about your customers and when they visit your business – information which could prove to be incredibly valuable in better serving your customer base.

If you want to get up to speed on all that is Foursquare, join us for a “square up” on Foursquare Day, April 16 (4 squared = 16). Foursquare Day is a national initiative to promote the use of Foursquare. From 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., join us at our office, located at the Charleston Digital Corridor Flagship, 475-A East Bay St., to learn more about Foursquare, get signed up, mingle with fellow Foursquare users, enjoy free drinks and food — and be entered into a drawing for an iPod touch. For more details on the event, visithttp://www.StepAheadInc.com. Be there or be square!

Lyn Mettler is the founder of Step Ahead Inc., which combines the best of traditional public relations with social media and Internet marketing to help maximize visibility for clients both online and off. The company recently added Foursquare management to its line-up of services.

http://www.charlestoncurrents.com/#focus