Social Media Matters: Blogs, Facebook, & Twitter

Blogs, Facebook, & Twitter

A Social Media Strategy Story

A few weeks ago, I met with some people from a local organization to discuss how to use the web and social media to share some of their stories. The goal of phase 1 was to connect with others and obtain good placement in search engine results from Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Here is the situation:

• Little Time
• No Money
• Minimal Tech Skills

A quick analysis of the situation lead us to Google Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, and the creation of Children of Humble School Africa Blog. Most of the people in the organization were already familiar with these Social Networking Services. These Social Media tools are free and can be activated in minutes. These tools don’t require a Computer Science degree to use, in fact they are simple enough to be used by a child, grandparent, or anyone in-between.

Social Media Gets Results

Using Social Media to share stories and connect with others has a positive effect in top search engines. Here are the results after 14 days.

Google: Search Engine results for our site after 14 days was top four results out of 13.2 Million.

Google: Search Engine results for our site after 14 days was the top result out of 29.2 Million.



Bing: Search Engine results for our site after 14 days was two of the top four results out of 4.2 Million.


Yahoo: Search Engine results for our site after 14 days was two of the top four results out of 4.3 Million.

Social Media for Small Businesses & Non-Profits

The Social Business of Web 2.0

Once upon a time, the power to reach out and connect with others beyond your local community was reserved an exclusive group of people. Social Media extends this ability to all people and bursts open the door of new opportunities.

Google Blogger

I was not as familiar with Google Blogger compared to other types of Social Media tools, but was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get started. The ability to integrate other social media is also very simple.

Blogger is a web-based tool that helps you publish to the web instantly – whenever the urge strikes. It’s the leading tool in the rapidly growing area of web publishing known as weblogs, or “blogs.” Google Blogger gives you a way to automate (and greatly accelerate) the blog publishing process without writing any code or worrying about installing any sort of server software or scripts. And yet, it still gives you total control over the look and location of your blog. Details on how to get started are available in this video.

Web Gadgets, Widgets, & Apps

There are countless gadgets, widgets, and apps to support social media integration. Some of these for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other Social Networks can be found in these collections, “25 Great Blogger Widgets“, “Google Gadgets Directory, Collection of Google Blogger Plugins, and people can easily create their custom social gadgets with the Google Blogger API.

Mobile Device Support

The ability to support displaying your content in “app-like” format on multiple mobile devices at the flip of a switch is one of the main strengths of this free service.

Photo Walls

You can also add interactive photo walls to your blog, created with pictures from Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, YouTube, and RSS. You can share these photo walls on web sites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, and more. You can create and share amazing photo walls for your web sites and blogs using Cooliris. You can see the Children of Humble School Photo Wall here.

Social Media Engagement

The Children of Humble School Africa Blog with Social Media integration is just a tiny example of the real possibilities. There are many great people that share helpful tips about how small businesses and non-profits can leverage the power of social media. Some of these very talented people include:

• @kanter: Let's talk about networked approaches & social media for training and capacity building for the nonprofit sector that leverage learning and impact.
• @2morrowknight: Co-Creator of the #TwitterPowerhouses Series, and #TwitterCharityFacts. Blogger for @Huffingtonpost & @Smedio. Marketer, Do-Gooder, conservationist, Surfer!
• @goodlaura: Twitter Junkie | All things Sacramento | SMCSac Exec Dir | SARTA.org Program Director | Good Friend | Dog Lover | SciFi enthusiast | Auntie | Love Jesus
• @rosettathurman: I help nonprofit leaders + passionate entrepreneurs change the world. Keynote speaker, author, career coach, social media trainer. Lover of happy hours. Vegan.
• @chrisbrogan: President, Human Business Works.
• @JessicaNorthey: Social Media, Broadcasting, Country & Music Blogger/Writer, Speaker, Daily Columnist AllAccess, #CMchat Host (Mon 6pPT), Online Correspondent, Sissy's Mom.
• @scedmonds: Speaker, author, senior consultant with @kenblanchard, author #CORPORATECULTUREtweet & Leading At A Higher Level,
• @Philanthropy: The Chronicle of Philanthropy's official Twitter page, updated by Peter Panepento
• @briansolis: Author of Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web