Like I said, I’m all for implementing a “touch it once” philosophy when it comes to posting to Facebook and Twitter.  However, I’m all for it being done correctly.  You may be asking yourself “there’s a right way and a wrong way?”  I’m here to tell you that indeed there is a wrong way and a right way.

First, the wrong way.  It seems simple enough to enable the Facebook to Twitter application.  Using this application, offered by Facebook, posts your Facebook status to Twitter.  However, when it posts the status it also posts a link.  The link directs users to your status on Facebook.  No more information is obtained by clicking on the link.  Fundamentally, links should be informational, and the use of a link to direct me to the exact information I just read is inefficient, and inconsiderate of your reader’s time!

Now, the right way.  You should be posting from Twitter to Facebook.  Why? Because Twitter is set up to share 140-character messages (similar to a status in Facebook).  Using any number of applications – Selective Tweets, a Facebook app; Seesmic, a standalone social network app; and my favorite TweetDeck, a standalone social network app – you can update your Twitter status and your Facebook status (even multiple accounts – I have both personal and work Twitter and Facebook accounts) from one place.  You can easily share links that give context to your status and not send readers to links that share no more information.

Why is this important?  Because, when providing me with links that offer no other information, it’s like crying wolf.  I eventually tune out your links, and stop clicking on them all together.  Which means, when you do provide an informational link, I’m likely to miss it altogether because you’ve cried wolf so many times!

Take a serious look at how you’re implementing your social networking.  If you’re using Facebook to update Twitter, you need to understand what the Twitter user is experiencing, and how you’re negatively impacting their experiences!  If you’re trying to reach both social networks and their users, you need to act like you belong.

I now regularly communicate with family members and friends that I normally would not see or talk to on a regular basis.  Now, I’ve got regular ongoing conversations about random events in life from a wide variety of friends and family.  The conversations are not necessarily deep, but they are revealing.  They get a peek at my life through status updates, photos and commentary, and I get the same in return.  You could say facebook is the ultimate connector.  At any given time, any of my connections can see what I’m up to, or  insert commentary about a photo or comment on my status, and I can do the same in reverse.  In the end, Facebook has created a new social circle made of up random friends, family, and associates all interacting with each other towards me.  Perhaps, it’s the narcissist factor, and how much it feeds that “need” of people that makes Facebook so addicting and popular.  Whatever it is, it’s by far the site I spend the most time at each day.

With that in mind, we launched a Facebook page for our business earlier this year.  I’ve got it setup to automatically collect our feed.  So, when a new item is posted to our website, it is automatically posted to Facebook.  We’ve currently got 21 “fans” on Facebook.  Most of them are friends, family or employees.  I’d like to figure out a way to leverage Facebook to create a legitimate financial return, and obtain more “fans” that are  on the fringe rather than in the inner circle of our business.  In the end it’s all about notoriety, and being seen, and seen being.

If you’re interested in connecting on Facebook, feel free to add me as a friend [my profile].  See you on facebook!

www.myspace.com

www.google.com

www.mocospace.com

www.yahoo.com

www.facebook.com

www.live.com

www.hi5.com

www.wikipedia.org

www.itsmy.com

www.ebay.com

If Americans are using their phone browser to access social networking sites at such a high rate, what should we be doing as a twenty-first century company to market to that generation and dynamic?  I know that I’m in the 60% that use their phone to access social networking sites.  In fact, I regularly access a significant portion of the top 10 sites through my phone.

With that in mind, we’ve created an online page for our company on Facebook.  We’ve got 17 fans of our company so far.  Some of which work for us, some of which are friends of various staff members, and some of whom are straight-up fans of our company.  The best part though is the majority of the individuals are from the younger generation that we strive so hard to reach in our marketing.

With Facebook, I’m working on ways to incorporate a regular post or update that would appeal to the fans of our company.  At first, I thought posting all our auctions and real estate listings would be effective.  But, I’m rethinking that idea, and am currently leaning towards more of an interactive, laid back approach to posting auctions and real estate listings.  Until I completely work thought the interactive, laid back approach, we’ll continue to post all our auctions and real estate listings to facebook.

I am hoping as social networking continues to grow into the mainstream, we’ll see more and more interactions with our customers through online avenues.  The more we can engage and seek out our customers in a convenient forum to them, the more successful our company will be into the future.