We’ve been inundated with your suggestions for the Rules of Social Media since we asked for your help here last month.

We’ve managed to narrow our intial list down to 39 suggestions with 7 of these recurring 3 or more times (see the charts above).  We noticed that people seemed to be particularly concerned about Linkedin with issues such as ‘Linking your Twitter account to your Linkedin profile’ ‘Engage in groups that you join’ and ‘Don’t spam Linkedin groups’ all being metioned.  The top gripe however was people only pushing out sales messages through social media.

We’d like to narrow down this list a little further so are looking for your help again.  Vote in our poll by clicking here and  let us know which things really work for you or really bug you.

Monday saw the Inaugural meeting of the KLCK Bloggers Network, a group of like minded people living in the Kildare, Laois, Carlow, Kilkenny area who share an enthusiasm for Blogging and Internet marketing.

Amongst those who attended were those who write professionally, those with popular blogs, those who were just taking the first step in blogging and those who were on the cusp of getting started.

The aim of the group is to share knowledge, put our heads together and see what we can achieve both individually and as a group.

Meetings will continue every second Monday of the month and all are welcome to attend whether you are living in the four counties or not and whether you are already a blogger or not.

Our next meet up will be on August 9th at the Talbot Hotel Carlow. Paula Sheridan from Candle Designs will be talking about using Flickr for business and we will have a second presentation on the basics of setting up a WordPress blog and useful plugins (speaker tbc).  If you’d like to come along or if you have expertise to share with the group you can RSVP on Facebook or on Linkedin or by leaving a comment on this blog post.

This week we’re asking for your help, we need your gripes.  We’re compiling a list of social media rules, the do’s and don’ts of Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc and we want to know what bugs you!

What would make you unfollow someone or unlike a page on Facebook?

How do you choose who to follow or like?

What lessons have you learnt?  Is there something you have done that has resulted in loosing followers or annoying your Facebook community?

How to help

Leave your rules below in our comment box, post on our Facebook page, leave a comment in the ‘Facebook For Business Ireland‘ Linkedin group or Tweet at us @spiderworking!

There will be a prize for the best suggestions.

You can use social media to both organise, promote and enhance an event.  Over the next 2 weeks our podcast will be showing you how to create events using Facebook and Linkedin.

This week we will show you 4 applications that help you take bookings and help you display tweets at your events and sharing your events presentations.

1. Eventbrite

Eventbrite allows you to set up an event and take payment from attendees.  Once you have created your event it is easy to embed a sign up form into your website or even just a booking button.

2. EventElephant

Similar to Eventbrite but with what seem to be far more customisable pages.  EventElephant it’s an Irish company which means customer service will be easier to reach.

3.Twitterfall

The easy way to set up a tweet wall at your event we’ve talked about Twitterfall before but we can’t find an alternative that we like more so here it is again.  Add your event #tag to the wall and watch the tweets scroll onto your screen.  All you need to do is hook your computer up to a screen or a projector to share the tweets with conference goers.  This encourages more interaction amongst your audience and more online buzz about your event.

4. Slideshare

Using Slideshare you can set up a group or an event where all the presentations from the day can easily be shared.  Simply click ‘events’ at the top of the home screen once logged in.  Again this not only makes it easier for attendees to catch up with the presentations it also creates a buzz around your event.

We talked to Lorna Sixsmith from Garrendenny Lane Interiors about how Social Media and Blogging has benefited her business:

Tell me a little bit about your business:

I started my interior design business in Nov 2007 and I started my blog in January 2008. Blogging was my sole use of social media during 2008. I found blogging helped my SEO greatly and amongst other subjects, I blogged about new arrivals to the shop, new fabric and wallpaper collections and the opening of my online shop. Approximately 40% of my fabric and wallpaper sales came directly from my blog and improved SEO that year and I gained clients as far away as Westmeath and Sligo.

I am concentrating more now on the online shop and will be developing a new and improved site over the summer. I am using the blog and Facebook to specifically bring attention to new products by hosting a ‘Freebie Friday’ each week as each comment provides the person with a free ‘ticket’ to win the new product.

During 2009, I increased my use of social media. I started using Twitter in March 2009 and developed a business FB page in September – both have helped to increase the number of unique visitors to my site. For example, in Feb 2009, I had 2,500 unique visitors – these increased by approx 1000 a month to 10,500 in Dec 2009. Having said that, they seem to have reached that level and it is hard to reach above 11,000 visits.

I have also made some online sales as a result of Twitter and Facebook.

Do you use any traditional marketing ?

Not as much. I place an occasional advertisement but although they often result in enquiries, the number of sales through them are low.

I started an offline and online PR campaign in January. RE the offline, I have been included in features or had articles written about my business in an Irish Times supplement, the Sunday Business Post, the Irish Independent Mothers and Babies supplement, the Country Living magazine of the Farmers Journal, House and Home magazine, Image Interiors and Munster Interiors. I have written features for Munster Interiors and House and Home magazine. I also write an article each month for the local free magazines My Waterford and Carlow Life and Entertainment. As I will be concentrating now on the online side of my business, the nature of my offline campaign will be changing.

What social media do you have in place?

My blog which also has a Freebie Friday offer each week now.

My twitter account is @GarrendennyLane. While I do tweet about new products, PR I have achieved, photographs of interior design and rooms etc, I also tweet about everything else I do from coming in from feeding calves to filling the boot with fabric books on the way to meet a client.

I also use Linked In to a limited extent. Limited because my business is mostly business to customer rather than business to business and I feel I spend enough time on social media as it is! I update my status once a fortnight or so (usually with news of a feature in a magazine or newspaper) and that is really about it. I see that many people now have their twitter updates going to their Linked in status update and this I would not recommend. Tweets tend to be too personal and glib for this. Much better to do it the other way around – ie have your Linked In updates going to Twitter (I have never done this but presume it is possible)

My Linked in profile.

My Facebook business page.

I update my business page about once a day – either with a new blog post or with something I think my ‘fans’ will enjoy. I also use it to bring attention to my ‘Product of the Month’ by asking fans which one out of 3 they would prefer to see as the Product of the Month. I haven’t paid for any advertising to bring people to the page and have approx 350 fans at the moment.

What I like about social media is that it gives businesses a personality and a personal voice behind the business.

Did you have a strategy before you embarked on your social media campaign?

I didn’t have any strategy to start with beyond that I had heard that blogging helped SEO and hence would help to increase visits to my website. I enjoy writing and I love writing and reading blog posts so blogging is definitely a most enjoyable part of my business.

Do you have a strategy now? How has it changed since you started?

My only strategy really at the start was to bring attention to my products and to improve my SEO in using those keywords. I used to do a ‘Friday Fix-it’ post in which I offered free interior design advice and solutions to anyone who emailed me a query. I would still do that if people wished to email me but as I am now concentrating on the online shop, I have changed this Friday post to a ‘Freebie Friday’!

I don’t have a strategy at the moment apart from what is in my head!! However, I am doing a course with the Carlow Enterprise board at the moment which is FETAC affiliated which means I have to write down my strategies in a marketing plan!! So that will be interesting!

What concrete results have you seen from your efforts in social media?

40% of fabric and wallpaper sales from my blog in 2008, the first year in business (I was interviewed for a white paper for an IIA article and hence I put some time into working this out – how did I know – I asked clients where they had heard of me and generally they had put in a search term which brought them to a blog post).

I have had about 30 online sales from Twitter/Facebook although there may be more from Twitter where I haven’t made the connection.

A little story from a couple of weeks ago, I was uploading new products and did a link from Facebook to a little silver bell that I had just uploaded. Within 20 minutes, one was sold along with another product to a Facebook fan. I went onto Twitter and tweeted that the bell had sold so quickly along with a link. Within ten minutes, another 2 were sold to 2 people who had read the tweet.

How do you measure your results?

I offer discount codes to my Facebook fans so I am able to tell how many times it has been used.

I have just put a reader’s offer into the House and Home magazine which provides H and H readers with a discount code so I will be able to measure the result of offline advertising on my online sales.

I use google analytics to determine how many visits to my site are from Twitter and facebook and how many pages each visitor visits as well as the average time they spend on the site.

How do the results compare to your other marketing efforts?

I enjoy using social media so I don’t consider it to be ‘work’. I would probably write blog posts even if I didn’t get any results from them but while offline PR and the occasional paid advertisement certainly keeps my profile alive and well and help brand awareness, I feel that the improved SEO, increased number of links, and general awareness online is much more effective than offline marketing. I would suggest that businesses should not concentrate on just offline or online but use both.

What one piece of advice would you give to our blog readers?

Ensure you enjoy social media or else get a member of the company who will because unless you can write well, have the time to read and enjoy other blogs and enjoy engaging with others on Twitter, Linked In and Facebook, your tweets, updates and posts will come across as sterile and unengaging.

What plans do you have for your social media campaign in the future?

Ask me in a month when I have written up my Media campaign!!

I will continue to blog, tweet and update facebook to the same extent. I have just been introduced to Weedle so intend to set up a profile there. I guess one plan I have is to spend more time measuring the success of each aspect of social media, so I know which is the most successful and which to spend time on. Having said that, I enjoy them all so I would probably continue!!

Linkedin has just introduced a new way to share links and interesting news stories using the status update function.  This allows you to share links in a similar way that they are shared on Facebook.  Links become far more clickable as you can add a picture.  It’s straightforward to do and should result in more click thrus to the links you post.  It is important to remember though that Linkedin is not Facebook, it is a professional network so be very aware of what you post!

Here’s how to do it:

• Log in to Linkedin and scroll down to your status update box.

• Click ‘link or news’

• Add your link
• Type a comment in the box above
• Click ‘Attach’.  Choose a picture from those on offer

• Choose who you would like to see your update ‘everyone’ or ‘connections’

• Click ‘Share’ and your update will appear.

• You will notice the ‘Share’ button appears underneath your post.  This means that you or others can easily share the content both with groups and with their connections.

At Spiderworking.com we work closely with Partners in order to offer you the best skills from the best businesses in Ireland.  Although we manage all the Social Media work in house there are some jobs that our expert team of associates are better equipped to handle.  Last year we were delighted to welcome Sole CV on board offering clients the opportunity to ‘Pimp Their Profile’.

We asked Justine from Sole CV to tell us more:

‘’LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return.’’

Likewise, we exist to help make sure you use your professional network optimally and therefore help the people you trust in return.

Sole CV provides a service to help maximise the power of your profile by pimping your digital CV on LinkedIn. Users on LinkedIn set up their profiles in stages to ultimately build a summary of your academic and work history to merit your professional credentials. Profiles consist of location, education, current and past work history, skills, website links, specialties, personal information and contacts to name a few.

Employers are using LinkedIn to help find suitable employees. Candidates are using LinkedIn to search for suitable jobs. Networking groups are growing on a daily basis so you can now find that contact, and rate their ability, by word of mouse.

If you are uncertain of how to complete this significant profile section, struggling to get content rich profile, want to know how to maximise the keywords in your profile for search engine optimisation or simply do not have the time, then please contact us at www.solecv.com. We’d be happy to pimp your profile!

Flock is fast becoming my favorite browser.  With lots of added features that enable you to keep up with all your social networking, video and photo sharing and email accounts, it means you no longer have to have multiple tabs open.  It also means you no longer have to log in and out of accounts.

Flock is a one stop interface for all your social media activities.

Download Flock here.

Every social media network is different.  Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin amongst others are all brilliant in their own way and it is important to understand how each one works so that you can make the most out of them.

You can also view this blog post on our YouTube Channel and on our Facebook Page.

If my last post about ‘The 10 Minutes Street Network” has inspired you to start your own group here’s how you do it:

• Sign in to Linkedin
• On the left hand side of the page click the ‘Groups’ button.

• On the right hand side of the next screen click the ‘Create Group’ button.

• On the next screen you will be asked to enter some information.  You can upload a logo in PNG, GIF or JPEG format and add information about the group here.
• You can choose a specific geographical location if relevant to your group eg: Ireland
• Click the ‘Create Group’ button at the bottom of the page.
• On the next screen you can send invitations to others to join the group.
• You can add connections by clicking the book to the right hand side of the screen.

• You can add people that you have email addresses for by clicking ‘Add other email addresses…’ below the connections box.

You have now created your group.  You and other members can add news stories and start discussions within the group.