Making the pitch
Having a killer pitch is of utmost importance in securing investors for your project.  It’s imperative you have a business plan, marketing plan and projections.  It’s important to have an engaging executive summary.  A project blueprint for the website is critical to investors understanding and feeling comfortable with the launch strategy.  A logo for your business/website and any mocked up pages from the website helps tremendously.  Essentially, the further along in the process of building out a successful website, the better off you are. The more you can provide in the way of blueprints, designs, coded pages, functional sections, or a beta version the higher your chances of landing investors are.

It’s really quite simple.  Humor me and pretend for a minute that you are a multi-millionaire investor.  You’re successful, busy and used to people wanting your money.  You would probably like to review ideas where they are as tangible as possible – where you can visualize how it will be built and what the outcome will look like.  You want to minimize risk, maximize return and make sure you’re getting in bed with someone who isn’t going to lose you money.  What would you bring yourself if you were an investor?  Here’s what I recommend preparing:

• Executive Summary
• PowerPoint Presentation with no more than 15 slides highlighting the investment opportunity
• Introduction E-mail
• Bio for Investment/Business Website Profiles
• Business Plan w/Financial Projections and Works Cited (research!)
• Marketing Plan
• Project Blueprint
• Any Completed Web Page Designs or Work
• Google Yourself and Your Website and Your Company
• Create bios on popular social networking services, business websites, etc…
• Create business/website profiles on popular social networking services, directories, etc…
• Begin blogging
• Have a splash page on your website until the beta is launched (provide info on your start-up and collect e-mails)

Recommended Resources

• http://www.inc.com/guides/finance/20797.html
• http://www.entrepreneur.com/howto/raisemoney/index.html
• http://smallbusiness.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com/category/raising-money/
• http://mixergy.com
• http://quicksprout.com
• http://www.fastcompany.com/tag/investment
• http://socialnetworkingwatch.com
• http://www.mashable.com
• http://www.jasonnation.com
• http://www.techzulu.com
• http://www.techcrunch.com

vs.

Benjamin K. from Florida asks: “I have a limited amount of time to spend on social media marketing for my apparel company. If I had to choose, should I spend more time on Twitter or Facebook? Which provides the best ROI from a time perspective?”

This is a great question! Since both Twitter and Facebook are free services, ROI is computed based on time spent as well as opportunity cost (what could have been done with that time). Many businesses are also paying staff or outside support to manage their social media presence using Facebook and Twitter. Both services have received a lot of press, positive and negative, especially in recent days. Facebook is growing into a worldwide phenomenon, effectively linking six degrees of separation together for the first time in history. Twitter has been criticized and raved about equally as much and it’s merits as a business promotional tool still have many confused despite the hype. So what gives?  Which is better?

To start off my answer, let’s first touch up on what these two services provide:

• Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read 140 character messages, known as tweets. Tweets are posted on the author’s profile page and are delivered the the author’s subscribers, known as followers.
• Facebook is a social networking site with over 250 million users worldwide. Users can create profiles and and send messages to friends. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school and region.

In my opinion, Twitter is more quantity-driven (it’s primarily about the number of tweets and followers a user has) while Facebook is more quality-driven (it’s primarily about connecting people that already know each other through two way and public conversation and the sharing of content like photos, videos, links, notes, etc…).

Time spent on Twitter would be spent creating a profile, tweeting messages from your Blackberry or computer, following other users, adding your profile to directories, promoting your tweets, making lists of users, attempting to consistently stay relevant, interesting and/or useful with your tweets (no easy task), etc..

Time spent on Facebook would be spent creating a profile, adding friends, posting content (photos, videos, notes, polls, discussion board topics, pages), managing wall posts by fans, managing ad campaigns, viewing fan page statistics, creating and/or promoting Facebook apps for your band, post on other’s walls, etc…

Facebook is usually a more personal medium while Twitter can be more ambiguous (or less, depending on what’s being tweeted).  If you’re a business or consultant, the additional layers of content and tools you can utilize with Facebook may allow you to better brand your product and more persuasively and visually communicate with your target audience.  Twitter, on the other hand, may be a better customer service tool (customers tweeting issues and receiving quick feedback) for easy two-way communication.

The Conclusion: Facebook wins!

Facebook currently provides more tools for businesses and brands to promote themselves in the way of tailored fan pages and profiles, pay-per-click advertising and the Facebook developer platform.  It also currently has the biggest user base (250 million+).  In my opinion, it’s also easier to use.  It’s nearly just as portable as Twitter (it can be accessed and managed on most cell phones).  It allows you to leverage yourself (through a personal profile) as well as your brand (through a fan page or business profile).  It has a great, cost-effective advertising system offering pay-per-click marketing that is highly targeted.  Facebook provides more statistics for businesses and brands to manage their efforts as well. If you have less time, Facebook can be more useful as in my opinion it is easier and more engaging to connect more with your existing network via Facebook than Twitter.  Plus, it is very likely that more of your existing friends, family and customers will be on Facebook than Twitter.  This is why for initially building your social media presence, Facebook is a good place to start and Twitter is a good place to expand to.  I think Facebook should be the backbone of your social media presence and Twitter your customer service and branding “skin”.

Twitter’s value shouldn’t be diminished because I’m choosing Facebook over it in this post. Twitter is a great tool and one of the most interesting and hyped sites ever made.  It’s helped Iranians organize rallies and President Obama raise money. But Twitter tends to work faster and better for established brands and personalities, not new wannabes.  If you’re a new company or have a new product, you have to start from scratch without name recognition, making your results slower to come by than, say, Ashton Kutcher or Coca-Cola would experience.  Facebook’s a bit more turnkey and provides more value quicker for the average company.  Too many small businesses and consultants brag about thousands of Twitter followers, but they don’t know any of them that well and most are junk or not in their target market.  Better to have a few hundred high quality customers, friends, family, and prospects than a few thousand random people that you don’t know and that doesn’t care about you.

I also think guys like Seth Guru are on to something when they limit the number of social media channels they utilize.  Seth Godin, a prolific marketing and web author,  has written previously about why he has limited his social media usage to one or two services.  The simple adage “jack of all trades, master of none” rings true in social media.  Try to do it all and you may end up simply managing a bunch of accounts instead of successfully building community and engagement with one consistent audience from your main social media presence.  Limiting your time to one or two main services doesn’t necessarily limit your reach, it can make your more effective!

The good news: you can use Twitter without using Twitter

If you are one of those people who doesn’t have the time (or willingness) to manage multiple social media profiles, don’t fret!  You don’t have to miss out on Twitter.  Turns out, you can tweet without tweeting!

You can (and should) still use Twitter even if you only have enough time for Facebook.  There are many free tools and websites that offer ways of hooking up your Twitter account with your Facebook account.  For instance, you can set it up so that your status updates on Facebook in addition to your notes and wall posts are automatically tweeted to your Twitter profile!  The reverse is also possible, where your tweets are sent to Facebook for promotion with your network there.  This makes it easy to post your content and messaging at one site and yet communicate with several.

- @RobbyBerthume

To follow the series, visit EngagingConversations.com and become a fan on Facebook!

This week, I want to continue the discussion by attempting to answer the following question:

Why should I care and how can I use it?

You may not be an early adopter, but the fact of the matter is that you’re sleeping at the wheel.  Even many of the “early majority” has been on Twitter for a few months now.  It’s time to sign up, if only so in conversation or while watching a news report you know what the heck “Twitter” is when you hear about it and don’t sound like an ignorant fool.  I mean, come on people, it’s not that hard of a concept to understand (if you still don’t get it, re-read my first post and/or watch the video at the bottom of this one). If you’re already on Facebook or MySpace, you have no excuse.  It won’t take much extra time and it integrates well.  If you don’t like it, just cease the tweats, simple as that.  Before you spit out the brussels sprout maybe you should let your taste buds decide their opinion first, it might be personally and/or professional healthy and perhaps even enjoyable in the process.  So stop waiting around for a formal invitation, point your browser to Twitter.com and get on it.

Here’s 10 valuable ways you can use Twitter immediately

1. Interact with the media and “the man”
What does CNN’s Rick Sanchez, Barack Obama, the US Congress, Ellen, The Today Show, and The New York Times have in common?  Twitter!  Listen up and talk back, the media and “the man” has never been more accessible.

2. Follow your favorite celebrities, athletes, and brands
There are countless celebs on Twitter, to the point where some are predicting the fall of tabloids due to Twitter.  Brands and wanna-bes have flocked to Twitter in droves as well. From C-list to A-list, from Athletes to Musicians, from JetBlue to Whole Foods Market, Twitter is exploding with fame and hot air.  Twitter provides celebs like 50 Cent, MC Hammer, Ashton Kutcher, and John Mayer with an easy to manage, easy to run platform for fan engagement.  It’s far less hassle than MySpace and a lot easier than Facebook for celebs to use and not screw up.  It’s a simple, portable way of staying engaged with the largest group of people while not creating a management headache and without sacrificing direct content control or paying hefty fees in the process.  Therefore, to Simon Cowell’s dismay, Twitter is tearing it up amongst today’s celebs and you, the user (unless you’re famous) benefits.   Now you can openly stalk your idols.  Maybe instead of the NBA fining Cuban for tweating about the refs they should instead think about paying guys like him and Shaq to keep up the free promotion and for keeping the NBA in the news and in conversations.  After all, any press is good press, right?  Not exactly…

3. Kill your boredom and maybe even learn something in the process
Bored?  Twitter takes web surfing to a whole new level – it’s like moving from surfing to windsurfing.  Suddenty you have a sail and some wind to guide you.  What a difference! Track conversations and content, snag fresh and hidden links, and get a feel for the undercurrent of opinion and rhetoric.   Your eyes my glaze over at some point, but until then you can justify the screen-staring by thinking about the educational value all of those links and ideas are going to provide you with.

4. Arrange local “TweetUps” easily
What’s the easiest way to meet up with peeps?  Call out a TweetUp or announce when you’ve arrived somewhere.  You can leave it vague, invite everyone, or pick and choose.  Either way, no more lonely nights whether it’s a pick-up game or Thirsty Thursday.  Mobile, geo-centric tweats make it easier than ever to prevent solo movie theater nights.

5. Integrate Twitter with your existing social media persona without any substantial extra work
Before you reject Twitter because you’re already on social media overload, hear me out.  Twitter won’t take that much extra work.  Do you change your Facebook status or post links to mySpace or delicious?  Tweat these!  Better yet, connect the platforms and eliminate all manual labor from the equation.  With your tweats hooked up to Facebook, you can update both at the same time.  With your blog hooked up to Twitter, you can post each new blog post as they come, automatically.  You get the idea – Twitter is a screwdriver in your toolbox.  You still need the hammer and nails, but boy does a screwdriver come in handy.

6. Expand or detract relationships
There is a difference between followers and friends.  Some of us reserve “Facebook friend” status for real friends we have an offline connection with.  Others accept and seek out friendships and think of Facebook friendship in much looser terms.  To them, a hobby, group, or friend in common is plenty an introduction.  Many of us open ourselves to lots of friends, but still limit certain sections of our profile, like drunken photos.  Twitter gives you a second option in expanding or detracting relationships.  Think about it.  If you send out frequent tweats, it’s a great way for loved ones to really peer into your life and stay in touch with your thoughts and happenings.  Or maybe it’s a profile you can give out to those you don’t want to be Facebook friends with, like a second skin for the strangers (or customers, you get the idea).

7. Build a personal brand and platform
Why do you need a personal brand?  You may have a job or company now, but you never know when shit might hit the fan (pardon my French).  Whether you’re a nobody, an aspiring author, or maybe a 15 year old musician, Twitter can help you begin to build your personal brand.  Building a personal brand involves creating a story (and it should be authentic or risk flopping) and promoting it.  Building a personal brand has never been easier with the Internet and social media.  Maybe your ideas are lame or you don’t need the book contract or record deal now, but why not leave the door open?  By building a personal brand and platform via Twitter, it’s there when and if you need it.   Twitter is like a megaphone.  Imagine yourself in a large, empty opportunity with an open mic.  Now fill those seats with followers and let it rip, but make it meaningful.  Remember, reputation is build in a lifetime and lost in a tweat-second.

8. Promote your business, broadcast sales, and engage in market research
Twitter is all the rage for businesses.  Whether you’re a small business (like this chiropractor or this restaurant) or a Fortune 500, your peers are either already there or are moving in for the kill.  Become a “vocal point” in your industry.  Post sales, promotions, and events.  Distribute links, reports, and articles.  Be a voice.  Answer questions.  Learn from customers, prospects, and market segments.

9. Stay abreast of your industry in real-time
What’s going on in the bridal industry?  Perhaps if you were following a few hundred voices in the industry you would have a better answer to this question?  Whatever your industry, followers find you based on what you post.  So focus in on your hobbies and market and unite with others who care about the same things.  It’s a great way to keep tabs on the ever shifting sandstorm of professional and public opinion.

10. Stay more closely connected with friends and loved ones
As opposed to weekly or monthly calls where you catch up and skip the details, Twitter allows you to engage and be a part of their day-to-day lives, whether the thought of it peaks your curiosity or irritates your senses.

Other popular uses for Twitter include breaking up a relationship, broadcasting a plane crash (colorfully), and telling the world you broke your hip. Let’s summarize: if you can text it, you can tweat it.  If you can tweat it, others will read it and, if you’re cool enough, perhaps even follow you.

Twitter isn’t all peaches ‘n’ creme, though.  Here’s why, in 3 points

1. Clutter, Spam, Abuse & Misuse
What would Simba be without Scar?  Batman without the Joker?  Everyone needs an enemy.  Spam and clutter, unfortunately, is the enemy of the web.  Whether it’s e-mail, links, social networking, videos, you name it – spam affects it.  Wherever there is freedom, there is abuse.  Where there is a system there is an abuser of a system.  Before getting too deep into philosophy, just take heed.  Not every Twitter profile is legit, not every tweat is meaningful, and not every follower is worth following.  Get Rich Quick schemes aren’t limited to e-mail.

2. The Fat, F’ugly Fail Whale
Twitter gets overloaded every now and then. With its breakneck growth rates and ever-multiplying traffic, it’s not always online to accept your tweats. When it breaks, I introduce you to the “Fail Whale” as it’s known.    While this happens rarely, it still happens more often than all of the other websites I frequent.  It’s a bit annoying sometimes, after all, what if my plane crashes and I’m not able to tweat about it? It’s a problem Twitter is no doubt working hard to address.  Meanwhile, the whale calms me and enrages me at the same time.  Not sure how that works…

3. Stupid Tweets & Tweet Overload

It’s easy to get carried away.  There is a heck of a lot of garbage and downright lame tweats out there in tweat universe.  People spew really boring crap either because they are trying to reel in new followers, are that full of themselves, or are simply boring, dull, and uninspired to begin with.  I don’t want to always know what you are doing, right now 24 hours a day.  I want to hear what you are doing, in general (for more on this, re-read Part 1).  Is that really such a hard concept for people to grasp?   On Twitter, it’s too often quantity over quality and not the other way around.  Keep your twitter-holicism in check, will you?  Didn’t your mom teach you to think before you tweat?

Still hung up on the concept?
I present to you “Twitter in Plan English” courtesy of CommonCraft

- @epsilonc

Conversations trump campaigns and the word “campaign” has a military undertone I’m not comfortable with. The people you’re supposed to be having a conversation with are not enemies to be raped, pillaged & plundered.

Although I will continue to use the phrase, it would be nice to find a more accurate way of describing how brands initiate conversations with true fans (see also: Seth Godin’s Tribes)

Until that happens, I will continue to use the word campaign because:
1. It’s pretty much a standard phrase when social media is a part of the marketing strategy, which means that:
2. It is the most efficient way of having conversations with other people involved in the social media landscape

I realize I’m deviating from the original reason these words began to be used in this context to begin with; and that is exactly what I’m saying we might need to do.

One conclusion I’ve come to so far is that although the Sun Tzu route may work in a certain context, there’s a need to draw a line somewhere so that that hawkish mindset doesn’t carry over to the conversations brands should be having with their fans.

Otherwise, we would just be paying lip service to the social in “social media”.

I will now proceed to shut up & return to looking for a word to replace “campaign”.

Any suggestions on where to begin?

Here are a few of the posts that have given me food for thought about the “campaign” part of the phrase “social media campaigns”:
Chrome + Art of Story Telling = Google is the web communication Sun Tzu
The Myth of the Social Media Marketer
Sun Tzu and the Art of Social Computing
Marketing warfare strategies (wiki article):
Sun Tzu Marketing (the book)

“Be yourself” is a pretty cliche statement, but its value cannot be diminished despite the frequency of its use.  Authenticity has been on a lot of minds lately and personality is even a new P in marketing (according to author Rohit Bhargava).  In this new era of the web and with the evolution of the open source paradigm, those with personality, humanity, and authenticity will likely succeed.  The skin of protection and privacy is disappearing, word spreads quicker, and brands sour faster than the milk in your fridge.

The platform now exists for personality.  You can paint a digital picture of yourself (positive or negative) and over time, leave digital footprints and snapshots of yourself along the cyber-highway. Personality will always serve you well so make sure you’re giving people an impression of who you are as a person.

Now that we’ve established that the platform exists and the time is right for making an impression, why exactly should you make a personable impression?  Why be yourself in order to be useful?  Because being yourself creates an aura of authenticity and helps you come off as genuine.  The more genuine you appear, the more people will trust you.  The more people trust you, the more use you can provide to them (and the more value you can create).

People can spot spammers and scammers.  Sure, if you are yourself, some may not like you, but that’s the risk you take.  Unless you’re truly a jerk who provides no value to the world (I’m going to assume you’re not), chances are you’re going to increase your success rate with your social efforts by being yourself.

As a resident of Tinsel Town, I can attest to the fact that there are a lot of fake people in the world.  And it’s easy to spot them, they are the name-droppers, the flashers, the ones that brag and carry on about themselves.  Don’t go too far.  Be yourself.

Lastly, we all admire what we perceive as original.  Original thought, original people, original looks.  Originality is sexy.  The thing is, you don’t have to be original to be perceived as original.   And you don’t have to be original to be yourself.  Be yourself and chances are, original thought will come as a byproduct.  And you’ll be respected as a result.  Remember, the more social capital and credibility you have, the more power you have and therefore the more useful you can be.

Note: Kevin Kelly also has one of the best examples of lifestreaming I’ve ever seen. Check out his site: http://kk.org/ to see what I mean.

The title is bloated, but the article is important for at a few good reasons:

• People are the heart of any worthwhile business model (See also: Happiness as a business model)
• Listen to user feedback and actively do something about the feedback you’re getting
• Change should not be implemented lightly. Or slowly
• Forget traffic. You’re nothing without engagement
• Always build a good user interface. Always.

Here’s a quote from the interview to get you started:
“Goldberg has stated several times, “Our model at SocialMedian has been:  small, fast, and listen to users.” You have probably noticed that you do not see any advertising or many press releases plastered all over the major news sites. Essentially, SocialMedian has been built through its user base. The only “press coverage” you tend to see are reviews from various blogs, including here on Mashable.”

I’ve used the site long enough to know that

• SocialMedian actually pays attention to user feedback
• They take change seriously
• Once prioritized, changes are implemented quickly

Don’t set unreasonable goals
This is worse than setting no goals at all. Stretching the team too far guarantees that Monday through Friday, everyone’s simply showing up to put in their time and go home. That attitude has eerie ways of showing up in online communication and people have a second sense for these things.

Don’t implement changes lightly. Or slowly
The only thing we know about change is that it will come. We don’t know how or when, but we do know it will happen (for example, blogs are now officially “old school”). Think hard before you adopt a (small or large) change. If you do decide to accept it,  go after it like your life depends on it because while you were thinking, someone else started going for it.

Don’t get greedy
The effect of a well executed idea has a way of multiplying in significance, but it’s also the same thing with mistakes. Dream all you want, but make sure your focus is on what can be achieved in the short term (along with the lessons you’re going to be learning constantly).

Don’t assume you can “catch up” later if you get off schedule
In the same vein, don’t expect you’ll stay ahead of schedule later because you’re ahead of schedule now. In fact, you’re probably better off without a schedule altogether. You’re dealing with people and they won’t always keep to your well-organized schedule, no matter how great your intentions are.

Don’t take shortcuts or relax standards
I’m going to assume you know all about this so there’s not much to add here.

This is the 3rd, and last, post on what it takes to have successful social media campaign (you can read the 1st one here and the 2nd one here).