Social Media Star: Stacey Crew

Meet our very first Step Ahead Social Media Star: Stacey Crew, organizing expert, author and speaker. Stacey, whom I met many years ago through a friend of mine and who is based in Charleston, S.C., helps moms-to-be, new moms and generally busy women organize their time and space. Her book, The Organized Mom, will hit bookstores nationally in 2009.

Stacey is very active on all the main tools, but has also networked herself well within niche social networks like Girlfriendology, The Integrated Mother, Posh Mama, Twitter Moms, and the Mom Bloggers Club where she has developed a following of moms who look for her seasoned advice on keeping our lives together! Here is what Stacey had to say about social media:

What was the first social media technology you used?
Facebook

What is your favorite social media tool?
Facebook, then Twitter

How has social media benefited your business?

Social media tools have helped me keep my followers informed of blog posts, Web site updates, and general information that I’d like to share—all in a very simple way! Anyone who has been following me, knows that getting a book published is a long process.

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

How do you incorporate it into your day?

Sometimes I schedule it. For example, if I’ve made specific blog entries, I’ll post that on my Facebook page and on Twitter. Or if I’ve made changes/updates to my web site, I’ll do the same. Essentially, while working, I’m always connected to Facebook and Twitter, but try and use the time wisely so it’s not all of a sudden the end of the day and I haven’t completed my To Do List.

What’s your best social media tip?

Be yourself. People don’t want to feel like you’re all business or all personal, so find a balance. In my market (moms, essentially), I mention my kids and post pictures. Keep it real, but maintain your position as an expert in your field. It’s like walking a tight rope sometimes.

Is there a social media tool/technique that you think is

underutilized that you would like people to know about.

Well, I suspect the iPhone technology. I’m waiting for my new iPhone to arrive and once it does, I think I will be saying, “How did I ever live without it.” I’ll be providing tech tips on my web site for the iPhone and other technology and social media tools. We’ve entered a time when we can truly be more effective and efficient with technology.

Where can people find you online?
www.staceycrew.com, staceycrew.blogspot.com, Facebook and @staceycrew on Twitter.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Everyone should analyze how technology can and does work for them, whether it’s personally and/or professionally. Facebook is a great tool for staying in touch with both family and friends, but it also serves a purpose as a business tool. Twitter, on the other hand, is a fabulous tool for networking outside your local venue. If one is attempting to reach a national audience (like myself), Twitter can get you connected to people far and wide. Just remember to follow Twitter etiquette!

Six Degrees = Social Networking Success

You may have read a week or so ago the big news that scientists actually proved that like the oft-played game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” any person is indeed only 6.6 degrees separated from any other person. While that is truly an amazing fact, I can’t say it surprised me. I cannot believe how often I come upon someone my husband or I know or who knows someone we know.

Shortly after I read that, I had a really weird, but really cool, six-degree moment. I found a former colleague from many moons ago on LinkedIn and made her one of my connections. Well, one of her connections saw that, checked me out and came to realize we’ve followed the same geographic path throughout our lives. When I was in high school in Kentucky, she was in college there. When I moved to Cincinnati to work, she had too. And now she lives in South Carolina working as an independent PR practitioner and knows some fellow PR acquaintances of mine up in Greenville. And even though we were on parallel life paths, we never would have met each other had it not been for LinkedIn.

Which brings me to my point. Why does social networking work? Because we are all so closely connected anyway. We may just not know it. Social networking makes it apparent. There’s a quote from Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, about social networking “digitizing your social life.” It does that and it also makes it more efficient. Instead of hearing about a friend of a friend and having to remember them or make a mental note to call them when you need their service, now you can always be connected online with all their info. right at your fingertips and their Web site or email one click away.

It is a small world after all.

Linked In Really Works!

After many, many months of Linked In serving as a status symbol of how many “connections” I had, it has finally become useful to me! Over the last few weeks, I’ve used it on several occasions in ways that were very helpful.

First off, I used the fairly new Q&A feature that lets you ask a question of your “connections.” I was looking for a person who could help me plan a small event and asked for recommendations. I got a lot of really helpful responses and ended up choosing the person I hired through one of those recommendations.

What I found interesting here was that some of these people who I sent my question to on Linked In I probably would not have felt comfortable emailing for some reason. They aren’t people I converse with regularly, but are my colleagues in the industry and somehow it seems OK coming from Linked In, a little less intrusive or something.

But the most amazing benefit to me was that a potential client from INDIA(!) found me on Linked In. I am still pretty floored by that. I also have a colleague who got a new client from Linked In recently. It was someone he had worked with previously who found him there and ended up hiring him to do some work with the person’s current company. Pretty cool!

I recently read another blog post about how to really maximize the use of Linked In and she makes the point that you really have to actively use its “introduction” feature. Look through your connections’ connections and see if there’s anyone you’d like to know or who looks like a good prospect and ask your connection to “introduce” you. Much easier than a cold call.

Anyone else out there had a good experience with Linked In? Please share!

MySpace Gets a Facelift

Just read where MySpace is getting a makeover and a new look. Hallelujah! It’s about time. Man, do I hate the look of MySpace. It is so messy and cluttered. Maybe that appeals to Generation Y, but not Generation X , or at least not this Generation Xer.

Says a spokesman, “This is more than a facelift. We’re changing the way people interact with the site and with brands.” Here here!

Read more.

LinkedIn Goes All Out

I’ve been a member of LinkedIn for a while, though I must profess, I haven’t seen huge benefits from it aside from impressing myself with the number of “connections” I’ve amassed (61 to date).

I first saw it as a way to align yourself with other well thought-of business people and do a little online networking. Then I got a message from a “connection” who asked me to “introduce” her to one of my connections who was connected to someone who lived in a city where she was job-searching (are you following me?). I thought that was a pretty smart use of the site; however, since I don’t plan on closing either of my companies anytime soon and looking for job, not really of use to me.

I’ve read that taking advantage of the recommendations tool where you can recommend someone and they can recommend you is one way to maximize its use. Haven’t gotten that far on it yet to do much of that. Though, the other day someone recommended me and I must say I was pretty thrilled.

But now LinkedIn has gotten smart and added some really useful tools. Like Facebook, they’ve now added a microblogging component where you can update what you are working on from minute to minute. That at least gives you reason to go there more than once a month to update what you’re doing and see what others are working on.

Again, like Facebook, you can now join groups with other professionals who share the same interest. Once again, more reason to go there and engage in dialogue. AND like Yahoo Answers, you can now go on and ask a question and answer questions, which is great to establish your expertise in a given subject area.

Things seem to be working for LinkedIn — recent statistics comparing social networking usage from 2007 to 2008 showed LinkedIn had the largest growth (271%) above both MySpace and Facebook, though it still has a way to go before its number of members matches those.

Check out my del.icio.us page for more articles on using LinkedIn for marketing.

And, uh, feel free to “recommend” me .

Give Blood on Facebook

Well, we all know there’s quite a lot of things you can do on Facebook, but give blood? Kudos to yet one more company for being creative in using Web tools for marketing purposes.

According to a San Francisco Chronicle article, a nonprofit called Takes All Types, created a program to “better coordinate where and when people donate blood in response to shortages and crises while encouraging broader donation overall.”

If you sign up, they’ll message you through Facebook when blood supplies are running low in your area. And according to the article, the development of the entire program took only about $500.

See, Web is the way to go — it’s cheap, it’s convenient and it’s great exposure.

Web 2.0 News Roundup

Got a page on LinkedIn, the social network for business networking? Now you can really look cool if you can get Bill Gates to be a “connection”. The Wall Street Journal’s Biz Tech Blog reported that Mr. Gates joined the popular social network. According to the post, Gates is the most searched for person on LinkedIn (what, it’s not me?!). Go ahead, I dare you to invite him to be your “connection.” Let me know how it goes.

I also saw a story on FOX News this morning about two long lost friends who found each other on Facebook. It turns out one of them was in need of a kidney and as soon as the long lost friend heard about it, he offered his. Wow, the power of Facebook!

Niche Networking

Trying to reach a very targeted group of folks?

• Dieters under 40 for a weight-loss product?
• Senior citizens who love to travel for a hotel?
• Affluent influencers for luxury product or service?

How to reach them? Well, most marketers first delve into their coffers of media outlets, thinking of how they can advertise or secure coverage in that outlet. And that’s certainly not a bad place to go. But another great way to reach them directly is through social networking.

No, you’re probably not going to find a lot of affluent folks or baby boomers on MySpace or Facebook (though I promise there are some), but social networking goes so much further than these two popular sites. There are many dedicated to very specific topics — moms, baby boomers, food, travel, rich people – you name it, there’s probably a social network for it.

So open up your marketing mind when looking for innovative ways to reach out to these folks and investigate which social networks might work for your client and how they can get involved whether it’s via advertising, creating a profile, holding a contest, being a sponsor, etc.

Here’s a few niche networks to get you started:
Baby Boomers

• Eons.com
• Boomertown.com
• Rezoom.com

Moms

• Cafemom.com

Car Lovers

• Cardomain.com

Gay/Lesbian

• Glee.com
• OUTEverywhere.com

Book Lovers

• LibraryThing.com
• Shelfari.com

Physicians

• Sermo.com

Happy Networking!

Make the Holidays Easier with Web 2.0

Check out my tips which ran in Charleston’s Post & Courier Friday 5 section yesterday:

1) Forget the holiday letter – blog instead! Set up a free blog at Blogger.com and keep your friends and family up to date this holiday season (or all year) with a blog detailing your family life. Post photos, video, audio files and more and give them a much richer experience than the oft-tossed holiday letter.
2) Gift Lists 2.0 – Use social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us and Digg to share your gift list with friends and family – and the world! Tag your favorite items at any online store with your name or create a gift shopping list for different members of your family. Grandma and Grandpa don’t know what to get Junior? Give them a list of links on Del.icio.us where they can instantly click and order the gift and they’re good to go!
3) Instant Photos - Post and instantly share photos from holiday events, get-togethers and parties on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Flickr. Members of these sites will know whenever they log in if there’s a new photo posted of them anywhere throughout the site. Create a group and ask other friends and family to upload their photos of the same event to these sites, as well.
4) Memories Cherished Online – Create your family’s holiday “story” complete with photos, video, music, audio and text on Panraven.com. It creates a multimedia experience for remembering the good times.
5) Save Money With PayPal – Lots of popular online retailers, including BarnesandNoble.com and SharperImage.com, are now offering discounts up to 20% if you purchase items through PayPal. So open that account and save away!

Do Social Ads Violate Your Privacy?

An interesting debate has arisen since MySpace and Facebook announced their new ad options that allow advertisers to target people based on information in their profiles. The Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups are protesting the new ads to the Federal Trade Commission, saying they violate consumers’ privacy.

These groups say that companies should only be allowed to do this if consumers have consented, and they worry that many people who sign up on these sites don’t realize the extent to which their information is being shared and how it is being used.

“We know that teenagers use the Internet to seek help for their personal problems and to deal with difficult issues in their lives. These activities give marketers unprecedented opportunities for massive data collection and behavioral targeting,” says Kathryn Montgomery, Ph.D., professor of Communication at American University and author of “Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet” (MIT Press, 2007). “The loss of privacy is too high a price for reaping the benefits of the digital age.”

Read their press release and weigh in with your thoughts. Are you OK with such information about yourself being shared with advertisers?

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