For her thought-leadership, she’s named one of the Ten Most Powerful Women In Accounting in Accounting Today & WebCPA (Oct, 2009) and is one of the Top 100 Most Influential People In Accounting by Accounting Today (Sep, 2010).

Our relationship with Michelle is through the VeraSage Institute, where she is a senior fellow.  As a friend and colleague, Michelle continues to help us improve our business by increasing our social media, pricing and marketing skills.  This past January, she did a fantastic job of facilitating the annual VeraSage conference in Napa, CA.  I learned more in the 2 1/2 days of that conference than I have in every other business conference I’ve attended, combined.

Michelle recently published her first book, Social Media Strategies for Professionals and Their Firms.  Even though her book is geared towards professional firms, her wealth of knowledge about social media and marketing can be applied to pretty much any type of business.  I highly recommend it.

Michelle’s book and her blog article below got me thinking about our strategy with Facebook.  We have been having conversations about whether to expand our Facebook presence or scale it back or completely change our approach.  Facebook definitely changes the entire dynamic of the relationships and boundaries between our personal and business lives.  Often very “unnatural” conversations (not necessarily a bad “unnatural” but one that could never have happened without Facebook) occur that are unexpected.  For example, you post a political article which elicits comments from business colleagues, customers, your cousin and a childhood friend you last saw in third grade.  All of a sudden those completely unrelated friends are having a conversation.

My intent is not to frighten anyone away from social media and Facebook but to make the point that everyone in business should really put some mental effort into developing a well thought out strategy for social media.  As Michelle points out below, staying away from Facebook, ignoring it or trying too hard to keep personal and business separate could very well leave you in the cold as you continue to grow and develop your business in the future.

I’m witnessing an increase in the number of people creating “extra” accounts on Facebook to help them manage (separate) business and private personas.

This might seem like a good way to manage privacy such as protecting kiddos or allowing you to let your hair down among close friends and family while maintaining your professional decorum among business associates or even strangers who want to know you, even if you don’t know them.

Others do it not so much for privacy concerns, but to avoid sending business-y messages and links to family and “old” friends who aren’t into your business. That’s thoughtful for sure, but there are other ways to manage this.

Having multiple Facebook accounts is a bad idea for several reasons, one of which is that it violates Facebook’s Terms of Use (see 4.2)

In the FAQs, they more thoroughly explain,

If I already have a user profile, can I create a business account?

Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If you already have a personal account, then we cannot allow you to create business accounts for any reason.

Facebook instead wants you to create a “Page” for your business presence rather than a separate personal profile. So, even if you have a company page (like mine) they would prefer that I set up a “Michelle Golden” business person page.

This is what Facebook “likes”!

They describe in the FAQ that you can manage all your Pages (and ads) that you create from your personal account. And if you don’t want people clicking into your personal life, they won’t. Facebook explains:

Please keep in mind that the fans of any of the Pages you administer will not have visibility or access to your personal account or profile. Any actions that you take as a Page administrator on your Page will show the Page’s name as the [poster] and not your personal name. To create a Page, simply click on the “Create a Page” link under the Sign Up section of www.facebook.com.

This is actually really cool because people can “like” and share your business page and posts so your content can go a lot further than just among your circle of approved “friends.” Also, with a “Page” you can see (aggregated) statistics that tell you if you are engaging well with others, or are having your post stream hidden by others! (gasp)

But let’s talk about the other reasons you might not want to divide your “friends” between two accounts in the first place.

1) MISSING OUT.

When you divide your feed, and “depersonalize” your interaction to the business peeps, you miss out on the whole purpose of using social media for business development! (more below)

2) MANAGING CONTENT RELEVANCE.

By creating “friend lists,” you can designate content you DO want to go to certain people or DON’T want to go to certain people. In other words, if you don’t want to burden “family” or “jr high friends” with your business posts, create a group for them and when you write the business post, simply set the post to exclude viewing by that group.

3) MANAGING PRIVACY.

Take advantage of Facebook’s incredibly rich privacy settings. Avoid sharing your vacation photos (or any other content or links) with your business peeps by placing photos in a special album just for lists of “family” and “close friends.”

REMEMBER, ENGAGING IS WHAT MAKES FACEBOOK VALUABLE AS A BUSINESS TOOL

Facebook is not for broadcasting! (No social media are for broadcasting.) It’s for interacting.

Bottom line is that the much of the point and purpose of using social media in business is for people to become closer. As in friends. As in learning what they have in common and stuff.

I have some Facebook friends who only “do Facebook” for business and it shows. There is no personal engagement. No relationship building. No point (at least for me). It’s dry. It’s boring. It’s a broadcast. No thanks.

REAL RESULTS

Yet there are other Facebook business people that I hardly knew or totally didn’t know before friending on Facebook. Yet we got closer through Facebook. And these people actually constitute the largest percent of people that have hired me or referred business to me as a result of getting to know one another via ANY FORM of social media. More than LinkedIn and more than Twitter.

From personal experience (I haven’t conducted a formal survey, but maybe I should) I attribute this to the fact that I am fairly personal (aka “myself”) on Facebook. And they seem to be, as well. I share and they share. And we get to know each other. We mutually participate and banter. I congratulate them on their marathons, “like” their family photos and song posts, commiserate when they have a rough go, wish them well when they are ill. And I mean it. And they do the same. And it results in building our relationships.

HOW TO GET YOURSELF HIDDEN

People who only feed their Tweets, blog posts, and Foursquare without otherwise engaging others are completely missing out on the benefits of the relationship development aspect of Facebook. Typical user behavior is to “hide” the posts of these people.

There are also some people who, when others comment or congratulate, ignore the messages. Typical user behavior is to stop commenting on these people’s posts. No one likes to be ignored. Sometimes hiding the posts of these people or even unfriending them is a next step.

Again, Facebook is not for broadcasting. It’s not one way. Even brands that merely broadcast, and fail to engage, get “hidden” from user feeds.

WHAT NEXT?

So, instead of creating a separate business presence, first try the friend lists feature to control privacy and/or content distribution.

If that doesn’t suit your needs, create a “Page” for yourself as a professional (even if your company has its own page…you can cross link the pages). But if you go the Page route, be sure that you still engage, and still show some of your personality there. If you want relationships to develop, that is

My first post entitled “Why Does Work Suck?” explores an idea that has become a fundamental part of our business and personal philosophy.  That idea is a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE).  The basic concept is for businesses to eliminate fixed work schedules, required meetings and rigid vacation/sick/personal policies and to focus on achieving results.

I expect to be a regular contributor to the Sage blog with as many as one post per month aimed at educating  some two million global Sage customers and prospects about a host of business and technology topics.  Some of my upcoming topics include:

• How to reduce IT costs and stresses
• How to initiate a project within your company
• What is project management and why is it important?
• Pricing strategies
• How to choose a web designer

If there are any topics you are interested in learning more about, please feel free to make suggestions via a comment.  The topics can be specifically related to Sage and Sage products (such as MAS 90 or MAS 500) or anything related to business and technology.

The Sage blog is part of Sage’s overall social media strategy.  You can follow them on the Sage fan page on Facebook and on SageERP for Twitter.

And if you have not already checked them out, here are links to our blog feed, Facebook fan page and my Twitter page:

• Tech Talk.  Amy will keep you up to date on all of the Sage, MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500, CRM, FAS and Abra news.  You will learn about new features, upcoming new versions, tax table updates and more.  Her section will also include how-to videos on a variety of subjects such as:
  • How to reverse a payroll check in MAS 90
  • How to create a MAS 90 Visual Integrator job
  • How to create an FRx report for MAS 90/200 or MAS 500
  • Using the MAS 90/200 ODBC data source to export data
  • How to import a journal entry into MAS 500
  • How to setup the Abra Link for MAS 90/200
• Ramblings.  John’s thoughts and observations about general business topics for small and medium-sized businesses.  Have you been thinking about social media for your business?  How do you choose a website designer?  How do you effectively manage projects for your business?  Would you like to know why work sucks and how to fix it?  Or maybe you would like to know where to get great barbecue (the noun variety, not the verb).  Or even where to eat on your vacation in Myrtle Beach.
• Webinars.  Adrian will be posting event details for our upcoming monthly webinar series.  A list of webinar subjects can be found here.

We will be adding a fourth section titled Customer Spotlight where we will feature one of our customers every month.  The section will contain an overview of our customer’s business and how Aries has helped them achieve their goals.

You may be wondering why would name our newsletter Ramifications.  Well, the first reason is that it is play on words based on our company name.  In Greek mythology, the constellation Aries represents the ram.  Secondly, the ramifications of a decision regarding a technology project can have dire consequences for your business if you do not have a thorough understand of the issues.  To use a medical analogy, would you want to have triple bypass heart surgery without a doctor giving you an extensive check up?  The same is true of technology projects.  Undertaking one without the proper diagnosis can result in the death of the patient:  your business.

The newsletter is being designed by Chad Barr and his awesome team at CB Software.  Chad’s company is an integral part of our internet marketing strategy including the design of our website.  Keep an eye out for my upcoming blog article about how to choose a great website designer.

Below is a mock up of what the newsletter will look like:

The Aries Webinar Series is a monthly educational webinar series which will focus on technology and general business subjects relevant to small and medium-sized businesses.  You can view the schedule for upcoming webinars along with a description of the topic by visiting the webinar section of our website.

These webinars will be presented by Aries team members and by featured guests.  Some of the future topics are:

• Sales tax audit challenges and solutions to protect your company
• 17 things you should be doing right now to reduce outstanding accounts receivable balances
• Do you want to increase cash, profitability, sales and company value?  Learn from Johnny Gates, a partner with www.b2bcfo.com, how he has helped small and medium-sized businesses achieve those goals.
• How can my company benefit from an internet marketing strategy?  Chad Barr, president of CB Software, will demystify internet strategies and explain how internet marketing, if used properly, can be a valuable and cost-effective tool for your business.
• Are the costs and stresses of managing your network, workstations and servers keeping you awake at night?  Hosting and managed networks may be the answer.  Brian Strong from Claris Networks will talk about how to reduce those costs under control and get rid of the stress of dealing with IT issues.

Here are the details for the first webinar:

She will be keeping all of our current and future customers up to date on the latest topics and trends in technology and business.  You can look forward to her section in our monthly e-newsletter.  She will also be coordinating our monthly series of free webinars.  For a list of webinar topics, please click here.

Adrian worked for Sage as a regional account manager for several years.  For our customers that means she understands both the software and the business challenges that small and medium sized companies face.

To learn more about Adrian, how she got into the industry and why she enjoys working with our customers, check out her bio on our website.

I showed up a few minutes early for my appointment (I know it’s hard to believe that John was actually early for something!) and was greeted by stylist extrordinaire Rob Davis.  Rob told me that the customer ahead of me had shown up late so he was running behind.  He apologized and offered a free salon treatment while I was waiting.  Being a guy, I was a little apprehensive.  Was I really interested in a hand treatment?  After a little deliberation, I decided to take the offer.

 I sat down for my treatment and met Holli Brockwell who explained the process.  She offered a card that is good for $20 off of a facial treatment.  Again, being a guy, my response was that I ‘m not interested in that but my wife definitely would be.  Holli said that was not a problem and that my wife could use the card anytime.  And she offered a great suggestion:  Go ahead and book the appointment for my wife, prepay for it and surprise her.  Holli didn’t approach this like a sales person.  Rather, she made sure the Belleza experience was exactly what you would expect from a high-end salon. 

While I was getting my treatment, I noticed that several other customers were getting the same treatment.  The thought crossed my mind that Rob wasn’t really running late at all and that this was a smart marketing move on Belleza’s part.  What a great way to show even a long-time customer that they are capable of much more than just hair cuts.  And of course, what guy isn’t going to take the suggestion of setting up a day at the spa for his wife or girlfriend?

What type of experience do you provide to your customers?  Even if your business’s products are not easily differentiated from your competitors, you can always differentiate by creating an experience that your customers enjoy and look forward to.  Many of your customers may not be aware of all of your company’s capabilities.  There are many creative and innovative ways, like the approach taken by Belleza, to make sure they know about everything you can provide to them.  The art is to create an experience that customers will want to return to.

While I am a firm believer that now is the time to focus more effort on becoming effective marketers, I also understand that budgets are tighter.  Technology in the form of social networking offers many fast, effective and free methods of attracting new business to your company.

We began using social networking services (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook) to promote Aries in mid-2008.  Our experience has been that being active with these services results in dramatically increased search engine optimization (SEO), greater exposure to the community and heightened credibility with our customers and prospective customers.

Yes, these services are free from a hard cost perspective.  However, they are only valuable to your customers and prospective customers if you actively maintain them and if you provide valuable content in them.  One of my favorite ways to make sure that we remain active with social networking services is to contribute to this blog on a regular and frequent basis.  All of these sites have tools to allow you to update them from your blog.  The idea here is to make the majority of your changes in one place and have those changes automatically updated to many different services.

Social networking, when done properly, is a great way to move from the traditional and rapidly-becoming-outdated outbound marketing model to an inbound marketing model.  In other words, by providing valuable content through these services, customers will be attracted to you.  This is a much more effective marketing model than sending out direct mailings and placing print/radio/tv ad’s and it’s certainly much less expensive.

Sage also realizes the importance and power of social networking.  They recently launched www.sagespark.com to offer free social networking services for small businesses.  Rob King, VP of strategic marketing at Sage North America, puts it into perspective:  social networking is here to stay and those businesses who take advantage of it will be successful.

Any of our customers who would like more details about how they might be able to apply social networking to their business, feel free to give us a call.  It’s one more advantage to our unlimited support agreements.

And if you would like to keep up with what we are doing with social networks, you can connect with us on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/johnfshaver), follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/john_shaver) or check out my Facebook profile (www.facebook.com/johnfshaver).  Regarding Twitter, I always follow anyone who follows me.

If you’re already into the world of social networking or thinking about creating a blog, make sure to check that your insurance policy covers any potential exposure you may have under libel and slander laws.

Yes, all of these activities are covered under First Amendment rights but the problem is that you still may end up paying attorneys fees simply to defend yourself.

Copyright infringement is another potential problem area with blogs.  Always make sure to attribute the source documents when you refer to someone else’s material in your blog articles.  Usually, a simple link to that article, the name of the publication and the author’s name will work.  If you’re unsure, ask the person who wrote the article.

The other side of this situation is: how do I reduce or eliminate the need for your company to worry about bloggers and twitterers posting defamatory remarks about your company?  I think that it’s simple.  Do what you say you’re going to do and do it well.  And if you get a bad review or comment, act quickly to fix the problem that caused that bad review or comment.  Lawsuits only make everything worse.