by Jennifer Van Grove (MASHABLE)

by Josh Catone (MASHABLE)

Keeping content fresh is one of the most important things you can do on your small business blog.  Consistently putting out quality posts accomplishes two important goals: it turns visitors into repeat visitors and it creates a community around your content.  Further, good content builds on itself over time and will slowly increase your blog’s traffic as it becomes more discoverable in search engines.  However, blogging regularly isn’t easy, and while it’s true that almost anything can be turned into a blog post, generating ideas for fresh, original, high quality content is difficult, especially for those new to blogging.

In this post we’ll take a look at five different types of posts that you can use on your business blog.  We’ll talk about what these posts look like, explore why each variety of post works especially well for business blogs, and look at examples of each type of post from actual blogs around the web.

1. Advice or Tips

One of the easiest and most effective type of blog posts that you can write for your small business blog are those that give advice and tips.  Sharing your expertise can be an effective way to engage and provide value to readers no matter what type of business you own. These posts can take on two different forms depending on the goals of your blog. If you’re writing your blog in order to brand your business for thought leadership within your industry, then you should write advice for your peers about how you run your business successfully.  It may seem counterintuitive to share your business acumen with readers who might also be your competitors, but in the long run, establishing yourself as a leader in your field among your peers will help you sell more of your product or service and lead to opportunities in the press that bring exposure and awareness.

Social media consulting firm FreshNetworks, for example, routinely publishes social media tips on its blog.  Other social media consultants could certainly learn from that advice and use it to offer competing services, but in the end, the awareness that being a thought leader brings is likely worth more than the risk of helping competitors.

The other type of this variety of blog post is advice for your customers. It doesn’t matter what type of business you run, it is guaranteed that there are things you can teach your customers or help your customers better understand.  Whole Foods, for example, shares recipes on its blog, and printing company PsPrint uses its blog to give tips related to design.  The Quicken-owned Quizzle blog gives consumers advice about money and credit management, and the blog at financial startup Mint is filled with posts about how to better manage your finances.  Roto Rooter offers plumbing advice on its blog, and the blog of niche, gothic wedding clothier Wedding Skulls discusses wedding planning.  And those are just a few examples from a small handful of industries.

The idea behind advice or tips posts is that providing your customers with useful information builds trust and will increase the likelihood that they’ll shop with you.  Not every person who uses a recipe from the Whole Foods blog will shop at Whole Foods, of course, and not everyone who learns how to unclog a drain on the Roto Rooter blog will use that company’s plumbing services — but that’s okay.  The idea with business blogging isn’t to sell, it’s to build awareness and create a community around your company that increases the chance of future sales.

2. Behind-the-Scenes

Another type of post you can offer on your blog is a behind-the-scenes post.  Giving readers a look at what goes on behind closed doors at your business is an easy way to establish a deeper connection with your customers. On the BBC Internet blog, for example, the news web site gives readers a look at the reasoning that goes into decisions about the site and the process that the managers of the web site make. Keeping visitors plugged into the nitty gritty details of how and why they do things is smart because it makes their users feel more invested in the brand — if readers are let in on the secrets of production they’ll be more apt to feel a sense of ownership and develop brand loyalty.

The Bovine Bugle from Stonyfield Farms similarly takes readers behind-the-scenes, by sharing with them the ins and outs of organic farming.  The blog is written by farmer Jonathan Gates from Howmars Farm in Franklin, Vermont, which is one of the farms that the niche, organic yogurt producer deals with. Publishing Gates’ farm reports is an easy way for Stonyfield Farms to let readers in on the process and offer customers assurance of the authentic and organic nature of their products.

Fashion photographer Jason Christopher, meanwhile, uses his blog to share insights into the fashion industry.  He talks about his lighting design, the types of cameras he uses, and what it’s like to deal with models. By providing a behind-the-scenes look at his photographic process, Christopher is smartly advertising his methods to potential clients, while simultaneously providing interesting reading and thought leadership for his peers.

3. Case Studies

Case studies are a great way to grab attention and generate interest in you blog or business.  Design firm Metalab, for example, recently used its blog to take on Zappos by publishing a case study of the shoe retailer’s web site design in an open letter.  The design study had two positive effects for Metalab.  First, it created a lot of buzz and brought traffic to their design firm, and second, it demonstrated their design acumen by showing readers how they were able to pick out flaws in a well-known web design and offer suggestions for how to fix those mistakes.

Darren Rowse, who is one of the most popular writers about the craft of blogging, also used case studies when he was first starting out as a way to garner attention. By offering his thoughts on the designs of well-known blogs he was able to immediately insert himself into the conversation at a high level and demonstrate his knowledge of the subject. Noted logo designer David Airey does the same thing by publishing critiques of well-known brands on his logo design blog, Logo Design Love.

Case studies work best for service oriented businesses. Find someone who could use your service, and give them a virtual makeover for free.  Your critique will demonstrate your expertise and the quality of your results, and if you target well-known businesses for your case studies, they can also bring added attention.

4. Interviews or Profiles

Interviews or profiles are an easy way to add a human touch to your business blogging. By interviewing your employees, other people in your industry, or customers that use your products and services you can both provide value to readers and create authenticity by humanizing your blog and putting a face on your service, products, or industry. The blog for software creator FiveRuns, for example, used to run a regular series they called “Take Five,” in which they would ask five questions of experts within their field.  This series was a win for everyone involved. It provided an outlet for those in their industry to share their stories, it created value for readers who learned more about the people that defined their business community, and it brought traffic and awareness to the FiveRuns company blog.

One of the blogs published by work clothing maker Carhartt is the Tough Jobs blog, on which they profile Carhartt customers with difficult jobs.  The profiles are submitted by the readers themselves and almost always include a mention of the company’s clothing products. Carhartt has smartly enabled customers to participate in the conversation and evangelize their products by appealing to their desire to share their stories via profiles on the company’s blog.

5. Research

Though it won’t work for every type of business, another great way to create buzz around your business blog is to use it to offer industry research reports that will be linked to, blogged about, and repeated elsewhere.  That’s exactly what Internet marketing software firm HubSpot regularly does on their blog.  In the past they’ve used their blog to release reports on the state of the Twitterverse, how web traffic converts to leads, and what sort of web traffic expectations you should have based on the size of your business.  These reports are not only helpful to readers, but they also bring awareness from outside sources via mentions on other blogs and press web sites.

When they first started as a consulting and design firm, software maker 37signals used research reports to generate buzz and build awareness of their new business, as well. They published a report in 2003 called the “E-Commerce Search Report” (1.2 MB PDF) that looked at 25 popular e-commerce web sites and rated their effectiveness at garnering search engine rankings.  Not only did the report bring traffic and attention to the design firm, but because they sold it for $79, the research actually brought in some revenue.

Clearly, some types of small businesses are better suited to creating research reports, but by getting creative, almost any business can figure out some type of information they can formally package and sell or give out in order to generate some attention.  For example, maybe you’re in retail and have been experimenting with the size and placement of end cap displays in your store — why not formalize that testing and release a report? Research demonstrates your expertise and can bring traffic and attention from people most interested in your line of work.

by Sharlyn Lauby (MASHABLE)

Sharlyn Lauby is the president of Internal Talent Management (ITM) which specializes in employee training and human resources consulting. She authors a blog at hrbartender.com.

You can hardly have a conversation about social media today without discussing the concept of transparency. More and more, companies are incorporating transparency into their marketing efforts. Why? The reason, according to Debbie Weil, a corporate social media consultant and author of The Corporate Blogging Book, is because customers and stakeholders increasingly expect it. “It (transparency) is the new operating standard,” she said.

Transparency is about being open, honest, and accountable. It’s about responsibility. People are listening to you and making evaluations and decisions based upon what you say, and as such, it’s important to take responsibility for the messaging you put out there. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh explains it best, “I think people worry too much about bringing their personal selves into business, when I think the way to succeed in today’s world is to make your business more personal.”

For those looking to refine their social media messaging, here are five ways to become more transparent.

1. Don’t Fake It — Talk About What You Know

Web designer Jeffrey Zeldman talks about web design. That’s it. And, he’s good at it. If you want to know about web design news and info, he’s the king. Literally: Business Week even dubbed him the “King of Web Standards.”

Zeldman’s example teaches us that transparency is about being who you are. Talk about the things you know and can do well. You can actually enhance your personal/company brand by sticking to what you know. Then make sure you have a list of go-to people or lifelines that specialize in related areas. For example, I’m a human resources consultant. I’m not an employee benefits consultant. So, when my clients ask about employee benefits, I refer people to one of my colleagues. This makes me look good, because I’m not trying to be something I’m not, and my clients get the right services and information they need.

It’s just as important to be viewed as a person with a lot of talented resources as it is to be viewed as an expert.

2. Have an Opinion, But Stay Open to Other Views

We all know that part of transparency is being responsible about the information you share. As Weil mentions, “If you’re an organization using a blog or other social media to ‘get closer’ to your customers you’re never going to reveal proprietary information, internal office politics or forward looking financial information. Common sense reigns.”

This also applies to offering your opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-opinion. In fact, I find it quite educational to hear different viewpoints. It’s really nice to read a well-thought out stand on a particular issue.

But when you offer your opinion, think through the implications. What happens if others don’t agree? A recent example involves Whole Foods, a company that has embraced social media at many levels. They have created a presence for themselves on Facebook (), Twitter (), YouTube (), and other social media sites. CEO John Mackey’s recently published an op-ed regarding healthcare reform that caused a minor controversy among Whole Foods customers. In response, the company wisely kept to their social media philosophy and encouraged comments (both positive and negative.) My takeaway from this incident: people might not like the opinion, but the company remained open to hearing differing views and criticism. That kind of openness earns respect.

For some businesses, taking a stand on social issues is a part of their culture and something we, as consumers, come to expect. Having an opinion is actually a part of their marketing strategy. Ben & Jerry’s actively promotes corporate social responsibility. Their most recent announcement, changing the name of the Chubby Hubby flavor to Hubby Hubby in support of same-sex marriage, is simply a part of the iconic corporate culture they are known for.

3. Be Truthful

I know, that sounds obvious, but keep in mind that part of transparency means putting all the pertinent details out there. If you neglect to include something – that others might have thought was important – this will impact your online credibility as much as lying outright.

One way the truth is sometimes challenged is when new projects or initiatives are implemented. When Facebook revised their user terms of service, for example, the company did a poor job of communicating the changes to users. As a result, Facebook was forced to go on the defensive when users instinctively mistrusted certain changes that affected their user rights. Everything in social media is so immediate and change in general can sometimes be hard to digest. Surprises can be met with an equally swift response.

When considering and implementing changes, it could be beneficial to use crowdsourcing for gathering information, announce changes in advance, and garner customer buy-in. Then, roll the changes out in phases. This can alleviate confusion and negative perceptions.

4. Be Timely and Responsive

Because social media is so immediate, you need to start or participate in conversations as they happen. Recently, a fairly high-profile Twitter user was in Miami for a business meeting. The meeting was extended and he needed to find a hotel for the night. He sent out a Tweet asking for hotel recommendations and got very limited response from local hotels. Since I live in the area, I retweeted it for him, and three days later a Miami hotel got in touch to ask how they could help me. Major FAIL.

If you are going to be a part of social media, then remember that timeliness can often mean the difference between success and failure.

Timeliness is also important when a crisis or controversy is occurring at your company, Weil told me that, “you can always blog and/or Twitter that you are aware of the situation, working on the problem and will get back to people as soon as possible.” That’s better than leaving people hanging to draw their own conclusions.

5. Think Community

None of us can or should operate as an island in social media. Transparency means creating community, giving credit, and being caring.

While some industries, such as the cruise industry, are natural fits for using social media to build community, there are other industries that are not traditionally known for building community turning to social media as a way to educate customers and generate ideas for new products and services. Mashable () recently published a post, for example, about how banks are turning to social media as a way to build community, which is proof that just about anyone can benefit from growing their community through social media.

Another key component to understanding community is knowing your audience. Companies like Disney have realized that it’s not only important to be kid-friendly, but that they need to appeal to parents as well. They launched Family.com in 2008 as a way to share info with moms and dads.

While it might appear on the surface that transparency is nothing more than telling the truth, sometimes telling the truth is hard. In general, we don’t like to let people down or admit mistakes, and transparency is about putting our unguarded self out there. But embracing transparency will help you to be more open, honest, and accountable and connect better with customers.

by Callan Green (MASHABLE)

Callan Green works in public relations and social media at Bailey Gardiner in San Diego. You can read her posts on the company’s marketing blog or follow her on Twitter.

When Facebook re-launched its fan pages earlier this year, companies were thrilled. At last, there was a solid way to have a presence on Facebook (), and users were actually responding positively. Within a couple of weeks it seemed as though every major brand had put up a page. However, very few are using them well.

Sure, anyone can build a fan page in under 10 minutes, and some big brands may even attract fans without any real effort. But even if you have 3 million fans, if the extent of their involvement with your brand is that at one point they “became a fan,” is that really benefiting you?

The fan pages that are doing it right are the ones that are actively engaging with their fans. These pages have creative content, two-way communication, active discussion boards, videos and images, and a fun and casual tone to match the medium. Below are five mini case studies of brands that are doing everything right when it comes to Facebook fan pages, presented so that you can learn by example. Please share your favorite fan pages in the comments.

1. Pringles

The fan page for popular potato chip brand Pringles stands out mostly for its great use of video. While Pringles has created an inviting laid back tone, and managed to engage fan via reviews, discussions, and original interactive games, the most notable aspect of the page is definitely their use of video.

Because videos are so easy to consume, video is among the most commonly shared types of content online, which is why many companies strive to create videos that will go “viral” (be shared an exponentially growing number of people). Of course, creating a viral video is not easy. There is no ready made formula for create viral content.

Pringles, however, has recognized that its audience on Facebook reacts well to comedy and have used their fan page to catalyze the spread of a set of videos that certainly have the potential for virality. The videos are low budget productions with little editing or props depicting people singing goofy songs. It’s not much, but Pringles clearly knows its demographic, and the way Facebook works. By distributing the videos on their fan page, they’ve given users the chance to spread the Pringles brand to their friends without resorting to paid ad placements, which is exactly what thousands of people have done by “liking” the videos, an action which is then repeated in the newsfeeds of their friends and can potentially attract new people to the Pringles fan page.

2. Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola fan page seems generic at first glance, but upon closer inspection it is really a testament to the brand’s commitment to user participation. First, Coca-Cola has taken the unorthodox step of displaying user created content in their main page Wall feed by default, something that most brands shy away from. That means that the page is really powered by user generated content, good and bad. That’s a bold move for Coca-Cola, but one that really demonstrates their interest in getting fans involved with the brand.

Another way that Coca-Cola stands out, is their approach to photo albums. Many companies simply incorporate an album of product pictures and call it a day, but Facebook offers companies a chance to get creative with photos, and Coca-Cola realized that. They have a number of albums showing off the product, workers at the company, photos of Coke fans, pictures of Coke products from all around the world, and pictures of old Coke nostalgia. Coke knows that their brand is an icon and people don’t just interact with their product by drinking it — they actually collect it. Their photo albums reflect that.

However, the best example of how Coke is truly committed to their fans on Facebook is the awesome story of how the page came to be. The page was originally created by two fans who just loved Coke. Coca-Cola found the page, and rather than trying to buy it or create another “official” page, they rewarded the two fans and worked with them to continue building the page and representing the brand. By empowering their existing fans, rather than trying to marginalize, shove aside, or steam roll them, Coca-Cola has been able to build on the connections that were already established with fans on Facebook before they even arrived in an official capacity.

3. Starbucks

Starbuck is clearly dialed in to the world of social media, and that is reflected in the Starbucks fan page. The page incorporates great videos, varied content, and has active engagement with the fans. But what makes it truly exceptional, is its use of status updates.

Status updates are an important aspect of any fan page because they provide two-way communication between company and fan, while keeping the page fresh with new content and information, which gives fans a reason to return. So many companies struggle to understand how best to utilize these updates and either don’t use them at all, update solely about product announcements, or update so often users become overwhelmed and the updates turn into so much noise. Starbucks, on the other hand, has established a good frequency of updates, sharing something new every couple of days.

More importantly, though, the content is varied, fun, and interesting. Their updates share videos, blog posts about all aspects of coffee — and not just on the official company blog — including how to grow coffee beans, articles about Starbucks and Starbucks employees. The tone of each update is informative and casual, and even their product updates are kept varied enough to remain interesting, for example, by offering up reviews of new music or books for sale in their cafes. As a result, the quality status update content has led to a very engaged fan base, with every update receiving thousands of comments.

The Starbucks Facebook fan page is a great example of how a company can still engage fans without the use of flashy apps, and instead simply focusing on quality content.

4. Adidas

The Adidas fan page offers all the usual attributes of a strong page: active fans, a branded application, lots of content variety, plus, good video, pictures and notes. That’s all good stuff, but what really makes them stand out is the way they use their page’s tools to promote their other social media and advertising campaigns.

Running a contest on Facebook brings variety to a page’s content, engages fans, and has the ability to directly increase the company’s revenue by introducing new customers to the brand. Lots of brands attempt to promote campaigns on Facebook, but there are only a few that I have seen do it well. Adidas is one of those brands.

Most recently, Adidas teamed up with MTV to run an exclusive Facebook contest where a fan could win an all-expenses-paid house party. Their campaign was successful for a few reasons. First, Adidas chose a prize and partner that would resonate with the Facebook user demographic. Second, they wisely chose to promote the contest on their fan page not only before the contest, but after it had ended as well.

Once they had chosen the lucky winner, they used their page to share the fan’s blog posts, photos and video from the party. The integration of status updates, photos, notes and videos, with a smart contest, resulted in a whole lot of fan engagement, and keeping the winning fan involved even after the contest had ended showed their commitment to fans and helped them get extra mileage out of the campaign. The contest also gave the page content variety by breaking up the usual status updates with something new, fun, and with an included call to action for fans to get involved.

5. Red Bull

The Red Bull fan page is easily one of the best on Facebook simply because it has been able to break out of the typical fan page mold by providing fun content that encourages fans to interact with and ultimately connect with the brand. Their uniqueness is captured in their innovative incorporation of Twitter into their Facebook fan page. Integrating a Twitter () stream is not special on its own, but Red Bull doesn’t just pull in tweets from their official corporate account, as you might expect most brands do. Instead, Red Bull has aggregated tweets from sponsored athletes like skateboarder Ryan Sheckler and snowboarder Shaun White and included them directly in their Facebook presence. Associating themselves with popular athletes, and letting fans connect to those athletes on a separate social network (i.e., not boxing them in) gives Red Bull some instant cool points.

Their page’s “Boxes” section is also pretty darn incredible. Red Bull has built all kinds of content and applications that help them break out of the vanilla Facebook mold that forces all brands to look and feel more or less the same. My favorite app is one that lets fans rate phone calls of people who “drunk dialed” the Red Bull 1-800 number. It’s not only hilarious, but it also smartly encourages additional fan engagement.

Red Bull, which is a drink popular with teen and college ages kids, definitely knows its audience, and they’ve played to that face by categorizing their page under business type “pharmaceuticals.” Clearly, this is a company that understands their audience and knows that the best way to connect with them on Facebook is with humor, fun, apps that get people engaged, and by being creative.

Conclusion

The brands mentioned in this all benefitted from having a solid brand image and loyal following before they actually joined Facebook and started using social media tools. Still, they offer insights into what makes Facebook pages work for brands. The key takeaways are that you have to know your audience, you have to provide quality, regular content, you need to encourage discussion and engagement, and you must not take yourself too seriously.

There are thousands of brands on Facebook, and this post only had room to look at five. What other brands do you think are knocking their Facebook pages out of the park? Please share your favorite Facebook brand fan pages in the comments.

by Dan Schawbel (MASHABLE)

Dan Schawbel is the bestselling author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog and a columnist for BusinessWeek.

With over 300 million users, no one can deny the power of Facebook (). In fact, 50% of users log in every single day and spend over 6 billion minutes on the platform. What are they doing on it? Depending on the intent of the user, they’re sharing personal stories and updates, staying connected to friends and colleagues, and even building businesses. Many people only use their profile to keep in touch with friends and family, and form a brick wall so no one else can come inside. This strategy won’t help your career, but if you choose, you can also leverage Facebook to build your personal brand.

If you do decide you want Facebook to support your personal brand, then you will have to capitalize on its openness and the ability to grow your network, one friend request at a time. There are three new features that you should pay close attention to, as you tap into the millions of resources presented to you on the service. Each feature — tagging, Pages and widgets, and real-time search — is tied to a specific personal branding strategy.

1. Facebook Tagging for Networking Your Brand

Networking, as you can probably guess, is the key to forging a strong personal brand and developing your career. As you grow older, you will rely more and more on the “assets” in your network, which can range from your father to a coworker to even strangers you may have briefly met and exchanged information with in the past. Facebook tagging, in my opinion, has brought a whole new dimension to networking. The fact that you can use the “@” symbol when you post on your wall and associate a post with your friends’ names, is remarkable, and is exceptionally useful for personal branding.

Let’s say you write a wall post about your weekend plans or a cool blog you’re working on with a few people. You can use the tag feature to have that same wall post appear on their wall, which is great for visibility, appreciation, and for remaining in touch with people. When people comment on that post, whether it’s on your wall or someone else’s, you will be notified through email, so you can continue the conversation and meet new people. That can help you expand your network and stay top of mind with the people already in yours.

2. Facebook Pages and Widgets for Growing Your Brand

Facebook Fan Pages are nothing new, but how you use them and promote them is what really counts. There are thousands of Pages out there, but only the best ones succeed in capturing the attention of Facebook users. You aren’t going to be Vin Diesel or Coca Cola, but you can still make an impact.

Your Page needs a focus and strategy behind it, so first you need to decide what it’s going to be all about. For instance, do you want to use your profile page to build your network to the 5,000 friend limit and then create a Fan Page? Or do you want to keep your profile page for your immediate friends and use the Fan Page to interact with your social media entourage? These are questions you need to answer when building your brand on Facebook.

A Fan Page can contain:

– Event appearances with pictures and videos

– A video introduction or running video blog

– Press features

– Your blog posts via syndication

– Details about your personal and professional achievements

– Delicious () bookmarks that represent your industry

– Pictures of you with celebrities from your industry

– Wall posts, including: a quote of the day, event reminders, blog posts, news, etc.

– Your LinkedIn profile

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Mashable () on Facebook

Once you decide how you want to present yourself on your Facebook Fan Page, what information you want displayed and what widgets you want to use, you should then grow your page to 25 fans as quickly as possible. This will allow you to get a username for your Page, so that your URL will be easier to share, remember, and discover. You should use either your full name (if you haven’t already used it for your Facebook profile) or a positioning statement, such as http://facebook.com/facebookmarketingexpert.

Next, you need to market your Fan Page like it’s your job (because it is!). Here are just a handful of ideas you can use to spread the word about your Page:

– Add a Facebook Fan Page widget to your web site or blog

– Advertise your Facebook Page to targeted employers

– Put your Facebook URL in your email signature, at the end of presentations, and possibly even on your traditional resume

– Write articles and/or blog posts on other sites, leaving your Facebook URL in your bio or byline

– Hold a contest on Twitter (), where you give out free information or products to people who become fans of your Page on Facebook

– Become part of communities in your niche, on a variety of social networks

– Comment on blogs and instead of using your blog URL, use your Facebook address

3. Facebook Real-Time Search for Monitoring Your Brand

At Mashable, we’ve given you ten free and ten paid reputation management tools, to monitor your personal brand (they also work for company and product brands). But that was all before Facebook released its real-time search engine, which replaced their legacy search engine.

The new search engine identifies results, for each keyword entered, in conversations that are happening with your friends and the outside world. It also searches Fan Pages, groups, applications, events, people, and web results — so you can say it’s truly an end-to-end solution. Aside from using tools such as Twitter Search () or Google Alerts to keep track of personal brand mentions, you should occasionally (depending on your popularity) perform a search in Facebook to see what people are saying, both inside your network and outside.

But what should you do when you’re being talked about?

– For a brand mention by someone in your network: If people are saying something positive, then you should “like” the conversation and possibly leave a comment, such as, “Thank you for the mention,” or a value-add comment such as, “I would like to add _______,” or, “What do you think of _____?”

– For a brand mention by someone outside of your network: You should friend them, because they gave you the opening, and then send them a nice note through Facebook mail thanking them for the mention.

Facebook’s new features present many opportunities for building your personal brand. The tagging feature is a great tool for professional networking, while Facebook Pages allow you to extend your brand and grow it virally. The search functionality is another data point that you can use to keep track of what people are saying about you. There’s no doubt that Facebook is here to stay, so if you start using these features now, you’ll be prepared to be more successful in the future.

by Adam Ostrow (MASHABLE)

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

One of the best uses of social media for business is being able to monitor your brand. Services like Twitter () search and Facebook () search make it easy to see each time someone mentions your company, while third-party applications like TweetDeck () and Seesmic Desktop () allow you to get real-time updates pushed to your desktop and instantly reply.

But what if you want to proactively get feedback about your business, new product ideas, marketing campaigns, or other issues relating to your company? You could simply publish out a question to your connections on a social network of choice, but there are far more methodical ways to gather feedback – some free and others low-cost – that can be a valuable aid in your decision making.

Add a Survey to Your Website or Blog

Feedback forms have long been a part of websites. But now, there are ways to create them and obtain organized feedback without any programming knowledge. WuFoo is a service that lets you create virtually any type of form – from open-ended questions, to polls with radio buttons, to multiple choice – and then embed it on your website or blog with cut and paste code.

Then, through your WuFoo account, you can get real-time reports on the results, as well as add or update poll questions on the fly. The service offers a free edition that includes up to 3 different forms and 100 responses, plus subscription plans for users that need more forms or more responses.

Add a Poll to Your Facebook Page

If your brand has a Facebook Page, adding applications to it is one way to both keep them engaged and gather feedback. Involver offers a Facebook polling application that will not only ask your Facebook fans a question, but also let them share their vote with friends, which can help attract additional fans to your page.

Poll Your Twitter Followers

If you’ve already set up a feedback form on your website through an app like WuFoo you could simply share a link to it with your Twitter followers. However, there are some feedback apps designed specifically for Twitter that are worth checking out.

PollDaddy, which offers a polling solution for blogs much like WuFoo, has an app built specifically for Twitter too. Set up your question, login with your Twitter username and password, and PollDaddy will automatically tweet your question to followers.

TwtPoll offers similar functionality, and has a built-in option that allows poll respondents to retweet your poll question and in turn give your poll a wider audience.

Post a YouTube Video

Want feedback that captures more emotion than a text response? Post a YouTube () video. Doing so is now as easy as recording from your webcam and uploading – all directly from the YouTube site. YouTube now allows for “video responses,” so users who see your video can post a response in the same way they’d post a text comment.

LinkedIn Answers

As a network targeted at professionals, LinkedIn () is an excellent place to get feedback for your business. Its LinkedIn Answers product is actually specifically designed for this purpose, letting you pose a question to your connections and get feedback. On the flip side, answering questions from other users is a great way to build new relationships on the site.

Gather Feedback Responsibly

While the social web makes gathering feedback and conducting market research exceptionally efficient and low-cost, it’s important to remember that you’re also potentially broadcasting your next move to competitors. Thus, social media based feedback programs should be designed such that they give you the information you need without telegraphing your strategy.

by Susan Payton (MASHABLE)

Susan Payton is the Managing Partner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an Internet marketing firm specializing in blogger outreach, social media, and PR. She is also the blogger behind The Marketing Eggspert Blog.

With more than 300 million active users, Facebook is nearly the size of the United States in terms of population. In fact, odds are that you’re a Facebook user, perhaps using it to keep in touch with family and friends, with a dash of business thrown in for good measure. Maybe you look at some of the 2 billion photos uploaded each month, or contribute a few of the 40 million daily status updates. In short: Facebook is where it’s at, and you’re already there.

But what about your business? Does it use Facebook ()? If you’re a business owner, you really need to set up a Fan Page, or else you risk being left behind as more businesses shift to social networks like Facebook. This post is a beginner’s guide to setting up and getting the most out of a Page on Facebook for your business.

Facebook Pages 101

Facebook Pages are different than profiles. You have a profile for you, Jane Doe, but your business can’t have a profile — it can have a Page. A Page is a place to house all the pertinent information about your company. They’re so useful because you can include everything that relates to your business in one place with a built-in potential audience:

– Overview of company
– Website and contact info
– Press releases
– Videos
– Blog RSS
– Twitter () updates
– Company news and status
– Customer interaction

One of the major benefits of a Page on Facebook over (or in addition to) a webpage is that it’s so simple to update. With a website, if you’re not technical, you have to contact your web developer, who will then charge you to make even a tiny change. With Facebook, updates are as easy as logging in and typing or uploading. The fresher your content, the more you will engage people.

Setting Up Your Page

Once you’ve logged in to Facebook, scroll to the bottom and click on Advertising. Then click Pages and Create a Page. Select the type of business you own and start filling in all the details. The more info you add, the better your page will be (and remember: Google () thinks highly of Facebook in its search engine results).

Make sure to include your company logo, any RSS blog feeds that are relevant, videos, images — the whole nine yards. Once you’re satisfied with the Page, publish it, then get ready to dive into promotion.

Enhance Your Page with Apps

You can also enhance your Facebook Page by adding applications to it. Apps add particular functions to your page, such as drawing in your blog’s RSS feed (the Social RSS app is a good example of this) or YouTube videos. They are a great way to further engage visitors to your Page and provide them reason to come back, and there are hundreds of apps designed to help you do business better on Facebook.

Another option you have is to internally develop a new app. Pizza Hut’s Order App which allowed fans to order their pizzas directly through Facebook was a huge hit, for example. Red Bull has a custom application on its Page that pulls in Twitter updates from all of the athletes they sponsor. Developing a custom app for your Facebook Fan Page can be pricey, but if you can afford it or have in-house development talent that can get the job done, it can be very rewarding.

Promoting a Page

The tricky thing about Facebook Pages is that you can’t friend someone the way you can from your profile. People can elect to become fans of your Page, but only if they know about it. So you’ve got to spread the word organically (and keep doing it) to introduce people to your Page and to your company.

First identify contacts from your profile that are either business connections, people working in a field related to your business, or who would otherwise benefit from the information your company provides, and invite them to become a fan of the Page. Send a short note explaining what you want to offer from the Page (remember, people are thinking “what’s in it for me?”) and include a link to the Page.

You should also promote your Page elsewhere online by putting a Facebook Page button on your website to help others find it, spreading the word on Twitter if you’re there (and you should be), sending out an email notification, or putting a link on your business cards. Do whatever it takes to help people know that you’re on Facebook and you want them to become a part of your community.

Get the Most Out of Your Page

If you’ve got a brand that already has a strong following like Zappos.com or True Lemon, a Facebook Page can be a great way to launch a community. Encourage discussion among fans by asking questions like: “what’s your favorite product?” or “what could we do to improve our product?” Post updates weekly, if not daily and point your fans to any off-site promotions, such as giveaways hosted on different web sites.

And keep it fun! Nobody likes straight up business all the time! Zappos, for example, has crazy videos and posts that aren’t related to shoes, which is why their fan base is well over 21,000.

It will take time to build your fan base, so remember to keep sending out invites to new contacts asking if they want to become a fan of your business Page. Constantly promote the Page in any way possible, and keep your content fresh — give people a reason to check in on your page regularly.

Check your analytics: before long you should see a large portion of your website’s referrals coming from Facebook!

Wrapping it Up

Your Facebook efforts will be ongoing, so plan to dedicate a few hours each week to getting new fans and updating content. You’ll quickly appreciate the instant ability to connect with customers and future customers through this social media tool!